test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by mbg＠world.std.com

>DEC did have a nice desk with a builtin short rack, it was sold with >PDP-8s used for small business office applications. It looked like a >regular desk, but the left side was actually a 19" wide rack. It held a >BA-11 and a dual 8" floppy box. For our customers that was more popular >than the "designer" panels. I actually have one of those desks (I bought it from DEC Salvage about 12 or so years ago). Yes, the left side had a 19" wide set of standard rails... but there was also a 19" wide set of rails on the right, only accessable from the back. This was a perfect spot for a power controller. Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry(a)zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg(a)world.std.com | | Digital Equipment Corporation | | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by franke＠sbs.de

>>> BBC Microcomputer Model B-plus >> B-plus ? Never heard of it or is this jus another >> motherboard revision ? > No it was a different machine. 64K RAM as standard, I think. Do you know a picture in the web ? (Haven't found any). >>> Torch Z80 Card x 2 >> ?? same here. > That's a Z80 coprocessor card that fits inside the BBC micro and plugs > into the 'Tube' connector. A pretty simple machine with 64K RAM and a > small ROM containing a CP/M-a-like. There's a host ROM that goes into the > BBC micro. The BBC acts as an intellegent terminal to the CP/M machine. Ahh ja - hanks, I own 2 BBC Mod B but almost no documentation (and no extensions other than floppys). Gruss H. -- Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut HRK

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by mbg＠world.std.com

>That sounds like another one I don't have, but read through an >interlibrary loan: "How to build a working Digital Computer", by E. >Alcosser, Hayden, 1964. It used a bunch of ganged switches to make a 4 >bit adder. Can you look, anyway? I will look for it... I also have an old book called 'Star Ship Simulation' published by Dilithium Press... >Sounds like you had fun! Sure did... >The picture in the Edmund catalog looked like it was made from various >colored shapes of flat plastic. I know it wouldn't be quite the same, but >if you have the documentation and once had your hands on one, could you >recreate it from mat board and an exacto knife? Or some plastic as >required. Yes, it was made out of colored plastic shapes... with a few shaped metal rods and a number of what amounted to 1/2" (If I remember) sections of plastic straws which were used to do the actual programming. The documentation shows the parts, but not to scale... if I had a real one, I'd try to duplicate the parts... I remember the follow-on unit, the DigicompII, was not so much a computer as it was a game of Nim... I got that one as well, but I preferred the DigicompI Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry(a)zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg(a)world.std.com | | Digital Equipment Corporation | | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

Hi Megan and all, At 09:06 PM 7/14/98 -0400, you wrote: > >>Speaking of books, >>has anyone seen the book "We Built our own Computers" by A.B. Holt, >>Cambridge Univ. Press, published about 1966. > >I remember one from years ago which was how to build (and program) >a simple computer using paperclips and lights... (and a program >'drum' made out of a coffee can). I think I still have it... is this >what you're thinking of? That sounds like another one I don't have, but read through an interlibrary loan: "How to build a working Digital Computer", by E. Alcosser, Hayden, 1964. It used a bunch of ganged switches to make a 4 bit adder. Can you look, anyway? Thanks, You also wrote: >>Way cool. I had access to one in high school, to play with, but I never >>owned one. I've written to Edmund Scientific. They get the occasional >>letter inquiring about the DigiComp 1, but so far, not enough interest >>to resurrect the product. >I concur... way cool. I remember when I was in fifth grade or so, my >father ordered one for me. When he received it, he thought it was too >complex and simply put it away. One day I came across it, and before >he came home that night I had assembled it and was working on some of >the programming examples. > >I have a set of documentation for it (sent to me by someone a few years >ago) and I would LOVE to get one for my collection... Sounds like you had fun! The picture in the Edmund catalog looked like it was made from various colored shapes of flat plastic. I know it wouldn't be quite the same, but if you have the documentation and once had your hands on one, could you recreate it from mat board and an exacto knife? Or some plastic as required. That's the kind of thing I might do... -Dave

