test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by Hollandia＠ccountry.net

I have a Packard-Bell 486 machine on which I am installing a second hard drive. The machine has the Phoenix BIOS v1.01, and uses DOS 5.0 and Windows 3.1. The "C" drive is an IBM hard drive with a capacity of 1215 MB. The Ontrack v7.09 Disk Manager software is installed on it to allow the use of a hard drive greater than ~528 MB. At present the jumpers on that drive are set to "cable select". The hard drive I am trying to fit to this machine as "D" is a Western Digital Caviar 14300. The Wester Digital Part Number is AC14300-00RTT1. The new drive has jumper settings for SLAVE, NASTER and SINGLE, but so far as I can tell, none for "cable select." At present, the BIOS does not recognize the existence of the new drive. My questions: 1) How do I set this new drive for "cable select"? 2) Will wrong BIOS settings caues the drive's existence to not be recognized? Thanks, Kurt

19 years, 3 months

Solder & Flux Questions

by gstreet＠indy.net

How many "solder masters" are on this discussion group? I've seen some mention of newer types of solder (lead free?). I've also seen mention and used one type of water soluble flux (BTW, I really liked it). I've been using Kester "44" .031 solder for years (for small work). However, I've got a project that I'd like to have every advantage possible (as far as having good, clean soldered connections). Does anyone have any suggestions? I wonder if the lead-free stuff has a higher melting temperature? BTW, I'm using a WTCPT soldering station. Any tips would be appreciated. Thank you, Robert Greenstreet

19 years, 3 months

Google on hard drive failures

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

>> Hmm- it would be nice if they identified the manufacturer that has >> notably higher failure rates, but I think I can make a guess (WD?) > > Google's paper addresses this. One, because they're buying so many > drives, they think if everyone knows which is "best" then that will > increase demand and drive up the price for those drives. Two, they > don't want to help their competition. Three, they didn't want to get > sued by the losers. > > - John An explanation of why they find printing the data inconvenient or frightening does not negate the fact that it would be nice to have.

19 years, 3 months

Kennedy to PC interface...

by onymouse＠garlic.com

All this talk of Kennedy's reminds me... any chance of connecting old--recent old to old old--Kennedy 9tracks to a PC? Or has anyone taken any surplus 9tracks and run them on PC's? Or, how about a 9track with GPIB/HPIB interface--any with Amigo or SS80 command set? (I really would like to see what I've forgotten on my tapes...) mata jd "I shot an arrow into the air, and it stuck." -- Graffito in Los Angeles

19 years, 3 months

Google on hard drive failures

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Hmm- it would be nice if they identified the manufacturer that has notably higher failure rates, but I think I can make a guess (WD?) On the other hand, (perhaps it's just an age thing) I have had several drives of the IDE and SCSI types fail, and it seems that the SCSI drives are more likely to do it in the "operatic heroine" manner and either take a long time to do it or come back to life a few times allowing one to recover a bit of the data changed since last backup. IDEs tend to die rapidly and finally. Note that this is just my experience. What are current reliability rankings re: cheapo (SATA/IDE) drives (similar to what one would use to store classiccmp-related documents and software on)?

19 years, 3 months

Where there's smoke there's... a hard disk!?!

