> Portrait displays are a technology which is sadly extinct nowadays.
> Nevertheless, the old PARC machines used such displays, even at a similar
> resolution to Apple's. They occupy less space on the table and are ideal for
> wordprocessing.
I'd really very much like to have an Apple Portrait Display (I think
it was called the Full-Page Display). Very nice, I used on on a IIsi,
had Xerox Smalltalk-80 loaded on it, used it just like a little Alto.
-dq
> Douglas Quebbeman wrote:
> > We don't have them around here, tho... libraries
> > around here are lucky to be able to keep the
> > electricity on...
>
> Tothwolf wrote:
> > and are very much in need of an overhaul and
> > cleaning (very poor copies).
>
> I swear, from some of the things you folks say, it
> seems like most of you live in some third world country.
Oh, God, I feel another song coming on...
But instead, yeah, Louisville KY metro area. Third World.
Ten years ago, in a Wendy's, this guy comes in looking
enough like Li'l Abner (plaid shirt, bluejeans w/rolled-
up cuffs and bare feet) that I had to check to make sure
that a Dogpatch musical wasn't playing... it wasn't, this
guy had never heard that you can't enter a restaurant with
bare feet.
Most people with tech skills leave for better opportunities
on the left coast. In the music scene, "The Louisville Sound"
is the sound of a 727 taking our musicians to L.A.
A major local issue is the destruction of roads by steel-
wheeled tractors. They're not just for Amish, you know.
And the cable company will be the only provider of "the
last mile" to my subdivision for at least the next 5 years.
I'm 19473 feet away from my CO, so unless a new technology
gets deployed, I'll be on 56k dialup for the forseeable
future. That ain't smoke signals or talking drums, but it
ain't really high tech anymore, either.
Regards,
-dq
>Anybody know what a 40 Gb is at CompUSA here in the US?
I think I saw in last weeks flyer they were going for about $80 for an
IDE internal 7200rpm Maxtor.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Iggy et al.,
> This might interest some of <you> out there: http://www.trinary.cc/
Yep. Interestingly there is an alternate formulation known as the
*Balanced* trinary number system. (One of the folks around here wants to
label it "BaTeNuS".)
The idea is that the digits, rather than being 0, 1, 2 for each
place value, are (-1), 0, 1, meaning subtract, don't do either, or add the
place value in which that digit appears. For convenience I'll write (-1) as
"n" below, though in (LaPlace's?) original work it was written as 1 with an
overstrike.
Decimal Batenus Explanation
...
-9 n00 (-1) * 3^2 + 0 + 0
-8 n01 (-1) * 3^2 + 0 + 1 * 3^0
-7 n1n (-1) * 3^2 + 1 * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0
-6 n10 (-1) * 3^2 + 1 * 3^1 + 0
-5 n11 (-1) * 3^2 + 1 * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0
-4 nn 0 + (-1) * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0
-3 n0 0 + (-1) * 3^1 + 0
-2 n1 0 + (-1) * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0
-1 n 0 + 0 + (-1) * 3^0
0 0 0 + 0 + 0
1 1 0 + 0 + 1 * 3^0
2 1n 0 + 1 * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0
3 10 0 + 1 * 3^1 + 0
4 11 0 + 1 * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0
5 1nn 1 * 3^2 + (-1) * 3^1 + (-1) * 3^0
6 1n0 1 * 3^2 + (-1) * 3^1 + 0
7 1n1 1 * 3^2 + (-1) * 3^1 + 1 * 3^0
...
you get the idea. Notice that negative numbers are built in - no need for
an additional (-) symbol leading a number. Also notice that to negate a
number, you just negate each digit. Fractions, addition tables, etc. are
left as an exercise for the reader.
This system is great if you have a balance beam and want a minimum
number of known weights. To get an (n), you put a known weight on the same
side as the object being weighed, while to get a (1), put that weight on
the opposite side. With 4 weights, (27, 9, 3, 1) you can generate every
integer weight from -40 to 40 - try that with a decimal set of weights (or
binary, for that matter).
The problem I see with putting either Batenus or trinary in silicon
(or gallium arsenide, etc.) is that all the electric technologies I know of
are fundamentally binary. On/off, charge stored vs. not stored, current
flowing vs. not flowing, etc. You need two binary bits (4 states) to hold a
trinary digit (3 states), so there's a 33% loss.
