test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Hello all, as I'm trying out some "new" old computers I got during the last few weeks, I'm of course encountering new problems. I have spent some time with search engines without major success, so I figured it would be okay to ask here. Case one concerns the SGI O2 workstation. I pulled three of those out of a dumpster; they only had a piece of the blue case plastic left on top and the base trays were broken as well - even the CD bezels are missing. The chassis look pretty battered but the machines power up, play their happy notes and enter the resident menu. Each has one disk tray but the disks were probably ruined by being flung into the container. They also all have an A/V module with the O2cam connector in the back panel. The connector is broken in one of them and I'll probably remove it altogether since I don't have a cam anyway but... the S-Video and Composite I/O jacks in the side panel are covered with a square sheet of textured self-adhesive plastic. The PCB silkscreening states they are Moosehead A/V modules and it looks like no major components are missing from the boards so I hope the video I/O will work once I pull the stickers off? TIA, -- Arno Kletzander Student Assistant // Studentische Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser

18 years, 1 month

VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000 CPU/FPU overheating?

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 9:26 -0600 2/29/08, Dave wrote: >Yes, I'm wondering if it's something like that, however how likely is it >that both devices would experience the same fairly-uncommon failure mode >at the same time? I'm chiming in very late and probably not very helpfully, but is there any way a decoupling cap in the vicinity of the FPU/CPU could either load them or generate heat itself by beginning to short to ground? My only VAX (4000VLC) had a fault like that in the reset circuit which would sometimes hold it in reset, as you may remember >from a couple of years ago. -- - Mark, 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

18 years, 1 month

Integral RAM upgrade

by wayne.smith＠charter.net

> Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 19:51:10 +0000 (GMT) > From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > Subject: Integral RAM upgrade > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Message-ID: <m1JUomf-000J3kC at p850ug1> > Content-Type: text/plain > > I recently bought another HP Integral on E-bay, and after the normal > cleanup on the floppy drive it works fine. The expansion slots both > cotnained boards, one was a 512K RAM board, the other an RS232 oard > (which is the main reason I watned this machine!). > > Anyway, the RAM board was clearly identical to the 1M board, > just with > only have the RAM chips fitted and the links set differently. > Having got > a lot of 41256 chips on old PC memory boards, I spent the afternoon > upgrading it to 1M. > [snip] > > In my machine, wioth no RAM boards fitted. there's 264K free. > With the > 512K board, it reports 764K free. And with the 1M board, 1264K free. > > My question is what's happening to the other 12K of each half-meg? Or > deos 'status' have an odd definition of a kilobyte? > > -tony > Don't know where the 12K is going to - maybe address space reserved for I/O - but I have to say I was extremely impressed by the upgrade - almost exciting reading!

18 years, 1 month

Informer terminal

by acje＠flash.net

This message is for Mike McFadden. Mike, I came across your message while looking for a replacement for my informer 207. What info are you needing. I think that I have a photocopy of the manual around here and a few other pages of info. Your message said you had 2 of these terminals. Would you be interested in selling one? If so, at what price. The one I have just died and I need a replacement. I use it as a serial terminal on an old SCO Xenix computer, that has been running since 1984. Thanks Stephen 817-346-3777

