test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by cclist＠sydex.com

On a whim, I installed OS/2 2.1 on a P1 system last night (Hint: it helps to have a multi-boot setup with a network-capable OS on one partition--saves a lot of floppy work). I could get MS Lanman for OS/2 working okay, but then I ran into a problem--it seems that FreeTCP and most browsers for OS/2 say "Warp 3 or later". And getting a browser-suitable TCP/IP stack seems to be no small issue. IBM Web explorer seems to want Warp as well. Lanman has a TCP/IP stack of sorts, but it's undocumented and apparently used only for NetBEUI protocol. The only TCP/IP program that uses it seems to be the "ping" packaged with Lanman. Has anyone ever gotten a browser to work on 2.1 over an ethernet TCP/IP connection? If so, how? Thanks, Chuck

14 years, 1 month

MOSAID MS2200

by wim＠hackbox.be

I've just picked up a device named "MS2200 Memory Tester" made by MOSAID. It came with abox called "M22110" to connect the RAM chip under test (I guess). It seems functional. Using the front panel, I can run tests and even get a sort of raster image on a scope in X-Y mode. But I have no clue how to connect a RAM chip. I can't find any docs at all. Anyone knows anything about this thing? Thanks, Wim.

14 years, 1 month

Basic V01B-02

by iamvirtual＠gmail.com

Does anybody have a copy of the PDP-11 Basic V01B-02 distribution tapes for RT-11 v2C? There should be 2 DecTapes (TU-56). My understanding is that the tapes should be labelled: DEC-11-LBACA-C-UC1 DEC-11-LBACA-C-UC2 There is a copy of the first tape on Bitsavers ( http://www.bitsavers.org/bits/DEC/pdp11/dectape/BS/basv1b.dta) which does include a runnable copy of Basic, but I would like to rebuild the system. The source portions (BASICL.MAC, and BASICH.MAC) are not on the tape. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. --barrym

14 years, 1 month

An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC,

by stevew＠ka6s.com

Well - I'm going to vote for Calculator - though I learned to program on one of these back in the early 70s. I wrote a couple of simulators for them to learn Fortran - and still remember a few details. 1) The machine had a total of 120 instructions if you used up the upper registers with instructions (so it WAS possible to carefully do self modifying code if you were so daring.) 2) When you used needed those registers - it would be 60 instructions. The machine was very useful as a training vehicle for preparation to run into things like the Altair with 256 bytes, etc. I look upon the P101 with a lot of fondness! Steve

14 years, 1 month

old == worthless.

by robert＠irrelevant.com

Bl@@dy ebay sellers... I bid on, and won, a Tandata TD4000, complete with what looks like a matching branded monitor. Cost me the grand sum of 99 pence - nobody else wanted it. Called yesterday to arrange collection, got "oh, we got it out for you and it looks like it was broken when we moved house". How broken? "a crack, and there's a cable missing." told them no worries, would still have it, should be able to fix it. "but my husband has put it out to be thrown away". Told her to go check if it was still about, I did still want it! Got a call back today, "it was put with some old PCs and they've all been taken away this morning.." Would they have done the same if it had been an iPad? Or it it had sold for more than a pittance? I'd certainly have paid more! The problem is, old == worthless, and if it's worthless (reinforced by it selling for almost nothing, even though that's all they asked for) then it doesn't matter. OK, it's not like it was a set of backup discs from Prestel itself, just a terminal to access it, but it's still galling. (The other, I'd drive to the other end of the country to kick down their door if I thought it would put me on the trail of them!) Sigh.. Anyway rant over. Wonder if I can justify leaving them a Neg...

