test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

woodelf wrote: Unicorn Electronics has 1702's still* listed for $4.99. --------------- My only order ever to Unicorn was for some TTL parts back on 22nd of June. I tweaked them a month later and got a reply that parts were back ordered, would ship in a week or so. Last I heard from them. What is your experience with Unicorn? Did they actually ship parts to you? Their prices are good, but I would pay a little more to get parts I need. Or at least an "out of stock" notice after 7 weeks of waiting. Billy

18 years, 10 months

Mac Plus success - clean contacts!

by mtapley＠swri.edu

All, another update on my Mac Plus - previously, I've had trouble with getting the +5V supply adjusted right, and noticed that reseating the power cable connectors helped. This time, I actually took some measurements. Looking from the solder pad on the far side of the power board, through the connector, the cable, and the connectors on the digital board, to the solder pad on the far side of that board, I saw anywhere from 1 to *5 Ohms* through that cable. No wonder it was not reliable! I'm astonished it ever ran long enough to get through the RAM checks! Pulled off both connectors, ran a VOM probe back and forth through each slot on both ends of the cable a few times. Got some 400-grit sandpaper and lightly sanded the pins on the board connectors, swabbed them off with Q-tips and isopropyl alcohol, then swabbed on a trace amount of silicone oil (in hopes that it'll be a while before I have to do this again). Resistance measurements, after reassembly, went down near enough 0 that I would not attempt to put a number on them other than << 0.2 Ohms. Pulled out all of the SIMMS, scrubbed their contacts with Q-tips and isopropyl, and re-installed. Reseated the CPU (Brainpower Accelerator daughterboard). Tuned the +5V supply back *down* a little, to about midway between where it would crowbar and where it wouldn't start (This looked on my ancient VOM to be around 4.95 V). System has been running solidly for several days now, through multiple power cycles and multiple extended play sessions. My 6-year-old is getting reacquainted with Dark Castle and Sim City. Hope this is useful; questions welcome! -- - 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, 10 months

Can someone tell me what this means?

by cclist＠sydex.com

This from today's New York Times story at http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/11/technology/11novell.html about SCO losing its claims to ownership of Unix: "The Unix operating system, which has become popular with some independent-minded PC users as well as in the corporate world, was developed by AT&T researchers at Bell Labs beginning in 1969. During the 1970s, the operating system became highly influential in academic computing and in computer science departments. In the ?80s, it had a significant impact in the computer workstation and minicomputer markets, although it never gained a significant foothold in the personal computer business until Steven P. Jobs brought a version of Unix with him when he returned to Apple Computer in 1997. Some PC makers have begun to offer versions of Linux instead of Microsoft?s Windows operating systems." What does Apple and Steve Jobs have to do with Unix? Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 10 months

DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi Thanks.. Yes I knew about the feed another monitor with comp video idea (I do a bit of amateur television) However, a real VT201 has turned up in the UK. This is going to be really nice, I have a huge heap of software all specifically for the Rainbow. Or will it be "How much have I forgotten in 25 years" Next task = find the colour graphics adapter that goes with the Rainbow (after making sure this one has not got one) Regards Rod. -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Ethan Dicks Sent: 13 August 2007 13:24 To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts Subject: Re: DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus On 8/10/07, Rod Smallwood <RodSmallwood at mail.ediconsulting.co.uk> wrote: > Hi > I am now the owner of a DEC Rainbow 100 Plus.... > The bad news is the tube in the VR201 monitor is shot. > > So... > I need: > > a) A replacement tube. > > or > > b) a Digital VR201-A , -B or -C > > or > > d) A colour graphics card for a DEC Rainbow. 100+ > > > Anybody knowing the whereabouts any of the above please contact me. You have another option... the video input to a VR201 is NTSC "composite video", also called RS-170. I see you are in the UK, so an NTSC monitor might not be as easy to find as a VR201, but will work if you have one handy. I made a DA15-RCA cable years ago to hook a VR201 to an Amiga 2000 that I used as a hardware test platform (so I didn't care about a lack of color). I have to admit that I haven't "gone the other way" and used a non-DEC monitor on a Rainbow, but there's no reason to expect it won't work. I recently saw my Amiga cable, but the VR201, unfortunately, fell off the workbench some years ago, and the tube bit the dust. I pitched the plastic housing and saved the analog board, IIRC. -ethan