18 years, 1 month

PC-Mac SCSI data exchange question

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Ray Arachelian <ray at arachelian.com> wrote: > There are many ways to go, some twisty, some straightforward: Whow, that's a lot of ways indeed! Thanks for the comprehensive writeup. > 1 There was a commercial Samba client named "Dave" for Mac OS. If you > can find that, it will do the trick. Indeed, w2k server will share out > AFS, but since you don't have that, you'll need another path. I have heard of something similar called "Mocha SMB" which at least would have been shareware, but have hitherto been unable to find it anywhere. This would perhaps be my best bet. > 2. If you're familiar with Unix (...) Not yet, and probably not anytime soon. > (3.) If this is unavailable to you, you could also go with a commercial > product such as: http://www.dataviz.com/products/maclinkplus/ -- there > are physical dangers here if you're not careful with the drive (static, > dropping drive on the floor, miswiring it, damage from a broken external > case, etc.) as well as soft dangers here (you might accidentally damage > the OS 8 hard drive by writing to it, so be sure you know which drive is > which and mount everything read only until you're 100% sure, etc.) The data is still backed up somewhere else and the OS 8 drive was a fresh install so there's not much to worry about (and yes, I have installed and moved SCSI hard drives in several sorts of machines and enclosures...) but I don't yet understand why I would need a commercial product since OS 8 rather clearly states that it is able to use DOS formatted media - but doesn't go out of its way to point out how (the help "wizard" gets hung in a loop where it repeatedly asks me to select the volume I want to format although it already is). > 4. Other choices, get a machine that runs OS X, perhaps a good old G4 > with large hard drives, which will allow you to share both AFS and CIFS. > > 5. Find an old copy of Netware 4.x and build yourself a Netware file > server, these too work as a nice file server. (sigh, brings back old > memories of my misspent youth :-) Two nice ideas for which I might actually even have the hardware (dunno if an iMac is going to take OS X and my HP NetServer LH6000 would be a bitch to set up because it's so huuuge), but both depending on additional commercial software. > 6. Install NetATalk on a Linux machine and use it as a server (I've not > played with this myself, so I've no idea what it does to resource forks) Linux, see above. > 7. Turn on an ftp daemon on one of the machines - you could install > Cygwin on the w2k machine and run one of the ftpd's on there, or you can > find a windows ftp server (i.e. http://www.warftp.org/ ) that will work > on w2k workstation - if I remember right, there's a half crippled > version of IIS on there which acts as a personal web server - perhaps > like it's bigger brother it may have an ftpd. Or if that's not > available, use a third machine that does have an ftpd (Linux, FreeBSD, > OpenVMS, etc.) as a go-between. There are ftp clients for the Mac, and > it wouldn't surprise me if you could find an ftpd for OS 8 either ( > http://www.pure-mac.com/ftp.html ) The OS 8 install includes Netscape 3.something which just might work as an FTP client, and WarFTP is free, so this is probably what I'm going to try next. > 8. You could use an scp/ssh client such as NiftyTelnet > http://www.lysator.liu.se/~jonasw/freeware/niftyssh/ - which might work > on OS 8 (I think it may want OS 9 though) to copy the data over scp to a > server that has an sshd (there is one for windows - > http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/ ) Totally new stuff to me, too much to learn. > 9. For 3GB of data, the worst thing you could do is go over a serial > port with a terminal program such as ZTerm on one end and HyperTerminal > on the windows end. It's horrible because at most you'll be able to go > at 56Kbps and will take forever. I had already contemplated that but will only use it if all else fails. > 10. You could go with one of the sneakernet paths: some sort of > removable drive such as ZIP, Jazz, CD-R, etc. but you'll need to somehow > break up the data into pieces and use a common file system (ISO9660 and > its variants for the CD's, FAT16 for the windoze friendly ones, etc.) This is what I was already trying with that hard disk, but couldn't find a format which both machines could use. Resource Forks are of no concern since the stuff was all generated and used under Windows until now. -- Arno Kletzander Student Assistant // Studentische Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de Psst! Geheimtipp: Online Games kostenlos spielen bei den GMX Free Games! http://games.entertainment.web.de/de/entertainment/games/free

18 years, 1 month

An Interesting Control Panel

by josefcub＠gmail.com

I was watching "How It's Made" on the Discovery Channel this morning, and they were constructing speakers. As they went to magnetize the ferrite ring, I noticed the operator working with an interesting three-button control panel. The button he pressed was a red "Fault" light/button. To their left was a beautiful white "Ready" light/button, and one marked "Write Protect". This strikes me as a very interesting magnetizing apparatus. Josef -- "I laugh because I dare not cry. This is a crazy world and the only way to enjoy it is to treat it as a joke." -- Hilda "Sharpie" Burroughs, "The Number of the Beast" by Robert A. Heinlein

