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

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Craig Smith <ip500(a)roanoke.infi.net> wrote: > Now that brings back some memories! 1969-72 at Franklin Pierce College > writing assembly and Fortran IV stuff for a 360/60 that we timeshared > with a bunch of other schools. I/O was a Teletype machine with a > cardpunch and reader hooked up to it. The good old days??? I don't think > so! You've never know true Hell until you drop a huge deck of cards > you've worked on for a week. Craig Didn't you learn the trick of drawing a diagonal line across the deck from front to back and left to right? It's not perfect, but you get most of the cards very close to their original positions the first time. You _were_ using a printing punch, right? -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!? Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/

26 years, 1 month

3
2
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CDC 9" PA5N1F15 drive head locking. How?

by allain＠panix.com

> Can somene kindly tell me how to lock/unlock the heads on a CDC model > PA5N1F15 9" hard drive? Well, mine's a PA5G1M-20 (8.5x10x30", 9" platters) and it has its own auto-solenoid, which is easy to see. Just look on the platter case for a silverish round thing about 1.5". You should see it has a two wire connector and can be unscrewed from the mounting plate w/ a twist. > BTW, according to the label, this is an FSD drive - is this > the type of interface, or do I actually have an SMD drive? I belieeeeve that FSD's are just small SMD's. They seemed to have the same cabling as I recall. I couldn't find info on the PA5G1M anywhere so I found another number on the unit, "97150-340 FSD-340" and that seeked to a Seagate (guess they bought out CDC SMD's), here: http://www.mm.mtu.edu/drives/seagate/smd/st6344j.txt Here it says this FSD is a SMD. Perhaps your drive is there... first get the other model number. And we wonder why we subscribe to this list. John A

26 years, 1 month

3
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Programming on Paper

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

On June 17, Dave McGuire wrote: > On June 17, Mike Ford wrote: > > >Having a machine to interact with allows you to test your code on the spot > > >and if you are writing in an interpreted language the error-checking the > > >interpreter provides is a godsend for the coder. Why anyone would code > > >without the interaction of the target machine is beyond me. > > > > I write perfect code, like Mozart it flows out in its final form to the > > paper, and then to the system. > > Time for the hip waders, folks...it's getting deep in here. ;) Ok, here's a quote from one of my favorite computer scientists (Tom VanVleck, who might respond to being so identified as "Me? I'm just a programmer!"): : It is possible to write perfect, bug-free code. I've seen : it done, with no tool except a pencil. The essential ingredient : is a decision, by the individual programmer, to make the code : perfect, and not to release it until it is perfect. The quote is from an article of his on the Multicians web site: http://www.multicians.org/thvv/evolution.html I left my last job as a full-time programmer in 1990. A young Russian (who had written some of the software tools used in generating the control programming for Snowflake, the never-used Soviet space shuttle) was assigned to take over my work. In the month we worked together, we became friends, and so stayed in touch after I left. A couple or three years later, Dmitri and I were having lunch, and feeling a mood which had me wondering if I'd done the right thing in giving up programming, I asked him how much trouble he'd had with my code. "None." I probed deeper, knowing he was a good programmer and that he might have misinterpreted the thrust of the question. Right out, I asked him if he would character the severity and frequency of the bugs left in the extensive codebase I'd pushed. He stopped me, saying he'd understood me perfectly the first time, and said "No bugs in your code, Doug; you write best assembly language." If only I could have found an employer who felt that way! I was ultimately fired because the boss cared more about expeditiousness than about quality. That, and I think he tired of some of my behavioral quirks..... ;-) -doug q -doug q

26 years, 1 month

6
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Programming on Paper

by jdarren＠ala.net

Sounds like you have a problem with anal retention. When I first started in programming (1977), we had to create *complete* technical design documents before a single line of code was written. This included technical specs, data diagrams, flowcharts, screen shots, etc... About 6 weeks ago, I was evaluating a fairly complex software project and and asked the engineer to provide a flowchart of how the application worked. He stated that he didn't see the value of a flowchart and that it would slow down the development process. In his opinion, it was much easier to just read the code. I was tempted to kick his ass, but decided the best way to handle this was to prove the value of proper documentation. So, I waded through his code, found the most complex module, and created a comprehensive flowchart of just that module. Now the fun part... I got the engineer, his supervisor, our VP of technology, and another non-technical co-worker (whom had never seen the project) together for a quick quiz. I gave the flowchart to the non-technical person and started asking the group fundimental questions like; "how many parameters are passed to and from the module", "what happens if an out-of-bounds value is passed", "what is the exact sequence of events when..." blah, blah, blah. Almost instantly, the non-technical person was able to answer the questions while the two engineers waded through hundreds of lines of code. Within 30 minutes, I was able to totally embarrass the engineer *and* his supervisor in front of the VP. Shoulda kicked his ass anyway... ;-) Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>

26 years, 1 month

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Programming on Paper

by steverob＠hotoffice.com

> I've met programmers who 'design' like that as well -- they > type in some code, then fiddle with loop limits, ands versus ors, > etc until the program gives the 'right answers' on the test values. Is it > any wonder some programs contain bugs.. When I first started in programming (1977), we had to create *complete* technical design documents before a single line of code was written. This included technical specs, data diagrams, flowcharts, screen shots, etc... About 6 weeks ago, I was evaluating a fairly complex software project and and asked the engineer to provide a flowchart of how the application worked. He stated that he didn't see the value of a flowchart and that it would slow down the development process. In his opinion, it was much easier to just read the code. I was tempted to kick his ass, but decided the best way to handle this was to prove the value of proper documentation. So, I waded through his code, found the most complex module, and created a comprehensive flowchart of just that module. Now the fun part... I got the engineer, his supervisor, our VP of technology, and another non-technical co-worker (whom had never seen the project) together for a quick quiz. I gave the flowchart to the non-technical person and started asking the group fundimental questions like; "how many parameters are passed to and from the module", "what happens if an out-of-bounds value is passed", "what is the exact sequence of events when..." blah, blah, blah. Almost instantly, the non-technical person was able to answer the questions while the two engineers waded through hundreds of lines of code. Within 30 minutes, I was able to totally embarrass the engineer *and* his supervisor in front of the VP. Shoulda kicked his ass anyway... ;-) Steve Robertson <steverob(a)hotoffice.com>

26 years, 1 month

2
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Source for 88k systems?

by ryan＠inc.net

I'm looking for a 88k based system, preferably a Moto MVME. Anyone have one they'd like to sell to an 88k nut? Thanks, Ryan Brooks ryan(a)inc.net

26 years, 1 month

2
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Texas Universites Surplus

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 06:06 PM 6/12/00 -0400, Pat wrote: > >Another snag you might run into is the problem with funding agencies. >When I was at Carnegie-Mellon, I worked on a DoD-sponsored research >project. We never surplussed *anything*, and we never threw anything >away (at least, in the 2.5 years that I was there). The reason was, that >our funding agency (who had paid for all of our hardware) required that, >if we wanted to surplus something, we had to first go through a process to >put it on a list to offer it to other government agencies. Only after the >equipment had been on this list for several months, with no interest from >any other agencies, could we dispose of it. We were told at the time that >the estimated time from deciding to surplus something, until we were >actually permitted to do so (assuming that it was not snapped up by >another agency in the meantime), was at least 12 months. > I'd say that if they can surplus an item in only 12 months then they're doing extremely well. I see lots of surplus computers and test equipment and ALL of it has been in storage for at least 5 five years. Some of them have been in storage for over 10 years. For example, I just picked up two HP 9825s. Both of them have tags stating that they were removed from operation in 1995 and that they must be recalibrated or tested before being returned to service. Joe

26 years, 1 month

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New stuff! Wahoo!

by rexstout＠uswest.net

Added about a dozen boxes of Macintosh software and some minor hardware items to the collection, as well as a TRS-80 Model 100 with some books and a few ROM modules. Seems to be working just fine, but the bottom is covered in duct tape to keep some covers from falling off. Even got a modem cable! Oh yeah, and three boxes of aviation material, including several flight computers(Jeppesen CR-5 and CR-2, a plastic Dalton E-6B, a Cessna Model 185 computer, a Delta II Take-off computer, a half-plastic half-metal Dalton E-6B, a pair of CPU-26A/P's(all-metal), and a pair of Weems aircraft plotters). In the Mac stuff there are tons of programs, at least a half dozen copies of PageMaker, lots of odds and ends(what the heck do you do with a financial planner desk accessory? I don't even know if MacOS 8 supports those!) that I haven't sorted through yet. The MacSnap box was empty :-(, but there was an external 800k floppy drive. Anyone know of any good sites for TRS-80 stuff? OK, now the interesting part... It's an 8-volume book set called "The Secret Guide to Computers", tenth edition. Popular BASIC(Vol 1), Popular Systems(Vol 3), Popular Applications(Vol 5), Popular Languages(Vol 7), and then Hassles in BASIC(Vol 2), Hassles in Systems(Vol 4), Hassles in Applications(Vol 6) and Hassles in Languages(Vol 8). -- /--------------------------------------------------\ | http://jrollins.tripod.com/ rexstout(a)uswest.net | | list admin for orham and ham-mac at www.qth.net | | KD7BCY pdxham at www.egroups.com | \--------------------------------------------------/

26 years, 1 month

3
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Fw: HP-85 Computer

by mrdos＠swbell.net

Can anyone help this guy out? -----Original Message----- From: David M. Curtis <kc8tk(a)ee.net> To: Owen Robertson <mrdos(a)swbell.net> Date: Monday, June 19, 2000 10:53 AM Subject: Re: HP-85 Computer Hello Owen: Thanks for replying to my e-mail. I have an HP85, but no manuals. I am looking for the command for the computer to format a tape. I knew it 15 years ago. The tape drives in the 85s are notorious for going bad. The rubber tire on the tape drive had rotted away and this makes the tape run too slowly. I was going to format a new tape to see if that would help me to get it running. Thanks, David Curtis KC8TK ----- Original Message ----- From: Owen Robertson To: David M. Curtis Sent: Monday, June 19, 2000 1:17 AM Subject: Re: HP-85 Computer It didn't come with the manual for the computer itself, but it came with the manuals for the following ROMS: Matrix Printer/Plotter Input/Output Mass Storage Advanced Programming I would be glad to photo copy any information that you need as soon as I get the computer. What information do you need?

