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101090 discussions

Dead CMOS Battery - NEC Powermate portable

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 11, 22:21, Tony Duell wrote: > So yes, it can be got to work. But it's not trivial (as far as I can > remember, the commericial process involved a catalyst as well). Both commercial processes do (well, the NO2 in the lead chamber process isn't strictly a catalyst, but it goes in one end and is mostly recovered at the other, so it's similar). It's a question of speed and yield. > I am not saying that there is _no_ SO3 produced without a catalyst (so > that, for example, I would easily believe that 'acid rain' contains some > sulphric acid produced by the oxidation of SO2 in the atmosphere) It does. A good proportion of SO2 is converted to sulphuric acid by the action of strong sunlight on the SO2 and water vapour. A slow process, though. The major constituents of acid rain are SO2 and various nitrogen oxides, roughly 70% and 30% respectively. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 2 months

Old HP scanner

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>Well, I've seen a few parallel ports that lost their magic smoke after an >external SCSI zip drive was plugged into them. I'd have to say it at least >isn't safe to mix up parallel and scsi ports... I know the Mac SE will survive having its SCSI port connected to a parallel printer. Although the Mac will not boot unil the cable is removed (it will sit with a flashing ? as the printer will confuse it, and it will fail to check the SCSI chain for a boot device). I know this because I had a location do just this... and then bitch that the Mac was dead (and then ship it to me FedEx P1 to fix... costing the company about 10 times the value of the Mac in shipping charges). They left everything connected (literally, they just took a big box, dropped the printer in it, then dropped the SE on top, followed by the keyboard and mouse... leaving ALL cables still interconnected!). One look at the printer cable and I knew what the problem was that was keeping the Mac from booting... I wasn't very surprised the office staff had done this... but I WAS very surprised to see the Mac boot fine as soon as I removed the parallel cable... I had figured they fried the SCSI bus. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 2 months

Dead CMOS Battery - NEC Powermate portable

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 11, 21:29, Tony Duell wrote: > There are stories of some UK machine (I want to say BBC Master, but...) > being shipped with a lithium battery installed in place of a NiCd but > still having the charger circuit enabled. Apparently it wasn't unheard-of > for said battery to make a large hole in the cover.... It was an Acorn/BBC Master 128, but it only happened once, and it didn't make a hole. However, it did happen in a teaching hospital, so there was rather a lot of fuss about it. When Acorn realised what had happened, they recalled all the lithium battery packs and replaced them with Duracell packs. I worked for Acorn at the time, and was peripherally involved in the recall. Basically, I had to contact/visit all the dealers, education authorities, and service centres in my patch and make sure they surrendered all the lithium packs, both in machines, as held as spares, in exchange for the replacements. Acorn didn't want to risk any repeat performance. I can't remember much of the detail now, but I do remember having a lifetime supply of 3V AA lithium cells (non-rechargable variety). Unfortunately, "lifetime" means "shelf life" :-( -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 2 months

What's your specialty?

by thilo.schmidt＠unix-ag.org

On 10-Feb-2002 Tony Duell wrote: [...] > Difficult != impossible. I am told it's difficult to repair HP9100 > calculators. Doesn't mean I don't attempt it ;-) OKOK, I'll try... ;-) [...] > That is possible. I worked on an HP9000/835 a few years back (not my > machine, so I can't check any details now), and I remember that one of > the 'logic' boards had to be in place for the PSU to start up. And it > wasn't just a dummy load -- we tried that. If that's the case I'll have to connect the PSU to the computer to test it :-( bye -- What the gods would destroy they first submit to an IEEE standards committee.

