- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

VAX running VMS. -----Original Message----- From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com> To: Classic Computers Mailing List <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Thursday, December 14, 2000 2:28 PM Subject: Question about Delphi > >Does anyone know what mainframes the online service Delphi ran on? > >Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival >------------------------------------------------------------------------ ------ >International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org > >

25 years, 8 months

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TV Tuner cards (Correction)

by kees.stravers＠iae.nl

On 2000-12-14 classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org said to kees.stravers(a)iae.nl >> Looking through the manual for my ATI ALL-IN-WONDER PRO, >>it gives the impression that it works on both NTSC and Pal. >Sorry, I found the box the ATI board came in and it is labeled TV >input NTSC only. The Matrox Marvel G400-TV can record and playback in both PAL and NTSC. Kees. -- Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - kees.stravers(a)iae.nl http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/ My home page (old computers,music,photography) http://www.vaxarchive.org/ Info on old DEC VAX computers Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Registered

25 years, 8 months

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Anyone else with an interest in Fortune Systems ?

by kapteynr＠cboe.com

Hi all: I have an old "Fortune Systems 32:16", circa 1983. This was a great little 68000 based unix box which I used to rent out to a skeptical former employer who was wasting ridiculous amounts of money on mainframe time. (It paid itself back several times) Anyone else out there have an interest in these ? Despite the fact that unix is never really out of date, there are three things that make this box a dinosaur: (1) It lacks any sort of networking beyond its serial port (2) It requires specially formatted 800K, 5-1/4 floppies (3) The bus looks like the original IBM PC bus, but it is not. I wish I had some specs on it. Rob Kapteyn kapteynr(a)cboe.com

25 years, 8 months

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Anyone else with an interest in Fortune Systems ?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 14, Rob Kapteyn wrote: > I have an old "Fortune Systems 32:16", circa 1983. Wow, I seem to remember ads in BYTE Magazine for those machines. I've never actually seen one in person. If they were more common I'd love to get my hands on one. -Dave McGuire

25 years, 8 months

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Question about Delphi

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 14, Neil Cherry wrote: > Most VAX are mini's (at least in my Opinion). I'm not sure exactly what > decides that a machine is a Main frame, a mini and a micro (yes I know > most desktops are micro's). I don't know what the specific popular definitions or dividing lines are, but by DEC's own opinions, all VAXen are minis except the VAX9000, which they called a mainframe. -Dave McGuire

25 years, 8 months

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Vintage computers in movies

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> How about the pieces of the SAGE in 'Time Tunnel' (A US TV > Show from the mid-sixties.) > > I know we had a thread on this some time back. > > Or was it a big Burroughs system? Ah, yes... I think Irwin Allen used that system on Time Tunnel as well as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, and Land of the Giants. Wonder what became of it? -dq

25 years, 8 months

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More VAX questions (RZ28 jumpers)

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

Ok, thanks to Zane and Mitch I got my memory installed (and it _is_ really weird how one must order the simms. I now have from "back" to "front" : 16M, 4M, 16M, 4M, 4M, 16M, 4M, 16M for a total of 80M. This makes for a nice tasty VAX! Now I'm installing some hard drives in it (it didn't have any) and I've got an "H" block with an RZ28 and an RZ26 for it. Since I want this machine to be "dual boot" :-) I need to jumper the hard drives to spin up on power up. The RZ26 was easy since it had a jumper legend on the top of the drive but the RZ28 I've been guessing. And by trying several options (moving the jumper and powering up the drive) I've finally moved it to jumper #4 from the right. If anyone knows if this is the correct jumper (or incorrect jumper) for sure, let me know please! --Chuck

25 years, 8 months

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VAX questions, memory

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

I finally got my hands on a VAX 4000/90 (yipee!) and it now takes its place as my fastest VAX. It has 32MB of memory (8 x 4MB modules) and I was wondering if, because it looks a lot like a VAX 4000/60 if I could use memory modules from a 4000/60 in the 4000/90. Also since I've only got 4 16MB modules, can I mix 4MB and 16MB modules? --Chuck

25 years, 8 months

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TI MicroProcessor Learning System ???

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Has anyone here ever seen one of these? Here's a picture from a TI bulletin, "http://www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/a8/ti-mls.jpg". Joe

25 years, 8 months

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mailing list issues

by jwest＠mppw.com

Several folks have asked about a problem yesterday sending email to the list. Yesterday the server that hosts the list was moved from one building to another, and it's IP address changed. Silly me didn't realize that a drive that normally takes 20 minutes takes 2.5 hours during a snowstorm. Thus, that server was down for a good portion of the day. Some of you may still have sporadic problems emailing to the list until the ip address change is fully propagated through DNS, but all should be well for everyone shortly. Please let me know if you still have any problems with the list after today. Thanks, and sorry for the interruption! Jay West

25 years, 8 months

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Steve Wozniak on A&E Biography tonight

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Steve Wozniak is profiled on A&E's Biography tonight. > > And my hands make their television debut, playing Steve > Wozniak's hands in a couple re-enactments. > > Now that my hands have achieved celebrity status, they are > available for other bookings, such as dinner speeches, Bar > Mitzvahs and bachelorette parties. ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Sam, Sam... ;-) So, how much for a likeness of Woz in corned beef? -dq

25 years, 8 months

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VCF Archive Online Searchable Database

by vcf＠siconic.com

I've put up an alpha version of the forthcoming VCF Archive Online Searchable Database. It is at: http://www.vintage.org/archive/ The only database currently available is the book database, and there are only currently 280 records (I have a loooong way to go :) The point of posting it now is to get feedback on the output format, the interface, and the data itself. It's very rudimentary currently. Eventually, everything in the VCF Archives will be catalogued and entered into the database. You'll be able to search on it and see if we have something you're in need of (hardware, software, documentation, etc). The point will be to facilitate the commercial entities we are increasingly serving but it will also serve to allow hobbyists to find things they are looking for, and hobbyists will always be allowed free access to the items in our archive (though we're not currently set up for that yet). So please take a quick look and let me know what you think. Thanks! Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years, 8 months

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CRT Problems was:(no subject)

by whdawson＠mlynk.com

-> Also, Several people have used intermittent in this context and I'm not -> quite sure I understand... it is intermittent in the fact that it -> intermittently starts and stops glowing... Yes. -> I have my TV closed again, but when I open it up again I want to have a list -> of all the things I need to look for and what to do about them. So far, I know -> I need to look for bad connections, broken 'pins', to make double sure the -> little mark is silvery instead of gray. However, all the wires and soldering -> seemed to be in tact, of the connections I could see everything was fine. The thing to look for as far as bad connections go is a cold solder joint. These are a result of thermal fatigue/cycling and physical stresses. You should look _very_ closely in the places Tony mentioned, especially where the CRT socket is soldered to the little board at the rear of the CRT and where the flyback is soldered to the mainboard. A cold solder joint will usually look normal without a close inspection (unless you have a lot of experience at these things), but a closer look will reveal a slight ring around the socket pin, flyback pin or wire, within the circumference of the solder pad. Sometimes the contact will be bad right at the solder/pin interface. That is unless the solder has totally popped away from the circuit pad, which is another type of cold solder joint related to initial improper soldering. I'd recommend resoldering every connection for the CRT socket and flyback transformer and seeing if this fixes the problem. If you are inexperienced at soldering/resoldering, I'm sure we can start a new thread. d8^) Bill

25 years, 8 months

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amiga 500

by jim＠calico.litterbox.com

I just got my hands on an amiga 500. I realise I have to get my hands on a workbench boot floppy for it, etc, and I have an idea what all the ports are on one. Does anyone have any tips, tricks, etc that I should know? Something like "how to wire a monitor cable and monitors that will work with it" would be a huge help. Whee! I've wanted an Amiga since they were new. :) -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- BeOS Powered! -----------------------------------------------------------------------

25 years, 8 months

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DECTalk DTC01

by r.stek＠snet.net

I recently picked up a mint condition (at least cosmetically) DTC01 - it's about the size of a small desktop PC with 2 25 pin serial ports, one for COMM and one for a terminal, two phone jacks, two audio jacks and a volume control. What I was looking for was a Votrax Type 'n' Talk or an IntexTalker, but hey, who's complaining? I did some searching and found that Megan has a commmand summary, Eric Smith has one, and maybe one or two others on the list. There is a list of some initialization commands and sparse docs on the web, but they are rooted in VMS and I don't speak DEC. Since this was way beyond my price range when it came out, I don't know much about it, so any help would be appreciated. What I am hoping is that, like the Intex or Votrax, I can just send a serial text stream to it and hear it spoken. This weekend I will break out my trusty Televideo terminal and fool around with it, but if anyone has docs, I'd happily pay copying/postage. Or just point me in the right direction. I was planning to see if just sending double-square-bracketed [[command string]] in straight ASCII allows me to control it. After that I'll use HyperTerminal to send it "The Hound of the Baskervilles" and let it read me to sleep! Bob Stek Saver of Lost Sols

25 years, 8 months

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Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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25 years, 8 months

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WANG, strange PC and Apple 1 prototypes

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 14, Iggy Drougge wrote: > >> Isn't it true that several years ago Wang came up with a new customer > >> programme called "Wang Care" and the guy that came up with the name was > >> fired? > > > I dunno about that, but I first heard it from the same guy that told > >me that Wang was merging with Siemens. > > They too? Fujitsu-ICL (Didn't they once devour Bull or Nokia data?) have > recently merged with Siemens' computer division, too. And they've managed to > make a mess out of their websites, too, unluckily for those of us looking for > a manual or other relevant info on our non-mainframes. Indeed. But I think you missed the reference. ;) -Dave McGuire