18 years, 10 months

DEC Rainbow 100+ Plus

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Hi I am now the owner of a DEC Rainbow 100 Plus. (10mb Hard Drive and all) Its just like the one I had on my desk at DECPark circa 1981 The good news is its got loads of software with it. The bad news is the tube in the VR201 monitor is shot. The screen has mould between the tube and bonded on faceplate. No amount of standard adjustment will make it bright enough to read in normal lighting. So... I need: a) A replacement tube. or b) a Digital VR201-A , -B or -C or d) A colour graphics card for a DEC Rainbow. 100+ Anybody knowing the whereabouts any of the above please contact me. Rod Smallwood

18 years, 10 months

Tandon TM-100-4M curiosity

by cclist＠sydex.com

I was looking at a bunch of Tandon TM100-4M floppy drives that I've had for a (very) long time and saw something that never registered with me before. On the underside of the disk release latch (on the faceplate), a small silver sticker. Most say "100 TPI DSR", but about one in every 4 says "96 TPI DSR". All drives are 100 TPI TM-100-4Ms, BTW as identified on the body sticker. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 10 months

Burners - was newbie building a scratch-built computer

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Mike Ford wrote: Look around a bit and I am sure you will still find cheap and cheesy solutions, PC cards or something off the parallel printer connection. --------------- Maybe that is something I can sell at the next VCF. For years, I bought burners when I saw them but never used them. I know I have some of the parallel port types, plus some that plug into PC busses. Even a couple that work on the Apple II. And recently, I bought a spate of Data I/O 19's, a couple of 29B's and several other assorted models. I usually tear them apart for the parts and toss the chassis. Although the Data I/O 100 has the perfect chassis for a project I am working on, so there I kept the chassis and tossed some of the parts. Did the same for some HP 1611 Microsprocessor Logic Analyzers. Maybe I should take them to the VCF to sell? Most flea market buyers don't seem to know what they are. Billy

18 years, 10 months

Tandon TM502/Tandy 2000 problems

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: I?ve been working for a while on resurrecting the hard drive system of my Tandy 2000. The short story is that I have two systems with TM502 hard drives, both of which failed after a few uses (both were donations to me earlier in the year) and were no longer recognized by the system. Running the format program from Tandy DOS (MSDOS 2.21) fails to recognize the drives. I jacked one into a MFM controller on an older PC, re-ran the low-level format and formatted it with DOS 6.22. I then verified that it booted. I moved it to the T2k, where it was not recognized again, but this time, I was able to run the formatting program and now it?s usable from DOS 2.21. So, the hardware is good and I guess running the low-level formatting program >from the ROM (g=c800:5) reinvigorated the drive. Since it seems that the low-level formatting has gone south on these drives, is there a non-destructive low level formatting program that?s good for this? I vaguely remember Spinrite, but I no longer have a copy in my box-o?-disks. I don?t want to destructively format the second hard drive since it has lots of programs on it from the person that sent it to me and I?d like to recover them if possible. I even wonder if the remaining drive can be resurrected at this point with the data intact. Oh, for those interested, the Tandy controller happily uses an ST-225 (20.1mb) drive as an alternate. Thanks for any info. Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp

18 years, 10 months

Strange DC-style cartridge ID

by cclist＠sydex.com

I've dug out an old Adic tape drive and thought at first that it used standard DC-300 or DC-600 cartridges. But every time I put a cart in the unit, the tape would spin for a couple of seconds and then the error light and alarm would come on. Poking inside the cabinet, it's very obvious that the DC-600 type of cartridge has the correct form factor, but that this unit doesn not employ optical sensing of BOT/EOT, etc. There are no optical sensors at all. I'm not certain, but I don't even think a conductive foil sensor is used either. It appears that the tape must be preformatted with some sort of prerecorded pattern to identify the beginning of tape. Anyone have any idea of what kind of tape this thing takes? Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 10 months

