test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by aliensrcooluk＠yahoo.co.uk

--- Teo Zenios <teoz at neo.rr.com> wrote: > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Tom Peters" <tpeters at mixcom.com> > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic > Posts" > <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Sent: Tuesday, August 22, 2006 3:10 PM > Subject: Re: OT: Hotdog cooker links > > > > I built a hot dog cooker when I was 9, consistin g > of a small piece of pine > > (1x4 nominal), two nails, and a line-cord > connected to 110VAC mains. It > was > > based on an idea I saw in a book somewhere. My d ad > was absolutely sure it > > wouldn't work. It did. We disassembled it right > after using it because of > > the hazards of exposed line voltage and two poin ty > things sticking up. > > > > Those were the days. > > I recall a TV show a long time ago (some guy showi ng > kids how things worked) > was showing how to cook a hotdog like that (I thin k > they used those small > forks that you held corn on the cob with) and > plugged them into 110VAC for a > few seconds. The salty liquid in the hotdog > conducted enough electricity to > cook the hotdog in a few seconds. I bet that show > never gets replayed these > days because of lawyers. > > Hmmm... the only one I know like that (that isn't on today) was Johnny Ball Reveals All. It was a UK show though, but was great for learning about science and stuff... except I wasn't really into science much back then. (Johnny Ball is Zoe Balls (famous Radio DJ/TV Presenter) father). There is, of course, How 2 aswell. That show has been running in the UK since.... well, since I was a teenager. That makes it atleast 15 years old. Fred Dinage and erm... the other guy still do it, but Carol Vorderman left to do other things. Regards, Andrew B aliensrcooluk at yahoo.co.uk

19 years, 10 months

OT; Hotdog cooker

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

The DEC paper is Western Research Lab (WRL) Technote #13 at http://www.hpl.hp.com/techreports/Compaq-DEC/WRL-TN-13.html . I thought everyone here had already read it when I made the joke about the pickle as a hotdog-done indicator.

19 years, 10 months

Where To Buy 74xxs?

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

>"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> wrote: >> On 8/23/2006 at 8:19 PM O. Sharp wrote: >> >> >I've been thinking it'd be a good idea to buy and set aside some spare >> >parts for the couple of DEC machines I have around... mostly 7400-series >> >ICs, some switching transistors and such. It's been a while since I've >> >bought parts, however. What places (preferably online) have you had good >> >experiences with? >> >> BG Micro has some. http://www.bgmicro.com as does Jameco >> http://www.jameco.com. Both have been around for ages and are fine to deal >> with. > Add JDRmicrodevices to that list as well. Me I scrounged enough TTL (in tubes) to make my former collection look pitiful. Nothing like the right part in volume to make prototypiing easier. Allison

19 years, 10 months

Free Newsgroup Access

by jhfinedp3k＠compsys.to

>Rick Murphy <CTR> wrote: > >On Fri, 21 Jul 2006, Jerome H. Fine wrote: > >> Hi All, >> Just thought I would ask for some help - are any text based groups >> still available? > > I use freetext.usenetserver.com - read only, but good performance. > When I want to write/reply, I use Google Groups. Jerome Fine replies: THANK YOU VERY MUCH!!!!!!!!! I set the required access up in Netscape 7.2 and it is functioning well. Much appreciated!!! I thought that it might be useful for others to know that "freetext.usenetserver.com" is available and that it works very well over 95% of the time. As for sending a write/reply, could you please provide a few hints as to how Google Groups work??? Do I require a user id / password, etc.??? Will my write/reply appear in "freetext.usenetserver.com" in the normal manner? ALSO, might there be any other servers which allow write access, even it it is very limited such as a text only post? Sincerely yours, Jerome Fine -- If you attempted to send a reply and the original e-mail address has been discontinued due a high volume of junk e-mail, then the semi-permanent e-mail address can be obtained by replacing the four characters preceding the 'at' with the four digits of the current year.