25 years, 8 months

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x1541

by eweidenh1＠hotmail.com

I’m getting ready to make a x1541 cable to connect my Commodore 64 drive to the parallel port of my PC. Unfortunately, the existing instructions are a little to cryptic for a complete novice like me. For example, how do I distinguish between the 25 wires in the parallel cable? Is there a sequence I should follow? What’s the best way to connect the wires? Any advice would really be appreciated. Thanks all. _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

25 years, 8 months

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Data Archival (OT Long)

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

EMC and other disk storage manufacturers are trying to convince everybody to move all of the data online and just buy more disk arrays when you need them. We are trying to setup a system to archive medical images and are required to keep the image for at least 25 years. The 25 years is 7 years past the point the child turns 18. Of course that could change. The medical archive manufacturers all swear that online storage is the way to go. Of course their true interest is the next quarters profit margin. I am from the old school and like off line backups. Now the question is what kind of off line backup. I have old thermafax medical reports that are 35 years old and are basically unreadable. Film at least will survive if it is stored properly. I know we have 8" floppy data of CT images from the late 70's and probably 1600 bpi 9-track tapes. I don't even try to read them. Everybody is converting their 16mm cardiac angiography movies from film to CD's. I think I need to develop a film based technology. There probably is some sort of microfilm already around. If you want real long term storage I have heard that there are people working on 10,000 year storage methods, etched iridium plates. For some reason I seem to remember that the genealogy people in Salt Lake City, Utah are working with this. Mike McFadden mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 8 months

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VAX questions, memory

by junk＠keyways.com

>I finally got my hands on a VAX 4000/90 (yipee!) and it now takes its place >as my fastest VAX. It has 32MB of memory (8 x 4MB modules) and I was >wondering if, because it looks a lot like a VAX 4000/60 if I could use >memory modules from a 4000/60 in the 4000/90. Also since I've only got 4 >16MB modules, can I mix 4MB and 16MB modules? > >--Chuck The memory (MS44) from a 4000/60 will work in a 4000/90 in every case I've tried. All the simms in a bank must be the same capacity. I think there should be a diagram of the banks on the inside of the cover, or you can determine the banks by the etched/silkscreened numbers next to the simm sockets. I'm sending this email from a 4000/90a which was quite a step up from my VS3100/30. Good luck. Mitch Keyways

25 years, 8 months

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WANG, strange PC and Apple 1 prototypes

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 13, Adrian Graham wrote: > Isn't it true that several years ago Wang came up with a new customer > programme called "Wang Care" and the guy that came up with the name was > fired? I dunno about that, but I first heard it from the same guy that told me that Wang was merging with Siemens. Fa-tump-tump! -Dave McGuire

25 years, 8 months

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Steve Wozniak on A&E Biography tonight

by vcf＠siconic.com

Steve Wozniak is profiled on A&E's Biography tonight. And my hands make their television debut, playing Steve Wozniak's hands in a couple re-enactments. Now that my hands have achieved celebrity status, they are available for other bookings, such as dinner speeches, Bar Mitzvahs and bachelorette parties. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years, 8 months

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First personal computer nostalgia

by markp＠wccls.lib.or.us

1985,86? Atari 520ST, still have it, and thanks to John's question, anxious to put it back together and see how it's doing. My wife was still writing grad-school papers on it in '90 or so. 1st Word, no spell-check, no page numbering, not much formatting at all. The printer was a Silver Reed daisy-wheel typewriter with an optional interface box. (Still have that, too.) Clackety-clackety-clack. It paused between pages so you could switch paper. I recall with mixed fondness/not-so-fondness pulling all-night term paper sessions, the last hour or so of which consisted in sitting there, changing paper in the printer...zzzzzzzzz. At time of purchase, I was insanely jealous of my friend's Atari 1050ST with the humongous 1mb hard disk: "The silence of those infinite spaces terrified me." --Pascal. (Blaise, not Turbo.) 1996 Intercepted an IBM XT that a co-worker was tossing. Knew nothing from nothing, so never could get it to do much. Got it to find it its 10mb hard disk for exactly one format of PC-DOS, then I never saw C: again. You could still run PC-DOS and WordPerfect from the floppies when I gave it away. (Kinda wish I still had that one...) 2000 Bought a house with a BASEMENT, bwahahahaahaaaa! Have cluttered it all up with various PC clones in various states of completion/disrepair. Acquired a Mac SE, an old Zenith luggable which I haven't had time to check out yet (but I know it can't find its hard disk either), the Atari, a 90mb Bernoulli drive in its own carrying case, the Toshiba laptop mentioned elsewhere on this list. You guys have got years and years on me and have forgotten more than I'll ever know, but I really enjoy this list and learning about rescuing junkware. Thanks! ============================== Mark Price, Library Computer Specialist Washington County Cooperative Library Services e-mail: markp(a)wccls.lib.or.us voice: 503-846-3230 fax: 503-846-3220

25 years, 8 months

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CRT Problems

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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25 years, 8 months

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Radio kits

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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25 years, 8 months

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G4IDE and ][GS disks

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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25 years, 8 months

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unlabeled media

by red＠bears.org

Howdy folks. I've got a bit of a dilemma on my hands. Included in my most recent rescue were a large number of 5.25" floppies and data cassettes---on the order of perhaps a hundred to a hundred fifty each. Only a handful of either are labeled in such a manner as to identify the type of machine they work with. It is safe to assume I have the hardware to use any of the media. The possibilites include: for 5.25" media: Apple II; Commodore VIC-20, C=64, or B128 (8050 drive); Atari 8-bits; Heath H89A; OSI C1P; TRS-80 Model I I'm assuming any hard-sectored media I find belongs to the Northstar Advantage. for data cassette: Apple II; Commodore VIC-20, or C=64; Atari 8-bits; OSI C1P; TRS-80 Model I, or Color Computer; Tomy Tutor; Coleco Adam; TI-99/4A; Spectravideo SVI 328 On top of this, there is the possibility that there are 'digital' data tapes for the Meta-80 drive which works with the TRS-80. From what I can tell, the cassettes are externally identical. I could iteratively run the entire 'unknown' batch through each machine, but it seems like the chance for error there is great, especially with the cassettes. Does anybody have any suggestions on how to do this so I end up with the least chance of error and minimize any destruction of data? Thanks. ok r.

25 years, 8 months

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Vintage computers in movies

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Blah on all these lame PC (meaning personal and not necessarily IBM) pieces of garbage... One of the Jurassic Park movies (the 2nd one I think), has a Thinking Machines CM-5 in it... And I know there's an independant film that has a VAX 11/750 in it, I even own that particular VAX (well until I give it to Herr Stiebler).. that movie also feautres nifty IBM 3290 plasma display panels, which I also own. Will J _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

25 years, 8 months

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Vintage computers in movies

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I think that the computer in Wierd Science was a Memotech FDX 500. Rich -----Original Message----- From: Cameron Kaiser [mailto:spectre@stockholm.ptloma.edu] Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 11:39 AM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Vintage computers in movies > >> > What was the computer they used in Weird Science? Didn't they use > > > something > >> > unusual in Ferris Buhler's Day Off(did I spell his last name correctly?) > >> > >> I'm nearly certain Ferris had an IBM PC of some sort, and that the > >> computer in Weird Science was a Commodore, of the VIC-20 or C=64 variety. > > > >Yeah, Ferris had a PC. > > The script at http://members.tripod.com/~MrHyde/ferris.txt claims: > > 52 INT. FERRIS' ROOM : Ferris is at his Macintosh computer. He > has his record up on the screen. > > FERRIS > I wanted a car. I got a computer. How's > that for being born under a bad sign? I distinctly remember that computer having a 5.25" floppy, and that doesn't sound like a Mac to me :-) -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu -- I must confess, I was born at a very early age. -- Groucho Marx ------------

25 years, 8 months

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HP 2392A Terminals free for pickup or cost of shipping

by whdawson＠mlynk.com

HP 2392A Terminals free for pickup or cost of shipping, pickup preferred. 7 are located in Philadelphia, PA and 7 are in Tampa, FL. All are still operational and include the original boxes. Please contact Lisa Flores at Abtech Systems by phone or email to make arrangements: (800)474-7397 (Carlsbad, CA) or lisax.flores(a)xabtechsys.com (remove the x's) Arrangements should be made ASAP. There may be much more HP equipment available in the future for free if this goes well. Abtech has HP and Sun equipment, along with other things such as Netservers, PC's and peripherals, etc. that are not worth shipping back to Carlsbad and may become available to listmembers in the future. Bill

25 years, 8 months

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(no subject)

by webmaster＠ipom.com

I discharged my TV based on information I found on archives of this mailing list and some over-the-phone advice from a friend. The only difference was that I used a high-voltage probe instead of a resistor (attached the ground to the ground braid and dsicharged from the metal behind the suction cup). I then did some looking around in the dark and my heater seems to be malfunctioning... it doens't glow, it more sparks. The picture is really light and fades away to black. It will occasionally come back but usually fades again right away. So I looked along the little clear bulb on the back of the crt and ther was a small block dot on one part that looks like somethign underneith it had burned. The dot was about a cm in diameter.. maybe 2, but it was very small. Does this mean the heater is blown? If not is it a part I can buy and replace easily? Thanks. Phil -- Insanity Palace of Metallica www.ipom.com webmaster(a)ipom.com --

25 years, 8 months

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STRIDE

by optimus＠canit.se

I was at the usergroup today and had a look at our Stride, which has been parked in the entrance since we moved in. It is a grey tower (large), with a pretty glass front featuring one 5?" flopyy drive and a tape drive. The back is filled with a dozen or so of modular connectors, as well as another modular marked LAN, and an unmarked IEC (?) connector. I also found some manuals. Some were relevant to a system called Unistride (is this an OS or a hardware system), whereas I directed my primpary interest to one owner's manual for the Stride 400 series and one manual for the Liaison Operating System with p-system. Another p-code system! Judging from manual illustrations, we've got the Stride 460 system, albeit lacking the terminal. We don't have any boot media, though. After some investigation, it seems to have been able to run a whole lot of OSes; Liaison/p-system, CP/M 68k as well as System V. Does anyone have some sources for boot media for this pretty system? -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6.