Modern PC's and old ATA drives?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 03:46 PM 8/12/2007, Rob wrote: >I had a drive behave like this once. Rather than trying to get >Windows to recognise it, I recovered most of the data using a prodct >called R-Studio <http://www.r-tt.com/> - looking at their website the >software should identify and cope with pretty much anything, They've >a downloadable demo so you can see if it will work for you.. I used >it on a FreeBSD drive, via a USB-IDE adapter on a WInXP laptop, so a >old Windows drive should be a doddle. Yes, I own R-Studio, too. It can work if and when the drive has fully "come alive" in terms of the IDE bus and/or USB/Fw adapter and the operating system's view of the device. - John

18 years, 10 months

Modern PC's and old ATA drives?

by robert＠irrelevant.com

On 12/08/07, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > I'm trying to recover data from an old Conner CFS420A (420MB) Hard > Drive for someone. > http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/specs/ata/cfs420a.html > > I've tried hooking it up to my two IDE-to-USB cables, I can't see it > on my Mac when connected to either. I can see it on my WinXP system > when connected to the older cable (which oddly enough doesn't like > most HD's I've plugged into it). However, I don't see any sign of > partitions. > I had a drive behave like this once. Rather than trying to get Windows to recognise it, I recovered most of the data using a prodct called R-Studio <http://www.r-tt.com/> - looking at their website the software should identify and cope with pretty much anything, They've a downloadable demo so you can see if it will work for you.. I used it on a FreeBSD drive, via a USB-IDE adapter on a WInXP laptop, so a old Windows drive should be a doddle. Rob

18 years, 10 months

FORTRAN T-shirt

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

I was getting on a bus in Playa del Carmen, Mexico yesterday and ran into a guy wearing a T-shirt whose decoration was a bunch of FORTRAN code. The wearer said he didn't know its background or what it meant or came from. Maybe it was something cooked up by a graphic artist who just thought it looked cool, but if it was from a real system, it's something I didn't recognize. It was some sort of interactive system. Here is what it looked like, structurally, more or less, from memory. *READY A = 3+3 *READY A = 6 *READY *READY PROGRAM TEST *READY DIMENSION B(6) *READY READ(3,10) (B(I),I = 1,6) *READY 10 FORMAT(6F10.5) *READY DO 20 I = 1, 20 . . (and so on --- about 30 lines of ordinary fortran code here) . *READY 20 CONTINUE *READY GOAT 2 STATEMENT NOT IN *READY GOTO 2 *READY 30 CALL XPLOT(B,10) *READY STOP74 *READY END Each line started with *READY, except for the blank line, the line with the result 6 and the line with STATEMENT NOT IN. The font looked like standard ASR33 teletype. Does this format look familiar to anyone? The bit about prompting for each line with *READY is something I've never seen. It also appeared to do some preliminary syntax checking, as it flagged the line "GOAT 2" with an error message (which was itself grammatically incomplete). Any recollections on this one? Brian