24 years, 2 months

hp plotter

by KCorp54678＠aol.com

Hello, I had recently purchased a 7550A hp plotter and can't seem to find a users manual or guide, can you help find one? Thanks Mary

24 years, 2 months

IBM PC cassette drive

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

FWIW Several times there have been discussions on this list about wheather or not IBM ever made cassette drives for use with the original IBM PCs. The general feeling is that they never made any cassette drives or tapes. BUT I was talking to Mike Haas about this recently and he told me that he has an original IBM Diagnstics cassette tape! Today he sent a picture and I've posted it here <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/ibm/ibm-cass.jpg> . As you can see it has the same burgundy color as the standard IBM PC diagnostics disks. Joe

24 years, 2 months

Old HP scanner

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 11, 9:22, Russ Blakeman wrote: > How many pins does the centronics have? Might be SCSI if it's Centronics 50 > rather than 36. The 20 is probably a db25 that is also an alternate SCSI. You mean "Centronics-style", I think :-) "Centronics" connectors are 36-pin. Anyway, it's not SCSI. It's a proprietary HP interface, and the 20-pin connector is for a proprietary HP sheet feeder. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 2 months

Dead CMOS Battery - NEC Powermate portable

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 11, 9:44, Joe wrote: > I wa swaiting for his. You're right. but SO2 can react with O2 and > moisture in the air to form H2SO4. In fact, that's how sulfuric acid is (or > was) prodused commercailly. I certain proportion of H2SO3 is also produced > I'm told that it's only a small amount and it's some how removed and > retreated to form H2SO4. No, it's not, and never was. There's practically no reaction at room temperature and pressure. In fact it's very easy to turn SO3 back into SO2 and oxygen. Just leave it alone for a while. In the normal "Contact process", SO2 is passed over a catalyst at about 500 deg F, usually VO5 (Vanadium Pentoxide, not hairspray) commercially, or occasionally platinum (in demos) because it *doesn't* normally react with oxygen. The SO3 is then dissolved in concentrated sulphuric acid (H2SO4) because it doesn't dissolve very rapidly in water, particularly when warm, and and the heat of solution would boil water. The concentrated sulphuric acid becomes fuming sulphuric acid ("oleum", H2S2O7) and cold water is continuously added to reduce that to concentrated sulphuric acid again. The other practical[1] method uses very hot concentrated nitric+sulphuric acid as an oxygen carrier -- again, because the oxidation of SO2 is too slow and the activation energy would be far too high otherwise. The SO2, at about 500 deg F (again) combines with NO2 (from the nitric acid) and water to give H2SO4 and nitric oxide; the nitric oxide is then re-oxidised to nitrogen dioxide, which in water gives nitric acid again. Now all you have to do is separate the two acids. [1] Perfectly practical providing you have some concentrated nitric acid, a whole lot of stainless steel tubing, a couple of lead vessels (this process is called the "lead chamber process") and a tower built of acid-resistant bricks, and a water cooling tower. > Yes, but that's a lot less S02 than the amount in the batteries. I'm not > suggesting that everyone of the room is going to die but if one of the > batteries ruptures, it will certainly empty the room in a hurry! There's not much in a battery. The equivalent of about 1/4 teaspoonful of sulphur at most, and I suspect, much less. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 2 months

Need docs & drivers for old tape drives

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Sellam Ismail [mailto:foo@siconic.com] > Yes, yes, yes and yes. I neglected to mention TK50 (but have > a drive), I > don't know what QIC-1000 is but I want a drive for it. And > with regards > to the last two, if you read my message you know that I > already specified > those. Sorry. I did read it, but it's been a couple of days, and I'd forgotten (not surprisingly. :) QIC-1000 is -- I think -- a higher-capacity cartridge drive similar to the QIC-120. Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

Old HP scanner

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 11, 23:39, Dave Brown wrote: > I recently acquired an old HP scanner- 9190AU. Can anyone give me more > information on this unit- HP don't support it anymore. (it is old!) > > It looks to be almost the original Scanjet, as that's what it has on the > front, HP Scanjet, with no letters or numerals following. The 9190AU > designator is on the nameplate underneath. It has a Centronics connector > on the back and came with a std IBM printer cable, so I guess is a parallel > port version. But there is another oddball ( 20? pin) connector on the back > too. What's it for? > > I don't have any software for it but I believe the original drivers were Win > 3.1x only, so suggestions as to getting software to run it would be useful > as well. It is indeed the original Scanjet; 9195 is the Scanjet+ Both used an HP ISA card with a proprietary parallel interface, but SCSI-like protocols. There is some support for it in SANE (Scanner Access Now Easy). If you look in one of my colleagues's ftp directoriues, you'll find a couple of relevant files: http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/ftpdir/pub/james/hp.diff http://www.cs.york.ac.uk/ftpdir/pub/james/hporig.patch -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 2 months

