test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by tim＠tim-mann.org

I'm just passing this on -- reply to Mr. Rhoades directly if you're interested. ------- Forwarded Message Date: Wed, 14 Mar 2007 06:32:45 -0800 From: "William Rhoades" <wwrseb at hotmail.com> Subject: TRS80 model 4 available I am settling my brother's estate. In his old office is a complete TRS Model 4, floppy drives, software, etc. Hasn't been used in years. This should be of interest to hobbiests. His widow and I want to get all this stuff in the hands of some club or individual with bona fides. I haven't got time or interest in ebaying it. Location of equipment is Asheville, NC. If you have any suggestions, I will get in email contact during the next 10 days that I am in Asheville. Thanks. Bill Rhoades ------- End of Forwarded Message -- Tim Mann tim at tim-mann.org http://tim-mann.org/

19 years, 3 months

PDP-11/40 videos

by feldman.r＠comcast.net

Get Media Player Classic from SourceForge instead. It can replace Windows Media Player, RealPlayer, and QuickTime Player. Bob Message: 3 Date: Tue, 13 Mar 2007 15:26:17 -0700 From: woodelf <bfranchuk at jetnet.ab.ca> Subject: Re: PDP-11/40 videos To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <45F72509.8090107 at jetnet.ab.ca> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed <snip>. Well I better upgrade windows media player --- sigh. <snip

19 years, 3 months

PDP-11/40 videos

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>> As a slightly more helpful remark, if you don't mind I'll download these >> and recode as a couple of different formats. Personally I recommend Ogg >> Theora, because it's an entirely free as in (beer|speech) format, with >> picture quality and compression roughly equivalent to MPEG4. > >It is nowhere near equivalent to MPEG4 (disclaimer: I am a video >compression author/nerd). But yes, it is free. But hardly anything >will play it. > >If you want cross-platform, there really is no choice other than MPEG >(MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4). I have yet to see convincing arguments for >formats other than those for simple media distribution. > >Jim Leonard (trixter at oldskool.org) http://www.oldskool.org/ When I get around to making some more (and better) videos, where I can actually take my time and do some good stuff, I will post them to my web site in both MPEG-4(.mp4) and MPEG-1(.mpg). The MPEG-4 seems to have much better compression than any of the other 5 or 6 formats I've tried. .WMV seems to be comparable, but is more Microsoft oriented. Now, back to my original question.... Are there any particular things that people would like me to video? My system is a PDP-11/40 with RK05, RL01, RL02, RX01, RX02, VT05, VT52, VT100, LA36, LA120, ASR33. I also have a couple TU56 units but have not yet hooked them up to the 11/40. It may be another year before I am in the mood to boot up my system and do this kind of thing. I get distracted by lots of other things this time of year with spring planting, etc. I just know that it would have been helpful for me to see visuals of some things back when I was putting my system together. Ashley http://www.woffordwitch.com

19 years, 3 months

ftp archives disappearing?

by ken＠seefried.com

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire at neurotica.com> >On Mar 12, 2007, at 5:45 PM, Adam Goldman wrote: >> These protocols >> no longer exist on the Internet, mostly due to valid security reasons. > > Hmm, that's an interesting assertion: > >apophis$ which finger >/bin/finger >apophis$ which talk >/bin/talk > > ...looks to me like they're still there. > He said "exist on the Internet". As someone who looks at such things for a living, he's right for all practical purposes. N.B. - "Practical purposes" means something more than "a couple of cc'ers doing it for nostalgia".

19 years, 3 months

speaking of terminals...beauty is up on ebay

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

This is not only a very rare terminal, it is in absolutely gorgeous condition. Heck it would be gorgeous even if it was beat up & dirty. But it's rather pristine. Bet this goes for real money.... http://tinyurl.com/2xalbc Pretty much defines retro-computing-beauty. Jay West