by ian_primus＠yahoo.com

Recently, an accquaintaince was cleaning up his house and came upon some old hardware, and asked - do I want some old hard disks? Sure! He gave me a pair of old Avid external 9 gig hard drives. Basically just 9 gig 5 1/4" FH Micropolis 50 pin SCSI drives in little-ish external boxes. Perfect for some of these old boxen I run around here. Anyway, I decided to hook them up tonight. I cabled them up to an old PC, powered everything on, and the SCSI card saw both disks. I left the machine run while I went in the next room to burn a Debian netinst CD. Five minutes later... what's that smell? I went in the next room, now slightly hazy and full of that acrid 'burnt electronics' smell. I hit the switch on the power strip and started smelling things looking for the source. Old 14" DigiView monitor? - no... Old Compaq desktop PC? - no... Avid external 9 gig SCSI hard drive? - <cough>.. yes <gasp>. I took the drive apart, expecting to find a burnt up tantalum cap in the power supply or something - nothing. Then I took the drive out (not easy, the standoffs seem to like to stay with the screws rather than the drive..), and flipped it over. There was a burnt mark on the board the size of a nickel, and the board had started to delaminate. In the center, a charred husk of a something that resembled a surface mount capacitor of some sort, a small rectangular component about the size of a standard jumper laying flat. Hmm, I haven't got anything to lose at this point, so I picked the burnt thing off the board, it had already unsoldered one side of itself, so I wiggled the other side off, and removed the surrounding debris. Morbid curiosity made me hook the drive back up. Hmm, it spins... it comes ready... I hooked it back up to the computer, and turned the computer on, and lo and behold, the SCSI controller sees the drive! I am currently running the Adaptec SCSI controller's media test function on the drive now, as I ponder why the Linux installer insists on crashing on this particular box, but I really wonder a couple things - what caused that capacitor to burn, why does the disk still work, and how long will it continue to work? I imagine that the capacitor wasn't particularly important, seeming as though the drive still runs, but what baffles me is that even with sizeable damage to the board, (it's bubbled up and delaminated in that spot) the drive works. The capacitor was near three voltage regulator type transistors on the board, so it could have been a bypass type capacitor, and not crucial to the circuit, but that doesn't explain why it caught fire. Computers never cease to amaze me. -Ian