Craftsman (was: Microdata "Microprogramming Handbook"

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> Craftsman tools were available at any Sears store; Snap-On had a few > outlets, but sold mostly through trucks that went to garages. (One time, > on a cross-country drive, I started having some serious problems with a VW > bus, and pulled over a Snap-On truck on the freeway in Ohio in order to > buy a 30mm (1 3/16) socket) Never pulled them over, but when a Snap-On socket or wrench breaks (twice per decade), I carry them in the glove box until I see a Snap-On dealer truck parked somewhere, then go do business. > A few years back, Sears closed a lot of their stores, and even closed down > their mail-order and catalog operations! The Craftsman Tools catalog remains in publication... > I think that Craftsman is still owned by Sears, but not sure. Anybody > know for sure? Yes, but the firms that actually manufacter the tools no longer have exclusive contracts with Sears. For example, EASCO is one line of hand made by one of the Craftsman manufacturers. Regards, -dq

24 years, 2 months

IBM PC cassette drive

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/10/2002 7:23:43 PM Eastern Standard Time, rigdonj(a)cfl.rr.com writes: > Several times there have been discussions on this list about wheather or > not IBM ever made cassette drives for use with the original IBM PCs. The > general feeling is that they never made any cassette drives or tapes. BUT I > was talking to Mike Haas about this recently and he told me that he has an > original IBM Diagnstics cassette tape! Today he sent a picture and I've > posted it here <http://www.classiccmp.org/hp/ibm/ibm-cass.jpg> . As you > can see it has the same burgundy color as the standard IBM PC diagnostics > disks. > I have the same tape as well. Havent tried it out yet though.

24 years, 2 months

Sell Chinese Forklifts

by tony.eros＠machm.org

Ouch -- that's cold... At 11:50 AM 2/11/2002 -0600, you wrote: >I like to handle these by sending the postmaster at the offending domain >a nice congratulatory note on having joined the Falun Gong. (I wish I >could say I was the first to come up with the idea, but I saw it on >Usenet.)

24 years, 2 months

Classic Comp UUCP network.

by Huw.Davies＠kerberos.davies.net.au

At 03:48 PM 8/02/2002 -0500, Douglas Quebbeman wrote: > > Ron Hudson wrote: > > > Is it just me, or didn't someone here offer to take the > > lead on setting up a ClassicCmp UUCP map months ago? > > Or is that just symptomatic of excessive Red Bull > > intake on my part? > >All depends on what you're mixing it with.... ;) > >Yes, several of us had a full head of steam to do this... >I could dedicate a 486 running Linux to it and could >have it online from 8am to 5pm daily... as long as >someone puts together a step-by-step... We should think about tunnelling UUCP over IP. That way we could use our existing IP links. This would certainly make it easier (read cheaper) for overseas nodes to exist. Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)kerberos.davies.net.au | "If God had wanted soccer played in the | air, the sky would be painted green"

24 years, 2 months

RISC/OS, IRIX

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Dan Wright [mailto:dtwright@uiuc.edu] > Just out of curiosity, does this indicate that the tapes I > gave you actually > work? ;-) Indeed. :) Some better than others. I was going to start out by installing a relatively early version but couldn't get that particular version to boot. I've taken that to mean that either the version is too old for the M/120, or that I'm booting it improperly. At any rate, I've tried a good three sets of system tapes, all of which seem to work. (Now to get those other computers running...) That said, I plan to back the things up onto images sometime soon, and eventually to try booting one of the M/120s off of a DAT with the image copied onto it, and possibly a CD-ROM with a dump of the newly installed system disk. (That would be amusing if it will work...) I hear from a friend that I may be able to get an external SCSI qic1000(?) soon which would read those tapes without making it necessary to use the MIPS machine for it. I may take that option, since the CD writer is internal, in a different machine. Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

Classic Comp UUCP network.