19 years, 3 months

Introduction And Questions About Media Preservation

by doug＠stillhq.com

> >Cool to me it was like catching time in a bottle. Getting to the files >I worked with perhaps will bring me back in a small way to those days. >You never know how much you miss something till its gone. I really did >not appreciate those early awkward days until much later in life. > Yep, I recently brought back to life a Z80 based "Pulsar Little Big Board" STD bus CP/M system - It was surprising the lack of bit rot that the system had suffered since 1986, when I moved to my shiny new XT. In any case, there were all of my old projects in all of their glory - That got me going, and I spent an entire weekend moving data from various older archive format (from 360K 5.25" disks, to QIC-02 tapes) onto spinning platters... I found huge numbers of projects from firms that I worked for that no longer exist - And even remembered that I was actually paid (in $$$) to write pascal code... Never would have believed that! Backups are much more regular now days, and all onto optical media - as well as onto raid disks, so it is unlikely that they will be lost again. -- Doug Jackson, MAIPM, MIEEE Senior Information Security Consultant EWA-AUSTRALIA PO Box 6308 O'Connor ACT 2602 Level 1, 214 Northbourne Ave, Braddon ACT 2612 Tel: +61 (0)2 6230 6833 Fax: +61 (0)2 6230 5833 Mob: +61 (0)414 986 878 http://www.ewa-australia.com ============================================ IMPORTANT: This email remains the property of Electronic Warfare Associates - Australia. If you have received this email in error, you are requested to contact doug.jackson at ewa-australia.com or Ph +61 2 62306833 and delete the email. This message is not to be copied or distributed to other parties without the express permission of the author. Any personal information in this email must be handled in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). ============================================

19 years, 3 months

FOR SALE: TI-99/4A EXPANSION SYSTEM w/ SPEECH, RS232, TRIPLETECH

by guy.harrison＠comcast.net

I have a TI-99 system up for auction on eBay right now: link to: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem <http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&Item=230103019092> &Item=230103019092 clipped from auction listing: Enormous Texas Instruments TI-99/4a Expansion System! Base unit Includes: * TI-99/4a base unit, serial number 2340598 - LTA3082 * TI AC power adapter, model # AC9500 * TI Video Modulator, model #UM1381 * TI Wired Remote Controllers [joysticks], model #PHP1100 * TI Cassette Interface Cable, model #PHA2000 * PEC Electricord standard computer power cable, model #107-2 * Extra 300-75ohm switch box, part #003643 [no mfg mark] * Model #PHP100 owner's manual * Model #UM1381 owner's manual * Model #PHA2000 owner's manual * TI-99/4a User's Reference Guide * TI-99/4a Quick Start Guide Expansion System includes: * TI Peripheral Expansion System, Model #1200, serial# 409652 - HTA0883 * TI Peripheral Expansion System quick-remove case lid * TI Disk Memory System and Disk Memory Drive, model #PHP1240 & PHP1250 * TI 32Kx8 Memory Expansion, Model #1260 * TI serial extender ribbon cable, model #1050212-1 * TI Flex Cable Interface * Model #1200 owner's manual * Model #1240 owner's manual * Model #1250 owner's manual * Model #1260 owner's manual * CorComp RS 232 Serial Interface Card * CorComp TripleTech card w/ TI Speech Synthesizer card, model #PHP1500 installed! * CorComp RS232 owner's manual * CorComp TripleTech owner's manual * Model #PHP1500 owner's manual Peripherals included: * Personal Peripherals Super Sketch graphic input tablet, model #G2400 * Super Sketch instruction book * Super Sketch Starter Kit Software cartridges included: * A-Maze-Ing w/ book * Addition and Subtraction 2 w/ book * Alpiner w/ book * The Attack w/ book * Beginning Grammar w/ book * Blackjack and Poker w/ book * Blasto w/ book * Car Wars w/ book * Chisholm Trail w/ book * Disk Manager 2 [no book] * Early Learning Fun w/ book [X2] * Hangman w/ book * Hunt the Wumpus w/ book * Jawbreaker II / book * *MASH w/ book * *Microsurgeon w/ book * Multiplication 1 [Scott, Foresman] no book * Munch Man [Pac Man] w/ book * Parsec w/ book * Scholastic Spelling-Level 3 w/ book * Scholastic Spelling-Level 5 w/ book * *Superfly w/ book * Tax/Investment Record Keeping w/ book * TI Invaders [Space invaders] w/ book * TI Extended BASIC w/ 222 page programming manual & reference cards * Tombstone City w/ 2 books * Video Chess w/ book * Yahtzee w/ book * Cartridges marked with an asterisk are Solid State Speech Cartridges for use with the TI99 Speech Synthesizer, which IS included in this lot, installed on the CorComp TripleTech card. Cassette Software included: * **Draw Poker w/ book * **Personal Financial Aids w/ book * **Teach Yourself BASIC Part One w/ book * **Teach Yourself BASIC Part Two w/ book ** Cassettes marked with double asterisks are for use with a generic cassette tape player, which is NOT included in this lot. However, the Extended BASIC Command Module, also required for use with this software, IS included. Floppy Diskette Software included: * Andrew Tobias - Managing Your Money, 2 diskettes / no book * Endless Mt. Software - Par Fore / no book * R.A. Green - Macro Assembler / no book * Clint Pully - C99 Compiler / no book Software Suites included: * DataBioTics - Super Space II, 1 diskette & 1 Cartridge / no book * Microsoft - Multiplan, unused copy! SEE: Complete contents! * TI-Writer Word Processor. SEE: Book, binder, disk, cartridge. * TI Logo II. SEE: Book, binder, disk, cartridge and cassette. * Editor/Assembler - Book, binder, 2 disks, cartridge & quick-ref Books, catalogs and magazines included: * SAMS COMPUTERFACTS - Technical Service Data * Texas Instruments HomeComputer Program Library w/ Bill Cosby cover * Frederick Holtz - Using and Programming the TI-99/4A * Beginner's BASIC * Ralph Molesworth - Introduction to Assembly Language * Steve Davis - Programs for the TI Home Computer This lot also come with a 3M head cleaning diskette kit and a box of 10 unused Polaroid floppy diskettes: As you can imagine, this is going to be a very heavy lot. I weighed it at about 88 pounds! So check the shipping calculator to see the damage before you bid! I will allow pickup from Minneapolis by anybody who wants to avoid shipping charges.