18 years, 10 months

FTGH: Sun ELC motherboards, odd k/bs, misc cables, portable terminal - UK

by listmailgoeshere＠gmail.com

Hi cctalkers, The following have to go, within ~14days or they get binned. 4 x Sun ELC motherboards. 3 of these are complete with socket board (so form a complete headless Sun machine if you add SCSI disk and run them from a PC PSU - they have stub cables to wire the PSU to), the third (which has no RAM) isn't, so is only good for spares or upgrading an SLC. There are 10base2 AUIs with all of them. Post on these in the UK will probably be ~?2. 1 x k/b marked "MICROCOLOUR Graphics" in top right corner. It has VT220 layout, but the connector is a DE9 with only 5 pins fitted. Brand new, still in wrapper. On the base is a sticker "part no: EK000ZH01, model no: M2220D". UK post probably ~?4. 1 x Liberty "VT220 style" k/b, suitable for the Liberty Freedom One terminals I gave away on this list last year. RJ11 plug, could work on other terminals as well? Brand new in original box. Again, post about ?4ish. Also, one unboxed but good condition used one. 2 x LK411 (VT510) terminal k/b. VT220 style but with a PS/2 connector. Post probably ?4ish each. 1 x k/b for Falco 220 (?) VT220-clone. Ade Vickers may still have the terminal this belongs to, if you fancy it. Postage ?4-ish. 4 x BA35X PSUs for BA356 disk arrays. Standard IEC mains connector, marked 100-240V 50/60Hz so OK anywhere. 3 are grey/green, one is blue. Postage probably ?4 each. And a load of odd cables (all new in mfr's bags), post ~?2ea: 1 x Selectronix "Xtreme" SEL-2276-0100, 2 HD50 females to what looks like an HD100? Male. 4 x Cisco Systems "Cable pair SMB to BNC - female" (3 cables per bag, 4 bags in total) 2 x 15-pin D to what looks like Cisco serial, labelled "CAB X21 MT, 10 METRES". 3 x 15-pin D to 44-pin 3-row D, labelled "BAY 7224 8 METRES" 1 x DB25 M to DE9 F, labelled "38YCN00001SDY 23/01 CTL 83443" oh, and 1 x GR Electronics "Pocket VDU" portable terminal. (Rusty) DB25 F, 2-pos slide switch and 10-way DIP sw on rear. Unit is about 10" tall, about 7" wide @ widest, and about 1.5" high. 2-line LCD. Please mail if you want any. Ed.

18 years, 10 months

wtb: Micronics M54Pe

by bear＠typewritten.org

On the off chance somebody has an M54Pe stashed somewhere, I'm looking for one. Contact me off list, please? This is a PCI/EISA, full-AT dual Pentium mainboard. Some models have PS/2 keyboard and mouse ports; I'd prefer one without but will consider either. Thanks! ok bear

18 years, 10 months

MicroVax II diagnostic tape?

by rick＠rickmurphy.net

At 12:53 AM 8/12/2007, Ethan Dicks wrote: >On 8/6/07, Rick Murphy <rick at rickmurphy.net> wrote: > > XT2190s (RD54s) aren't cheap, they're noisy as hell, and > > aren't very big. > >How "not cheap" are they these days? They are large enough for VMS >6.0 - I've done it. OTOH, there wasn't any room left for anything >else, and I did have to trim off a few things to make it all fit, but >it does come up and boot on my rather-stock uVAX-II. They fetch $300 or more per drive on eBay. >By even semi-modern standards, though, I'd agree with you that 154MB >just isn't that much room for later versions of VMS or Ultrix, but VMS >5.x and on down fit just fine, if that's what you want to run. Yup. When I had a uVAX here I used three RD54s with VMS 5.4 on the first drive. As long as you're careful it works OK. Putting the swap onto another drive helps remove some of the space crunch. One advantage of these drives is that they're pretty reliable, unlike RD53s. > > As several people have pointed out, you're far better off with non-DEC > > storage controllers and devices. > >Agreed. I managed to locate a Qbus SCSI controller a while back, but >I've had other DEC machines in the queue head of any MicroVAX work, so >I haven't been able to put a system together yet. I tried for a SCSI controller for a long time but wasn't willing to pay the price. I eventually gave away the VAXen and just moved to SIMH. -Rick

18 years, 10 months

Can someone tell me what this means?