25 years, 8 months

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WANG, strange PC and Apple 1 prototypes

by agraham＠ccat.co.uk

Isn't it true that several years ago Wang came up with a new customer programme called "Wang Care" and the guy that came up with the name was fired? Anyway, whilst helping my company clear out its electronics test shop I came away with a few goodies, namely a couple of MicroVAX 2000s, a boxed IBM PS/2 laptop, a 100mhz Oscilloscope, a VR262 mono monitor, a VT220, a huge bundle of VAX and PDP cards, complete (I think) boardset for an RL02 drive AND a box containing some read/write heads, some MicroVAX 3100 memory (20mb! Woo), floppy controller and motherboard for a PRO380 (with the possibility of the machine itself coming too) and what I can only assume is a CPU testbed. It's an Amtron 386 PC with an interface card and strange 4 pin power-out sockets that connect to an array of long and heavy metal-encased boxes that have umbilicals on with sockets or connectors to plug in the CPUs themselves. I've got modules for 8086, 8088, 286, 386SX, 386DX, 486 and 68000 CPUs......haven't powered the machine up yet though. Anyone come across one of these before? As for that supposed prototype Apple 1 auction, the full size picture of it is at http://www.sfcapital.com/ebay/full.jpg..... it just seems odd to me that it's in a case when the final product didn't have one..... adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum

25 years, 8 months

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radio kits

by agraham＠ccat.co.uk

> Date: Mon, 11 Dec 2000 18:39:07 +0000 (GMT) > From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Subject: Re: Fw: Professors worry that engineering students > don't tinker > > involved). You started out making a crystal set, then added a single > audio stage (OC71), then a second stage (another OC71), then added a > loudspeaker (using an LT700 output transformer). And finally > you replaced > the crystal detector with the OC45 regenerative stage. > > I think the book is still around, even if the transistors are hard to > find now. I remember the son of a technician at a place I was > working a > few years back was building one -- I managed to find him some OC71s. > > I thought just about all UK hobbyists built this at one time > or another... Nope - I had (and still have) my Radio Shack crystal radio kit to tinker with, followed by one of the Science Fair electronics kits where you had loads of spring terminals and small jumper wires to build circuits with......I found it the other day and it was dated 1973 :) adrian/witchy www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk - the Online Computer Museum

25 years, 8 months

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Lee Felsenstein Sol article online

by frustum＠pacbell.net

List member Bob Stek has OCR'd a very interesting article written by Lee Felsenstein back in 1977 for ROM magazine. The subject of the article is how the Sol was designed and implemented, and the whirlwind events leading up to demoing the prototype. The original article that Bob OCR'd was supplied by Ray Borrill, whom I just turned onto this list and may be lurking. Ray, if you are there, take a bow and introduce yourself. Ray has had a long and interesting link to the now vintage micro field. Check out the article: http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/ROM_7_1977.pdf ----- Jim Battle == frustum(a)pacbell.net

25 years, 8 months

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Put on your obscure toy hats gang!

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

Ok... I'm now looking for some information/docs on the latest addition to the collection around the 'Garage': a Strand-Century Mini Light Palette theatrical lighting control console circa 1984. And before you ask, (cause I know you will) "what does this have to do with 'classic' computers?" Let me tell you! Beneath the somewhat utilitarian facade of this device, (pix soon to come) and only hinted at by the dual nine inch monochrome displays, hides a DEC Q-bus card cage, and an LSI-11 based microcomputer! Some 'standard' DEC cards, and a couple of custom cards make up the heart of this unit. And while it does have a floppy drive (5.25 inch), its core operating code resides on EPROM located on the CPU card. The unit is functional, and my intent is to put it to work in the manner in which it was intended. But, as with most things like this... Docs is good! <G> THanks! -jim --- jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

25 years, 8 months

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Ebay: PDP 16/M Super MiniComputer

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Marvin <marvin(a)rain.org> >I just looked at Ebay and found out that the PDP 16/M is a roll-your-own PDP >8 or PDP 11. I sure wish DEC had let me know this information when I took >the maintenance classes on it at the Maynard training facility. Here I >always thought it was just a glorified solid state controller. We could have >saved some money instead of buying the 11/05 and 11/45s :). The URL is: It's neither an 8 or an 11. It was what you wanted it to be based on how you built it. Allison

25 years, 8 months

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Wang t-shirt (humor?)

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

First, Yes, Wang was indeed bought by Getronics (bunch of useless SOBs, if you wonder why I say this just *try* to get some docs from 'em). Second, for Iggy and any other non-Americans/persons not familiar with slang meanings of the word "Wang", it is another term for penis, which is why Martin was laughed at, and why I can get my friends to laugh by telling them I have a 600lb. Wang (VS300). I don't personally think anything is wrong with Wang, they're pretty darn advanced machines, and they actually run real TCP/IP... They like nasty X.25 and RS-449 and crap like that, but you can't have everything... Nice pin, I have a Wang coffee mug myself, as well as 2 Wang computers, the VS and a 2200MVP. Will J _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

25 years, 8 months

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Altos 8600 boot disk

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

Hi, I'm trying to help someone find a copy of a 8" boot disk for an Altos 8600. Thanks, --Doug =============================================================== "On two occasions I have been asked [by members of Parliament!], 'Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?' I am not able rightly to apprehend the kind of confusion of ideas that could provoke such a question. --- Charles Babbage ========================================= Doug Coward Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA =========================================

25 years, 8 months

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a comparison of CP/M versus Windows NT!!

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I just found this on comp.sys.cpm. a comparison of CP/M versus... Windows NT!!! Don't miss it: http://www.oualline.com/col/cpm.html Enjoy!

25 years, 8 months

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10,000 years? (was: Data Archival (OT Long)

by tarsi＠binhost.com

>By then, will MICROS~1 have been broken up? Not bloody likely. .NET will have taken over. >By then, will we have a RELIABLE OS? Yup. My linux box will have an uptime of 3,650,000 days. :) >BTW, recent experiments were UNsuccessful at starting fire using >CDs. Therefore, what good will they be? AH, but have you tried microwaving CDs? They make a nice fire that way. Tarsi 210 --------------------------------- Nathan E. Pralle Vice President and CTO binHOST.com - Network Services for the World http://www.binhost.com tarsi(a)binhost.com ---------------------------------

25 years, 8 months

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World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive)

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/10/2000 8:49:23 PM Eastern Standard Time, ajp166(a)bellatlantic.net writes: > ST225 is a good one, the 251 and 4096 were junk. The ST251 > was far to hot running to survive unless cooled with great effort. Well, at least one survives: Last week a frantic woman brought a Zenith Data Systems DOS-based PC into our shop. It wouldn't boot and she was in desperate need of retrieving some 1-2-3 files from the drive -- an ST251. Turns out the system battery had died, and once replaced we were able to get the system going and the drive looked healthy (as healthy as a Seagate MFM drive ever looks). Since it was in and out of the shop so quickly we didn't get much of a chance to check out the system (Z200? S200?) but it looked as if the mainboard was pretty much just a backplane, with the 10MHz AMD 286 CPU on an ISA card. Anyone familiar with this beast? It looked pretty cool. Could cards with faster CPUs be installed in place of the 286 card? Glen Goodwin 0/0

25 years, 8 months

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Nerds

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 9, Gene Ehrich wrote: > This is probably off topic and it may be old but I never heard it before: > > Why do nerds confuse Halloween and Christmas? > > > Because Oct31 = Dec25 *GROAN!!* :) -Dave McGuire

25 years, 8 months

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CompatiCards

by donm＠cts.com

Both CompatiCards have been sold to list members. - don

25 years, 8 months

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Fw: Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> >Anyway, one such book (aimed at older children I guess) was called >'Making a Transistor Radio'. The set was built on a wooden board, using >woodscrews and screwcuop washers as terminials (and thus no soldering was >involved). You started out making a crystal set, then added a single >audio stage (OC71), then a second stage (another OC71), then added a >loudspeaker (using an LT700 output transformer). And finally you replaced >the crystal detector with the OC45 regenerative stage. It's been years since I built that way but the first transistor design I did was back in '65 with my first "RF' transistor 2n384. It was regenerative. The battle (for me) back then I lived less than a mile from 3000W daytime AM radio station. Not listening to that was indeed a learning expereince. >Hmm, I'd never want to build a live-chassis set. Isolated PSUs seem like >a very good idea on experimental designs... I'd agree but it was a cheap circuit. >Never built a valve radio. Built other valve stuff over the years, though... It good fun. I did one recently on maple (real wood breadboard) using some of the talves (tubes) provided by one of the members. I went for the classic Q5er, 4 tubes in all, osc/mixer feeding a regenerative IF at 455kc followed by one stage of audio. Makes a fair shortwave RX. Radio is one thing I still enjoy. Allison