19 years, 10 months

For sale: Kyotronic KC-85 portable

by evan＠snarc.net

Hi all, I'm offering this to listmates before posting it to ebay / VCM / etc. ... It's a Kyotronic KC-85, made by the company which eventually became Kyocera. Most people know it better as the Tandy Model 100, NEC PC-8201, and Olivetti M-10. All three of those were OEM clones of the Kyotronic KC-85. I ended up with two of these and I only need one, so one's for sale. It's in very good condition, powers up fine with 4 standard AA batteries, and has 32K. Nothing else is included and I'll ship it anywhere. Asking for $50 because of its rarity and good condition. I'll consider interesting trades for handhelds / laptops of the late 1970s - late 1980s. Not looking for luggables. I'm specifically looking for a Sord IS-11, Teleram T-3000, and Grundy NewBrain models AD and M. But I'll listen to any reasonable offer. If you're going to VCF in the fall then I can bring it there to save you the shipping cost. Please reply OFF-LIST to spare the disinterested masses. :-) - Evan

19 years, 10 months

stack smashing

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Don stated > And you have to ensure that there is *no* way the user can >execute code *before* your interpreter/virtual machine/etc. >gains control of the CPU. I.e., at the very least, you >need physical control over the machine. This isnt possible >in all cases (e.g., a consumer device!) You can make it very difficult, though. The X-box uses cryptographic hashes, the AS/400 uses completely undocumented (in the public sphere) hardware instructions.

19 years, 10 months

stack smashing

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

An informant has reported Will as stating > Use an AS/400. Hackproof and crashproof. And downright hobbyist-hostile. (where Sun is hobbyist friendly, SGI is hobbyist-indifferent (we really don't care if you use our machines, just don't expect any help from us)) Time-locked loadable microcode, impossible-to-transfer licenses and sky-high license fees if you can get IBM to talk to you. Saw a AS/400, found out about it, gave it a wide berth. Guess it must be like the HP3000 with too much of a "black" commercial market to risk anything that would make the systems easier to "misappropriate" commercially. Pity, everything I've heard about them is good. And the AIX group is hobbyist-indifferent.

19 years, 10 months

Simon computer

by marvin＠rain.org

I love the comment about a warning sign for the computer :)! I have a perverted sense of humor, and that fits right in :). I've had a number of requests for scans of the Simon manual, but the problem is one of copyrights. A number of years ago, someone got copies of the articles >from the Babbage Institute but with the restriction they couldn't distribute it. I've never pursued that, but I am certainly aware of it. I've got the original Radio-Electronics issues, the subsequent reprint and scans of the reprint. I have a better scanner now, and they need to be rescanned. Also FWIW, the Radio-Electronics magazines have color illustrations where they are in B&W for the reprint. Not much of a problem except the color makes it MUCH easier to follow, since some of the signals being discussed in the text are highlighted in red, and are not as obvious in the reprint. The next question then is what would it be worth to provide a working unit similar to the original (would need to use more modern relays, and the stepper could be a problem)? Making a simple electronic paper tape reader wouldn't be hard as there are a number of plans for a manual "pull the tape through by hand" designs to read the tape. I would think a PIC would make for a very simple and cheap design. Personally, I like the idea of seeing a hand wired chassis with laced wiring, but it certainly would take some time. What about a PC board with all of the grunt wiring done and laid out for a current relay? What would be the price point at which it might sell? Thanks! > > I'm curious what the group thinks about offering a kit for > > the Simon Computer that would include a schematic, parts > > list, and perhaps construction instructions. For those of you ********** > > I probably wouldn't go for the kit (only because I've already got enough > projects to take me beyond the year 2050) but I'd sure like copies of > the articles. Any chance of seeing a .pdf version anywhere? > > Thanks. > > Jack ********** > I think the idea has merit BUT I think it would be better to offer > the schematic, parts list, and perhaps construction instructions / > copy of the articles. > That way, the cost would be substantially lower. I'm interested in > the design, but doubt I would ever have time to build one. ********** > The computer uses paper tape. The reader and punch for the > paper tape could be a mechanical problem. Also you need a > big warning sticker -- This is a demo computer -- Do not > attempt to download music or computer porn --- > > > Rob

19 years, 10 months

HP inkjet cartridge datasheet (from 1989 Opto Handbook)

by philpem＠dsl.pipex.com

Hi, Back in February someone sent me a scanned copy of the "Inkjet Printing Products" section (chapter two, all of ten pages) of the Hewlett-Packard 1988-1989 Optoelectronics Designer's Catalog. Unfortunately I've gone and lost the files to a dead backup CDR and it looks like I've deleted the copy that was on my webserver too... To the guy who scanned this for me (I think it might have been Joe Heck) - do you still have the scans, and if so, can you send them along? If not, can someone with a copy of this datasheet (and a scanner) please scan chapter two for me? Thanks. -- Phil. | Kitsune: Acorn RiscPC SA202 64M+6G ViewFinder philpem at dsl.pipex.com | Cheetah: Athlon64 3200+ A8VDeluxeV2 512M+100G http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | Tiger: Toshiba SatPro4600 Celeron700 256M+40G

