- test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org - classiccmp.org

Working with useful computers (was: What's your specialty?)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Dave McGuire [mailto:mcguire@neurotica.com] > On February 6, R. D. Davis wrote: > > of curiosity, how many others here absolutely refuse to work for an > > employer requiring one to work with those confounded > annoyances called > > Micro$oft products? > Me. I don't have that luxury, unfortunately, but if I did, I'd seriously consider it. Note that I said "consider," because despite their unceasingly annoying me with microshaft crap, I still like my current employer pretty well. (That's really saying something -- take it from somebody who insists on having no microsoft products on his systems, to the point of having moral questions about installing OS/2. :) Regards, Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 4 months

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Anybody interested in an Intel Series II MDS?

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

A friend of mine has a chance to pick up several of Intel Series II MDSs, these are the big blue boxs that many people are familar with. But there's one codition, it's a package deal and he has to take ALL or none. A quick check indicated that they all power up but nothing else. There are no docs or software included but he and I both have docs and software for these and are willing to make copies available at cost. I don't know what sapecific model these are but the Series II machines have AT LEAST an 8080 CPU, an integrated CRT monitor, a detachable keyboard, a built-in single density 8" floppy drive, 32k of RAM and a monitor program in ROM. Again this is the minimal machine but they typically have a lot more memory and frequently have been upgraded to double density drives. BTW the original DRI distribution disk for CPM is the same format and it should ran with no modifications on a MDS with SD drives. If the drives have been upgraded to DD then you be able to get CPM in that format and it should run without modification. It's safe to say that no developement system can run on 32k, so it's a good bet that they'll have more RAM. Hell, even ISIS needs more RAM than that! Also all the ones that I've seen have been upgraded to an 8085 CPU and many also have an 8086 co-procesor card so there's a good chance of getting one that's been upgraded. Anyway, I want to know if anyone else is interested in buying one of these. The price should be less than $100 plus shipping. I believe that they're located in the Detroit area. E-mail me directly ASAP and let me know if you're interested. Joe

24 years, 4 months

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cdburners

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 03:33 PM 2/7/2002 -0500, Douglas Quebbeman wrote: >ISO9660 CD's are limited to containing filenames of no more >than 32 characters in length. At least, everytime I try to >burn a CD, those web pages I've saved that have filenames >that are longer result in a dialog box that requires me to >either type an alternate name or accept the munged version >that it creates itself. If you're gathering files on a Windows PC, and using PC-based burning software, they all support the "Joliet" extensions which allow 255-char paths. Maybe you should tell us which platforms and packages you're using. - John

24 years, 4 months

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RJ45 to serial DE-9

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 6, 1:16, Chris wrote: > >I thought I had one, but I don't. Someone out there have/know where to find > >a cable with an RJ-45 plug on one side and a female DE-9 (DB-25 okay but > >prefer DE-9) on the other? This is to plug my Commodore into the serial port > >on my Lantronix EPS4+1 and attempt to get it on the network by reverse > >Telnet. > > I have seen RJ45 to DE9 adaptors before. I have one someplace, it came > with my DSL router. But I have seen them for sale at computer shows > before, and would think they should be readily available at any decent > electronics or network parts dealer. I think Rat Shack sells a roll your > own pinout one that goes to a DB25 (I know they have an RJ14, 6 pin to > DB25). Get a roll-your-own. There are several pinouts for RJ45-DE9, so if you buy one ready-made, you're going to end up muttering to Murphy. They're usually in the form of a shell made to hold an RJ45 socket, which comes with 8 wires connected, each with a pin (or socket pin) crimped on the end, ready to insert into the DE9 body that comes with it. They're also cheap, less than 1 UKP here (about $1.00) from CPC. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 4 months

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Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA (fwd)

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>$62 a month is a ripoff price. Unless you meant Digital Cable. Nope... plain old analog cable tv. They really bend their customers over around here... which is why every day on my drive home, I see more mini dish's popping up on people's roofs. They don't even offer Cable Modem service for most of the area yet -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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Newsflash: Cards

by CARL.P.HIRSCH＠sargentlundy.com

Free registration required - I believe cypherpunks/cypherpunks still works. -carl Tothwolf <tothwolf@concentric. To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> net> cc: Sent by: Subject: Re: Newsflash: Cards owner-classiccmp@clas siccmp.org 02/07/02 02:05 PM Please respond to classiccmp On Thu, 7 Feb 2002, John Allain wrote: > One of our list members just made it to the big leagues. The NY Times > printed a large photo article on Douglas W. Jones today. Seems his > extensive collection of punched cards caught their eye. A good case > for a well-managed collection it seems. > > "When PC Still Means 'Punch Card'" > New York Times, 'Circuits', 07-Feb-2002 Heres a link to the story: http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/07/technology/circuits/07CARD.html -Toth

24 years, 4 months

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Kinda OT a little....