19 years, 3 months

HP items on Gov Liquidation 2645A 79XX Disk / Tape

by glen.slick＠gmail.com

Close Time: 03/22/2007 http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1161597 Warner Robins, GA 31098 1304A 2645A (bad screen rot) 7900? disk drive 85 http://cgi.govliquidation.com/auction/view?auctionId=1126700 Jacksonville, FL 32212 1631D 7980 tape drive

19 years, 3 months

Introduction And Questions About Media Preservation

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>>> I looked at the stack on the shelf at the sale and said to myself, >>> why, those look just like the ones we used to use... and I reached >>> for them, and they were. A few bucks and they were mine. >>> Soon after, a list member helped me read them. They were a set >>> of RSTS backups from when I was working there. >> >> Cool to me it was like catching time in a bottle. Getting to the >> files I >> worked with perhaps will bring me back in a small way to those >> days. You >> never know how much you miss something till its gone. I really did not >> appreciate those early awkward days until much later in life. > > I know *exactly* how you feel! Restoring the old backups from my >first PDP-11 (RSTS/E) and flipping through those files...it was a >very powerful experience. > > -Dave Ditto that. <RAMBLE> I had saved all of my PDP-11 stuff from 1978 on a buggy RK05 pack that started having problems mounting back in 1978. Several of us pooled our money back then to pay about $100 for that refurbished pack. It seemed like a fortune, but we were tired of saving our programs on paper tape on the ASR-33. After the pack started having problems, we were forbidden to ever mount it again on our college's system. My friends and I carried it around and traded it back and forth for 26 years. One time one of the guys wanted to turn it into a wall clock. I quickly took it to my house. Then one day I got a PDP-11/40. Then I got an RK05 drive that worked. Then in 2004, I attempted to mount my old RK05 pack by typing MOUNT DK1:JEFF. The system responded with READY. My heart was beating fast!. I did DIR DK1:(*,*)*.* and it printed the directory of the entire pack, exactly as we left it back in 1978. I managed to salvage everything from that pack to disk images on my PC. As Dave said, it was a powerful experience. </RAMBLE> Ashley http://www.woffordwitch.com

19 years, 3 months

PDP-11/40 videos

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>> When I get around to making some more (and better) videos, where I >> can actually take my time and do some good stuff, I will post them to >> my web site in both MPEG-4(.mp4) and MPEG-1(.mpg). The MPEG-4 seems to >> have much better compression than any of the other 5 or 6 formats I've >> tried. .WMV seems to be comparable, but is more Microsoft oriented. >Well I better upgrade windows media player --- sigh. I think the MP4 files play on my system in QuickTime, which I got either from Apple's web site or with my iPod. >> Now, back to my original question.... >> Are there any particular things that people would like me to video? > >Playing the the TTY version ... Boy the fans on the PDP-11 is >loud, one can hardly hear the TTY. What hardware is running? All that background noise is from: * the small fans (5 ot 6?) in the 11/40 chassis * the big fans in the top of the H960 racks * the blowers in the THREE RK05 drives * some minor sound from the two RL02s and the RL01 * some minor humming from the two DecWriters >Thanks for the downloads ... > Only another 24 meg to for the windows media upgrade... >I remember when you could install Windows/95 from floppy. Yeah I remember that too. And I remember when you could install all of RSTS onto a 2.5mb RK05 pack.... and support 16 users on the system.... well, we did have a second RK05 drive for some overflow. :-) Ashley http://www.woffordwitch.com