14 years, 1 month

An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC,

by tom94022＠comcast.net

Anyone have any more information on the magnetic card and its reader? Tom

14 years, 1 month

Discferret Broken?

by jgevaryahu＠gmail.com

Christian Bartsch | Kryoflux LTD. (cb at kryoflux.com) wrote on Tue Mar 6 02:30:32 CST 2012: Hi Tony, ... >/ 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' if />/ somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? / Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here) would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big, mighty institution be hindered by us to look at a competitive product? Why would they let us hinder them? If they could get something better that would be completely free, why would they want to take the solution that needs to be paid for? How could I stop them from using publically available sources? Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already in violation of it. No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them >from even considering it. For reference: 2. LICENCE. I. LICENCE for IPF SUPPORT LIBRARY SPS hereby grants you (each licensee is addressed as "you") a non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to use the Technology, on the following terms and only for private, non-profit purposes (see Section 3 below). You may: ... c. inspect ("understand") the source code (if provided); and ... 3.LIMITATIONS ON LICENCE.The licence grantedin Section 2 is subject to the followingrestrictions: a.The Technology is to be used onlyfor non-profit purposesunless you obtain prior written consent fromSPS.Prohibited for-profit and commercial purposesinclude, but arenot limitedto: ... (v) Using the Technology to develop a similar application on any platform for commercial distribution, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law; or (vi) Using the Technology in any manner that is generally competitive with a SPS product as defined by SPS, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. ... d. You may not modify, combine commercial applications with the Technology. You may not prepare derivative works of the Technology, except to the extent this restriction is prohibited by applicable law. Derivative works are defined as but not limited to: (i) Alternative support libraries. We are open to porting to other platforms, and so third parties doing such is unnecessary and violates the terms of this licence. If you want to port the library, please contact us. We will host it on our site and ensure that only the latest version is being distributed. (ii) Alternative tools that operate on files of the format as defined by the Technology. This includes but is not limited to: mastering tools(tools that enable Content to be written back to physical media like a floppy disk). Reproducing Content provided through or by the Technology to any other kind of media, such as alternative content provider technology(this also covers any kind of converter with the intention of extracting the Content to held by any other alternate media format that represents the same independently working Content). Additions, removals or other modification of data contained by the images. ... To anyone who wants to read further, the license text can be seen in full as "LICENCE.txt" in the "Download the latest software" archives at http://www.kryoflux.com/ -- Jonathan Gevaryahu AKA Lord Nightmare jgevaryahu at gmail.com jgevaryahu at hotmail.com

14 years, 1 month

Chips that changed the world

by rcini＠optonline.net

All: For those interested, IEEE has an article about the 25 chips that changed the world. The NE555 is #1 and the 6502 is #2. http://spectrum.ieee.org/may09/8747 Rich -- Rich Cini Collector of Classic Computers Build Master and lead engineer, Altair32 Emulator http://www.altair32.com http://www.classiccmp.org/cini

14 years, 1 month

SPS licence (was: Re:Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> Christian, if there's no anti-compete clause in the license, then please > explain what exactly clauses 3.a.v and particularly 3.a.vi do. > Also, for third party/open-source IPF stuff (other than the potential > for GPL software to be used commercially, already expressly forbidden by > 3.a.v), clauses 3.d.i and 3.d.ii would also seem to expressly forbid it? > 3.d.ii seems to imply that it violates the license to even convert an > IPF to other formats, which makes IPF images entirely useless as a > general preservation format because of the legal minefield they're stuck in. Jonathan, I think you misunderstood what this is about. Before I go into detail here, it does make sense to see how "the technology" is defined: "The program's object code, source code and documentation are collectively referred to as the "Technology"". Please note that there is no reference to the file format itself. It just clearly states one thing: You can not take a piece of our software and use it to make another piece of software, except for the exclusions listed. It does not say you can not invent something on our own or work with a CatFerret or DiskWeasel or whatever device comes to mind. It is also correct that you could not take the capsimg.dll and put it into a competing product. You can of course write your own code, or you could - if it's not a commercial thing - just take a look at our source distribution. It comes with a different (adapted MAME) licence! Please take a look yourself: http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec_source4.2.zip This was released to make sure the format is a) fully documented, b) portable and c) data is not buried. The reasons for the tight restrictions of the original (old) licence were e.g. some companies selling game compilation CDs of questionable origin, which usually did not give credit or pay royalties to the legitimate copyright holders (=game devs). We did not want to support such things. Not being able to use IPF for these (or extract the data with our enabler) meant ADFs were used, which usually sported cracker intros or similar, making people aware of what they had bought. > This is one of the most deceptive licenses I've ever read; the top > preamble implies it gives the user great freedom but instead it almost > totally locks everything they've done and can do down to "a SPS product > defined by SPS". I'm going to stay far, far away from any products > Kryoflux LTD./SPS puts out unless you seriously rethink your licensing, > since by contributing to the Discferret project I'm apparently already > in violation of it. No, you are not (I think). Unless you take parts of our product to enhance a competitive product, all is fine. In other (unpleasant) words: If you make your own and don't steal, I don't see any problem there. > No wonder none of the organizations you sold your CTA analyzer to want > anything to do with Phil's product, the license expressly forbids them > from even considering it. Absolutely not. If they were using this very same licence (which they don't, as it excludes commercial use) they could of course use other products. They just could not put parts of our product into the other.

