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

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Whoa, I'm more than a little stunned, of course it was only a matter of time. It looks like someone has been working on a VAX emulator, also sounds like he might be interested in some help. Apparently it won't boot VMS :^( but it will run some assembler programs. It's Mac only, but since it's a Codewarrior project written using SIOUX it should be portable to UNIX. http://users.vnet.net/cole/evax.html 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.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |

27 years, 4 months

1
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Dr. Dobbs..

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

Hi Sam and all, At 12:53 PM 12/8/98 -0800, you wrote: >> Reading through this stuff, I'm reminded that I don't have copies of the >> earlier PCC stuff or any of the earlier club newsletters. Photocopy >> trades, anyone? > >I need copies of the PCC newsletter and volume 1 of the Homebrew Computer >Club newsletter (I have Vol 2- the end). How long did HBCC go? I have Volume 2, No 1 with Bill G's open letter and many after. Maybe The Vol. 2 No 1 will fetch a good price to go with some microsoft employee's Altair :-). Am sure I have some earlier ones (1975) someplace??? Speaking of "Single instance" things, what about documentation? (Not too much with commercial HW yet..) I have the 4 issues of the Scelbi newsletter, looks like they were printed on an asr 33, like a lot of their stuff. Also have now the 10 issues of "Computer Hobbyist". Anyone have any of the "Amateur Computer Society" newsletters? -Dave > >Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >------------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Always being hassled by the man. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 12/07/98] > > >

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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BCS Computer Conservation Society in the UK

by dastar＠ncal.verio.com

Are you folks in the UK aware of the BCS Computer Conservation Society? http://www.galactic.co.uk/iainf/ccs.html It seems like they have some good vintage computer activies going on there. Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Always being hassled by the man. Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! [Last web site update: 12/07/98]

27 years, 4 months

1
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Up for grabs: Unusual video cable

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 12:27 PM 12/10/98 +1030, you wrote: >-----Original Message----- >From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> >To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers ><classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> >Date: Thursday, 10 December 1998 3:10 >Subject: Up for grabs: Unusual video cable > > >>Still finding more junk ^H^H^H^H er, ah, treasures. Found this video cable >>but I have no idea what it's for. It looks like a 13W3 cable for a Sun >>computer but only has the three co-axial connectors in the plug and no >>pins. The plug is the same size as a DB-15. The other end of the cable has >>the usual three BNC connectors for a RGB monitor. > >Sounds a bit like a Digital Vaxstation monitor cable. Does it have a part >no on it and/or a |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| logo? > No, that would have been too easy. The name on it is "Advanced Interconnect", there are a couple of numbers on it "6247661-P001" and "PAM3W3P 9032". > >>Send beer money plus >>postage and this wonderfull treasure will be your's. > > >I think the postage to Oz might be prohibitive, or I would. I'd settle for some of that good Aussie beer :-) :-) :-) :-) Joe > >Cheers > >Geoff Roberts >Computer Systems Manager >Saint Marks College >Port Pirie South Australia. >My ICQ# is 1970476 >Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile) > 61-8-8633-0619 (Home) > 61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct) > 61-8-8633-0104 (Fax) > >

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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single instance machines

by dogas＠leading.net

Joe, was this a response for the basic/four ? -----Original Message----- From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 6:50 PM Subject: Re: single instance machines >At 11:58 AM 12/9/98 -0800, you wrote: >> >>No, I have one also. >> - don > > What do you have for your's? Do you have any of the manuals? I have >quite a few but I'd like to get copies of any that I don't have, especially >the service manuals for the 8" disk drives. > > Joe > >

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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single instance machines

by dogas＠leading.net

;) How about a basic/four model 1300... Mike: dogas(a)leading.net

27 years, 4 months

5
5
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WHOOPEE!

by scott＠isd.canberra.edu.au

At 19:26 8/12/98 +0000, ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: >All devices 'directly >or indirectly connected' to the phone system have to be approved. This >includes acoustic couplers, BTW, which have to be unable to send certain >tones down the line. Doesn't that mean that, in theory at least, all FM radios would have to be approved if you wanted to listen to a talkback radio programme where people called in via the phone? Surely that would mean your FM radio was (indirectly) connected to the phone system. I would have thought it would also mean that your computer would have to be approved if it were "indirectly" connected to the phone system via a modem. Or is the legislation worded carefully enough to avoid this? Regards, | Scott McLauchlan |E-Mail: scott(a)cts.canberra.edu.au | | Network Services Team |Phone : +61 2 6201 5544 (Ext.5544)| | Client Services Division |Post : University of Canberra, | | University of Canberra, AUSTRALIA | ACT, 2601, AUSTRALIA. |

27 years, 4 months

1
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single instance machines

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 02:27 PM 12/9/98 -0700, you wrote: > >> On Wed, 9 Dec 1998, Joe wrote: > >> > Hmmm. I have two AT&T 3B1 model 310s. Does that count as one or two? > ^^^ > >Whazzat? That's a brain-fart. It should have said 3B2. > >Anyway, I got ~~20 unixpc/7300/3b1 in various stages of operation --> >decomposition. Sounds like my 6300s. Joe

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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DataGeneral "Eagle" ?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< that was backward compatible with the Nova, and subject of the book "Sou < the New Machine". The project codename was Eagle, but I don't recall wh < the machine was called when it was actually produced. Eclipse, as it was supposed to overshadow the VAX and was consistant with earlier celestial naming (Nova). Allison

27 years, 4 months

1
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Fw: Giving away Amiga500

by dburrows＠netpath.net

In case anyone is interested - from newsgroup. Dan -----Original Message----- From: Justin <jcla(a)pasteur.dialix.com.au> Newsgroups: misc.forsale.computers.workstation Date: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 6:32 AM Subject: Giving away Amiga500 >That's right! >I have one Amiga 500 with Monitor and TV adapter. > >It belonged to a relative and is in top condition. > >Reason: I am moving and it was one of those projects that I never got >around to. > >You have until Friday night to respond, otherwise it goes in the trash. > >oh, and you have to work out how to pick it up. >Cheers, >Justin.

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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RT-11 v2.0 manual set question

by A_Finney＠wfi-inc.com

Hi, Thanks to the generous loan of three big binders full of RT-11 v2 manuals, I now have 20 megs of tiff images that might be of interest to others as well. Three questions: 1) Is anyone aware of the current copyright status of these documents? Can I give copies of such old manuals (1976) without worrying about possible legal implications? 2) Depending on a favorable reply to question #1, would it benefit anyone to have these available on-line? I currently have them broken into chapters, anywhere from 600k to 4megs each (8.5"x11"@300dpi, BW) 3) If we got this far and they're going to be available over the internet, does anyone have any requests to make specific formats available? I could also make PDF and PostScript versions, or even make a wild attempt at OCRing them (thought that would destroy tables/graphics)... Aaron C. Finney Systems Administrator WFI Incorporated ------------------------------------------------------------------------ "UNIX is an exponential algorithm with a seductively small constant."

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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Up for grabs: Unusual video cable

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

-----Original Message----- From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Thursday, 10 December 1998 3:10 Subject: Up for grabs: Unusual video cable >Still finding more junk ^H^H^H^H er, ah, treasures. Found this video cable >but I have no idea what it's for. It looks like a 13W3 cable for a Sun >computer but only has the three co-axial connectors in the plug and no >pins. The plug is the same size as a DB-15. The other end of the cable has >the usual three BNC connectors for a RGB monitor. Sounds a bit like a Digital Vaxstation monitor cable. Does it have a part no on it and/or a |d|i|g|i|t|a|l| logo? >Send beer money plus >postage and this wonderfull treasure will be your's. I think the postage to Oz might be prohibitive, or I would. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Systems Manager Saint Marks College Port Pirie South Australia. My ICQ# is 1970476 Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile) 61-8-8633-0619 (Home) 61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct) 61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)

27 years, 4 months

1
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Fw: Giving away Amiga500

by scott＠isd.canberra.edu.au

At 19:36 9/12/98 -0500, Daniel T. Burrows <dburrows(a)netpath.net> wrote: >In case anyone is interested - from newsgroup. >Dan >-----Original Message----- >From: Justin <jcla(a)pasteur.dialix.com.au> >Newsgroups: misc.forsale.computers.workstation >Date: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 6:32 AM >Subject: Giving away Amiga500 > > >>That's right! >>I have one Amiga 500 with Monitor and TV adapter. >> >>It belonged to a relative and is in top condition. >> >>Reason: I am moving and it was one of those projects that I never got >>around to. >> >>You have until Friday night to respond, otherwise it goes in the trash. >> >>oh, and you have to work out how to pick it up. >>Cheers, >>Justin. Just to help anyone who's interested, it seems this A500 is in Adelaide (pasteur.dialix.com.au is Dialix's Adelaide server). Regards, | Scott McLauchlan |E-Mail: scott(a)cts.canberra.edu.au | | Network Services Team |Phone : +61 2 6201 5544 (Ext.5544)| | Client Services Division |Post : University of Canberra, | | University of Canberra, AUSTRALIA | ACT, 2601, AUSTRALIA. |

27 years, 4 months

1
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DataGeneral "Eagle" ?

by jim＠calico.litterbox.com

Hi. It occurred to me to wonder if anyone has the 32bit Data General machine that was backward compatible with the Nova, and subject of the book "Soul of the New Machine". The project codename was Eagle, but I don't recall what the machine was called when it was actually produced. Heh. Serious collectable would be Gallifrey Eagle or one of the other 3 prototype machines. :) -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