19 years, 3 months

Introduction And Questions About Media Preservation "Mostly DecStuff"

by fsmith＠ladylinux.com

On Tuesday 13 March 2007 12:47:04 pm cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: John Wrote .. > Lightning strikes. ?Chance favors the prepared mind. ?Or at least the > obsessive mind with time on its hands. ?I have a stack of nine-tracks > I bought at the university surplus that must've stayed in limbo from > a department I once worked at - at least fifteen years before. > > I looked at the stack on the shelf at the sale and said to myself, > why, those look just like the ones we used to use... ?and I reached > for them, and they were. ?A few bucks and they were mine. ? > Soon after, a list member helped me read them. ?They were a set > of RSTS backups from when I was working there. Cool to me it was like catching time in a bottle. Getting to the files I worked with perhaps will bring me back in a small way to those days. You never know how much you miss something till its gone. I really did not appreciate those early awkward days until much later in life. -- Kindest Regards, Francesca Smith "No Problems Only Solutions" Lady Linux Internet Services Baltimore, Maryland 21217

19 years, 3 months

baud modifier

by dm561＠torfree.net

----------------Original Message: Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2007 13:24:49 -0700 (PDT) From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> Subject: Re: baud modifier In addition to the speed, are the protocols the same? For example, if you were to just slow down a Bell 212 (1200 bps) modem to 300 bts per second while still using the same frequencies and encoding, that would NOT enable a Bell 103 to be able to communicate. It would ALSO be necessary to switch the encoding to a FSK using the Bell 103 frequencies. I could certainly feed 10 characters per second through a V.90. But that would NOT provide the CCITT V.18? protocol needed for most 110 baud devices. --------------Reply: And then there may be the little matter of RS-232 <> current loop conversion... m

19 years, 3 months

ftp archives disappearing?

by ken＠seefried.com

From: Jules Richardson <julesrichardsonuk at yahoo.co.uk> >It's a shame that there wasn't a widely-adopted data transfer protocol that >was truly bi-directional. True, though there are and have been many good not-so-widely adopted solutions. >Both FTP and HTTP largely revolve around moving data >in one direction only. Even given the predominant client/server model of the >time, it's a shame that the "main" protocols weren't designed with the >foresight that one day we might want to move just as much stuff *to* >a site as we were taking *from* it. Client/server is still essentially the model for the vast majority of internet use: it's almost all asymmetric. As in, depending on the site, 100 to 1000 times or more as much data going one way than the other. Even profiling sites like YouTube, where people actually do upload large amounts of data, individual clients download far more. HTTP was designed for the common case in it's problem space. It shouldn't be surprising that it's not optimal for other cases.

19 years, 3 months

Report on vintage "Programmer Electronnic Control" alias "RAF Tornado Computer" (fwd)