19 years, 10 months

Bill Norris Passes

by cclist＠sydex.com

At age 95: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/23/business/23norris.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries &oref=slogin --Chuck

19 years, 10 months

Simon computer

by jack.rubin＠ameritech.net

> Date: Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:59:07 -0700 > From: Marvin Johnston <marvin at rain.org> > Subject: Simon Computer > > > I'm curious what the group thinks about offering a kit for > the Simon Computer that would include a schematic, parts > list, and perhaps construction instructions. For those of you > who aren't aware, Simon is a five bit relay computer designed > by Edmund Berkeley. A series of articles about how the > computer worked was published in the Oct 1950 - Sept 1951 > issues of Radio Electronics. I've thought about it, but I > would guess the parts cost alone would be in excess of > $300.00, and maybe considerably more. On the other hand, it > is a really cool computer :). > Marvin, I probably wouldn't go for the kit (only because I've already got enough projects to take me beyond the year 2050) but I'd sure like copies of the articles. Any chance of seeing a .pdf version anywhere? Thanks. Jack -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.405 / Virus Database: 268.11.5/425 - Release Date: 8/22/2006

19 years, 10 months

stack smashing Was: Re: Scanning Formats (TIFF vs. JPEG)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Quoth Chris >For what purpose now? Work with me here. As a night >light maybe? So you can see yer way to the latrine? Just for another slightly scary slightly unexpected aliment-electrical device. Set it up on a thermo{stat, couple, istor) to indicate when your hotdog has reached the ideal temperature, scare your friends or wife. I suppose modern research could have located something more efficient or better suited as a light source than the pickle, Digital Equipment's famous study is a bit old, but the WRL technote is the last formal study on the subject I've seen.

19 years, 10 months

canning Formats (TIFF vs. JPEG)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Alexy said: >Show me the VAXen. Well there's your problem - VMS is mostly Alpha and IA64 now. Go to your local hospital, they probably have one, the school district I work for has one, etc. etc. The VMS beasts are mostly locked up in the back room (possibly even welded shut) serving lesser desktop clients. VMS interacts quite well with Windows. Nobody is arguing that DIGITALs "What's VMS? We haven't heard of VMS" marketing in the late '90s helped, though. >has been tested by throwing the same volume of script kiddies at it as other >OSen have had thrown at them you can't make any security claims based on >relative number of breakins. I wouldn't put too much value on the kiddies - they work by exploiting known holes and very few of them would find new ones. Look at the released security patches - that tells you more. VMS managers aren't going to stand by and let holes go unpatched for 6+ months. Look at the CERT reports. VMS is good - real good.

19 years, 10 months

A little more Am2900 learning/evaluation kit info

by vdub6＠comcast.net

Came across one of your old postings. Are you still looking for an AMD AM2900 Evaluation and Learning Kit? I have one I might be persuaded to part with. Let me know. Thanks, Mark

19 years, 10 months

MO support

by dgy＠DakotaCom.Net

*Aside from Linux*, are there any OS's with suport for MO drives with > 512B sectors? I know older Macs would support some of the PMO drives but I think that required some third party support... Unfortunately (?) W2K seems to be the only practical option I've found :-(

19 years, 10 months

Megadata available

by wdonzelli＠gmail.com

Tomorrow I am turning in my pile of white elephants to the scrapyard. Of the pile, I only managed to sell one, on Ebay, for less than scrap value (20 bucks - oh boy...). So away they go. I figure I will hold one, and make a last ditch sales pitch to clear my conscious. Anyway, these Megadata minicomputers are pre-microprocessor TTL designs, and look to be from the mid 1970s. The more I look at the boards, they look like twelve bit machines. These are rack mount units about 4U high. These have no fancy front panels - just blue covers with a reset button, and two LEDs. There are comm ports on the back. The software is contained on a board with a bunch of 1702A EPROMs. RAM is an array of 48 2101s. I have zero docs on these. So anyway, if anyone wants to rescue (in the true sense) this last Megadata, please contact me TONIGHT, as I leave for the junkyard around 10 AM tomorrow. And yes, I would like something a bit better than scrap value... -- Will