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Jay West [mailto:west@tseinc.com] > Ok, I have been watching the UUCP network thread. I have one > question - WHY? Lots of reasons: JavaScript, Banner Ads, THIS REALLY WORKED FOR ME!!!!, Registration Required, AOL, Microsoft, "You are not using a frames-enabled browser," "Your browser does not support cookies," "These documents are only available in MS Word format," "This page is best viewed in 800x600 resolution with internet explorer 4.0 or greater..." Need I say more? Internet is starting to really suck. Maybe we can all do better out of our own basements. UUCP certainly lowers the bar for entry and maintenance of a useable node to the point where anyone can grab a peesee out of the dumpster and plug in. (Provided that they know at least one person who is already connected...) Everybody has an even chance to participate and contribute. Even those of us who like to use computers that wouldn't generally use TCP. :) A 20 or 30 node UUCP network could probably hold all of the useful information I've seen on the internet in the last three years. As long as the network remains a manageable size, you could probably count on government to not get involved much, and the type of business that caused so much trouble on the internet wouldn't be interested. There's also the fact that the small level of knowledge required to set up a node, or even connect to one would be sufficient to weed out utter idiots. This is no longer true for internet. Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

Kinda OT but that what's true HW hacker do in a pinch.

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> I'm still searching for a hand operated coil winding machine. I've only > seen a few, and they were all still in use by other people. If anyone > finds one they don't want, even in non-working or incomplete condition, > let me know. These things are likely considered antiques now. I could be wrong, but I believe these are still listed in the Allied Electronics catalog... -dq

24 years, 2 months

Classic Comp UUCP network.

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Chris Kennedy [mailto:chris@mainecoon.com] > Uh, just _which_ libertarian ethos was that? ARPAnet had no such > thing, and NFSnet had acceptable use policies up the ass. The only > thing out there that had any such "libertarian ethos" was the > bang-path hell of UUCP connected systems. That's about what I think of it, and personally, I'm all for bringing that bang-path hell back. ;) Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

Sell Chinese Forklifts

by PasserM＠umkc.edu

I like to handle these by sending the postmaster at the offending domain a nice congratulatory note on having joined the Falun Gong. (I wish I could say I was the first to come up with the idea, but I saw it on Usenet.)

24 years, 2 months

Spectrum makes a comeback

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Bill Girnius [mailto:thedm@sunflower.com] > Believe it or not, some of us are. My first computer was a > Sinclair, I > learned basic on it, I've even chatted on IRC with it at a > blazing 300 baud, > and it was the first computer I ever programmed on, learned > BASIC on it in > fact. It had a great manual that someone whom had never So you learned BASIC on it twice? :) > seen a computer > before could learn more about it. The Sinclair, Spectrum, Speccy or > whatever you wish to refer to them as, was the begining of my computer > knowledge. This foundation has provided the initial blocks > for the 12 years > I have been a Sysadmin professionally for. Oh, did I mention > we had to > solder it together as a kit too? Great. I think there are many people here who love Spectrums, but the question is, why pay money per game to download Spectrum games to your home phone and play them for some limited time, when you can have the real thing probably for much less? :) Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

8" floppy disks

by oliv555＠arrl.net

> >Anybody have any single-sided, hard-sectored 8" disks they'd be willing to >part with? Need some for the old Wang OIS. > I diverted several dumpster-bound boxes of Nashuas a while back. They are labeled FD-132D WP-R ss/dd Hard-Sec 9024-300. These are not notched, look to be unused, NOS. Let me know if these fit the bill. Yours for the postage. -nick