18 years, 1 month

Monroe Programmable Electronic Calculator

by melamy＠earthlink.net

my high school got one in 1971 and through the punch cards, you could get to binary &, |, and shift commands as well as program jumps. I have a complete one in a box with reader, manuals, unused punch cards, etc. It was an eBay nostalgia buy a few years ago. One of these days, I will be organized enough to have it on a table to play with it. It was always fun to see the flashing nixie tubes as it ran calculations. As to the tech inside, I would expect that it was a multi-LSI "big" chip dedicated calculator design, so any memory was probably implemented as registers in the chips. JUst a gues anyway. best regards, Steve Thatcher -----Original Message----- >From: Brian Knittel <brian at quarterbyte.com> >Sent: Feb 28, 2008 10:58 PM >To: cctalk at classiccmp.org >Subject: Re: Monroe Programmable Electronic Calculator > >Ooooh! That's really cool. My high school had one of >these around 1975 or 1976, we used it before we talked them >into buying an Altair. The punch card unit was pretty spiffy, >I think it used 8 of the row bits? And IIRC there were >instructions you could punch that were not available from >the keyboard. The cards were the votamatic type: hanging >chad and all. It was a lot of fun to program, and pretty >interesting and complex for a calculator. > >I'd love to know what the memory technology was inside >-- acoustic delay, static RAM, or what?

18 years, 1 month

Panasonic Exec. Partner information wanted

by bolenracing＠gmail.com

Do you still have the exec partner? I had one in college and would like to have another one. Thank you. Andrew Bolen

18 years, 1 month

VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000 CPU/FPU overheating?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

All... I pulled out NETBOT:: a 12mb uV2000 with a RD53 and booted it with the case off to get the temp and the hotter of the two chips stabilized at 58C +- a tiny bit while running VMS 5.4-3. Like I said they do run hot. Allison > >Subject: Re: VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000 CPU/FPU overheating? > From: Allison <ajp166 at bellatlantic.net> > Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 09:50:52 -0500 > To: cctech at classiccmp.org > >The same CPU and FPU are sued on the KA630cpu (uVAXII) and in early >microvax3100s so any of them should compare. > >Is it possible that someone has overclocked the that uV2000??? > >FYI: gate leakage would kill the chips not make it run hot. The >usual reasons for hot running are: > > Over voltage! > Overclock > Undercool > Excessive bus loads (capacitive or resistive) > >Since the machine is a closed system for the most part the first is >most likely and the others are least likely. > >I may add that over 60C is way too hot at the heatsink and the die >due to thermal resistance will be hotter. > >I'm trying to pull down one of my uV2ks and fire it up. > > >Allison > >> >>Subject: Re: VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000 CPU/FPU overheating? >> From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave06a at dunfield.com> >> Date: Fri, 29 Feb 2008 08:18:31 -0500 >> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> >> >>> I assume these CPU and FPU chips are MOS devices. Is it possile that >>> excessive leakage across the gate oxide layer in some transsitors of that >>> chip would cause it to run hot, but still work? I'm pretty sure I've seen >>> chips that seem to work, but get hot and then stop working, althoguh >>> cooling them with freezer spray keeps them running. And these were not >>> chips driving high pwoer laods -- they were things like the clock/timer >>> microcontroller in a VCR. >> >>Yes, I'm wondering if it's something like that, however how likely is it >>that both devices would experience the same fairly-uncommon failure mode >>at the same time? >> >>Perhaps I've been engaging in the persuit of an undomesticated ornithoid... >> >>Is it possible that the devices normally run this hot, and the failure is >>occuring for another reason (possibly a side effect of the heat, as cooling >>them does allow it to keep running). >> >>Allison said "they do run hot" - does anyone know how hot? >> >>I did some further tests last night - I dug out my thermocouple and made >>some actual heat measurements with the system assembled, but with the color >>frame buffer removed - there should be better airflow, and this appears to >>be the case, since the machine did not die after 10 minites of operation. >> >>Ambient temp was measureing about 25 degrees C at the start of the test. >>>From power on, the CPU and FPU rose rapidly (within 3-4 minites) to >>the 70C range, then more slowly rose to temperatures of 76C for the CPU >>and 82C for the FPU after 10 mins. At this temperature they seemed to be >>getting stable - having done nearly 1-1/2 mins without an increase. It's >>possible/likely that they would climb anothe few degrees in extended >>operation. >> >>Once this temperature was reached, I held the system in RESET, and >>observed that the temps dropped back after a few minites to about 64C >>for the CPU and 68C for the FPU. >> >>To my mind, a processor running at 80C is damn hot - most of the embedded >>devices I work with list absolute maximum running temperature as 70C or >>75C - but perhaps the DEC devices are designed to run hotter - I note the >>Intel 486 datasheet lists absolute maximum (under bias) as 110C ... >> >>Anyone on the list with a VS 2000 or uVAX 2000 that can do some temperature >>measurements? >> >>Dave >> >>-- >>dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield >>dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com >>com Collector of vintage computing equipment: >> http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