27 years, 11 months

Laser 128

by blindpete＠stratos.net

On 1998-07-13 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said: cl{Can anybody tell me anything about a machine called cl{Laser 128, I have the opportunity to get and understand cl{that it is very small with built in drive and may be somewhat cl{like an Apple II. cl{Thanx cl{------------------------------------------------------ cl{http://www.voicenet.com/~generic cl{gene(a)ehrich.com cl{Gene Ehrich P.O. Box 209 Marlton NJ 08053-0209 cl{------------------------------------------------------ Hi I used to have one a long time ago, the laser 128 is an Apple 2 C clone. It runs at about one and a third or some thing like that, MHZ. Has a 5.25 inch built in flopy 180 K I think and /ram drive in slot 3 drive 1 I think. It isn't a tam card or any thing like that that is just where the system has the ram drive. I had a later model laser 128 ex this one was cruzzing at 3.6 MHZ, also it had a conecter for an external 3.5 inch flopy. Net-Tamer V 1.11 - Registered

27 years, 11 months

RT11 SIG tapes

by kyrrin＠jps.net

The tapes are spoken for. John Lawson claimed the stack, with Dave Jenner a close second. Glad to see they're going to a good home. Thanks, folks! -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

27 years, 11 months

Atari 800 (was free atari in Sacremento)

by thomas100＠home.com

I had a friend who turned an Atari 800 into a planter. After that, I inherited it for awhile- it still worked. He had spray painted tho' it so I elected not to hold onto it. What always amazed me was this huge aluminum casting at the center of the machine where you inserted the BASIC and game cartridges. That casting must have added significant cost to manufacturing the machine! Hope someone grabs it... they're kinda neat. Thomas

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by thomas100＠home.com

I looked around at what's in sight... NeXT Color Turbo Station Sparcstation 5 Some boring peecees (incl a Linux box) A Mac IIx An Apple IIc Trs-80 Model 4P Trs-80 Model 16B w/ 8 megabyte HD and 12" floppies Trs-80 Model I w/ Expansion Interface/printer Trs-80 Model 100 NEC PC8201a Trs-80 PC-2 Kaypro 2000 Oh yeah... an HP 9825 from the mid-70's [w/ one-line display] Oddly most of these I never owned new. Of all of them the NeXT machine is still by far the most useful / least painful. The Trs-80 Model 16B is the most unique in my eye. I was annoyed by it at first but it was free and gradually began to like it. It's currently running CP/M but I'd like to get the HD back up and run Xenix. The software that came with it made it more interesting... as this stuff was untouchable [expensive] when it was new. Thomas

27 years, 11 months

fwd: atari 800 (Sacramento, CA)

by sinasohn＠mail.crl.com

Please contact Mr. Woo directly if interested... >From: K W <wookm(a)yahoo.com> >Subject: atari 800 >To: sinasohn(a)crl.com > >Mr. Sinasohn, > >I've got an Atari 800 computer that I want to get rid of, and I'd >rather give it away than throw it in the trash. It's still in great >condition, with a drive, tape recorder, joysticks, etc. Would anyone >in ABACUS be interested? > >There is a catch though: it's in Sacramento. I've emailed the Sacto >groups, with no response yet. If there's someone in ABACUS who makes >regular trips to Sacto, and would like to have it, I'd be willing to >hold it. > > >Kevin Woo >wookm(a)yahoo.com --------------------------------------------------------------------- O- Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know." Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by cad＠gamewood.net

My wife says, 'Too many!!' A Sphere, Astral 2000, M&R sbc, Dragon, several CoCo's, Eagle 1600, enough spares for a Leading Edge model 2, XEROX 860IPS,Unisys Personal Workstation Series 850 (marginal timewise). Chuck -- Chuck Davis / Sutherlin Industries FAX # (804) 799-0940 1973 Reeves Mill Road E-Mail -- cad(a)gamewood.net Sutherlin, Virginia 24594 Voice # (804) 799-5803

27 years, 11 months

European Tour

by fmc＠reanimators.org

Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote: > Any suggestions for the American nerd tourist in Europe? Hmm. How about the Heinz Nixdorf Museumforum somewhere near Paderborn in Germany? I have brochures (somewhat dated), or you can check out their web site (which, last I looked, was mostly in German) at http://www.hnf.de/ . Never been there myself, but it's on my list if I ever get around to a European Tour. -Frank McConnell