24 years, 2 months

RISC/OS, IRIX

by csmith＠amdocs.com

Hi everybody. I have a curiosity which I hope to satisfy with this question, and I hope that somebody knowledgeable with the history of Silicon Graphics or MIPS can help me out here. On working with the MIPS RISComputers that I have (one in full working order -- no drive light yet -- with three more and a drive light to follow), it occurs to me that the entire feel of the machine is astoundingly close to that of an SGI. To give some examples: The boot monitor is somewhat close -- using the same or similar commands, and the same or similar naming scheme for devices. The install script for RISC/OS and SGIs 'inst' are similar in ways. The FROM environment variable in the RISC/OS installer, and the 'from' command in inst, as an example. Directory structure is very close, and the configuration files seem to be in very similar locations -- by this, I mean more so than is normal between different unix systems. "The System is Coming Up" (Yes, this message is in the default install for both systems) These are all just superficial things, but they lead me to guess that there was a large amount of heritage from RISC/OS to modern IRIX. I assume this would have shown up around IRIX 2.0 (was 1.0 the IRIS 2000/3000 version?) Does anyone know whether I've come to the wrong conclusion? Does anyone know how deep the resemblance goes? I would be tempted to try a RISC/OS binary on an IRIX system at some point. In short, is anyone familiar enough with Silicon Graphics and/ or MIPS to explain this? Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

What am I missing?

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Jerome Fine [mailto:jhfine@postoffice.idirect.com] > I have a problem - am I the one at fault? I'm not sure there's a "fault" here. I certainly wouldn't blame you for wanting to do a proper backup. > (a) The firmware/software for the "RAID 1" controller seems to > NOT have anything that will alert the user to be able to identify > which disk drive might be bad even after a drive failure, let alone > intermittent errors. Well, if a drive fails completely, just unplug one, and if the system still boots, you've unplugged the failed unit ;) > (b) Even though my current files are (seemingly) all correct and > I have two duplicate copies, when I said that I was was going to > restore from my initial back-up from CD (I currently have no > data files, just the installed software), I was looked at as if > I was a bit crazy - why would I do a recovery if there is nothing > wrong? Even though I attempted to explain that a full back-up Personally, I'd recover to a "spare" disk, and try that disk out afterwards. No reason to possibly trash a more-or-less working installation if the recovery fails the first time. Otherwise it sounds reasonable. > includes the total recovery from scratch - at least a few times > at the beginning to establish that the procedure works, that attitude > is considered overcautious to say the least - at the worst it is: > "So what if you loose all you files, you can always rebuild the > system from scratch if you have to?" These individuals seem > to have never heard of data files - like in a legal office, the > client records don't need to be kept since everything in published > law books is how to start all over again after a fire. I think this is the windows mindset. "We can always re-build the entire system, data files and all (since our data files will all be corrupt by then) once a month or so." Some people tell me that they've had better luck with windows than this, of course, YMMV. The point is that after losing so much data to poor practices -- on the part of the user, and the people who wrote the o/s -- what's there to be afraid of? Taken a step further, what's the point in a backup at all? That's not my attitude, but I've seen it. It also seems that most "new" system management types consider backups to simply be an annoyance, and more often than not will do anything possible to get out of having to restore anything... > Is this attitude common in industry? Am I wrong? I know that > my wife has a cousin who works for an accountant who > NEVER makes a back-up of the client files. I try not to do business with people who have such poor data management practices... Had you given the name of the business, this would have probably kept me away from them for life. > If I am correct, is there any way to get my point across or is > this a Catch-22 situation? Wait until there is a failure and they actually need a backup. Announce that you have a backup, indeed, but it only contains 9000 copies of a file called README. :) Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 2 months

NEW email address

by jwest＠classiccmp.org

To all those on the list - I'm finally getting around to severing all ties with my old company. Please make a note of my new email address jwest(a)classiccmp.org The old address (west(a)tseinc.com) is no longer active Regards, Jay West

24 years, 2 months

WHERE IS YOUR MUSEUM? Was:Re: What's your specialty?

by Adrian.Graham＠corporatemicrosystems.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: John R. Keys Jr. [mailto:jrkeys@concentric.net] > Sent: 11 February 2002 15:44 > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: WHERE IS YOUR MUSEUM? Was:Re: What's your specialty? > > > It's nice to see someone else reaching their goal with having > a museum. > Where is it located? Best of luck with it. Ta :) It's in the North-East of England. The building itself needs a lot of cleaning up since the current occupier has a plaster moulding company - the whole place is practically white top to bottom! The roof needs fixing and it needs security measures too, but size wise it's spot on, and the ground floor is concrete so there's space for some big DEC iron there too...... Best of all it's 50 yards from the house..... a www.binarydinosaurs.co.uk

24 years, 2 months

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