14 years, 1 month

An interesting claim: Olivetti made the first ever PC, in 1962

by lproven＠gmail.com

The "Program 101": http://english.pravda.ru/history/07-03-2012/120702-Program_101_first_person… Thoughts? I've never even heard of this product before. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

14 years, 1 month

Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> If this is how you think about others who are trying to preserve data and history, I don't think you should be involved in preservation at all. Thanks for making up my mind in regards to your product. Dave, to be honest, going back to your very first email... I really looks like you had made it up right from the beginning. I have no clue what preservation and the right to do it or not has to do with one's right to stand up against a competitive claim that has proven not to be an issue at all. I also don't know what either product has to do with preservation per definition apart from ingesting data. Preservation is much more than reading some bits, it's making sure the data you have is authentic and valid and can be recreated physically and in emulation any time.

14 years, 1 month

Put on the hip waders

by aek＠bitsavers.org

http://www.ebay.com/itm/220970605899 This ICBM COMPUTER is one of ONLY 10 that were armed and ready to fire at Russia or anyone else if necessary during the cold war arms race. These are credited for stopping the soviet union from placing nuclear missiles in CUBA in 1960 to 1962. They were decommissioned by the strategic are command and the hard drive and memory banks were erased. This is the first personnel computer that could run with commands on its' own. The movie Dr. Strangelove was a scary horror comedy about these missiles and the people that might push the button, and not be able to stop if needed. -- This this is clearly a dangerous munition, so I've reported it to eBay. I would suggest others do the same, for the safely of our children and our precious bodily essence.

14 years, 1 month

On Programa P101

by bdamer＠digitalspace.com

In concurrence with Rick here, I was interviewed last year by some Italians making a documentary about the Olivetti P101 trying to shoehorn their claim it was the first "personal computer". I categorically stated that it was simply a programmable calculator and not a computer. I noted to them the features of the 1962 LINC (OS, languages, removable storage, interactive programming/display, peripherals) which was described by Alan Kay and Gordon Bell as "the first personal workstation" or "where the experience of personal computing was first possible". Seemed to fall on deaf ears. Did their documentary ever come out? bruce ever the CC lurker

14 years, 1 month

SPS licence (was: Re: Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

>> > You can't make 'competing products'. > ...no, you can't use "the Technology" to make competing products. > jgevaryahu didn't post enough for me to be sure what "the Technology" > means - and I would check if I cared - but I would expect it to refer > to KryoFlux's work and nothing more, in which case this strikes me as > eminently reasonable. > > In the stuff jgevaryahu posted, most the restrictions cited are of this > nature. I do see one glaring exception, that being 3.d(ii); if I were > doing data preservation any such clause in the license for a tool would > completely eliminate that tool from consideration for me. No, because the moment you would be able to put data into an IPF, you would also have the tool to extract it again, you would not use parts of the free distribution to do that. And you would of course have your original data in the first place. As outlined in another reply this mainly addresses companies releasing bogus compilation CDs which we did not intend to support. And apart from that: Our source distribution comes with a different (adapted MAME) licence! http://www.kryoflux.com/download/ipfdec_source4.2.zip This was released to make sure the format is a) fully documented, b) portable and c) data is not buried. > It most certainly would cause me to include them out of anything I > might do as an individual. Closed file formats - and this is an even > more egregious form of "closed" than most - are nonstarters for me. And for this reason, and many others, there source is out there.