19 years, 3 months

eBay idiocy

by sellam＠vintagetech.com

I find it necessary to clear up some misconceptions and outright lies that have been posted here about me, and to respond to some of the attacks on my personal character. This will naturally be unnecessarily wordy, so if you don't have the stomach for it then just move on now. First of all, I'm sorry that so many people seem to have taken my message as a personal assault. In re-reading the message, it seems the primary reason some people got upset is because I expressed my speech freely, and I also expressed some rather unflattering truths. My tone was angry, yes, but my anger was directed at eBay primarily (because I hate them), and secondarily at the same old useless bitching about eBay that seems to never end here. I think it's pretty clear that I was looking for constructive feedback and/or criticism. Well, unfortunately I got mostly criticism, and little constructive feedback (I do appreciate the replies >from Jules and Curt). Since I did not single out any individual, I can only imagine that those that took personal offense may well have a guilty conscience(?) Since many people seemed to have missed the point, it is this: many people just like to bitch and gripe for the sake of bitching and griping, and because it's easier than actually going out and changing what you don't like. This is what Patrick and I did in building the Vintage Computer Marketplace. We did this primarily to create a nice alternative to eBay for the trading of vintage computers. It was designed and built specifically with the computer collector in mind. It was our hope that the site would be embraced and utilized by the community, eventually becoming a thriving trading site, and ideally becoming commercially viable to make the effort worthwhile. I am fully prepared to admit that the promotion of the site can be greatly improved, but there's only so many times I can mention it on the list (which I used to do regularly when I was actively subscribed) and there aren't many other ways to promote it. I did hear one good suggestion actually (from Curt in private e-mail), which is to promote it on mainstream sites like craigslist, etc. I like ideas like that. Now, on to the personal assaults (you know I can't let them pass without a rebuke). Tony Duell: > I was taught it was extremely bad Netiquette to ask for help (or > physical items) on a list (or newsgroup) that you did not also > contribute to, and in particular on a list that you didn't subscribe to. > > Somenbody helps you, you repay the community by helping somebody else. > Seems reasonable to me. Tony, before I unsubscribed, I had been continuously subscribed to the list (with the exception of a brief stint after the first VCF when I decided I needed a break) since the list began in 1997. I was one of the charter members. In the time I was subscribed, I contributed hundreds of thousands of words, most of which I (and I'm sure many others) would consider "useful". I helped countless people with questions, both on and off list (and continue to do so). If you can't recall the thousands of messages that I contributed here in your presence then please have your head checked. In short, I think I've earned the right to continue to both contribute and draw from a mailing list that I helped to build, regardless of your petty concepts of "netiquette". I don't feel it should be necessary to toot my own horn, but I can count the number of people to whom I've provided free hardware, software, manuals, etc., often covering shipping costs as well, in the dozens. I'm not going to bother going into the promotion I've given and attention I've attracted for the hobby (for better or worse), without which we might've still just been a small throng of nerds playing with obsolete computers. I've been out on the front pushing this hobby forward for ten years now, something one can't do from the comfort of their parents' basement. You might also recall the many times I privately responded to your regular public laments about not being able to find a job by trying to encourage you to move out to the US (this was during the dot.com boom) where your considerable talents would've been in high demand (you always found some excuse to stay within your comfortable little bubble). > For that reason, I ignore any messages from Sellam now. Well, as long as we're being petty, I tuned out your incessant (and often off-topic) jabbering long before I unsubscribed. Richard: > Wow. Bitterness. No, bitterness would've been me taking down the VCM right after I posted my rant. I'm not bitter at all. Quite the contrary, I'm proud that I actually put in the effort and succeeded in creating venues and tools to let collectors express their appreciation of vintage computers and facilitate their interest in the hobby. I would like to see more people take advantage of those tools, and not just keep re-hashing the same old tired gripes about eBay. Look, eBay is always going to act in the interest of their sellers and that's it. Like I said, they don't give a shit about the buyers as long as they are buying, because their money goes to the sellers, and a cut of that goes to eBay. That's their business model. It's a great business model. I wish I could have 1% of 1% of eBay's business. Whatever, my point, again, is that the complainers are never going to get the satisfaction out of eBay that they desire, because the complainers are mostly buyers, and buyers on eBay are just so many cattle grazing at the trough. I wasn't content with just venting. I had a vision and I implemented it. Patrick and I built and deployed a free alternative to eBay that caters specifically to this community; buyer and seller; hobbyists. But the last step in that project is one that has to be taken by the community: we can't also be expected to fill the Marketplace with stuff too. If enough people turned their bitching into action and resolved to use the VCM on at least, let's say, a quarter of their transactions rather than eBay then the site might eventually grow to the point where critical mass would be reached. The last step has to be taken by the community. If the community is so truly fed up with eBay, why aren't they using the VCM? Oh, because they're still using eBay. I fully understand that eBay has the most eyeballs and therefore the most stuff, and also gets you the most money for your stuff. So if it's more important for you to get top dollar for your stuff then great, eBay is a natural choice. But it's also possible to do very well on the VCM, with a trading partner that you know appreciates this stuff as much as you do and will treat it with the proper care and reverence when packing and shipping it. That $1,200 IMSAI 8080 was a good deal for the buyer (relative to what one might expect to pay on eBay) and it was still a pretty good deal for the seller (plus he didn't have to pay listing fees or commissions; that was good for around 40 bucks). But again, as critical mass is finally reached, with lots of eyeballs at the VCM (thanks to the efforts of the community), the prices at the VCM would start to rise as competition increases. Sellers would be getting good money, buyers would be getting good selection. It's an obvious win-win for the community, something that the community could have taken credit for helping to create. But the community ignored it and just continued to suffer eBay. Lamentably. Finally, the reason eBay nets you top dollar is because of the tricks eBay pulls, like the very one that started this whole brouhaha