25 years, 8 months

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Scrounging in Florida

by Mzthompson＠aol.com

On 09 Dec 2000, under the subject: GOOD scrounging day!; Joe Rigdon <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> wrote: > OK while the rest of you are freezing and getting ready for Christams, we > here in Florida and enjoying beautifull wheather and still fighting over > the election! A few of us are taking advantage of the weather and are out > scrounging for old computers and other interesting stuff. <snip> I am headed to Ft. Lauderdale later this month. Any suggestions for places to visit with regards to finding 'puters? I am not looking for anything in particular, probably something along the lines of fleamarkets or places that sell used hardware. Keep in mind that my wife and her mother will probably be in tow. They are concerned that I will be bored and want to include something of interest for me. Also any pointers on book stores that sell used books and/or used CD/45/LP's. TIA Mike

25 years, 8 months

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Fw: BBK-S4 and Solaris 2.6

by rmeenaks＠olf.com

Apparently, this didnt make it here :-( Ram ----- Original Message ----- From: <rmeenaks(a)olf.com> Newsgroups: comp.sys.transputer,comp.os.parix To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Sunday, December 10, 2000 9:14 AM Subject: HELP: BBK-S4 and Solaris 2.6 > Hi, > > I am trying to get a BBK-S4 SBus-based transputer card working on a SUN > IPX workstation running Solaris 2.6. I have the Basic Transputer > Support Software (BTSS 3.1) which has support for Solaris. However, I > do not have any documentation. The BTSS requires the creation > of "/dev/sbus?" in order for it to communicate with the transputer. I > do not have any /dev/sbus[0-3] devices on my system. I tried to > symbolically link one of the sbus psuedo devices that is found > in /devices to /dev/sbus[0-3], but that doesnt seem to work. How do > you create the /dev/sbus[0-3] devices? I am trying to get Parix 1.2 > running on a T8-based Xplorer. This is the 1st step in many to come to > get this system up and running. Any help is much appreciated... > > Oh, before anyone asks, I booted using "boot -r" to reconfigure the > system, but that didnt work either... > > Ram > > > Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/ > Before you buy.

25 years, 8 months

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Fw: Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

-----Original Message----- From: ajp166 <ajp166(a)bellatlantic.net> To: Classic Computers <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Sunday, December 10, 2000 9:44 PM Subject: Re: Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker >From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> > > >>> >-tony (who grew up holding a acrewdriver, built his first radio 28 >years >>> >ago. For the UK people, the semiconductors were an OC45 (regenerative >>> >RF/AF stage), 2 OC71s (AF stages) and a couple of OA81 diodes. That >>> >should identify it. And who's probably fiddled with more pieces of >>> >machinery and electronics than an entire graduating engineering class >has >>> >at most universities...) >> >>You know, I am a little concerned that not one UK member of this list >>recognises that radio circuit. I thought just about everybody built it >at >>some point... > > >Actually it's more unique to the UK than here in the usa. The common >transistor radios here were the very simple 2 transistor reflex and the >standard >six transistor superhet. > >I'm likely one of the few here that has built the AA5 (all American 5) 5 >tube AM superhet that was common, later transistor designs and IC >based systems. Most of my efforts were in generatiing RF power >and measuring it. the thing that keep my interest is the intersection >of communications (radio) and computers. > >Building and analysing already built machines is a great exercise and >creative >instigator. > >Allison > > > >

25 years, 8 months

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GOOD scrounging day!

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

OK while the rest of you are freezing and getting ready for Christams, we here in Florida and enjoying beautifull wheather and still fighting over the election! A few of us are taking advantage of the weather and are out scrounging for old computers and other interesting stuff. That's what I did yesterday. My haul included a Morrow Micro Decision, a Tektronix 8002a Developement system and the external 8" disk drives, an immersion cooler, six or seven Busch & Lomb model 21 Spectrophotometers and a manual for my IBM MD-2 Maintenance Device. I ran out of car before I ran out of goodies so I left behind a Tektronix 4016 terminal, a tektronix 4024 terminal, an ADM-3A terminal and an ADDS 25 terminal. One of my coolest finds was a Paratronics model 100a Logic Analyzer with the manual. This must be one of the first logic analyzers on the market. It's about the size of a cigar box and uses a scope of other monitor with an X-Y input for the display. The manual is dated 1977 and it says that this an improved version of the one that was in the cover story of the Feb 1977 issue of Popular Electronics. (Does anyone have that issue?) The mauual gives example of how to use it with the Altair, Intel 8080, Motorola 6800, Fairchld F-8, National SC/MP, Z-80, Bit Slice CPUs and the RCA Cosmac. This will make a nice companion piece for my Altair. Also spotted a Color Monitor for the TI-99/4. It's nothing but a color TV with the tuner removed. I knew RS sold this kind of thing but I didn't know that TI did also. I didn't pick it up but if anyone wants it, contact me and I'll tell you where it's at. It's in a surplus store and I have no idea what they want for it. I'm looking for info on the Morrow Micro Decision. If anyone knows much about them, let me know. Joe

25 years, 8 months

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Anyone remember the Pan network?

by vcf＠siconic.com

Does anyone remember or has anyone even heard of the Pan Network from the mid-80s? Apparently it was a dial-up network system used by musicians to trade midi files and what-not. If anyone has any remembrances of this that they can share or, even better, magazine article cites, then I would greatly appreciate if you could share them. Thanks! Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years, 8 months

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Chad on eBay

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Florida ballot Hollerith card chad is going for $20-40 +$3-7 S/H on eBay. In some cases, the *single* chad is behind glass in its own 8x10 frame. - John

25 years, 8 months

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no power to Toshiba T1200 laptop

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Mark Price <markp(a)wccls.lib.or.us> wrote: > I picked up a Toshiba T1200 laptop at Goodwill yesterday. Of course, it > came with nothing, not so much as a power adapter, and nothing there to test > it with, but I couldn't resist. I picked a power adapter from Radio Shack > this morning, 12V, 1500mA, and plugged it in. IIRC, the T1200 wants 9VDC (there's a block of 4 NiCd cells inside that suggests to me that it's 6VDC internal and 9VDC to charge it) I just happened to see one about a week ago at our weekly Geek Lunch. I'm pretty sure the wart was 6VCD. Good luck, -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/

25 years, 8 months

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Kansas City standard cassette recording

by donm＠cts.com

A tad over two years ago, there was some dialogue about the Kansas City standard for cassette recording of microcomputer files, and a chap named Heinz W. Wiggeshoff provided some information via alt.folklore.computers, and offered both images of programatic nature and circuit information on request. (See following.) If anyone obtained those images and circuit information, please respond to philpem(a)btinternet.com with Cc to me. Many thanks. - don ================================= >From ordeal.cts.com!newshub.cts.com!usc!howland.erols.net!torn!nott!cunews!freenet-news.carleton.ca!FreeNet.Carleton.CA!ab528 Tue Dec 9 12:52:46 1997 Path: ordeal.cts.com!newshub.cts.com!usc!howland.erols.net!torn!nott!cunews!freenet-news.carleton.ca!FreeNet.Carleton.CA!ab528 From: ab528(a)FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff) Newsgroups: alt.folklore.computers Subject: Re: Kansas City cassette recording format Date: 9 Dec 1997 19:00:30 GMT Organization: The National Capital FreeNet Lines: 53 Message-ID: <66k4ge$2ae(a)freenet-news.carleton.ca> References: <ygeoh2q4txr.fsf(a)outoften.doc.ic.ac.uk> Reply-To: ab528(a)FreeNet.Carleton.CA (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff) NNTP-Posting-Host: freenet5.carleton.ca X-Given-Sender: ab528(a)freenet5.carleton.ca (Heinz W. Wiggeshoff) Xref: ordeal.cts.com alt.folklore.computers:176771 X-Cache: nntpcache 1.0.7.1 (see ftp://suburbia.net/pub/nntpcache) Stephen Crane (jsc(a)outoften.doc.ic.ac.uk) writes: > Anyone out there got any technical information about this? I have > some cassettes of varying age and quality whose information I'd like > to retrieve, preferably using my PC's audio card. Ideally, someone > will have written a program for Linux which does this but, given the > info, I'll have a bash at it over Xmas. From Microprocessor Interfacing Techniques by Austin Lesea and Rodnay Zaks (whatever happened to him?) c/r 1978 SYBEX Inc. ISBN 0-89588-003-2 p. 128 KANSAS CITY STANDARD In order to use these inexpensive recorders in the hobby market, a standard was proposed and adopted by hobbyists. Using frequency shift keying techniques, and frequency double frequency [sic] modem techniques, this standard is easy to use. The drawback is the data rate of 30 characters per second. The system takes standard serial RS-232C data ... and converts each bit to either 8 cycles of 2400 hertz (a "1") or 4 cycles of 1200 hertz (a "0"). To generate this, only a few flip-flips [sic] are required along with a quad NAND gate. Shown in Fig. 4-55 is the modulator. [Image sent on request] [Circuit function, ditto] The demodulator must detect whether 1200 hertz or 2400 hertz tones are present. There are many ways of doing this; however a common one is to detect zero crossings of the input signal. This will generate either 2400 or 4800 pulses per second. [Circuit details sent on request] The circuit for the demodulator appears in Fig. 4-56. The de- modulator timing appears in Fig. 4-57. Note how one gets back what one started with, along with the necessary clock information. If the tape speed varies, the data may still be recovered as the clock information will insure the UART receives the proper timing signal. No special software is needed as this interface makes the cassette look like a paper-tape, punch-reader combination to the computer. [Images sent on request] (This format is found between the KIM cassette interface, and the One Chip Digital Cassette controller using the NEC UPD371D.) (Surprisingly, the documentation for my Heathkit ETA-3400 only mentions the frequencies, not the details of the encoding.)