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

Reply off-list directly to me please... Guys, how does paying $30 - $40 sound for a sun ultra creator 1 video card (not sure on specs) and a bare bones sun ultra creator 1 desktop, no HDD, no RAM. --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 90581 Mac OS X 10.1.2 - Darwin Kernel Version 5.2: Fri Dec 7 21:39:35 PST 2001 Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash

24 years, 4 months

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Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA (fwd)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Lawrence LeMay [mailto:lemay@cs.umn.edu] > I dont suppose we can return to discussing computers? Anyone > wanna buy a > Prime computer? I was contacted by a reseller i've dealt with in the > past, to see if i had any interest in it. Love to have one, but I imagine I'd hate to move it. :) How large are those things, anyway? Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 4 months

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Interesting C question

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Hello, all: I have discovered an interesting anomaly while finishing up the 2.2 version of the Altair32 Emulator (to be released this weekend, by the way). Maybe it's my lack of understanding of C or the service pack I applied to MSVC :-) Between version 2.0 and 2.1, BASIC 3.2 was broken -- it was hanging in a loop in the console input code waiting for the right status bits to be set by my port emulator code. While I was setting the right bits, the internal emulator variable wasn't reflecting the assignment. In the sio00h routine in the sio.c module, I declare a local-scope variable of type int that's not initialized... int sio00h (params...){ int nSioStatus ; ... stuff } When in the MSVC debugger, the undeclared variable has the value 0xcccccccc. OK. In the body of the routine, the variable can be set to three values using #defines from the header. For some reason, the variable is not being set to the #define value. As you trace execution, the variable to be returned by the routine remains 0xcccccccc after assignment: nSioStatus = SIO_WDB ; //#defines to 0x80 So, I initialized the variable to 0 and for good measure, returned the int as: return (nSioStatus & 0xff) ; In one of the top calling routines, it gets truncated to a BYTE-size (so to speak) anyway. So I figured that maybe there was a scoping problem but the nSioStatus variable is not used in any other module, nor is it declared extern or module global. The #define appears in multiple headers but are all defined to be the same value. Now, BASIC 3.2 it works but I can't really figure out why. Any thoughts?? Rich

24 years, 4 months

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[PDP8-Lovers] Re: if you hadn't already known this about the PDP-8

by jones＠cs.uiowa.edu

Mark Crispin <MRC(a)CAC.Washington.EDU> wrote: > Stacks are very useful, but they are not the solution to everything. Absolutely agreed. > One of the biggest deficiencies of C is its lack of co-routines, since > it only has the stack style of subroutine calling. Yeah, I know about > setjmp/longjmp, but those are one-way, not true co-routines. Well, setjmp and longjmp are pretty powerful. see http://www.cs.uiowa.edu/~jones/opsys/threads/ for a machine-independent user-level thread package implemented in C using setjmp and longjmp for control transfers between threads. It comes very close to what a real coroutine afficianado would like. (Writing the thread launch code in a machine independent way was murder.) Curiously, the same thing can be done without longjmp()! I had a student write me a thread package in Pascal once. All he needed was a mechanism to convert pointers to integers and back again (easy enough in standard Pascal, so long as it doesn't check variant records). Given this, his code did essentially the same thing as my thread package. > Of course, talking about co-routines to youngsters is likely to get > their eyes to glaze over, since they won't have a clue as to what I'm > talking about. Indeed. Doug Jones jones(a)cs.uiowa.edu

24 years, 4 months

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Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA (fwd)

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>Serius, you realy must live way outside civilisation to go thru this >effort to get TV ! Satallite TV isn't an effort thing... it is a how bad do I want to be ripped off by cable thing. (Remember, these are 18" dishes... they are popping up all over the place) Around here, Basic Cable (40 channels, no HBO or nothing) costs $62.00 a month. $10 more for each pay channel you want (HBO, Cinimax, Stars, Encore, TMC, or Showtime). Satallite TV (Dish Network) gives me 200+ channels, PLUS all the pay channels (5 HBO, 3 Cinimax, tons of others... roughly 40 pay channels in all), PLUS country wide "superstations" (WB, UPN, so I can watch Smallville 3 times every tuesday... cause Enterprise sucks so I have to have SOME show to be addicted to) PLUS local broadcast networks (no biggie, I can put an arial up for those), PLUS something like 200 music channels (those things that play a screen saver while playing music) All for $70 a month (I have to pay $5 for my 2nd decoder connection, so really it is $65 a month). So for $3 more than cable, I get more channels that I can count. Only downside... one channel per decoder, two decoders per dish for normal setup (you can go as high as 8 or 9 with some Channel Plus hardware). But that downside matters not to me... the lean-to I live in doesn't make it easy to watch two diferent channels as is... 3 would be sensory overload. And the video quality of Satallite vs Cable isn't even a comparison. But then, if you are a person that can't see the difference between VHS video and DVD video, you probably won't care about that aspect. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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Sea Container Spelunking (Terminal Junkie Part Two)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> > > containers. I half expected to find some ex-colleagues preserved in > > > aspic. "Oh, John? No, he never _really_ left. No one ever does". > > > > Aspic isn't a preservative, it's a sauce... > > > > Haven't you ever had Lark's Tongues in Aspic? > > > > ;) > > > > -dq > Only while wearing a red robe...... Thank god somebody realized what court this ball was in... ;)

24 years, 4 months

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Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA (fwd)

by LFessen106＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/7/02 1:12:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, mythtech(a)Mac.com writes: > Around here, Basic Cable (40 channels, no HBO or nothing) costs $62.00 a > month. $10 more for each pay channel you want (HBO, Cinimax, Stars, > Encore, TMC, or Showtime). > DANG! Mine is less than half that - way less. -Linc. In The Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right... Calculating in binary code is as easy as 01,10,11.

24 years, 4 months

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Working with useful computers (was: What's your specialty?)