Even ignoring this, you only get a 50% increase in information
capability and processing speed at best. Would you rather rebuild your
computers from the gate level up, including all of the software, or just
wait 6 months for the semiconductor industry to get you the 50% speedup in
binary?
However, I do notice that SQUID circuits, and some other
superconducting phenomena, might well be made to work in a trinary fashion
(no current, current circulating left, current circulating right). If so,
that might make Batenus or trinary pretty interesting again.
Am I Off-topic if I'm 10 years into the future? :-)
- Mark
Linc,
>Calculating in binary code is as easy as 01,10,11.
Calculating in Batenus is as easy as 1,1n,10
"Iggy Drougge" <optimus(a)canit.se> wrote:
> This might interest some of the perverts out there:
> http://www.trinary.cc/
The web site's tutorial says:
> The trinary math system utilizes the 3 natural states
> of electrical current flow. A wire conducts in one
> direction, or the other, or not at all. Base 4 would
> need to have 4 states, which don?t naturally exist.
Somebody forgot to spread the word!
Scientists Build Tiny Computer From DNA
http://news.excite.com/news/r/011121/14/science-science-dnacomputer-dc
> The double helix molecule that contains human genes
> stores data on four chemical bases -- known by the
> letters A, T, C and G -- giving it massive memory
> capability that scientists are only just beginning
> to tap into.
Regards,
--Doug
=========================================
Doug Coward
@ home in Poulsbo, WA
Analog Computer Online Museum and History Center
http://www.best.com/~dcoward/analog
=========================================
>>B: What kind of monitor it connects to? (looks like a CGA or EGA
>>connector, but could be just about anything... from what I am finding
>>Sigma offered a cool SCSI based monitor that had its own custom stuff, so
>>I am fearing that it needed a custom monitor too)
>
>
>I'm pretty sure it's a TPD monochrome card IIRC. (TwoPageDisplay)
Is their anything special about a two page display? or can I use a more
standard monitor (like CGA, or VGA with some kind of adaptor)?
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
> It works pretty much the same as Netscape, just looks a bit different,
> (especially if you install alternave buttons etc.) - nothing you can't
> easily understand from a litle Netscape experience.
>
> Now Cyberdog - that *was* different ;-)
And still is. I've got it running on the WGS8150/80 sitting
behind me. But Cyberdog could well rise again, under Windows...
As you know, Cyberdog was essentially a container for a series
of net-enabled OpenDoc components. While Microsoft has still
never released the OpenDoc-killing Cairo OS they'd promised,
Apple and IBM did stop development of OpenDoc; meantime, Micro-
soft continued to develop the Component Object model enough
that a certain third-party is going to take advantage of it
big-time.
The party is Stardock, and the product is DesktopX. The next
generation of DesktopX will provide a framework for the use
and development of COM objects directly by the user. With
DesktopX, it'll be almost trivial to recreate Cyberdog using
COM (and ActiveX components) instead of OpenDoc.
I'll stop there since I'm drifting OT...
-dq
>Now that's a machine that I really want. I have a lead on a couple of
>Lisa 2's if the guy ever gets them out of his storage building.
If you get an extra, send one my way!
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Richard Erlacher [mailto:edick@idcomm.com]
> the Intel CPU as well as the 'LC040, was 3.11/6.22. I was
> working more from the
> experience with Windows that I'd had more recently. My
> latest Windows, BTW, is
> '98SE, and, until they fix some of the very fundamental problems, like
> non-working OS utilities, e.g. Backup, I'm not getting any
> more M$ OS products.
> I'm told it may be a long wait, BTW.
Has microsoft _ever_ had a working backup utility? OK, maybe xenix had a
working version of tar or cpio (I doubt it had both), but that's it.
However, since I'm supposed to "leave my anti-ms baggage at the door,"
according to the faq, don't get me started ;)
> This practice of theirs, of buying a non-functional cast-off from some
> financially-troubled software company and then integrating it
> into their OS is,
> in fact, an example of their "monopolistic practices" since
Just ask yourself why most of these companies are troubled in the first
place...
> they've no intention
> of supporting the product as an intrinsic function of their
> OS, though that's
> what they claim, as in the case of Internet Explorer, it is.
> Since you can't go
> to anyone else for a competing OS product, I guess they
> figure you're screwed,
> which is how I see it.