25 years, 8 months

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OT: telnetd for Win98

by vaxman＠uswest.net

Sorry for the OT, but y'all are the brightest computer savvy folks I know :) I'm looking for a telnet server (not client) for Windows 98 (Second edition)... Something that will let me log in, and give me the equivalent to a command window... I'm trying to set up a method of putting VHDL simulations on idle PCs at work :) clint

25 years, 8 months

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Osborne manuals

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Here's the list of the Osborne Manuals and software that I could find. I'm planning on sending them to Josh for him to scan. Does anyone else have any other manuals? Joe Osborne computer books and original software disks. 1) Osborne “Approved Software” binder with original disks: Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 3.0 System disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 3.0 General Utilities disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 3.0 Advanced Utilities disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 5.21/2.38 MBASIC/CBASIC disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver IV.12.B USCD P-System disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 1.12/1.00 Super Calc with SDI disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 3.30 WordStar/Mailmerge disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 2.00 WordStar Install disk Osborne Executive CP/M Plus ver 1.06 Personal Pearl (6 disks) 2) “Osborne Executive Guides” box with: Volume 1 Mastering the Osborne Executive (PB) Volume 2 Working with Text and Spreadsheets (PB) Volume 3 Managing Information with Personal Pearl (PB) Volume 4 Operating Systems (PB) 3) “Osborne Executive Reference Guide” box with: Volume 0 Beginner’s Guide (PB) Executive Reference Guide binder with: Executive Reference Guide (PB) and loose notes inside 4) “Osborne 1 User’s Reference Guide” book (PB) 5) Osborne “Approved Software” binder with: Personal Pearl Easy Tutorial User’s Guide (loose pages) Personal Pearl Advanced Tutorial User’s Guide (loose pages) Personal Pearl Reference Manual (loose pages) 6) “Osborne 1 Technical Manual” binder Osborne 1 Technical Manual (a BIG manual) (loose pages)

25 years, 8 months

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CD's as parabolic mirrors?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On December 8, Megan wrote: > > >I remeber reading that a hologram of a lens would refract light in the > > >same was as a real lens would. This concept has formed the basis for > > >the flight-of-fancy holodeck/holosuite concept from Star Trek. > > > > <ot> > > The holodeck supposedly uses both hologram projectors and transporter > > technology... I suspect it should also use shield technology, too... > > </ot> > > The Trek world's holodecks don't have anything at all to do with > holographic lens technology. They use a combination of holography > (for background scenes and "wall extension") and transporter-style > matter synthesis for "solid" objects. I wasn't talking about the explanation Giordi LaForge would give for how it worked, but how the writers were likely inspired to create the plot device. regards, -dq

25 years, 8 months

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Digital Correspondent, socal

by mikeford＠socal.rr.com

>> BTW I have a couple good sized boxes of ribbons, that I "hope" to soon >> spread out on something flat a take a couple pictures of, and get rid of. > >Remember the MacInker (or some name to that effect)? It seems to take care >of re-inking old ribbons quite nicely. Only problem though with ribbons is >that I have too many I have no idea what they go to :)! Hence my plan, spread them all out, take a decent picture, and put it on my web site and let people look for what they need and offer me vast sums of money for it.

25 years, 8 months

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World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine(a)idirect.com> >I don't see what the problem is. I have been running the Hitachi DK515-78 >and the Hitachi DK516-15 drives now for a number of years. I admit that Those were good drives, I ran one for years and it was not new to start with. The complaint with some of the drives like ST225 was like many with ferrite coated platters the media migrates due to heat and that centrifical thing. I've found with mine if I let them get good and warm first then format them the problem is far less pronounced to uncommon. They dont like heat. Heat has always been the enemy of electronics and mechanicals, especially temperature cycles. Allison

25 years, 8 months

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World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: r. 'bear' stricklin <red(a)bears.org> >We won't talk about the TK50. TK50 is the only one that hasn't messed me up. Then again most of the TK50s found are dead or nearly so. HPT20 travan-5, burnt me so bad... Seems the _tape_ moves so fast it heats up... alot... then be come useless due to heat. >I will, however, nominate any hard disk Micropolis made which was in a >smaller form factor than 5.25" FH. Garbage. D540, best drive ever. >> Bulletproof drives: >> Seagate St225,251, and 4096 interface version notwithstanding ST225 is a good one, the 251 and 4096 were junk. The ST251 was far to hot running to survive unless cooled with great effort. Allison

25 years, 8 months

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Question: Disk Mirroring preceding RAID?

by ss＠allegro.com

Hi, Need help in settling argument...does disk mirroring (via hardware) predate RAID's mirroring capability? (I'm not interested in OS software implemented mirroring here.) Also, are there any hardware mirror methods that one could point to and say: this is not capable of being called any kind of RAID! (The argument in question is over the statement that "all hardware based mirroring is a form of RAID".) For example, is there any "stealth hardware mirroring" mechanism, where a drive watches the bus, and obeys writes, but nothing else? (This would be "drive-based" mirroring, as opposed to "controller- based mirroring") (Since RAID is controller-based, a drive-based mirroring mechanism would seem to be clearly not any kind of RAID.) thanks! Stan Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html www.allegro.com/sieler

25 years, 8 months

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World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive)

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: jeff.kaneko(a)juno.com <jeff.kaneko(a)juno.com> > >On Mon, 4 Dec 2000 22:38:33 EST Glenatacme(a)aol.com writes: >> In fact, these are absolutely the crappiest storage devices I have >> ever seen used on any computer. >> >> Any challengers for worst storage device? > >Yes-- The KALOK Octagon-20. The absolute worst >MFM drive (and perhaps the worst rotating memory of >*any* sort) ever manufactured. most any JTS drive and the ST251(in a warm box) followed by an old MFM Miniscribe 3.5" 21mb. These are exceeded by the infamous SA400 (or sa400L) drives. I also think the Zip drive (IOMEGA) might qualify. All time winner was the 300baud FSK modem used by MITS as a cassette interface. Allison

25 years, 8 months

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Question: Disk Mirroring preceding RAID?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Richard Erlacher <edick(a)idcomm.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Monday, December 04, 2000 8:48 PM Subject: Re: Question: Disk Mirroring preceding RAID? >Back in '90. I tried the Novell NETWARE approach to mirroring, but was >unable to make it work. That was due to the fact that the ADAPTEC >controller I was using didn't really work correctly at the alternate address >with the driver they provided for that purpose. I quickly abandoned it, in >favor of the software RAID offered by NT. I currently running NT4/server using Adaptec and two 9gb drives and it's very well behaved with only one caveat, it is a tad slower. The NT4 software RAID also work nearly as well and has behaved itself. The biggest fail point is many raid (scsi based) system use the same channel for both drives and the bus is then the weak point. However, my interest is data recovery on failure not 100% uptime. your design goals vay vary. ;) Allison

25 years, 8 months

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NEXTcube

by KenzieM＠sympatico.ca

I saw my first Cube today! It was in the back of a scarp yard. They had it running but I couldn't find the mouse pointer. The owner also said that the fan wasn't working. There was a laser printer, dot-matrix, 2 monitors, keyboard and mouse. Any warnings about these machines? What OS do they run? Is it worth $75 cdn?

25 years, 8 months

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no power to Toshiba T1200 laptop

by markp＠wccls.lib.or.us

I picked up a Toshiba T1200 laptop at Goodwill yesterday. Of course, it came with nothing, not so much as a power adapter, and nothing there to test it with, but I couldn't resist. I picked a power adapter from Radio Shack this morning, 12V, 1500mA, and plugged it in. There's a little red blinky starts blinking on the top of the case just above the on/off switch, but nothing else, no power-on, no boot, no bios screen, no nothin'. Any clue what's going on? Is the CMOS battery dead? Is the battery charging? Any experience, wisdom, and/or pages you'd have to share would be most appreciated. Thanks! ============================== Mark Price, Library Computer Specialist Washington County Cooperative Library Services e-mail: markp(a)wccls.lib.or.us voice: 503-846-3230 fax: 503-846-3220

25 years, 8 months

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FSOT: WANG WLTC "Transportable" laptop

by wkuiper＠wxs.nl

Hey Well, I haven't got a spare powerbrick for you because I;ve got only one. why I reply is that my Wang WLTC doesn't start up any more. I now need the WANG start tracks or bootdisks. So, if you have them and you would mail me them, I would be verry gratefull For so far, thanks, Evert Kuiper, The Netherlands

25 years, 8 months

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Scratched plastic screen

by fauradon＠mn.mediaone.net

Hi all, I have a Sega Gamegear with a badly scratched screen. THe scratches are sobad that they distord the display. Is there an easy way to polish it? A hard way? I tried baking soda and dremel all morning but it's still bad and I've done some damage to the case with the dremel (yeah I should be more carful with power tools) Thanks Francois

25 years, 8 months

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Apple I proto?

by jhellige＠earthlink.net

Speaking of eBay and it's often inflated prices, did anyone else see the listing for the supposed Apple I prototype? The seller has a '0' rating and it's been bid up to $14k! http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1200995556 Jeff -- Collector of Classic Microcomputers and Video Game Systems: Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757

25 years, 8 months

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Heathkit Fall 1978 catalog now on-line; H-8, H-11, H-9 and ET-3400.