26 years, 1 month

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PDP-11 Boards Need Identification / Available for Trades

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

About twelve years ago, I was digging through a dumpster in the office park where I worked at the time, and found a quantity of what I only just recently identified to be PDP-11 UniBus boards. Now that I know I have no need for them, I think they'll be going. While I'd prefer to trade them, in case I have to sell them on E-Bay, I'd like to know what it is I'm selling. Each card has what appears to be a model number, and I list those numbers below. Two things I'd take in trade: A Prime coffee mug, or almost anything of a Pr1mary nature; A keyboard encoding ROM for a SOL-20 keyboard. Maybe you'll have something really nifty I'd like, so if you want to trade but don't have the above items, drop me a line, make me an offer! Here are the board numbers: M5904 quantity three G7273 quantity three M7296 quantity one M7297 quantity one M7556 quantity one M9047 quqntity one M9300 quantity one M9202 quantity one thanks in advance, doug quebbeman

26 years, 1 month

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vintage computer books for sale

by jdarren＠ala.net

Certainly! It is now reserved in your name. Thanks for your interest. jdarren -----Original Message----- From: William Donzelli <aw288(a)osfn.org> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Monday, June 19, 2000 4:16 PM Subject: Re: vintage computer books for sale >> DEC PDP-11 TMB11/TU10W DECmagtape System Maintenance Manual, 1979 >> (reproduction) > >RCS/RI might be interested in this manual - can you hold it while I ask >the other board members? > >William Donzelli >aw288(a)osfn.org

26 years, 1 month

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vintage computer books for sale

by jdarren＠ala.net

$10 each plus book rate shipping. DEC LA36/LA35 DECwriter II Maintenance Manual, 1977 DEC LA36/LA35 DECwriter II User's Manual, 1977 DEC PDP-11 BA11-K 10.5 Inch Mounting Box Technical Manual, 1978 DEC PDP-11 DL-11 Asynchronous Line Interface Manual, 1975 (reproduction) DEC PDP-11 DL11-W Serial Line Unit/Real-Time Clock Option Maintenance Manual, 1977 DEC PDP-11 DR11-C General Device Interface Manual, 1974 DEC PDP-11 TMB11/TU10W DECmagtape System Maintenance Manual, 1979 (reproduction) DEC RK05/RK05J Disk Drive Preventive Maintenance Manual, 1976 DEC RK05/RK05J/RK05F Disk Driving Maintenance Manual, 1976 DEC RK05J Illustrated Parts Breakdown, 1977 (reproduction) DEC RK11-D and RK11-E Moving Head Disk Drive Controller Manual, 1975 (reproduction) PDP-11/45 16-Bit Computer Illustrated Parts Breakdown, 1974 (reproduction) Honeywell Series 200 214-1/214-2 Card Reader/Punch Theory of Operation Manual, 1968 Teletype Model 35 ASR Technical Manual, 1971

26 years, 1 month

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Russian Space Shuttle (was RE: Programming on Paper)

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> wrote: > Ok, here's a quote from one of my favorite computer scientists > (Tom VanVleck... > > The quote is from an article of his on the Multicians web site: > > http://www.multicians.org/thvv/evolution.html > > I left my last job as a full-time programmer in 1990. A young > Russian (who had written some of the software tools used in > generating the control programming for Snowflake, the never-used > Soviet space shuttle) I've seen the Buran (sitting in Gorky Park at the moment). I've never heard it called "Snowflake". Is this the same bird? The Buran flew once, unmanned, and is now a tourist attraction, rotting away in the Russian weather. I have some pictures I can scan if anyone cares. :-P -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!? Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/

26 years, 1 month

2
1
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Russian Space Shuttle (was RE: Programming on Paper)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> --- Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> wrote: > > Ok, here's a quote from one of my favorite computer scientists > > (Tom VanVleck... > > > > The quote is from an article of his on the Multicians web site: > > > > http://www.multicians.org/thvv/evolution.html > > > > I left my last job as a full-time programmer in 1990. A young > > Russian (who had written some of the software tools used in > > generating the control programming for Snowflake, the never-used > > Soviet space shuttle) > > I've seen the Buran (sitting in Gorky Park at the moment). I've never > heard it called "Snowflake". Is this the same bird? The Buran flew > once, unmanned, and is now a tourist attraction, rotting away in the > Russian weather. I have some pictures I can scan if anyone cares. Now that you've said it, I do recall Dmitri called it the "Buran"; it was some other reference lost to memory that called it the "Snowflake"... I always ASS-U-MEd Buran == Snowflake... -dq

26 years, 1 month

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HP-1000E PSU

by fmc＠reanimators.org

ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > > > Looks like the installer is expected to adjust the power supply with it > > > installed in the computer. Test points are on the crossover assembly > > HP were fond of suggesting that you do this :-(, even on machines where Yes, this was not my idea. I spent some time staring at the manual convincing myself that there were no directions for testing the power supply with a less expensive load. I suspect HP's thought was that they would probably have the service contract, and if the power supply was going to fail in a way that fried other stuff then it would have already fried the other stuff by the time the service call was placed, and the CE would have those boards in his kit too. > Incidentally, am I the only person who finds the faultfinding flowcharts > (like the ones that HP published in a lot of their service manuals) to be > fairly useless? You know the ones that say > 'Is there a clock at pin 3 of U5 > Yes : Is there a high level at .... > No : Replace U5, X1, C1, C2 in order.' It looks vaguely useful for people like me: a programmer with soldering iron type who appears to have a read-only mind w/r/t the more interesting bits of electronics. At least it would get me to a board that I could then try to trace out and ask questions about. That's why I pointed rdd through the first couple of bits -- they will tell whether the power supply is alive at all and whether the fundamental adjustment has any effect. Unfortunately I don't think I have schematics for 1000s or 21MXs. Well, not complete ones. Tonight I picked up the 21MX E-series Installation and Service Manual instead of the 1000 E-series one. Guess what, it's got appendices, including Appendix B with schematics for the operator panel, 16K memory module, 8K memory module, and 4K memory module. Not the power supply though. Hmm, on the other hand I'm not sure it would matter, it looks like the power supply is different in the 21MX -- instead of board with daughterboards, it's got an upper and a lower board. Guess the difference is deeper than the front panel silk-screening. -Frank McConnell

26 years, 1 month

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Review of Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc.

by vcf＠siconic.com

I've posted a review of Apple Confidential: The Real Story of Apple Computer, Inc., to the VCF website. http://www.vintage.org/cgi-bin/content.pl?id=003 It's a good book and I highly recommend it, especially if you're an Apple fan. Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 1 month

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More Stuff

by foo＠siconic.com

More from the same issue of Computers & Electronics (Nov/82). Has anyone ever heard of this machine? Introducing a Brand New Microcomputer: Venture VENTURE is a single board computer that is an adventure for the hobbyist. It is a learning training computer as well as just plain fun for anyone who wants to get into a state-of-the-art computer at reasonable cost. VENTURE comes in kit form or fully assembled and tested. You can get it in its minimum configuration for as little as $195.00 or take it all the way to floppy disks and voice. It can be expanded as a kit or fully assembled, at your own pace and choice. VENTURE is a 16" by 20" main board with separate ASCII and HEX keyboards. It runs fast, almost 4 MHz and has the capability of putting 1.5 megabytes of RAM and ROM on the board along with a variety of inexpensive options. On Board Options: 16 channel A to D; 5 slot 60 pin bus, 2 serial ports, parallel ports; 4 video options incl. color, 52K RAM, Votrax voice synthesizer, sound generator, EPROM; Full Basic, disassembler, editor, assembler; metal cabinet, additional power supply, ASCII keyboard, real time clock calendar. Expansion Options: Floppy Disc, EPROM Programmer, light pen, universal user programmable music, sound board, high resolution color/grayscale pixel mapped video board, General Purpose Instrument Bus, 8088 co-processor board. Minimum VENTURE System: $195.00 Kit includes CPU and control with 4K of RAM, 1K of scratchpad, 2K monitor, 1861 video graphics, cassette interface and separate HEX keyboard with LED displays for address and output. Power supply is included along with 2 game cassettes, The main board is 16" x 20" and includes space for all of the previously dicussed on-board options. Full on-board expansion can be completed for under $1000.00. I want one! The ad is from Quest Electronics in Santa Clara, CA. They also sold kits for the RCA Cosmac 1802 Super Elf, the Rockwell AIM 65, as well as a modem kit, a Z80 Microcomputer kit, and various ICs and such. The ads in the back (the low budget ones) have an even neater array of single board computers being sold by what would seem to be hobbyists trying to sell their creations in the commercial arena. There's an ad for a 68000-based singleboard, a port expander module for the HP-41, plus various add-ons for various computers of the day (Sinclair, Atari, TRS-80, etc). Finally, there's a small add for a IBM Selectric-to-computer adaptor to use the typewriter as a printer. Anyone ever hear of Synchro-Sette magazine (for the Sinclair ZX-81, TS-1000)? Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 1 month

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Mark your calendars for VCF 4.0: September 30 - October 1

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- Bob Brown <bbrown(a)harper.cc.il.us> wrote: > Will this ever be held in a more easterly location (say the midwest)? > > -Bob Being in Ohio, I'd second that. I could even help host one, if it's close enough to travel to (the midwest being such a vague and nebulous space). -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!? Send instant messages with Yahoo! Messenger. http://im.yahoo.com/

26 years, 1 month

1
0
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Programming on Paper (was Re: Apple III motherboard)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > > From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> > > > Since I compose > > > to paper (and still do and cannot understand why some > > > programmers compose directly into thr machine), > > You do that too? I always got more code written in a shorter period > of time that way. When modifying code, paper is all the more useful, > particularly wide greenbar with the code to be modified or added to > printed out on it. My former employer had no printer with greenbar, > which really came as a shock to me, as every place else I'd ever > worked had at least one high-speed line printer. It's too annoying to > make changes to long programs on the screen; much easier to leaf > through pages of code and pencil in changes, draw lines here and > there, circle things, etc. than to go from screen to screen with an > editor, as that can become confusing with large programs. No wonder > modern code has become so bloated and full of bugs; the programmers > have less of an idea what they're working on. I'm bidding on a DECwriter III so that I can have something I can load greenbar into on the Prime; I also bought a wide-carriage Imagewriter for the same reason. That gives me a backup, I guess. Greenbar's going for about $30 per box these days. > Even stranger was the fact that most of the people I worked with, who > were programmers, had no idea what greenbar was, even when it was > described to them! Yeah, the phrase "line printer" will probably elicit as much of a furrowed brow from these newbies as would "unit record". > Hopefully line printers and wide dot-matrix printers aren't on their > way to becoming obsolete. Well, both printers alluded to above were found on E-Bay, so they must be rare.... :-) -dq

26 years, 1 month

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OT: 911 (was Re: A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 19, Chris Kennedy wrote: > > When I say "changed very little" I meant compared to certain other > > models of car we see on the roads these days. Certainly there are > > dozens to hundreds of changes every year or couple of years...I have > > an '83 and a '95, and they're very different cars. But, to the > > non-911-geek, to see them sitting next to each other in a parking > > lot, they're damn near identical. > > Without a doubt. That the stylistic lines are essentially the same > as they were in 1966 is nothing short of amazing. I suppose some > Mercedes come close to the same phenomina, but I can't think of > a single care from a US, Italian, French, British or Japanese > manufacturer that's been that timeless. Well, okay, the 2CV, but > I did say *car*... :-) Yup...look at the Firebird or the Camaro. How many completly different body styles from the late 60's til now? Five? Six? And we don't even want to talk about what happened to the Chevelle and the Nova. The only similarities between the old & new of those models are in the names. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 1 month

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Programming on Paper

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 17, Mike Ford wrote: > >Having a machine to interact with allows you to test your code on the spot > >and if you are writing in an interpreted language the error-checking the > >interpreter provides is a godsend for the coder. Why anyone would code > >without the interaction of the target machine is beyond me. > > I write perfect code, like Mozart it flows out in its final form to the > paper, and then to the system. Time for the hip waders, folks...it's getting deep in here. ;) -Dave McGuire

26 years, 1 month

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Programming on Paper

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> In the past I have tried to write code to paper and failed to do much with > it. Outlines are about as far as I can go. I did this because I wanted to > continue work or pass the time when I didn't have a machine in front of me > (in high-school or waiting in the Doctor's office). I guess it's what you become used to. Timesharing used to cost beaucoups bucks, so you worked offline as much as possible. That economic reality did engender a generation of higher-quality software than we've seen since, though... I blame a lot of the low-quality of current software on the program-by-the-seat-of- your-pants method. -dq

26 years, 1 month

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip) wrote: > Not to mention, only so many people who would know what to *do* with > an old Commodore, VAX, TI 99, etc. As far as the rest of the world is > concerned, it's "trash".... Only our broken, brain-damaged society can take a thing that does it's job just as well as when it was new, and call it "trash" simply because something newer (not necessarily "better") has been announced by the vendors. Fascinating...and disturbing. My primary car is a '95. It continued to run just fine when the '96 came out. There's a clue in there somewhere. > Well, not nearly as much as they used to, but one can always hold out > hope. Know of any new people entering this hobby? Not just squirrelling > away stuff, or churning it on the auction sites, but actually buying old > computers, plugging them in, and actually working/playing with them? I've turned a few younger people on to it...they seem to get a kick out of computers whose internals they can really understand. One can find databooks for 7400-series TTL logic anywhere, and figure out exactly how a pdp8/e works. Pop open a current PeeCee and what do you find? Five or six two-zillion-pin chips with names like "Win-<whatever>" on them that you'll never find so much as a pinout for in any printed or .pdf literature. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 1 month