rolling. eBay's system works in favor of the seller, and in doing so it encourages artificial price inflation. To deny this is folly: it is in eBay's interest to push prices up because that means more commissions for them. I guarantee you that if eBay didn't become the premier place for buying and selling vintage computers (or vintage anything) we wouldn't be talking about $2,000 Altairs and IMSAI's (I still insist those values are inflated, though not as much as they used to be). That's an argument I don't want to get into yet again. I refer you to the CC archives where many (IMHO well-laid) arguments of mine can be found. So if eBay is supplanted as the premier trading place for vintage computers by a venue that has a much more equitable trading mechanism between buyer and seller (i.e. the VCM) prices might naturally deflate. Is this undesirable? Or perhaps this is desirable? Mike Stein: > A rather naive perspective, I think. Aside from whatever personal > interest he may have in classic computers, he's also in it for the money > and apparently wants to generate enough traffic for VCM to generate > revenue and potentially sell it for some ridiculous (IPO) amount. and Teo Zenios: > Sellam seems to post on the list when he is looking for something to > resell and make some money, I seem to recall he got pissed when I > referred to him as a dealer. If Sellam expects the people here to do all > his advertising and build up users for him so HE can someday cash out he > is dumber then I thought. This is patently ridiculous. First, I'll address your ignorance. I have a 4,500 square foot warehouse filled with around 2,000 computers going back to the 1950s, thousands of peripherals of all kinds, thousands of software packages, thousands of books, tens of thousands of magazines, plus all manner of computer related ephemera and things. This warehouse currently costs me $3,646.20 a month to lease. As you might imagine, I also have other costs, such as insurance, utilities, wages, etc. In short, it costs me a lot of money to store all this stuff. Now, if I was in this for the money, why the hell would I be stupid enough to incur thousands of dollars of expenses every month to store all this stuff for the past 10+ years of my life? Why did I pour all my money into acquiring old computers rather than landscaping my backyard, which to this day I'm embarrased to admit is still a field of weeds? If I was someone only in it for the money, my warehouse would be a rented storage shed and I would've been doing a brisk trade out of it. And if I were so inclined, I'd be driving a Lamborghini by now. But I don't. And do you want to know why? I will tell you. It is the same reason I started the Vintage Computer Festival 10 years ago and have been doing it year after year ever since, in fact growing it to multiple events around the world, with a wash (in terms of cash) to show for it (and that's only if you count expenses and don't take my time into account). It is the same reason I used to charter a bus at my expense at the VCF so that people could take a tour of the nascent Computer Museum History Center (now the Computer History Museum) while they were in town for the VCF and raise its exposure. It's the same reason I actively contributed to this list for nearly nine years, never deleting a single message without first reading it. I do this because I have a passion for vintage computing and a love of computer history. It is what I have done since I was a teenager. It is my life's work. This is why I do it. So hopefully you'll understand why I think your comments are incredibly insulting and demeaning, bordering on libelous, and why I now have nothing but contempt for both of you for ascribing such a shallow motivation to my life's work, especially Teo, who is reading nothing new here. You've questioned my integrity before and I explained to you quite adequately that I am not someone who merely buys low and sells high. If you do this again then you and I will tangle, but in a serious fashion. As for how I am able to afford to keep all this material preserved while earning a living, it's no secret. I've explained it before, and every e-mail message I send out has a link to my business' website which explains my work. Regarding those periodic requests I post to the list? Those are what I call bounties. They are opportunities for hobbyists to make a little money in their hobby, sometimes a lot of money. Among other things, I do consulting for law firms in the field of patent litigation. I perform research to uncover prior art, and then I go out and try to acquire that prior art for my client (the law firm). Am I doing well by it? You bet. And as the many people who've successfully responded to one of my bounties can attest, it can be quite lucrative for them as well. If I was just using the list for my sole personal gain then yeah, I can see how that would be annoying. However, and here I will unashamedly toot my own horn, I'm actually spreading the wealth. Now tell me, what's wrong with that? Now, as for selling computers for profit, I do this very, very rarely. Most of what I provide to my law clients are items on temporary loan from my (or someone else's) collection. In the rare event when I do sell, I only consider profit motives when selling to businesses because I won't feel guilty about adding a considerable mark up. With individuals (i.e. fellow collectors) my primary motivation is doing a fair trade. In many cases I just give stuff away to other collectors for the prospect of a future favor returned (it's a concept I learned from a good friend called "enlightened self-interest"). By the way, the most exotic thing I ever sold from my own collection, an IMSAI 8080 for $3,500 on eBay, was to fund VCF 3.0. The next most exotic thing was an Apple //e. But enough of the self-adulation. I'll be honest and admit that I am exploiting my hobby, which I've managed to make into my work, for money, and as much as I can. It's the only way I can afford to maintain and grow this wonderful archive that I've built. So I do it shamelessly. Al Kossow: > I sent email to Jay asking that Sellam be banned from posting. Wow, Al. If that's how you treat your friends, I'd hate to know what you do to your enemies. Thanks, I'll remember this. Other people posted nasty comments about me, but I'm not responding to you because I consider you irrelevant. I should add that this does not apply to Jay, with whom I am having an off-list conversation. I would like to sincerely thank those that came to my defense. I count all of them as friends. Finally, to respond to Jay's follow-up to my initial posting, nowhere did I insult either Jay or the list, but rather I paraphrased what Patrick Rigney related to me when he decided to leave the list and the computer collecting community altogether. Go back and read my original posting. This thread is representative of the aspects of this community on which Patrick's disgust was rightly founded. Lastly, I am not going to apologize for any particular language that I choose to use. I've addressed this at length before and don't find a need to re-visit the argument, suffice it to say that I believe people who find any kind of words "dirty" because of their sexual connotations suffer from arrested development and need to mature. I'm stating my opinion. If you can't handle it that's your problem. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org [ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ] [ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]