14 years, 1 month

Wanted: TRS-80 8-Megabyte drive

by eric＠brouhaha.com

I have a TRS-80 Model 16 with an 8 Megabyte drive, but unfortunately the drive is a secondary, not a primary, so it doesn't contain a controller and I can't actually use it with the Model 16 at the moment. Does anyone have an extra 8MB primary drive they'd care to part with? Or the controller board from inside an 8MB primary drive? (Or, for that matter, another secondary?) The Model 16 (or Model II) with the original hard disk interface[*] will ONLY work with 8MB drives, and not with the later 5, 12, 35, or 70 MB drives. Similarly, the 8MB drives will only work on the Model II or 16 with that original interface, and not on the Model I, III, 4, etc. The pinout and signals of the cable between the interface card in the computer and the controller in the primary drive is different than all of the later ones. Both the old and new TRS-80 hard drive interfaces use a 50-pin cable with signals similar to those used by a WD1000 controller, but neither are actually directly compatible with the WD1000 or each other. Radio Shack added some functionality beyond what the standard WD1000 has, and changed the pinout. Thanks, Eric [*] The original Model II/16 hard disk interface can be recognized by the red power distribution strips under the DIP ICs.

14 years, 1 month

Free Sinclair stuff on Twitter

by lproven＠gmail.com

@DeltaNC: If anyone would like a ZX81, a Rubberkey or a Plus let me know. I have one of each and they're getting skipped otherwise. Untested, no PSUs. @DeltaNC: Reading an old Spectrum instruction manual, specifically about loading software. You "App Store" kids don't know how good you have it! That's https://twitter.com/#!/DeltaNC if you don't speak Tweet. Anyone interested? I think they're in Glasgow. -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

14 years, 1 month

KryoFlux power rail (was: Re: Discferret broken?)

by cb＠kryoflux.com

> > Though I was not specifically responding to the concerns over KryoFlux, > I would refer not to the input protection response, but this one: "and > there's lack of protection overall, especially in the power supply.". Like ZoomFloppy KryoFlux does not need external power at all. It is a bus-powered device. However, we added the option to feed in external power (just in case). There are two options for this power rail: protected (the user feeds 7-9 volts via the low voltagee connector or +12 via the molex, both are exactly regulated to +5V for the +5V rail and secured with a diode) or unprotected. Users are advised not to use the unprotected rail (needs changing a jumper) unless they know what they are doing. >> > I would really like to avoid the impression something is broken. It's >> > not, it's working. > I think it would be helpful to address the power supply protection > concern. Rightly or otherwise, prospective customers could conjecture > that this might impact or damage their precious disk drive mechanisms or > electronics. As I said... it's bus powered. And protected with voltage regulators and diodes. How much can you do with 500mA and +5V? I don't see any risk for the drive attached. Of course you can always be more protective, but at what cost? If you look a popular electronics you will find that there are some things you simply rely on. Like the correct voltage coming out of the USB port, a switching PSU or the correct polarity of a PSU. I found a friend's SNES dead because it simply has no protection diode. He'd attached a replacement PSU and soldered the connector himself? Wrong polarity. Oops. I am not saying that completely leaving that out was a wise idea, but it works for them. I am pretty satisfied with what we have. In other words? an airbag is fine. Putting the whole car in some kind of styrofoam makes driving a hassle. > > I took my position from > "http://forum.kryoflux.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=3#p1230. At least with > ZoomFloppy, people expect to both image and write disks with the > product. From the FAQ, I see that DTC will not write file back to disk, > but Analyzer can. If the FAQ is wrong, I based my concern on invalid > information. Thanks for pointing this out. DTC has evolved and, by now, also supports writing of IPF and ADF back to disk. More to come. You would need the Analyser to create IPF files as this is beyond the capabilities of DTC. IPFs are not the result of a conversion process, instead it's an auto scripting feature that will, for most disks, describe the mastering data. The rest needs manual adjustments. > I do have to handle feedback and questions for such a product, and I > understand it's a pain at times. However, since your tool images more > obscure formats and drive mechanisms, I struggle with the idea that > there are a huge number of uninterested folks who want the tool but > aren't savvy enough to learn it. This is, admittedly, a very elite > group in this space. Well? we do support so many systems by now? without doing anything, I have a dozen of tickets popping up. Every day? As I said before, this is something very special and it was never meant to be for "mass-consumption". That does not mean we don't give people access. There's actually people out there using it. > I think your "does not demand a response" itself is a response. When > people "google" for this thread, they'll no doubt find this response. I > can't carry the ball further here, I have no horse in this race. I > think simply responding to it puts the focus back on others. Thanks for asking.