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MELLOW OUT! Re: A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > > Does anyone around here know what SEX is? > > Aargh! If we knew about that do you think we'd be living alone with > 20 old computers and nothing else? :-) > > Some times I think we're the male, technological version of the "Cat > Lady"....:-) I recently broke up with my girlfriend, and her possesion of seven cats in a tiny apartment was one of the reasons... ...now, realizing I've got _way_ more than seven computers makes me question my own sanity. oh well. -dq

26 years, 1 month

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Programming on Paper (was Re: Apple III motherboard)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

Cool... that way, you can make mistakes faster! Here's a pointer to a short story on a programmer whom I've never met, but whom I am certain is a soul brother... http://www.multicians.org/thvv/andre.html > -----Original Message----- > From: Paul R. Santa-Maria [mailto:paulrsm@ameritech.net] > Sent: Friday, June 16, 2000 5:22 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Programming on Paper (was Re: Apple III motherboard) > > > ---------- > > From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> > > To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' > > Subject: RE: Apple III motherboard > > Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 01:39 PM > > > > Since I compose > > to paper (and still do and cannot understand why some > > programmers compose directly into thr machine), > > Because I can type much faster than I can write. > > Paul R. Santa-Maria > Ann Arbor, Michigan USA > paulrsm(a)ameritech.net >

26 years, 1 month

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MELLOW OUT! Re: A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> ...and way too much time on their hands with few (if any) outlets for > their frustrations. > > Does anyone around here know what SEX is? Sure... Sign EXtension.... in x86-speak, it's cbw ; sign-extend byte to word or cwd ; sign-extend word to doubleword How does that help with frustration? ;-) -dq

26 years, 1 month

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Old laptops as cheap terminals (was Re: Old Macs = cheap terminals)

by ethan_dicks＠yahoo.com

--- "Zane H. Healy" <healyzh(a)aracnet.com> wrote: > Another good solution for the terminally challenged is > *old* laptops, also a good solution when space is a big problem. The only > real use I keep my ancient Twinhead 386sx laptop around for is to use as a > terminal when nothing else is handy... I bought an ancient Zenith XT laptop (dual 720K floppies) for $10 at a local box shop explicity for a terminal. I have a DOS 3.3 boot disk in it with Kermit, and away I go. If I could lay my hands on a cheap Xircom PE3 (no flames, please), I'd use the laptop as an IP "terminal", too (for the Kermit-ly challenged, modern versions contain an IP stack; just add packet driver; that's how my Commodore Colt is on my network). -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! Photos -- now, 100 FREE prints! http://photos.yahoo.com

26 years, 1 month

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New find: HP 1000 E series

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Carlos Murillo-Sanchez <cem14(a)cornell.edu> wrote: > Thanks a lot for all this! The cable halves that I have > are marked either "12966-60015 ASYNC DATA STRAPPED FOR 9600 BAUD" > or "12966-60008 ASYNC DATA". Fortunately, the numbering in the > back of the card edge connector corresponds to the 1-24 (top, left > to right) and A-Z,AA-BB (bottom, left to right) numbering. The 60015 > option has quite a few more cross-connects than the 60004 option. This time around I'm looking at a newer (April 1984) revision of the same manual and it has three (!) descriptions of the -60015 cable, two for HP 2621B terminals, and one for HP 264X terminals. Cross-connects inside the card-edge hood appear the same for all descriptions of this cable: (F, X, Y, AA) (H, K) (N, 8, 12, 13, 14, 15) (these strap it for 9600 baud) (W, 5) (4, 21) (11, 22) And for the far end of the cable, the 2621B flavors looks like they could be going to a DB25: A -> 7 (Signal Ground) D -> 3 (Transmit Data) E -> 5, 6 (Request to Send) F -> 8 (Data Terminal Ready) S -> 2 (Received Data) X -> 4 (Clear to Send) -60008 looks like it's supposed to be for a 264X terminal (to the card-edge connector on the datacomm board) and has slightly different cross-connects: (A, 1, 12, 13, 14, 15) (F, X, Y, AA) (H, K) (N, 8) (W, 5) (4, 21) (11, 22) As far as I can tell, this is strapped for external clocking from the terminal. I guess it's time for that table about how to strap for a baud rate: Baud Rate Bit Yield Pin 8 to pins: Pin 1, A, 24, BB to pins: Ext (16X) 0000 N 12, 13, 14, 15 50 0001 14, N 12, 13, 15 75 0010 13, N 12, 14, 15 110 0011 13, 14, N 12, 15 134.5 0100 12, N 13, 14, 15 150 0101 12, 14, N 13, 15 300 0110 12, 13, N 14, 15 600 0111 12, 13, 14, N 15 900 1000 15, N 12, 13, 14 1200 1001 14, 15, N 12, 13 1800 1010 13, 15, N 12, 14 2400 1011 13, 14, 15, N 12 3600 1100 12, 15, N 13, 14 4800 1101 12, 14, 15, N 13 7200 1110 12, 13, 15, N 14 9600 1111 12, 13, 14, 15, N -- > Looks like the labeling of TD and RD signals in your docs > indicate that the card thinks of itself as DTE, and the cable > that you describe is actually a null modem-like cable w/o > handshake. All this should be enough for me to build a simple > cable and test this over the weekend. That would be about right, I think. The HP terminals that I'm familiar with generally had cables whose far ends were a DB25 plug that wanted to plug into a DCE-flavored connector. Good luck! -Frank McConnell

26 years, 1 month

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Blah this is no longer about Tek anything so die subject line die

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

a 20 year old MicroVAX II?... That's pretty amazing, since the MicroVAX II is 1986ish or so... MicroVAX I isn't even 20 years old yet, getting close, but not there. Just my two cents worth of picking nits. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

Good morning, all... The subject line above might be a bit misleading. In the short time I've been subscribed to the list, I've seen a lot of negative criticism of E-Bay, or rather, of trying to buy things found on E-Bay. The criticisms all seem to concern how much an item on E-Bay ends up costing. What I guess I haven't seen said here is an acknowledgement that the high prices are a result of parties bidding against each other. I realize that in some cases, some shill bidding may be going on, but most of the time, I think I'm just seeing prices go high because people really want an item. Now, as to why an original IMSAI will go for $1200 when you can take about $800 and buy a brand new one with a Z-80-descended processor and a meg of bank-switched RAM, is beyond me. OTOH, I see SOLs going for for high prices, and they don't make those anymore. But I've been able to find great buys on items that aren't quite so popular, like TI Silent700 terminals, older wide-carriage printers, and so on. Having said that, one item I'd been trying to buy for a while is a Wyse 50 terminal, with a preferences for an amber screen. The ambers seem to be more rare, and command a higher price on E-Bay. Everytime one is for sale, someone goes over my max price, and I don't get a terminal. So, I decided to surf the web more broadly one day (and not specifically looking at other auction sites), when lo and behold, I find a guy up in Michigan who has an amber Wyse 50 for sale; he threw in a modem and a serial cable and shipped it to me for a mere $25.00. It's a clean unit with no visible screen burn. The F13 keycap comes off easily; other than that, it's a fine example of what became my favorite computer terminal. In closing, I'd say no one should limit themselves to searching only at *any* auction site, but I wouldn't avoid E-Bay just because prices sometimes range too high. regards, -doug quebbeman

26 years, 1 month

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Apple III (was: Apple III motherboard)

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: John Wilson <wilson(a)dbit.dbit.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 8:14 PM Subject: Re: Apple III (was: Apple III motherboard) > >Was the /// the machine whose user manual suggested that you should drop the >entire computer on a desk from a height of several inches before powering it >on the first time, to give all the internal connectors a chance to chew >through the oxide? Wild... > Given the weight of a ///, you might fix the computer, but you'll damage the desk! It wasn't just the first time, IIRC. The ///s also had notoriously bad sockets, and lousy cooling, so the chips had a tendency to wiggle out over time. So you might have had to repeat the Apple drop every six months or so. Any other examples of semi-official fixes like this one? The only other one that comes to mind is the infamous "Atari ST twist", where you grasped both sides of the case firmly, and twisted the ends in opposite directions. The flexing of the motherboard supposedly reseated a chip that frequently came loose, without, of course, requiring you to open the case, and thereby void your warranty. Madness! Mark.

26 years, 1 month

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KXT11-AB, T11

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>anybody out here has the KXT11-AB Manual ? > >Any documentation about the T11 chip ? I've got the KXT11-CA book on microfiche. Is that close enough? -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 1 month

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Apple III (was: Apple III motherboard)

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 6/17/00 9:25:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, eric(a)brouhaha.com writes: > > Hmm, that actually sounds a bit familiar. I kind of think I vaguely > remember > > reading magazine articles in the early 80s about the /// being > discontinued > > and then re-introduced in "new & improved" form. But I wouldn't know... > > The Apple ///+. Very short product life. > > > Was the /// the machine whose user manual suggested that you should drop > the > > entire computer on a desk from a height of several inches before powering > it > > on the first time, to give all the internal connectors a chance to chew > > through the oxide? Wild... > > Not in the user manual, but some people did it. The problem was that Apple > used bargain-basement DIP sockets on the early machines. In shipping the > chips would work loose. Back then there shouldn't yet have been too much > trouble with oxidation, but there certainly is now. The "correct" fix is > obviously to open it up and reseat the ICs. not only that, but the memory board is mounted above the main board on metal standoffs with no other support. (at least on the 256k /// i had) Over the years, that board had become permanetly warped due to sagging in the middle and the attachment screws being overtorqued. DB Young ICQ: 29427634 hurry, hurry, step right up! see the computers you used as a kid! http://members.aol.com/suprdave/classiccmp/museum.htm

26 years, 1 month

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Apple III motherboard

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Speaking of searches, I have been searching and searching > for an Apple III motherboard. Mein ist kaput, I am afraid. > Anyone have a spare they would like to part with? Louis- Not meaning to be rude, but even when they work, an Apple /// is kaput. Are you aware of how buggy those things were? Did you ever do any extensive programming for one? Again, sorry, I truly mean no offense, but I grew to loathe Apple for making this machine, and it's a wonder that I was able to overcome that loathing and buy a Mac. -doug quebbeman

26 years, 1 month

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E-mail style (was Re: Tek 4014/5 emulation)

by fmc＠reanimators.org

ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Seriously, unless there are very good reasons not to, people who send me > HTML mail get ignored (especially if they're asking me for help). And > this will continue. Tony's getting close to the point here: when you post to a mailing list or a newsgroup, you're writing for an audience. If you want your message to be read, you should make it easy for that audience to read the message. Else you run the risk that your audience will not bother, there being 72 other unread messages in the classiccmp in-box this morning. If what you're going on about isn't obvious to me somewhere in the first screenful or two, I'm going to hit the 'n' key and move along. Putting something relevant in the Subject: header can help me make a more informed decision. So can trimming quoted text to just the relevant portions: if I see a couple or three screenfuls of quoting, or can't tell whether I'm seeing quoted or original text, I begin to wonder whether it's worth looking further for something new. Same if I can't find the text for all the markup tags. -Frank McConnell

26 years, 1 month

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VAXStation VLC's still available

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

CC to CLASSICCMP and port-VAX... Hi, folks, As of last weekend, when I was at RE-PC, I noticed that the VAXStation VLC pile still seemed to be the same height. My guess is that the initial asking price was high enough to scare people off. Well, let me put it this way. Mark (one of RE-PC's owners) probably needs the floor space a lot more than the VAXen, so make an offer on a VLC while they're still there! I suggest starting at $20-$25 plus shipping. Since the VLC pile hadn't moved, I'm willing to bet that the 4000/90 is still at the bottom of it. If you want to get in on this, give Mark Dabek a call (206-575-8737), tell him I referred you, and go from there. Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 1 month

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Haggle stuff

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Oh, BTW, I almost forgot... I have a couple of books up on Haggle under 'Antique Computers.' One of them is an HP binder with a few CE manuals in it that cover, among other things, the 7000-series disk drives, and the other is a DEC book: "Programming in VAX-11 C". The H19 terminal is still there, no bids yet, and there's also a head-mounted display for PCs made by Reflection Technology (it's dated from around 1989, so it meets the ten-year rule). Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 2 months