27 years, 4 months

2
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single instance machines

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

I also own a 3b1. What was special about the model 310? Jeff On Wed, 09 Dec 1998 14:44:58 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes: > >>> Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote: >>> > I've always wanted to know which machines have only a single >instance >>> > represented on this list. >>> > > Hmmm. I have two AT&T 3B1 model 310s. Does that count as one or >two? >AFIK I have the only Tek 4051. > > Joe > > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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Indexing Byte

by rcini＠msn.com

On Tue, 08 Dec 1998 08:36:08 -0600, John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> wrote: >>The article compendiums that are offered for Byte, >>DDJ, etc. are interesting, but so are the ads, and they aren't included. I think that the ads are fantastic. I was about 13 in 1980, and I remember going to the public library to read these mags. So, when I see these ads I sort of have Deja Vu. If you look at the Bytes from 1978 through 1983, you can see the change in focus among the hardware platforms. It's sort of like watching a flower bloom in slow motion. [ Rich Cini/WUGNET [ ClubWin!/CW7 [ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking [ Collector of "classic" computers [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/ <================ reply separator =================>

27 years, 4 months

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FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable.

by Watzman＠ibm.net

The Northstar disk system was quite an item in its day, when it came out it was the lowest price floppy disk system on the market, by about half (it was under $500, and most other SINGLE drive systems were $1,000). That's because it was the FIRST commercially available system to use a 5.25" drive rather than an 8" drive. The drive was the Shugart SA-400, I believe (could have the number wrong), a full-size 5.25" drive. As used by Northstar, it was a 35 track drive with ten sectors per track (hard sectored), 256 bytes per sector, I think, total capacity as formatted was 80k or so (with some reserved area) (single sided, single density, of course). The controller was dumb, mostly just gates controlled by software. To step the drive, the software wrote alternating, and properly timed, "1's" and "0's" to a port or an address (my recollection is that the controller was memory mapped). All of the work was done at a very low level in the operating system, which was also dumb, it only supported contiguous files and you had to "compact" the disk whenever holes were created by deleting a file. Many of us made our first move from paper or (audio) magnetic tape to disk with this system, and crude as the system was, it was a HUGE advance at the time. And a small New York city software firm, Lifeboat associates, became quite prominent in part because they managed to put CP/M on the Northstar system, a major feat at the time as CP/M had been pretty much exclusively set up for standard 8" SSSD drives (in fact, in versions 1.3 and to a lesser extent 1.4, it was hard coded this way in the BDOS, but in version 2.2 it became table driven so that other formats were more easily accommodated). The two principles in Lifeboat I knew quite well, Tony Gold, who was mostly a promoter, sales type and businessman, and I can't remember the name of the primary programmer who did most of the actual software development work, but at the time I knew him quite well and worked closely with him on porting CP/M to the Heathkit products. I will remember his name shortly after I "send" this message. I still have source code (disassembled and commented) for the Northstar Disk operating system. Barry Watzman ---------- From: Jeffrey l Kaneko [SMTP:jeff.kaneko@juno.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 09, 1998 9:53 AM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable. Joe: Okay, I have something that may interest you. One of Northstar's first products, was a floppy disk drive, that could be used with Altairs (among others). I have a pair of these 5.25" drives in an aluminum/wooden cabinet. There are inscriptions inside giving dates that it was built up, upgraded, etc. I don't remember the exact dates, but it seems that it was built in 1977. I have reason to believe the drives are original; one still has the N* nameplate attached thereto. The wooden top cover is in decent shape, has a small bit of wood chipped from a front corner. If this is interesting, I can get more particulars-- especially corrolation of the dates with the actual Altair/Imsai/N* product release timelines. Jeff On Wed, 09 Dec 1998 08:45:24 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes: >Jeff, > > That one is sold but I have another one that's still new in the bag. > I'm >looking for anything for my Altair, anything for my Tektronix 4051 or >HP >calculator or computer stuff. Machines, parts, manuals or whatever. > > Joe > >At 08:31 PM 12/8/98 -0600, you wrote: >>Joe: >> >>I could sure use this. WHat sort of trades are you looking for? >> >>Jeff >> >>On Tue, 08 Dec 1998 14:17:39 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes: >>>Commodore marked cable with a card edge connector on one end and a >>>male/female GPIB connectors on the other. Contact me if interested. >>> >>> Joe >>> >>> >> >>___________________________________________________________________ >>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. >>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at >http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html >>or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] >> > > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 4 months

1
0
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Kaypro 2X questions

by rhblake＠bigfoot.com

Just got an IMMACULATE Kaypro 2X machine, with all the original disks. It doesn't have the keyboard cable though, but I imagine it will use the same type as most terminal keyboards that have modular phone type connectors? The port on back is clearly marked keyboard so no big deal there. Also on back is another modular, a little bigger but unmarked. Is this possibly a modem or what else could it be? Anyone have any manuals for the actual machine they want to sell, trade or copy?

27 years, 4 months

3
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FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Okay, I have something that may interest you. One of Northstar's < first products, was a floppy disk drive, that could be used with < Altairs (among others). I have a pair of these 5.25" drives in an < aluminum/wooden cabinet. Yes, the board and the drive were released about the same time as their z80 cpu. it was late '76. The NS* horizon box with the wood cover and all (about 20" wide) was later by nearly a year in mid'77 for shipments as kits. < upgraded, etc. I don't remember the exact dates, but it seems that < it was built in 1977. About right. < < I have reason to believe the drives are original; one still has the < N* nameplate attached thereto. The wooden top cover is in decent < shape, has a small bit of wood chipped from a front corner. Very common. Mine is near mint. < If this is interesting, I can get more particulars-- especially < corrolation of the dates with the actual Altair/Imsai/N* product < release timelines.

27 years, 4 months

1
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FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable.

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Sorry guys-- I'm sorry about all of the private mail here on the list. I keep forgetting to watch those %$#^*&$*$#^ addresses! Damn. Jeff ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 4 months

3
2
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Need an IBM 9309-2 Rack Enclosure

by cfandt＠netsync.net

Hi gang, I need your help in finding something. Some of you know I rescued an IBM 9370 system from my now-ex employer in mid-'97. It is considered as a small mainframe; a CMOS version of the S/370. I could only fit the racked components into the old house back then, not the two rather large rack enclosures (too wide and deep and weighed over 139 kg or 300+ pounds). Also, I certainly could not keep the 500+ pound 3262-5 printer! So, I had to scrap those large items. At that time, I carefully stacked the DASD (disk drives) upon a sturdy wooden crate and made a hefty roll-around pallet for the previously rack-mounted 9375-60 Processor (weighs 132 kg or just over 290 pounds.) The 9347 tape drive was set upon the 9375-60. I cabled everything up and set to getting it IPL'd. The system uses a PS/2 Model 30 (8086) as the System Console and IPL device. Some sort of failure occured at IPL that I could not debug so I let it set as we got rather busy looking for, buying, fixing up and ultimately moving into this house. It looks like I will be able to just squeeze a 9309-2 rack down through the basement door and stairway in this new house. Therefore, I'm looking for a single IBM 9309 Model 2 rack enclosure. Should be empty. I already have a Power Control Compartment, operator panel and wiring I salvaged from the old racks. A six or ten inch stabilizer (anti-tipover stabilizer) would also be desired. The catch is that it should be sort of nearby my hometown in Western NY State. Shipping would be too costly otherwise. I'm unemployed up to now and should save my severance pay for real bills and more remodeling of this house. See sig below for location. However, I can pay for gas money and meals for anyone who rolls one into their pickup truck and hauls it out here! :-) You see, I have what is understood as being Serial Number One of the 9370 production release. My employer bought the first 9370 available when we upgraded our data processing system in 1987 from the old Hewlett-Packard HP250-30 system (which is also in my collection!). Now that we have a house in which a Model 2 rack enclosure should just fit into the basement door and stairs, I want to give the 9375-60 processor, 9347 tape drive and several 9332-400 DASD's a decent place to live as it is a bit historically significant being system S/N 1. These 9309 racks were used not just for 9370's but for other IBM machines such as the early AS/400's and other systems and/or their mass storage devices, so they should be around. More and more of these old systems are being taken out of service and usually junked nowadays. Let me know if you hear of or have any 9309-2 racks!! Or even the shorter 9309-1 racks (need two of 'em then.) Thanks so much for the help! Sincerely, Chris -- -- ======================================================= Christian R. Fandt Phone: +716-488-1722 31 Houston Avenue email: cfandt(a)netsync.net Jamestown, New York 14701-2627 USA

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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test..

by daveygf＠aol.com

Test of http://www.egroups.com

27 years, 4 months

1
0
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Free Software

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Wed, 9 Dec 1998 ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote: > Or, of course, released some of his software under a different license. > AFAIK, nobody, not even RMS, has to release anything under the GPL if > they don't want to. *sigh* It's politics again, as the whole OSS thing. There is the concept that releasing source code with the program is good, and then there is everything else, like stuff about Linux being renamed to GNU/Linux, etc. They're just being pedantic, and whoever wins gets the throne though there is no real issue to fight over (and no real throne) > -tony > ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

27 years, 4 months

1
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Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?

by Arlen.Michaels.amichael＠nt.com

On Sun, 6 Dec 1998, "Richard A. Cini, Jr." <rcini(a)msn.com> wrote: > Does anyone have the 1/83 issue of Byte Magazine? In it is part 3 of an > article by Steve Ciarcia about the MPX-16 PC-compatible SBC. I have parts > 1 > and 2, so I need the third. > I see Barry beat me to it and found the article for you. I actually have Ciarcia's original prototypes for the MPX-16 motherboard, and some paperwork >from his project file. Do you suppose I should e-bay them into university tuition for my kids? :) If you can't find what you need in the Byte article, it's possible there's more info buried in the notes I got from Steve. Arlen -- Arlen Michaels amichael(a)nortelnetworks.com

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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(Linux != UNIX)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 05:34 PM 12/8/98 -0600, Doug Yowza wrote: >According to the interview I read (from 1996), Stallman considers Linux to >be the fullfillment of his mission to make Unix free, but he might be a >bit unhappy that Linus is seen as the creator of something that couldn't >have been pulled off without his help. Linux would be a sorry joke >without GNU. Can't wait to hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth with the first release of the first Microsoft Linux CD. - John

27 years, 4 months

3
2
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Altair Collectors Association

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< > After reading some of the sentiments posted recently, what I'm < > hearing is that the price of Altair's is a bubble without < > underlying value, that is, they may be somewhat rare but aren't < > really great machines, like a Ferarri or whatever, and that < > the BASIC software for it wasn't very innovative. < < < That's basically my view. Same here. Historically important but generally poor design. I'd say machines like the NorthStar Horizon, CCS 2xxx series and CompuPro systems did more to put systems in business and other non hobby applications. I have several old enough to vote and they still run well. < > Also the Altair was a very open hardware platform, you had < > the schematics, you got the educational experience of No one would have bought it without! Assembling it would have been far harder too!