27 years, 11 months

taking care of bad sectors... easy stuff. Was: Re: hard drive data recovery

by higginbo＠netpath.net

I'll bring it back on topic: Spinrite is some powerful hoodoo. I used it alot on Seagate ST-225 drives. I'm never one to use any questionable sectors though: Some of those drives had less than 10mb when I was through with them. I don't trust iffy sectors. At 08:06 PM 7/14/98 -0500, Poesie wrote: >version 5, i got version 4 for about 20 bucks. This is kind of off-topic and >doesn't cover a whole lot of you out there, but when you buy a box of 100 >drives that are all "bad", you can sometimes salvage quite a few of them. - - john higginbotham ____________________________ - webmaster www.pntprinting.com - - limbo limbo.netpath.net -

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by higginbo＠netpath.net

At 01:42 AM 7/15/98 +0100, Tony Duell wrote: >My rule is that if it's possible to get a user program in there, it's a >computer. Yes there are marginal cases, but who cares. This is not a 'who's >got the most computers' competition, now is it? It's not??? Dang! I thought I was a shoe in for mister congeneality!!! :) - - john higginbotham ____________________________ - webmaster www.pntprinting.com - - limbo limbo.netpath.net -

27 years, 11 months

hard drive data recovery

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

If you are removing a head arm and working on it, you can wrap everything but the actual connection in clean plastic. I wouldn't expect smoke particles to magically fall off the arm onto the platter, even if the arm is upside down. Plus, smoke travels upwards, and I would expect little of it to settle if you use a fan or something. As soon as you finish soldering, take it back to the clean box, and put it inside to let it cool off or to reassemble (unless it's still smoking). As for doing activities which involve platters, that's a trickier thing. I have no idea what you would do if you had a problem with the motor or the axle on which the platters are mounted. Now, my question. Let's say a single head crashes. This would raise up some dust off the platter, right? Would it be possible to recover the material that wasn't destroyed by the dragging head? What if this deformed the platter? >Serious question. What do you do if you need to resolder a head >connection or something? Do you remove the head assembly from the clean >box, solder it, clean if off with IPA, put it back in the clean box and >reassemble or what? I can't believe you want flux smoke in the HDA. > >> Philip. > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 11 months

taking care of bad sectors... easy stuff. Was: Re: hard drive data recovery

by poesie＠geocities.com

well, I personally have never opened up a hard drive, if nothing else because I've never had an extra to pop open (i'm too frugal. hehe.) Regardless, I have found the program "Spinrite" to work great on IDE drives; it goes through and can fix bad sectors, or mark them totally unusable. this really differs from standard formats/etc, because I've been able to take drives w/ 30mb of bad sectors and get it to 0 bad sectors, and still running fine w/ no problems after a year. i believe they are on version 5, i got version 4 for about 20 bucks. This is kind of off-topic and doesn't cover a whole lot of you out there, but when you buy a box of 100 drives that are all "bad", you can sometimes salvage quite a few of them. -Eric

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 98-07-14 11:45:07 EDT, tony duell put forth: << > BTW, how common are PC-jr machines without floppies? Were most of them > upgraded? >> all pcjr machines came with 128k and one floppy drive. i have seen "second story" units that add another floppy drive. it seems to be there used to be an aftermarket for the jr, but a hot-rodded one still wouldnt be as good as a standard xt though. a popular modification was to bring the machine up to 640k by soldering in some dip chips in the 128k add on sidecar thing. i believe IBM has a file on the www searchfiles page that still tells how to do this. david

27 years, 11 months

hard drive data recovery

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

The actual sensor is a sealed unit, just like a transistor or a vacuum tube. You don't even have to tell anybody :) >don't believe the small amount of Am241 in the average smoke detector is >that dangerous if handled carefully, but I can see some people getting >very upset if they found I was stripping down smoke detectors and >modifying them. And I don't need that sort of hassle. > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

Well, I think that the default lack of floppy drive was a mistake, as was the lack of RAM. I'm not sure what year it is, but I believe 640K was standard by then. Also, I have the Getting Started manual for the PCjr. It's supposed to be a technical reference with specs, and details on how to prepare it for shipping (like in the IBM PC manual of the same name), but instead it has childish junk on how to use cursor keys (it has a little cartridge game called the keyboard adventure, with a little guy that can move around). Techinicians reeely don't like that. >Apart from the IR keyboard, which was a mistake ;-), it's basically a PC >without the DMA chip, but with better-than-CGA graphics. What's wrong >with it? > >In some ways the lack of a DMA chip is a good thing. There are the right >signals on the expansion bus to add one, with the result that an >expansion module can take over the bus. The PC bus doesn't allow that. > >-tony > > ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 11 months