14 years, 1 month

IBM, DEC and a backache

by silent700＠gmail.com

So once again I heed the call of classiccmp in distress and once again the mini-truck was packed to the brim and riding low. We cleaned out a storeroom of a small college last weekend and finally got everything unloaded last night - everything that would fit, that is. Had to leave some TRS-80s behind (always painful) but fortunately they were scooped up later the same night by another local collector. Here's my haul: https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/March1Haul The incomplete inventory: - 5x IBM RT systems: 3x 6150 towers, 2x 6151 desktops - some variances in name and badging amongst all these which will have to be explored - 6x IBM RT monitors: 4x 5081 "Megapel" displays, 2x 6154 "Advanced Color Graphics Display" (I don't know which, if any, of the RTs have the necessary Megapel card) - 2x IBM 6157 Streaming Tape drives, one apparently NIB - IBM 8228 Token Ring MAU, NIB - IBM RT 8-port serial cards and break-out boxes, some boxed - DEC half-rack - DEC PDP 11/23 Plus system to be inventoried soon - quick check shows 11/73 CPU upgrade and Emulex SCSI card - Emulex PE02 Medley drive - Boxed DEC VT220 terminal (not sure if it's unused or not) - Boxed DEC LK201 terminal keyboard - IBM RT keyboards, not enough for all these systems - Various IBM RT docs, some in box - Various ISA cards to be ID'd later I already owned an RT desktop (6151 of some sort) and a small monochrome display which, if I went downstairs to check, would probably turn out to be a 5151, so I'm marginally familiar with RT stuff. But now that this load has appeared, more opportunities are opened...especially when it comes to graphics. It will take some weeks to ID all this stuff and figure out what's what, but I'd love to see the "Megapel" system in action. There are a few disks in the documentation box but I don't believe there is an OS. Anyone know if there are images out there? I think these things use regular PC floppy drives so hopefully the disk format is writable with the tools out there. Or, did the OS come on tape instead? If I read the right FAQ, RTs used ESDI drives. Imaging these drives will be a priority. I have an ISA ESDI controller (somewhere) that I could possibly put into a Linux box. I have no idea what filesystem early AIX used or if there is a way to mount it in another Unix. If the RTs work (or at least one does,) I could dump to tape or some other removable media instead. Despite the size of this haul....no mice. And of course, like the keyboards, IBM RT mice are proprietary, or at least the connectors are. I'll have to check the FAQs and such out there to see if anyone has adapted a PS/2 mouse to it. If these did have the graphics boards, I'd expect to have seen mice with them. But thanks to their size and relative uselessness, those mice were probably the first things to get tossed out :( Now on to the PDP...haven't dug into the cards inside yet but I do see an Emulex SCSI board, so that is automatic win. Can anyone ID the PE02 drive? I can't tell if that's 1/4" tape or what? Google isn't helpful. Taking on that half-rack is the reason for my post for the free SA600 rack (no takers yet on that, btw.) Despite what the realtor told me, the basement is a finite space. I am trying to find more info on what these machines did. I was told the PDP was used for students learning Pascal. Stuffed into its case was a printout with instructions on booting it into UNIX, so that's probably what it ran. The RTs did some sort of administration task at the college, so I am expecting to find AIX on them rather than AOS, the "Academic Operating System" that was used on some RTs in educational settings. I've found the RT FAQ and pcrt.info (which looks like a spam site) so far....any other RT experts or resources will be appreciated. With some luck and work, VCFMW's on-site server may be running AIX 1.x this year ;) -- jht

14 years, 1 month

Free DEC SA600 Rack - Illinois

by silent700＠gmail.com

Thanks to the recent adoption of yet-another-DEC-halfrack, a DEC SA600 rack needs to go. Here are some pics: https://picasaweb.google.com/102190732096693814506/DECSA600Rack The cable frame and the SDI cables on it are no longer here. It's a bit of an odd rack, having held the massive RA90 hard drives in its previous life. I believe once those brackets are removed, normal rack holes remain, but I can't be certain. As seen in the pics, I cleaned it of most of its rust and it looks pretty good. Purists will want to repaint it. Local pickup only in the NW Chicago suburbs. It's about 5' high and weighs a lot more than it looks like it should. Be prepared for a battle getting it up the stairs. -j

