Good Morning,
I think this may have come up some weeks back...
But among 8-inch floppy drives and other unspecified
items, NASA is buying up all the 8086 microprocessors
they can lay their hands on, specifically, to keep the
Space Shuttle flying. Not the more common 8088, of
course, but its 16-bit big brother.
Although as government agencies go, NASA doesn't have
deep pockets, it certainly has deeper ones than I do.
I should count my recent acquisition of the IBM 8 inch
external floppy drive as a soon-to-be-rare occurance.
Anyone else here ticked of that not only are they
trying to keep that questionable pig flying, but
they are doing it by reducing further the quantity
of collectable stuff? Screw the boost in value...
-dq
-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits
At 05:08 PM 14/05/2002 -0400, David Woyciesjes wrote:
> > From: elmo(a)mminternet.com
> >
> > Greetings.
> >
> > Today I rescued what appears to be an Alphaserver 4100 with 4 processors.
> > It has also a CD, 10/100 ethernet card, and floppy.
> >
> > It is in an eagle-sized rack mount chassis.
> >
> > I will trade for Pentium II+ gear, large HD's, high resolution monitors,
> > or
> > laptop.
> >
> > Located in Santa Monica. You pickup. Weighs 80 pounds.
> >
> > Those interested, please contact me directly.
> >
> Aww, man! how come the good stuff is always on the other side of the
>country?
Other side of the country - this is the other side of the world to me!
This also acts as my test post to the new list.
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)kerberos.davies.net.au
| "If God had wanted soccer played in the
| air, the sky would be painted green"
I have a set of images of all of my Altos 580 'software' and boot/OS disks
up on my web site http://purdueriots.com/altos580/ . Be gentile, it's
just a DSL line.
-- Pat
I needed to test the new listserv, anyway . . .
I've got a very healthy Timex Sinclair 1500 with rotten keyboard ribbons.
Does any one have a dead TS1500 for sale or trade, or the top half of the
enclosure, with working keyboard and intact ribbons?
Please reply off-list.
Glen
0/0
Hi guys,
I wanted to write an email to the classiccmp list a few days ago
asking for some advice on this, but I didn't think it would be
very healthy for me given all of the complaining, and just plain
nastiness people were showing towards anything even remotely not
on topic.
As it is, I hope that since this is going to the new list, I won't
get too much animosity for asking. Please note that it's my respect
for the opinions of the group as a whole that actually prompts me
to ask here.
So here it is:
I know that several of us here have somewhat strange cars, and
am looking for some parts, and just general advice to go with
a 1989 Jaguar XJ6 Vanden Plas.
Arguably on topic because it's got very prominent computers,
which are more than 10 years old ;) -- but I don't really see
many problems with the computer part. Rather, I'm looking for
trim, a glove box latch, door handles, that kind of thing. If
anyone knows where to get that kind of part, or what else I
should check for the sake of the car's health, please email me.
I could also use advice on removing small rust spots, cleaning
the carpeting, protecting the leather, and anything else that
goes with having a car. This will be my first car in quite some
time.
Thanks,
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
Cuz we are good and good will always lose to evil for good is dumb, right Dave?
-John
At 05:08 PM 5/14/02, you wrote:
> > From: elmo(a)mminternet.com
> >
> > Greetings.
> >
> > Today I rescued what appears to be an Alphaserver 4100 with 4 processors.
> > It has also a CD, 10/100 ethernet card, and floppy.
> >
> > It is in an eagle-sized rack mount chassis.
> >
> > I will trade for Pentium II+ gear, large HD's, high resolution monitors,
> > or
> > laptop.
> >
> > Located in Santa Monica. You pickup. Weighs 80 pounds.
> >
> > Those interested, please contact me directly.
> >
> Aww, man! how come the good stuff is always on the other side of the
>country?
>
>--
>--- David A Woyciesjes
>--- C & IS Support Specialist
>--- Yale University Press
>--- (203) 432-0953
>--- ICQ # - 905818
>Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
>Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
>_______________________________________________
>cctalk mailing list
>cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
>http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk
----------------------------------------
Founder, Lead Writer, Tech Analyst
and Web Designer Boff-Net Technologies
http://boff-net.dhs.org/index.html
---------------------------------------
I finally got some time to fire up one of my recent finds... an Alpha
3000/800. I mounted a DSP3107 (1gb scsi) inside the chassis, hooked up
the StorageWorks tower/floppy to the onboard SCSI controller, and
powered it up.
Magically, the VT320 displayed the POST messages, and the machine even
found the floppy (dkb100). I proceeded to boot from the NetBSD-Alpha
1.5.1 install floppy, and got to the sysinst menu, when I smelled the
ominous presence of escaping magic blue smoke (even though I didn't see
any!).. I powered everything off, let it sit for a few minutes while I
tried to find the source of the non-smoke.
When I powered the 3000 back up, it hung with FD displayed on the LED
display, with no output to the VT320...
Any ideas as to what might be cooked??