27 years, 4 months

4
3
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x86 OS's

by gareth.knight2＠which.net

Hans Franke wrote: >The Web-Disk runs perfectly on a 8 MB machine and I can't find any >information to have 640K plus 8MB, which would be a rather unusual >configuration for a PC, since you need a 12 SIMM slot board with >8x1MB + 4x256K, And 256 KB SIMs have been only a very short >time (back in the age of '286es and '386es) widely available. What type of machine are you trying to boot it on? I've tried to run in on a Compaq 486 33MHz with 8Mb. It goes through the booting process until it reachs 100% and then states that the machine does not have enough memory to run. Of course I have no idea about PC memory, the Amiga appears simple compared to a PC :) Also, the Compaq has a weird non-standard interface that connects the 3.5 IDE hard drive to the board. Does anyone know where you can find these type of connectors in the UK. I've tried Compaq but they say that they haven't had any of these for years. -- Gareth Knight Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856 http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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FYI HP-HIL Re: OT HP vectra networking

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

FYI >To: "Jason Willgruber" <roblwill(a)usaor.net> >From: Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> >Subject: HP-HIL Re: OT HP vectra networking >In-Reply-To: <01be219c$1fad04c0$bb8ea6d1@the-general> > >FYI > > >Jason, > >At 08:43 PM 12/6/98 -0800, you wrote: >>Hi! >> >>The connector on my Vectra has two dots on the 'cable' of the plug depicted >>above the connector. I"m assuming that this means I can connect two devices >>to the one connector? > > No, the two dots tells you which end of the HP_HIL cable to plug into that port. They have nothing to do with how many things you can connect to the port. The two ends of the cables are different electrically but the same physically. You have to be sure and match the number of dots on the socket with the number of dots on the plug that you plug into it. Most of the HIL devices have two ports, one that goes back to the computer (maybe through another device) and the second port lets you hang even more HIL devices on the chain. Within limits, you can hang as many HP-HIL devices as you like on the port. I think the only limitaion is the amount of power that the computer can supply to the devices. Generally that means about 9 devices. However, most people only put a keyboard and mouse on there. >> >>What would you want for a mouse (someone offered me a keyboard for the cost >>of shipping if he can get it)? Do I need any special drivers to the mouse, >>or is it automatically recognized? > > It's recognized automaticly but some software won't use it. For example, there's only one piece of software for the HP 150 Touch Screen II that will use the mouse. I expect the newer HP-UX software will make more use of it. > > Joe >> >>ThAnX, >>-- >> -Jason Willgruber

27 years, 4 months

2
5
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WHOOPEE!

by netcafe＠pirie.mtx.net.au

-----Original Message----- From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, 8 December 1998 13:35 Subject: Re: WHOOPEE! >If you think the first paragraph is bad, you should try the UK at about >the same time. You had to rent the entire modem from the GPO (Post >Office, who also ran the telephone system). And you had to have a >'barrier box' (a box containing zeners and fuses) on the RS232 port of >the modem, just in case your terminal decided to send mains down to the >modem. Australia was almost as bad. The then PMG Dept. (The phone 'company' was part of the Post Office at that time) were rather hostile about plugging anything but a phone in. Initially a "line isolation" unit was required between any 3rd party device and the phone, and only a PMG technician could install it. Eventually, they started to test and approve the modems etc themselves, but it was virtually impossible to get anything homebuilt through that process, since it involved providing examples for the PMG to test to destruction by pouring enourmous voltages into them to ensure that they would not permit said destructive voltage to reach the phone system. Even now, we can't legally use modems that are not Austel approved, even if they are ok under FCC or British Telecom regs. There was a time when lots of BBS's ran illegal HST Modems, which were not imported into Australia, and hence not type approved at the time. Cheers Geoff Computer Room Internet Cafe Port Pirie South Australia. netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au

27 years, 4 months

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Fujitsu 9-track tape drive available

by eric＠fudge.uchicago.edu

My boss has just told me to get rid of the Fujitsu 9-track tape drive that's been sitting unused in the corner of our machine room for the past several years. It's about ten years old, its model number is M2444A, and I think it uses an SMD interface. It's in a 5-foot-tall rack. The bottom of the rack also contains three hard disks of unknown capacity. If you want it, you'll have to pick it up in Chicago. Is anyone interested? eric

27 years, 4 months

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Up for grabs: IBM 8" floppy drive

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Still house cleaning. I scrapped an IBM 3274 but saved the floppy drive. If anyone has a use for it, it's your's for $10 and shipping. It has a connector for a ribbon cable and not the normal card edge connector and it appears to be a double sided drive. I also have the manuals for the 3274 that I'll throw in. Joe

27 years, 4 months

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New Altair Computers website!

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

The $12,000 bid DID actually happen. She didn't win the auction. I think no one reached that particular auction price since the reserve was not met. Anyways, its just a way to hype my website.. Heheh. Daivd

27 years, 4 months

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Scanning Fiche

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

While this might be considered more than a little off topic, I don't think so, since a lot of us have classic computer documentation in the form of MicroFiche. Does anyone know of a method of scanning this stuff into a computer, or any idea as to what resolution of a scanner such a project would require? I've thought a 35mm slide scanner would work well, but I don't believe they are constructed in such a manner that you could scan the fiche without destroying it. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.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.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ |

27 years, 4 months

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news on the c64

by jim＠calico.litterbox.com

Some time ago I mentioned a commodore 64 I'd been given and that I'd used the mother board to experiment with washing the motherboard in the dishwasher with favorable results. Well, today I finally got the replacement keyboard from Creative Micro Designs (CMD) along with a cable to connect the thing to a composite monitor I got with the thing. 10 minutes of surgery and I have a functional c64 again. Celebrated by typing in the "Michael row your boat ashore" program in the manual. Whee. :) Scarey thing is the catalog they sent me, with all kinds of drives, a speedup system, hard disks, and so on. I think I need to get rid of this machine before it sucks more money out of me. -- Jim Strickland jim(a)DIESPAMMERSCUMcalico.litterbox.com ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Vote Meadocrat! Bill and Opus in 2000 - Who ELSE is there? -----------------------------------------------------------------------

27 years, 4 months

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FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable.

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Joe: Okay, I have something that may interest you. One of Northstar's first products, was a floppy disk drive, that could be used with Altairs (among others). I have a pair of these 5.25" drives in an aluminum/wooden cabinet. There are inscriptions inside giving dates that it was built up, upgraded, etc. I don't remember the exact dates, but it seems that it was built in 1977. I have reason to believe the drives are original; one still has the N* nameplate attached thereto. The wooden top cover is in decent shape, has a small bit of wood chipped from a front corner. If this is interesting, I can get more particulars-- especially corrolation of the dates with the actual Altair/Imsai/N* product release timelines. Jeff On Wed, 09 Dec 1998 08:45:24 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes: >Jeff, > > That one is sold but I have another one that's still new in the bag. > I'm >looking for anything for my Altair, anything for my Tektronix 4051 or >HP >calculator or computer stuff. Machines, parts, manuals or whatever. > > Joe > >At 08:31 PM 12/8/98 -0600, you wrote: >>Joe: >> >>I could sure use this. WHat sort of trades are you looking for? >> >>Jeff >> >>On Tue, 08 Dec 1998 14:17:39 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes: >>>Commodore marked cable with a card edge connector on one end and a >>>male/female GPIB connectors on the other. Contact me if interested. >>> >>> Joe >>> >>> >> >>___________________________________________________________________ >>You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. >>Get completely free e-mail from Juno at >http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html >>or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866] >> > > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 4 months

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FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable.

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Joe: I could sure use this. WHat sort of trades are you looking for? Jeff On Tue, 08 Dec 1998 14:17:39 Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes: >Commodore marked cable with a card edge connector on one end and a >male/female GPIB connectors on the other. Contact me if interested. > > Joe > > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 4 months

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Unusual Apple keyboard

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I found an odd Apple keyboard yesterday. It says that it's an Apple Adjustable keyboard. The main keyboard hinges in the middle and you can bend it so that each half faces out at and angle. It also has an oversize space bar. The numeric keypad is a separate piece and connects by cable. Besides the numeric keys, it has cursor keys, 15 Pf keys and Help, Home, End, Page Up and Page Down keys. The keyboard also came with an Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II. Does anyone know anything about these? I've never seen one before but they look pretty neat. Joe

27 years, 4 months

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VAX 8350 in Houston,Texas.

