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Geek/Tech/Classic computers in Omaha

by kelly＠catcorner.org

So I'll be in Omaha for a week. Any good tech attractions/stores/things to see? Kelly

19 years, 7 months

Anyone near Dallas, Texas?

by evan＠snarc.net

I need some shipping assistance. Please ping me off-list at evan at snarc.net .... thanks!

19 years, 7 months

Anyone have a manual for the IBM 5140?

by evan＠snarc.net

I'm looking for the "Guide to Operations" -- the spiral-bound user manual.

19 years, 7 months

FS eBay: MMJ adapter kit & TRS-80 model 100 printer cable

by tothwolf＠concentric.net

I just posted two new items on eBay and thought I'd give anyone who might be interested a heads up. The first is a TRS-80 model 100/102/200/600 printer cable. I tried to duplicate the original 26-1409 cable as best I could. Its listed as item # 120053986869 The second is a MMJ adapter kit that I mentioned not long ago on classiccmp. I finally had time to make a few more and listed one to see how it would do. Its listed as item # 120053989909 I still can't believe what vendors are getting for genuine H8571-J (and compatible/generic!) adapters... I still have TRS-80 cassette and serial din cables listed, as well as my usual assortment of telecommunications tools, for those who might also be interested in those. -Toth

19 years, 7 months

Formatting non-DEC disks using zrqch0...

by derschjo＠msu.edu

The RD53 drive in my 11/73 has finally gone to silicon heaven, after a brief resurrection. Given the reputation these drives seem to have, I'm not too surprised. So a few nights ago I dug through my stacks of ancient hard drives and found three possible candidates for replacement: - A Microscribe 6085, which seems to have the same drive geometry as an RD53 - Two Seagate ST-251s, which seem to be identical to an RD32 All of these are in "unknown" condition (I haven't used them in years), but spin up without making any evil noises and are recognized by the RQDX3 controller. To the best of my recollection, all three were formerly used in PCs. I've used zrqch0 (booted via vtserver) to format all three of these disks. In all three cases the formatting appears to be successful -- the drives format for a few minutes, then go through three verification stages for another 20-30 minutes. During this time I can hear the heads being stepped, and the drive access light blinks. At the end of the format no errors are reported. I'll note that in order to do the format on these drives, I had to go through the process manually (as opposed to the "AUTOFORMAT" mode of zrqch0) -- for the Microscribe this was because zrqch0 didn't recognize the drive (showed up as "unknown"), for the ST-251s this was because the fault tables could not be read off the drives. I suspect this may have something to do with the issue I'm seeing, but of course this is pure speculation. I've tried various permutations of the formatting options, but I've had no joy there. After formatting the drives, no other utilities seem to be able to make use any of the drives -- running the disk exerciser (zrqah0) fails after the first test step (and after a very small amount of disk activity) with an error similar to the below (this varies slightly based on the test being run): FATAL I/O ERROR * DISK 0 WENT OFFLINE * SUB_CODE: NO VOLUME MOUNTED OR DRIVE DISABLED BY SWITCH * COMMAND: READ_COMPARE Interestingly, 2.11BSD's 'disklabel' is able to partition and write the label to the disk. Mkfs, however, fails with: ra(0,0,0) error op=A2 sts=23 write error 3 Exit called I've tried this with two different RQDX3 controllers with the same results (and these controllers worked fine with my RD53 until it failed). Is there a magic step I'm missing? Is what I'm attempting to do (use non-DEC drives) not possible? Any ideas or suggestions? Thanks for any help here... Josh

19 years, 7 months

VCF 9 (Jay West) & (Jules Richardson)

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

My 'excuse' was that I just got back from VCF 9, via western-Canada. I was a speaker at VCF 9, thoroughly enjoyed myself. Of particular note was meeting The Woz on the 30th anniverary of Apple, Lee Felsentein of SOL 20 fame, and a visit to the Digibarn in Snata Cruz, a brilliant creation of Bruce Damer, CEO of DigitalSpace. One amazing artifact was the Digi-comp 1 a creation out of the 60s. I have one and it made my heart go a flutter...All-in-all a great faire Sellam and others put on. Looking forward to VCF 10 and seeing Evan in May for VCF east. Happy computing! Murray-- ------------------

19 years, 7 months

Altos III terminal problems

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Well- my terminal (Altos III) was a bit too unobtrusive, and wound up being left on for a couple of weeks straight. Now, it has a somewhat anemic beep and the screen comes up with garbage. Looks like possibly a RAM issue. Anyone have experience or ideas?