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> wrote: > Hi, > > I just finished scanning all of the computer related pages from my Fall > 1978 Heathkit catalag and posting them on the web... Thank you for these. I have been (slowly) restoring an H-11 I recovered >from the crawlspace of a former boss. We did custom DEC work about 12-14 years ago on his H-11 (KDF-11) and my 11/23 (the target system was an 11/73 w/4Mb RAM, Fuji Eagle, the works, running TSX-11 - I loved the fact that I could develop on a system I paid $300 for and deliver code to a machine that cost >$10K). I'm still on the lookout for the schematics for the Heathkit floppy interface. Mine siezes the bus such that on power-on, I never get an ODT prompt. If I put a gap in the Qbus, I can run the CPU, see the I/O registers on the floppy card, etc., but, of course, it doesn't boot up fully - it seems to read in the boot block, but as soon as RT-11 turns up interrupts, because of the break in the grant chain, they, of course, never come. I really just need to know what chips have their fingers in the interrupt handling and to probably just replace them. My board is socketed and I have checked all the TTL chips with an IC tester. I'm down to the Heath/DEC bus driver/receiver parts. Thanks, -ethan ===== Even though my old e-mail address is no longer going to vanish, please note my new public address: erd(a)iname.com The original webpage address is still going away. The permanent home is: http://penguincentral.com/ See http://ohio.voyager.net/ for details. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/

25 years, 8 months

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GOOD scrounging day! More

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I just finished posting some pictures and a short blurb about the Morrow Micro Decision computer and the Paratronics logic analyzer on my website. You can find links to both of them at "http://www.intellistar.net/~rigdonj/joespage.htm". BTW I left a few things off my list of yesterday's finds. Two Heathkit Hero-1 manuals and a HP Portable Plus and a 9114 disk drive. Joe

25 years, 8 months

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Scratched plastic screen

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/9/00 12:52:27 PM Eastern Standard Time, edick(a)idcomm.com writes: > There's a material, basically a buffing rouge, available at crafts shops and > some plastic retailers, that works better than the baking soda. The problem > with baking soda is that it's not aggressive enough and therefore requires a > lot of rubbing that works out badly for other plastic parts. The somewhat > more abrasive rouge, which is mixed with a lubricant of some sort, takes off > more of the plastic but doesn't require as much effort. That's the same > thing I use for cleaning CD's, so it seems to work OK. > > I'd advise you to avoid the Dremel tool, since it gets the plastic hot and > thereby risks permanently distoring the optical properties of the lens. > > Dick I have also heard of using toothpaste, but has anyone ever tried it? DB Young ICQ: 29427634 hurry, hurry, step right up! see the computers you used as a kid! http://www.nothingtodo.org

25 years, 8 months

2
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Dissecting a TZ30 drive

by yoda＠isr.ist.utl.pt

>>>>> "Chuck" == Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)mcmanis.com> writes: Chuck> I have on my desk a TZ30 (half height TK50 drive) and it Chuck> has a tape inside of it. Powering it up and pressing unload Chuck> starts a rewind and then it gives up (all lights Chuck> flash). I'm guessing the tape presense sensor is dirty or Chuck> otherwise disabled but to get to it I really would like to Chuck> remove the existing tape. Unfortuately I cannot find how to Chuck> manually "unlock" the drive. Clues anyone? I extracted a TZ30 from a "storage expansion" box that used to be connected to a alpha station. The drive is SCSI so that it was trivial to use it in my PC. The load system seems extremly unreliable to me: any small failure when loading/unloading the tape might easly require disassemble it. I performed a deep dust cleaning by disassembling it. I guess it is fairly easy to disassemble and re-assemble it. Cheers, -- *** Rodrigo Martins de Matos Ventura <yoda(a)isr.ist.utl.pt> *** Web page: http://www.isr.ist.utl.pt/~yoda *** Teaching Assistant and PhD Student at ISR: *** Instituto de Sistemas e Robotica, Polo de Lisboa *** Instituto Superior Tecnico, Lisboa, PORTUGAL *** PGP fingerprint = 0119 AD13 9EEE 264A 3F10 31D3 89B3 C6C4 60C6 4585

25 years, 8 months

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MO question

by mark_k＠iname.com

Hi, On Fri, 8 Dec 2000 Douglas Quebbeman wrote in reply to a message by John Foust: > > In a nice freebie haul that included a 128M Quadra 950, a 660AV, > > a Syquest external, an HP ScanJet IIc, DeskWriter C, there was > > an Optima Concorde 600 meg magneto-optical drive. This is > > the Sony SMO-E501 mechanism. > > That's an odd-sized capacity... are these 5.25 inch carts, or > 3.25 inch carts? If the latter, are you sure they aren't 640MB > capacity? Not odd really. The first generation of (ISO standard) 5.25" MO drives can work with 600 and 650MB media. 650MB disks have a sector size of 1024 bytes, but some operating systems & software only work with 512-byte sectors. If the drive was marketed for use with a particular operating system or software package that required 512-byte sector media, that would explain the 600 designation on the case. With appropriate driver software, Macs can use 1024-byte sector media. If you want to use it in conjunction with a modern PC, both 600 and 650MB disks will work fine under Windows 9x, no drivers needed. The SMO-E501 is a first-generation MO drive, albeit not the first first- generation drive that Sony made (if that makes any sense). Circa 1992 I think. Let me know if you would like specs or jumper setting info for the MO drive. -- Mark

25 years, 8 months

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MO question

by jfoust＠threedee.com

In a nice freebie haul that included a 128M Quadra 950, a 660AV, a Syquest external, an HP ScanJet IIc, DeskWriter C, there was an Optima Concorde 600 meg magneto-optical drive. This is the Sony SMO-E501 mechanism. On the back of the external SCSI box, there was a DIN-5 connector, like a keyboard connector, that piqued my curiousity. Inside, I saw that it was simply an external connector for 5 volt power. What might have this been used for? - John

25 years, 8 months

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Compaticard

by donm＠cts.com

I will entertain offers for a 'new in the box' CompatiCard I with original manual and software disk. This unit will handle all 8" drives, both single and double density, 5.25" drives, same, and 3.5" drives of 720k and 1.44mb persuasion. It is not as convenient as the CompatiCard 4, but will cope with all but 2.88mb drives. I also have a used Compaticard II which will handle 3.5" and 5.25" drives, but will not handle 8" drives. It comes with the latest software and a photocopy of the manual. If interested, please reply by private email. If there is no interest or reasonable offers, I will put them up on one of the auction sites. - don

25 years, 8 months

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A Proposal for Y2K Patches for V5.03 of RT-11

by jhfine＠idirect.com

For a number of years, I have been producing Y2K patches for various versions of RT-11 for commercial purposes. At this time, I would like to produce a set for V5.03 of RT-11. This set will initially be for hobby users and will be made available free of charge to anyone who complies with the current hobby license agreements available for hobby users. Later, these same Y2K patches will be made available to all users in the RT-11 community. This proposal is being circulated so as to alert those interested parties as well as to allow for useful feedback that will allow the best choice to be made for the base year. I have been attempting for months now to decide what are the reasons for doing all of this, but I finally decided that anyone who understands will not care and anyone who does not will not realize why I bothered. So the following criteria were used: (a) One requirement will be that dates can be maintained by the RT-11 operating system and associated software for a considerable period into the future. In addition, there is at present a unique opportunity to extend the date range back into the past. The first will be done. The second is open to question. (b) Any method which is proposed MUST, in my opinion, be able to function with and be compatible with all current software which handles dates for the ranges for which those programs were designed and written - so long as the actual dates being represented by the date words (there must obviously now be more than one) are in the same range as the values for which the programs were designed. Thus, all programs designed to function only from 1973 to 1999 must be able to do so. For V5.07 of RT-11, as well as software written by others (myself included) for the dates from 1972 to 2099, the same criteria MUST apply. This means that all the different versions of all different software can function correctly and coexist between 1973 and 1999. From 2000 to 2099, only the Y2K versions can coexist with this new software and prior to 1972 and after 2099, only the Y10K versions will function correctly. (c) One additional word shall be reserved which holds the extra bits required to specify the year before 1972 and after 2099. A number of other technical details are also available, but until a decision is made on the base year, it is doubtful that they are important. I have a number of points to consider to help in choosing a base year, but until I see some feedback on the basic proposal, even just the Y2K patches for V5.03 of RT-11, I doubt that there is much point in presenting them. If the above proposal is satisfactory, then coding will continue for the Y10K modifications for V5.03 of RT-11. Feedback is requested, especially on the question of using extended dates prior to 1972. Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine

25 years, 8 months

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new finds and... Atari 810/1050 help

by dogas＠bellsouth.net

I was about to pass over an Apple IIgs at a local thrift store but didn't when I found a bunch of Sequential Systems cards in it. It's a rom 3 one thats got a RamFast/SCSI board, a VGA card!, a 7mhz(I think) ZipGSX board that displaces the gs's cpu by plugging into the cpu socket (and slotted too). There's also another card (in the first slot on the left) that has an eprom with a Sequential Systems label (SS, copyright 1993, rev QP290-BG) and a connector (like one interface from a drive II card) that I don't know anything about. It's nice using it with a VGA, and the zip makes a few of the ][ games I have on hand unplayably speedy. I've got a hd with gs/os that's momentarily unlocatable but I'm digging and hopeful. ;) Also. Does anyone have a service proceedure or any info on repairing atari disk drives. I have a 'stack' of em and many are having problems. Thanks - Mike: dogas(a)bellsouth.net

25 years, 8 months

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World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive)

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

Mike -- Thanks for the very helpful information about this drive. The "documentation" consists of a user's manual with no technical data. The connector on the TS2068 version is different than what you describe but otherwise it seems the same. There were actually two versions for the TS2068, each using a slightly different tape. Both types seem to be equally unreliable. The tapes self-destruct if you look at them the wrong way. In fact, these are absolutely the crappiest storage devices I have ever seen used on any computer. Any challengers for worst storage device? Glen Goodwin 0/0

25 years, 8 months

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Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker enoug h...