19 years, 3 months

LOL -- classiccmp in AARP magazine

by evan＠snarc.net

My father just showed me a recent issue of the AARP magazine. On page 19 there's a small blurb about computer collecting. It's WAY off-base. Says that computers of the 80s and 90s are collectible (great, so now every old-time with a late-90s PC will come forward), and -- better yet -- it claims that an Apple IIe recently sold for $6,100. LOL, we're all rich!

19 years, 3 months

Watch out for Alexandra Carter (eBay seller)

by marvin＠rain.org

She has been selling on ebay for quite a few years, and has some ... strong opinions about a lot of things. She usually attends VCF and the Livermore swapmeet. If I see her next week at Livermore, I'll ask her about it. My impression is still that she has some strong opinions, but is not dishonest in her dealings. It wouldn't surprise me though to see her overreacting. > From: Vassilis PREVELAKIS <vp at drexel.edu> > > Anybody done business with eBay seller Alexandra Carter (alexandracarter)? > > She used a very neat trick on me. > > I bought an HP 5036A Microprocessor Lab 8-Bit Computer from her > (eBay 160080545681) and paid for it with a money order which was > received on Feb. 3, 2006 (USPS tracking number 0103 8555 7499 5332 > 2386). > > She then claimed to have sent the HP 5036A via USPS but has not > produced a tracking number despite the fact that I specifically had > asked for one. > > Anyway, when I pressured her about the item, she filled a non-payment > dispute against me, to prevent me from posting negative feedback > on her. > > This is despite the fact that on Feb 9, she sent me an eBay message > (sitting in my eBay messages folder) confirming receipt of payment. > > I have been told that she has pulled this stunt before on another > buyer and only delivered the goods when he threatened filing a > USPS mail fraud complaint. > > So watch out for Alexandra Carter despite her 98.6% feedback rating. > > **vp >

19 years, 3 months

I found some old files...

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

ok, just to keep you folks updated I just downloaded StopZilla (anti-adware, anti-spyware and anti-phishing (whats that?) software) - I downloaded AVG Free, the latest version, last night which is a anti-virus program. Ok, onto retro stuff... Today I was testing out the disk drive on my laptop. For this I was going through a bunch of PC disks I bought ages ago - I was gonna erase them and use them on my Amiga. Amongst them were some retro games (some that were unplayable due to my CPU being too fast - 700MHz vs. the original 8MHz-ish!), various utilities, loads of pictures (in .PCX format) and one cool picture of New York (.bmp image). Worth noting were a several text files for retro computers which I shall stick online later. Also worth having was the Gates Does Windows screensaver (very funny) and a tool to save the desktop image (just like I was able to do on the Amiga) - it works on Windows 2K despite being written around 1992!!! Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk Mail sent using my laptop...

