test-drb

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101090 discussions

Performance-oriented development in the commercial

by asc135＠gmail.com

On Oct 26, 2011, at 4:48 PM, Chuck Guzis wrote: > > Absolutely agreed, I was just getting tetchy about the juxtaposition of the > talk about little RTOSes for PICs and then Unix on the PIC32. It's a > nervous tic I have from working with too many customers whose only > experience with micros is the PIC (because they're too lazy to try anything > else) and insist on upgrading to a PIC32 because they think it'll be > compatible with their existing software base. > Though I've overcome it now (mostly), I had a very strong bias against PIC for many years mainly because of the technologically inbred nature of many of their fans. A few years back I started a new job to work on a project to replace an aging PIC-based door access control module. The new platform had already been selected by the time I started: ColdFire running an RTOS. This was driven mainly by the fact that the new parent company had a commercial line of HVAC controllers based on that processor. Not a bad choice but the dreams of code re-use were mostly unfounded. Interestingly, it turns out one of the reasons I was hired was to backfill the fan-boy who resigned in a huff because a PIC-32 wasn't selected. Amardeep

14 years, 7 months

HP screen screen rot

by jonas＠otter.se

On Tue, 25 Oct 2011 20:03:45 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: >> > I was referring to holding the faceplate on the CRT, not supporting the CRT= >> > . I plan to replace the metal band, padding with e.g. strapping tape if ne= >> > cessary. Does that make more sense? - Ian > It wworries me, I can tell you that. That metal band is fixed ot the > glass, it's also deliverately very tight. Somehow it supports the screen > glass during an implosion, protectggn the viewer. It's not just a mouting > band for the CRT. Do *NOT* remove the band!! It protects the CRT from implosion by putting compressive stresses on the faceplate, thereby counteracting the tensile stresses produced by the force of the air on it and thus allowing it to stand more stress. The same idea as pre-stressed concrete in other words. If you remove the band you will seriously weaken the CRT. /Jonas

14 years, 7 months

HP screen screen rot

by IanK＠vulcan.com

Hello all, I recall a while back a thread on dealing with screen rot on ADM-3a terminals - surprising to me, because I have several of them and have had no such issue. But I do have nasty looking spots on a HP 9845A screen. Does anyone have specific experience with addressing this problem on this machine? Just to be clear, it looks like round mold colonies around the edges of the screen. It's likely that there's an anti-glare coating and something colonized underneath it. Again, I'm looking for specific details regarding this machine or another machine of the era using the same screen technology, and how you eliminated the colonies. :-) Thanks -- Ian

14 years, 7 months

Integer pennies (was: Re:Spreadsheets)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 3:22 -0500 10/24/11, Fred wrote: >In many cases, "REAL" (actually "floating point") numbers are >inappropriate. For MONEY, I tried to get my students to use ints (and >calculate the pennies not the dollars), and then just move the PERIOD >when they display the results. How will they ever get rich moving the rounded-down fractional pennies into their own accounts? -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

14 years, 7 months

stack of Indigo 2's need to go

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

I think I have 6. Teal and Purple Impact 10000s. If you want one, make some kind of offer. I'd be willing to part out pieces too I guess if that's what people need I guess.

14 years, 7 months

Performance-oriented development in the commercial computing world

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

Dave McGuire said: > Kinda like the "what constitutes a minicomputer" debate. > Nobody disagrees that, say, PDP-11s are minis, Sadly, I've heard many people call PDP-11s mainframes, and go as far as saying DEC was a mainframe company. > but nobody can coherently tell you why. I was thinking about this recently and I can't come up with a definition either. Maybe anything smaller than the smallest mainframe and bigger than the biggest PC? > People who know about this stuff just "know". Agreed. I aplogize for the crudity of this post's formatting (but not the content). Best I can do at the moment, posting as I am from an embedded (mobile) computer that is neither PC, mini, nor mainframe.