19 years, 10 months

Anyone recognize this PCB?

by dm561＠torfree.net

I take it that despite the 35+ replies, no one actually recognized this board, or wants to make an educated guess? BTW, in view of the apparent confusion and at least one incorrect opinion, the non-hybrid D-sub S and P refer to female (socket) and male (pin or plug, depending on manufacturer) _connectors_, not the shell. Same thing for many similar connectors, such as XLR & DIN, where the shell is normally the opposite gender of the connectors. So, the DB25S below is the same as found on the back panel of most of our old RS-232 terminals & systems (or a pre-USB PC printer port). -----------------Original Message----------------------------------------------------------------- I'm hoping someone can ID this interesting board (sorry, no pix avail). 16Bit ISA (full-length) DB25S Connector 20pin header socket 10 pos DIP SW 10 seg green LED bar graph 3 sets of jumper pins 80186 CPU 2 x XC2064 XILINX FPGAs Pair of IDC 7130/7140 (1Kx16 dual-port memory) 2 x 256x8 SIPPs C8208 DRAM controller 2 x 27256 EPROMs 2 x DS1225Y BBU SRAM 2 x LH0033 Fast FET buffers (12 pin metal cans) Misc 74LS & F glue chips Nothing recognizable in the EPROMS or SRAMS; 1 EPROM is blank (erased/defective?) Ring any bells with anyone, or time to scrap for parts? mike

19 years, 10 months

Simon Computer

by marvin＠rain.org

I'm curious what the group thinks about offering a kit for the Simon Computer that would include a schematic, parts list, and perhaps construction instructions. For those of you who aren't aware, Simon is a five bit relay computer designed by Edmund Berkeley. A series of articles about how the computer worked was published in the Oct 1950 - Sept 1951 issues of Radio Electronics. I've thought about it, but I would guess the parts cost alone would be in excess of $300.00, and maybe considerably more. On the other hand, it is a really cool computer :).

19 years, 10 months

Classic Mac emulation (was Re: Microkernels (WAS RE: New to the list.))

by ethan.dicks＠gmail.com

On 8/22/06, Zane H. Healy <healyzh at aracnet.com> wrote: > Does anyone have any > experience with it? How is the frame rate? I really like the look > of Sheepshaver, it looks to be just what I'm after. Didn't it > originally run on the Amiga? ISTR, having it on my A3000. I don't know about "Sheepshaver", but "Shapeshifter" was a Mac emulator I used on my A3000 in 1996/1997. I even used it with SANA2 drivers to run Netscape 0.8 on the MacOS - very cool when Amiga web browsers were quite primitive. -ethan

19 years, 10 months

stack smashing Was: Re: Scanning Formats (TIFF vs. JPEG) (Way OT)

by compoobah＠valleyimplants.com

Dave wrote: > When I was in university (70s), I had a hot-dog cooker which cooked > weiners by connecting them across the 110v AC mains. This was a > commercially produced device. > [snip] Did it light up a pickle when the hot-dog was done?