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Stuff

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>Here's something for the Commodore fans (same page). >I've never heard of >this one before: > >CBM 16-bitter. The BX256 is a multiprocessor system >using a 6509 and 8088 >with an optional Z80, 256K of >internal RAM expandable to 640K externally, >40K of ROM, >and interfaces for IEEE-488, RS232, CBM cassette, 8-bit >user >port, and a carthridge slot. The green phosphor >video monitor has >80-columns of 25 lines and has >tilt/swivel controls. The detachable >94-key keyboard >includes a separate numeric keypad featuring a >double->zero key, clear entry key, and a double-size enter key >for ease of >use. The keyboard also has 10 user->definable keys. A built-in 6581 CPU >allows a full 3->voice, 9-octave music synthesizer having an output for >an >external audio system. A dual disk drive is built in >as is a realtime >clock. Software includes BASIC 4.0, >with options of CP/M, CP/M-86, and >UCSD Pascal. The >BX256 micro processor system supportsd all CBM > >peripherals. >Planned price is $2995. Address: Commodore Business >Machines Inc., The >Meadows, 487 Devon Park Drive, Wayne, >PA 19087. I hate to bust your bubble, but this machine was never released. The machine has a CBM tape port, but the ROM has no driving code for it. Commodore's 6509-based machines were never popular to begin with & cost way to much to manufacture, also, C= executives noticed how well the '64 was selling, and, well, you can figure out what happened after that (wither 6509). ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 2 months

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CDC 9" PA5N1F15 drive head locking. How?

by rdd＠smart.net

Greetings, Can somene kindly tell me how to lock/unlock the heads on a CDC model PA5N1F15 9" hard drive? I don't see anything that looks like a way to look/unlock the drive when I examine it; do the heads lock/unlock automagically? BTW, according to the label, this is an FSD drive - is this the type of interface, or do I actually have an SMD drive? Wow, this is one heavy, and beautiful drive... looks like a cast-iron housing too! Since the date on the label is 1985 (or 86? I don't recall at the moment), and the HDA media defect information sheet is dated 1998, it looks like I've may have a relatively new drive assembly! :-) -- R. D. Davis rdd(a)perqlogic.com http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd 410-744-4900

26 years, 2 months

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Computing History CD-ROM

by pat＠transarc.ibm.com

Anyone know anything about the CD referred to at this link: http://members.aol.com/HistoryCD/HOC.html Is this worth having? --Pat.

26 years, 2 months

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Programming on Paper (was Re: Apple III motherboard)

by paulrsm＠ameritech.net

---------- > From: Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> > To: 'classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org' > Subject: RE: Apple III motherboard > Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 01:39 PM > > Since I compose > to paper (and still do and cannot understand why some > programmers compose directly into thr machine), Because I can type much faster than I can write. Paul R. Santa-Maria Ann Arbor, Michigan USA paulrsm(a)ameritech.net

26 years, 2 months

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X1542 cable?

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Anyone know where to find info on building a X1542 cable for a C64 floppy drive, and getting the software? Someone on another list I'm on is looking for the info. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |

26 years, 2 months

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Visual 1050 computer

by Innfogra＠aol.com

It has a built in 5 meg hard drive interface so it should just need cabling to a hard drive. It also uses the 6502 as a video controller to offload the video from the Z80A. The Keyboard is a 93 key keyboard with 17 function keys. If you go back you might look around for it. It has the Visual 1050 Logo on it. There was a VT100 emulator program supplied. Wordstar 3.3 was adapted for it's special keyboard & it included Multiplan and GSS-Graph. New cost was $2695 with SW, in 1984. It is too bad many thrifts separate all of the component parts of the systems. Paxton

26 years, 2 months

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Synchro-Sette magazine

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 06/16/2000 8:45:11 PM Eastern Daylight Time, foo(a)siconic.com writes: > Anyone ever hear of Synchro-Sette magazine (for the Sinclair ZX-81, > TS-1000)? Yes. They were based in Addison, Illinois, and actually had an 800 number. The magazine was $39.50 for twelve issues, and every other issue included a tape cassette with at least six programs on it. Unfortunately the programs and articles were all pretty much crap and the company folded. Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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Krakit

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 06/16/2000 9:53:28 PM Eastern Daylight Time, foo(a)siconic.com writes: > This is too cool. Advertised in the Dec/82 issue of Computers & > Electronics, there's an ad on page 67 for a game for the TS-1000/ZX-81 > called Krakit. It's a puzzle type adventure game. What makes it special > is that the publisher put up a $20,000 prize for the first person who > could crack it. > > "KRAKIT consists of 12 clues on a ready-to-run ZX81 or TS1000 cassette > tape (16k RAM). The answer to each clue is the name of a country, or a > city or town, and a number. If you are the first qualified entrant to > solve all 12 clues and declared the winner, you receive two tickets to the > city of the secret KRAKIT vault location. When you arrive at that > location, a check for a minimum amount of $20,000.00 (U.S.) will be > presented to you. The amount of the prize money is augmented weekly." > > Has anyone ever heard of this? Did anyone ever crack it? Sellam, if you ever read any of the Timex Sinclair related mags you would be blown away. Not too long ago on this ng the TS1000/ZX81 was voted "most limited" small computer. Bull. Thousands of third-party developers of hardware and software produced every imaginable type of product for this machine. As regards Krakit, to my knowledge no one ever cracked it. I'll put out some feelers. > This game was published by International Publishing & Software Inc. It > seems like an awful lot of money for a relatively unknown outfit to be > offering. I wonder if it wasn't all just a sham, i.e. one of the clues > was so hard as to be impossible to solve :) I don't think it was a sham, it just didn't go over very well. > If anyone has this game I'd like to have a copy of it. Do you have a machine to run it on? Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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Miniscribe 6085?

by hofmanwb＠worldonline.nl

Sounds like it could be reformatted and used as an RD53 for use in a PDP-11 or microVax. Wim ---------- > >> 5.25" size, and note looking very easy to remove. Anybody interested? Might > >> even be a couple of them. > > > >I find no listing for a Miniscribe 6086. However, there were a 6085 and > >a 6985E which were 71mb and ST506 MFM and ESDI RLL respectively. > > Most likely it is the 6085. Sounds like it isn't worth removing though. > >

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, Don Maslin wrote: > > > My primary car is a '95. It continued to run just fine when the '96 > > > came out. There's a clue in there somewhere. > > > > Big difference, though. A car is a car is a car. As long as it keeps > > I'm sure that there are a number of Ferrari, Lamborghini, and Lotus > owners out there who would think that you are daft! Well, since you mentioned it, the '95 car I mentioned above is a Porsche 911...a car that has changed very little over the years since its introduction. Any parallels of that in our industry? Aside from people, that is... -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

3
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Tek 4014/5 emulation

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, William Donzelli wrote: > > Non-HTML email is not exclusive to those of us who are into classic > > computing. Non-HTML email isn't a "dying, quaint old way of doing > > things" like some of the sold-on-Microsoft people seem to think. > > Well...yes it is. I would venture to say that these days, more use it > than not. I'm not sure I'd agree...but then I work in a company full of Unix boxes and live in a neighborhood full of Unix people. But that's the reality I see when I look out the window. Microsoft isn't universally run everywhere. Sure, every suit has a Windows box on his or her desk...but just as there's more to the human race than suits, there's more to the world of computing than Windows. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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Tek 4014/5 emulation

by ckaiser＠oa.ptloma.edu

Despite the fact that every term program under the sun seems to support Tek 4014/5, I cannot find a description of the control sequences anywhere (just a reference to the termcap entry, but I want the *graphics* control sequences, not the terminal ones). Does anyone know where I might find a listing of them? Until then, I'll use GNUplot ;-P -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)ptloma.edu -- Eat healthy, stay fit, DIE ANYWAY! -----------------------------------------

26 years, 2 months

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Tek 4014/5 emulation

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 14, 17:58, Mark Champion wrote: > Regarding the line length, I presume most users use "word-wrap" for their email readers. This allows the reader to format the screen as desired (similar to the way web browsers handle text). I believe all HTML compatible email programs have this capability. No they don't; and in any case many list members don't use "HTML compatible" or even MIME-aware readers. HTML has no place in email. Email does not revolve around M$ Outlook :-) As you see from the above, you lose the quoting when most software does the wrapping after the event. It's an accepted convention to keep lines short -- and I seem to remember we had this discussion a few months ago? > The big advantage of handling email this way is that when the line lengths increase due to the > or > > or > > > which stack-up with each reply, the email remains completely readable and well formatted. (I'm sure everyone has received the email which is littered with tons of > > > > > > > > > and barely intelligible.) Well, I find the nesting usually makes it easier to retain attribution -- and I've never seen any software which can handle post-wrapping and keep the correct indentations. Particularly since not everyone uses the same quoting characters (I use "> " but others may use "<" or ":" with or without a following space). > If this is a general problem for other readers, let me know and I will add the line breaks for any additional posts to this group. Yes please. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 2 months

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Tek 4014/5 emulation

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, William Donzelli wrote: > I'm curious - what will some of us folks do when HTML in email is used by > 99 percent of the population? Is anyone writing mailers for the old > systems that can handle the HTML properly? Let's face it, HTML in email > is here and its growing. I would venture to say it is a natural > evolution, and all of the complaining we as a group do will have no > effect on the rest of the world. The rest of the world can use the excuse > "get a modern computer" - and for the most part they are right. I still insist that it has nothing to do with "old" or "new" computers...or even "old" or "new" mailers! "Get a modern computer" doesn't do the trick...I can spin up X on a twenty-year-old MicroVAX-II and run state-of-the-art GUI-fied email software (kmail, vm under xemacs, whatever you want!) that will deal with HTML email. It really does seem to me that it's very much a Windoze/non-Windoze thing. Next time someone emails you HTML crap, look at the headers. It *all* comes from Windoze boxes. On the other hand, everyone I associate with around here (home and work) uses Unix boxes of one form or another...for the most part, they're all running perfectly *NEW* modern hardware, running current, state-of-the-art software...and I get NO HTML crap from any of them. Non-HTML email is not exclusive to those of us who are into classic computing. Non-HTML email isn't a "dying, quaint old way of doing things" like some of the sold-on-Microsoft people seem to think. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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Ok, too cool

by foo＠siconic.com

This is too cool. Advertised in the Dec/82 issue of Computers & Electronics, there's an ad on page 67 for a game for the TS-1000/ZX-81 called Krakit. It's a puzzle type adventure game. What makes it special is that the publisher put up a $20,000 prize for the first person who could crack it. "KRAKIT consists of 12 clues on a ready-to-run ZX81 or TS1000 cassette tape (16k RAM). The answer to each clue is the name of a country, or a city or town, and a number. If you are the first qualified entrant to solve all 12 clues and declared the winner, you receive two tickets to the city of the secret KRAKIT vault location. When you arrive at that location, a check for a minimum amount of $20,000.00 (U.S.) will be presented to you. The amount of the prize money is augmented weekly." Has anyone ever heard of this? Did anyone ever crack it? This game was published by International Publishing & Software Inc. It seems like an awful lot of money for a relatively unknown outfit to be offering. I wonder if it wasn't all just a sham, i.e. one of the clues was so hard as to be impossible to solve :) If anyone has this game I'd like to have a copy of it. Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 2 months

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transit@lerctr.org

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Dammit, that was supposed to be private. Sorry Guys . . . On Fri, 16 Jun 2000 18:59:36 -0500 jeff.kaneko(a)juno.com writes: > > > On Fri, 16 Jun 2000 13:28:07 -0500 (CDT) "Charles P. Hobbs > (SoCalTip)" > <transit(a)lerctr.org> writes: ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip) wrote: > I *do* know there is a big difference between my Apple II (which still > does yeoman service running my Syntauri synthesizer) and the > PowerComputing PowerCenter 240 that I do most of my "real work" on. And, > no, I'm not going back to the Apple II and a dot-matrix printer to do my > newsletters on, or surf the Net. I think you're taking it to an extreme here, though, given the context. I'm talking about the Pentium-II/233 that was "wow fabulous wonderful my god check out my new machine!!" three years ago that are heading to trash bins today. There is *NO* reason for this. Those machines are just as functional today as they were three years ago...but people are treating them like trash simply because something faster has been introduced by the vendor! -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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transit@lerctr.org