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

> ---------- > From: LFessen106(a)aol.com > > In a message dated Wed, 6 Feb 2002 9:16:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, Dave > McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> writes: > > > On February 6, R. D. Davis wrote: > > > of curiosity, how many others here absolutely refuse to work for an > > > employer requiring one to work with those confounded annoyances called > > > Micro$oft products? > > > > Me. > > > > -Dave > > I would like to say that but in all reality I make a lot of money off of > Microsoft products - fixing them. > I mean think about it - if the world ran unix, there would be a lot less > money to be made reinstalling operating systems. > > -Linc. > I must agree with Linc here. If it weren't for M$ products crashing, I wouldn't be making the money to have a classic computer collection... I can understand why you guys wouldn't want to use them, though. --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 90581 Mac OS X 10.1.2 - Darwin Kernel Version 5.2: Fri Dec 7 21:39:35 PST 2001 Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash

24 years, 4 months

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Looking for a WD 1001 55 Disk controller

by Innfogra＠aol.com

In a message dated 2/7/02 9:00:05 AM Pacific Standard Time, marvin(a)rain.org writes: > Interesting, you are the only other person (besides myself) with a > Molecular that I've seen mentioned on this listserver! I got mine when > I had a Molecular at one time. It used a 8" floppy disk and a 5 1/4 HD. I think I still have some of the SW on floppies around I got mine from a school district office and passed it on when I closed my warehouse. Nice Machine. Paxton Astoria, OR

24 years, 4 months

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IBM 8533 'PS/2 Note'

by ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk

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24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

Hmm... speciality. I collect all sorts of things, like beer bottle tops and teaspoons. As far as computers are concerned, I've started to weed out the less interesting (to me) from my fifty-something collection. I have quite a few Acorn machines from the '80s, because I worked for them or places that used/repaired their machines for most of that decade. I have a fair collection of Acorn-related software, lots of old price lists, sales brochures, etc, and a pretty good technical document collection. Also a few unusual items like a prototype BBC-ARM inteface card which was used when they were developing what became their first RISC-based machine, and (thanks, Kevan!) an ARM Development System which was a semi-commercial co-processor for the BBC Micro. Most of the rest are things I've collected because I lusted after them years ago when they were unaffordable, or they have some special significance, or they round out a family. An Exidy Sorcerer was the first machine I owned, so I have one of those, and the same monitor, printer, etc as I had originally (they're not all the same ones I originally owned, though). An Apple ][ was a machine I used at college, and a //e is a better version so I have both. To follow the line, I have a Mac Plus with some add-ons because it's cool as well as being the ]['s successor, a IIvx, and finally a NeXT slab -- another machine I lusted after at the time. Another line has to do with PETs. I have a 2001-8K, and to go before it a KIM-1, and to follow, a Vic 20 and a C128 (not interesting so relegated to an attic), and an Amiga 500 Plus. Contemporaneous with the Sorcerer, Apple ][, and PET is my Nascom, and a ZX81. I nearly had a ZX80 twice, but not quite. That's followed by a Sinclair Spectrum and a Spectrum II to contrast with the BBC Micros, and a Sinclair QL to contrast with slightly later machines. I have a few DEC machines. I got to know the QBus machines quite well when I worked for a third-party maintenance company, and I always wanted an 11/23. A few years later, I got one -- CPU box only, no storage, and that's really what started the collection about 15 years ago. I would go looking for some part or device, and when I found it there would inevitably be other parts too. The other parts wouldn't make a whole, so I'd collect still more. I've had at least three 11/23s, a couple of 11/73-S's, a few 11/03's, part of an 11/24, an 11/83, and a fairly good 11/34. I traded the 11/34 when I got an 11/40, and now I have a PDP-8/E (which was the first machine I used "hands on"). I also have two MicroVAXes which will run VMS "one day". My third 11/23 came with 7th Edition UNIX and a lot of disk and tapes, which is how I got into UNIX just before I went back to University. There I discovered SGIs, so I now have a collection of Indigos and Indys. And the inevitable Sparcstation and the like. There are a few others of course, which roughly fit in with the ones i've mentioned. There's even a PC (an early Intel model)! Networking equipment too, because that's what I do (and on a few occasions, my hobby helped get whatever the job was at the time: Acorn, UNIX, networking). What else do I want... Well, space is limited so an ASR33 that folds up and fits on a bookshelf would be good. More bookshelves, too. More DEC microfiche. An MMU for my 11/40. A copy of Spacewar to run on my 11/40 and VT11. More shelves. Dev Pak and manuals for my Sorcerer. I've asked for a 25th hour in the day for the last three Christmasses and four birthdays. ... not much, really ;-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by LFessen106＠aol.com

I like the Commodore and Apple 80's home computers and have multiples of most models therein along with software and whatever docs I can find. My real love at this point is older unix workstations - Sparcstations, Decstations, HP 9000 series workstations and the like. Although I might not have *quite* as many as most people on the list, I live in a 2 bdrm apt - and it's getting crowded :-) -Linc. In The Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right... Calculating in binary code is as easy as 01,10,11.

24 years, 4 months

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Duct Tape repairs [was:: What's your specialty?]