14 years, 1 month

Minor ImageDisk update has been posted

by dave12＠dunfield.com

Just an FYI : I've posted a minor ImageDisk update to my site (It's been a while!) Nothing major: - Added IMDA (ImageDisk Analyze) utility to examine a .IMD image and suggest drive types and settings that can be used to write it (a lot of people seem to have trouble with this) - Added a couple of batch file to automate presetting a .IMD comment from a text file, and extracting/editing/replacing the .IMD comment. - Enhance DMK2IMD to detect and provide a work-around for images with bad address marks apparently produced by some emulators. - Update .IMD file format specification to provide for representing disks with non-standard sector sizes or mixed sector sizes within a track. - Minor documentation and help files updates. I've also posted a raw binary floppy image (suitable for XDISK, Winimage etc.) to create a 1.44M bootable ImageDisk floppy that: - Has USB mass-storage and CD/CVD support. - Allows you to set a RAMdisk size when it boots, and runs from the RAMdisk after boot - so you can boot from a floppy and then read/write images to and from the RAMdisk (and USB mass storage). - Has tools to move files to/from the RAMdisk via: Network** (FTP, TFTP, DDLINK) Serial or LPT (DDLINK, XMODEM) **Over 100 network drivers are on the disk. - Can be used for a bootable CD/DVD. This might be useful to anyone who doesn't want to dedicate a DOS partition. -- dave12 (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com (dot) com Classic computers: http://www.classiccmp.org/dunfield/

14 years, 1 month

The Sprow MiniB

by lproven＠gmail.com

I'd not met this before. Apologies if it's general knowledge. A small single-board recreation of an Acorn BBC Micro model B. http://www.sprow.co.uk/bbc/minib.htm -- Liam Proven ? Profile: http://lproven.livejournal.com/profile Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/G+/Twitter/Flickr/Facebook: lproven MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? Skype/AIM/Yahoo/LinkedIn: liamproven Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884

14 years, 1 month

re Olivetti made the first ever PC, in 1962, Audit 5

by dave.thearchivist＠gmail.com

Has anyone got /seen an Olivetti Audit 5 I assume its just a later version of the 101 I have the magnetic cards from one that was used locally in a clothes shop Dave Caroline

14 years, 1 month

Cosmac Elf on breadboard

by jonas＠otter.se

> Hi > It is not true that the joint has to be mechanically sound before > soldering. > It really depends on the amount of stress you expect the joint > to withstand. > If you are soldering 30 ga. wire wrap wire, tack soldering > will last for a hunderd years if no one yanks on it. > I've done many projects with tack soldering and never had > one fail. > What do you think surfice mount is? > Dwight Point taken, at least partially :-) My information is from an old book about reliable production methods for electronic hardware. Surface mount wasn't invented when it was written. The bit about the joint being mechanically sound refers to wires soldered to tags, lugs etc, where strain or vibration could cause the solder joint to break if the wire wasn't mechanically fastened before it was soldered. For devices built for use in vehicles or industrial environments I think the argument is valid, for office environments probably less so. Also, I am under the impression that heavier surface mount items would be glued down as well as soldered? Obviously, whether the solder will hold or not depends on the weight of the item being soldered and the stresses the device is subjected to. I recently bought a signal generator off the 'net which arrived non-working, because a large (about 2 cm diameter by 10 cm high) electrolytic capacitor had broken loose at one of the solder joints. It was only held by the solder joints. Another problem I have seen, which relates to surface mount devices, is that the instrument cluster on my car (a 1996 BMW) goes dead every now and then, only to come alive again after a moment. A number of people have reported that this appears to be due to bad solder joints on the PCB, which has a number of surface mount devices. /Jonas