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

Saw this in comp.os.vms I'd take it myself, but I'd have to mortgage the Town Hall to pay the freight. Anyone want a VERY well equipped, complete, older Vax, with loads of parts and docs etc? -----Original Message----- From: Kent Rankin <kentrankin(a)theatreorgans.com> Newsgroups: comp.os.vms Date: Tuesday, 8 December 1998 18:01 Subject: What is a VAX 8350 fully loaded worth? > > A friend of mine has a VAX 8350 that he picked up recently. It's quite >a large setup, to say the least. I was wondering if someone could tell me >what I should get(at least) for it for him, and what I could get for it. >Here's what it has: > > VAX 8350 with 2 processors > SA482 Storage array loaded with 3 RA82(6.22MB) drives That's a typo I think, they are 622Mb each. And 64KG! > A giant 200amp power conditioner that looks just like the VAX > A TU81-Plus Tape drive > Two DMB32-M things. I think that they are multiplexors > Anyone know about them? > Two LA120 printers. One DA model, and one AA model. > A LA75 printer > A VT420 terminal(JA model) > Five DECServer200/DL Terminal Servers. Anyone know what > the DL stands for? > > I think that is all that is included, but I could be wrong. I'm >notreally sure as to what cards are in it(besides the TU81 Plus' interface). > > The box has absolutely TONS of packages from DEC on it with the >licenses. The manuals are all there, and many of them have extras that are >shrinkrapped. Many spare parts for the machine are new, and in DEC boxes, >still wrapped. There are boxes and boxes of new manuals, to give you an >idea. > > The machine was on maintenance until September of 1998. Plus, as an >added bonus, it has the whole Y2k support package. >I do know that all of the packages are very recent versions, and that >OpenVMS 7.0 is loaded on it. > > It was used(until upgraded) with MANY terminals running off of it for >basic business uses, and for calculating the lights(andtheir positions) >needed in a stadium, and is in perfect condition. > > Anyhow, anyone have any ideas on the pricing? Perhaps a good outlet for >me to sell it? > > > Thanks in advance, > Kent Rankin Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Systems Manager Saint Marks College Port Pirie South Australia. My ICQ# is 1970476 Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile) 61-8-8633-0619 (Home) 61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct) 61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)

27 years, 4 months

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VAX collectors attention

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

-----Original Message----- From: Huw Davies <H.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Wednesday, 9 December 1998 15:19 Subject: Re: VAX collectors attention >Well, anyone passing is more than welcome to drop in and I'll provide a >guided tour for free. If I ever get to Melbourne again, I'll be sure and take you up on that. :^) > In the near future I'm going to have the Fifth Annual >Junk Room Clearance. I guess this will only be of interest to local readers I guess I must be local on this scale. I'd be interested. :^) >but I'll attempt to provide a list of what we plan to junk. It will make interesting reading I'm sure. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Systems Manager Saint Marks College Port Pirie South Australia. My ICQ# is 1970476 Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile) 61-8-8633-0619 (Home) 61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct) 61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)

27 years, 4 months

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New Altair Computers website!

by altair8800＠hotmail.com

>From: Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> > >I think the highest recorded sale for an Altair was around $5000, which is >still absurd, but only by an order of magnitude or so. > >-- Doug It was exactly $5000, Doug. It was a pristine perfect example. But Uncle Sam will get well over $1K of it. So think of it partly as a nice donation to your government and all the good that money will do for us. Bob Wood Bob Wood Bob Wood ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 4 months

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Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next

by Arlen.Michaels.amichael＠nt.com

On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, "Barry A. Watzman" <Watzman(a)ibm.net> wrote: > Myself and another individual are trying to find the source of a = > magazine article which describes a modification to the IMSAI CP-A front = > panel. > > The title of the article is "The Slow-Stepping Debugger" by Howard = > Bendrot. > > We believe that it was published between 1976 and 1979, probably in = > 1977. We believe it is likely that it was published in Kilobaud = > Microcomputing magazine, and there is some suspicion that it may have = > been on Page 60. But none of this is confirmed, and we don't have these = > magazines to verify this. > > Can anyone identify the Magazine, issue and page number of this article = > for certain ? > > Thanks, > Barry Watzman > I have the article in front of me. It is indeed on p. 60 of Kilobaud, issue #4, April 1977. It's a one-page description of how to alter the single-step mode to add a slow-step capability (so you don't have to keep pounding on the step switch). Arlen -- Arlen Michaels amichael(a)nortelnetworks.com

27 years, 4 months

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Altair Collectors Association

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Don't forget the S-100 bus was really invented at MITS on the Altair. The mits version of it was not the most compatable version and by 79 it was the most incompatable version. It was a poorly conceived bus and badly organized. The fact that systems worked using it was a result of other vendors efforts to clean it up. Even MITS had to toss in the towel and do an 8800B. The signals on the 100 pin connector are identical to the intellec8I. Allison

27 years, 4 months

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Altair Collectors Association

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Hell, Allison, your Horizon should be about old enough to drink. < Legally, if silicon-based lifeforms had rights, and could get ID. Officially the CPU and MDS disk are 21 as they were assembled in early 1977. The s100 crate was an early '78 assembly so that's only 20. It turns 21 in two months. It's still in use. Allison

27 years, 4 months

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Altair Collectors Association

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Us: Auntie Allison, tell us about the early days of microcomputing. By then I was an Aunt... < Allison: Well, in my day, we didn't have these fancy GUIs and Plug n Pla Well we did, they were funny to look at so we didn't bother being learned to read write and cypher. < We had to write our own operating systems! And we had to haul ASR-33 Yes and it was fun to do. Even if we didn't have and assembler yet. < terminals across bridges just so we could type in our programs. That is It was only the boardwalk. But it was the pre-betting era so thre were few profitiable things there. < if you were lucky enough to find a terminal! They abounded... uppercase only 1200 baud and expensive!!!! < Usually we had to build our own from lights & switches... Lots of lights... well they were leds and only red ones. Of course that was when homebrewed was self assembled and not referring to a microbrew. The latter was called programming fluid (coffee, beer or Coke). Allison < < Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar@sicon < ------------------------------------------------------------------------ < Always being hassled by the man. < < Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 < See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! < [Last web site update: 12/07/98] <

27 years, 4 months

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Dr. Dobbs..

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Of course, to tie in the other Altair thread, the Intellec, for all it < was the first CP/M machine, is nowhere near as valuable as an Altair... Actually the altair disk system was rather hard to adapt to CPM and most people used a non altair system for that. Allison

27 years, 4 months

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VAX collectors attention

by H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au

At 01:50 PM 06-12-98 +1030, Geoff Roberts wrote: I wrote: >>Excuse me, I've still got one in production and a couple of spares in my >>"spares" room.... > > >I think you should open your spares room to the public and charge admission. >:^) Well, anyone passing is more than welcome to drop in and I'll provide a guided tour for free. In the near future I'm going to have the Fifth Annual Junk Room Clearance. I guess this will only be of interest to local readers but I'll attempt to provide a list of what we plan to junk. Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479 1999 La Trobe University | "If God had wanted soccer played in the Melbourne Australia 3083 | air, the sky would be painted green"

27 years, 4 months

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(Linux != UNIX) (Was Re: OT HP Networking)

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Tue, 8 Dec 1998 gram(a)cnct.com wrote: > Yup. Linux Ain't Unix. It Ain't Minix. It ain't GNU, though it uses > Stallman's Copyleft. Yes, every Linux distribution uses gagloads of > GNU material, properly attributed, all source available, and Stallman > has nothing to complain about except that people have been making > money selling free software. (That's free as in something other than > the price -- Open Source). Why would he complain about that? I understand it may be against his philosophy, and RedHat-like products may not be the best examples of Linux (KDE is probably the worst example of Linux though it's getting shipped with every major distribution...) but how does he expect GNU software to get distributed? Someone has to make money along the line...what we need is to get back to the old days when people shared tips on how to speed up their computers by soldering in a couple of diodes. In those days, it wasn't as necessary to ruin software in order to distribute it. I got to use dial-up bulletin board systems for about three years, and I liked them more than the commercial internet, which killed these off, and harmed the sort of scientific-academic-university spirit that was previously more common among computer users. ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

27 years, 4 months

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IBM PCjr

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

a PCjr version of a scsi card? if so, that's certainly a rarity! there wont be much you can do with a cdrom on a jr unless you're reading your own cds. what kind of write errors are you getting? have you tried clean booting using F5? partition size <32meg? In a message dated 12/7/98 10:25:44 PM EST, amirault(a)epix.net writes: << > I have one of the old IBM Edsels and I am currently trying to get the > TMC850jr SCSI card I have to get a CDROM to work on it. Can anyone give me > any > clues as to how to do this? Can it be done at all? > > I also have the combo cartridge V3.0 in this machine and upgraded the > harddrive from DOS 5.0 to DOS 6.22 and now I keep getting write errors when > I > try to install programs onto the harddrive. Any help here? > > Thanks everyone. > > John Amirault >>

27 years, 4 months

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Dr. Dobbs..

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

Doug, I didn't make any claims that MITS calculator was on par with HP. David

27 years, 4 months

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Altair Collectors Association

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

Don't forget the S-100 bus was really invented at MITS on the Altair.

27 years, 4 months

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WHOOPEE!

by Marion.Bates＠Dartmouth.EDU

--- "Daniel A. Seagraves" wrote: [Can't blue box in the US anymore] Ehehehe.... Do you know this from experience? Has anyone here actually done this? I once tried recording the payhone quarter tones, but it didn't work. --- end of quote --- Quarter tones -- that's red box territory, not blue box. Red boxing IS still possible today, though not with most COCOT's. Bell/Nynex (well, they're the same now, aren't they?) all happily respond to red box tones. But, operators sure don't! (actual quote: "I can't accept that, I need REAL money.") Hee hee... -- MB

27 years, 4 months

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Dr. Dobbs..