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

> ---------- > From: Chris > > >> >Now, what about the face plate? > >> > >> More Duct Tape? > >> > >You forgot the cardboard... > > I was thinking... remove the front plastic from the CD tray, then stretch > duct tape across the opening for the CD bay. Cut a slit into the tape > that lines up with the CD tray. Let it eject thru the slit in the tape... > you've got a "poor man's slot loading CD". :-) > > -chris > Chris, are you feeling okay? A little tired, and getting punchy, are we? --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 90581 Mac OS X 10.1.2 - Darwin Kernel Version 5.2: Fri Dec 7 21:39:35 PST 2001 Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by DAW＠yalepress3.unipress.yale.edu

> ---------- > From: Doc > > On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, David Woyciesjes wrote: > > > ---------- > > > From: Doc > > > You mean Apple shipped those boxes with *face-plates*??? > > > > > > Doc > > > > > Eh, face plate, trim piece, bezel, whatever you call it... Yer pickin' > on > > me, aren't ya? > > No, I meant I hardly ever see a machine with the bezel intact. Or > even present. I thought they were *born* with the gaps there. > > Doc > Ahh, okay. Hmmm, must a phenomena that happens only around you... --- David A Woyciesjes --- C & IS Support Specialist --- Yale University Press --- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu --- (203) 432-0953 --- ICQ # - 90581 Mac OS X 10.1.2 - Darwin Kernel Version 5.2: Fri Dec 7 21:39:35 PST 2001 Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash

24 years, 4 months

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Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA (fwd)

by vcf＠vintage.org

FYI... ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 31 Jan 2002 09:46:19 -0800 From: David Weil <dweil(a)computer-museum.org> Subject: Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA Last April, a film crew from Boston came to Computer Museum of America at Coleman College to film the staff operating several machines in the Museum collection. See the results this coming TUESDAY night on PBS NOVA at 8pm. -- Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org * Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> HP Unix Lunch Box (sorry, can't think of the number right now) I think you mean the HP Intergral PC aka HP IPC. It's got the printer on top, has a Gas Plasma display, IIRC, and can run HP-UX V5 off of Floppy, and it can also have stuff like BASIC in ROM packs that plug into the back. Zane

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by erd_6502＠yahoo.com

--- Huw Davies <Huw.Davies(a)kerberos.davies.net.au> wrote: > I think I'm trying to collect all of those computers I wanted to buy new > when I was younger but didn't have the money. You, too? I think that is a factor for lots of us. > On the list of things to buy: > > PDP-8 (I think I want an original but might take an -8S) They don't cost more now than they do when they were new (few things we collect do), but they are closer to the old prices than they used to be ($15,000 USD and $9,995 USD, respectively). I was offered $1,500 USD for one of my Straight-8s (Classic-8 or "original") many years ago (before the .com boom), and it doesn't even have console TTY interface. I do not know what one would sell for now. I don't really want to know; it is not for sale. > PDP-11 (A QBUS version with enough disk to run 2.11BSD) You'll want a board with a KDJ11 CPU like an 11/53 or 11/73 or newer. 2.11BSD requires a CPU that supports split I&D space, IIRC. The KDF11 (PDP-11/23, Pro350, et al.) does not. 2.9BSD runs on lots more CPUs, but doesn't support as many disk devices (like MSCP controllers) as originally shipped. Recently, I've heard about support for more modern disks for 2.9BSD, but I haven't played with them myself. My personal experiences are limited to a real 11/24 and multiple RL02 drives and an emulated -11 of various configurations (under simh 2.4) and a variety of emulated drives (RL02, RK05, RP03, etc.). -ethan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com

24 years, 4 months

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RAM for Mac IIfx

by pb＠Colorado.EDU

There's been a bunch of discussion lately on Macs (mostly relating to first computers), and it reminded me to ask if anyone knows of a source of RAM for the IIfx. I'm looking for SIMMs larger than 4MB, but I'm not looking for them all that hard. Thanks in advance. PB Schechter

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by alan.pearson＠cramer.com

My speciality is Xerox workstations... which is an effective way of controlling the collection too because they're impossible to find in the UK :-) Al.

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mhstein＠canada.com

I'm not what you'd call a collector, just someone who until recently never threw out anything from my 40 years on and off in the computer biz; now that I am finally cleaning out & disposing of the accumulated treasures, I'm probably spending more time on it than if I _were_ a 'collector'. 'Specialties' are: Cromemco S100 systems, boards, manuals, tech notes, newsletters, brochures, price lists & software; -decommissioned or spare inventory from years of selling & supporting them in the 80s & 90s. Terminals (Falco, L-S, &c) to go with the above. AIM65 Boards & docs, also from years of using & supporting them in an industrial application. Several CBM PETs & boxes of VIC-20 & C64 units, accessories, docs & parts. Boxes & piles of PCs & clones of various description; lots of obscure & obsolete cards for same, and of course printers & monitors as well. And quite a few boxes/shelves of equally obscure & obsolete MS-DOS & WIN software. Some of this stuff is spoken for as soon as I get it all sorted & checked out (especially the AIM65s), and to those of you still waiting, thanks for your patience (of course it just gets more valuable every day :-). Lotsa stuff still waiting for a new home though... mike

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty (was: Taking control...)

by Arno_1983＠gmx.de

Yesss, very interesting topic right away...of course, most of you are away >from home already and so don't have to argue with their disapproving parents, like me... I'm not yet specialized to anything (read: still grabbing all sorts of junk), but the inrush is somewhat limited by me only taking what I can get *really for free*. I'm still at school and don't get enough pocket money to throw it out for such stuff, too... This applies not only to classic (and not-yet-classic) computers, but also to typewriters, mech calculators, audio equipment and all the various other electronic stuff (mainly as a parts source). Everything that is small enough to fit into a banana box is stuffed into 'em and stacked in a small storage area behind my room, boxes numbered and inventory stored on my PC... I'd really love to have room for some bigger rackmounted equipment, so maybe I'm going to call the proprietor of a detoriating house I've located nearby if he'll let me in for some cleaning-up and garden work. So long, and wish me luck... Arno Kletzander Arno_1983(a)gmx.de -- GMX - Die Kommunikationsplattform im Internet. http://www.gmx.net

24 years, 4 months

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Ever create more work than it was worth?