Painting Macs (was: fake next)

by mbg＠world.std.com

>or blue I don't consider it a "real" computer. When DEC went to the >black racks and purple lettering (hmm, early 70s?) that was too radical >for me, I was glad to see a return to the traditional beige rack. The 19" racks were generally black... there were attachments to the top of them which were different colors. The purple series was indicative of the pdp-11s (which match the time-frame). I've seen them both with beige side-panels and black side-panels... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry(a)zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg(a)world.std.com | | Digital Equipment Corporation | | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

27 years, 11 months

how many computers?

by mbg＠world.std.com

Maybe I'll provide my full list in a later message, but for now, you can check my 'home_systems' page off my home page... >> DIGI-COMP 1 (an educational toy from 1963) > >Way cool. I had access to one in high school, to play with, but I never >owned one. I've written to Edmund Scientific. They get the occasional >letter inquiring about the DigiComp 1, but so far, not enough interest >to resurrect the product. I concur... way cool. I remember when I was in fifth grade or so, my father ordered one for me. When he received it, he thought it was too complex and simply put it away. One day I came across it, and before he came home that night I had assembled it and was working on some of the programming examples. I have a set of documentation for it (sent to me by someone a few years ago) and I would LOVE to get one for my collection... Megan Gentry Former RT-11 Developer +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ | Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry(a)zk3.dec.com | | Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg(a)world.std.com | | Digital Equipment Corporation | | | 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ | | Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler | | (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg | +--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by ddameron＠earthlink.net

At 06:41 PM 7/14/98 GMT, you wrote: >> I was just wondering, how many computers do all you have out there??? > Not many, 10 to 20, and some I don't know if to count, such as pc boards with a 6802, 2716, and 2 6821 ic's. I think they came from a cash register system. Others like XT motherboards... 1. Mixed brand S-100 System. Either Flashwriter display or serial to Heatkit H19 terminal. Extra crate and misc cards. 2. Various PC clones. I am using a 386 now. No Pentiums or higher. 3. A few Z-80 test computers. 8 or so ic's on a single board. 4. 80188 board computer for "Radio Electronics" Robot. 5. Homebrew game of "life" computer. (1973) 6. Calculator built from neon bulb "shift register counters". Input is a rotary telephone dial. I think subtraction was "1's complements". (about 1968) Interesting peripherals from late 1970's when I was going a lot. 1. SWTP CT-1024 modified for 64 columns and graphics. Hope to get this working again with some computer. 2. Sylvanhills flat bed plotter. Used DC motors and opto-interruptor wheels which I replaced with stepper motors. 3. Stepper motor 3 axis wax carver. Used cylindrical coordinates. The wax block rotated on a turntable. Literature, including First 7 years of Byte. First few years of Dr. Dobbs, the bound volumes, I didn't keep the individual issues. 2 of the Creative Computer games books. 10 issues of "Computer Hobbyist", I have just found the remaining issues. Documentation for Scelbi 8H and other 8008 stuff. Other construction type books. Various parts, including a box of RTL ic's, 1101 memory's. There apparently was an ad in 1967 "CQ" for an RTL computer. >> DIGI-COMP 1 (an educational toy from 1963) > >Way cool. I had access to one in high school, to play with, but I never >owned one. I've written to Edmund Scientific. They get the occasional >letter inquiring about the DigiComp 1, but so far, not enough interest >to resurrect the product. Yes, it would be fun to find things like this. I still have the 3 potentiometer "analog" computer I built for some science fair. The Digicomp I cost $5.95 in 1969 from Edmund Sci. Others were various mechanical (Dr. Nim) and electronic NIM players, Computers like "Brainac", and later in 1971, a National Radio Institute computer using 53 TTL ic's. Have seen only ad's. A RCA projects book I have has a "slot machine" built from individual transistors for flip flops, gates, multivibrators, etc. It "computed" the score, so was a calculator of sorts. Speaking of books, has anyone seen the book "We Built our own Computers" by A.B. Holt, Cambridge Univ. Press, published about 1966. -Dave