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Fri, 16 Jun 2000 13:28:07 -0500 (CDT) "Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip)" <transit(a)lerctr.org> writes: > > > On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, William Donzelli wrote: > > > > > If you tried to pull the same thing on the ice fishing list, you > would > > probably catch hell. > > > I'm on an Electronic Organ list, an Amtrak Advocacy list, a Web for ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hey! You may be interested in a couple of manuals I have: Schematic sets for the MONDAINO MONOTRON/POLYTRON, and another one for the MONDAINO H6000/H7000. The drawings are dated 1980. I'm not into these, but maybe you (or one of your buddies) is . . . Jeff ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

26 years, 2 months

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Stuff

by foo＠siconic.com

I'm reading through an issue of Computers & Electronics from November 1982 (formerly Popular Electronics) I found here at work. Here's something on page 23 for Marvin & Hans (and anyone else who has one): Microcomputer Trainer. The Micro-Professor is a Z80-based system featuring a six digit LED display, 2K-bytes of ROM (expandable to 8K), 2K-bytes of RAM, 24 I/O lines, 2K monitor, cassette interface, countertimer circuits, a user wire-wrap area, 36-key keyboard, 9-volt power adapter, and an extension connector. The system is expandable. $129.95. Address: Etronix, 14803 N.E. 40th, Redmond, WA 98052 Here's something for the Commodore fans (same page). I've never heard of this one before: CBM 16-bitter. The BX256 is a multiprocessor system using a 6509 and 8088 with an optional Z80, 256K of internal RAM expandable to 640K externally, 40K of ROM, and interfaces for IEEE-488, RS232, CBM cassette, 8-bit user port, and a carthridge slot. The green phosphor video monitor has 80-columns of 25 lines and has tilt/swivel controls. The detachable 94-key keyboard includes a separate numeric keypad featuring a double-zero key, clear entry key, and a double-size enter key for ease of use. The keyboard also has 10 user-definable keys. A built-in 6581 CPU allows a full 3-voice, 9-octave music synthesizer having an output for an external audio system. A dual disk drive is built in as is a realtime clock. Software includes BASIC 4.0, with options of CP/M, CP/M-86, and UCSD Pascal. The BX256 micro processor system supportsd all CBM peripherals. Planned price is $2995. Address: Commodore Business Machines Inc., The Meadows, 487 Devon Park Drive, Wayne, PA 19087. I love this stuff! Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 2 months

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HP 715/33 available - Austin, TX

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Fri, 16 Jun 2000 14:19:45 -0400 "Jason McBrien" <jbmcb(a)hotmail.com> writes: > I vote that workstation hardware older than 7 years old counts as a > classic, > if it's oddball enough. PA-RISC is pretty oddball in my opinion. > They run > OpenSTEP well, though. Dittos on the VAXstations... And DG AViiONs! What you lookin' at me like that for?!?! 88000 ain't oddball enuf fer ya?! ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

26 years, 2 months

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MELLOW OUT! Re: A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, Tony Duell wrote: > > Does anyone around here know what SEX is? > > Sign EXtend (6809 mnemonic) ? GEEK ALERT! Way to go, Tony! :-) -Dave

26 years, 2 months

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HTML in mail

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, Chuck McManis wrote: > >On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, Dave McGuire wrote: > > > 1) It's just not necessary for effective communications. > > No, smoke signals work as well. Everyone on this knows that THIS IS > SHOUTING and *this* is an emphatic point. HTML gives you better markup than > case and punctuation symbols. Sending :-) is not as intuitive as sending > the smiley face symbol. It's just as intuitive to me...and to you as well, I'm sure, Chuck. It's all a matter of what one is used to. Sure, one summer day about nineteen years ago I asked a friend what that strange-looking colon-hyphen-closeparen deal was that I was seeing all over the place. He grabbed my head and wrenched it sideways and I learned what a "smiley" was all about. Sure, it wasn't immediately intuitive...but nowadays, I can't see a colon anywhere near a paren without my mind converting it into some sort of face! > > > 2) It's a waste of bandwidth and system resources. > > Again false. There is less waste due to the <html>/</html> and > <font></font> tags than there is from idiots that include a 600 line rant > and tag "I agree" on to the end. To steal a phrase, HTML doesn't waste > bandwidth, people do. :-) Correctly constructed, HTML is pretty efficient > at capturing added typographical information. Mailers that insist on > sending both an HTML version and a plain version are broken in my opinion. I agree with the "people do" point...but the HTML mail that I see is typically bloated by 20-50% past the original text. Sure, if it were all nice, efficient hand-coded HTML it could be a lot better...but it's NOT. It's coming out of dumbass Windows software and is bloated as hell. > > > 3) Technical people generally want genuine functionality to > > > prevail over "flash"...which is why many (most) technical people > > > in the industry (Visual Basic programmers don't count) don't > > > have Windows boxes on their desks if they have anything to say > > > about it. > > HTML and windows are not tied as closely as you might think. Since HTML was > developed at CERN on Sun UNIX boxes it was tied at the time more closely to > UNIX. However, it is genuinely functional if I can include a diagram > in-line with my text that is _not_ composed of ascii characters and thus > won't be gobbledy gook when you see it. I'm quite intimately familiar with the history of HTML & HTTP...and while I do agree with your statement of functionality, using HTML for any sort of diagramming is a stretch at best. Formatting/coloring/sizing text, sure...but diagramming?? > > > 4) It's a clear outgrowth of the overcommercialization of the Internet, > > > in which uneducated users think the World Wide Web *IS* the > > > Internet, thus they try to cram the World Wide Web into > > > everything they do, and conversely, cram everything they do into > > > the World Wide Web. > > You are confusing HTTP with HTML. HTML was explicitly designed so that a > "modern" computer (one that had a bitmapped screen rather than a terminal) > could be taken advantage of when you were *exchanging* documents. It was a > lot simpler than the printer description languages of the day, (and PDF > today) and, when tied with a convention (the URL) and a network protocol, > it could "link" related documents rather than include them and thus waste > precious bandwidth. Not at all. As I mentioned above I'm quite familiar with the history of both. Please reread my #4 point above with this in mind: I'm speaking completely from the standpoint of the *current* popular use of this technology...not the original reasons for its development. I apologize for not being more clear about that originally. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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Apple III motherboard

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> sheesh, just because it wasnt the greatest of designs doesnt > give you carte blanche to disparage the person wanting to fix > one. I have a /// that still boots off its profile drive, but > i wonder when it will stop working. 2 years ago i gave a > nonworking /// to a friend who ebayed it. he actually got $60 for it. Nothing I wrote was disparaging to Louis. I never had trouble getting one to boot, I had trouble with it working as any reasonable person with programming skills would expect a computer to operate. Let me elaborate. I was developing a job costing package for a small local construction firm. We didn't have one to do development on, so I had to work on the customer's machine. While I understand that SOS (wasn't that the name of the OS, Apple SOS, pronounced "Applesauce"?) did have other development environments available, Pascal coming to mind, I was directed to use the native Basic interpreter. Well, I'd be typing in my code, when randomly, without warning or notification, the /// would pick a point in my source code, and either delete a chunk out of the middle, or from a point to the end of the code. And I mean randomly; it would truncate in the middle of a line number! Clearly, what was happening is that I was overflowing the interpreter's symbol table. But nuking my source code is not an acceptable way of informing me as a user that it could not handle what I was asking of it. Hell, at least it could have started beeping when I'd try to enter a new line of code. So I'd start saving to disk every 5 lines. Since I compose to paper (and still do and cannot understand why some programmers compose directly into thr machine), at least I didn't _really_ lose anything except peace of mind. As I said, I had to work at the customer site, and since they had to use the machine during the work day, that meant I had to work the remaining hours. It became customary for me to still be there in the morning when they'd come in, although I tried like hell to be out by 6am. One morning around 8am, one of the owners asked me "how much longer it would take", to which I replied "it would've been done by now if you'd bought a different computer." That was my last day on the project and if I could do it all over again, I'd have defenestrated the computer before his very eyes. 'Nuff said; I intended and maintain committed no disparagement of Louis, only of the Apple ///. I was this very day going to compose and post a message about Computers I Love to Hate, but the timing of his posting changed the opportunity. cheers, -doug q

26 years, 2 months

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New find: HP 1000 E series

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Carlos Murillo-Sanchez <cem14(a)cornell.edu> wrote: > I guess that the first thing that I have to do now that I tested the > power supply and verified that the machine (seems to) turn on, > is to build a serial console cable for this. I have several cables > that will fit the BACI boards, but the connectors at the other > end have been cut off. Does anybody have the pin out for the > finger pads in the front of the BACI boards? OK, so this morning I have in front of me a couple different versions of HP part number 12966-90001: HP 12966A Buffered Asynchronous Data Communications Interface Installation, Service, and Reference Manual. The datacomm card-edge connector is called P1 in this manual, and it's described in terms of letter codes A-F, H, J-N, P, R-Z, AA, and BB; and then numbers 1-24. I'm guessing that these correspond to sides of the board/connector but I'm not sure which side is the letters and which is the numbers. Some help I am, huh? It looks like HP typically shipped one of several cables with the board, depending on what option the board was ordered with. What's copied below is the configuration of the "default" cable, p/n 12966-60004, and which I think is appropriate for a DTE-flavored RS-232 device (like a terminal) with no hardware flow control. pin Signal name Device pin RS-232C ckt Source A Signal Ground (EIA) 7 AB Common B F C CA Inhibit D Transmit Data (EIA) 3 BA Intfc E Request to Send (EIA) CA F Data Terminal Ready (EIA) CD H Ext Freq J F/4 K F/8 L F/16 M F/2 N P/Ext P BSBA R Ext Clock 16 Device S Received Data (EIA) 2 BB Device T Secondary Line Sig Det (EIA) SCF U (spare) (EIA) V Secondary Receive Data (EIA) SBB W BSCA X Clear to Send (EIA) CB Y Data Set Ready (EIA) CC Z Ring Indicator (EIA) CE AA Receive Line Signal Detect (EIA) CF BB Signal Ground 1 Signal Ground 2 CCNT 7 3 SXX (Secondary Chan) (EIA) SBA/SCA 4 BSCF 5 SIN 6 Xmit Data In 7 TTY OUT 8 +5 volts 9 TTY IN 10 +12 volts 5,6 Intfc 11 UCLK0 12 CLKP2 13 CLKP1 14 CLKP0 15 CLKP3 16 Recd Data Out 17 BSBB 18 DIAG 19 Spare 20 Run Disable 21 BSXX 22 UCLK 23 -12 volts 24 Signal Ground There's a rather complex set of cross-connects in the card-edge connector's hood: (A, N, 1) (F, X, Y, AA) (J, K) (W, 5) (4, 21) (11, 22) Other cables described in the manual: 12966-60008, for HP 264X terminal 12966-60006, for modem 12966-60007, for HP 2749B teleprinter 12966-60010, for HP 2621 terminal 12966-60011, for HP 7221 plotter 12966-60012, for HP 264X terminal to HP 7221A plotter (???) The cables for modem, 2749B, and 7221 look like they are intended to go to something like a DB25 connector. The cables for 264X and 2621 terminal look like they're intended to go to the datacomm connectors on those devices (264X would be a different card-edge, 2621 would be an Amphenol 50-pin connector that looks like the "Centronics" SCSI connector). The cables can be wired to provide for an external clock source (-60008 does this) or to provide a fixed? baud rate for the interface. If you see connections to pins 12-15 and/or N that is what is going on here. The -60004, -60006, and -60007 cables are shipped configured for program control (i.e. code running on the processor can set the interface's baud rate). I'm going to be lazy for now and not key that table in. Maybe later if you want it. How's that for too much info? -Frank McConnell