Thanks...
Stan
> Aww, man! how come the good stuff is always on the other side of the
>country?
Or Texas... what is it with Texas... why do you have all the old
computers? Is NJ using other states for landfill again??
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- I can't walk a mile in their shoes. They smell funny. ----------------------
-Douglas Hurst Quebbeman (DougQ at ixnayamspayIgLou.com) [Call me "Doug"]
Surgically excise the pig-latin from my e-mail address in order to reply
"The large print giveth, and the small print taketh away." -Tom Waits
> From: elmo(a)mminternet.com
>
> Greetings.
>
> Today I rescued what appears to be an Alphaserver 4100 with 4 processors.
> It has also a CD, 10/100 ethernet card, and floppy.
>
> It is in an eagle-sized rack mount chassis.
>
> I will trade for Pentium II+ gear, large HD's, high resolution monitors,
> or
> laptop.
>
> Located in Santa Monica. You pickup. Weighs 80 pounds.
>
> Those interested, please contact me directly.
>
Aww, man! how come the good stuff is always on the other side of the
country?
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
Greetings.
Today I rescued what appears to be an Alphaserver 4100 with 4 processors.
It has also a CD, 10/100 ethernet card, and floppy.
It is in an eagle-sized rack mount chassis.
I will trade for Pentium II+ gear, large HD's, high resolution monitors, or
laptop.
Located in Santa Monica. You pickup. Weighs 80 pounds.
Those interested, please contact me directly.
Jay ---
So what about non-subscribers? Will they be able to post to the
original "classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org" address?
And let's see how long it takes for this message to come back around
to me...
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
> ----------
> From: Jay West
>
> it appears that your address below is not subscribed....at least it's not
> in
> the subscription list, and I set the software to only allow posts from
> subscribers.
>
> Jay West
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Douglas Quebbeman" <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com>
>
>
> > Jay-
> >
> > (or John or whoever)-
> >
> > Why was my test post to cctalk rejected? If you're not sure,
> > send me the headers or whatever so I can figure it out...
>
Hi Kelly,
i'm sorry to ask, but i'm really interested in those items ...
... when will you have the loader disk and the documentation avaliable ?
I've tries to work with the utility disk, but i was not successful, maybe i've to
set some jumpers (or the card is really dead :-()
Thanks
Bernd
On Mon, 29 Apr 2002 23:53:53 -0500, Kelly Fergason wrote:
>
>Its taken me a while, but...
>
>at www.fergason.net/definicon
>are the fortran and utility disks
>for the 68020 Definicon board.
>
>dcp386 was the program I used to create
>the images originally (grabbed off simtel).
>
>I am still working on the loader disk,
>and will work on documentation as soon as
>I can.
>
>Please be patient, its a DSL line.
>
>Kelly
>
>
>
>
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
>[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Bernd Kopriva
>Sent: Saturday, April 27, 2002 1:59 PM
>To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
>Cc: morgarws(a)mh.us.sbphrd.com
>Subject: Re: Request for Help with the Definicon DSI-32 (NS32032 PC
>Coprocessor board)
>
>
>Hi Bill,
>i saw, that you were bidding for such a board on eBay yesterday (btw. i
>tried to get that board
>as well, but i was also unsuccessful :-( ) ...
>
>Do you already have such a board, but without documentation ?
>
>I grabbed some months ago a Definicion 68020 board, but without any software
>and documentation,
>i had no luck until now ...
>
>If you get the software/doucmentation you are asking for, is there a chance,
>that you will send me a
>copy ? (I still hope to get a 32032 board sometimes/somewhere).
>
>On Fri, 26 Apr 2002 15:31:49 -0400, morgarws(a)mh.us.sbphrd.com wrote:
>
>>I'm looking for any documentation and software for the Definicon DSI-32
>>(NS32032 PC/XT coprocessor board). ... anything would be useful!
>>
>>Thanks in Advance,
>>
>>Bill Morgart
>>morgarws(a)Molbio.sbphrd.com
>>
>>
>Thanks Bernd
>
>Bernd Kopriva Phone: ++49-7195-179452
>Weilerstr. 24 E-Mail: bernd(a)kopriva.de
>D-71397 Leutenbach
>Germany
>
>
I just got one of these with no disks, no kb, and no monitor. It's a
'desktop' model not one of the jumbo 'server' models. Fortuantely, it
came with 64M of ram.
Does anyone have 1) an idea of how to switch it to use a serial console
without any keyboard (I don't have any HIL stuff), or 2) an HIL keyboard
they want to get rid of?
Thanks.
-- Pat
> From: David Woyciesjes
>
> Jay ---
>
<<<clip>>>>
> And let's see how long it takes for this message to come back around
> to me...
>
> --
>
Jay ---
So far, it's looking like it was the list server that was causing
(in some weird manner) my messages to be delayed quite a while.
It only take about 5 minutes now, instead of the 30 minutes or so it
did before... Cool.