by erik＠baigar.de

Hi Roger, I am sorry, I just discovered a new "feature" of the PEC - so please ignore the "divide data" of the last email. Perhaps you can explain this. My test porgram for the DIV was implented as loop using the index register (B) to save the results to the core as follows: load values DIV/MUL load index register from pointer store accu to core with index move Q to accu load index register from pointer store accu to core with index increment pointer do next values And I noticed, that loading the index register (B) influences the Q register! In the abouve example my multiply failes, too. If I do it in the following way: load values DIV/MUL store accu to core-tmp move Q to accu load index register from pointer store accu to core with index load accu from core-tmp load index register from pointer store accu to core with index increment pointer do next values Than the MUL works as desired (with 0x23 as memory operand): Akku before: 001 005 010 020 050 100 120 150 200 500 fff Q before: fff 500 200 150 120 100 050 020 010 005 002 Akku after: 000 000 000 000 001 004 004 005 008 015 fff Q after: 023 0af 230 460 2f0 300 760 5f0 600 700 7dd Especially, you can see, that 0x50*0x23 leads to 0x12f0 which is caused be the fact, that bit 11 is not used in the shift operations and thus bit11 of Q is not valid and the MUL is in fact 11bit*11bit unsigned. So now let's repeat the experiment with the "DIV" instruction using the proper code (again memory operand is 0x23): Akku after: 03b 125 3a9 751 ff5 f43 f23 ef1 e3f b31 fc5 Q after: 01d 092 1d4 3a8 7fa 7a1 791 778 71f 598 7e2 Still I cannot see the divide instruction behind these numbers. Now I an sure, that the framework is OK since I checked it with the logic analyzer. Below I show you the list file of my assembler, do you think, this helps in out communication or would you prefer to get listings in your 8/23 you kindly explained in your last email. It would not be a problem to teach my assembler to generate such output, too. Best regards and good evening, Erik. LISTING OF DIV-Test: 13 @ 0019 ORG 0 ; 14 @ 0020 ; 15 @ 0021 0000 023 data: DW 0x23 ; 16 @ 0022 0001 000 Index: DW 0 ; 17 @ 0023 0002 FF3 Counter: DW 0xfff-12 ; 18 @ 0024 0003 000 a1: DW 0 ; 19 @ 0025 0004 000 b1: DW 0 ; 20 @ 0026 ; 21 @ 0027 ORG 0x20 ; 22 @ 0028 ; 23 @ 0029 0020 001 accu: DW 0x1 ; 24 @ 0030 0021 005 DW 0x5 ; 25 @ 0031 0022 010 DW 0x10 ; 26 @ 0032 0023 020 DW 0x20 ; 27 @ 0033 0024 050 DW 0x50 ; 28 @ 0034 0025 100 DW 0x100 ; 29 @ 0035 0026 120 DW 0x120 ; 30 @ 0036 0027 150 DW 0x150 ; 31 @ 0037 0028 200 DW 0x200 ; 32 @ 0038 0029 500 DW 0x500 ; 33 @ 0039 002A FFF DW 0xfff ; 34 @ 0040 ; 35 @ 0041 ORG 0x30 ; 36 @ 0042 ; 37 @ 0043 0030 FFF ssr: DW 0xfff ; 38 @ 0044 0031 500 DW 0x500 ; 39 @ 0045 0032 200 DW 0x200 ; 40 @ 0046 0033 150 DW 0x150 ; 41 @ 0047 0034 120 DW 0x120 ; 42 @ 0048 0035 100 DW 0x100 ; 43 @ 0049 0036 050 DW 0x50 ; 44 @ 0050 0037 020 DW 0x20 ; 45 @ 0051 0038 010 DW 0x10 ; 46 @ 0052 0039 005 DW 0x5 ; 47 @ 0053 003A 002 DW 0x2 ; 48 @ 0054 ; 49 @ 0055 ORG 0x50 ; 50 @ 0056 ; 51 @ 0057 0050 000 resultACCU: DW 0 ; 52 @ 0058 ; 53 @ 0059 ORG 0x60 ; 54 @ 0060 ; 55 @ 0061 0060 000 resultSR: DW 0 ; 56 @ 0062 ; 57 @ 0063 ORG 160 ; Programmstart 58 @ 0064 ; 59 @ 0065 ; ----------------------------------------------------------------- 60 @ 0066 ; 61 @ 0067 00A0 001 reset: LDI Index ; 62 @ 0068 00A1 430 LDA ssr ; 63 @ 0069 00A2 EA0 MATSR ; 64 @ 0070 00A3 001 LDI Index ; 65 @ 0071 00A4 420 LDA accu ; 66 @ 0072 00A5 D00 DW 0b0110100000000 ; DIV? 67 @ 0073 00A6 503 STA a1 ; 68 @ 0074 00A7 E20 MSRTA ; 69 @ 0075 00A8 504 STA b1 ; 70 @ 0076 00A9 001 LDI Index ; 71 @ 0077 00AA 560 STA resultSR ; 72 @ 0078 00AB 403 LDA a1 ; 73 @ 0079 00AC 001 LDI Index ; 74 @ 0080 00AD 550 STA resultACCU ; 75 @ 0081 00AE A01 INC Index ; 76 @ 0082 00AF A02 INC Counter ; 77 @ 0083 00B0 990 RJAN reset ; 78 @ 0084 00B1 800 stop: RJMP stop ; 79 @ 0085 ; 80 @ 0086 ORG 4095 ; Freeze to prevent jump-over 81 @ 0087 0FFF 800 looi2: RJMP looi2 ; in free running mode