by fernande＠internet1.net

I was bending a cd-r because for some reason I wanted too. I had the tips almost touching each other when it broke. I now have created something I have to vacuum :-( It was kind of cool seeing all the coating flake off :-) I didn't know it would do that :-) The coating isn't dangerous like that is it? Chad Fernandez Michigan, USA

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>I've had no stability issues with 7.1 -- all of my classic Macs, except the >SE/30 and the Plus which run 6.0.8, run it. Ahh... my "Classic" Macs don't run 7 of any varient, I keep them all at 6 for the most part (I do have a 7.1 bootable external HD so I can run it when I need it on them). >7.5.2 really soured me on 7.5.x. :-/ Oh... that explains it. 7.5.2, and 7.5.3 were some of the buggiest crap around. But they got it mostly right with 7.5.5 (which really was nothing more than a big bug fix for 7.5.3... there isn't even a 7.5.5 installer... just .3 and a .5 updater) >Why not just go "all the way" to 7.6.1 if you're using 7.5.x? Cause I hate 7.6 and 7.6.1... I have found it too unstable for my tastes. That and on older Macs (020, 030... since I don't do no 7.x with 000s, and 040s I run 8.1) run at a snails pace with 7.6.1, but 7.5.5 runs fine, and takes up less ram, and less HD space (most of the machines I use it on are lucky if they have an 80mb drive... 7.5.5 kills only 12-20mb depending on options... 7.6.1 starts at 25mb usually and can go as high as 30-40 with options) Oh yeah... another reason I use 7.5.5 over 7.1... open transport (I knew there was another reason) OT 1.1.1 is usually bare minimum for decent mac internet use... and that wants 7.5.3 (but we already know 5.3 sucks, so I use 5.5) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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Xircom parallel port Ethernet?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Does anyone have a need for these? I have a small pile of PE3-10BT with power supply wall wart and phantom keyboard power adapter. Contact me via private e-mail. - John

24 years, 4 months

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Working with useful computers (was: What's your specialty?)

by LFessen106＠aol.com

In a message dated Wed, 6 Feb 2002 9:16:18 PM Eastern Standard Time, Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> writes: > On February 6, R. D. Davis wrote: > > of curiosity, how many others here absolutely refuse to work for an > > employer requiring one to work with those confounded annoyances called > > Micro$oft products? > > Me. > > -Dave I would like to say that but in all reality I make a lot of money off of Microsoft products - fixing them. I mean think about it - if the world ran unix, there would be a lot less money to be made reinstalling operating systems. -Linc.

24 years, 4 months

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RJ45 to serial DE-9

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 6, 18:39, Curt Vendel wrote: > I was referring to the colors inside of the DB hood, not the rj45 cable > itself which can vary from anything from orange, orange/white, green > green/white, blue blue/white, brown, brown/white for most cat5 cabling The Cat.5 (and Cat3,4,5e,6) cables are required to be standard colours. > to the various red,green,yellow,read,blue,white,brown,grey for others like the > flat or silk cables from Cisco, and other manufactures. There is a USOC (I think) standard for those flat cables. If Cisco don't follow it, they're buying cable from an odd place :-) The two points I was making are (1) there is no standard for the colours of the cable inside the hood, so noting which colours go to which pins isn't a good way to specify it, and (2) there's no standard mapping of RJ45 pins to DE9 pins either. There's a good chance what you wrote would work, as it *appears* to be one of the common arrangements, at least as far as the Tx and Rx lines are concerned, but there's also a good chance it won't. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 4 months

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PDP8 Terminal info?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 6, 23:04, Tony Duell wrote: > 7) There's no real standard for current loop wiring or connectors, > although DEC were consistent with their use of the 8 pin mate-n-lock. > > > (PS: Terminals are Wyse-85 and DEC VT220) > I can't comment on the Wyse. If the connector is the flat 8 pin > Mate-n-Lock, then it should work. Normally if that connector is used then > it'll follow DEC's pinout I imagine it does. I have a Wyse 65, and it has the flat Mate-N-Lok with DEC's pinout. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 4 months

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Working with useful computers (was: What's your specialty?)

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On February 6, R. D. Davis wrote: > of curiosity, how many others here absolutely refuse to work for an > employer requiring one to work with those confounded annoyances called > Micro$oft products? Me. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>There are >exactly five MacOSes worth using: 6.0.8, 7.1, 8.1, 9.1 and 10.1.x and up. I agree 99%... I prefer 7.5.5 over 7.1... I have just found it more stable but YMMV (and 9.2 sucks ass... my iMac won't stop crashing since I moved to it >from 9.1... I think it was an apple trick to push people to OS X... which I just haven't fallen in love with yet, probably because most of what I use isn't carbonized) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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C64 and HP48 emulators for the 80186?

by Robert_Feldman＠jdedwards.com

This question came up on the HP LX palmtop list. Are there any emulators of the C64 or the HP48 that will run on the HP200LX palmtop (which has CGA graphics, and 80186 CPU, and MS-DOS 5.0)? Bob

24 years, 4 months

2
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Taking control of your collection

