Does anyone know of a *cheap* source of a VGA-compatible display? What I'm
looking for, especially, is low power usage, followed by compactness and
portability. Thanks!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
Greets!
I was wondering if anyone might have any information on an old
machine produced by Tandy/Radio Shack. It came out _prior_ to the
Color Computer, but it looked like a CoCo. However, it was a
modified with a phone jack in the back for a TV/monitor and ran off
of a 6809E (???). It basically was a videotext terminal of some
sort.
If anyone might have some information on this little unit, your help
in learning more about it, and it's purposes, and maybe some history
on it, would be much appreciated.
Oh, yeh... an off-topic question? Is this text formatted correctly.
I had some problems with my mail software and had it completely
messed up trying to fix the original problem. Anyway, let me know if
the text is going off the right of your screen or whatever, and if
my signature box at the bottom of the page is formatted ok, ok? If
it is, great! If something's wrong, feel free to send a private
e-mail back to me to let me know ok?
Thanks,
CORD COSLOR
--
____________________________________________________________
| Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\
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| on AOL Instant Messenger: DeannaCord | |
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At 08:27 AM 6/10/98 +0000, you wrote:
>> I've found Toshiba's on-line support for their older machines to be
>> excellent; I wouldn't be surprised at all to find that the setup pgm was
>> available on their web site. Definitely worth checking out.
>
>True, I know but that is very flimsy. Toshiba can decide to pull
>those files off, never know.
Yes, Toshiba could yank the files from their site, but unless they went out
of business (not likely) why would they? Doesn't cost them anything
(coupla meg of hd space) to keep them there. Probably more expensive
(people time) to get rid of them. An incredibly valuable marketing tool
for very little (or no) cost. Because of what I found there, I would
definitely consider a Toshiba laptop.
>else. IBM, Gateway what you have that have long term service
I wouldn't touch a Gateway computer to save my life. I've got a Gateway
2000 Colorbook that my sister uses. I sent them an e-mail to simply ask
what models hard drive they used (I got some empty sleds, and my hard
drives didn't fit) and if they still sell sleds/hard drives for it. Was
told they didn't know, didn't care, not interested. Suggested a couple of
places that sell used GW2K stuff.
I have a long-standing loathing of IBM, though I must admit some of their
more recent laptops look pretty nice. (Can't stand the damn erasers,
though.) They do seem to be pretty good about offering support and info on
older machines.
Basically, if a company isn't interested in helping out with their older
(sometimes much older) machines, I'm not interested in their new machines,
simply because whatever I buy today I'll still be using when it qualifies
for this list.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
> But the VAX-philopsophy was extreme CISC, and that extended to the
VAX/VMS filesystem as well: record-based, with a zillion different file
attributes, built-in file versioning, etc. It was hierarchial, but
mixed with a clunky "volume" concept (something like DOS "C:", but with
longer names).
I wouldn't call it "clunky". In fact with VMS you can combine drives
into a volume set if you want the filesystem spread across multiple
drives, or you can treat each drive as an isolated filesystem. As a
system admin, I prefer the separate volumes, makes it easier to manage
overnight backups. In our VMScluster individual disks are backed up in
parallel across several tape drives (as many as four tapes in operation
at the same time, depending on day of week), a trivial task in VMS but a
bit more elaborate on a Unix system.
As for the RMS file attributes and versioning, they are a dream for
programmers, compared to PC or Unix systems. We have NT or W95
workstations at every desk, but we still keep a VMScluster running,
partly for financial apps, and partly for coding. When you start
dealing with larger apps (i.e 3K-5K users per week, 300-500 at any one
time in a 24 hour day, all accessing the same files) you start to
appreciate what VMS can do.
BTW, one nice advantage of filesystem per disk is drive shadowing in
VMS. You can mirror two drives during the day, then break the set,
remount the mirrored drive as a separate disk, back it up, then
reconnect it back to the shadow set. Instant snapshot backup without
shutting down applications, all the database files are intact as of the
moment you broke the shadow set, no updates during the backup.
Jack Peacock
I've seen him/her/them/it post on alt.folklore.computers about several topics
recently, IIRC.
david
In a message dated 98-06-12 00:56:28 EDT, you write:
<< BTW, whatever happened to lisard/communa? The consistency with which
"they" used pronouns was impressive: IIRC -> iwrc.
-- Doug >>
<On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, R. Stricklin (kjaeros) wrote:
<
<> I suppose a better way of asking that is how is a 'bit sliced' processo
<> or ALU differentiated from a 'normal' one?