19 years, 3 months

List stats?

by hexstar＠gmail.com

On 2/24/07, John Robertson <jrr at flippers.com> wrote: > > At 11:34 AM -0500 2/22/07, Roger Merchberger wrote: > >Rumor has it that Zane H. Healy may have mentioned these words: > > > >>Mine are in whatever format Eudora uses with "Old Style" TOC files. > > > >TOC files are just "Table of Contents" files - extra personal > >settings, like labels, etc. The actual mail is stored in the .mbx > >files - gosh, rather looks like it might mean "mbox" maybe? > > > >... > > > >=-=-= > > > >And... Rumor has it that John Robertson may have mentioned these words: > >>The biggest problem I have with the list is the sheer volume of > >>messages. My mail reader is Eudora and I do wish it could treat > >>this list the same way that Agent or Unison treats newsgroup > >>messages - threads sorted by dates. Or is there a way that I am > >>missing buried in Eudora? > > > >Overall, so do I, as it seems even Thunderchicken still can't do > >that - it'll thread, but it won't reshuffle old threads with new > >messages to the top/bottom of the stack; at least as far as I've > >seen. > > > >Eudora does have a handy little keyboard trick with the [alt] key: > >If you hold [alt] ... > > > >Speaking of mail - qmail 1.0 just turned 10 years old! It's not > >"kewl" so it's still offtopic (most everyone's running 1.03 anyway > >-- gosh - 3 minor updates in a decade! Why can't Microsoft do > >that??? ;-) but just one of those little interesting (to me) > >datapoints... > > > >HTH, > >Roger "Merch" Merchberger > > Looking around for threaded mail readers I stumbled across > "Sweetmail" and it is starting to look like it might fit the bill for > doing this mail list. It has threading like my newsreader (Unison), > that works properly - for the most part - but I still haven't figured > out the bells and whistles. Need to find the command to display the > mesage pane for example... > > Still this little freeware OS X (and earlier) Eudora 1.0 emulator > (Author a big fan of the original Eudora) looks like it might be just > what I need to handle large volume mail lists such as this one! > > http://www2.ttcn.ne.jp/~sweet/mail/ > > And the review that led to my considering this program out was: > > http://www.applelinks.com/mooresviews/sm21.shtml > > John :-#)# > -- > John's Jukes Ltd. 2343 Main St., Vancouver, BC, Canada V5T 3C9 > Call (604)872-5757 or Fax 872-2010 (Pinballs, Jukes, VideoGames) > www.flippers.com > "Old pinballers never die, they just flip out" > gmail is free, reliable, feature filled and does threading very nicely in its web interface :-)

19 years, 3 months

8-inch floppy drives

by dgriffi＠cs.csubak.edu

I didn't expect this much interest in the drives so fast. I can only deal with the first request until next weekend. I've saved the emails from the others who want a unit, so you're safe there. I'll post again when I can wrangle out some more. -- David Griffith dgriffi at cs.csubak.edu A: Because it fouls the order in which people normally read text. Q: Why is top-posting such a bad thing? A: Top-posting. Q: What is the most annoying thing in e-mail?

19 years, 3 months

Google on hard drive failures

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 02:04 PM 2/23/2007, William Donzelli wrote: >>Good answer :) Certainly not permanent. Could we (as a species) theoretically >>make something that will last for a fairly significant (from a human POV) >>length of time, such as a few hundred years? > >Art. So clearly the proper way to preserve our antique data is to use steganography to embed it inside of pictures that people will want to keep for generations, collected and redistributed in a redundant fashion all around the world. Why, the Internet is halfway there already. I'll stop now. - John

19 years, 3 months

List stats?

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

Jay, Any ideas how many messages have been posted to this list since its creation back in (mumble, mumble - 1987?) ? I'm just curious. Sent to the list rather than privately as I figured others might be interested to know too...

19 years, 3 months

OT: Re: Long-term storage (Was:...)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 5:08 -0600 2/24/07, Chuck wrote: >I wonder how much damage micrometeorites will do after a few >millenia? A reasonable question. At least the NH CD, and I thought the Voyager one as well but could be wrong about that, are *under* the MLI (insulation, about 15 sheets of metallized mylar alternating with a very loose-weave mesh). Most dust-grain-sized stuff will vaporize on the outer layer, then get stopped by the inner layers. There is the possibility of something pea-sized, but there's not just a lot of particles/cubic km out in the Kuiper Belt and Oort cloud. -- - 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.