And Jay, thanks, and alot of applause to you, for your smooth list
transition. Or, at least it appeared smooth to me. :) Thanks again for all
your efforts.
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
> -----Original Message-----
> From: James B. DiGriz [mailto:jbdigriz@dragonsweb.org]
I don't feel that a brief, or even extended, excursion into automotive
computer systems or any other embedded application is off-topic, as long
as it meets the 10-year rule, but restoring Jags doesn't interest me.
Well, a '64 XKE roadster, maybe, but that doesn't have any computers,
and XJ's are tanks. No offense, Chris.
None taken.
That said, does anyone know about the systems in these?
It looks interesting from the seat, and is even equipped with a dot
matrix display, but I have no idea what's behind it.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
it appears that your address below is not subscribed....at least it's not in
the subscription list, and I set the software to only allow posts from
subscribers.
Jay West
----- Original Message -----
From: "Douglas Quebbeman" <dhquebbeman(a)theestopinalgroup.com>
To: <cctalk-admin(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, May 14, 2002 12:38 PM
Subject: Arg
> Jay-
>
> (or John or whoever)-
>
> Why was my test post to cctalk rejected? If you're not sure,
> send me the headers or whatever so I can figure it out...
>
> -dq
>
>
Test post
==========================
Richard A. Cini, Jr.
Congress Financial Corporation
1133 Avenue of the Americas
30th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 545-4402
(212) 840-6259 (facsimile)
_______________________________________________
cctech mailing list
cctech(a)classiccmp.org
http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctech
> From: Jay West
>
> David wrote....
> > Someone whispered to me that ftp.digital.com seems to be evaporating?
>
> Grrrrr I grabbed a ton of files off there to mirror on the
> classiccmp.org/PDP-11 site. However, I am FAR from having time to finish
> getting everything I want. Can anyone make arrangements with the
> digital.com
> site owners to grab the content???
>
> Jay West
>
Remember folks, this is just a RUMOR, since there has been no
confirmation of this by anyone from inside of HPaq...
Three cheers, a salute to the once great Digital Equipment
Corporation...
That all being said, I' still going to try and grab as much as I can...
Also, don't forget ftp.europe.digital.com & http://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/
--
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
Mac OS X 10.1 - Darwin Kernel Version 5
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
I have a large Avid R-Mag chassis with several SCSI drive plug-ins like this one <http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2022584407>. The plug-ins hold full height 5 1/4" SCSI drives. It has independent power switches, SCSI connectors, access & fault lights for each drive. It's really a nice setup except that it's so dammed big! Is anyone that's coming to the JunkFest interested in it? I won't bring it unless someone wants it since it's so large. Drives are NOT included and I won't ship it (unless someone is willing to pay me a ridiculous price!)
Joe
> Anyone else here ticked of that not only are they
> trying to keep that questionable pig flying
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Hey, wait! Is this NASA or a Pink Floyd concert?
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- Do you think I could buy back my introduction to you? -- Groucho Marx ------
Sometime today I should be porting the subscribers from majordomo to
mailman. Expect some strangeness during the transition. I'll do my best to
keep it smooth. I am sure there will be issues after the new list is brought
up. Please be patient - if you notice anything amiss, please drop me a line
via PRIVATE email.
Once your account is moved to the new list server, you will get an email
telling you to go to the website to set up your password. You will need to
click on the "email me my password" button so you can get into your account
and change your password to something you want rather than the autogenerated
one. It is not required that you do anything via the web - however, I
strongly encourage you to do so - that way you can see all the options you
can set on your account as to how you want the list to work for you.
Thanks!
Jay West
> > But clearly, as they buy only in bulk from "qualified"
> > suppliers, no one on the list other than Sellam might
> > have what they want in bulk.
>
> This is true at least of what I do have in bulk. Hopefully one of their
> ground systems relied on a Commodore 64. I can sell them a couple pallet
> loads of those suckers ;)
You just can't "no" to a pallet, can you?
;)
Hi,
just to be sure, I would simply put all three phases on the
same single phase. Are there any problems with that? The
VAX 6000 is much pickier, but the VAX 11 and everything
having the simple power distribution box should be fine,
right?
thanks,
-Gunther
--
Gunther Schadow, M.D., Ph.D. gschadow(a)regenstrief.org
Medical Information Scientist Regenstrief Institute for Health Care
Adjunct Assistant Professor Indiana University School of Medicine
tel:1(317)630-7960 http://aurora.regenstrief.org
>FROM THE DESK OF DR IKE AKPAN
Dear Sir,
This is important, and requires your immediate attention! First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in the transaction.
To intimate you further, we are top officials of the new civilian administration Committee on Foreign and Local Contract Payment, who are interested in the importation of goods into our country with funds which are presently trapped in Nigeria. In order to actualize this dream, we seek your assistance to transfer the said-trapped fund into an interest bearing account which you have absolute control over in your country or a third country other than Nigeria.