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> In most of the US, putting "engineer" near your name doesn't require that > you hold an engineering certification. For instance, my official title > at my day job is "senior software engineer" but I've never taken a single > software nor engineering course, much less certification exam, in my life. False. In most states of the U.S., if you represent yourself as an engineer of any kind, and you are not a licensed engineer, you are committing a crime, albeit a misdemeanor. Texas is leading the nation in trying to change this. -dq

25 years, 8 months

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q: old dial-up MUD-like commercial game?

by ryan＠hack.net

Just having a moment of nostalgia here.. Anyone remember having a multi-player D&D/MUD like game dial-up service in their city? I'm thinking around 1985 or earlier... it was some sort of a timeshare system with 8/16/24 ports that people could dial in to at an hourly rate and play. As I recall it was some sort of franchise and we had one here in Milwaukee (414 area code) that was quite popular- I believe it was called Sceptre, but I'm not sure if that was the name of the game/world/town, etc. Just wondering what kind of hardware & software was hosting this game; it was quite addictive (or perhaps I was mesmerized by trying to use an 80-column terminal on a C64). Thanks, -- ------------------------------------------------------- Ryan K. Brooks V: 414-908-9011 r(a)hack.net F: 707-885-4944 Chief Scientist / Time Warner Telecom N9YBX

25 years, 8 months

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dalnet #classic_computers IRC channel

by dwollmann＠puttybox.com

Just set up #classic_computers so a few of us from another channel could talk classics without getting kicked for being OT. Drop by if you'd like to join in. If there's enough interest, I'll keep the channel active for a while. dalnet, #classic_computers David Wollmann, aka 'converter' converter(a)dalnet-perl.org

25 years, 8 months

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ST82500N: Need jumpers/switches

by msg＠computerpro.com

Greetings: Anyone have operating and maintenance info for CDC/Seagate ST82500N 'Sabre' SCSI drive? This unit is a module about two feet long and has a hex keypad and display front panel and beaucoup dip switches and jumpers on various boards. It is also tagged 'PA8U1B'. The HDA uses 8in media (19 physical heads); the entire unit includes locking pins at the rear for a drive bay, and weighs about fifty pounds (includes integral power supply). The previous owner (a large firm) did not remember it's original application but instead used it as the only drive on a Sun 470 (and didn't remember how it was physically mounted). It works and we can extract data from it, but it is set to target 0 and we must change that; also the front panel controls allow for various reconfigurations and tests; we'd like to know those too. We'd like to know which computers included this drive as an option; certain VAXen for sure but what about CRAY, CDC, SGI, etc? Thanks, Michael Grigoni Cybertheque Museum

25 years, 8 months

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Data Archival

by jforbes＠primenet.com

The key ingredient here, is that the data are stored on several hard drives...as I replace hard drives, there is a folder in each called "archive", which collects the info from the previous hard drive...and this archive folder is also copied to other computers via the lan. I wound't trust anything to only one copy, be it on a hard drive, floppy, cd, tape cartridge, or even a book stored in the basement :) Jim Sellam Wrote: > On Thu, 7 Dec 2000, J Forbes wrote: > > > It seems to me that nowadays we buy new hard drives with a few > > times more capacity every year or two. We also have several > > computers, many networked (at home, this is). > > > > I think that we may just keep all the info on hard drives, with > > an occasional CD-R backup, and it will get duplicated so many > > times over the years that we would be hard pressed to lose any > > data. > > And then one day the box it's stored in gets bumped a little too hard, or > when you try to fire it up in ten years something on it blows, or...? > > I can think of worse ways to archive data, but I wouldn't want to trust > anything long term to a hard drive. Unless you kept the data "alive" > meaning you kept it stored on a computer that is constantly being > backed-up and in service. > > Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival

25 years, 8 months

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CD's as parabolic mirrors?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On December 8, Megan wrote: > >I remeber reading that a hologram of a lens would refract light in the > >same was as a real lens would. This concept has formed the basis for > >the flight-of-fancy holodeck/holosuite concept from Star Trek. > > <ot> > The holodeck supposedly uses both hologram projectors and transporter > technology... I suspect it should also use shield technology, too... > </ot> The Trek world's holodecks don't have anything at all to do with holographic lens technology. They use a combination of holography (for background scenes and "wall extension") and transporter-style matter synthesis for "solid" objects. Yes, though, holographic lenses do work, are in widespread use, and have been around for quite some time. The most recent consumer application for them jumped out at me at a hamfest last summer. Some guy had dozens of cases of new, really cheap & cheesy handheld laser pointers. The more expensive ones (like $8 instead of $5) came with these little interchangeable "caps" that you could screw over the beam exit end. These different caps contained holographic lenses which would project different patterns or pictures or whatever on whatever you pointed it at. Yes, there are some of those things on the market that simply contain a piece of what looks like miniature slide film...but if you look around, you can find the ones with the holographic lenses. They kinda look like plastic diffraction gratings when viewd in normal light. -Dave McGuire

25 years, 8 months

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Order-of-magnitude (OT)

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I believe the order-of-magnitude knowledge was very necessary if you used a slide rule. Since the slide rule allowed you to compute the significant digits the operator had to know the order of magnitude. I graduated from college before handheld/battery calculators. My physics/calculus class was more how to write the equation and derive an approximate answer than a specific answer. My grandfather gave be a slide rule when I was in 4th grade, 1962. Slide rule battery never runs down. Slide rule can be used to scrape ice off windshield. Slide rule doesn't mind hot and cold temperature. Slide rule also visible in direct sun light. My kids don't understand why approximations and knowing the order-of-magnitude are useful. Very useful for determining the expected cost of gas when filling up. Also useful for mowing, raking leaves, hauling dirt, sailing, flying and buying groceries. Of course I also worked for my grandfather in an orchard selling apples, no cash register just a cigar box and a coffee can for the tax, 3 cents on the dollar. If you couldn't figure the bill and the tax in your head you were useless. "Being comfortable with math is a way of life and an attitude" Mike McFadden mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

25 years, 8 months

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Apple I on History Channel tonight at 7pm

by dogas＠bellsouth.net

History's Lost and Found show airing this evening... http://www.historychannel.com/ontv/ Cheers - Mike: dogas(a)bellsouth.net

25 years, 8 months

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Classic Cinemaware Games

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Tue, 5 Dec 2000 10:01:37 -0600 (CST) Dan Linder <dlinder(a)uiuc.edu> writes: > I think in "Youngster Lingo" (tm) "ROMs" = "Games" due to the > popularity > of NES, etc, emulators, people go looking for "ROMs" instead of > Games - > it's sort of like "warez". :) > > - Dan I always thought the sort that would go looking for 'warez' would be on the hunt for 'ROMz' . . . ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

25 years, 8 months

2
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World's Crappiest Drives (was Re: A&J Microdrive)

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 12/06/2000 4:47:39 PM Eastern Standard Time, ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk writes: > > Aw, come on Tony -- you mean your ZX81 doesn't have a printer? You can get > Yes, of course it does. Problem is, finding the metalised paper for it :-) Ah -- here in the states we use the Alphacom 32, which uses any white thermal (fax) paper which has the same width as the ZX81 printer. > > one at any car boot for a couple of pounds, you know ;>) Of course, you > > still have to type it back in, unless you splurge and buy a cassette > recorder > > . . . > > You mean that's more reliable and faster than writing down the program > and retyping it? That's news to me :-) :-) Well that just proves you can learn something new every day ;>) I went through four tape players before I found one which worked error-free with my home-built ZX81. It has been 95 percent reliable over a two-year period. Additionally I use a fast-data-transfer program (FASTLOADER) which increases the speed of SAVEs and LOADs by 16 times. What's cool about this software is that it merges with the program I'm working with, so I don't have to pre-load the FASTLOADER. I pretty much just SAVE and LOAD as usual. I don't know about your penmanship, but I can't write down 16 KB of BASIC instructions in 30 seconds ;>) Glen 0/0

25 years, 8 months

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Flourescents (was: What tools do you carry, always

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 04:20 PM 12/7/00 -0800, you wrote: >Could somebody please explain to me how flourescent lamps work? >They put out a LOT of UV light. >So much so, that I thought that the name implied that they operated by a >coating that flouresced under UV. Yes, of course that's how flourescent lamps work. I think they even still have mercury vapor in them. However, I questioned whether the dinky little lamp in a scanner would zap a windowed (and presumably stickered) EEPROM. - John