19 years, 10 months

Sinclair ZX80 questions

by pete＠dunnington.plus.com

On Aug 22 2006, 17:57, Jules Richardson wrote: > Rob O'Donnell wrote: > > At 08:30 22/08/2006, Jules Richardson wrote: > > > >> You know, my prototype Torch Z80 disk unit has power out at the back; > >> I can't remember whether the production ones were like that or not. It > >> had never occurred to me that someone would want to power the machine > >> from it! They were all like that, including all the production ones, and the fitting instructions explained how to *remove* the Beeb's own PSU completely, and fit the cable to run it off the Torch disk pack. It was not a good move on Torch's part; I've seen several Beebs completely destroyed as a result of bad PSUs or miswiring. A common problem was that the Z80 card is supposed to fit inside the Beeb, on PCB mounts stuck to the case top with sticky pads. Of course, sometimes those unstick and the Z80 card -- component side down -- falls onto the Beeb's motherboard and shorts things out. If you're lucky, it crashes the Beeb. If you're unlucky, it shorts out the power. This makes the Torch switch-mode detect the over-current and shut down, and in typical SMPSU fashion, immediately try to restart. Unfortunately the regulation in that situation isn't too good and you often get a voltage overshoot. The Beeb's LSTTL does not take kindly to having 9V (approx) pumped into it. I've repaired a couple that had that happen; one of them ended up with every single IC except the NMOS socketed and replaced. It made a nice demo unit for our workshop and an excellent practice setting for our YTS trainee :-) Another one is that Torch used standard 3-core mains cable for the PSU connections, and more than one person, faced with a dismantled system, has connected this "mains cable" to the mains. > I'm still surprised that there were any beebs incapable of running the Torch > board from their own PSU though. I believe there was a change to PSU spec at > some point early in the beeb's life though, so maybe very early systems > couldn't cope. The maximum current drawn by the Torch Z80 is nominally close to the spare capacity of the Beeb's SMPSU, so they were playing safe in case people had other expansions. Besides, there were still Beebs with linear supplies around when they built the prototypes in early 1982. Yes, there were several PSUs. The original was a black linear power supply, and there were three variants of that (two matt black, one glossy). One "power adaptor/converter" originally used in Model As was so notorious for running hot in upgraded machines or Model Bs that it was nicknamed the "adaptor/exploder", after the failure mode it exhibited. I remember being told in 1982 that "hardly any of these remain in the field". I wonder why. Anyone with a linear supply was offered a free switch-mode upgrade if they fitted a DFS upgrade, or a few other things. The original SMPSU was quite a nice unit made by Astec. This is in a golden coloured metal case, or frame you might say, as it's open on three sides -- which doesn't matter because it's enclosed in the plastic case. Later Acorn had these made under license by BSR, but once again the quality suffered. Most of the BSR units have poorer regulation and less spare capacity than the Astec ones. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

19 years, 10 months

September Livermore Swapmeet

by marvin＠rain.org

I'm planning on going up to the Livermore swapmeet again on Sunday, September 3 to browse, drop stuff off, and meet some classic computer people. If anyone buys some stuff from VCM (http://www.vintagecomputermarketplace.com/) and wants to save on shipping by meeting at the swapmeet, just let me know. I think the swapmeet opens to buyers at 7:00AM and more information is available on the web at http://www.livermoreark.org/swap/swap.html.

19 years, 10 months

293xx

by ploopster＠gmail.com

Is there anyone around who has datasheets for the AMD Am29300-series chips, and wouldn't mind scanning them for me? I'm most interested in the sheets for the Am29331 sequencer and the Am29332 ALU. Thanks. Peace... Sridhar

19 years, 10 months

Archived a few PERQ games...

by derschjo＠msu.edu

I've spent a few hours this evening transferring software from my PERQ over the serial port at 9600 baud, and I thought I'd share them, since there don't seem to be many games archived on the 'net (feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that count :). Thus far I've archived binaries & source for: - PERQMan (seems to be an early version, looks like a 100% clone of Pac-Man, vs. the changed sprites & "Perq Interactive Debugger" name I've seen in screenshots) - Chess - Puzzle These are available at: http://yahozna.dhs.org/computers/software/PERQ/ These all compile and run under POS (I have D.6 running on my machine). If I'm wasting my time (i.e. if these bits have already been archived somewhere, let me know so I don't spend more time painfully extracting these files one at a time over a serial link...) There are a handful of other games and utilities (a vt52 emulator, a Pente game, etc..) that I'll be getting to sometime later this week. Additionally, I'm working on archiving a raw image of the 14" Shugart in my PERQ (again, over the serial port). I've written a simple pascal program to do the dumping and I'm doing it 10 cylinders at a time since it takes so long :). My goal eventually is to write a PERQ emulator, but we'll see how that turns out... Josh

19 years, 10 months

One for classiccmp.org? (was: Re: Archived a few PERQ games...)

by aek＠bitsavers.org

> Hmm, random thought, but does it make sense to have a list on classiccmp.org > of what preservation work (in terms of utilities, procedures etc.) has been > done for various machines? This is part of my charter as Software Curator at CHM (documentation and tools) It will be going up as part of the SCC (hopefully, with a new name soon) web site. http://community.computerhistory.org/scc along with a blog of the projects that I'm working on at CHM. -- Connectivity for me is spotty, since I can't send or receive bitsavers mail at work right now.

19 years, 10 months

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test-drb