The new civilian administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) set-up this committee specifically to review all contracts/oil licenses to determine their propriety and relevance in the light of the country's current economic and political realities. We have identified a lot of inflated contract fund which are currently floating in our Apex Bank. At this moment we have worked out modalities within ourselves and some acquaintances at the Apex Bank to divert the sum of US$33,700,000.00 (Thirty three million,seven hundred thousand United States Dollars) only, for our personal use.
However, by virtue of our positions as Civil Servants and members of the Contract Review Panel,we cannot acquire this money in our names, consequently, I was delegated by my colleagues as a matter of trust to look for an overseas partner into whose account we can transfer this sum of money,hence this letter to you.Furthermore, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total sum of US$33,700,000.00 (Thirty three million, seven hundred thousand United States Dollars) into your account for disbursement. Your areas of specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution
of this transaction and the account required for this project can either be PERSONAL, COMPANY or an OFFSHORE account you have total control over. Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20% of this sum while 10% shall be set as! ide for incidental expenses between the parties in the course of this transaction. You must however note that this transaction is subject to the following terms and conditions: -
(a) Our conviction of your transparent honesty and diligence
(b) That you would treat this transaction with utmost secrecy and confidentiality.
(c) That the funds would be transferred to an account where you have absolute control over.
(d) That one of our representatives will be with you in your country to represent our interest.This however depends on your response to conditions A and C above.
Modalities have been worked out to the highest level for the immediate transfer of the funds within 14 working days subject to your satisfaction of the above stated terms. Our assurance is that your role is RISK FREE. To accord this transaction the legality it deserves and for mutual security of the funds, the whole approval procedures will be officially and legally processed with your name or the name of any company you may nominates as the bonafide beneficiary.
Once more, I want you to understand that having put over 23 years in the civil service of my country, I am averse to having my image and career dented.
This matter should be treated with utmost secrecy and urgency.
Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include this transfer in this batch as payments to foreign contractors is usually carried out on quarterly basis. Contact me on my e-mail address or my phone number is
234 1 4719568
IKE AKPAN
Anyone here going to the Dayton Hamvention? I'll be there in Space 3069
in the outside vendor area. FWIW, I saw some *tremendous* bargains when
I was there in 1999, and hopefully will find some again :). How
tremendous? One example is the Heath EC-1 for $50. With 2500 or so
outside vendors, there *has* to be some good stuff :). Hope to see some
of you there!
On May 13, 13:58, Mark Tapley wrote:
> I think they do; the one I built (matching instructions given
> previously) does, with a caveat: I've used it to connect two (OT, sorry!)
> Mac Powerbook 3400's. The two machines in question have to have Appletalk
> changed to use ethernet within a few seconds of one another - otherwise
> they each assume they are on a "dead" network and will not recognize the
> other machine when it comes up. This may be a unique feature of the
> Powerbooks. It is *not* a problem when the two machines are successively
> hooked into a hub - even minutes apart - so I don't think it's a problem
> with the Appletalk implementation, but I don't know.
> Anyone else with more experience on this? Do hubs do any
> keep-aliving for their ports, or recheck periodically for connections? Do
> other two-node networks need "pinging" from both ends simultaneously to
> bring up?
A hub -- or indeed any other 10baseT or 100baseT network device -- is
supposed to emit a stream of "link pulses" all the time it's available for
use but not sending data. The link pulses are short but regular (100ns at
16ms intervals) and only positive-going, so they're not confused with data.
These are the same pulses used by 100baseT and 10/100 devices for
autonegotiation.
In the case of the Powerbooks, what's happening is, as you say, that the
software is deciding that the network is dead and shutting down the
interface. Yes, that's almost unique, and certainly not the normal way to
operate. I've come across only two other devices like that, and in both
cases they were devices that fell back to 10base2 if they didn't see link
pulses within a very short time after initialisation.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
> I keep a drawerful of AUI-10bT transceivers. They're usually a buck
> or 2 at computer junk stores, and work fine with any box I've ever stuck
> one on.
>
> Doc
Have you any exp with ODI transceivers? I have 4 which just do not work. Inside there are 3 jumpers that you can set, however they are not labeled. Anyone know how to get these to start talking nice on my network?
-Linc Fessenden
In the Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Lafleur [mailto:bob_lafleur@technologist.com]
> You can download the RSTS/E V7 distribution from
> http://simh.trailing-edge.com/kits/rstsv7gen.tar.Z although you might
> have to have to jump through hoops to get it into a media you can
> install on your PDP-11.
Probably. :) I have meant to try that sometime.
> It also has a "moderated" conference feature which allows one
> person to
> control who can and can't speak in the conference -- good for panel
> discussions, etc.
I got the impression that it may have been a more "complex" system.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
This weekend I picked up a DECsystem 5000/240 system, with 112MB of ram,
and a Prestoserve NVram card in the last slot (otherwise it would be
120MB of ram). This system was never turned on! Brand new, just never
got used...
I have a 2gb disk, and cdrom on it, and am installing Ultrix 4.5 now...