25 years, 8 months

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CD's as parabolic mirrors?

by mbg＠world.std.com

>I remeber reading that a hologram of a lens would refract light in the >same was as a real lens would. This concept has formed the basis for >the flight-of-fancy holodeck/holosuite concept from Star Trek. <ot> The holodeck supposedly uses both hologram projectors and transporter technology... I suspect it should also use shield technology, too... </ot> Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com | | Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ "Why yes, I do have a life...thanks for asking..." :-)

25 years, 8 months

1
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RML380Z and exploding sun psus [long and boring]

by kebabthesheep＠yahoo.com

--- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > > > > > --- Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > > > screw holding the lid on was made of purest cheesium alloy, and just > > Argh!!. > > For some odd reason many manufacturers use at least one tamperproof screw > in their PSU housings. You'll find a PCB held down by half a dozen normal > Phillips screws and _one_ tamperproof Torx, for example. That's one > reason for buying a set of tamperproof drivers... > I've never come across that - but i'm still always careful to make sure i've got the correct fitting screw-driver, and that i'm holding it correctly. Munching up screws, especially countersunk ones like these, is _really_ anoying. I learned my lesson the hard way - I bought a japanese motorcycle. The fasters, and in general all metal on it, are made of the softest of the soft crappy steel/alloy. You have to be so carefull with everything, or you bank manager will be laughing all the way to wherever he keeps his money ! Like I said - need to drill it out - then I can have a looksie, and figure out what failed. I'll get back to the list on that one. Dave. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Shopping - Thousands of Stores. Millions of Products. http://shopping.yahoo.com/

25 years, 8 months

2
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Why is it that ...

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

I think I still have the disks somewhere.... I just don't have an Apple-II to use to verify their readability. It wasn't bad, I rather enjoyed using it (my last semester in college, Spring '83). -dq > -----Original Message----- > From: healyzh(a)aracnet.com [mailto:healyzh@aracnet.com] > Sent: Tuesday, November 28, 2000 11:50 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Why is it that ... > > > > Yes the lack of JAVA, frames, no cookies and Activex stuff > does limits > > sites available and more every day. I'd think JAVA would > not be that > > bad on a smaller CPU tough it may be slow. After all it's > not that much > > different than running UCSD PASCAL (P-system) P-code on z80 or > > 6502! > > > > Allison > > One of these days I'd really like to play with a UCSD PASCAL > system, largely > to get a feel of how well it worked. From what I've heard > getting any kind > of Java running on a 68k based system is a problem (have we > got anyone still > active with Amiga's around, they'd have a better idea). That > tells me that > a 486 or lower won't really be able to cut it when it comes to JAVA. > > It does make you wonder what Sun's minimum requirements for > Java is on thier > machines. > > Wait a minute.... I think I had Java running on my PowerBook > 520c back in > '95 or '96, and it's a 68LC040 based system, so I guess at > least a 68040 or > 486 based system probably can do Java. At least on a > supported OS (which is > the real problem). > > Zane >

25 years, 8 months

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Professors worry that engineering students don't tinker enoug h...

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > > False. In most states of the U.S., if you represent yourself as an engineer > > of any kind, and you are not a licensed engineer, you are committing a crime, > > albeit a misdemeanor. > > Not in California, unless it's one of a handful of engineering disciplines > specifically identified by statute. You'd pretty much have to sign > "P.E." after your name to get in trouble here. > > This isn't to imply that California is particularly progressive in this > area (for some value of "progressive"), but rather that nobody has > bothered revising the statutes since being an "engineer" automatically > implied civil, geological or the sort that operates trains... Well, in contrast with how regressive other states are, I'd indeed call that progressive. -dq

25 years, 8 months

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CD's as parabolic mirrors?

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> I just noticed that sunlight reflecting off the top side of a CD focuses > somewhat, maybe with a focal length of about 20 feet. Off of the data side, it > spreads. I've tried it with several different types, and so far they all show > the same effect. Would anyone care to explain why? I remeber reading that a hologram of a lens would refract light in the same was as a real lens would. This concept has formed the basis for the flight-of-fancy holodeck/holosuite concept from Star Trek. My guess is that (unintentionally) the spiral pattern sets up the same interference pattern as a hologram of a parabolic mirror. Regards, -dq

25 years, 8 months

1
0
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MO question

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> >For a portable (i.e. 12-volt car accessory) power supply? In order > >to use it with a portable/notebook/laptop? > > The Quadra 950 must be the largest box Apple ever made, so > I don't think that was portable. :-) It hadn't occurred to > me that the power would be coming in - that's an interesting > possibility. What does a conventional power supply do when > it is off and power comes in the wrong way? I don't know the answer to your last question, but I wouldn't assume that just because it came with a pile of desktop equipment that it (the MO) was designed soley for use with desktop eq. regards, -dq

25 years, 8 months

1
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CDC Sabre information

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 7, 12:51, John Honniball wrote: > Anybody know what the interface on the Cifer tape drive is? > The drive came with two huge, rubber-sleeved 50-way ribbon > cables. I think both cables are required for the > interface, so it doesn't look like SCSI... All the Cifers I've seen are Pertec interface, which consists of two 50-way cables. I have the pin assignment list somewhere, if that's any help. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years, 8 months

2
1
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MO question

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 08:20 AM 12/8/00 -0500, Douglas Quebbeman wrote: >That's an odd-sized capacity... are these 5.25 inch carts, or >3.25 inch carts? If the latter, are you sure they aren't 640MB >capacity? The company's drive case label says 600 although I've seen similar units that claim 640. One 5 1/4 cart was included. >> On the back of the external SCSI box, there was a DIN-5 connector, >> like a keyboard connector, that piqued my curiousity. Inside, >> I saw that it was simply an external connector for 5 volt power. >> What might have this been used for? > >For a portable (i.e. 12-volt car accessory) power supply? In order >to use it with a portable/notebook/laptop? The Quadra 950 must be the largest box Apple ever made, so I don't think that was portable. :-) It hadn't occurred to me that the power would be coming in - that's an interesting possibility. What does a conventional power supply do when it is off and power comes in the wrong way? - John

25 years, 8 months

1
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MO question

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> In a nice freebie haul that included a 128M Quadra 950, a 660AV, > a Syquest external, an HP ScanJet IIc, DeskWriter C, there was > an Optima Concorde 600 meg magneto-optical drive. This is > the Sony SMO-E501 mechanism. That's an odd-sized capacity... are these 5.25 inch carts, or 3.25 inch carts? If the latter, are you sure they aren't 640MB capacity? > On the back of the external SCSI box, there was a DIN-5 connector, > like a keyboard connector, that piqued my curiousity. Inside, > I saw that it was simply an external connector for 5 volt power. > What might have this been used for? For a portable (i.e. 12-volt car accessory) power supply? In order to use it with a portable/notebook/laptop? -dq

25 years, 8 months

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Data Archival

by jforbes＠primenet.com

With the talk of CD life, I was contemplating saving data (including all my old software, ie MS/IBM DOS 1.1 -> 6.22). Also, we've begun to digitize the family pictures. It seems to me that nowadays we buy new hard drives with a few times more capacity every year or two. We also have several computers, many networked (at home, this is). I think that we may just keep all the info on hard drives, with an occasional CD-R backup, and it will get duplicated so many times over the years that we would be hard pressed to lose any data. Music/Video may be another story... Jim

25 years, 8 months

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Apple IIgs/65816/65802 reference/programming books for trade/donation

by claudew＠sprint.ca

Hi I recently got my hands on a Apple IIgs Woz from someone that obviously was doing, tried or wanted to devellop some serious stuff for this machine... Included all (?) orignal official Apple hardcover reference books for the IIgs! Some I never knew existed! All in excellent condition. Approx. 10 large books... Several non-Apple books. I do not have the space for all of these. I am willing to part with these - now... Programming the 65816 (Sybex 1986) 65816/65802 Assembly Language Programming (Osborne/McGraw-Hill 1986) Inside the Apple IIgs (Sybex 1987) Exploring the Apple IIgs (Addisson-Wesley 1987) Mastering the Apple IIgs Toolbox (Compute! Publications 1987) Apple IIgs Technical reference (Osborne/Mcgraw-Hill 1987) As usual for me : no money offers please. I will give away or I will accept a trade/donation in exchange. My interests are home micros (non ibm-pc arch) from 197x-198x early 1990's...I am still looking for : Atari 8 bit floppy drive, Atari 800, early TRS80 stuff, Apple III, CP/M machines. Shipping will be from Montreal, Canada. Thanks for reading Claude

25 years, 8 months

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Tools without warranty...

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Well, I can say from experience that Xcelite does not warranty their tools for anything other than manufacturing defects, since I broke one of their torx bits recently.. Nor was my Stanley torx driver that I broke on the same stubborn torx warrenteed.. grr.. thats when I got out Ye Olde Drill. Of course, I must say that my tools comprise a weird combination of like 8 toolsets, mine, my dad's, both of my grandfather's, and around 4 or so misc. sets of tools that we have at work and bought at auction.. But not having to produce a reciept is good, I recently took a Craftsman tool that broke before I was alive to Sears and got it replaced, no sweat. Will J _____________________________________________________________________________________ Get more from the Web. FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com

25 years, 8 months

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