Well, my most recent exposure is to windows 2000, which, admittedly, is
nearly as stable as NT 3.x was (4 was a joke). I only use it at work, and
only because they give me no choice. At home, I have plenty of other
options that do whatever I tell them to... ;)
Regards,
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
Hello, all:
I got another disk image working -- AltairDOS. And again, I have no manuals
so I'm running a bit blind. This image seems to boot to a monitor program
and a dot prompt. Does anyone have a command list to go with this? I've also
gotten some error codes, so I probably need the whole manual.
Also, I'm having a bit of a tough time...because of the configuration of
the images I'm using, the status bits returned from the console are the
exact opposite of a BASIC implementation. So with the emulator one could use
*either* BASIC tapes *or* CP/M for example.
So, I'd like to put out a call for someone with the code for a CP/M 2.2
BIOS for an Altair with the MITS floppy controller and an SIO or 2SIO serial
card. Also, I'm going to need a layout of the floppy format because I will
probably have to write some disk image manipulation tools for Windows so
that I can regenerate a bootable CP/M image (straight T/S increments).
On a positive note, I was able to get the integrated debugger that I
borrowed from Jim Battle's Solace project working. This will prove to be a
big help later on. Thanks Jim!
Again, any help from those with a real Altair is greatly appreciated.
Rich
Rich Cini
Collector of classic computers
Build Master for the Altair32 Emulation Project
Web site: http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
/************************************************************/
> >I live just north of Fort Worth, and the big Radio Shack "Outlet Store".
> >They have a lot of discontinued things, and a lot of components. I assume
> >they'll always have them.
>
> I've noticed that even the 'bargain bin' area that used to be
> tucked back in one corner of most stores seems to be gone as well.
> Used to be able to get some cool older discontinued stuff from that
> section, including Model 2000 stuff. Unfortunately I also passed on
> a portable disk drive in the same area at one point.
The portable hard drive? I've got one of those, I really
do need to get my 2000 out and play with it for Christmas...
-dq
Hate to prolong this already too-long thread, but that raises an
interesting point; since that's exactly what most of us were doing in
those long-ago days, hacking around the insides with our soldering
irons, is it really a sin to do the same thing today instead of keeping
them on the shelf in pristine condition?
Comments?
m
--------------Original Message--------------
Date: Thu, 01 Nov 2001 10:09:02 -0500
From: Eric Chomko <vze2wsvr(a)verizon.net>
Subject: Re: Price guide for vintage computers
<snip>
Everything is fine with what you state as there is no right or wrong way to collect,
IMO. The only exception I would take about your statements above is, if in your quest
for beat up machines that YOU would beat them up in order to get them to your liking.
I assume that is not what you do, but felt the need to mention it. Even though one's
system is theirs and they can do anything they want to with them, I personally take
exception to intentional damage of items. Again I am not saying that is what you do.
<snip>
I was given this today. It has a tape backup (and controler board) and
the DOS-73 "emulation" board w/ 8087 upgrade (but no 8088... are those
NCR chips 8088 clones?). Included is full system software and docs. I
wonder if the 5.25 inch disks are still readable.
The computer is slightly dirty on the outside and dusty inside (on the
expansion boards). I think I'll wait untill i can dust out the insides a
bit before powering it.
So now I have a Real UNIX(tm) computer! heh.
-Philip
Does anyone know anything about the Tandy 10? It was Tandy/Radio Shack's
larger microcomputer around the time the TRS-80 Model I came out. I found a
picture of one in a book, and got kind of interested in it (partially a
little home-town pride, being from Fort Worth). I can't find hardly any
information about it on the internet.
Thanks,
Owen
>I have a non working 128k unit I'd sure like to get around to fixing...It
>actually worked before I located a keyboard and mouse for it, I think I
>used the wrong type of keyboard cable. When I powered it up with the
>keyboard, heard a snap, and it didn't work anymore :/
YIKES!
Yeah, the keyboard cable is supposed to be straight pinned (or was that
cross pinned... no it was straight pinned). A standard phone cable is
cross pinned (or was that straight pinned... no was cross pinned... LOL).
If you use a standard phone cable, you will fry the keyboard controller
chip. I am sure that was the snap you heard.
You can always use the mouse and the Key Caps desk accessory, type by
clicking the letters, then choose cut and paste to move it to whatever
you are trying to type in... PITA, but it actually does work (I had to do
it once when my sister took the keyboard away from me, and I had to get a
paper finished for school... it took me all night, but I finished it...
and promptly beat the stuffing out of her the next morning)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
I came across a stash of HardCard driver diskettes today (360K 5.25").