14 years, 7 months

HP screen screen rot

by robgarn＠mac.com

As an alternative to the hot wire approach, I placed my moldy PDP-12 CRT+faceplate into a tub of PROSOCO Dicone NC9 "silicone sealand & adhesive remover." After about a week, the silicone seal had separated and was easily removed. I'm not sure how best to remount the CRT with the glass faceplate and metal surrounding rim without reapplying a RTV/PVA layer and re-bonding it all with silicone again. - Robert p.s. If you're in the Bay Area: there's a gallon jug of leftover Dicone NC9 for the asking. On Oct 20, 2011, at 7:34 AM, cctech-request at classiccmp.org wrote: > Message: 25 > Date: Thu, 20 Oct 2011 08:28:56 +0100 > From: "Rod Smallwood" <rodsmallwood at btconnect.com> > To: "'General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only'" > <cctech at classiccmp.org> > Subject: RE: HP screen screen rot > Message-ID: <AA472F3C2B81454EAD4B734855D4D4EE at dorsetsweets.local> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > I have fixed a few Rainbow monitors suffering from screen mould. > It may be crude but I just removed the outer glass by breaking it into parts > and then peeled off the offending plastic layer. > > The tube then goes back into the case and you end up with a narrow gap > between the bezel and the tube. > > If you are not used to working with glass and CRT's then this way is not for > you > > > Regards > Rod Smallwood --- On Mon, 10/17/11, Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> wrote: > From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> > Subject: Re: HP screen screen rot > To: cctalk at classiccmp.org > Date: Monday, October 17, 2011, 8:33 PM > On 10/17/11 5:06 PM, Ian King wrote: >> Hello all, >> >> Does anyone have specific experience with addressing >> this problem on this machine? > > The procedure is removal of the RTV between the safety > glass and CRT separating the two by > cutting through the RTV with a hot wire, then reattachment > at the corners. > > There are some examples on the web.

14 years, 7 months

Any interest in an IBM 5160 XT?

by james＠slor.net

Would anyone on this list be interested in acquiring a working XT? I picked one up a few years back and just haven't had a whole lot of use for it, so perhaps there's someone here who would. It's in excellent condition (both cosmetically and functionally), and I can take pics if anyone has interest. General specs: - 640 KB RAM - 20 MB hard drive - 5.25" floppy - Currently running DOS 3.3a - Includes IBM 5151 TTL monitor (solid picture without burn-in) Thanks! James

14 years, 7 months

PDP 11/70 Front Panel up for sale.

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

> Wasn't the 11/70 in a class of machines called "supermini" > computers...machines that were based on the architecture of > minicomputers, but with CPU extensions(e.g., multiple CPU modes[kernel, > supervisor, user]), larger memory capacity(including virtual memory > capabilities), and significantly improved I/O architectures and > bandwidth? I wonder if the poster of the auction on eBay misread > "supermini" and thought "supercomputer"? A complete 11/70 installation almost certainly included line printers, many terminals on multiplexers, timesharing software, a medium to large farm of massbus disks and tapes, etc. This meant it was usually in a room with a raised floor. Just a few years later (or even overlapping) the same departmental computer market was being sold 11/780's with very similar or identical peripheral complement. Contrast this with the (to me) more traditional -11 market of a computer that went into a lab with some custom and simple Unibus peripherals for data acquisition. To me at least the "supermini" concept was almost closer to a personal workstation (although e.g. Encores/SEL's are certainly superminis) but these often became departmental superminis well outfitted with high performance Japanese (Fujitsu) peripherals not the crufty old Massbus-hose type stuff. While I have a lot of respect for a complete 11/70 installation... at the same time all that Massbus stuff was pretty crufty compared to the new much smaller peripherals coming in from the low end by the early 80's. Classic computer collectors (including the E-bay seller) often focus too much on the CPU as defining the environment. Tim.

14 years, 7 months

Need advice

by tshoppa＠wmata.com

Steven Hirsch wrote: > All, > > I very much need to sell off my workstation collection. There has been > essentially zero interest in my posting from last week on the subject. > I'm trying to figure out why. [...] > It cannot be price, since I didn't post any and am quite flexible in terms > of negotation. On the issue of price... you might be surprised. If you listed it on E-bay at 10 times what the stuff cost new describing it as the biggest and most historically important mainframe ever, you'd probably stroke more egos and raise more interest than if you continue trying to honestly find a good home for it.