19 years, 7 months

Free SGI R8k POWER Challenge L (Deskside) (CO)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Don't know who got it, but I've been informed that this has been given away to someone.

19 years, 7 months

Practical question on valuation of old systems

by wdg3rd＠comcast.net

This message has been processed by Symantec's AntiVirus Technology. Unknown00000000.data was not scanned for viruses because too many nested levels of files were found. For more information on antivirus tips and technology, visit http://ses.symantec.com/

19 years, 7 months

Practical question on valuation of old systems

by Billy.Pettit＠wdc.com

Dave McGuire wrote: Myself, I will pay top dollar (if I'm able) in order to get my hands on a machine that I lusted after during my childhood. For example, in my teens, I desperately wanted a Ferguson BigBoard but couldn't afford one. I saw those ads every month in BYTE and just drooled and drooled. Now, I'd just about kill to get one, even though they're really not all THAT rare...I just haven't managed to find one that's available yet. ------------------------ There has long been a theory in book collecting that the best prices and most demand for collectibles is for exactly this reason. Young people grow up, raise a family and mature. Late in life they long for the toys of their youth. They now have the time and money to enjoy those toys. The magic age seems to be 30-45 years from when the item was desired first. In other words, people aged 50-70. Then the market prices slip back to normally, as that generation passes on. The best example I know of this street rods. Go to any custom car show and you will find most of the owners are grey haired and usually affluent. Reliving the joys of their teen years. You can apply the theory to Star Wars figures, books, cars or computers. I invested heavily in certain types of magazines, especally pulps, based on this idea. So far it has paid off handsomely. But in the last ten years the prices have completely tanked. Most of the readers of that era are gone now. And please, I'm not disparaging this yen for the toys of one's youth - I'm probably more guilty than most what with buying Erector and Meccanno sets, science fiction fanzines, and old CDC computers. Billy

19 years, 7 months

Odd video problem

by teoz＠neo.rr.com

I have a 386/40 and a 486 EISA system that sometimes boot in mono mode instead of color. Any idea why that would be? The CMOS seems to keep its settings and the time is correct.

19 years, 7 months

VCF 9 - Recaps?

by jlewczyk＠verizon.net

I missed it too. :-( However, the Apple 30th anniversary event that occurred that is documented at the digibarn web site! http://www.digibarn.com/history/06-11-4-VCF9-Apple30/index.html Audio of the event is available with introductory slide show and lots of photos are available there. Streaming Video coming soon. DVD for sale now. Very cool. John

19 years, 7 months

Any MVME hobbyists here?

by mnusa2＠hotmail.com

Hi everyone, I have followed this list for some time now. I collect, restore and repair Motorola MVME computers. I'm just wondering can I find some help or (MVME)friends in here. For example, does anyone have/know about a MVME360 SMD disk controller. Motorola docs and OS's (System V/68) support it. Never seen one though. I have controllers and disks for MFM, ESDI and SCSI and now I'm looking for SMD controller and disks. BR, Matti. _________________________________________________________________ Uutiset ja kasvot uutisten takaa. MSN Search, t?yden palvelun hakukone. http://search.msn.fi

19 years, 7 months

Digi-Comp 1 is back (from 1960s)

by evan＠snarc.net

It's small, like a shoebox. Tim donated one as a prize at both VCF East 3.0 and VCF 9.0 this year. He's based here in central New Jersey and online at www.mindsontoys.com.

19 years, 7 months

Digi-Comp 1 is back (from 1960s)

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Steven Canning <cannings at earthlink.net> wrote: > The Digi-Comp1 3 bit "mechanical" computer is > being re-issued in a $49 > (USD) kit. This has to be one of the coolest > computer learning tools ever. > Check out the link: > > http://www.retrothing.com/2006/02/build_your_own_. html > > You could always build your own ... But for $49 it > beats the hell out of the > 40 year old kits on E-pay that sell for more !! > > Best regards, Steven > Looks very cool and I am tempted to get one, but just how big is the DC1 V2.0 when assembled? Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 7 months