18 years, 1 month

PC-Mac SCSI data exchange question

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

My second question concerns data transfer between (Windoze) PCs and Macs. I got a Power Macintosh 7200 (with Mac OS 8.0) which I would like to move some data to (approx. 3 GB); filesharing over Ethernet doesn't work without additional software since the Mac doesn't understand SMB/CIFS and W98/2k (not Server)don't understand enough AFS. "Web Sharing" only supports the opposite direction (PC can read data from the Mac) unless I'm missing something. So what I'm left with is pushing the stuff onto an idle 4GB SCSI disk that I can then hang off the Mac. Unfortunately I couldn't get an idea how to accomplish this: if I format the disk on the PC, the Mac will come up with "Uninitialized Volume". Initializing the volume as "DOS 4GB" doesn't work, the same dialog comes up again after I restart and going back to the PC I can even still read the contents! I tried one FAT32 partition (primary) as well as two FAT16 drives inside an extended partition. Thanks in advance, yours sincerely Arno Kletzander -- Arno Kletzander Student Assistant // Studentische Hilfskraft Informatik Sammlung Erlangen www.iser.uni-erlangen.de Ist Ihr Browser Vista-kompatibel? Jetzt die neuesten Browser-Versionen downloaden: http://www.gmx.net/de/go/browser

18 years, 1 month

HP 7900A /7907/7914R

by kelly＠montereybaycommunications.com

Hi Jay, I was curious if you have any of these older HP-IB disc drives available. Thank you, Kelly Kelly J. Francis kelly at montbay.com 831-429-6144

18 years, 1 month

VAXstation/MicroVAX 2000 CPU/FPU overheating?

by dave06a＠dunfield.com

Hi Guys, I've just acquired a VAXstation 2000 (thanks Mouse!) which exhibits what appears to be an overheating issue. Powered up ir runs for about 10 mins or so (just sitting at the console prompt doing things like TEST 50 to display the configuration, pressing ENTER to get another '>>>' etc.). After about 10 mins (give or take) it fails, sometimes appears to reset, hangs etc. Firt thing I noticed is that the two surface mount chips with the round heatsinks affixed to them get *HOT* ... Hot enough that you wounldn't want to keep your finger on either of them for very long. I believe these are the CPU and FPU chip? - Is this normal for them to run this hot? They don't heat up alarmingly quickly, but after a few minutes they are hotter than I'd think normal. Aside from the eventual failure, it seems to run correctly - the self tests (including the FPU test) pass (except for those which don't have hardware installed, loopback connectors etc. When I got the system, it was jam packed with cards, including the main board, color frame buffer, double-sided memory expansion and an ethernet interface. During my testing, I've removed all of these except for the main board, and am running the system as a MicroVAX. I do have the resistor/loading card installed as is recommended when running the system lightly loaded. Power rails all look good - There is a 9V supply which the technial manual describes as "for loading" which has a separate supply and return. Relative to ground I measure about +5.6v on the supply and about -3.3 on the return, which I'm assuming is normal (?) Anyone know where I can obtain anything resembling a schematic? Other technical information (I have a PDF of the technical manual, however it's mostly "system information" from an operational point of view). Any known issues etc.? Regards, Dave -- dave06a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Collector of vintage computing equipment: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/index.html