They say on the label that they are for the 20MB version, but I'm sure
they would work on the 40MB model as well.
Anyhoo, I have three spare copies if anyone is interested. One to each
respondent. E-mail me your address and I'll get it out to you. Don't
worry about mailing costs.
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 *
>Ok, so what's the trouble with reading a 360K diskette on a 1.2MB drive?
>I know we've covered this numerous times before but I'm too lazy to go
>searching through the archives.
>
>I think I'll try to fire up an old school IBM PC with a 360K drive to see
>if I have better luck.
I've never had a problem READING 360k disks in a 1.2 drive. I have had
trouble writing them (but not always, and I think it might be related to
the disks being DD's, but formated as HD's and then back to DD's again...
not sure). And I do know when formatting them under dos, you need to
specify that you are formatting a 360k disk in a 1.2 drive (/f is the
switch I think). Just specifying the size as 360k doesn't usually work
for me.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
my basement of all places!
An Olympia RO printer, that is bout serial and parallel and, uses a
diasy-wheel instead of being dot matrix. Wow, I forgot that I had the
thing!
Eric
> Nope. the compatability is not symetric. You can read with 80track(1.2m)
> drives as the head width is narrower than the track for the 40 track(360k).
> You cannot relaibly write as the narrow 80tr head cannot fully erase a 40tr
> data track. You can fake it if you completely erase the media and use
> a 80tr drive to write but reading that reliably is poor. If you then write
to
> that with a 40tr drive once again it will write the wider track.
>
> For that reason reading/writing across the 40/80 track drive sizes should
> be limited to read only save for special cases (emergency). My experience
> is that (read only) is adaquate. If you have cross compatability on read
> try erasing the disk completely first.
Someone used to market a utility in one of those microscopic ads in
the back of Byte magazine that did double-track writes on the 80tr
drives to yield diskettes that would read more reliably.
Anyone have expericen with that?
-dq
On Nov 22, 2:30, Derek Peschel wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 22, 2001 at 08:44:24AM +0000, Pete Turnbull wrote:
> > That's a pity. They weren't always like that; the Apple ][ service
manuals
> > included complete schematics and diagnostic software, and the service
>
> Come on, Pete, you should know by now that Apple turned away from its
> Apple ][ mentality the instant the Mac came out (if not before, like when
> the Mac was being designed) and apparently hasn't looked back since.
Well, yes, that's true. Although I'd moved on by then, it was apparently
quite difficult to get information by the time the //e was around, even.
To be honest, I'm not a great Apple fan. They tend to do things their own
way, and then not tell you how they did them.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
At 09:56 AM 11/21/01 -0600, you wrote:
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Rich Beaudry [mailto:r_beaudry@hotmail.com]
>
> > Same for hardcopy manuals. I have some .PDFs, but they're so
> > clumsy ... If
> > anyone has spare copies of manuals for this machine,
> > especially any tech
> > references or service manuals, I'll gladly pay postage, and
> > some extra, for
> > them....
>
>I assume they exist somewhere, but the closest thing I've ever seen to a
>tech reference or service manual for any macintosh was the Chilton's book on
>macintosh repair.
Apple published a series of manuals entitled "Inside Macintosh," volumes
3 and 4 of which I found in a thrift shop recently. They are for the
"goldfish-bowl"
MACs (copyright dates are 1985) and are primarily geared toward programmers,
but there are some hardware diagrams and pin-outs (nothing that Tony couldn't
figure out in less than 30 seconds, though...)
Cheers,
Dan
From: Chris <mythtech(a)Mac.com>
>I've never had a problem READING 360k disks in a 1.2 drive. I have had
>trouble writing them (but not always, and I think it might be related to
>the disks being DD's, but formated as HD's and then back to DD's
again...
>not sure). And I do know when formatting them under dos, you need to
Nope. the compatability is not symetric. You can read with
80track(1.2m)
drives as the head width is narrower than the track for the 40
track(360k).
You cannot relaibly write as the narrow 80tr head cannot fully erase a
40tr
data track. You can fake it if you completely erase the media and use
a 80tr drive to write but reading that reliably is poor. If you then
write to
that with a 40tr drive once again it will write the wider track.