26 years, 2 months

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Apple III motherboard

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> On Fri, 16 Jun 2000, Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > > machine. While I understand that SOS (wasn't that the > > name of the OS, Apple SOS, pronounced "Applesauce"?) > > Sophisticated Operating System > > > I'd start saving to disk every 5 lines. Since I compose > > to paper (and still do and cannot understand why some > > programmers compose directly into thr machine), at > > Um, speed and efficiency? Haste makes waste. The speed and effeciency people I've known get the job done quicker but with a higher load of bugs. They (or someone) have to re-work it until it's right. By composing to paper, I catch everything except conceived- of-the-wrong-solution-for-this-problem. All syntax errors and all flow-of-logic errors show up on paper. Of course, they show up during execution, too. Along with hair that either disappears or turns grey. Then again, people vote with their checkbooks, and over and over, buggy software that's available NOW sells better than the bug-free software that's just-around the-corner. Talk about being trapped on the wheel of Karma! > > 'Nuff said; I intended and maintain committed no disparagement > > of Louis, only of the Apple ///. I was this very day going > > to compose and post a message about Computers I Love to Hate, > > but the timing of his posting changed the opportunity. > > Do it! Do it! Not today, but soon... > My vote is for the Commodore 64. Whenever you find one, if the > motherboard isn't dead, the power supply is! And if it does > work, it will die quite more readily than any other computer > I've ever used. I've never had as many other computers up > and die on me as the C64. I once tried to help a friend stuck working on a C64- once, and never again. ;-) -dq

26 years, 2 months

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Apple III motherboard

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated Fri, 16 Jun 2000 8:33:41 AM Eastern Daylight Time, Douglas Quebbeman <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com> writes: << > Speaking of searches, I have been searching and searching > for an Apple III motherboard. Mein ist kaput, I am afraid. > Anyone have a spare they would like to part with? Louis- Not meaning to be rude, but even when they work, an Apple /// is kaput. Are you aware of how buggy those things were? Did you ever do any extensive programming for one? Again, sorry, I truly mean no offense, but I grew to loathe Apple for making this machine, and it's a wonder that I was able to overcome that loathing and buy a Mac. -doug quebbeman >> sheesh, just because it wasnt the greatest of designs doesnt give you carte blanche to disparage the person wanting to fix one. I have a /// that still boots off its profile drive, but i wonder when it will stop working. 2 years ago i gave a nonworking /// to a friend who ebayed it. he actually got $60 for it.

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 15, R. D. Davis wrote: > > I would add to this another pet dislike I have for E-bilk (much better > > name, BTW). To my eyes, they are in large part (sheer unmitigated greed > > makes up the other part) responsible for the decline in quality and > > quantity of equipment that used to show up at hamfests and other > > electronic-oriented swap meets. > > You've noticed this decline as well? :-( Interesting hackish things > seem to be getting more and more difficult to find a hamfests. The > last one I went to had very little, and most I've been to, I've seen ...but this has been going on for years! I've always attributed it to the unfortunate proliferation of PCs. Most of the good hamfests have turned into new-windoze-hardwarefests. I don't know about you...but when I go to a hamfest, I want to see rows and rows of 70-year-old guys selling cool old Heathkit/Collins/Hallicrafters transceivers, HUGE RF power amplifiers, and commercial-quality (but homebrewed) yagi antennas...not row after row of taiwanese folks selling new, cheap-ass windoze hardware that would better be sold via mail-order...which is all I see at hamfests nowadays. I, for one, absolutely LOVE eBay. That's where I find all the radio gear I'm looking for that doesn't show up at hamfests anymore because of the damned windoze lemmings!! -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: William Donzelli <aw288(a)osfn.org> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Friday, June 16, 2000 9:29 AM Subject: RE: A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay > >Ebay does not want keep all of the auctions as a publicly accessable >database, simply because it is not their job. After a few months, they >can "wash their hands" of the deal, and with it, any disputes that may >come up afterwards (problems in the car auctions leap to mind). They don't >want the legal hassles, basically. > Given that collecting (of anything) is a very large industry, they're missing a chance to _make_ a lot of money. Every bookstore has dozens of price guides to collectibles in it, which sell for upwards of $40 each. A lot of those are based on the results of a few hundred auctions a year. eBay could "publish" (whether in print or electronically) guides based on thousands of auctions a year. If they published electronically, they could charge a nominal fee for access to the price guide - say 5 cents per successful search. They already have a structure in place to bill all of their sellers. It would be easy to require that anyone searching the price guides register as a seller (and provide credit card info) first. Then you bill them for their accumulated search charges monthly, or whenever they have another sales transaction. I don't understand your point about eBay wanting to avoid "legal hassles" over auctions gone bad. They are just the middleman, all of their contracts state that they are not responsible for the authenticity, condition, delivery, etc. of the items. The buyer and seller voluntarily assume all the risk. I don't see how providing a database of past transactions involves them any further in a legal sense. Just my 2 cents (Cdn). Mark Gregory

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 16, Sellam Ismail wrote: > > I don't know about you...but when I go to a hamfest, I want to see > > rows and rows of 70-year-old guys selling cool old > > Heathkit/Collins/Hallicrafters transceivers, HUGE RF power > > amplifiers, and commercial-quality (but homebrewed) yagi > > antennas...not row after row of taiwanese folks selling new, cheap-ass > > Sorry to have to break it to you, but those guys sold all their stuff and > then died. > > :) 8-< NOOOOO!!! -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay (OT)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> You can't beat the variety. I look for the Yogi Bear doll I had > in the 60s, and presto, there it is for $40, in several permutations. For me, it's the Big Bruiser(tm) tow truck by Marx. Haven't yet seen one with a) all the parts and b) the same color pickup truck (towed vehicle) that I had, but sooner ot later... -dq

26 years, 2 months

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HP-1000E PSU

by rdd＠smart.net

Today, I became the owner of an HP-1000E. :-) One slight problem: I'm told that the PSU is bad. Upon removing the cover from the PSU, I noticed that there are three plug-in boards in the PSU, and one empty PCB connector, the second one back from the front. Is this circuit board supposed to be missing? I've not teted the PSU yet, as I didn't know if doing so with this (optional? a regulator for a voltage this system doesn't need?) board removed will damage it. Is it safe to power it up with this board missing? -- R. D. Davis rdd(a)perqlogic.com http://www.perqlogic.com/rdd 410-744-4900

26 years, 2 months

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Apologies to all...

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I think I need a vacation... a -real- one! I apologize for adding fuel to the fire on the E-bay thread. While I may not agree with the way it works all the time, and what it may or may not have done to the retail and swap-meet level surplus scenes, we're stuck with it for better or worse, and I have better uses for my energy than polluting the list with pointless rants about it. Admittedly, I have found it useful. Even now, there's some stuff on there that I could use that has not gathered any bids, and it's less than three days from finishing. On a wider scope, I also apologize for being a lot snappier than normal lately. Whatever's happening in my own head, the residents of CLASSICCMP certainly deserve better than to get dumped on about it. Keep the peace(es). Methinks I'll just lurk for a while. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies http://www.bluefeathertech.com // E-mail: kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com Amateur Radio: WD6EOS since Dec. '77 "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

26 years, 2 months

2
1
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Tek 4014/5 emulation

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 15, 10:36, Mark Champion wrote: > Peter, > > Sorry for causing any trouble. I only recently joined this group and I > wasn't aware of this groups' desire for 80 character line lengths limits. Well, the convention is actually for less than 80; there's no set rule but commonly-mentioned lengths are between 78 and 72. > I never intended to suggest that all email revolves around MS Outlook. That was just my jibe, not to be taken too personally :-) BTW, though I wrote that "we had this discussion a few months ago", I realise you may not have been on this list at the time. > I use it because it works well for me. I know that the mail readers in > Netscape and IE both support autowrap and the ability to size the > window as desired. When this approach is used for email, the added > > > (or | | or whichever) characters only appear at the beginning of each > paragraph, so they don't scramble the contents of the email. So, nesting > can continue forever, if desired. I (and others) think this is a big > advantage - especially in mail groups where replies bounce back and > forth. But, it's just suggestion. Most people I know would disagree. The idea is to indent paragraphs, a long-cherished system on Usenet and mailing lists. Just as it appears in the paragraph above (you must have turned wrapping on before you composed it -- thanks for that :-)). > BTW, would it cause you any problems to turn wrap on? This way you > could handle any line length you encountered. I *HAD* wrap turned on -- that was my point about losing the indentations. I could see what you typed in 78-column form, but there would be others on this list who wouldn't be able to do that; and when you turn the wrap on, the wrapped lines still don't get indented/quoted as God intended. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 2 months

2
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Free PDP Memory/BA11/Modem Manuals

by elmo＠mminternet.com

I have the following xeroxed manuals for 11/60 or 11/70 PCM memory systems: micromemory 7405 Product Manual (Electronic Memories & Magnetics, Hawthorne CA) Mostek Memory Systems MK8015 PDP-11 Add-In Memory Technical Manual Plessey Peripherals Systems PM-11D MMU Installation Procedure an original: DEC BA11-K mounting box user's manual and another xerox: Omnitec Telephone Coupler Models 401, 501, 701 (Teletype) Technical Specifications & Maintenance Manual Yours for postage. Regards, Eliot

26 years, 2 months

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Fw: Anyone interested in VAX tapes

by mark.champion＠am.sony.com

Appologies to mailing list - I forgot to embed carridge returns. Here's another copy. John, The large (700') tapes say "3M - Scotch". The small (600') tapes say "OPUS CriticalFile". They all come in plastic tape holders. These tapes originally contained demo files for Tektronix 4014 terminal emulator products my former company (Northwest Digital Systems) produced. These are data files only, no .exe files. They were created using VMS Copy. The bit density is 1600BPI. Some of the tapes include instructions for reading the tape. The date on this documentation is November, 1988. Mark Champion Sony Electronics 206-524-0014 mark.champion(a)am.sony.com ----- Original Message ----- From: "John Allain" <John.Allain(a)donnelley.infousa.com> To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Sent: Thursday, June 15, 2000 12:16 PM Subject: RE: Anyone interested in VAX tapes > > Mark, > > What makes these Vax tapes? > Do they have any software? > Do they have content descriptive labels? > Are they just ?RMS? filestructured user data? > Am I interested <g>? > > John A. (DECAACP-itated)

26 years, 2 months

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Anyone interested in VAX tapes

by mark.champion＠am.sony.com

I have 30 small (6" dia) VAX tapes (Opus 6250) and 12 large (7" dia) VAX tapes (Scotch 700). I believe the small tapes are 600' x 1/2" and the large tapes are 700' x 1/2". I think they have all been written on once. Are these worth anything to anyone? What should I do with them? Throw them away? Give them away? List on Ebay? Mark Champion Sony Electronics 206-524-0014 mark.champion(a)am.sony.com