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> From: Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> > On Saturday 11 August 2007 17:55, Roger Holmes wrote: >> Anyway, do things like QuickTime, OpenGL and Quesa exist on Linux? > > QT: xine, mplayer. Both are way more compatible with more formats > than > Quicktime is. QT and Window Media Player don't come close to > supporting all the variants of just MPEG-4, that xine/mplayer do. I see. Thanks. > > OpenGL: It's called the same thing on MacOS, Windows, Linux, and every > other UNIX. There's lots of high-performance graphics work that gets > done on Linux boxes with nVidia cards. I understand that 'Open' in this context does not mean open source, just an open specification. Apple, Microsoft and presumably the Linux volunteers had to spend a lot of time writing their own versions. I also understand that Microsoft's version is getting left behind and may be axed at any time. Maybe I am out of date on this though as we don't currently have a windows versions of our 3D products, only the 2D ones. > > According to Quesa's website, "Quesa currently supports Mac OS 8/9, > Mac > OS X, Linux, and Windows." Yes I should have known that, sorry. > >> It would take me time I do not have (and human memory) to keep up >> with what is and is not in yet another operating system. Apple >> spends a lot of money keeping developers like me up to date with >> their developments, I presume nothing similar is done with Linux. >> What spare time I have is more enjoyably spent of classic cars and >> classic computers. > > I don't understand what to make of this. Basic OS API features > tend to > change slowly... and if you want to keep track of GUI or other random > library/toolkit updates, just pay general attention to the mailing > lists they have, download new versions as the come out, and see if > your > code still compiles against them. Speed is relative. If you have a million lines of code to keep up to date and sales revenues only allow you to employ yourself and one other programmer, then the speed of development is not sufficient to keep up with API, OS and processor changes AND add the features, which you need to stay competitive, to your programs. One of our programs, which was first issued soon after the first Macintosh shipped, has been rewritten from Pascal and assembler into C/C++, its basic drawing engine has been changed from using QuickDraw to using Quartz, the user interface has been partially rewritten to use Quartz/ Carbon and look like Aqua, but a lot more needs to be done. The printing side has been updated to use use the OS-X printing model rather than the OS1 to OS9 model. The clipboard handling has been changed many times and needs to be changed again to support PDF input rather than PICT vector format. Its been moved from 68K to PowerPC and now to Intel. Its been moved from development on Lisa to MPW on Mac, to CodeWarrior and now onto X-Code. Debugging has moved from 2 machine debugger to MacsBug to CodeWarrior's debugger to GDB under X- Code, and not always for the better. GDB under X-Code is still not as good as CodeWarrior, it fails to show some variables, cannot display dynamic arrays except as a hex memory dump and cannot single shot over some C++ constructors. Another program has been updated from using QuickDraw3D to using Quesa, from using PowerPC to Intel (with lots of endian problems), >from using PowerPlant under CodeWarrior to using Cocoa under X-Code. Its been partially re-coded from C++ to Objective C. We've only re- issued two thirds of the program, dropping the less useful features until (if ever) we get the time to do the more exotic parts. Its been changed from the classic event handling system to Carbon events. Its been changed from using a single processor to using multiple processors in critical parts. From using resources and Resourcerer to using NIB files with Interface Builder (despite that, in my opinion, Interface Builder is still incomplete and that MacOS is still not as well documented as OS9). I could go on, and that's just two programs of all the ones we ship. > There's been some issues with newer versions of GCC breaking older > code, > but in general, if that happens, its because your code was written > poorly and not to the language specifications. It been moving TO GCC that is one of the problems. It does not allow temporary variables which need to be constructed, to then be passed as procedure parameters. Debugging of anything using templates is very confusing (presumably because the compiler does not output the correct source code references), displaying source code which has nothing at all to what its actually executing so that you have to look at the object code, which is Intel code which is another learning curve I need to master to add to my repertoire of a dozen or so machine codes. Any recommendations of a good book on the latest Intel processor instruction set? GCC does not even generate very efficient object code when optimisations are all turned on. > Worst case, you can just install whatever version of the libraries > your > app uses along with the app in some out of the way place, and ignore > changes to the system libraries, GUI, etc, pretty trivially. Rather difficult when the libraries are in PowerPC code and you're running on Intel, and when the libraries make OS calls which are no longer available.

18 years, 10 months

Can someone tell me what this means?