14 years, 1 month

EDN 4th Annual Microprocessor Directory, Nov 1977

by chrise＠pobox.com

I've been going through folders, files, listings and other things I received from the estate of a local OP who passed away several years ago. He had saved this EDN article from the November 20, 1977 issue titled "EDN's Fourth Annual Microprocessor Directory". I scanned it including the ads because it's kinda fun to see what was selling back then. You can see a little about the GI CP-1600 which was recently discussed on this list too. https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B6A73VHTVh23eWdNRUxHRkVUbXlDZHBRMGJRbmRkdw Chris -- Chris Elmquist

14 years, 1 month

Discferret broken?

by cb＠kryoflux.com

Hey Tony, > > VIrtually every open-sourc program (includign all those under the GPL) > come with the statement that they are _NOT_ supported. You can't expect > soembody to work for you for nothing. You have the soruce code, fx it > yourself! > Good idea. What do you do when you are unable to write or modify a program? We deliver something that works, out of the box. It's for the 95% that don't know how to program and the 95% of the 5% left that have no idea about fluxes, disk coding or what pre-compensation means. No need to fix it, it's working! Since 2010, and we're constantly adding features. > I have been pleasanylu supprised by the support I get from open-source > software authors, but I don't exxpect them to do work for me for nothing. > I might e0-mail them a comment and/or a change I've made to do something > I want to do, Or I might ask them 'what is going one here' so that I can > fixx the problem. I always seem to get a helpful reply. You would also get a helpful reply from us. We really like to help. We have over 600 users out there. Look how much negative feedback there is on the forums. Forums are usually littered with complaints as people tend to only write something when things are bad. > > >> board. I can't look into the future, but you would still be able to=20 >> access the data ingested because the formats are documented. What I can=20 >> say is that we don't have plans to let it fade into oblivion, so my=20 > > So say 99% of other ahrdware and softwre mnufacutrers about their > products. Doesn't mean it doens't happen. ?does not mean it has to happen. > > I disagree. If there is a claer technicla point, as here, I feel a > developer or a simialr product is perhaps the best to raise it. > So it does not feel strange to you that the only person that ever complained about this is he who must not be named? > > To use your analony. If I fvisited your home I would not comment on your > style of deoor, your furniture, ro anythign like that. But if I saw > somethign that I considered to be dangerous to you, your family, or > others, I certianly would comment. If I saw you had some exxpensive > objects and that your door lock was a really cheap and simple one that > anyone could open with a paperclip I'd tell you about that too. You bet I > would. > No, you come to my place and give everyone around the impression that the food I serve is bad. I politely ask you to stop, you refuse, you get thrown out. Days later, everyone is still fine, the food was delicious and everyone enjoyed the evening very much, except for your visit. > It would appear from your comments that the only sort of message you > allow on your facebook page is one in favour of your product. That means > the page is essentially worthless .I want a see a balanced set of > comments. If soemthign is poorly doen, Iwant to know about it. I would > agree that a comment like 'This product is crap' helps nobody. An > explainatio of whay a particualr chip is a poor choice does. > So prove me wrong: there are more than 600 units in circulation, some are used every day for dozens of disks. Some have read tenths of thousands of disks. It is working fine. Did you ever think about that parts were chosen for a reason? Why would I change my design because a competitor thinks I should? > I've been on many forums and mailing lists over the years. I feel the > only things that should get you thrown off are inciitng crimes (and > racism, homophobia, etc) and posting wildily off-topic mesages. Not > positing reasonaed criticism of the device under discussion. Here I am. We have nothing to hide. I still tidy up the Facebook page from time to time. >> >>> 2) Is there any truth to the comments about a 'conflict of interests' i= >> f >>> somebody wants to devleop both for your device and the Diskferret? >> >> Suggestions like that (the original statement, not your question here)=20 >> would you get thrown out of my house for sure. Why would any large, big,=20 > > I fdeel that this attitudew is good for your bottom line now, but is not > godo for data preservation in general, and it's not good for the classic > computing hobby. A lot more gets done when inforation ant techniques arwe > shared. Yes, you don't maek the profit, but more data is preserved. Which > is more important? Data can be preserved - that's what the unit was made for. You get the STREAM data, that's your disk. You mess up preservation and the fact how we market our device. These are different things. Visit our site http://www.softpres.org We have lots of information to share. Our technology is based on this information. It's all free and we share it. Since 2001. Enjoy.

14 years, 1 month

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