19 years, 3 months

Restoring an XT - transfer problem

by dm561＠torfree.net

Laplink, Interlink and various clones all had this "remote install" feature. another mike --------------Original Message: From: "Mike van Bokhoven" <mike at ambientdesign.com> Subject: Re: Restoring an XT - transfer problem To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <00c201c757d4$df79e760$0132a8c0 at fluke> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > Hoping someone may be able to help - I've rebuilt an old Commodore PC 5 (XT > compatible) back to working condition. Now the problem is getting anything > on to the machine. None of my current machines are capable of supporting a > 5.25" drive (of any flavour) so I can't easily transfer using that method. > However, I have installed DOs 4.01 to the C= & it includes GW Basic & I have > linked up that machine & tyhe XP box via a null modem cable. So, all I need > is a simple terminal program on the XT & I'm pretty much in business. > Problem is, all the GW Basic sources I've found for term progs are simply > for text-based terms only, there are none around with simple transfer > abilities (ie XModem or Kermit). Now this is going to sound very vague, but perhaps it'll jog someone else's memory. Once upon a time, it was possible to buy a serial file transfer package that supported transfer to/from MS-DOS machines with no removable media, e.g. machines with dead floppy drives, so long as they were able to load MS-DOS or similar in some way. The process went something like this: 1. Make sure the two machines have compatible RS232 settings. 2. Connect the two machines with a null-modem cable. 3. On the driveless machine ('client'), type a short command that effectively mapped the serial port to the console. 4. On the 'server' machine, run the transfer software, selecting the option that sends the software to the client machine. The server would then upload and start the client software - instant networking. The downside - I don't remember which package it was that did this. LapLink? XTLink? Google wasn't helpful in this case. Mike.

19 years, 3 months

Is this true?? (TI & watches)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

No idea whether this is true or not, as it was in part of a spam email, but because of the TI link, I thought it might be of some interest here (and perhaps someone can confirm whether it's true or not?): In 1960 an engineer working for a watch company in Switzerland discovered that a small crystal would vibrate at a constant rate. He found this was so accurate that it could be used to calibrate time so he took it to company management and said it would make an entirely new kind of watch that had no springs and no gears. They could not imagine who would want such a thing. Swiss watches dominated world commerce. They did not even bother to patent it. The inventor took his new idea to a commercial trade show, set up his booth and tried to interest manufacturers to produce his new kind of watch. Of the thousand people only 2 were willing to try it ? Texas Instruments and Seiko Corp. of Japan. Ten years later the Swiss manufacture of watches had shrunk to 10% of it former production. It took a complete change of thinking to produce this new model because most people are rooted in the old way and are reluctant to change. The new model, the new paradigm is refused. Regards, Andrew D. Burton aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 3 months

Real Time Clock - was: Is this true?? (TI & watches)

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Roger Holmes wrote: I wonder which was the first computer with a real time clock, what year and how it was implemented. I imagine it was invented primarily for charging for computer time. I think the first machine I programmed, the IBM 7094 had one because if your job ran over its limit time (30 seconds IIRC), the job was aborted. Unless that was the operator looking at his wrist watch! Roger Holmes --------------------- The earliest I worked on was the CDC 1604, shipping in 1959. It used a 1ms increment and a 48 bit count. Like you mention, it was used for job control. But most of the early customers were military and used it for data logging from various experiments. That's a nice way of saying they made bombs and exploded them. Billy

19 years, 3 months

Restoring an XT - transfer problem

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: From: "Lance Lyon" <lance.w.lyon at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Restoring an XT - transfer problem To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Message-ID: <006301c757c0$ce77e610$0100000a at pentium> Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed; charset="iso-8859-1"; reply-type=original Hiya Chuck, From: "Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Sent: Saturday, February 24, 2007 1:10 PM Subject: Re: Restoring an XT - transfer problem > Why not simply hook up a 3.5" drive (DSHD is fine)? Get a DS2D > diskette by covering over the density aperture in a DSHD diskette and > format it up to 720K on your modern PeeCee using "format a: /n:9 > /t:80". Write whatever you want to it and let the Commo read it. > The PC5 will not recognise a 3.5" disk, even using driver.sys to set the parameters it always gives a "device not ready" error. > Alternatively, hook up a 360K 5.25" to your modern PeeCee and call it > a 1.44MB drive--format the blanks in your PC5 and your modern PC will > write them just fine. No go, 3 different machines, 5 different drives - all the same error - "Sector not found". cheers, Lance // http://www.commodore128.org Commodore 128 forums & more! // ---------------Reply: Grab a free copy of the old DOS LapLink 3 or 4 off the 'Web; that oughta do the trick. mike