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

> While Mac OS X has a UNIX layer under the hood, the GUI is where it > is less than compatible. While X-Windows is available, and so can > run UNIX GUI applications, most Mac users don't even have it > installed. Most Mac applications are written for the native Mac OS X > GUI. While most UNIXes have X, X isn't necessary for UNIX. I have (and I know most people on the list probably also have) several Unices where X isn't included, one UNIX where X is optional (standard display is NeWS), and two Unices with something completely different. I will confess to happily running Linux and OS X, and Linux makes a darn good can opener for assorted disks &cet. The number of different UI toolkits (and desktop environment support libraries/etc) that you wind up installing is somewhat outrageous, especially when you consider that many of them seem to be pretty much copying the UI of Windows.

18 years, 10 months

NEC FD 1035 3.5" Floppy jumpers?

by cclist＠sydex.com

Just dug a couple of these out of my hellbox. Old full-height 720K floppy drives. I can find a product description on bitsavers, but no jumper information. I can probably guess what most are, but I'd like to have some hardcopy info on file if possible. Cheers, Chuck

18 years, 10 months

CNET Collectible Computers

by marvin＠west.net

> From: Patrick Finnegan <pat at computer-refuge.org> > On Saturday 11 August 2007 17:26, Marvin Johnston wrote: > > They are not only wrong, but rather vague! But for their list of the > > top 5 collectible computers, take a look at: > > I don't see how you can say that they're wrong. It's *CNET*s top 5. > Just like Bill or Joe's Top 5. Ie, the 5 machines that the people at > CNET who wrote the story thought were most collectable. Actually, when I first wrote it, I had a smiley at the end. They are welcome to their ideas, but with nothing to indicate how they came up with these five and what *their* qualifications for making the list, the list is rather worthless. Much like the person who put an Apple IIe up for sale on Ebay at $5K or so.

18 years, 10 months

MicroVax II diagnostic tape?

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Well, I've been playing with some machines I haven't had time for before (not that I really have time now, but that's beside the point), and I was able to fire up the MicroVax II's. I have two of them, one in an official DEC enclosure, and one in a third party cabinet. They both "work" after a little cajoling, but neither boots from disk. The third party cabinet Vax has a screeching ESDI disk (sounds like a head crash) on an Emulex controller, and the DEC cabinet Vax has an RD53 on an RQDX3, and it sounds as if the rubber bumper has glued the heads to the stops. I have other ESDI disks, and one other Micropolis drive (non DEC)- I want to attempt to format and test some of them on the Vaxen. I plan on attempting to repair the RD53, but I'd like to be able to format and test disks, since I need to scare up a replacement for the other Vax. I have heard tales of a magical diagnostic tape that exists for these machines. Both Vaxen have TK50's, and I have one TK50 cartridge (jammed in one of the TK50's... Gotta free that tonight). I also have, IIRC, a SCSI TK50 (gotta dig that out tonight as well). So, is there any way of creating a diagnostic tape for these MicroVax II's? Is there an archive somewhere out on the 'net of tape dumps? Thanks! -Ian

18 years, 10 months

Vintage Cisco Router code

by mikelee＠tdh.com

I've got myself a Cisco AGS+ router (1986-1995) and I'm looking for OLD code versions for it. I got it running Cisco GS/IOS 9.x, but want to see some early revisions. I believe this particular model can go up to IOS11.x, but that isn't my goal. I'd like to have examples of "what was." Anyone have suggestions on how I could obtain very obsolete code revisions for Cisco Routers/IOS most likely only historically significant and not of much technical or monetary value today? Also, looking for any more info/leads on vintage infrastructure equipment, and historically significant early models.

18 years, 10 months

CNET Collectible Computers

by marvin＠west.net

They are not only wrong, but rather vague! But for their list of the top 5 collectible computers, take a look at: http://www.cnettv.com/9710-1_53-28760.html?tag=nl.e415 For those of you using real browsers that can't view the video, they are: 1 - Apple I 2 - Altair 3 - Apple Lisa 4 - Xerox Alto 5 - Commodore 64

18 years, 10 months

Can someone tell me what this means?