18 years, 1 month

IOmega

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Were all the early 80's IOmega's SCSI or did they use something before that? The earliest devices were full height 10MB 8" SCSI drives that had optional slave drives attached. Their main claim to fame was using floppy type media. The first Syquests were MFM ST506, using removable plated media.

18 years, 1 month

Monroe Programmable Electronic Calculator

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Ooooh! That's really cool. My high school had one of these around 1975 or 1976, we used it before we talked them into buying an Altair. The punch card unit was pretty spiffy, I think it used 8 of the row bits? And IIRC there were instructions you could punch that were not available from the keyboard. The cards were the votamatic type: hanging chad and all. It was a lot of fun to program, and pretty interesting and complex for a calculator. I'd love to know what the memory technology was inside -- acoustic delay, static RAM, or what? =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- _| _| _| Brian Knittel _| _| _| Quarterbyte Systems, Inc. _| _| _| Tel: 1-510-559-7930 _| _| _| http://www.quarterbyte.com

18 years, 1 month

DEC stuff available

by dm561＠torfree.net

Passing this on from another list. Contact Tony at: tonym AT compusource DOT net if interested. mike ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've tried to subscribe to CCTalk like 3-4 times - never got a response at ALL. Wonder what the heck is/was going on... I got a buddy in GA who has some DEC stuff available: (see below) Can you pass that along to CCList for me? T -- Friend of mine in GA has a DEC Pro 380 for sale. $125 shipped/obo This is for main unit + LK201 keyboard, and it has a hard disk and a floppy drive. No monitor is included, so you'll have to scrounge for that... let me know, and I'll relay if anyone is interested. -- Here's more of what he has available. Let me know if any interests you. COMPUTERS 1 DEC 2000 Alpha AXP w/128 Meg 2-6G HD, 2.88 Floppy, CD Rom, 3 SCSI cards, Network Card, Fiber Optic Card, EISA w/ Configuration Disk, Keys, Works Mod #PB223-CA Ser. KA431BZEV5 1 DEC 2000 Alpha AXP w/128 Meg 2-6G HD, 2.88 Floppy, CD Rom 2 SCSI cards, Network Card, Fiber Optic Card, EISA w/ Configuration Disk, Keys, Works Mod #PB22B Ser KA352FYMZO MONITOR 1 17" Digital PCXAX-VZ KEYBOARDS 1 DEC 2000 KB 1 Digital RT-101 4 Compaq 101 5 Digital LK 201 BA MONITOR CABLES 4 3-BNC to Large 15 Pin Female 1 3-BNC to 3 Pin MotherBoard 1 5-BNC to Small 15 Pin Male 2 Large 15 Pin Female to Large 15 Pin Female Extension 3 Large 15 Pin Female to Small 15 Pin Female Extension 1 Large 15 Pin Female to Large 15 Pin Male Extension MANUALS 1 VT 330/VT 340 Programmer Reference Manual, Vol 1 Text Programming 1 VT 330/VT 340 Programmer Reference Manual, Vol 2 Graphics Program 1 VT 330/VT 340 Installing and Using - Video Terminal (The above are all new in shrink Wrap) 1 VT 420 Installing and Using the VT 420 Terminal (NEW) 1 LA 50 Programmer Refwerence Manual 1 Installing and Using the LA 50 Printer 1 LA 120 User Guide 1 DecMate II System Managers Guide to Easy Com DEC Equip 3 Digital CD ROM 1 2.88 Floppy 10 CD Carrier SCSI Cables of all kinds.