19 years, 3 months

8" drive variations

by Watzman＠neo.rr.com

8" drives do exist in both hard and soft sector formats, but soft-sector is overwhelmingly dominant (probably more than 97%). There is only one rotational speed (360RPM), and they all have 77 tracks. Some have one side, some have two sides. But after that, all hell breaks loose, because the density as well as both the number of sectors per track and the sector size can take on almost any values (and some formats have track 0 in single density with all other tracks in double density). Sector size can be any of 128, 256, 512 or 1024 bytes per sector, and the number of sectors is also not well standardized. Some early drives will not interface to a 765 well; later drives should not be a problem. However, the western digital chips had more flexibility and can do formats that the 765 cannot do.

19 years, 3 months

PDP-11/40 videos

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

> Tom Peters said: >I'd like to see the blinkenlights on the front panel. > >-T Videos in Apple Quicktime format are at: http://www.woffordwitch.com/videos.asp *** WARNING - I have not downsized these videos *** THEY ARE HUGE - you'll be waiting a while if *** you are on dial-up. I'll downsize them later and/or *** put them in another format (wmv?). Ashley

19 years, 3 months

Using DECmateI RX02 drives in the pedestal

by fsmith＠ladylinux.com

On Tuesday 13 March 2007 12:47:04 pm cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: Ethan Wrote .. > You don't have to pull the drives - the DB25 connector on the back of > your pedestal is a DEC-standard way of externally cabling RX02s - it > was done the same way with the table-top RX02 shell for the MINC-11. > If you get your 11/73 together, you could aquire or make a cable to go > from the RXV21 to a DB25, then use a DB25-to-DB25 cable from the 11/73 > to the back of your DECmate pedestal. ?No removal required. Really I was wondering about that connector. Sorry for the ignorance. I guess I better read up on this. This could be quite workable. Thank you very much for this tip. > Personally, I maintain an older box with a 5.25" floppy that reads and > writes RX50s just fine. ?Haven't had occasion to fire it up lately, so > I should probably do that to see if the heads have glued down to the > platters or if the CMOS battery as died. ?It's an old 486DX2/66 VLB > box - too old to run a modern OS, but powerful enough to run an OS > capable of capturing diskette images and squirting them over an > Ethernet card to something "modern" for burning and archiving. I will have to read up on the archives. I was not so sure if the drives were interchangable. I have a couple old servicable PC's around here. Certainly I can explore this intriging option. Good tips ... Very Helpful Thank You :-) -- Kindest Regards, Francesca Smith "No Problems Only Solutions" Lady Linux Internet Services Baltimore, Maryland 21217

19 years, 3 months

Introduction And Questions About Media Preservation "Mostly DecStuff

by fsmith＠ladylinux.com

On Tuesday 13 March 2007 12:26:16 am cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: Jay Wrote .. > If you have RK05/6 & RLxx & RXxx drives that you completely trust as being > good working drives, load up vtserver and make images of the packs over a > serial port to your PC. Then you can put the images up online (or I can put > the images up on classiccmp.org under /PDP-11). Yep I am not real trusting of the drives I have. I have two RL02's one RL01 and two RK05's coming. The RK05's are known working good. But .. until I actually get a "scratch pack" I am not mounting anything in any of these drives. The RL's I need to test with media I don't care about and also I need to find a qbus or unibus controller in any case. I have about 75 or so RL02's/RL01's and about 20 RK05's. Two of the RK05's are extremely precious to me. I used these in the early 80's with a 11/45 and 11/70 I had in a lab in California. The thing is that they stayed behind at the place I use to work at while I moved on to work on other exciting things like VAX's. Then about a year or so ago. I saw these RK05's on E-Pay. I WAS absolutely Floored when I opened up the box and they were my packs looking just like when I left them. What is the chance of that happening. ??? (Now I have to find the 11/70 and 11/45 :-) ) So I want the data off these and I want them back since well ... They are in a way a part of my first love :-) Ok well as far as computers go that is :-) > I'd be happy to do the RL01, RL02, RX01, and RX02 media for you. My RK05 > isn't working yet, don't have an RK06, and haven't tested my TU81+ yet. Ok cool. Most the RL02's and RL01's are actual factory dec labeled software packs. Let me get a list together. It will take a while to transcribe all of them. I have about 15 RK05's coming in a week that contain DEC software also. Soon after this I will have the drives and should be able to work the stuff off them after finding a couple blank scratch packs. Floppys I have GADS of as in huge huge amounts of software and archives. Most of its from some long forgotten Xray spectroscopy program. (From a rescue not anything I was working on nor have a clue about) But there is quite a few with working RT11 and RSX11 and layered products on them. This may be easier once I get that 11/73 going. I am close to having some working Shugart 8 inch floppys. And I got about 5 or so RX50 drives floating around here. -- Kindest Regards, Francesca Smith "No Problems Only Solutions" Lady Linux Internet Services Baltimore, Maryland 21217