For that reason reading/writing across the 40/80 track drive sizes should
be limited to read only save for special cases (emergency). My
experience
is that (read only) is adaquate. If you have cross compatability on read
try
erasing the disk completely first.
Allison
Dear sir,
I have a DEC PDP11/53 computer with Graftek Single Board Display Adapter
Board. I dont get any display out from the card. The self test on the
display board flashes LED 5 times indicating that possibly the DMA interface
is problem. How do I go ahead in troubleshooting the board.Pl. send me
enough information
Thanking You
Mrs.T.EZHILARASI
Sceintific Officer/Engineer
Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research
Department of Atomic Energy
Kalpakkam
India
phone : 91 4114 80306
fax: 91 4114 80081
Maybe runs a full-tilt website crawler/archiver program? The kind that grabs
whetever pages you tell it, for offline reading, or some such thing?
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 905818
! -----Original Message-----
! From: Mark Knibbs [mailto:mark_k@totalise.co.uk]
! Sent: Tuesday, November 20, 2001 6:35 AM
! To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
! Cc: mark_k(a)totalise.co.uk
! Subject: FreeTradeZone site moving to subscription-only for
! older parts
!
!
! Hi,
!
! Some of you have probably used the PartMiner/FreeTradeZone web site at
! http://www.freetradezone.com/ to download datasheets for
! older, discontinued
! chips. This has been very useful to me.
!
! For discontinued products (which I guess is what most of us
! are interested
! in), they are moving to a subscription-only system.
! Subscription cost is a
! whopping US$299 per month (introductory; the normal cost is
! supposedly
! US$375), so future access will only be viable for most people
! if you need it
! for your job.
!
! I don't know when the change is being made, or if it has
! happened already. If
! it hasn't, better download datasheets that you need while you
! still can.
!
! -- Mark
!
On Nov 21, 17:58, Chris wrote:
> >I assume these are boardswapper guides and don't include useful
> >information like schematics, right?
>
> Exactly.
>
> They are wonderful when you are trying to do things like open a Powerbook
> to repair the latch spring or the mouse button (both things that are
> prone to break on the 190/5300/3400/G3 case design), but totally useless
> if you want to know how to repair the fried power supply on a 1400
> (swapping yes, repairing no).
>
> But that jives with apple and the Mac... they have ALWAYS had a board
> swap approach to repair. Even when the repair is something simple. So if
> that is all they approve doing, why bother making public (or in the case
> of these, pseudo public) manuals that cover anything more detailed.
That's a pity. They weren't always like that; the Apple ][ service manuals
included complete schematics and diagnostic software, and the service
centre package included quite a lot of component spares (though I think we
bought those separately, not with the service manuals). I suppose it's not
surprising they included the schematics, since some were in the normal user
manuals anyway, but the service manual had more information. They were
always a bit funny about people doing repairs, though, even out of
warranty. We were part of an education auhority, not a comercial service
centre, so perhaps that made a difference -- but we didn't find the local
Apple Centre much good at that.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
I just aquired a Mac SE FDHD (thanks Dave!), and it has a Sigma Designs
video card in it. Surprise Surprise, ANOTHER company that seems to deny
that they ever made things for the older macs. Needless to say, I can't
find much info on it.
It is part number 52-000132. It has a DB-9 Female connector for the
monitor.
Anyone know
A: if drivers are needed (probably) and where I might get such (they
might be on the computer still, I didn't have anymore space to boot it,
nor another keyboard/mouse on hand... so I just opened it on the floor to
have a looksee).
B: What kind of monitor it connects to? (looks like a CGA or EGA
connector, but could be just about anything... from what I am finding
Sigma offered a cool SCSI based monitor that had its own custom stuff, so
I am fearing that it needed a custom monitor too)
C: What kind of video it is... that is, color, greyscale, monochrome...
bit depth (if not monochrome), what size it could drive, output freqs...
whatever.
Thanks for any info
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
I would like to find a source for 2mm spaced 2 pin connectors, the ones
used to add an LED indicator on most new hard drives. Preferably with
leads attached, so I don't have to solder and melt . . . . .
I can get lots of the .100 spaced, but the 2mm seems to be a odd bugger.
Gary Hildebrand
St. Joseph, MO
I'm not much of a calculator collector, but the following seems to be much
more than a mere calculator. I've located an HP 9825 for $5 at a local
surplus store. I think I'll go purchase it tomorrow.