26 years, 2 months

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TI Professional Computer

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

Tony Duell wrote: > I'd always have a toolkit with me to lock heads on a machine that I'd > purchased (after I've paid for it then it's mine to take to bits as I > choose, right?). Sure, but not in my store! How can I possibly know if you're competent enough not to get zapped? I don't know how it is in the UK, but here in the States a lot of people are litigation-crazy. I pay a *fortune* for insurance, but the policy states that *no* customer can do any kind of work -- even using a word processor -- in my store. If we allow this, then we (my partner and I) assume full liability. A real-life story: Previously, we owned a trophy/awards/engraving shop. One day Mrs. Mom and her three children came in looking for a ten-dollar trophy. While I was taking her order, Junior (about ten years old) knocked a $300 crystal figurine off of a shelf, onto the floor, smashing it to bits. I asked the child to leave it alone, but as I was fetching a broom Mom told Junior to "clean up that mess" and he grabbed a handful of glass, severely cutting himself. End result: lawsuit filed, insurance carrier settled out of court, insurance company jacked up our premiums, and we're out a $300 piece of crystal. I couldn't complain, because that was the cheapest way out of the situation. So, yes, it's yours to dismantle, test, or smash to holy hell. But not in *my store*! Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > It's not just the pricing structure for me, and the fact that there are > > clusters of morons Out There who have more money and time than common > > sense. > > In other words, you're annoyed that someone might want the same item you > do, and might be willing to pay more than you are. Welcome to the world > of supply and demand. Of course your words could just as easily apply to > the stock market, or the farmers market for that matter. > > Lack of time is one of the reasons I keep searching acution sites. What > I wouldn't give to be able to head to surplus stores more than about three > times a year. Some day I hope to live in that fantasy world where people > get weekends off. So my options are... 1) On that rare day off spend 8 > hours in surplus stores looking for a part I'm probably not going to find, > while my wife curses me for not spending that rare day off with her. 2) > Do an automated auction search and (eventually) pay $20 for a $5 part. I really envy those of you who live on either the left coast or in an area that's been tech-saavy for a long time; here in the heart of the rust belt, the surplus stores just don't carry hitech electronics. ..snip.. > I make it a point not to rule anything out until the bid goes > above what I'm willing to pay. A prudent rule I concur with. -dq

26 years, 2 months

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A Great Find & A Defense of E-Bay

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

..snip.. > Then, along came a few people who decided to auction stuff of on > newsgroups, not content to sell it to the first person who contacted > them, then, there was e-bilk, and many of the ads on Usenet > disappeared, or else began to announce something that was going to be > auctioned off on e-bilk. ..snip.. > Now, do you understand? I used to do the exact same thing. During a period of marginal income, I sold an Altair 8800 manual I'd been holding on to every since the Popular Electronics article (from which I ordered just the manual). I sold it during an upswing in the popularity of Microsoft stuff, advertising it as "the oldest Microsoft BASIC manual." Asked and got $50 for it. Then recently, when real estate taxes became suddenly due (long story), I needed money fast. I had a 1983 Audi Quattro sitting in the driveway, rusting, a project car that was starting to look like it would never get a timeslice. So I posted it for sale on the Quattro list. I got 5 interested parties within 24 hours; within 48 that became 3 serious inquiries. By 72 hours it was down to two people, one came down that day to examine the car, brought a check with him. I really didn't think he was serious and had been certain the other guy would end up with the car. I was wrong; the guy with the check was serious, I needed the money immediately, so I sold it. The other guy was furious and now won't speak to me. I wish to God I'd sold it in auction format, whether on E-Bay or not. I'd have gotten what I paid for it, plus more, instead of taking a $1500 loss. > I do agree with you that one can occasionally find bargain on e-bay > and other auction sites, but it's still npot the same as finding > things on Usenet or hamfests and haggling over the price. R.D., you and others may have more faith that the long-sought- after item in front of you on E-Bay will be available later somewhere else in better shape for even cheaper; I guess I lack faith. When I see what I want and I want it badly enough, I'll pay the going rate to get it. Sometimes I regret it. I do understand taking a stand; I won't eat at the McDonald's that's closest to my office because one day I went there and a busload of school children were on some kind of field trip and being served to the exclusion of adults with 30-minute lunch breaks. The adults supervising the children, and those running the store, could not only not imagine why I was upset, but thought I was out of place for even suggesting that they should have scheduled their trip for another part of the day. I don't like the way they do business so I won't do business with them. Nyah. But I love the new McExtra or whatever it's called and I gotta drive way outta my way to get one because I've chosen to take this stand. Maybe someday, E-Bay will piss me off enough I'll take my business elsewhere. But for now, if I don't like the price, I just don't bid. regards, doug quebbeman

26 years, 2 months

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Looking for F13 keycap for Wyse 50

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

Anybody out there got a dead Wyse 50 keyboard >from which they could spare a keycap for F13? tia, -doug quebbeman

26 years, 2 months

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Something of possible interest to the VAX/VMS Crowd

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

A friend in OZ was looking for info on how MS language translators (old ones) write debugging info into .OBJ files for the old Codeview debugger, and he found this item clearly not related to his search, but of possible interest to friends of VAXen: http://research.compaq.com/SRC/m3sources/html/codeview/src/oldCodeView.m3.ht ml get it while you can, I don't think this site is meant for the perusal of mere mortals... -dq

26 years, 2 months

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Fw: New find: HP 1000 E series

by fmc＠reanimators.org

"Jay West" <west(a)tseinc.com> wrote: > I use 12531 controllers. I do have a few baci boards, but I'm not > sure what docs I have on them. I'll look, but anyone else have this > handy? Looks like I have manuals (installation/service/reference and diagnostic) for these (12966A) and they shouldn't be buried too deep, maybe I can look for them tomorrow or (more likely) this weekend. -Frank McConnell

26 years, 2 months

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The Missing 6809 UniFLEX Archive

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 14, 14:14, healyzh(a)aracnet.com wrote: > OK, for all I know everyone that is interested in such stuff already knows > about this. Possibly, but it's an excellent resource -- and as the web page says, it may not be around for ever (hint). > However, I just ran across this, and it sounds like something > of interest to some of the list members (basically because it's apparently > software for 6809 SWTP boxes). > > Remember I've no idea what this stuff is. It's just what it says it is -- the FLEX and UniFLEX operating system software (related to OS/9) for SWTPC 6809 systems. Randy spent a lot of time and effort tracking this down about five years ago; we exchanged some email because I had what appeared to be some FLEX stuff on 8" but no machine to read it, and Randy eventually found it elsewhere. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 2 months

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Tandy 1000 EX free to good home

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

In a message dated 06/14/2000 7:32:20 PM Eastern Daylight Time, mikeford(a)socal.rr.com writes: > >This unit looks okay but is untested. If anyone has any interest I'll fire > >it up. You can have it for the cost of shipping. It came with a monitor > >(probably mono or CGA), but I doubt anyone wants to pay the freight on it. > > From where? Oops -- forgot to mention I'm in Florida. Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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OT: mechanical computer monitor

by dpeschel＠eskimo.com

We already had the "mechanical fax machine" thread... here's a (partly) mechanical computer monitor. It uses classic technology (the Nipkov, or I think also Nipkow, disk) but it shows a computer-generated digital signal rather than an analog signal. So it's computer-related! :) http://www.media.mit.edu/~rehmi/rotoscope/ The creator wants to make a "wind-up browser" in the same way you can get wind-up radios and flashlights. -- Derek

26 years, 2 months

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Tandy 1000 EX free to good home

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

This unit looks okay but is untested. If anyone has any interest I'll fire it up. You can have it for the cost of shipping. It came with a monitor (probably mono or CGA), but I doubt anyone wants to pay the freight on it. Let me know. Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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Fw: New find: HP 1000 E series

by west＠tseinc.com

----- Original Message ----- From: Jay West <west(a)tseinc.com> To: Carlos Murillo-Sanchez <cem14(a)cornell.edu> Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2000 9:07 PM Subject: Re: New find: HP 1000 E series > You wrote.... > You wrote... > > Slot > > # card description > > ----------------------- > > 25 -empty- > > 24 BACI 12966A > > 23 Jumper > > 22 Jumper > > 21 BACI 12966A > > 20 BACI 12966A > > 17 BACI 12966A (note: no slots are labeled 19 or 18) > > That's because the slot numbering is octal. > > > 16 Jumper > > 15 Jumper > > 14 -empty- > > 13 -empty- > > 12 DISK INTFC 12821A (HPIB; why a second one?) > > 11 DISK INTFC 12821A (HPIB) > > 10 TIMEBASE GEN > > Very likely there is a two board controller missing - did you say you have a > separate 7970 tape drive? If it's non-HP-IB, then those two missing boards > are tape-1 and tape-2. You'd want those :) > > > Slot > > # card description > > ----------------------- > > DCPC D.C.P.C. | Ribbon connector from front fingerpad to bckpln > > 111 MEMORY PROTECT 22-7931 > > 112 MEM 22-2127 > > 113 -empty- > > 114 -empty- > > . . > > . . > > 120 -empty- > > 121 256KW HSM 12749M | these three cards have their left front > > fingerpads > > 122 256KW HSM 12749M | joined by ribbon cable. Right front finger > > pads > > 123 MEM CNTLR 2102E | not connected. > > Memory options - DMA (DCPC), Memory Protect, and Extended Memory ( > 32KW). > > > I did not move the cards around, but again, maybe some cards are > > missing. > > I don't know what OS the system was running. > > RTE, DOS, BCS? I dunno - I'd make a wild stab at what you've said so far > about the machine that it was RTE. > > > I guess that the first thing that I have to do now that I tested the > > power supply and verified that the machine (seems to) turn on, > > is to build a serial console cable for this. I have several cables > > that will fit the BACI boards, but the connectors at the other > > end have been cut off. Does anybody have the pin out for the > > finger pads in the front of the BACI boards? > > I use 12531 controllers. I do have a few baci boards, but I'm not sure what > docs I have on them. I'll look, but anyone else have this handy? > > Jay West >

26 years, 2 months

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Anyone interested in VAX tapes

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

I'd suggest either giving them away (post a "who wants these" sort of message here, for example) or putting them up on eBay. Throwing things in the trash, especially things which...well, aren't trash, is never a good solution. -Dave McGuire On June 14, Mark Champion wrote: > I have 30 small (6" dia) VAX tapes (Opus 6250) and 12 large (7" dia) VAX tapes (Scotch 700). > > I believe the small tapes are 600' x 1/2" and the large tapes are 700' x 1/2". > > I think they have all been written on once. > > Are these worth anything to anyone? > > What should I do with them? Throw them away? Give them away? List on Ebay? > > Mark Champion > Sony Electronics > 206-524-0014 > mark.champion(a)am.sony.com > > > >

26 years, 2 months

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New find: HP 1000 E series

by cem14＠cornell.edu

Well, today I walked by the auto labs in mech engr and found that they had finally finished dismantling this very old combustion/emissions test rig, and the HP1000 computer that ran the whole show had not been hauled away yet. Somebody had laid a claim on it two weeks ago, but since it's so long already and they haven't showed up, the person who handled the decomissioning gave it to me. I have not been able to open the front panel latch because I do not have the key, so I don't know what's in the front card cage; all I know is that there are seven cards, four at the botton and three at the top. In the back cage there are three jumper cards, two 12821A disk interfaces,one "time base generator card", and four cards marked "BACI 12966A" where most of the control I/O was apparently done. There are two big cards below the main card cage, but I haven't got to them yet. I also got several cables; two of them obviously connected the disk interface cards to an HPIB device (an HP 7946 tape drive also came in the lot), while others went to the test rig, and yet another seemed to go to a PC being used as a terminal. Unfortunately, I don't know where the cables were originally connected, as somebody had already pulled all cables off the computer. The machine is very, very dirty; not surprising considering where it came from (a car shop). The fans are full of oil-impregnated dust. I don't plan to power it up until I know more about it. They tell me that it was still functional about three years ago. Apparently nobody has touched it since. So, does anybody have any info on the power supply of this thing so I can test it before applying power to the cards? And, where did the console go in this machine? Best regards, carlos.

26 years, 2 months

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You think you can't find anything! (Was: Ohmygosh... A *few* finds...)