The concept was to take a vertical slice of the core of most cpus and make
it so they can be cascaded to the needed width. Some of the common parts
were the 3101 (intel 2 bit slice) and the 6701/2901 4 bit slices.
Their advantages were speed, they were bipolar and in the 70 to early
80s you could make a z80 equivelent using them that was 10mhz and
piplined. Or a custom 20 bit machine.
<BTW, I mentioned a while back that I wrote a simulation of a PDP-8 built
<from 2901's. I finally found the source code for everything but the
<assembler (but I did find a grammar spec). It's not in good enough shap
<to "publish", and I don't plan to spend the time to get it there, but if
<anybody wants a copy, let me know and I'll send you source. (It's
<curses-based, and should run fine on any Unix or DOS box).
I'd love to see that... I have a big bunch of 2901s doing nothing.
Allison
Found the following on Usenet. Please contact this guy directly if
interested.
-=-=- <snip> -=-=-
From: "Joe Huber" <jhuber(a)anet-dfw.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: need to get rid of Vax manuals
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 1998 17:07:50 -0500
Organization: ANET Internet Services
Lines: 16
Message-ID: <6ln059$8o0$1(a)news1.anet.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: dal-vd1-112.anet-dfw.com
X-Newsreader: Microsoft Outlook Express 4.72.2106.4
X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V4.72.2106.4
Path:
blushng.jps.net!news.eli.net!news-out.internetmci.com!newsfeed.internetmci.com!4.1.16.34!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cam-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.bbnplanet.com!news.mathworks.com!uunet!in1.uu.net!news1.anet.com!not-for-mail
I have a nearly complete set of VAX/VMS 5.5-2 manuals in 3-ring binder
format. There are also bound manuals for DecForms (still in the plastic
wrapper), DecPrinting services, several other things.
I sold my VAX but the buyer did not want the manuals. I hate to throw them
out.
I'll "sell" them for the cost of shipping. Please respond via email if
interested.
Thanks!
--
Joe Huber
jhuber(a)anet-dfw.com
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave (Fido 1:343/272)
http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin -- also kyrrin [A-t] Jps {D=o=t} Net
Spam is bad. Spam is theft of service. Spam wastes resources. Don't spam, period.
I am a WASHINGTON STATE resident. Spam charged $500.00 per incident per Chapter 19 RCW.
Well, "If I Recall Corectly" that's what it means.
Francois
-------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon
-----Original Message-----
From: Marvin <marvin(a)rain.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Thursday, June 11, 1998 11:29 PM
Subject: IIRC
>Somehow, I should probably already know what IIRC stands for, but can
>someone enlighten me please. I should have asked years ago :).
>
The usual disclaimers apply...
>In enclosed 19" rack with metal door. 50" x 26" x 30"
>
>PDP 11-23+ Comm interface PCB's and 2 RL02 drives.
>
>Was running prod line when de-installed.
>
>Equipment is located in the metro Atlanta Ga area.
>
>Email offers....
>
> Dick Perron
>http://www.randomc.com/~dperr/pc_hdwe.htm
>dperr(a)randomc.com
>
>"Whether you think you can, or you think you can't.....will happen."
-Bill Richman
bill_r(a)inetnebr.com
http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r
(Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!)
On Jun 11, 13:43, Doug Yowza wrote:
> On Thu, 11 Jun 1998, Pete Turnbull wrote:
> > Quickest general method is "rm -i *", though you may sometimes need
> > "rm -i .*" instead/as well.
It doesn't matter for "rm" since it won't delete directories unless you add
"-r" but for some other commands , "xx .?*" may be preferable to "xx .*".
> If you had a file named "-f" in your directory, then "rm -i *" would
> happily delete all of the files in the directory without prompting you.
>
> "rm -i ./*" would be better, but would not work for files with control
> characters or spaces.
It does on SystemV-based systems, and others I've tried. And "rm -i *"
prompts even with "-f".
> If you wanted to stick with the "-i" approach, then "cd .. ; rm -r -i
dir"
> would be the best bet (assuming your rm had a -r option to recurse).
AFAIK, all rm's have -r.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Hi guys.
I just picked up an IBM type 9075 laptop. The label on the inside (where the
keyboard is) says it's an Aptek Personal Service Communicator II. It's got a
9.5" monochrome screen, a built-in thermal printer, what appears to be a
modem jack, a screw-on (not BNC) rf-type jack, a socket for a pcmcia-type
RAM card, and what appears to be a breakout box connector on the back. No
floppy. Is this a field service terminal? If not, just what the heck is it?