--
Jeffrey S. Sharp
jss(a)subatomix.com
>I'd still like to get my hands on *a* NeXT. Does someone have some
>extras stockpiled somewhere they might be willing to do a deal with?
>Somenoe on the list a while back found a whole load of them but I
>never heard back from the guy and I don't remember who that was, if
>you're still out there and still have some and you read sentences this
>awkward. :-)
For fear of sounding like an AOL'er... ME TOO!!!
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
All,
Located another dealer (Mike Hancock) of old computer parts in S.
Central Texas, this one in San Antonio. This is of interest to me, because
this is where SwRI's cast-offs go, so there is likely to be some *unique*
equipment there.
http://www.ctbicompany.com
I think he has the same general M.O. as the previous place I found;
that is to say, he gets a *lot* of stuff, filters out and saves what he
thinks he can sell, then scraps the rest. I have not seen his warehouse.
Have we developed a clear, easy-to-use "wanted" list or website for
this group? It'd be neat to be able to hand this guy (Mike Hancock) or
other dealers the list or URL, and tell them if they see something on the
list, save it, it's worth $xxx.
Could we set up a database/bid deal, where anyone can add to the
list of "want" items, and what they'd pay for it?
- Mark
In a message dated Wed, 21 Nov 2001 5:15:36 PM Eastern Standard Time, Joe <rigdonj(a)intellistar.net> writes:
> Linc,
>
> I'm on the east side of Orlando, Florida. I'm two miles north of UCF
> (University of Central Florida) and between UCF and the town of Oviedo.
> I'm just off of Alafaya trail. My address is 2960 Lowery Dr. Oviedo, 32765
> you can find it on any of the on-line maps. You're welcome to whatever you
> can haul away.
>
> Joe
>
> At 11:31 AM 11/21/01 EST, you wrote:
> >Love to help "rescue" some of the HP stuff - where are you located?
> >
> >-Linc Fessenden
> >
> >In The Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...
> >
> >Calculating in binary code is as easy as 01,10,11.
> >
> >
> >
Wow, wish I could get down there - I am way up in PA....
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Iggy Drougge [mailto:optimus@canit.se]
> What kind of bollocks is that? How do you expect to run a web
> browser without
> a TCP/IP stack? I suppose you wouldn't fancy Netscape on the
> Mac any more,
> since you had to buy MacTCP in order to run that.
> Buyt then again, what browser doesn't require a TCP/IP stack
> in order to be
> used online?
I believe there was at least one MS-DOS browser that didn't (doesn't)
require a _separate_ stack. That is, since it is built into the browser.
There is also slipknot(slipnot?), which acts as a front-end to a
shell-account with lynx. :) (That's an interesting program...)
Regards,
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
>I assume these are boardswapper guides and don't include useful
>information like schematics, right?
Exactly.
They are wonderful when you are trying to do things like open a Powerbook
to repair the latch spring or the mouse button (both things that are
prone to break on the 190/5300/3400/G3 case design), but totally useless
if you want to know how to repair the fried power supply on a 1400
(swapping yes, repairing no).
But that jives with apple and the Mac... they have ALWAYS had a board
swap approach to repair. Even when the repair is something simple. So if
that is all they approve doing, why bother making public (or in the case
of these, pseudo public) manuals that cover anything more detailed.
I would LOVE to find another good book on actually repairing Macs (The
Dead Mac Scrolls was wonderful, but it only covers thru the II IIRC... I
want something that will tell me how to get my PB 1400s power supply
working again, or repair/replace the fried printer port on my 6500...
that is the kind of book I want to find)
>Now, I guess I've come to expect that computer service centres can't
>trace a fault in a circuit of 4 components. But if they're going to
>board-swap, shouldn't they just swap the defective board? And not also
>replace an expensive PSU that's got nothing wrong with it?
I know around here, it is very hard to find a "decent" repair shop. That
is, one that knows what they are doing, won't try to rip you off, and can
do economical repairs. For a while, the local CompUSA (big national
computer retail chain for those not in the US), had a GREAT tech. He
could do component level repairs, and did them on a regular basis. It was
not unusual to take a computer in, and find that it was repaired for the
diagnostic fee ($65), plus a dollar or two in parts.... guess what... the
CompUSA fired the guy... why? Because they could make more money selling
new boards then repairing the broken ones. They looked at it in terms of,
they can make no markup on a 50 cent transistor, and no additional labor
for the guy to spend 5 minutes replacing it... OR, they can make a 20-30%
markup on a new motherboard, AND 2 hours of labor (@ $65/hr) for the tech
to replace it, and reset the windows installation to accept it... AND
they could use brain dead, no training people at $10/hr to do the work
(compared to I am sure a much higher rate for the guy that knew what he
was doing).