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>>2) This is the "believe it or not" catagory for this >>area: I found a >>copy of Digital Research's Concurrent >>DOS 386, with all docs, slightly >>beat up box but >>otherwise in very good shape, marked $1.00. I >>say: >>"Will ya take 50 >>cents?" They say "sure." Bargain of the day! ;-) > >I have a CCdos 386 kit (release 3)and I've run it. DRI >was on the right >track and it was quite a bit better >than MS-DOS. > >>Usually the landscape is littered with '286s for >>$300.00 (firm). > >I bet the reason there are a lot of them around is the >price! Here thats >a decent 486DX/66(or faster) that can >run winders complete with tube. > >Allison You think you people can't find anything! Pickin's are so slim out here, last time I picked up anything interesting was right about early March or so. My point is simply this: If there is anything I have learned in this long, strange trip that is life, it is to never complain about anything, there is always someone who has it worse than you do. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, MPS-801. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A, TI Speech Synthesizer. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 2 months

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Lexmark Lexbook MB10 power suppply question

by ss＠allegro.com

Hi, I recently found a Lexmark "Lexbook MB10" ... with no docs, no power supply. The back of the computer says the power supply should be 12 V DC, but has no mention of the polarity! Does anyone have this oddball computer, and can they tell me the polarity of the adapter, please? BTW, this Lexbook looks like IBM's answer to the HP Omnibook 425. In web searching, I found several references to other Lexbook models (including the SE10), but none to the MB10. Lexmark's web site was an example of corporate stonewalling (not quite the word I want): since it's obsolete, they have no information on it, and don't even admit (via their search engine) that it might have once existed! Altavista found a single Lexmark.com web page about "Y2K compliance" ...which basically says: hey, it's obsolete, we didn't test it, buy something newer. thanks, Stan Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com www.allegro.com/sieler/wanted/index.html www.allegro.com/sieler

26 years, 2 months

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OT Vast amounts of NASA data in weird formats (Long)

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

Now that the subject line somewhat matches the topic. NASA and other unnamed government agencies collect "LOTS" of data. They have lots of tapes, some ASCII card images on tape, and other raw formats. Now when a project is winding down do you think anyone "cares"/spends money to transfer any data into newer formats. The original software that was written probably handles the data and works OK. I understand that lots of LANDSAT data has cloud cover obscuring it. Do you save even the "apparently" worthless stuff? The first thing any engineer/programmer tries is to pack the data onto the tape as efficiently as possible. 12 bit pixels get stored 2 pixels in every 3 bytes. Everybody used different methods to handle uneven numbers of pixels, including padding, and truncation. How do you decide how the data was stored. I'm sure the paper that documents the data format is detached from the physical tape. The short answer is that when data is collected no one has any idea of what eventually may be done with the data. They only expend as much time, energy, and money as the initial project seems to justify. I will try and find my copy of a GAO report that I purchased on the magnitude of the data storage/retention problem. They had pictures of doors in the data vault being held open by stacks of tapes. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu Data Hound extraordinary, I'm burying my floppy disks for posterity. Maybe we should use gold floppy disks will not oxidize and absorb moisture in any short term interval.

26 years, 2 months

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ASCII e-mail vs iso-8859-1

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 10, R. D. Davis wrote: > Can certain list members who aren't sending standard ASCII text kindly > fix their e-mail software so that they stop sending messagse that > could possibly cause problems for some people using older systems? > > Doesn't it seem a little strange that people who are interested in > computer preservation are sending iso-8859-1 character set messages > instead of normal ASCII to a mailing list where others are likely to > be using older systems to read their e-mail? Once ASCII goes away, > then we've all got problems that would make our older systems very > much incompatible with everything else and less useful. Is not plain > old ASCII one standard that we should value and do our best to keep > from going out of use? I agree 100%. Though I must point out that it has nothing at all to do with "older" or "newer" systems...it's primarily a "windows" or "non-windows" issue. -Dave McGuire

26 years, 2 months

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source for cheap TK50s?

by hofmanwb＠worldonline.nl

In my experience great care is necessary with TK50 tapes.We bought a bunch original DEC tapes recently, but it was necessary to clean heads before reading every time. Wim ---------- > From: Bill Bradford <mrbill(a)mrbill.net> > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: source for cheap TK50s? > Date: Monday, June 12, 2000 12:25 AM > > Anybody know a source for cheap TK50 tapes? I dont mind used... > > Bill > > -- > +--------------------+-------------------+ > | Bill Bradford | Austin, Texas | > +--------------------+-------------------+ > | mrbill(a)sunhelp.org | mrbill(a)mrbill.net | > +--------------------+-------------------+

26 years, 2 months

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8255 PIO

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Anybody knows, if they still are available ? >If yes, where ? Anyplace that sells older Intel chips certainly has them. Jameco, in particular, has both the "regular" and CMOS versions, and with a choice of speed grades: 52724 8255 IC,MPU,8255(D71055C NEC) 3.95 3.59 _____ 52732 8255A-5 IC,MPU,8255A-5(8255AC-2 NEC) 4.95 4.49 _____ 52417 82C55A IC,MPU,82C55A (MB89255A) 3.95 3.59 _____ 52425 82C55A-5 IC,MPU,82C55A-5 3.95 3.59 _____ -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 2 months

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8255 PIO

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

I'd be shocked if you can't get them from Radio Shack. -dq p.s. I got at least one laying around but they're OOP (out of production) I think I'll have to hang onto it. > -----Original Message----- > From: emanuel stiebler [mailto:emu@ecubics.com] > Sent: Wednesday, June 14, 2000 1:49 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: 8255 PIO > > > Hi, > Anybody knows, if they still are available ? > If yes, where ? > > cheers, > emanuel > >

26 years, 2 months

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Looking for Ultrix 4.4

by sethm＠loomcom.com

Hey teen gang, Does anyone have an Ultrix 4.4 (RISC) distribution CD-ROM they'd like to part with, or make a copy of? I have a license but no media, and I'd prefer not to try to deal with the Compaq Empire if I can avoid it. (P.S. - Plus, technically I'm kinda grey on whether the license I have represents a "legitimate transfer of right to use" or not. But since Ultrix is officially a deader-than-dead end-of-lifed "These aren't the droids you're looking for; why don't you talk to our nice Tru64 salespeople?" type of software, I don't really care :) I just want to install the damn thing on a DECstation 5000/200) (P.P.S. - Yes, I know NetBSD is better, and supports DECstations. But I want Ultrix for reasons far beyond the understanding of mortal men.) (P.P.P.S ...Or women.) -Seth

26 years, 2 months

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*Way* OT: Sale of Goods Act

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

Tony Duell wrote: > In the UK, if you buy something from a shop then it has to be 'of > merchantable quality' -- it has to do the job that a reasonable person > would expect that sort of product to do (a computer has to compute, a TV > set has to receive currently-broadcast programmes, a packet of %food has > to be edible, etc). Also, if you ask a shop owner for a product to do a > particular job ('I want a computer to run this word processor package', > 'I want a glue to stick metal') then the product he sells you has to do > that job. Yes but . . . suppose a customer comes in with a software package which has the "System Requirements" listed in the documentation. Customer takes the system, finds out software won't run, even though the stated requirements are met, and returns the system. We replace the system, and the software still won't go. Then we discover that the software is buggy, or finicky. Does the merchant still owe the customer a refund, even though there is no real fault in the hardware? This happened to me, and it wasn't any fun . . . > You can sell a defective item if you point out the defects before sale > 'This computer is an ex-demonstration model, missing box, instructions > and mouse'. In that case I can't complain later that the mouse is > missing. But if, say, the floppy drive doesn't work then I have a right > to a refund. A refund? Or replacement of the defective drive, under warranty?? Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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To get back On Topic

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> What ever happened to that old Modem vendor? > I know Racal Vadic is still kind of around... in other businesses. > Racal Interlan/Micom Interlan is kind of gone. > > Boy have a large number of the "biggies" bit the dust over the last 15 > years. Did Anderson-Jacobsen survive beyond the acoustic coupler days? I have an old unit that could go up to 600 baud using Bell 103a standards, although it was difficult to find anyone who would support 600 baud using Bell 103a; 600 baud was usually Bell 202? (whatever the standard was for 1200 baud). -dq

26 years, 2 months

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TI Professional Computer

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

R.D. Davis wrote: > I still don't see what's wrong with thoroughly examining something > before purchasing it, whether it's used, or new. It makes perfect > sense to take a tool kit into a store where one is shopping for some > random piece of electrical or electronic equipment... might not be a > bad idea when shopping for a car either. Sellam Ismail replied: < R.D. Let's go shopping! Call me the next time you walk into a consumer electronics store or a new car lot, and please bring your toolbox and meter along. I'll bring a camera so I can snap shots of you being forcibly escorted out of the store. > Sellam is right on, here. If someone came into my store and wanted to perform a component-level test on any equipment I had for sale, first I'd assume they were joking, and laugh. If they persisted, I'd have to ask them to leave. If someone gets zapped in my store I'd be liable. Additionally, store personnel don't have the time to watch over such an operation to make sure that the "tester" doesn't damage or steal something. You might be able to get away with this at a hamfest, though. Glen 0/0

26 years, 2 months

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Fwd: RT-11 capable systems in Ann Arbor, MI

by jfoust＠threedee.com

>X-Sender: jfmjfm(a)srvr5.engin.umich.edu (Unverified) >Date: Tue, 13 Jun 2000 09:14:36 -0400 >To: microscopy(a)sparc5.microscopy.com >From: "John F. Mansfield" <jfmjfm(a)engin.umich.edu> > >Subject: Surplus Equipment going cheap (not free). > >I have the following surplus equipment that is destined for the >recycle dumpster if no-one is interested. > >1. Two Tracor TN5500 XEDS systems. > a. One system has a 30Meg hard disk drive, two 5.25 Syquest >removable hard disks (both failed) and two floppy disks one 5.25" and >one 8". There are actually two 5.25" disks and two 8" disks in a >separate subsystem, but the hard ware only supports two floppies at >one time and so we have one of each set up. A standard Tracor >keyboard with keypad and monitor is supplied. The system does not >have a printer. We modified it so it would run without a printer and >if we need print out we have a couple of switch boxes that directs >the print out to a Mac (PC can be substituted). We also have the HP >plot software and this is directed to a program on the Mac that can >then send the plot to a laser printer or can save it for pasting into >word processing documents. >The system has the imaging package that will allow the computer to >control the microscope (it is setup for a JEOL 2000FX) and record >STEM and SEM images and XEDS maps. The software includes SMTF and >SQMTF. The system has an almost new refurbished light element >detector (detects down to C). System also has a license for RT-11, >the DEC operating system and it can run an FTP server for removal of >spectra and images to a remote computer. Make an offer. > > b. The second system is floppy based and also has imaging >which is setup for an SEM whose manufacturer evades my memory, but if >anyone is interested I will obviously find out for you. This system >has a Be window XEDS detector with it. Make an offer. > >2. Liquid nitrogen cold stage for JEOL 2000 FX Gatan double tilt (old >model 613 upgraded to double tilt). Sample airlock pumps dewar jacket. >Make an offer. > >3. A Perkin Elmer 5400 data acquisition computer (6809 chip running IDRIS). > >I also have a Be window XEDS detector that is non functional that >fits the high angle port of a JEOL 2000FX > >In each case the buyer pays shipping. > >-- > >Dr. John Mansfield CPhys MInstP >North Campus Electron Microbeam Analysis Laboratory >417 SRB, University of Michigan >2455 Hayward, Ann Arbor MI 48109-2143 >Phone: (734) 936-3352 FAX (734) 763-2282 >Cellular Phone: (734) 358-7555 >(Leaving a phone message at 936-3352 is preferable to 358-7555) >Email: jfmjfm(a)engin.umich.edu >URL: http://emalwww.engin.umich.edu/people/jfmjfm/jfmjfm.html >Location: Lat. 42? 16' 48" Long. 83? 43' 48"

26 years, 2 months

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OT Now: Re: TI Professional Computer

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Although I believe a later edition of the Guide that fell through a > temporal vortex described the Marketing Department of the Sirius > Cybernetics Corporation as "a bunch of mindless jerks who > _were_ the first > up against the wall when the revolution came". > > Now where did I leave my Peril Sensitive Sunglasses? Right next to your SEP field generator.... :-) -dq

26 years, 2 months

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OT Now: Re: TI Professional Computer

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> *heh* I think it was the marketing department at the Cirrus > Cybernetics > company who were a bunch of mindless jerks who would be first > up against the > wall when the revolution comes. > > Killing all the lawyers comes from Shakespeare. Richard III

26 years, 2 months

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