27 years, 11 months

empty rack

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

I found an empty rack today, not sure of the dimensions. It had nothing but rails and a power cord. At the top, it had something like "Camex" in blue letters, I forgot exactly what by the time I got home. Next to the name, it had some kind of snowflake-like emblem. Does anyone in the Boston area want this thing? I will inquire if there is anything more where that came from... ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

27 years, 11 months

Forward Air - Ship them hunks o' Iron!

by higginbo＠netpath.net

This is an unofficial page for Forward Air, a company that claims to have very reasonable air freight rates for packages. This page was put together >from the perspective of an arcade machine afficianado(sp?), but plenty of info here for all. Just thought I'd pass it on in case someone needs it or hasn't heard of it, or whatever. http://www.geocities.com/Yosemite/6996/forwardair.html - - john higginbotham ____________________________ - webmaster www.pntprinting.com - - limbo limbo.netpath.net -

27 years, 11 months

Painting Macs (was: fake NeXT)

by higginbo＠netpath.net

Please do. I'd like to see it, but I would rather keep the original case, or an exact or near to it replica in another material. Doug had a good idea with the chrome look, but I think I would have to actually tool a metal case and get it chromed for it to look good, too much money for me, but it would look neat, maybe with some red glowing lights behind the vents ala Terminator. :) Hmmmm. I do have the empty SE/30 case to practice on, but I just got another idea while looking at my mini-tower 233mmx: Cut out one whole side of it, replace with plexiglass or glass panel so I can see all the goodies inside, maybe throw some little 5v LEDs into it to make it purty... I'm getting too many cool ideas here. I need to stop thinking and start putting this in action. At 04:45 PM 7/14/98 -0500, Poesie wrote: >My girlfriend works for a sign company that does small and large scale >signage; including printing out vinyl signs. they can print onto lexan, >transparent vinyl, aluminum, etc etc; our project last week was making a >tower case out of clear acrylic, and putting some various translucent >designs on it (including a very dashing "Linux Powered" logo.) the company >is www.fastsigns.com, there are local all over the US and i believe also >england. for a full colour case design (they can scan and print any graphic) >it's usually about $50 US and then the cost of the materials. most likely >under $100. i'll upload some shots of this awesome case once i get my >digital camera back from a friend. > >-Eric > > > > >>Absolutely! :-) >> >>I'd certainly be interested in a Mac with a neat paint job. It would >>have to be something interesting, though, after all, even I cold do solid >>colors. :-) >> >>A while back MacAddict gave away some custom painted Power Mac 5100's. >>They weren't very intersting, though, just crazy designs. >> >>Tom Owad >> > > - - john higginbotham ____________________________ - webmaster www.pntprinting.com - - limbo limbo.netpath.net -

27 years, 11 months

How many computers?

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> I was just wondering, how many computers do all you have out there??? Right. My turn now. Unlike most of you, it seems, a lot of my computers don't work. I seem to acquire faster than I can repair - perhaps because computers are just one hobby among many, perhaps because acquiring computers is relatively easy... I have about 60. Last time I counted I got to about 51 but I don't think I got them all. A selection: Assorted PETs, at least one C64 and a couple of VIC 20s (one with missing keytop); Assorted PDPs in various states of disrepair, plus a large number of spare M-series boards (both Unibus and Qbus, including several CPU boards) and a couple of Rainbows; Several BBC model Bs (don't know what sorts) and an electron; Tatung Einstein, TI 99/4A; Sinclair ZX81, Spectrum, Spectrum +2; IBM PC-AT, 6150 (= RT PC tower model), System/23 (5332 Datamaster); A couple of Compaq 386 lapdogs; HP 71C, 75C, 85, 86, 87 (but the HP I use most is my 28C - I suppose that's a classic now); Sirius-1, FTS Series-88 (nearly two of those), Superbrain; I recently got a couple of Apple ][ and a couple of Exidy Sorcerors; But my favourite is the Tektronix 4052 graphics box. With luck, I'll bring it to the VCF this autumn ^H^H^H^H^H^H^H fall. Philip.

27 years, 11 months

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