14 years, 7 months

QBUS PDP 11's available free in Yorkshire (UK)

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

All the machines have gone now. Thanks to the list for the interest.

14 years, 7 months

Working as a systems programmer on IBM big iron

by vintagecoder＠aol.com

Responding to myself and Rich: I said: >> If somebody was actually a sysprog *at the time in an IBM shop* and >> can tell what was released and when they started copyrighting things, >> then great. Rich said: > I *know* what I'm talking about, with regard to access to IBM sources. I > was at SHARE in San Francisco when the great OCO debate heated up again, > and still have my button reading "When source is outlawed, only outlaws > will have source" in my collection. I remember the discussions of the > changes in US copyright law, including court cases, which allowed program > sources to be copyrighted and have the copyrights stand up, in > _ComputerWorld_ and _Datamation_ and other trade rags. So, since you were, what was the last release that was not copyrighted and what was the first release that was? And when was the change to OCO? Thank you.

14 years, 7 months

Eagle TTL/MDA monitor and generic CGA monitors available

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

15$ each plus shippage. Both work well. CGA (Microway or something like that) may need a convergence adjustment though, not egregious, it's easy to do on big monitors, I'm sure it will be on this unit too.

14 years, 7 months

John McCarthy

by aek＠bitsavers.org

We just heard over at CHM that John died last night.

14 years, 7 months

moving IBM Sys 23/Datamaster, Atari stuff, other...

by chrism3667＠yahoo.com

Datamaster -50$ plus shippage. It's going somewhere THIS WEEK, perhaps a dumpster if there's no interest. It weighs 95 lbs.It's dirty and has seen enough use to burn the screen a box of Atari 800xl stuff, cpu doesn't work, that's all I know, there's also a disk drive and printer in box, mostly pretty clean w/Atari covers, but cords are dirty - 15$ + also an atari 800xl in original box, not sure of details, could investigate 15$ + NIB Atart printer, contemporary w/the 800xl, 5$ + will combine shipping of course Hyperion, very yellow (almost orange), small crack in upper left corner, DOESN'T WORK, it did a few years ago. Perhaps something simple 20$ + I'll add more stuff tomorrow I'm in New Jersey

14 years, 7 months

Sr. Server Engineer (Vintage Systems) at Living Computer, Museum,

by ken＠seefried.com

I know I will regret dipping my toe in this argument, because I'll dump some facts on very well established classiccmop groupthink, but hopeful it will help the few listmember who aren't yet reality-immune on this topic. I'm on my second decade as a hiring manager of one sort or another, from Fortune 10 companies to startups, and I'm a non-degreed candidate for these roles. And I was married to a IT recruiter for a decade. This is a US perspective, BTW...non US markets are more or less different. In particular, the UK isn't so different. It's the party line of course to blame HR in general and the recruiters in particular for being "gatekeepers" and not realizing how amazing the non-degreed candidate is. That's bullshit. The recruiters are *paid* to place people, and since much first tier recruiting has been outsourced, a placement is often the only source of compensation for these folks. Recruiters are continually looking for ways to fit a square peg in a round hole. The first thing a recruiter does when they get a requirement is to say "what of this are you flexible on?". You have no idea how far they will push this. "You want a programmer. My candidate has a computer", "You need a security expert? My candidate worked mall security for 5 years". "Project management? My candidate managed a Pizza Hut." These are not exaggerations, they are personal antidotes. Anyone who's ever signed up for a job search site knows how wide a net the recruiters cast. Recruiters are sales people, often not good ones, usually working on commission, trying to sell a hiring manager on whatever they have in the queue, no matter how bad a match. Period. Full stop. Conversely, it's very rare that a hiring manager says "I don't care how good a match the candidate is, if they don't have a degree, I don't want them". It happens, usually with a junior manager who hasn't been around the block a couple of times, but it's not the norm. Any of us who have been around for a bit all know that there are good candidates in any candidate pool. But there's a reason we all put "BS required" in those ads, and it is because it's a filter. It's not a have/not have filter. It's an asshole/not asshole filter. Hate to break it to folks, but getting through HR without a degree isn't that hard (been there, done that), but if your answer to "so you don't have a degree" is "let me read you the riot act about how stupid you are to require a degree", "degree requirements are bullshit and you should rely on the intangible things I think make me awesome" or "degrees are a waste of time, and the fact that most of your employees have one has no bearing on the fact that I'm in a special category", then don't be surprised if the HR drone says "I don't care how much I've got to make mortgage this month, I'm not going to try and sell this assclown to the hiring manager. There's a dozen other folks in the queue who can at least fake being a reasonable human being". So, bottom line, if you're "perfect" for the jobs, but you think you are continually getting turned down because you don't have a degree, you're wrong. You're either *really* not perfect, or you're toxic waste from a personality/attitude standpoint. Usually the later. Yes, I know...you're different/special/unique and none of this applies to you. SOP for this list. I'm just telling you what I've learned from dozens of HR orgs, a couple of hundred slots I've been responsible for filling and several thousand candidates I've had to weed through. Not that that matters.