I am using a VT510 as the console.
Anyone know how to setup, etc the Prestoserve option?
Does Ultrix 4.5 like a 4.3 gb disk? I have a barracuda I was going to
hook up as rz1 for a data drive.
I have an exabyte 4mm dat drive, I would like to hook that up as tape
backup... comments ???
Anyone else running this fine system?
David Barnes
John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> wrote:
> Congratulations on saving them, and be sure to find the other
> collector while the trail is still hot! He may decide to trash it.
> Where was this?
Thanks, my pleasure, and if I get tired of it (which is possible,
I have to admit my interest is pretty much derived from seeing an
"8510" prompt somewhere in UCSD Pascal for the Apple ][ and wondering
what it was 20+ years ago) I will pass it along to someone else who
will appreciate it.
Anyway, this was at Foothill College, Los Altos Hills, CA. I know who
the other collector is and don't think he's likely to trash it. I
just don't know him well enough to say too much about who he is.
> Yes, it's a bit old-style, but it's mono composite. I think
> someone else contacted me about wanting to build a compatible
> keyboard, but I never heard if they did it.
It doesn't look hard, but then I'm a software guy and would be
thinking about how to change the encoding of an existing keyboard with
parallel output, or how to front-end a keyboard with another processor
running my code, even if that other processor is newer and faster.
What I'm curious about is that this doesn't seem to have quite the
same arrangement as the 8510/a machines that you have described on
your web pages and the manuals in the ITDA. This one has the "terak"
name plate at the top front, both disk drives in the one box
(something which I guess was made possible by the introduction of
half-height 8" drives), and the serial card and distribution panel
appear to be different. Guess I should try to take some pictures,
next weekend perhaps.
-Frank McConnell
I picked up a pair of Shiva FastPath 4 Appletalk to ethernet 'boxes' that
were going to get tossed over at Purdue Salvage. Does anyone need one of
these? Will these boxes connect an AppleTalk (localtalk) network to an
ethernet network?
They have a DE9P socket labelled 'AppleTalk' and an AUI and 10Base2 (BNC)
connector on the back, with a switch to select the ethernet port. They're
marked model # KFPS-4.
-- Pat
After I graduated from high school in 1981, I attended U-Mass at Amherst
>from 1981-1983. There, I got my first introduction to a larger mainfraim
system, a CDC Cyber 170. My first semester there I tried to avoid the
computers totally, as I knew if I got involved, I?d get hooked. A friend
in the dorm had rented a terminal for his room, and near the end of the
semester I gave in and took a look at what it was all about. My second
semester there (Spring, 1982) I took a Pascal course, and rented a
terminal for my room. I rented some kind of clunker, but it was a CRT,
and it had a 300-baud acoustic coupler, and it cost $180 to rent for the
semester. But it was better than waiting in lines in the terminal room.
The guy who rented a terminal the semester before showed me about
?Talk?, a program written by Ron (I can?t for the life of me remember
his last name, but his ?nickname? was Salamir). Talk would allow a bunch
of people to chat at once, and with a system that would allow 250 people
logged in at once, there was usually 10-20 people on Talk at one time.
This was a huge step-up from the ?two people talking to each other?
programs I?d previously used on RST/E systems. Unfortunately, Talk was a
HUGE computer resource hog, and the computer center powers killed it a
few weeks into the semester.
So I had to find other things to do. I learned some about the system ?
that it was running NOS 1.4. You could buy all the NOS programming
documentation at the bookstore, but I had absolutely no idea what it all
meant. After coming from a DEC environment where documentation was
?pretty?, and fairly easy to read and understand, the CDC books with
tiny print, and odd terms, were impossible to understand.
I met Alan Green, who became a good computer friend, and taught me a lot
about the Cyber system. I think Alan lived computers. I don?t know where
or how he learned what he did, but he seemed to know everything about
the Cyber before anyone else. He taught me how to understand the
manuals, and all the ins and outs of NOS 1.4. Our accounts didn?t have
any privileges, so we couldn?t do much. I spent most of my time working
on my Pascal projects for class, and learning some system programming
tricks from Alan.
Everybody had to pick a ?nickname? for using Talk or MAIL. Everyone had
a different way of picking names; some were based on favorite
characters, others were based on their name, or something they liked. I
didn?t know what the heck to use, so I said I would just pick a random
word. I picked ?Skidaddle?. Who knows why. It soon got shortened to
Skid, which is what I used for everything at U-Mass, and even afterwards
on systems like AOL and Genie. People even started calling me Skid
instead of Bob in the hallways, etc. It did not catch on though (after
college) and no one calls me Skid these days.
When I came back in the fall of 1982, there was a big change. I went to
the terminal room right away, and the sign on the door said it was
moved. So I went to the new place, and they had all new, ?sleek? looking
terminals. I don?t remember exactly what they were, but I think it was
something like ADM-3A?s. Alan was there, and he said they had upgraded
the Cyber to NOS 2.0. That was a big change from NOS 1.4, he said. With
a lot of new features. He had some ideas about writing a new ?talk? like
program that would be much less resource intensive than Talk was, and
that maybe the computer center would allow to run. He wrote a very
simple prototype, which I helped him test and enhance. Alan, in his way
of naming things, called it ?Wasteme? because it wasted people?s time.