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

Could you photocopy articles, and advertisements pertaining to Altair? Gates open letter to hobbyists about piracy? I will gladly take those. David

27 years, 4 months

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Byte Mag Indes (was Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next)

by rcini＠msn.com

On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 22:00:59 -0600 (CST), Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote: >>Oh boy. I've had a back-burner BYTE index project that I moved forward by >>almost a millimeter last weekend. How far along are you on putting >>together an index? This is not a complete indexing project; I don't have the time to do that. I have about 75 or so issues from 1978 to 1987. I'm culling the index for classic-related articles: reviews, home brewing projects, type-yourself programs, and the like. I've left out all of the regular "departments" and generally, the generic articles. As you may know, each Byte magazine had a particular focus, such as the "Logo" issue, or the "Forth" issue. Some of these articles made it; some didn't. I'm in1982 now, and I have about 200 entries in an Excel spreadsheet. When I'm done, I'll post my TofC. Eventually, I'd like to make it a DHTML Web page. [ Rich Cini/WUGNET [ ClubWin!/CW7 [ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking [ Collector of "classic" computers [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/ <================ reply separator =================>

27 years, 4 months

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WHOOPEE!

by dburrows＠netpath.net

>[Can't blue box in the US anymore] > >Ehehehe.... Do you know this from experience? > I notice that no one has admitted to it. I also hope no one does - when I was a teenager there was a federal grand jury that was just about blue boxes - one city away from me. I would know nothing about 2600 or 700, 900, 1100, 1300, or 1500 Hz tones.:) Dan

27 years, 4 months

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Scanning Fiche

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Dec 8, 13:01, Hans Franke wrote: > Yesterday I tried a similar way as described above. I took a sheet > of Butterbrotpapier (sorry, I dont know any translation, its a kind > of semitransparent paper used to cover sandwitches - Butterbrote :) "greaseproof" paper. A treated but not waxed paper, rather like thin tracing paper. In fact, kids here often use it as tracing paper. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

27 years, 4 months

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OT HP vectra networking

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Sat, 5 Dec 1998 roblwill(a)usaor.net wrote: > -Networking software compatible with the internal networking card (there"s a > plug next to the keyboard connector that looks like it wants to be connected > to some sort of network hub). As far as I am aware, that's a weirdo keyboard connector. There's a matching one in the monitor and the keyboard. > -An old Vectra keyboard? Can't get the numeric keypad to work on the > keyboard I have. > -Networking hardware (mainly a hub and network cards) > > I have a copy of DR-DOS 7.x with networking extensions. Will this work with > the Vectra (haven"t installed it yet)? For one thing, I don"t even know if > there"s something in setup that enables/disables the network card. I"d like > to use the built-in card, since most of the networked computers will be > 8086"s -286"s, and speed isn"t an issue. > > ThAnX, > -- > -Jason Willgruber > (roblwill(a)usaor.net) > ICQ#: 1730318 > <http://members.tripod.com/general_1> > ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

27 years, 4 months

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HP Vectra networking (26 days OT)

by kmar＠lle.rochester.edu

At 06:56 PM 12/8/98 +0000, you wrote: >> I also have HP-IL here, but that's used to interface a gas chromatograph >> /mass spectrometer to a HP 9000 series workstation. I know of others here >> that have used HP-IL for other HP systems, but I've never seen it on HP PC's. > >HP-IL is somewhat unconventional for that. HPIB (similar to GPIB or >IEEE488) is much more common for linking up test gear, etc. Many of HP's late 70's and 80's analytical instrumentation used HP-IL extensively to control instruments and sampling accessories, such as autosamplers. Indeed, the connection to the 9000 series for the GC part of the system is to the system HP-IB bus via a 82169A HP-IL to HP-IB interface. The mass spectrometer itself is directly connected to the HP-IB bus. Newer HP analytical equipment generally uses only HP-IB . > >I don't know if an HP150 counts as an HP PC (HP seemed to think so in the >manuals), but I have a card in mine with a parallel port and an HP-IL >port on it. I also have software to make the HP-150 emulate an HP-IL disk >drive so I can save files from my calculators. > >HP-IL is more common on HP calculators, like the HP75, HP71 and HP41 series. > >-tony > > > Kenneth L. Marshall Research Engineer, Optical Materials Laboratory for Laser Energetics University of Rochester 250 East River Road Rochester, NY 14623 Phone:(716)-275-8247 Fax: (716)-275-5960

27 years, 4 months

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Byte Index. WAS Re: Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Doug, I might be able to save you some work. I have an original copy of Byte's Keyterm index dated 1977. It has an index by subject to all the Byte articles from Sept 75 through Dec 1976, Interface Age articles from Dec 75 through Dec 76 and HamRadio Magazine from March 69 through Dec 76. It's 78 long. Joe At 10:00 PM 12/7/98 -0600, Doug wrote: > >If you, or anybody else, wants to collaborate on a project like this, >there's already several thousand BYTE's that have been indexed in BibTex >format. I plan (OK, hope) to automate entry and searching of this and >similar indices. Currently the coverage of material of interest to this >group (like early BYTEs) is pretty thin. > >Check out Nelson H. F. Beebe's web site for a sense of what's been done

27 years, 4 months

1
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Going OT... Re: (Linux != UNIX)

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

He's also tried to sing in Triumph of the Nerds I _think_ and I know he tried to sing the Beverly Hillbillies song in Plane Crazy. Have you checked his faq on pbs.org? > What's up with THAT!? > >Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- >Always being hassled by the man. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 12/07/98] >

27 years, 4 months

1
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(Linux != UNIX)

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 02:43 PM 12/8/98 -0600, Doug Yowza wrote: >I read an interview of Richard >Stallman in which he whined a bit about how the collection of GNU stuff >combined with a Linux kernel is called "Linux." There's probably more GNU >code than Linus code in any given Linux distribution. RMS whining? Almost as bad as his singing voice. He was only whining because he wants a share of the Linux spotlight. Hmm, the MacArthur grant money must've run out by now. - John

27 years, 4 months

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FSOT: Sharp CE-126P printer and Cassette interface.

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Found while house cleaning. Appears to be for one of those small BASIC handheld computers. In very good condition but I have no way to test it. Contact me directly if you're interested in it. Joe

27 years, 4 months

1
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FSOT: Commodore GPIB cable.

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Commodore marked cable with a card edge connector on one end and a male/female GPIB connectors on the other. Contact me if interested. Joe

27 years, 4 months

1
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FSOT: Z-80 Daignostic/Emulator

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

More house cleaning. I dug out a model EM-180B Z-80 Diagnostic/Emulator made by Applied MicroSystems. It appears to be developement system for Z-80s. It says has 64K of RAM. It has a RS-232 port and a socket for a target EPROM. It also has a hex keybaord and keys for setting breakpoints, memory addresses, I/O address, (data) Store, examine, decrement and increment, single step, run, etc. The LED display shows the adress and data and the various CPU status bits and the machine cycle states. It powers up but the 1 and 3 keys no longer spring back like they should. It's about 12" square and 4" high and runs on 110 VAC. I know nothing else about this thing. If anyone wants it contact me directly. Joe

27 years, 4 months

1
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Indexing Byte

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Apart from an index of Byte or other old magazines, wouldn't it be more interesting to scan the actual pages? If I could buy a DVD with the first ten years, I could at least decimate my piles in the basement. The article compendiums that are offered for Byte, DDJ, etc. are interesting, but so are the ads, and they aren't included. - John

27 years, 4 months

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HP Vectra networking (26 days OT)

by kmar＠lle.rochester.edu

At 10:27 PM 12/7/98 -0000, you wrote: >> I have had several older HP vectras here that have had HP-HPIL interfaces, >> including an HP Vectra CS (8086) and a Vectra RS-20 (386). The HP-HPIL >> interface was generally supplied as an 8-bit card that plugged directly >> into the ISA bus. > >If you're talking about HP-IL, that is *entirely* different from HP-HIL. > >There's nothing called HP-HPIL. You are correct. I meant HP-HIL. HP-HPIL was a typograpical error. I also have HP-IL here, but that's used to interface a gas chromatograph /mass spectrometer to a HP 9000 series workstation. I know of others here that have used HP-IL for other HP systems, but I've never seen it on HP PC's. > >As far as I know, there was never an ISA plug-in card to do HP-HIL. The >cards for HP-IL are not too rare. > > Kenneth L. Marshall Research Engineer, Optical Materials Laboratory for Laser Energetics University of Rochester 250 East River Road Rochester, NY 14623 Phone:(716)-275-8247 Fax: (716)-275-5960

27 years, 4 months

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VAX 11/780 memory diagnostic floppy

by ss＠allegro.com

Zane writes: > >Ebay item #47353951 is two 8" floppies. If you look closely at > >one of them in the picture, it appears to be a diagnostic floppy. > > Good GRIEF! He has the starting bid is set at $8.50, and wants > the winner to pay $3 for shipping. You can buy them new for that! True...but the interesting point to this thread is that one of the disks has a memory diagnostic ... *that* might be of use to some VAX collectors! SS

27 years, 4 months

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x86 OS's

by lfb107＠psu.edu

Here's a few more (some are not x86 but I thought you guys might still be ineterested) that I stole off a web page. Particullarly interesting is the last site with a *lot* of oddball stuff. Enjoy! The following is a list of free operating systems that are specifically made for, or will run on, "obsolete" computers. The OS name's are followed by the intended processor/system and the "mainstream" operating system it attempts to emulate. ELKS (Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset) http://www.linux.org.uk/Linux8086.html ELKS is still in development and is an attempt to port Linux to run on an 8088/8086 processor. Future plans include 68000 and possibly Z80 ports. Caldera OpenDOS http://www.caldera.com OpenDOS is a replacement for MS-DOS or PC-DOS on 80x86 processor based systems and includes the source code for the kernel. LUnix http://wwwcip.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~etk10217/c64.html LUnix is a UNIX type clone for the C64/128. Future plans include support for TCP/IP amomg other things. Proolix http://www.infocom.kharkov.ua:80/~prool/proolix.htm Another UNIX clone for 8088/8086 processor based systems that is somewhat similar to MINIX. Minix http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html Here it is, the original 8088/8086 UNIX clone. This is the Operating System that gave rise to the popular Linux OS and is currently available for PC, Amiga, Macintosh, and Atari ST systems. UZI http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/uzi-pre.html Currently, there are no UZI "Home Pages" (atleast none that I know of). Here is a link for the FTP location of the UZI binaries for Z80 machines. OS/A65 http://www2.tu-chamnitz.de/~fachat/csa Originally made for a home built computer, OS/A65 was ported to the C64 and is theoretically portable to many other 6502 systems. Includes support for multitasking and TCP/IP. FreeDOS (DOS-C) http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/freedos.html http://www.freedos.org FreeDOS is meant as a replacement for MS-DOS or PC-DOS for all 80x86 based systems. Other Operating Systems on the Net. http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/bridges/oses.html This site has an exhaustive list of other free operating systems as well as a few links to other free operating systems pages.