Thanks.
Paul Braun
NerdWare -- The History of the PC and the Nerds who brought it to you.
nerdware(a)laidbak.com
www.laidbak.com/nerdware
OK, I never got this "object" stuff, it's kinda confusing because it
tends to make much ado about nothing (in poor implementations, yes,
but I've only seen poor ones, the Newton being very hard to understand
in terms of how to use). As for VMS file attribs does anyone know how
many there actually were? I counted the attribs Norton DiskEdit lets
me change on the Mac (bundle, locked, bozo, init, etc.), and there
are at least 30.
>> DOS in terms of having an array of blocks and stuff. Except Apple's
>> is quite a bit more elegant. Since some people here are fond of
>> praising the VAX, how does its file system work (typically)?
>
>The Newton "soup" is an object store rather than a directory hierarchy,
>and you'll probably see that paradigm more often in the future. I
think
>Microsoft's "Cairo" road-map included turning the filesystem into an
>object store.
>
>"VAX" is a hardware architecture. Lots of people run Unix on VAXen.
>But the VAX-philopsophy was extreme CISC, and that extended to the
VAX/VMS
>filesystem as well: record-based, with a zillion different file
>attributes, built-in file versioning, etc. It was hierarchial, but
mixed
>with a clunky "volume" concept (something like DOS "C:", but with
longer
>names).
>
>-- Doug
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>Hardly. There were plenty of those made too. I've got at least 5 now,
>and I just added one today from the WeirdStuff sealed bid auction (I
>couldn't resist, it came with some cool carthridges including Imagic's
>Demon Attack [who knew Imagic made carts for the PCjr!?] and an >internal
PCjr modem).
>Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
I'm glad you mentioned that. One of the pallets I got had a PCjr power
supply on it. Did yours come with one?
[who knew Imagic made carts for the PCjr!?]
That's still not as cool as my two cartridge set of Lotus 123 for the PCjr.
=========================================
Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com
Senior Software Engineer
Press Start Inc.
Sunnyvale,CA
Curator
Museum of Personal Computing Machinery
http://www.best.com/~dcoward/museum
=========================================
>Xerox PARC is giving one final demonstration of the original Xerox Star
>workstation built in 1981. This may be the last time it gets
>demoed, as the hardware has begun failing due to its age. Don't miss
>this opportunity to witness one of the most important steps ever taken in the
>history of computing and user interface design.
>
> Final Demo of the Xerox Star Workstation
> 5:30 to 7:00pm
> Wednesday June 17th
> Auditorium Xerox PARC
>
>
> Unquestionably, one of the major design innovations of this century
>has been the Graphical User Interface, with its desktop, icons, pop-up
>and pull-down menus and ubiquitous windows. The explosion of computer usage
>in the last decade has in large part been made possible through this simpler
>and more direct method of user interaction.
>
> Though millions of people around the world are now using GUIs, few
>outside of the Human/Computer Interaction field or the Silicon Valley
>are aware of the history of the its design prior to the introduction
>of the Macintosh in 1984.
>
> The first GUI ever developed was the work of Dr. Douglas Englebart,
>a researcher at SRI (the Stanford Research Institute in Menlo Park, CA) in the
>mid-1960s. His visionary and pioneering design and prototypes succeeded in
>producing the world's first screen-based windows, cursor-selectable pop-up
>menus, as well as the mouse with which to interact with them.
>
> Though these innovations were truly revolutionary, it was not until
>a decade later when researchers at the Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC)
>began systematically studying this system in a commericial development effort.
>The Xerox Alto personal computer workstation was developed in the late 70's
>and included a mouse pointing system. This system influenced later systems
>such as Bravo, which was developed at Xerox PARC by Bruce Lampson and included
>an integrated editor formatter. Later systems included Markup, Draw, and Star.
>
> Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) has been a cradle of Silicon
>Valley innovation for 25 years. Its research spans domains from atoms
>to anthropology, from its solid-state physics lab, which develops new
>laser diodes for use in printers and copiers, to the group that studies
>work practices and their possible impact on current and future products.
>
> Located in the Stanford University Industrial Park in the heart of
>Silicon Valley, PARC was charged upon its founding in 1970 to the
>"architect of the information age". Since then it has delivered into
>use such significant pieces of the current information infrastructure
>as laser printers, graphical user interfaces, object-oriented
>programming languages, and Ethernet local area networks. PARC has
>contributed to user interfaces, electronic components, embedded
>software and architectures for each new line of Xerox copiers,
>printers, and systems reprographics products.