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Claude.W <claudew(a)videotron.ca> >-No matching printers for each system. I abandonned printers long time ago >or it just takes up too much space. One or two for everything here, one dec serial (LA100ro) and one parallel (Epson LQ570). >-No books. Only one or 2 max complete reference per system. Or then it gets >outta control. Full books but stay with families IE: VAX, PDP-11, CPM S100 as a set covers many varients >-No magazines. With care and appling to specific systems or technoligies, not complete archives of say Byte. >-Only 1 or 2 peripherals like floppy drives and such....I dont try to get >every peripheral for each system... Unless it fits in the box! >-Only 1 "branded monitor" model per system. Monitors use a lotta space. Yep same for CRTs, though I do have H19, VT125, VT320, VT340. Then again It's DEC family skewed plus CPM so it works. >-If its a vintage system your not going to "use/play with" : then keep very >little software for each system, only maybe an OS and a few utils, games >etc...just to "show it off" Nope, compact it to denser media that can be recoverd to whatever is needed. Again within a family one program runs on many. >-Get many shelves, nice ones. Yep! >-Frequent cleanings....I do major ones at least 5 times a year a throw out a >bunch of stuff....you have to stop saying "yes but I might use it someday" >at one point and go more like "Whats the chance I am realling gonna use this >again or is this really worth keeping"? Or trade it off for that relly important item(s). My problem is I have three realted hobbies, Computers, hamradio and electronics Homebrew (autoconstruct for the EU folks). They overlap and radio/homebrew instigates the "junquebox" where all good resources are found. Allison

24 years, 4 months

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PDP8 Terminal info?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Feb 6, 13:45, Ethan Dicks wrote: > One thing to watch for - pin diameter. I made my own connector for a > VT220 out of a pair of drive power connectors, and it works fine, but > I think the VT220 end got stretched - now that I have a real set of > TTY cables, they don't fit in my terminal. I tried to sort of compress > them back into place, but I think I'll have to remove the board and > remove the connector from the board before I can get clear access to the > pins. OTOH, I could try to make a pin squeezer out of tubing... There are some non-AMP equivalents that don't seem to be made quite as well, perhaps you had some of those? I've cursed those on occasions when I've had to make the opposite-to-normal gender of power connector. > > You can still get the pin inserts and socket inserts, of course. > > Got part numbers? AMP changed the numbers at some time in the last few years, but I think some of these may still be correct: female contacts AMP 163304-2 (18-20 AWG) female contacts AMP 163306-2 (14-18 AWG) male contacts AMP 163305-2 (18-20 AWG) male contacts AMP 163307-2 (14-18 AWG) AMP used to have a pretty good website. A bit graphics-heavy, and a little tedious at times, but al the info was there. Tried that? > I'm also looking for part numbers for Berg connector > bits - somewhere I have the tool that makes the same cables as DEC did > with the black Berg shells. What I lack is the female crimp-on "pins". Funny you mention that, I was looking for the same thing the other evening. I can find the pins and shells but the biggest two-row shells I can find easily are only 8+8. I want 20+20, of course. And I can't find those cable grips at all... I did find a very similar product (there are lots that nearly fit the bill but this looks closest) made by Methode. They do 20+20 in their MEMTF series that look very like black Berg ones, and the female crimp "pins" are gold-plated like the better Berg ones. Still no cable clamp, though. Fujitsu so something similar (M100 series), and there's a cable clamp, but it looks kind of like a squashed D-connector shell -- not what I want for my BC101V cables and oters that enter from the side of a board. Harwin also do a range, called "C-Grid III", you'd want the 90142 series (dual row). I used to get BERG (DuPont, now owned by the Framatome Group, FCI) connectors from a company in the UK called Electrospeed. Sadly, they no longer seem to have the right connectors in the catalogue, but I found the part numbers in the Newark catalogue -- which might be more helpful to you. They're also in the Farnell catalogue. The housings are "Bergcon" "Mini-Latch housing, 65043-series double row, 0.100" centers": Newark Berg part part rows 89F4606 65043-035 2+2 89F4605 65043-034 3+3 89F4604 65043-033 4+4 89F4603 65043-032 5+5 89F4602 65043-031 6+6 89F4601 65043-030 7+7 89F4600 65043-029 8+8 89F4599 65043-027 10+10 There are bigger sizes too. The female pins are "Mini-PV crimp-to-wire receptacles": 98F2828 47747-000 22-26 AWG std spring force 100? tin 98F4590 48266-000 18-20 AWG std spring force 30? gold 98F4588 48235-000 ... AWG std spring force 30? gold 98F5796 48238-000 28-32 AWG std spring force 30? gold 89F4587 48234-000 2x26 AWG high spring force 30? gold ^^ typo? I don't know 50F8733 48236-000 28-32 AWG ultrahigh spring force 30? gold 50F8734 48239-000 or 2x26 AWG ultrahigh spring force 30? gold 04F1609 47750-000 22-26 AWG ultrahigh spring force 100? tin You can also buy the daisy chain jumper wires on reels. Remember those? Used to make up the vital link on the BC01V, the link from Tx- to Rx- on DLV11-J's, and for loopback plugs. A snip at UKP166.36 per reel. The "lightweight rugged handtools" in two shpaes and five exciting sizes, range >from UKP385 to UKP503. Thankfully the rest of the range, the connectors themselves, is more affordable! Still no cable clamps, though. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 4 months

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Micro 11/73

by steven_j_robertson＠hotmail.com

Found a really nice PDP "Micro" 11/73 at the scrap yard today. I don't know the designations but it's in a rack mount box 5" high and 24" deep. I don't usually bother with DEC stuff but, it was real clean and the price was right. The system has a hard drive, dual floppies, and 4 serial ports (plus console) on the rear panel. I hooked up a terminal and am able to talk to the system. However, when it tries to boot but gives a message: "DEVICE TT001: Not in configuration" "RSX 11M V 4.1 BL35E 1024K mapped" It stops at that point and won't go any further. I can ^C and get a "MCR> prompt" and talk to the system but it won't *do* anything. Am I doing something wrong or is this the expected behavior when the OS is broken? Thanks, SteveRob _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com