"centronics" connectors

by technobug＠comcast.net

On Fri, 10 Nov 2006 02:08:46 -0500, 9000 VAX" <vax9000 at gmail.com> wrote: > Might as well ask why ALL D shell connectors are referred to as > size B. All D shell connectors are not size B, only those with 25 pins - the proper designation being DB-25. The 15 pin versions are DA-15 and DE-15 (the latter being the three row version). The 37 and 50 pin versions are DC-37 and DD-50 respectively. Size-wise, besides the "standard" D-subminiature connectors are HD, micro, and nano variants. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D-subminiature> has an excellent rundown on the various flavors (flavours) and variants of these connectors. CRC

19 years, 7 months

Subject: Free SGI R8k POWER Challenge L (Deskside) (CO)

by jimgeneva＠earthlink.net

Hello: Is this still available? I would promise to give it a good home. Jim Geneva

19 years, 7 months

8 bit memory/floppy controller available

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

Ive got a bunch of 8bit floppy controllers and some memory expansion cards, as well as some 16bit full length memory expansion cards too. If interested, LMK.

19 years, 7 months

Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2

by erik＠baigar.de

Hello, on the web I found the interesting web page of www.oddmix.com. Here interesting vintage stuff can be found (most is off topic for this group). Among these was the Cosmac CDP 18S021 Microterminal - new and unused. So I bought one of these and from Karl Nagy, who manages oddmix and is a very kind and interesting person, I got the Manual for the Micro Terminal (MPM224) as well. He sold me a copy of the desired Manual for the Cosmac 1802 Evaluation Kit Rev 2 as well, too. So the problem is solved - thanks a lot, happy computing, Erik.

19 years, 7 months

ADB "power key always down" plug

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Some of the machines can do this in hardware (the IIcx/ci/Q700 come to mind immediately). Push in the back panel power button and twist 90 degrees.

19 years, 7 months

Practical question on valuation of old systems

by marvin＠rain.org

> When one is dealing with 70's-era personal computers, does rarity > play any part in the valuation? > > Cheers, > Chuck I haven't seen a lot of correlation between rarity and valuation. A quick example is the Altair vs the Lobo Drives Max-80. The numbers I've heard for the Altair are in the range of 25,000 produced while there were only about 5000 Max-80s produced. There seems to be a lot more correlation between publicity and valuation. Ebay gives a good idea of what the market is like *for those people who deal on ebay*. Judging the value only by looking at the final price can be greatly misleading ... there are a few people who bid the thing to death rather than snipe or bid what they are willing to pay on the *FIRST* bid. When looking at pricing, I almost always go to the bidders list to see what is actually going on.

19 years, 7 months

VCF 9

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Speaking of builds and terminals, anyone interested in creating a > Beehive TTL terminal replica? ;-) Now that the docs are on line, I would think a KENBAK-1 would be more interesting, and that only needs two MOS shift registers, as opposed to most terminals which had frame and line buffer shift registers.

19 years, 7 months

please remove me

by pds3＠ix.netcom.com

Hello, Will you please remove me from the list for the time being. I am having trouble keeping up with all the mail! The email to remove is pds3 at ix.netcom.com Thank you, Shannon Hoskins.

19 years, 7 months

Floating point unit on Ebay for PDP8

by jwstephens＠msm.umr.edu

there is an FPP-12 on ebay that expires tomorrow (Monday at 9am) It looks to be in excellent condition with documentaition. Hope someone can get this beast for their collection. Anyone interested in PDP8's or lots of flip chips should bring this up and take a look anyway, there are 12 ranks of card edge connectors and a great wire wrap backplane photo, for those that just like the photos. Located at a gold scrapper in Atlanta, GA Jim 290047654838

19 years, 7 months

VCF 9.0

by david＠classiccomputing.com

Oops, I meant Bruce Damer of the DigiBarn, not Bruce Draper. Also, on Sunday, the ?room? was the workshop room just off the front lobby of the museum. This is where all of the workshops were held. I will have my pictures up on my website soon. As far as our flight back, we hung out at the San Jose airport from about 6:00pm until 9:30pm, taking off at 10:00pm. We landed in Newark, NJ at about 6:00am EST (five hour flight). Had a two and a half hour lay-over, then two hours to Jacksonville, FL. We were pretty burned-out by then. Best everyone, David David Greelish classiccomputing.com The Classic Computing Podcast Home of Computer History Nostalgia Stan Veit's History of the Personal Computer Audio Book Podcast

19 years, 7 months

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