>
>
>
> Directions to Xerox PARC
>
>>From Highway 101, take the Oregon Expressway exit west 2 miles to
>El Camino Real. Oregon Expressway becomes Page Mill Road at El Camino. Follow
>Page Mill Road 1.7 miles to Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn left. Coyote
>Hill Road is just past the intersection with
>Foothill Expressway. Go one-half mile and PARC will be on your left.
>Follow the signs to the auditorium.
>
>>From Interstate 280, take the Page Mill Road exit. Go east one mile
>to Coyote Hill Road (no light) and turn right. Go one-half mile and
>PARC will be on your left. Follow the signs to the auditorium.
<is quite a bit more elegant. Since some people here are fond of
<praising the VAX, how does its file system work (typically)?
Vax is hardware. VMS is an OS. Unix also run on vax. VMS is a fairly
conventional albeit complex file system that can do sequential, indexed
or random accesses. It deals with files, directories and volumes.
<>contiguity). This made file access *fast* when you needed it. I still
<>find fragmentation a nightmare even on Linux.
Some file systems do more poorly than others with fragmentation. For the
best fragmentation is a mild performance hit, in that it will take more
disk seeks to find all the peices. For others (RT-11, NS*DOS)
you can have an almost empty disk that is effectively full as the OS
cannot allocate space peicemeal. VMS, DOS and CP/M perform well with
fragmented files.
Allison
On the bottom of the Mac Portable I have sitting right here, it says 7.5v
2.0a. The injection molded plastic never lies... or does it?
This is a model 5120, non-backlit. Maybe the backlit version took 1.5a?
At 05:45 PM 6/11/98 PDT, Max Eskin wrote:
>Again, the original was 1.5a, which was not enough to power the
>machine w/a dead battery. 2.0a came w/ the first powerbook, and works
>fine.
>(didn't I find this out on this list over a year ago?)
-
- john higginbotham ____________________________
- webmaster www.pntprinting.com -
- limbo limbo.netpath.net -
>Powder Blue Computers
>Akkord Technologies each used Mac 128k ROMs
>Colby:
>WalkMac SE -- $3999
>WalkMac SE 30 -- $6699
>
>Dynamic: (around for a few years)
>Dynamac Plus $4995
>Dynamac SE 30 - $7954
>
>Outbound
Anybody have any of these? Any experience with them. I would love some
further information.
>The bit on Outbound shocked me, it seems they were actually working with
>Apple.
To quote the 2nd edition: "While Outbound continues to floursh-thanks to
a wisely-forged legal agreement and clever positioning of their Macintosh
portable versus the Apple PowerBooks-I question their long-term staying
power."
Tom Owad
>Having creative thoughts is not something (IMHO) that can be taught.
Some
>people just suddenly think 'Wouldn't it be neat if...' or 'We can do it
>like this...'. Of course having a good understanding of the subject,
and
>know what's been done before help a lot here. And that's were classic
>computers come in (to bring this back on topic!)
I thought this was on topic anyway...
>> <faultfinding/repair can be done by almost anybody. Well, having done
>> <both, I personally find them equally difficult. Perhaps that means
I'm
>> <no good at it, but...
>>
>> Troubleshooting is a very complex process that I've never been able
to
>> teach to anyone but those that naturally could. For me
troubleshooting
>
>The point is, in the UK at least, designers tend to get much better
pay,
>and are more highly regarded than repairmen. This I think is wrong, but
this
>list is not the place for that rant.
In general, I've found that things like TVs are almost never repaired,
at least in the US. Back in the USSR, we repaired everything,
including alarm clocks destroyed by trashy batteries that leaked.
>I'm not good at troubleshooting, and I could never (for example) repair
>TV sets for money. But I've never yet let a fault beat me. It may take
me
>weeks to solve it, but I'll spend those weeks to sort out a machine.
Do you mean you've never left a problem unsolved or never left a
machine broken?
>> But working with field circus underscored that thinking is not
something
>> you can mandate.
Isn't there some kind of qualification these guys have to pass? Still,
I can imagine a 20-year old pizza-eating moron who takes a job like
this just to tell his girlfriend, "Hey! I'm a COMPUTER SERVICE
TECHNICIAN!"...
>
>-tony
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Again, the original was 1.5a, which was not enough to power the
machine w/a dead battery. 2.0a came w/ the first powerbook, and works
fine.