24 years, 4 months

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Taking control of your collection

by CordaAJ＠nswc.navy.mil

> -----Original Message----- > From: Gene Buckle [mailto:geneb@deltasoft.com] > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 6:42 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: Taking control of your collection > > > > > Sellam Ismail wrote: > > > > > > > > I'm trying to create my own gravitational field using > classic computers > > > > as the core. > > > > > You're gonna be pretty annoyed when that stack reaches > critical mass and > the result drops California into the ocean. :) > I believe it may already be affecting the weather... Could it be that we've finally found the real cause of the recent El Nino? -al- -acorda(a)1bigred.com

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>> Eh, face plate, trim piece, bezel, whatever you call it... Yer pickin' on >> me, aren't ya? > > No, I meant I hardly ever see a machine with the bezel intact. Or >even present. I thought they were *born* with the gaps there. That's because you need custom ones for each case design (no simple PC plates will work), but the Mac will use stock PC parts for the most part (when it comes to HD and CD drives... all bets are off for any other parts prior to the iMac days). Since you can use a stock PC CD drive, many people did... PC drives naturally don't ship with the special bezel needed for a mac case. You have to buy it from an apple dealer (because apple doesn't like to sell things to the public). That means you pay Apple prices AND the Apple dealer markup... that makes them VERY expensive (you can expect to pay $25+ for a new bezel for most macs). That is when you can even find someone to sell them to you (the local CompUSA, which prior to the Apple Store opening down the road, was the ONLY authorized apple repair center in the area... and they couldn't be bothered ordering you a bezel... tried once... they game me shit for even asking... then finally agreed to order it and call when it came in... a month later and many calls asking the status, I gave up). Even going to the online parts dealers will nail you for serious costs (have you looked at any recently... MacResQ which tends to be the cheapest, will ask $30-$40 for a bezel) As a result... you find many home upgraded macs that are missing the correct bezel for the opening. -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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RJ45 to serial DE-9

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Sep 6, 11:27, Curt Vendel wrote: > You can use any straight through RJ45 cable, standard Cat5 is fine as well. > Radio Shack sells do it yourself connector kits with rj45 on the plastic > hood and you just plug in the appropriate cables to the connector, for the > DB-9/DE-9 wire as follows: > > 2 - yellow > 3 - black > 4 - orange > 5 - green & red > 6 - brown > 7 - blue > 9 - white > > If you run into problems and can't get it going, just let me know, I've made > like a doz of them as I use them all the time on various cisco devices. That's somewhat Cisco-specific, if those are the standard colours. The standard colours for 8-way flat cable (in order in the cable) are 1 grey (some cables use white) 2 orange 3 black 4 red 5 green 6 yellow 7 blue 8 brown However, that's not always used in pre-made sockets. I have three different ones on the desk beside me. One goes blue, orange, black, red, green, yellow, brown, white, for example. That would give you the following pinout: RJ45 pin DE9 pin signal white 8 9 Ring Indicator brown 7 6 Data Set Ready yellow 6 2 Transmit Data green 5 5 Signal Ground red 4 5 Signal Ground black 3 3 Receive Data orange 2 4 Data Terminal Ready blue 1 7 Request To Send It would be much more usual to pair RTS with CTS (DE9 pin 8). One of the most common ways to wire an RJ45 for serial, are to wire the centre pair both to ground, with TxD on one side and RxD on the other. That way, if you turn the cable upside down you (as in a normal flat cable, one end is wired opposite to the other) you cross over RxD and TxD without losing the ground. TxD is pin 3 on a PC-compatible DE9 serial port, RxD is 2, and signal ground is pin 5, so that's fine. In a flat cable, the pairs start from the centre two wires, and work outwards to both sides, ending up with the 4th pair being the two outermost wires. But most systems that use this scheme put DTR and DSR (or occasionally DCD) on the next wires out from the centre (3rd pair), and DTR is on DE9 pin 4 (orange, OK) and DSR on pin 6 (brown, no I don't think so) and DCD on pin 1 (which Cisco obvioously doesn't use). The reason for putting DTR and DSR (or DCD) on the next two wires is again for the crossover effect. That's what DEC and several other companies do. Similarly, some systems put RTS and CTS on the outermost two wires. Looks like Cisco are using a non-standard colour order (or your RS adaptor is) but otherwise following one of the common wirings for flat cable (except for RI and RTS!). Of course, lots of people use UTP instead of flat cable. Then one way to start off is to put TxD and corresponding ground on pins 1+2 (which is one pair) and RxD and corresponding ground on the next pair (3+6). That way,a normal UTP crossover cable (one end wired to TIA 568A and the other to 568B) crosses things over correctly. That leaves 4+5 and 7+8 for other signals, usually unused but sometimes DTR+DSR and RTS+CTS (to keep each pair of signals in a single pair of wires, but it makes crossover cables "interesting"). DEC do it like that, they put 1 and 3 on the RJ45 to ground (actually Tx- and Rx-), TxD and RxD on 2 and 6, DTR and DSR on 7 and 8. Sun do a similar thing (but not quite the same). There is *no* standard for this, and I've found at least three common (and largely incompatible) wiring schemes, and several more obscure ones (Cabletron, Xylogics, ...) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 4 months

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Ever create more work than it was worth?