14 years, 7 months

Mathematica/NeXT - Re: Spreadsheets (was Microsoft flamage)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 2:20 -0500 10/25/11, Toby clarified: >You can run Mathematica on a NeXT without any optical drive or media (I >have a licence & have done so, on a slab). Right! I'm running Mma 3.0.2.0 on my NeXT 040 Cube (NeXTStep 3.2) right now. However I think it's significantly harder to find Mathematica 3.0 for NeXTStep than NeXTStep 1.0, which is why I suggested the latter route. -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

14 years, 7 months

Outlook in comparison

by cisin＠xenosoft.com

I am changing my opinion on Outlook. I just experienced the State Farm Insurance "Secure Messaging Center". In comparison, Outhouse is MAGNIFICENT! For example, the State Farm system will not permit cc'ing an email address outside of their system (my own!). What's so frigging secret about an insurance claim?? The State Farm system times out after 15 minutes while composing a message. When it times out, there is NO warning. No "1 minute until doom". No "want to extend/continue?". No "want to save?" No automatic save of compositions in progress! Their "systems programmers" have told them that their hands are tied, and that it isn't possible to implement those "features"! When I first started using PINE, I wasn't completely satisfied. But each "Modern" system that I've tried has made me appreciate it more. And this State Farm system makes Outhouse look good. -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

14 years, 7 months

Dennis Ritchie has died

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Dennis Ritchie, co-creator of C and heavily involved in the creation of UNIX, has died. He was 70, and he was one of my heroes. RIP, Dennis Ritchie. -Dave -- Dave McGuire New Kensington, PA

14 years, 7 months

Spreadsheets (was Microsoft flamage)

by jonas＠otter.se

On Fri, 21 Oct 2011 21:09:01 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Interesting. This is not at all well-known (I know people who use Excel > and who need complex numbers who haven't found this...) > > I must look into this and see just what it does. In particular, is a > complex number something that's sotred in oen cell or two (if the > latter, it's a kludge!)? Do the normal arithmetic operators work with > them or do you have special functions (written in prefix as opposed to > infix notation) to do this? I'm not really sure since I found this by Googling, but it seems as if you have to enter complex numbers by entering a function. You can't just type "5+j8" into a cell, you have to go via a dialog box. The number will be displayed as "5+8j" (you can use anything you like instead of "j", it is an argument to the function and presumably[hopefully] does not take part in any calculations. What happens if you use "j" for one number and "i" for another, and then add them, is open to speculation. Could be interesting...) Any arithmetic operators have to be expressed via functions. In other words, clumsy to say the least, but it may actually work. Excel functions and macros, of course, are another subject. IMHO the designer of that functionality must have been an evil, embittered sadist who probably grew up pulling the wings off insects and attaching firecrackers to the tails of cats. /Jonas

14 years, 7 months

HP 13181B Tape Interface

by wrm＠retro.co.za

Hi Etienne and all I remember Leon's name from Stellenbosch days. I recently managed to sign back onto the list -- thanks to whoever was responsible for that. I'm also in Cape Town, and I have some hardware I want to play with and some hardware I realise I will never get around to. The latter includes some Acorn RISC PC stuff, and a vast stash of BBC stuff. Two actual computers, and lots and lots of software and a few books. The only HP I have is an HP-85. Anybody else here from South Africa?