Wasteme grew from a very small prototype, to a larger program with some
pretty neat features, and it got renamed to Twinkle. Alan appointed me
Twinkle manager, whatever that meant. Basically I could use a few
commands that others didn?t have, like evict and blacklist commands. The
computer center never really tried to shut Twinkle off for quite a
while. I think Alan had the pull with the right people to keep it going.
U-Mass Amherst shared it?s Cyber with a few other schools; U-Mass Boston
(which had their own machines, but also had access to the Amherst
Cyber), and Hampshire College, and Mount Holyoke College. Twinkle was
neat because people from the other schools could be on also.
I wrote a lot of crazy programs during the fall 1982 semester. John
Curran, who?s nickname was ?Avenger? wasn?t really much of a programmer,
but had a lot of good ideas. So he gave me the ideas, and I implemented
them. Alan Green was really the programmer ? he could sit down, and type
Pascal code into the system without any line breaks for indenting,
jamming as much on one line as possible, and he was a FAST typist. He
would have an idea for a program, type away like this for half an hour,
compile and run it with no errors. Of course, no one else could
understand his programs.
One of the main programs I wrote that a lot of people used I called
?GOODDAY?. You?d add it to your startup procedure, and when you logged
in, it would ?greet? you. You could configure it with a multitude of
options. It could print the dining commons menu for the day (or
tomorrow, if it was after supper already), tell you who was on Talk,
Wasteme, Twinkle, or whatever other talk system happened to be in
common use at the time, and count your mail messages in a variety of
mail systems that were in use. I?m sure it did other things also, but I
don?t remember them now.
In the Spring of 1983, Alan got much more interested in how the Cyber
actually worked. There was a lot of stuff we didn?t know about NOS. A
lot of mysteries about what the operators did, or could do. None of the
students were operators, or had access to the ?back room? where the
Cyber was housed, so the whole system operations side of it was a
mystery. Alan started to experiment with things like what ?subsystems?
were, and what other ones existed, what some of the system accounts were
and what files were used to control system operation. Alan found (don?t
ask me how) a way to go to up to a logged-in terminal and find out the
user?s password in about 30 seconds. So, if someone left the room to go
get a printout, but left their terminal logged in, it was easy to
?steal? their password, and of course their account was easy to find
out. Alan kept this little loophole very quiet, but a few of us knew
about it.
We also knew that if the management wanted to talk to you, they?d change
your password to something like ?SEEJUDY?. When you couldn?t log on,
you?d go to the operator window, and they?d look up your password. Of
course, they knew the secret ?code? ? if your password was ?see? or ?c?
somebody, it meant they were to tell you to ?see? that person.
One day, I was working on a project for a class and all of a sudden my
files were gone. I thought this odd, as no one else had a problem. I
used our little trick to see if my password was changed, and sure enough
it was changed to ?CCHUCK?. Chuck was the head guy in charge. I used the
command to send a message to the operator, saying my files were deleted.
Some of the operators would send messages back to us at times, so we
knew how to send messages to them. Anyway, there was no response. I sent
this a few more times, and finally sent a message that said ?my password
has been changed to cchuck? what?s going on??. Within a very short time,
two computer center people were at my sides, asking me to come into the
hallway. They wanted to know how I knew what my new password was. I told
them how it was done in exchange for them giving my files back and not
bothering me anymore. I still don?t know what triggered them to delete
my files and change my password.
During the Spring 1982 semester another interesting thing happened. Word
was going around that you could go to Radio Shack, and ask them to give
you a demo of CompuServe. You could watch what ID and password the
salesperson used to log on, then go home, and log on yourself. Each
store had their own demo ID. You could use these to log on and use
CompuServe?s CB simulator. Well, the simulator was limited to users of
other Radio Shack demo accounts, but I think just about everyone on were
?hijackers? like us. Anyway, one day our Cyber was down, so I got on the
CompuServe CB simulator for lack of anything better to do (wow, was that
primitive compared to Twinkle!) and started talking with a girl from
Sacramento, CA who used a Cyber just like ours. Before half an hour, we
had exchanged computer phone numbers and login information (before we
even exchanged voice numbers) and later took turns calling each other?s
Cyber to check out what it was like. We eventually became good friends
(thanks to phone phreaking, it made long distance calling possible), and
have visited each other several times. A friend of hers started logging
onto our system, met someone from our system, came out to visit, and got
married.
One of the cool things the CSU Sacramento Cyber had was a ?oneliners
bulletin board? where each user could post one line, per day. At the end
of the day the board would be cleared. Their version was neat, but
crude. I liked the idea, so sat down and wrote one myself in a few
hours. My OnelIner program was one of the few programs we had that used
single character input (i.e. you didn?t have to hit return after a
command).