by CordaAJ＠nswc.navy.mil

Aren't some organic dyes extremely carcinogenic? I seem to remember this from way back when I was working on a Dye laser... -al- -acorda(a)1biged.com > -----Original Message----- > From: Tothwolf [mailto:tothwolf@concentric.net] > Sent: Wednesday, February 06, 2002 6:31 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: RE: Ever create more work than it was worth? > > > On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote: > > --- Tothwolf <tothwolf(a)concentric.net> wrote: > > > On Wed, 6 Feb 2002, Russ Blakeman wrote: > > > > > > > The "coating" should only actually be a metal film, AFAIK. > > > > > > A CDR will have an organic dye below the layer of metal film. > > > > Isn't the organic dye located between the polycarbonate layers? You > > can kind-of see from the edge that it's a sandwich... > > I think it depends on the process used to manufacture the CDR > disc. I've > seen some with the dye under a very thin layer of plastic, > and I've seen > some with it directly under the aluminum film. I wish the > aluminum film > was under a layer of plastic tho. If the top of a cd is > scratched, there > isn't much chance for data recovery if the scratch is in a data area. > > -Toth >

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>Bzzzt! Wrong answer, smart-ass! Everybody knows the answer is duct tape! > >Now, what about the face plate? More Duct Tape? -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>> >Now, what about the face plate? >> >> More Duct Tape? >> >You forgot the cardboard... I was thinking... remove the front plastic from the CD tray, then stretch duct tape across the opening for the CD bay. Cut a slit into the tape that lines up with the CD tray. Let it eject thru the slit in the tape... you've got a "poor man's slot loading CD". :-) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mythtech＠Mac.com

>> More Duct Tape? >Very good grasshopper! Very soon you too will master Improvisational >Manufacturing... Humm... now I think I want to take one of the LC5xx machines sitting in my garage, and recase it... entirely with duct tape! (if I wrap enough of it into tubes, it should be able to support the weight of the CRT... although, I might have to cheat and use small dowels under some of the tape) I wonder how the tape will hold up with the heat put out by the Mac. Think it will stay strong enough? I would think... it usually is cleared to 600 F, which should be way more than the Mac generates (although it is NOT sturdy enough to wrap around the front pipe of an exhaust system to try to close a hole to make it thru inspection.... 5 minutes after starting the car, it smoked itself clean off the pipe) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net>

24 years, 4 months

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What's your specialty?

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

I mainly specialize in DEC stuff, single-board computers, and supercomputers. I have "sub-interests" in older systems from SGI, Sun, NeXT, Tandy, AT&T, IBM, and some others. My DEC interests lie in the pdp8, pdp11, and VAX line. I also hack lots of Alphas, but they're more current "production" machines for me. The only pdp8 model I've owned is the 8/e, but I hope to change that someday. I've owned pdp11/03, /04, /05, /23, /24, /34, /44, /60, /70, and /73 machines, and have all of them now except for the /60 and /70. I've owned VAX11/725, /730, /750, 8250, 8350, 8700 and many different 4000-series machines. I currently have a /730, an 8350, and several 4000s, and I'll be getting another 11/725 later this week. I really dig SBCs. I have many eval boards for various processors >from the 70s...8085, Z80, 6502, 6800, 2901...as well as one bizarre eval board for the MIPS R2000 and a few 68000s. Supercomputers are my favorite. The "collectible" ones that I have currently are two Cray YMP-EL98 systems, an EL94, and an EL92. These machines are nearly ten years old but are still fast by today's standards for floating point applications. I also have a Cray J90, which is a much more current "production" machine and not really a part of the "classic" collection. All of my machines are functional (but not necessarily currently assembled) save for the pdp11/05, /44, and one of the YMP-EL98s. I am currently looking for an AT&T UnixPC (though it looks like I've found one!) and a TRS-80 model I. -Dave -- Dave McGuire St. Petersburg, FL "Less talk. More synthohol." --Lt. Worf

24 years, 4 months

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PDP8 Terminal info?

by kris＠catonic.net

I have a few terminals with "20 ma" connectors on the back and have seen a PDP8 with such as well. Can these two be connected wire-for-wire and work, or do I need other hardware? (PS: Terminals are Wyse-85 and DEC VT220) -- Kris Kirby, KE4AHR | TGIFreeBSD... 'Nuff said. <kris(a)nospam.catonic.net> | IM: KrisBSD | HSV, AL. ------------------------------------------------------- "Fate, it seems, is not without a sense of irony."

24 years, 4 months

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Computer Museum of America on Tuesday night's PBS NOVA (fwd)

by csmith＠amdocs.com

> -----Original Message----- > From: Doc [mailto:doc@mdrconsult.com] > The last time, a 43P came back with an administrative password and a > boot password set on the firmware. As nearly as I can find out, even > removing the clock battery won't unset the admin password. > Fortunately, > I did the classroom setup and knew where that box was, so the teaching > facility knew which student to lean on. The admin password > was fuckyou. You mean it didn't _leave_ with an administrative password and a boot password? :) Anyway, you could boot to single-user mode to remove the administrative password. The boot password would be the problem. Can you bypass that with the key? Chris Christopher Smith, Perl Developer Amdocs - Champaign, IL /usr/bin/perl -e ' print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n"); '

24 years, 4 months

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Western Electric IC part numbers?

by erd_6502＠yahoo.com

I have a number of boards with "WE" part numbers on the chips - some came >from a 3B15, some from a PBX. I was curious to cross-reference the WE part numbers for common logic so I could have an idea of what any of these boards are doing. I doubt any collectors in the "real world" have something as proprietary as a 3B15, but if I'm wrong, I have some boards I don't have an immediate need for, but I don't know what they are. -ethan __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings! http://greetings.yahoo.com

24 years, 4 months

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