18 years, 1 month

Monroe Programmable Electronic Calculator

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Ooooh! That's really cool. My high school had one of these, used it before we talked them into buying an Altair. The punch card unit was pretty spiffy, I think it used 8 of the row bits? And there were instructions you could punch that were not available from the keyboard. The cards were the punchamatic type: hanging chad and all. When I was 15 it was a lot of fun to program. I'd love to know what the memory technology was inside -- acoustic delay, static RAM, or what?

18 years, 1 month

cctalk Digest, Vol 54, Issue 62

by geoffb＠vigilan.com

Front panels for modern day computers/microprocessors are somewhat problematic. The cache(s) maintained internally allow for local instruction execution without making references to the external memory buses, and the prefetch mechanisms internal could also indicate memory activity even if no instruction or data item were actually fetched! Status information is not as directly available, and if it were it would probably not reflect status in "real time" that is occurring at the same time of viewing on the panel. Nevertheless, memory bus activity could be monitored, and what limited status information is available could be produced. The point though is the information displayed, say on minicomputer panels, is not readily available now due to higher levels of integration on the chip itself. On the note of the CDC 6600 machines, et al., There was a peripheral processor which was used to boot the mainframe, and it had many rows of toggle switches, in groups of 18 or 36 if I remember right, which either contained the boot code or controlled the boot. The peripheral processor was a computer in its own right by any standards. Hope this helps. --Geoff > Message: 1 > Date: Thu, 28 Feb 2008 09:33:28 -0800 > From: "John Floren" <slawmaster at gmail.com> > Subject: front panel display for a modern PC > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > I'd really like to have something like one of the old > mainframe/minicomputer control panels for my PC, but I'm just not sure > how to implement it. Anybody here tried something like that? Ideally, > you could power it on, see registers, toggle stuff into memory, have > lights for interrupts, that kind of thing. Yeah, I know, as soon as I > bring up an operating system, the ability to toggle things into memory > would be rather dangerous, but I just can't resist the charm of the > idea :) > So... doable? Impossible? Improbable? > > John >

18 years, 1 month

Ebay grrrr #743

by dm561＠torfree.net

On Wed, Feb 20, 2008 at 02:07:53PM +0100, Ade Vickers wrote: > A nice-looking CBM Pet 2001 with chicklet keyboard (Item #300199788685), > described as: > > "The computer powers up fine as you can see from the pictures, but it is > only half way through the booting up process.... a simple problem to fix... Don't forget the "from what I've seen on the net" part... > > Erm, yes. Very simple to fix, if you happen to have a spare of the part (or > parts) that have failed. Otherwise, a complete bastard (pardon my Francais) > of a job.... and well beyond your average ePayer, I'd warrant. ------------- Boy, tough crowd... Repairing a PET is often as simple as reseating a memory chip; worst case is probably a bad ROM in which case you just replace all the RAM/ROM chips with one of the modern 64K RAM/ROM adapters and sell the working old ones. Half the fun of buying something like this is gambling on it being a simple fix. As Ethan says, if you buy a non-working old computer and don't know (or have a friend who knows) anything about repairing them, well... Looks like an up-front description of a non-working system to me; hope he/she appreciates your advertising the listing here. m

18 years, 1 month

1st stage loader for IMSAI - need ascii to binary

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

Yes, but many sites play music and video via flash controlled webpages which don't always give you that flexibility. I am well aware of the ability to download flash video's to my harddrive. I have about 500 myself (of which about 1% would be considered on-topic). With more and more webpages being filled with flash and javascript content, it's getting harder to find sites that are actually viewable on Amiga's, C64's and other retro computers/games consoles (... trying to drive it back on topic). Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk PS. Does anyone have Jay's email address at hand? Almost every time I reply to a message via my yahoo web-mail account it get's bounced back with the following error message: <cctalk at classiccmp.org>: Remote host said: 550 5.7.1 time travel between hops [BODY]PPS. This is 3rd attempt. First two attempts (Yahoo web-mail) failedso I am now trying via Outlook Express. John Foust <jfoust at threedee.com> wrote: At 11:43 PM 2/27/2008, Patrick Finnegan wrote: >"Streaming" tends to imply no disk cache copy, more like listening to a >radio station... Browsers and other players might cache in order to give you the ability to rewind and replay, for example. There are many ways these days to save a YouTube video and convert to another format (browser plugins particularly for Firefox, sites like keepvid.com, etc.) - John