27 years, 4 months

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New Altair Computers website!

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

Hmph. ALTAIR Collecting: Another rich man's hobby. I'm just really glad there isn't this kind of interest in 'collecting' the stuff *I'm* interested in. I can still get most of what I want pretty cheaply (although that's starting to change). Damn. Jeff On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 21:59:43 EST DaveyGF(a)aol.com writes: >Just finished the beta on my new website dedicated to Altair >computers.. Check >it out. I will be making several additions soon- including a complete >archive >of '97 and '98 classiccmp list server messages pertaining to altair >subjects >and a virtual museum. > >http://altaircomputers.org > >David >daveygf(a)aol.com > ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]

27 years, 4 months

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New Altair Computers website!

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

Just finished the beta on my new website dedicated to Altair computers.. Check it out. I will be making several additions soon- including a complete archive of '97 and '98 classiccmp list server messages pertaining to altair subjects and a virtual museum. http://altaircomputers.org David daveygf(a)aol.com

27 years, 4 months

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x86 OS's

by gareth.knight2＠which.net

Thanks for all of your replies. I have tried a number of these already. Zane H. Healy wrote: >QNX - There is a free demo version, about all you can do is surf the web >with it > though. The demo boots from floppy. It's very good for what it does. The QNX Neutrino kernel is to form the basis of AmigaOS 5. Check out http://www.amiga.com if you don't believe me. Unfortunately the demo needs 8Mb of continuous memory, on top of the 640k. The machine I'm buying only has a total of 8Mb. >GEOS - Runs on top of DOS, the company currently supporting it, had been > providing some sort of demo version for it. It looks really great > actually, and come to think of it I believe my above mentioned 486 has > a copy on it somewhere (probably still on a Linux partition) that I > downloaded to try a year or so ago. I'd forgotten about it. I've got this running on my Pentium 2. If I can get some cheap 386 I'd install this use them as simple word processors. Perhaps also sticking a Pentium logo and "designed for Windows" on the monitor just to fool everyone ;) > Unfortunatly they no longer support the really low end systems, I can't > remember if they still support the 286 or not. Runs on 286 according to the system specs. -- Gareth Knight Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856 http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"

27 years, 4 months

2
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Altair cassette bootstrap

by 1davidn＠gte.net

I just acquired and fixed two Altairs (one 8800z and one 8800b) and have MITS 4K and 8K BASIC on tape. Problem is, I can't find any bootstrap loader for these programs. I have the simple cassette read program in the Altair manual, but that just gives me raw bytes. I suppose I could reverse engineer the tape format (I can read the tape fine) and write my own cassette boot loader, but I wondered if anyone out there could possibly lend a hand? Thanks, -- Dave Norris

27 years, 4 months

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WHOOPEE!

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

At 10:28 PM 12/7/98 -0800, Sellam wrote: > >Me & Eric Smith were just going over this trying to figure out whether or >not we needed one for the original DC Hayes S100 modem card. The DAA was >basically a device that converted the digital signals coming off the card >into analog tones. You could only get this from Bell back in the day and >you had to pay dearly for it. Quote from 'Independance Day' (I love a good 'blow-things-up' movie!): "That's not entirely accurate..." B^} There was no conversion of digital to analog done in the DAA. Specifically in the case of the Hayes for example, the (analog) audio modulation was done in the cute orange blob on the board. The only digital signals coming off the board drove the relay in the DAA box for acquiring the line and pulse dialing. Beyond that, the DAA provided 'protection' and coupling/limiting of the analog signals from the board to the phone line. >The plexi-glass covered box that comes with the Hayes Micromodem ][ is a >DAA. Yep... -jim --- jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

27 years, 4 months

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WHOOPEE!

by DSEAGRAV＠toad.xkl.com

THIS IS INTERESTING. IM ON FROOM A PRINTING TERMINAL. NO LOWERCASE LETTERS, 00 BAUD AND AN ACCOUSTIC COUPLER. FUN FUNFUN . -------

27 years, 4 months

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Dr. Dobbs..

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

I will pay you $250.00 for one issue, if I can pick anyone of your set. David

27 years, 4 months

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HP Vectra networking (26 days OT)

by kmar＠lle.rochester.edu

At 07:49 PM 12/7/98 +0100, you wrote: >Frank McConnell wrote: >> >> "Jason Willgruber" <roblwill(a)usaor.net> writes: >> > -Networking software compatible with the internal networking card (there"s a >> > plug next to the keyboard connector that looks like it wants to be connected >> > to some sort of network hub). >> >> Looks can be deceiving. That might be an HP-HIL connector -- does it >> have a picture of the corresponding plug with one or two dots on the >> cable, or maybe just the one or two dots? If so, it's HIL, and is >> there so you can hook up a Vectra HIL keyboard (as shipped with the >> real original Vectras that don't have alphabet soup after the word >> "Vectra") or an HIL mouse or an HIL monitor w/touchscreen. > >That all sounds plausible, but I do not think that HP Vectras ever used >the HIL standard. When I get back to Grenoble (where the Vectras were >designed) next week I will root around and see what I can dig up on this >machine. > >Regards > >_---_--__-_-_----__-_----_-__-__-_-___--_-__--___-__----__--_--__-___- >Hans B Pufal Comprehensive Computer Catalogue ><mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> <http://digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc> > I have had several older HP vectras here that have had HP-HPIL interfaces, including an HP Vectra CS (8086) and a Vectra RS-20 (386). The HP-HPIL interface was generally supplied as an 8-bit card that plugged directly into the ISA bus. Regards, Kenneth L. Marshall Research Engineer, Optical Materials Laboratory for Laser Energetics University of Rochester 250 East River Road Rochester, NY 14623 Phone:(716)-275-8247 Fax: (716)-275-5960

27 years, 4 months

5
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ebay Altair Music Record

by DaveyGF＠aol.com

Does anyone on this list actually have the original PCC/Dr Dobbs issues from 1975? 1976? David

27 years, 4 months

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Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next

by Watzman＠ibm.net

Back in the 70's, there was an individual who sold indexes to the various computer magazines (in hard copy format, and perhaps on Disk). I bought it and have a copy of it somewhere, but there is very little chance that I could now find it. The later issues, starting sometime in the 80's, are indexed in Computer Library, a $1,000 per year Ziff-Davis service on a monthly CD-ROM (in fact, not only are they indexed, but I believe that the text of the entire magazine is included in the service)(yes, I know that ZD is a competitor of McGraw Hill, which publishes Byte, but Computer Library has competing publications). But this didn't start until the late 80's. Barry Watzman ---------- From: Doug Yowza [SMTP:yowza@yowza.com] Sent: Monday, December 07, 1998 5:01 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, Richard A. Cini, Jr. wrote: > and then an index to the Byte Magazines that I have. Oh boy. I've had a back-burner BYTE index project that I moved forward by almost a millimeter last weekend. How far along are you on putting together an index? If you, or anybody else, wants to collaborate on a project like this, there's already several thousand BYTE's that have been indexed in BibTex format. I plan (OK, hope) to automate entry and searching of this and similar indices. Currently the coverage of material of interest to this group (like early BYTEs) is pretty thin. Check out Nelson H. F. Beebe's web site for a sense of what's been done so far: http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/bibliographies.html -- Doug

27 years, 4 months

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Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next

by Watzman＠ibm.net

Myself and another individual are trying to find the source of a magazine article which describes a modification to the IMSAI CP-A front panel. The title of the article is "The Slow-Stepping Debugger" by Howard Bendrot. We believe that it was published between 1976 and 1979, probably in 1977. We believe it is likely that it was published in Kilobaud Microcomputing magazine, and there is some suspicion that it may have been on Page 60. But none of this is confirmed, and we don't have these magazines to verify this. Can anyone identify the Magazine, issue and page number of this article for certain ? Thanks, Barry Watzman

27 years, 4 months

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Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next

by rcini＠msn.com

Tonight I finished posing the Altair 8800b manual. Enjoy! The next thing on the plate is the Aim65 Users Manual, and then an index to the Byte Magazines that I have. After that, probably a load of PDP-11 manuals. [ Rich Cini/WUGNET [ ClubWin!/CW7 [ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking [ Collector of "classic" computers [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ [ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/ <================ reply separator =================>

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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Linux Q's

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

i've found a web site where minix/ELKS can be obtained, but it was expected for one to have a functioning linux system to download and create the disk images. since i only have OS2/windont95 access, are there any other choices as far as downloading a copy to install on an xt? << < Question, isn't Minix on the x86 platform still a commercial product? < know the versions for stuff such as the Atari I believe are now free, bu < thought you still had to buy the x86 version. >>

27 years, 4 months

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1
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IBM PCjr

by amirault＠epix.net

> Hi, > I have one of the old IBM Edsels and I am currently trying to get the > TMC850jr SCSI card I have to get a CDROM to work on it. Can anyone give me > any > clues as to how to do this? Can it be done at all? > > I also have the combo cartridge V3.0 in this machine and upgraded the > harddrive from DOS 5.0 to DOS 6.22 and now I keep getting write errors when > I > try to install programs onto the harddrive. Any help here? > > Thanks everyone. > > John Amirault