19 years, 3 months

PDP-11/40 videos

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>> Videos in Apple Quicktime format are at: >> >> http://www.woffordwitch.com/videos.asp >> >> *** WARNING - I have not downsized these videos >> *** THEY ARE HUGE - you'll be waiting a while if >> *** you are on dial-up. I'll downsize them later and/or >> *** put them in another format (wmv?). > > >FWIW, DivX/MPEG4 or MPEG2 are much better (portable!) formats than the >garbage that is WMV. > >Pat I'll do something better later today. I just dumped those out there as they were in my camera's native format. I should be able to get something good in just a meg or two. Ashley

19 years, 3 months

Interesting Book

by marvin＠rain.org

I picked up "Future Mind" by Edward Lias, (c)1982 at UCSB, and the first skimming shows it to be a pretty interesting book. Things I found interesting were in the chapter titled "How Many Would You Like?", that included marketing research type information. A couple of examples are Small Business Computer Census and Minicomputer Census for 1980 that give the number of installations for a number of computer vendors. Included are some that are not well known, Modular Micro, Artronix, Bytronix, New England Digital Corp., etc. One of the charts was a table showing the speed in operations per second for about 100 computers. This is a pretty expensive book, but well worth the $1.00 or so that a number of online bookstores are selling it for.

19 years, 3 months

Components & Tools (Was: Re: baud modifier)

by RodSmallwood＠mail.ediconsulting.co.uk

Try Maplin http://www.maplin.co.uk/ (Components Tab) They still stock 74 and 4000 series devices. Rod Smallwood -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony Duell Sent: 12 March 2007 23:06 To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Components & Tools (Was: Re: baud modifier) > H. Gee's in Cambridge is a real blessing in comparison - wide range of > > components and still staffed by people who know what they're talking > > about Having spent a few years studying and then working in Cambridge, I can confirm hhat H Gee was a place I spent far too much money :-) There's nothing much in London either. There's Cricklewood Electronics who have an amazing range of old ICs in stock (heck, they had a TTL chip I could find listed _nowehre_ else, not even on the web). > You lucky fellow, nothing like that in northwest UK that I know of > About the best I seem to be able to do is CPC (ex Farnell), but as Tony > commented the other day, the website is a disaster area for finding I'm lucky. I have a friend who runs a small electornics company and he gives me old RS and Farnell catalogues from time to time. I can find what I need there, type the order codes in on the website to se eif they're still available (of if the RoSH directive has caused them to be replaced), and if not to see what alternatives there are. > That's a cracking idea. Anyone know of good suppliers in the UK? RS seem to > be useless these days too. RS and Farnell are both fine once you've found what you want. The have a reasonable range, and are reliable. Mind you, there are some odd things that I can't find a single UK supplier for (top of the list at the moment is a 36 pin microribbon socket, cable mounting -- think of a socket that mates iwth a Centronics plug and which goes on a cable, not a chassis). -tony