And then you just have apple, that doesn't authorize "custom" repairs on
its parts... if it is warranty, or an "authorized" apple repair, it is
done as a board swap, and only to the detail they specify (which in many
cases means far more gets replaced then needed)... the tech mentioned
above used to ask, do you want an apple authorized repair (needed if it
was warranty, or you wanted to maintain a warranty if the repair itself
isn't covered), or did you want an unauthorized, but cheaper and faster
repair. Most people I know took the unauthorized repair for all units out
of warranty (can't void what you don't have)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Hi I need a systems disk that contains software for the Toshiba dynabook 286.
Also where can I buy a low density floppy? You may -mail me with suggestions
@
u-should-b(a)webtv.net
N-E HELP will be greatly
appreaciated.
Thanx
Love to help "rescue" some of the HP stuff - where are you located?
-Linc Fessenden
In The Beginning there was nothing, which exploded - Yeah right...
Calculating in binary code is as easy as 01,10,11.
Joe,
Was thinking about coming to the area to visit some friends on Friday. You
gonna be around?
SteveRob
_________________________________________________________________
Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp
> Unfortunately, Gamba's site has been closed by those folks at Apple that
> received their training from M$. Read "cease and desist". The Heretics
> sucked the site before his ISP cut it off.
I'm thinking that perhaps Apple knew how to do this first, and
may well have gotten the leson from Xerox..
>Try
> <http://www.artaudsociety.com/manuals.htm>
>
Nice! Grabbed quite a few of these...
> It is always nice to see a company buy out another company just so they can
> rape it for all its worth before throwing that companies technology in some
> vault so no one else can use it.
Can you say "Hewlett-Packard"?
Note to HP: Liberate the Apollo systems NOW!
-dq
>>I assume they exist somewhere, but the closest thing I've ever seen to a
>>tech reference or service manual for any macintosh was the Chilton's book on
>>macintosh repair.
>
>Apple published a series of manuals entitled "Inside Macintosh," volumes
>3 and 4 of which I found in a thrift shop recently. They are for the
>"goldfish-bowl"
>MACs (copyright dates are 1985) and are primarily geared toward programmers,
>but there are some hardware diagrams and pin-outs (nothing that Tony couldn't
>figure out in less than 30 seconds, though...)
Actually, there are tech manuals that give breakdown and assembly, and
part numbers for almost every mac, and apple product. They also include
basic diagnostic. I believe they are the same manuals the apple
authorized repair centers use (which is really sad, since the diagnostics
are pathetically simple, so obviously apple doesn't expect their techs to
have much of a brain)
You can download the manuals from an Apple FTP site, the catch is
however, you can't browse the contents of the ftp directory, so you need
to know what the manual is you are after. Fortuantly, someone has put up
a web site listing many of them (and links to the FTP site for easy
download). The web site WAS:
<http://www.accesscom.com/~gamba/manuals2.html>, alas as of just checking
it now, it seems to be gone. Maybe someone will know a newer site?
(thankfully I pulled down copies of everything I own or am after... now I
just wish I had taken the time to pull everything available down)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
Hi!
I am helping to gather original documents and/or artifacts concerning the
Remington Rand 409-series computers for the Remington Rand museum being set
up in Rowayton, CT. The models of interest are the 409-2 and the 409-2R.
We are interested in documenting the location of all surviving artifacts,
but also would like to acquire particularly interesting items by donation
or purchase.
If you have any original documents or artifacts (even as minor as Remington
Rand brand punch cards), please e-mail me at:
egendorf(a)mit.edu.
Thanks.
>Unfortunately, Gamba's site has been closed by those folks at Apple that
>received their training from M$. Read "cease and desist". The Heretics
>sucked the site before his ISP cut it off.
I knew he had some trouble originally. From the story I heard (well,
peiced together), he originally was hosting the manuals directly. Apple
complained, so he changed the links to their servers. I figured if Apple
complained once, it was only a matter of time before he was shut down
entirely.