27 years, 4 months

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FW: BIG VAXen available

by kyrrin＠my-dejanews.com

CLASSICCMP folk and Dan B., I found this on Usenet. Any takers? You'd need LOTS of room and (probably) lots of power, but this could be a neat addition to any collection. Read on... -=-=- <snip> -=-=- From: "Kent Rankin" <kentrankin(a)theatreorgans.com> Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec Subject: What is a VAX 8350 fully loaded worth? Lines: 43 X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4 Message-ID: <3aZa2.412$kr2.116146(a)news1.usit.net> Date: Mon, 7 Dec 1998 17:59:43 -0500 NNTP-Posting-Host: 208.24.75.116 X-Complaints-To: abuse(a)usit.net X-Trace: news1.usit.net 913071871 208.24.75.116 (Mon, 07 Dec 1998 18:04:31 EDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Mon, 07 Dec 1998 18:04:31 EDT Organization: U. S. Internet, Inc. Path: blushng.jps.net!news.pbi.net!131.119.28.147!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.usit.net!news1.usit.net!not-for-mail A friend of mine has a VAX 8350 that he picked up recently. It's quite a large setup, to say the least. I was wondering if someone could tell me what I should get(at least) for it for him, and what I could get for it. Here's what it has: VAX 8350 with 2 processors SA482 Storage array loaded with 3 RA82(6.22MB) drives A giant 200amp power conditioner that looks just like the VAX A TU81-Plus Tape drive Two DMB32-M things. I think that they are multiplexors Anyone know about them? Two LA120 printers. One DA model, and one AA model. A LA75 printer A VT420 terminal(JA model) Five DECServer200/DL Terminal Servers. Anyone know what the DL stands for? I think that is all that is included, but I could be wrong. I'm notreally sure as to what cards are in it(besides the TU81 Plus' interface). The box has absolutely TONS of packages from DEC on it with the licenses. The manuals are all there, and many of them have extras that are shrinkrapped. Many spare parts for the machine are new, and in DEC boxes, still wrapped. There are boxes and boxes of new manuals, to give you an idea. The machine was on maintenance until September of 1998. Plus, as an added bonus, it has the whole Y2k support package. I do know that all of the packages are very recent versions, and that OpenVMS 7.0 is loaded on it. It was used(until upgraded) with MANY terminals running off of it for basic business uses, and for calculating the lights(andtheir positions) needed in a stadium, and is in perfect condition. Anyhow, anyone have any ideas on the pricing? Perhaps a good outlet for me to sell it? Thanks in advance, Kent Rankin -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho, Blue Feather Technologies -- kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech [dot] com Web: http://www.bluefeathertech.com "...No matter how we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."

27 years, 4 months

1
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Linux Q's

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Question, isn't Minix on the x86 platform still a commercial product? < know the versions for stuff such as the Atari I believe are now free, bu < thought you still had to buy the x86 version. Not really. It's a copyrighted, freely available for non commercial use if memory serves. You can get it sources and all off the net or by buying the book on OS Design and Implmentation with it's CDrom. The details are educational/personal use I think. I doubt it would be popular for commercial use except as maybe an embedded kernal. It's supposed to work on PS2/50z but when I tried it there was a floppy problem that kept getting in the way. I put it aside when a 386sx/16 came my way as it was a excellent MINIX platform. Allison

27 years, 4 months

1
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ebay Altair Music Record

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< > The whole of it is Malcom Wright's _Alphanumeric music with Amplitude < > control_ C1975 article. I have a copy of this and have done mucic wit < < Where was this published? Peoples Computer Company, PCC was Doctor Dobbs and the articles were there and then published as a seperate thing. Allison

27 years, 4 months

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Indexing Byte

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 08:36 AM 12/8/98 -0600, you wrote: >the basement. The article compendiums that are offered for Byte, >DDJ, etc. are interesting, but so are the ads, and they aren't included. The NatGeo CD's that are out (around $150) have the ads as well, I understand. I suspect someone will do the same with some of the better known computer mags as well at some point. --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

27 years, 4 months

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old(ish) computers for sale

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 10:31 AM 12/7/98 -0500, you wrote: >Take a 3.5 volt top hat LED. Spread the leads to the proper >width and apply (I would recommend using a pair of pliers) >to a fresh 9 volt transistor radio battery. I got shards of >red plastic embedded in my fingers that way once. Sounds like fun, but PLEASE -- WEAR SAFETY GLASSES! I can say from experience that glass (or plastic) in your eye is no fun at all. (nor is fuzzy eyesight/blindness.) WEAR SAFETY GLASSES! --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

27 years, 4 months

1
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Original PET Keys

by foxnhare＠goldrush.com

> From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca> > Subject: Re: PET Video (was: Replacing 6550s) & 128 > > > ::"chiclet keyboard" != "rubber keys", IMHO. I'm talking about the cute > > > ::multicoloured keyboard with the small plastic keys that are arranged in a > > > ::grid pattern. I call that a chiclet keyboard. > > > > > > Hmm, okay. But multicoloured? Which colours? Arranged how? > > > > Ummm they were all metallic tops, Red, Gold, Blue, Silver... Check out my > > PET page: > > Gold? Your PETs have gold keys? I have two shades of blue. And my red > keys look significantly less metallic than the others. I couldn't tell if > they were 'metallic' or if I was looking at the nail polish my brother > coated the keys with to keep the printing from rubbing off. Maybe I'm mistaken about the gold ones, (that PET is currently back in storage)... Fortunately I was given a spare set of by a friend who serviced PETs and also once worked at Commodore (he also wrote the original PET uers guide and some of the diagnostics, I had him sign my users guide) but so far the original set on the PET haven worn all that much yet (the previous owner was very good to that machine). 0001010010110101010101000101000111000110010010 > From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca> > Subject: Re: Replacing 6550s > > > > Actually, IIRC my small-keyboard PET uses little rubber cups. But I > > > suppose there may be springs as well. The keyboard didn't work when I got > > > it, so I had to disassemble it and wipe the circuit board clean. I never > > > disassembled it beyond pulling the circuit board off. > > > > No rubber cups. Rubber cups or domes always in my experience give some > > sort of mechanical hysteresis when you press them. All PET keyboards I've > > used are smooth until they hit the stop. Small keyboard had little black > > rubber pads set into the plastic mouldings of the keys. > > I think there are rubber cups of some sort, but they may be soft > protective things rather than what provides the 'bounce'. I just tried > both PET keyboards and compared the feel to other keyboards, and you're > right, they are smooth. Potential 'rubber cup' keyboards: CoCo 1, Amiga > 3000. Weird undefinable keyboard that mushes/springs at the bottom: Atari > 130XE. :) The Calculator PET cups (which my keyboard has) are not all that deep, so you would not feel the 'mechanical hysteresis' you were describing, they act as the 'spring' I am sure. The large keyboard PETs used springs but later some VIC-20s had cups again... strange... :/ > Where would you put ROM expansion? There's no empty sockets in this model > PET. With the ExpandaPET board you have I think 4 KIM bus slots, I have a couple cards for one, one is an EPROM board and the othersome sort of floppy controller (they probabably worked together) > > > Why do POKE and PEEK fail there? Was that done on purpose or is it just > > > the result of something lame like using a signed value to represent > > > addresses? > > > > No, it's software. It was a feature that was supposed to prevent > > inquisitive geeks disassembling the BASIC ROM between $C000 and (I think) > > $E7FF. The OS ROMs, above $F000, were peekable, though, as was the I/O > > space in the E block. You could of course peek and poke the screen, $8000 > > - $83E7 inclusive. > > An inquisitive geek wouldn't be stopped long by that! Bill should have > known better. :) All you had to do was poke in an ML byte transfer routine... That 'bug' was corrected in the upgrade ROMs (good move on Commodre's part, by opening access and info on the system more people devloped for it.) as well as in the realase of the monitor program. Other companies who tried such stingy tactics (Atari early on and most certainly TI) were really hurt by it. > > I'll try and dig out my RAM expansion board, and work out what it did. > > Meanwhile, have fun! > > No fun until all my assignments and exams are done. :/

27 years, 4 months

1
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VAX 11/780 memory diagnostic floppy

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com wrote: > Good GRIEF! He has the starting bid is set at $8.50, and wants the winner > to pay $3 for shipping. You can buy them new for that! Now I know what to do with all those boxes of 5 1/4" disks I've got...I'm rich! Seriously, though, if someone here catches what that auction closes at, let me know. > Zane ---------------------------------------------------- Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor

27 years, 4 months

1
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Linux Q's

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Just to refresh my memory on Linux since I'm just now getting into < looking at it, just exactly what machines work well with it, and with < what versions/vareities for each? I have tons of machines from IBM 5170 < AT's, PS/2's of all sorts, other 286 and 386 machines, etc and I'm < looking at possibly selling off the useful ones that will use Linux as < cheap as I can to get some room to walk around here. For the 8086 and 286 class machines look into MINIX V2.0 and for the 386 and up most linux versions (they may not support specific hardware like some oddball video and disks though). Allison

27 years, 4 months

4
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VAX 11/780 memory diagnostic floppy

by sieler＠allegro.com

Hi, Ebay item #47353951 is two 8" floppies. If you look closely at one of them in the picture, it appears to be a diagnostic floppy. http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=47353951 I emailed the seller, and he said: > That floppy has a label that reads: "EMC CORPORATION, MEMORY > DIAGNOSTICS, FOR VAX 11/780 AND 11/785, 053-240-001 REV A" > > Hard to say what might be on the other floppy, it looks like the label > that had been adhered has popped off long ago. > > We've long since decommissioned all our 780s and 785s, and a month or so > ago we were doing a "cleanup" of the shelves in the back room, and I > picked up a few "nostalgic" items like these floppies, but my wife has > said there's no room left for computer collectibles. > > If you could actually use the software, that would be great! I'm not interested in it, but I thought someone here might be. -- Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html

27 years, 4 months

2
1
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ebay Altair Music Record