At the end of the Spring 1982 semester, I spent a fair amount of time
locating many source codes for all kinds of things ? programs I had
written, programs my friends had written, and a lot of things I probably
wasn?t supposed to have access to. I made a list, and prepared to make a
batch job to back it all up onto tape. My last night there, I submitted
the job, and one of the last things I did before leaving campus that
semester was go to the operator window to retrieve my backup tape. They
had it there, with a big note on it ?DO NOT RETURN?. It took a little
coaxing, but I finally got them to give it to me. I?ve still got this
tape, although I don?t know if it is readable, or how I could get the
data off, or make use of it. I haven?t seen any Cyber 170 simulators,
and don?t expect to find one anytime soon.
After leaving U-Mass, I still kept in contact with the people and system
for a few years via dial-up, and ?loaned? accounts. Alan had actually
figured out how to create accounts on the system, and we had several
self-created accounts such as TWINKLE, AVENGER, and SKID (that was me)
for several years. Numeric-only accounts stood out even less, as student
accounts were based on their 7-digit student ID number; I had two
accounts I created, 4444555 and 7171717 which existed for even longer
than the named ones.
The computer center finally sanctioned a talk system called CONFER. It
was actually a subsystem of NOS, so it was much more efficient. I don?t
know if someone at U-Mass wrote it, or if it was purchased. No one knew
anything about it, or if they did, they wouldn?t talk. It was quite
different than Twinkle. The Talk system I wrote for VMS several years
later embodied the best parts of Twinkle and Confer.
There were quite a few people I came in contact with at U-Mass Amherst,
especially through the use of the Twinkle system. I?ve lost contact with
all of them. If anyone is reading this and remembers me, or the system,
please drop me an E-mail.
- Bob Lafleur
Springfield, MA USA
> My guess is that the reporter failed to grasp that they are probably
> looking for milspec parts, as opposed to the common stuff found in PCs and
> whatnot. These of course would be far harder to find in quantity.
>
> I don't doubt that they are also looking for regular parts for test
> systems as well. I know they are using a lot of older systems. Last year
> I did a data recovery job for them where the data was 8080 assembly code.
God knows, reporters are idiots about everything except journalism,
and who cares except another journalist. But this reporter made a
point of stating that the stuff most people have in their basements
doesn't qualify as NASA-sought-after...
Yes, agencies like this may once upon a time have relied upon
milspec parts, JUST AS THEY USED TO RELY ON SECOND-SOURCING,
which we all know died some time ago.
Where else ya gonna get a Pentium? P-II, P-III, or P-IV?
But clearly, as they buy only in bulk from "qualified"
suppliers, no one on the list other than Sellam might
have what they want in bulk.
However, this could still put pressure on the supplies of
stuff that we like to collect. Think about the effect as
it propagates upstream...
-dq
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bob Lafleur [mailto:bob_lafleur@technologist.com]
> Although I was primarily working on the account project, the bank?s
> minicomputer was a VAX 11/780 (or two). We backed up our
> source code to
> the VAX system, so I had some limited contact with the VAX. I was
> intrigued, because I wanted to know how this VMS was similar, and
> different from RSTS/E.
Please let me know if you find out ;) I've been trying to find RSTS/E
to go on my PDP-11, actually.
> I wondered about the VAX, and how I might go about writing a
> talk system
Of course, there are others these days, including a built in "PHONE"
command.
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
The subject line here caught my attention, but it was really hard to find
the article since:
"Outlook blocked access to the following potentially unsafe attachments:
25227.url."
Then, I had forgotten that TheRegister was ".co.uk" and not ".com".
Almost looks like a conspiracy :-)
But is an interesting article with a familiar pattern.
It looks like M$ thought that that they had gotten away with their piracy
when they bankrupted
the company -- only to see the software's individual authors continue the
court battle.
I wonder if this was included in the long list of companies ruined by M$ in
the US anti-trust case.
BTW: the text form URL is:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/7/25227.html
(hopefully that did not get blocked :-)
-Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Charles E. Fox
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 5:59 AM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Emailing: 25227(Microsoft fined for piracy)
Your files are attached and ready to send with this message.
Microsoft bashers might like to read this from The Register.
Regards
Charlie Fox
Charles E. Fox Video Production
793 Argyle Rd.
Windsor Ontario Canada N8Y 3J8
519-254-4991 foxvideo(a)wincom.net
Check out the "Camcorder Kindergarten"
at http://chasfoxvideo.com
>> I get the impression that two-node 10Bt networking can be done with
>> nothing but a crossover cable. (IE the chaining connection on hubs is
>> just a crossover) Is this possibly true, using just the cable?
>
>I beleive that one is possible. In fact I've seen crossover cables on
>sale for this purpose (this doesn't mean they _work_ of course :-)).
I think they do; the one I built (matching instructions given
previously) does, with a caveat: I've used it to connect two (OT, sorry!)