19 years, 3 months

Using DECmateI RX02 drives in the pedestal

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 3/13/07, Francesca Smith <fsmith at ladylinux.com> wrote: > The funny thing is that I have RX02's here. But they are part of > a semi mint Decmate I have. I really did not want to pull them out to do this > work rather leaving them in the cart as they are. You don't have to pull the drives - the DB25 connector on the back of your pedestal is a DEC-standard way of externally cabling RX02s - it was done the same way with the table-top RX02 shell for the MINC-11. If you get your 11/73 together, you could aquire or make a cable to go >from the RXV21 to a DB25, then use a DB25-to-DB25 cable from the 11/73 to the back of your DECmate pedestal. No removal required. > And RX02's drove me nuts > when they were new. I always prefered the DSD440's and Shugart drives. Can't help you there. I've used DSD drives, Heathkit drives, and, on a Dataram PDP-11 clone, a Shugart drive with a 3rd-party controller that emulated the RXV21 at the register level (no bizarre drivers, at least). I don't have anything really bad to say about the RX02s except they are somewhat physically large compared to other offerings. > Same thing goes for the Rainbows I have. I really am loathe to pull out the RX > drives in them either. You don't have to. > I suppose that I could archive the RX50 stuff using the Rainbows. ?? You could, but then you need a way to get the files off the Rainbows. We've been discussing RX50s recently here - with the right PC-compatible drive, you can just read RX50 media in a modernish box (one old enough have proper floppy support, so, _in general_, something with a Pentium-I or older is probably a safe bet, but the only way to know for certain is to know the capabilities of your hardware and most likely to run a few quick tests) Personally, I maintain an older box with a 5.25" floppy that reads and writes RX50s just fine. Haven't had occasion to fire it up lately, so I should probably do that to see if the heads have glued down to the platters or if the CMOS battery as died. It's an old 486DX2/66 VLB box - too old to run a modern OS, but powerful enough to run an OS capable of capturing diskette images and squirting them over an Ethernet card to something "modern" for burning and archiving. You can use a Rainbow if you want, but that way would seem to me to be adding difficulty to the task without a corresponding payback, especially given how sloppy the tolerances are with real RX50 drives. -ethan

19 years, 3 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 43, Issue 31

by fsmith＠ladylinux.com

On Tuesday 13 March 2007 12:26:16 am cctalk-request at classiccmp.org wrote: Dwight wrote .. > Although, I'm not the one to help you read your disk, there > are others here that are setup to handle DEC media. > I thought I'd write to ask why you were looking for a SA900 > disk drive? Most applications use SA800/801's. Not being a > DEC person, I'd not know about DEC applications. > Still, a SA800 can be wired to look like a SA900. It is just > a different connector. > I have a machine that does use SA900's and I've been watching > for one for some time. Ahh well I was trying to get two of the 851's that were up at the Vintage Computer Market recently. The rest of my E-bay Thrashing has been of the same variety and knowing I can hack them up to do my archiving. I really messed up a year ago and did not buy two perfectly working DSD440's when I could had them cheap. The funny thing is that I have RX02's here. But they are part of a semi mint Decmate I have. I really did not want to pull them out to do this work rather leaving them in the cart as they are. And RX02's drove me nuts when they were new. I always prefered the DSD440's and Shugart drives. Same thing goes for the Rainbows I have. I really am loathe to pull out the RX drives in them either. I suppose that I could archive the RX50 stuff using the Rainbows. ?? Thats another thing I have a pile of stuff for .. Rainbows since I have a weird affinity for them. Maybe its unlike my 11/70 or 11/45 wanting .. They don't take up 1/2 a basement. :-) I am rambling. Sorry for the "Winded" posts. -- Kindest Regards, Francesca Smith "No Problems Only Solutions" Lady Linux Internet Services Baltimore, Maryland 21217

19 years, 3 months

PDP-11/40 videos

by wacarder＠earthlink.net

>> I have loaded MPEG-4 videos to my site. I have also added a "Videos" >> link on the left-hand nav. >So, since MP4 isn't a valid standard file association, any chance you could >make those files .mpg or .mpeg ? > >Jay Jay, I've added .mpg versions. They are quite a bit larger than the mp4 files. Ashley

19 years, 3 months

Reconstructing Fastback Plus Backups from floppies

by GaryDFisher＠shaw.ca

Hi everybody, I haven't posted for a long while but I have a nasty little problem to submit to you. I recently got a bunch of diskettes that I believe contain Fastback Plus archives as they are called (for example) 881123_B.005 which I believe to be the fifth disk of a backup on drive B taken Nov 23, 1988. I poked around in the files and the last disk has directories of the original drive backed up and there is a \FASTBACK subdirectory with the FB.exe of Feb 4, 1988 so I think it is version 2.xx I do have a Fastback Plus version 2.11 and for the life of me I can't find a way of reconstructing the catalog for those disks. It keeps looking for a .FUL file for the catalog. Unlike MSBACKUP of DOS 6.22 vintage (and probably before) there doesn't seem to be a re-construct catalog option. Damn, it seems pretty silly that the .FUL file isn't with the diskettes or no way to get the catalog back. Of course the files are mostly compressed but there is enough ASCII to see some of the directories and text. Can anybody give me some sage advice as there seems to be no info that I can get through a pretty exhaustive Google search so far. Thanks, GF This was a message from Gary Fisher GaryDFisher at shaw.ca

19 years, 3 months

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