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Now *MY* Altair Synth (pardon the ego!) was all done in < software, with a simple 8-bit d/a converter on an i/o < port. It used 256 bytes of a waveform (fundamental sin(x) < plus some harmonics) that were stepped thru by up to there was a simplfied version by processor tech and a few others with a less sophisticated D/A (used R, 2R ladders) that were able to do that. The whole of it is Malcom Wright's _Alphanumeric music with Amplitude control_ C1975 article. I have a copy of this and have done mucic with it and voicing was possible. Allison

27 years, 4 months

3
2
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Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?

by Watzman＠ibm.net

I have your magazine, and I copied your article (rather long, about 20 pages). Now if you will tell me where to send it, it will be yours. Barry Watzman Watzman(a)ibm.net ---------- From: M McManus [SMTP:mmcmanus@direct.ca] Sent: Sunday, December 06, 1998 9:46 PM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag? -----Original Message----- From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini(a)msn.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Sunday, December 06, 1998 1:11 PM Subject: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag? >Does anyone have the 1/83 issue of Byte Magazine? In it is part 3 of an >article by Steve Ciarcia about the MPX-16 PC-compatible SBC. I have parts 1 >and 2, so I need the third. > > Thanks! > >[ Rich Cini/WUGNET >[ ClubWin!/CW7 >[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking >[ Collector of "classic" computers >[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/ >[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/ ><================ reply separator =================> The local library has Byte on micrfiche. If you live in the Vancouver Area, you can get a printout or just read it. It is at the Surrey library in Guilford.

27 years, 4 months

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ebay Altair Music Record

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Apparently it is a vinyl type record with recordings of music made on th < Altair computer. It closed somewhere around $130 which I thought was < impressive. Now I know what mine is worth. ;) I have a few others I collected back then. Allison

27 years, 4 months

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old(ish) computers for sale

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>the disks and he gave me one, a Maxtor. I had it on a pc, laying >on top of a table and one day it went "BLAM!" like someone set >off a firecracker, and the pc shut down. Turned power off/on and it >came right back like nothing had happened! Turned out to be <a reversed biased diode across the power lines let got - nothing >important. Ah - you got one of those special NED's (Noise Emitting Diodes), I see. Tim.

27 years, 4 months

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OT HP vectra networking

by kurtkilg＠geocities.com

That's the way it is with most inexpensive home micros (I think the Commodore has one of the more complicated ways of doing it, since you need to know the drive ID). Most of them are truly out-of-the box. And then modern engineers came upon a working idea and decided to update it in such a way that it uses all that power new computers have more effectively. You know, I was impressed today that an MS Draw image that opened instantly for me to modify in a Word 2.0 document on a 386 took about 30 seconds in Word 97 on a Pentium-200. >disk in drive and turn power on. Instant boot. USB? Pfeh! I dearly hope this doesn't stay this way. Why is it that one of the biggest headline-makers in computers, Linux, is 30 years old? And why can't they finally get object-oriented systems right? They've been trying to for decades, and there still isn't a good version of OLE/OpenDoc that is _really_ versatile. Flame away. >Everything new in the computer realm was invented long ago. Engineers >just re-discover good designs. Heck, the mouse turns 30 this week! > >Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com >--------------------------------------------------------------------------- --- >Always being hassled by the man. > > Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0 > See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details! > [Last web site update: 12/07/98] >

27 years, 4 months

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HP Vectra networking (26 days OT)

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Hans B Pufal <hansp(a)digiweb.com> wrote: > That all sounds plausible, but I do not think that HP Vectras ever used > the HIL standard. When I get back to Grenoble (where the Vectras were > designed) next week I will root around and see what I can dig up on this > machine. I'd like to know what you find, my recollection comes from having to support 10-20 of the original Vectras and somewhat more ES and ES/12s where I worked through most of the late 1980s. (Hey, I thought they were OK for PC-compatibles.) I'm not sure how "standard" the HIL support on the Vectra really was. But the original Vectra had the connector, and its keyboard had two, and you could plug a 46060A mouse into the keyboard. ISTR you could put a touchscreen in the 375[34]1 monitors and hook that up with the HIL connectors on the back of the monitor but we never bothered with that (we bought Touchscreen IIs without the touchscreen too). The original Vectra keyboard isn't the same HIL keyboard as used on the 9000 line -- it has a hybrid layout that looks sort of like the original PC/AT keyboard crossed with the HP150 keyboard, so it has PC F1-F10 in two columns down the left, HP f1-f8 across the top, and a numeric/cursor pad on the right. The Vectra ES and ES/12 have the PC-standard 5-pin DIN connector for the keyboard (which has the PS/2 layout with F1-F12 across the top and Ctrl in the wrong place), but also have an HIL connector next to the keyboard connector, and I think I remember using 46060A mice with those too. -Frank McConnell

27 years, 4 months

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85mb Micropolis in a Microvax II?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>doable but, near unimplementable do to the lack of Qbus. The more common >situation is unsupported, IE: DEC didn't consider it marketable or test >it exactly that way. Two RDxx disks in a ba123 is an example. Two RD5x's in a BA123 was definitely a supported configuration, and is listed in the late-80's DEC catalogs. Two RD3x (half-height) disks in a BA23 is also supported, and indeed is the reason behind the 6-button BA23 front panel. Many 11/53 configurations were shipped from the factory this way. Two full-height hard drives in a single BA23 was never officially supported (at least for the various microPDP-11 configurations), because they refused to support a base box sold without removable media. Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)

27 years, 4 months

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old(ish) computers for sale

by hhacker＠gte.net

Come on you guys! This is now something emitting something, ad nauseum. I must admit, though, that I liked the concept of the shrapnel-emitting diode. I, too, have seen some of these! William R. Buckley

27 years, 4 months

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On topic: Serious static problem

by cfandt＠netsync.net

At 11:12 12/04/98 -0800, Aaron C. Finney wrote: >This is giving me fits. There's something strange with my minivan, that it >generates a *ton* of static electricity whenever I drive even a few -- snip -- >box of Bounce dryer sheets (don't laugh) in my jockey box. Does anyone >know what could be causing this? Yes. It's not the car but it's the tires. I've had the same problems with a couple of Toyota Camrys I've leased over the past years. Extreme and rather painful shocks are generated especially in this part of the country when it is very cold and low humidity. Finally getting tired of the fireworks, I asked a few tire dealers and auto dealers about this and they told me that modern tires nowadays have somewhat less carbon black, which is conductive, in their rubber compounds. Something about reduced wear, etc. Static charges built up from the motion of the tires over the road don't drain off as fast. Hence, when you step out of the car you get nailed. This is because the resistivity of the tire rubber is higher because of less carbon black content. Carbon black, incidentally started to be put into tire rubber back around 1910-1912, IIRC, when it was found that it drastically reduced the damage to the natural rubber caused by the sun's UV rays. Tires up until then were as white as the original rubber tree sap was when harvested and did not last very long. You can see examples of reproduction white tires on correctly-restored antique cars from around the early teens and earlier at an antique car show or auto museum. I found a solution by holding my fingers on the unpainted door jamb hardware as I turn and step out of the car (if I'm wearing normal rubber-soled shoes). This keeps my body and the car at equal potentials as the static continues to drain off through the less resistive tires. Minimal or no zaps anymore. I worry a bit about those shocks at the gasoline station if somebody is fueling their car and there is a significant concentration of fuel vapors and no wind about. It takes at least a 14:1 air to vapor ratio for ignition to occur which is not too likely at the gas bar. I have a pair of ESD-type work shoes which I wore at work and still wear around the house. There is a high amount of carbon in the heels and soles which allows them to be used as an anti-static device for electronics workers. I never get nailed in the house on a carpet nor from my car whenever I wear them. They're great! Made by Titan Safety Shoe Company. Needed them in the cleanroom at work and when repairing electronic controls around the plant or working up in the R&D lab. Additionally, I recall that I had very little problem when I wore leather-soled shoes back in the days when I had them. Seems the leather was a bit conductive especially when damp. Incidentally, do some of you remember the automobile accessory fad from back in the 70's which was an anti-static strap that hung from the bottom of the car? If it was conductive it would serve a good purpose for you today Aaron. You've probably seen fuel tanker trucks with a metal chain dragging. It too was used as a static drain for obvious reasons ;) Happy zapping! --Chris -- -- Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net Member of Antique Wireless Association URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/

27 years, 4 months

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DG Aviion video

by geoffrob＠stmarks.pp.catholic.edu.au

-----Original Message----- From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 16:00 Subject: Re: DG Aviion video >The green connect is labelled "G/MONO" so I'd be inclined to agree with >you. Mine are just labelled "R" "G" and "B" >I at least knew that much. (: I was given a fat wodge of QIC tapes and >DG/UX 5.4R3 at least was included as well as some older versions and >possibly one newer. Did better than me, I just got the bare boxes, no mice, no monitors, no keyboards, no docs. >Not surprising; they're an Intel/NT shop now for the most part. q: How >boring. How right! >> is the same connector as on a Sun, but not sure if the Sun mouse would >> work or not, and I don't have one to try. > >Outwardly they are identical. Both are Mouse Systems optical mice >(although the DG mouse doesn't say so). I dismantled the DG mouse and a >spare Sun type-4 mouse to make sure, but the electronics and signalaling >are wildly different. From cord conductor-count alone, I'd say the DG >mouse is quadrature and the Sun mouse is serial. Erk. That's going to make life difficult. Sun mice are $$ but at least you can get them. Any ideas where one would obtain a couple of the appropriate rodentia? >It is the same connector as on a Sun mouse, though. Trap for the unwary I suppose. Thanks for the info. Cheers Geoff Roberts Computer Systems Manager Saint Marks College Port Pirie South Australia. My ICQ# is 1970476 Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile) 61-8-8633-0619 (Home) 61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct) 61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)

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