Thanks for the new link... this time I was smart enough to save the page
locally, so I can stick it on my web site. I think I will take some time
next week to just start pulling all the manuals down (CD-Rs are such a
wonderful thing)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
>DSDD 3.5 drives are rare too, as most dealers threw them away. I have a
>small stash, but I'm haning on to them as they are used in Amigas.
I have one DSDD 3.5" drive (720k drive). I *think* it works. It is a
standard size 3.5" drive, but the face plate is part of the unit, and it
is for a 5.25" hole, so you really need a 5.25 half height bay to fit it.
I don't really need it if someone was on the search for one (sorry,
missed the beginning of this thread)
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
> I've noticed that even the 'bargain bin' area that used to be
>tucked back in one corner of most stores seems to be gone as well.
>Used to be able to get some cool older discontinued stuff from that
>section, including Model 2000 stuff. Unfortunately I also passed on
>a portable disk drive in the same area at one point.
One of the shacks near me still has that bin every year after christmas.
It is nothing more than a big cardboard box full of broken or unpackaged
items from the year. They also put all the unsold, or returned xmas gifts
with it (which makes up a bulk of it, so is why I assume it shows up
after xmas every year).
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
I was looking at the Economist (Nov 17th) at the library last night and saw
the following (p. 76)
The Lyons Electronic Office (LEO) began use 11-17-1951 in a British catering
company. It was used weekly to evaluate costs, prices, and margins for the
week's output of bread, cakes, and pies. It was "the first dedicated
business machine to operate on the 'stored program' principle, meaning that
it could be quickly reconfigured to preform different tasks by loading a new
program. It occupied 5,000 square feet of floorspace, contained 6,000
thermionic valves, and its mercury-delay-line memory could hold 2,048
instructions. LEO was built by a team led by John Pinkerton (pictured), and
its design was based on Cambridge University's EDSAC computer."
-----Original Message-----
From: joh869(a)aol.com [mailto:joh869@aol.com]
Hi I need a systems disk that contains software for the Toshiba dynabook
286. Also where can I buy a low density floppy? You may -mail me with
suggestions @
u-should-b(a)webtv.net
I'm assuming that you mean double-density floppy, since that sounds about
right for a 286.
A quick yahoo search turns these up:
http://www.athana.com/html/diskette.htmlhttp://www.filmemporium.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/data_storage.htmlhttp://www.amservices.com/amsionline/media.htm
I don't know anything about these companies, never used them, but it seems
that some of them even carry 8" disks (presumably soft-sectored)
Regards,
Chris
This Sunday an Exhibition themed 20th Anniversary of the IBM PC
will open in Frankfurt/M, Germany. The show will last until early
January, so plenty time to book your tikets. I don't have detailed
information about the pices exhibited, but it seams to be a prety
mixed up melnage of PCs and other mid 80s machnines. Check
http://www.fitg.de/fitg_deutsch/aktiv/pc20j/pc_werbe_00.html
(German only)
The exhibition is produced by the Förderkreises Industrie- und
Technikgeschichte e.V., a non profit organisation dedicated to
preserve industrial age and technological artefacts. Also least
one of the co-producers (Matthias Schmitt) is also prety active
around other classic computing themes.
Gruss
H.
--
VCF Europa 3.0 am 27./28. April 2002 in Muenchen
http://www.vcfe.org/
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Rich Beaudry [mailto:r_beaudry@hotmail.com]
> Same for hardcopy manuals. I have some .PDFs, but they're so
> clumsy ... If
> anyone has spare copies of manuals for this machine,
> especially any tech
> references or service manuals, I'll gladly pay postage, and
> some extra, for
> them....
I assume they exist somewhere, but the closest thing I've ever seen to a
tech reference or service manual for any macintosh was the Chilton's book on
macintosh repair. (Yes, the same people who do automobile repair books...)
It have that book, and it's relatively decent. Only covers old
goldfish-bowl style macs, though. :)
The copy I have, though, is the only copy of the book I've ever seen.
Regards,
Chris
Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
Amdocs - Champaign, IL
/usr/bin/perl -e '
print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
'
This might interest some of the perverts out there: http://www.trinary.cc/
--
En ligne avec Thor 2.6a.
There are two major products that come from Berkeley: LSD and UNIX.
We don't believe this to be a coincidence.
-- Jeremy S. Anderson