19 years, 3 months

KDJ11-SD Boot ROMs

by doc＠mdrconsult.com

Does anyone have a checksum for the PDP-11/53 ROMs? I'm converting an M7554-SD. The ROMs from M7554-04, I think, are the ones I need. According to Jonathan Engdahl's page, they are 261E5.hex and 262E5.hex. I have a set of images already, and have one system running with them, but my EPROM-burner-guy is having trouble with 262E5.hex. I want to make sure I have a good image before I tell him to try harder. :) Thanks! Doc

19 years, 3 months

Restoring an XT - transfer problem

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

> >Subject: Re: Restoring an XT - transfer problem > From: Fred Cisin <cisin at xenosoft.com> > Date: Fri, 23 Feb 2007 19:34:52 -0800 (PST) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > >> Or any other suggestion ? > >didn't 4.0x include something called "interlink"? > Not sure of 4.0 but 5.0 and 6.X included it. Allison

19 years, 3 months

cctalk Digest, Vol 42, Issue 67

by dm561＠torfree.net

---------------Original Message: From: "Joachim Thiemann" <joachim.thiemann at gmail.com> Subject: Re: Wanted: CBM-to-IEEE cable On 23/02/07, M H Stein <dm561 at torfree.net> wrote: > --------------------- > Not mine, and not cheap, but if you're desperate enough: > > www.jppbm.com > > mike Is that guy still around? I tried sending an email - I want to buy one of the 1581 kits - but didn't get a reply... Supposedly, he was at World of Commodore in december. Joe. -----------------Reply: Yes; as a matter of fact I was just talking with him at a meeting a week ago (and he does still have 1581 kits). mike

19 years, 3 months

KDJ11-SD Boot ROMs

by brad＠heeltoe.com

"Glen Slick" wrote: >On 2/23/07, Doc Shipley <doc at mdrconsult.com> wrote: >> Does anyone have a checksum for the PDP-11/53 ROMs? I'm converting >> an M7554-SD. The ROMs from M7554-04, I think, are the ones I need. >> According to Jonathan Engdahl's page, they are 261E5.hex and 262E5.hex. >> > >You can try the straight .BIN files instead of .HEX files. > >http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECROMs/23-261E5.bin >http://www.dunnington.u-net.com/public/DECROMs/23-262E5.bin I used those images and they worked fine. My work directory looks like this: -rw-rw-r-- 1 brad brad 16384 Jul 14 2005 23-261E5.bin -rw-rw-r-- 1 brad brad 32768 Jul 21 2005 23-261E5-doubled.bin -rw-rw-r-- 1 brad brad 16384 Jul 14 2005 23-262E5.bin -rw-rw-r-- 1 brad brad 32768 Jul 21 2005 23-262E5-doubled.bin I'm not sure what the "doubled" files are however. Maybe I used a 27256 instead of a 27128. I think that's the case. linux cksum says: 3162496093 16384 23-261E5.bin 1853346231 16384 23-262E5.bin 3422894537 32768 23-261E5-doubled.bin 961258351 32768 23-262E5-doubled.bin -brad

19 years, 3 months

FW: Re: old rare diskdrives?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> I have see some disk drives on your homepage and want to ask you if > sale the magnetic and coils from the old diskdrives? no --al (who is trying to find a working CDC 9766 right now)

19 years, 3 months

Wanted: CBM-to-IEEE cable

by drb＠msu.edu

Hi, I'm in need of a PET-style IEEE cable to connect an 8032 to its peripherals. Anyone have one they're willing to part with? This is the kind with the card edge connector on one end, and the more traditional centronics-style IEEE connector on the other. Thanks, De

19 years, 3 months

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