by roger.holmes＠microspot.co.uk

> Date: Sat, 11 Aug 2007 16:23:24 -0400 (EDT) > From: der Mouse <mouse at Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA> >> If OS X is really Unix under the hood, then why do vendors of several >> of my high-end applications that are offered in Windoze and OS X >> versions all say "We have no plans for a Linux version"? It would >> seem to be a pretty easy thing to do. > > I don't *know*, of course, since I have no inside information about > any > such vendors. But some plausible answers come to mind: > > (1) Because "high-end" applications usually depend on a lot more than > just the "Unix" in OS X. They typically depend on Aqua as well > (that's > the fancy - and closed, and proprietary - GUI layer). Porting them > (too often, this really means rewriting them) for Linux is likely > to be > difficult, especially since "Linux" is not a single thing when it > comes > to higher-end graphics - there's far more variability in graphics > hardware under Linux than across the entire OSX-supporting Mac line. > > (2) Because a substantial part of the cost, to the vendor, of a Linux > version is in not the creating of it, but the customer support for it. > > (3) Because they have limited resources and have chosen to invest them > in the Windows and Mac versions, expecting higher ROI there. I am technical director of one of those vendors, and you are spot on. Except that Aqua is merely a set of guidelines, not actual code. The code is called either Carbon or Cocoa, though you could write your own and still conform to the Aqua user interface guidelines. Anyway, do things like QuickTime, OpenGL and Quesa exist on Linux? It would take me time I do not have (and human memory) to keep up with what is and is not in yet another operating system. Apple spends a lot of money keeping developers like me up to date with their developments, I presume nothing similar is done with Linux. What spare time I have is more enjoyably spent of classic cars and classic computers.

18 years, 10 months

CNET Collectible Computers

by evan＠snarc.net

That is really weird. "Top 5" by what standards? Will have to write about this in my Computerworld blog...

18 years, 10 months

newbie building a scratch-built computer

by classiccmp＠memory-alpha.org.uk

Hi, >> Good point, and the exact reason I picked up a "Softy S3" >>about 10 years back (which is in SERIOUS need of TLC >>unfortunately). > > I rememebr seeing the adverts for that -- and drooling :-). It is a *SERIOUSLY* useful device....it'll even emulate RAM, which is surprisingly useful when debugging code. :-) >....Alas I was an undergraduate at the time, and no way could >I afford one, so I built my own programmer/emulator.... I first came across the S3 in '89, it was standard equipment at the company I was working for at the time. It's one of the few times that I have been genuinely blown away by a piece of technology. A sort of "Eureka" moment. Even then I couldn't afford (well, justify) the cost of getting one to use at home. In the end I picked this one up in '97, from the small ads of the local paper, for ?35! It had been dropped, so the case is pretty badly damaged, but other than needing an new Ni-Cad battery pack it's fully functional. Or at least it was, I seriously need to overhaul it. The irony is, I'm pretty sure this unit is one of the very ones I used between '89 and '91. The guy I got it from bought it at a "clearout" sale at Aston Science Park in '91....which was when the aforementioned company I'd been working for, on said science park, closed down.... :-) >....3 large boards of TTL chips (I couldn't use a processor, >what could I have programmed the firmware with :-)). LOL, good point. I actually built my first EPROM burner from scratch too (though I never built an EPROM emulator). I had little choice, as an Atari user my options for off the shelf programmers were very limited - most connected via RS232, no use to me as I didn't have the 850 serial/printer interface module. And the only other one I remember would only work in an Atari 800 as it plugged into the right hand cartridge port (I, of course, had a 400). So I threw together a very simple design which connected to the machine via it's joystick ports. The joystick ports were connected to a 6520 PIA inside the machine which gave me two 8 bit I/O ports to play with. Used one port to pass the data to be burned, and used the other to provide assorted control signals - like the programming pulse, clocking/resetting a pair of 4040 counters which provided the address to the EPROM (I said it was simple), etc. Worked surprisingly reliably. > I do have the original Softy somwhere. SC/MP based, TV output, >programs 2708s. I can't rememebr if it emulatrs as well. I've never actually seen one of those for real, just pictures. Is it just me, or did they use a very similar case to that of the ZX-80? Certainly, the bottom part of the case looks identical in the pictures I've seen. TTFN - Pete.

18 years, 10 months

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