(didn't I find this out on this list over a year ago?)
>
>At 04:25 PM 6/11/98 -0700, Uncle Roger wrote:
>>At 12:42 PM 6/11/98 PDT, you wrote:
>>>I was wondering if anyone had a Mac Portable power supply, and wanted
to
>>>sell it cheap.
>>
>>Just get a (iirc) 7.5v PS with appropriate connector/polarity.
>
>-
>- john higginbotham ____________________________
>- webmaster www.pntprinting.com -
>- limbo limbo.netpath.net -
>
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
Gotta be 2.0a though, at least that's what it says on the bottom of the unit.
At 04:25 PM 6/11/98 -0700, Uncle Roger wrote:
>At 12:42 PM 6/11/98 PDT, you wrote:
>>I was wondering if anyone had a Mac Portable power supply, and wanted to
>>sell it cheap.
>
>Just get a (iirc) 7.5v PS with appropriate connector/polarity.
-
- john higginbotham ____________________________
- webmaster www.pntprinting.com -
- limbo limbo.netpath.net -
>Date: Thu, 11 Jun 1998 19:10:55 -0500
>To: clasic
>From: "John R. Keys Jr." <jrkeys(a)concentric.net>
>Subject: New Finds this week
>
>Well it's been slow since I got back from vacation but I found a couple
good items:
>1) Freeze Frame cartridge for the C64, has four dip switches 1&2 work the
freeze frame and 3&4 are printer configuration for 4 different printers.
Neat never seen or heard of this unit before. cost 10 cent at thrift.
>2) Manual set for the LA50 printer all of them for 50 cent.
>3) ICmemories manual from 1980 covering HITACHI #HLN100 25 cent
>4) Freedom ONE terminal manual 25 cent
>5) ACER710 user's guide 1987 25 cent
>6) DisplayStation 88kp6 for $35
>7) Socrates program manual 11 cent
>8) Commodore model 1541-II/1571-II/1581 power supply free
>9) TRS80 Deluxe RS-232 program pak cat. 26-2226 with cable free
>10) HP 2382A kb 1.00
>11) Tecmar tape unit for early Mac's only has two 9pin serial ports in
back 1.00 not tested yet still had a cartridge in it.
>12) and best for last a 'Starlet' Nec Portable computer model PC-8401A-LS
that works off of 4 c batteries. No power came with it, cost $10. It has
CP/M 2.2 in ROM from DRI 1982; Bios date is ver 1.0 1984; has a built in
modem 300/1200; software in rom is WS, CALC, TELCOM, and FILER. This baby
powers up very fast and seems work very well. I even put in some PIP commands.
>Well that's it for now hope to have busy weekend lots of auction going on.
Keep Computing John
<> It should be different as Knuth's was written in C and tex is asm or pl
< ^^^^^^^^^^^^
<Since when? The source code for TeX that I have here, and the version
<that's printed in Volume B of 'Computers and Typesetting' is written in
<Web
Working versions (or pascal). I've never seen a web compiler.
<> code. No credit given and. It's a simpler version circa 1978 and the
<> putput formats are oriented toward character printers.
<
<Can it handle the standard TeX tests (even old versions of them)? If not,
<it's not TeX, by definition.
Likely not, never tried it's stripped some. It was also used to push the
idea of device independent page descritpions that were capable of text and
graphics. One product that came from that was RETOS (ReGIS to Sixel)
translator. I later modified fancyfont as part of runoff to give font
capable runoff with bitmap output. It could really give a disk a workout.
Allison
At 01:04 PM 6/11/98 -0700, you wrote:
>> >> Final Demo of the Xerox Star Workstation
>> >> 5:30 to 7:00pm
I'm really hoping to be there, but I still have to figure out how to get
>from Walnut Creek at 5pm to Palto Alo at 5:30...
>Francisco Bay Area or some subset thereof) get together on the second
>Wednesday of each month for dinner, yakking, bragging about our latest
>k00l f1nd5, waving our appendages at each other and so forth. Sounds
Ooh, I *love* waving my appendages, especially my phelanges!
Only, Wednesdays, esp. the second wed are not good... Make it the second
Thursday and you've got a deal. 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
At 12:42 PM 6/11/98 PDT, you wrote:
>I was wondering if anyone had a Mac Portable power supply, and wanted to
>sell it cheap.
Just get a (iirc) 7.5v PS with appropriate connector/polarity.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/