18 years, 1 month

Monroe Programmable Electronic Calculator

by tponsford＠rnsmte.com

Hi All, I picked up two interesting machines at the auction this week. The first is a Monroe Electric Programmable Scientific Calculator model #1785(circa 1971) alas, it is missing the optional punch card reader although the machine itself seems to work fine. Also came with some instructional books! The second is a Zenith LF-171 portable, which is a re-badged Morrow Pivot, complete with power supply and the black canvas carrying case. An 8088 (80C88) with an LCD screen!! All in all, a good take! Cheers! TOM

18 years, 1 month

Article about Seattle schools still running a VAX

by tiggerlasv＠aim.com

Not being from the Vax world, I wonder difficult it would be for them to move them over to SIMH or CHARON emulators? The savings in power & air conditioning alone would probably pay for the new equipment in the first year. ;-) T

18 years, 1 month

SAGE console replica

by legalize＠xmission.com

If anyone is interested in collaborating (long-term, probably not completed for a few years) in creating a replica of the SAGE consoles (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:SAGE_console.jpeg>) please contact me off-list. I want one, but feel the likelihood of me ever getting a real one is vanishingly small. -- "The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" -- DirectX 9 draft available for download <http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/download/index.html> Legalize Adulthood! <http://blogs.xmission.com/legalize/>

18 years, 1 month

TTL CPU Re: IMSAI style C&K 7101 switches

by jam＠magic.com

Grant, > On a side note, who here would be interested in ultra high resolution > scans of old computer PCBs? I'm scanning all PCBs at 3200dpi for > archival. Photoshop won't save jpegs that large, but a 1600dpi scan is > only 50MB or so. Some day I plan to release my whole archive. You mentioned JPEGs. If you are archiving the scans in JPEG format, try zooming in on bunches of traces or text on the board. JPEG creates a lot of artifacts. It may very well be case that a 600dpi scan using lossless compression will be much cleaner and usable than a 3200dpi scan using heavy JPEG compression. Even with 6 mil traces, 600dpi gives you more than 3 pixels per trace. I've tried a few of my boards using 1200dpi, 8-bit color, and GIF/TIFF, with results that seemed acceptable. James Markevitch

18 years, 1 month

CDC (MPI) floppy drive

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

Does anybody haev a CDC/MPI full height 5.25" floppy drive? No, I am not looking to buy one, I need some information on how it goes together. I have one in an HP9826, it's fucntionally the same as a TM100-2A, but intenrally quite different. The area I am baving prolems understanding is the head positioner. The head carriage runs conventionally on a pair of metal rails fixed ot the base casting. At the rear right of the drive is a stepper motor with the spindle axis vertical. On that spindle is the metal drum of a taut band mechanism, there's alos the conventional taut band. That fits over a pin on the drum. The ends of the band have holes that fit over pins on the head carriage, the rear p[in being fixed to the carriage, the front one is spring-loaded to tension the band. So far, so good. Mouleded into the head carriage are 2 arms that extend to the right of the drive, past the taut band assemly. They seem to carry some kind of damper. And that's the real prolkem In my drive, the damer had oozed grease all over the chassis. I've stripped it all down and cleaned it up. What I can't work out is how it should go back together. The 'damper' consists of a weight made af a soft metal, probably lead. And a metal shaft, about 1mm diameter, that runs through a hole in the middle of this weight, the ends of which locate in the arms I mentioned. And that's all I have. There's no obvious place to put grease inside the weight (I've looked down the hole as best I an). If you put grease on the shaft, it's just going to ooze out again. Also, what keeps the weight in the right position on the shaft? It's considerale shorter than the space between the arms. Surely it shouldn't just flop backwards and forwards? Another odditiy. When I removed the tauth band, I notixed what appeared to be a plastic clip on one of the pins. More careful inspection showed it was an O-ring that had split. OK, I can get replacements. But why put an O-ring there in the first place? It's not going to keep the band on the pin, or anything like that. My thought is that this has been dismantled before, that the O-ring actually came from the shaft that carries the weight, and that there may be parts missing (Springs, washers, etc). Does anyone ahve such a drive and could at least tell me what the damper appears to consist of (No, I am not asking you to take it to bits, just indicate if there's anything on that shaft other than the weight, if there are any ruber seals. etc? -tony