14 years, 7 months

QBUS PDP 11's available free in Yorkshire (UK)

by silvercreekvalley＠yahoo.com

Hi, I discovered some more QBUS PDP 11 machines in an old storage unit I'm emptying. These machines are the rack mount style QBUS PDP 11's, and appear to be intact, although their disk drives have been removed. They all have CPU and memory. These are collection only from Yorkshire - but free of charge. I have 3 machines available and possibly some spare cards. These need to be collected next week unfortunately. Any interest email me directly. Thanks Ian.

14 years, 7 months

Spreadsheets (was Microsoft flamage)

by mtapley＠swri.edu

At 3:22 -0500 10/24/11, Tony wrote: >There probably is a need for an 'engineer's spreadsheet' with proper >complex number support, but I guess the market is much less than for >'business' applicatiosn which only need real numbers. Mathematica can do that functionality, but probably not cost-effectively and not (current versions) on legacy hardware. (Mma v. 1 is included in NeXTStep 1.0, so if you can get that optical media together with a working optical drive (good luck there!) you are set). I have not tried MathCad, Maple, macsyma, etc., and at least the last one of those is on-topic and should run on the classes of machines (VAX-11/780, etc.) that might be found around Casa Duell. I have got (but sadly have not tried yet) a copy of muMath which might be able to do it on a DEC Rainbow. muMath's successor Derive (DOS/Windows) became the basis for the TI Nspire CAS, and early versions of that might also serve in this context. Has anyone got experience with doing complex arithmetic in any of these? -- - Mark 210-379-4635 ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Large Asteroids headed toward planets inhabited by beings that don't have technology adequate to stop them: Think of it as Evolution in Fast-Forward.

14 years, 7 months

Reading Amstrad PCW floppies on a PC

by lproven＠gmail.com

I've bought a copy of LocoScript 4 (or so) to run on my PCW9512+. However, I'd also like to get it running under the Joyce emulator on my PC. How might I read a PCW floppy into a PC disk image? It's a 3.5" 720 DD disk. My PC does have a 3?" drive and runs Windows 7/64 and Ubuntu 11.10/64. I possibly have an ancient copy of 22copy somewhere, but it runs under DOS which at the mo' my PC is not configured to boot... :( -- Liam Proven ? Info & profile: http://www.google.com/profiles/lproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? GMail/GoogleTalk/Orkut: lproven at gmail.com Tel: +44 20-8685-0498 ? Cell: +44 7939-087884 ? Fax: + 44 870-9151419 AIM/Yahoo/Skype: liamproven ? MSN: lproven at hotmail.com ? ICQ: 73187508

14 years, 7 months

Spreadsheets (was Microsoft flamage)

by jonas＠otter.se

On Wed, 19 Oct 2011 21:42:03 +0100 (BST), ard at p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > Did/does any spreadsheet, on any platform, allow you to put complex > numbers in the cells and operate on them? > > Yes, of course you can treat a complex numner as 2 real numbers and > define the appropriate operations -- any spreadsheet will do that. I did > it in Visicalc. But as I use complex numbers a lot in AC circuit > analysis, and I know others who do too, I am suprised no spreadsheet > handles them as well as my HP calculators. Surprise surprise, apparently Excel will let you work with complex numbers. It seems you have to install the "Analysis Pak" (which apparently is supplied with Excel, see e.g. http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/load-the-analysis-toolpak-HP00… for the 2003 version). That of course doesn't mean that it handles them as well as your HP calculators :-) /Jonas

14 years, 7 months

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