Mac Powerbook 3400's. The two machines in question have to have Appletalk
changed to use ethernet within a few seconds of one another - otherwise
they each assume they are on a "dead" network and will not recognize the
other machine when it comes up. This may be a unique feature of the
Powerbooks. It is *not* a problem when the two machines are successively
hooked into a hub - even minutes apart - so I don't think it's a problem
with the Appletalk implementation, but I don't know.
Anyone else with more experience on this? Do hubs do any
keep-aliving for their ports, or recheck periodically for connections? Do
other two-node networks need "pinging" from both ends simultaneously to
bring up?
- Mark
>FROM THE DESK OF IBRAHIM YAKUBU
Dear Sir,
This is important, and requires your immediate attention! First, I must solicit your strictest confidence in the transaction.
To intimate you further, we are top officials of the new civilian administration Committee on Foreign
and Local Contract Payment, who are interested in the importation of goods into our country with funds which are presently trapped in Nigeria. In order to actualize this dream, we seek your assistance to transfer the said-trapped fund into an interest bearing account which you have absolute control over in your country or a third country other than Nigeria.
The new civilian administration of General Olusegun Obasanjo (rtd) set-up this committee specifically to review all contracts/oil licenses to determine their propriety and relevance in the light of the country's current economic and political realities. We have identified a lot of inflated contract fund which are currently floating in our Apex Bank. At this moment we have worked out modalities within ourselves and some acquaintances at the Apex Bank to divert the sum of US$33,700,000.00 (Thirty three million,seven hundred thousand United States Dollars) only, for our personal use.
However, by virtue of our positions as Civil Servants and members of the Contract Review Panel,we cannot acquire this money in our names, consequently, I was delegated by my colleagues as a matter of trust to look for an overseas partner into whose account we can transfer this sum of money,hence this letter to you.
Furthermore, my colleagues and I are willing to transfer the total sum of US$33,700,000.00 (Thirty three million, seven hundred thousand United States Dollars) into your account for disbursement. Your areas of specialization is not a hindrance to the successful execution of this transaction and the account required for this project can either be PERSONAL, COMPANY or an OFFSHORE account you have total control over. Needless to say, the trust reposed on you at this juncture is enormous. In return, we have agreed to offer you 20% of this sum while 10% shall be set as! ide for incidental expenses between the parties in the course of this transaction. You must however note that this transaction
is subject to the following terms and conditions: -
(a) Our conviction of your transparent honesty and diligence
(b) That you would treat this transaction with utmost secrecy and confidentiality.
(c) That the funds would be transferred to an account where you have absolute control over.
(d) That one of our representatives will be with you in your country to represent our interest. This however depends on your response to conditions A and C above.
Modalities have been worked out to the highest level for the immediate transfer of the funds within 14 working days subject to your satisfaction of the above stated terms. Our assurance is that your role is RISK FREE. To accord this transaction the legality it deserves and for mutual security of the funds, the whole approval procedures will be
officially and legally processed with your name or the name of any company you may nominates as the bonafide beneficiary.
Once more, I want you to understand that having put over 23 years in the civil service of my country, I am averse to having my image and career dented.
This matter should be treated with utmost secrecy and urgency.
Kindly expedite action as we are behind schedule to enable us include this transfer in this batch as payments to foreign contractors is usually carried out on quarterly basis. Contact me on my e-mail address or my phone number is 234 1 4719568
IBRAHIM YAKUBU
I asked a friend of mine at NASA about this and here's his reply. As Dick said, the whole thing is "Greatly Exaggerated."
For the ones of you that may not be aware of it, NASA, military contractors, universities and many businesses are ALWAYS looking for old hardware to keep their specailized systems going. I've sold a ton of HP equipment to many of them for spares. I even sold one HP 9000 that is now in Antarctica. Their old one died suddenly and they flew someone from South Africa to the US to pick this one up and then flew with it to Antarctica. In many cases the users would have to go through a lengthy and costly process to certify new systems so it's better to buy replacement parts for the old system instead of upgrading. For example, last year I repaired two HP-41 calculators for Air France and I was WELL paid for it. I asked them why they didn't upgrade to HP-42s that are SW compatible with the HP-41 or to a newer calculator with rewritten SW. They said that since they were using them INSIDE the Concorde it was considered flight hardware and that it would take at least three years and !
cost in excess of $20,000 to certify a replacement.
Joe
>> Ray,
>>
>> Have you heard anything about this? It sounds pretty wild to me.
>>
>
>Very possible. The old Launch Processing System (LPS) uses "Micomp"
>floppies. NASA is using the Shuttle way beyond the life expectancy. Many
>of the old instruments are breaking down. NASA goes looking for an exact
>replacement because it would cost too much to re-qualify new hardware. This
>probably goes for firmand software too.
>
Specifically the 29th, 30th, and 31? I'll be there for a training seminar,
but I _really_ don't want to spend the whole time hanging out with my boss!
Bob