18 years, 1 month

CDC (MPI) floppy drive

by g-wright＠att.net

Hi Tony Since my 7771 1501 dive had problems and I did not find any Info. I did find a NIB dive. It has the same weight that seems to be there to stablize the movement of the head. The weight on the new drive (but old stock) has no grease on the frame of the drive but was stuck on the shaft. It does have the thick grease or ?? on the ends of the weight where the shaft enters and exits. After warming it a little it started to slide on the shaft. I can slide it the whole distance. I looked at the old drive and it does the same. It looks like it dampens some of the quick motions of the head carriage?? But the grease keeps it from moving very much. I would guess it has real thick grease in it ??? So it can only slide a little on the shaft. It may have some kind of "o" ring to help seal one end, but I did not take it apart. If needed, I could take apart the dead one. - Jerry Jerry Wright JLC inc g-wright at att.net -------------- Original message ---------------------- From: ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) > > Does anybody haev a CDC/MPI full height 5.25" floppy drive? No, I am not > looking to buy one, I need some information on how it goes together. > > I have one in an HP9826, it's fucntionally the same as a TM100-2A, but > intenrally quite different. The area I am baving prolems understanding is > the head positioner. > > The head carriage runs conventionally on a pair of metal rails fixed ot > the base casting. At the rear right of the drive is a stepper motor with > the spindle axis vertical. On that spindle is the metal drum of a taut > band mechanism, there's alos the conventional taut band. That fits over a > pin on the drum. The ends of the band have holes that fit over pins on > the head carriage, the rear p[in being fixed to the carriage, the front > one is spring-loaded to tension the band. > > So far, so good. > > Mouleded into the head carriage are 2 arms that extend to the right of > the drive, past the taut band assemly. They seem to carry some kind of > damper. And that's the real prolkem > > In my drive, the damer had oozed grease all over the chassis. I've > stripped it all down and cleaned it up. What I can't work out is how it > should go back together. > > The 'damper' consists of a weight made af a soft metal, probably lead. > And a metal shaft, about 1mm diameter, that runs through a hole in the > middle of this weight, the ends of which locate in the arms I mentioned. > And that's all I have. There's no obvious place to put grease inside the > weight (I've looked down the hole as best I an). If you put grease on the > shaft, it's just going to ooze out again. > > Also, what keeps the weight in the right position on the shaft? It's > considerale shorter than the space between the arms. Surely it shouldn't > just flop backwards and forwards? > > Another odditiy. When I removed the tauth band, I notixed what appeared > to be a plastic clip on one of the pins. More careful inspection showed > it was an O-ring that had split. OK, I can get replacements. But why put > an O-ring there in the first place? It's not going to keep the band on > the pin, or anything like that. > > My thought is that this has been dismantled before, that the O-ring > actually came from the shaft that carries the weight, and that there may > be parts missing (Springs, washers, etc). > > Does anyone ahve such a drive and could at least tell me what the damper > appears to consist of (No, I am not asking you to take it to bits, just > indicate if there's anything on that shaft other than the weight, if > there are any ruber seals. etc? > > -tony >

18 years, 1 month

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