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

by ajp166＠bellatlantic.net

From: Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com> >I wondered where you'd gone. Yep, 2400 is far too slow for that much mail. >> FYI: there were 1810 messages all but 9 were from Classiccmp... >> thats a bit much, no? > >Yes, but you arguably didn't miss too much :-) >From the 2% audit of what went in the trash can I'd agree. Allison

24 years, 11 months

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MicroVAX equipment

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

Tony wrote: > More seriously, that's why I've not made a cleanbox yet. The drives I > want to be able to work on, and the ones I am likely to have some chance > of fixing are things like the 14" SA4000 units. Which need a _large_ > cleanbox. And, like everyone here, I have little enough space... I think you've a second problem besides the size issue, being able to handle something that big in a cleanbox seems rather impractical. It might work for 5.25" or 8" HD's, but I don't see it working for a 14" HD. How on earth could you get the leverage or whatever to crack it open! Zane

24 years, 11 months

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Sad experience

by Mzthompson＠aol.com

If it is any comfort John, yours is not an isolated experience. With regards to my recent rescue of all the NeXT stuff. It was rescued >from an "institution of higher learning". It was removed from service around 5 years ago. They decided at the time to have a 'yard sale' and include these machines. That never happened, and after 5 years they decided to rid themselves of it. If that were an isolated case I wouldn't mind. After all I got to rescue the stuff. The gotcha is that they just decommissioned all their DEC hardware. You can darn well bet by now all docs, tapes, etc. have been pitched. On my last visit I asked if any of the DEC was available. The response was that they had just decided to put it all the DEC in a yard sale. Oh Joy! So those DECstations, VAXstations, Infoserver(s), Alphas, and who knows what else are going to sit in a warehouse somewhere until who knows when. And I know from the NeXT experience that they will be picked over, and in some cases there won't be enough of a given machine left to even sell to the recyclers. Given the four "institutions of higher learning" in this town, I have worked for one full time, taught at another part time, and dealt with the other two with regards to equipment rescues. I have come to the conclusion the higher learning does not create greater smarts, and in most cases lessens the amount of common sense. I suspect that a boot full of common sense would not help, even with instructions on how to use written on the bottom. That's my opinion, and I'm stickin' to it. Mike

24 years, 11 months

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Another Amiga question

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> I don't have a network card, but if all goes well a GVP > Spectrum graphics card is going into it. BTW, 3.9 includes a bunch > of AVI's and a few MP3's on the CD to test the various media players > with, as well as an audio track. I'm not planning on upgrading any > of the other custom chips unless I find I have to, such as the Buster. There are MP3 players for 68k Amiga's?!?! That's either rather gutsy, or pathetic, I'm not sure which. What do they do, decode them to another format and then play them? > Mine's going underneathe my NEC monitor and sharing it with > the G3. This little Multisync C400 has certainly seen it's share of > various computers since I bought it in '96! The monitors I've got would probably crush a A3000! I might be able to put it in the wooden rack next to the desk, but the PDP-8/m sits where it would need to go, and I'm going to need to find more room in the rack for a PDP-8/e and Papertape reader/punch. OTOH, I might be able to stuff it under the A2002 Monitor I've got hooked up to a dead VCR (I use the combo for a TV in the computer room. > I'm going to use mine as a backup system as well as one to > handle those times when I just feel the urge ot use an Amiga. The > fact that it doesn't depend on anything MS is nice too. You could > also use it as a Linux box too. It'd be cool to fix the kernel panic > on mine when booting into Linux, but that's a low priority. I think > I saw some of the distro files still on the hard disk when I was > moving stuff around on the Amiga partition. Don't need a backup system, and I've no desire to run Linux on anything but a fast x86 box. So I'm still trying to come up with a use for it. That was one of the reasons I bought it a Catweasel, however, the board didn't function as advertised thanks to the lack of software for it. Of course the Catweasel board is also why it's sitting in a monster ALR Server Tower at the moment! Zane

24 years, 11 months

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MicroVAX equipment

by healyzh＠shell1.aracnet.com

> > > MicroVAX 3600 > > uVAX 1000 > > RA81 (2) > > RA90 > > >From personal experience I would say $50 is too little > and $250 is too much, tho I've never heard of a > uVAX 1000. Next commentator? > > John A. > > I'd say $100 max. In some ways he should be paying you to remove the RA81's! As for the uVAX 1000, a couple thoughts come to mind... One is an Infoserver 1000 (which definitly exists) the other, scratching around in the back of my mind, is some model of VAXft (which probably doesn't exist). One thing to remember is that there are a couple oddball models you don't ever hear about, however, I've never heard of a uVAX 1000. Zane

24 years, 11 months

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thunderstorm damages!

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 20, 19:24, ajp166 wrote: > I'm back, if anyone noticed. > > DSL and Phone modem cooked on June 30th put me off the air save > my 2400 baud pocket modem. I wondered where you'd gone. > FYI: there were 1810 messages all but 9 were from Classiccmp... > thats a bit much, no? Yes, but you arguably didn't miss too much :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 20, Tony Duell wrote: > > Well, for some folks, maybe. If someone sticks me in a project with a > > crappy OS, I will find the source and fix it (unless it's Windoze, of > > course, but I don't consider that an OS!)...whereas if someone sticks > > me with a crappy processor, well, there's little one can do. > > Err, find the schematics and fix it. Oh, you meant a microprocessor.... :-) ;) *poke* -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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OT: DSL Woes

by mjsnodgr＠rockwellcollins.com

Chuck McManis <cmcmanis(a)mcmanis.com>@classiccmp.org on 07/19/2001 03:21:47 PM Please respond to classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Sent by: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org cc: Subject: Re: OT: DSL Woes (was RE: Plato terminal At 01:31 PM 7/19/01 -0500, you wrote: >I'm troubled by the desire of companies to provide mission critical services >over consumer quality telecommunication and computer equipment. And you wonder why they went out of business? DSL can be much more reliable than Cable Modems but it does have to be installed properly, and you need to have the correct filter at the junction box to prevent interference with line noise. --Chuck -------------------------------------------------------- Very true. Qwest (Formerly U.S.Worst,er West) in Cedar Rapids Iowa has fairly decent DSL. They don't futz around with your computer like the @Home cable modem folks do. I've had 256k DSL for about 9 months now and had about 37 minutes of down time. (~20 min, and then ~17 min a couple months later) Of course I live in a bedroom community about 5 blocks from the TelCo switch. <grin> My only gripe is that the Cisco 675 DSL router/modem they sold me MUST be in routing mode, not bridging mode, and it does not have the capability to do port forwarding. <sigh> So you can't run a server to save your soul. - M.S.

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 20, Eric Dittman wrote: > > That would be downright silly, because they haven't EOLed the > > line...they've announced that the WILL EOL it, in what should be a > > couple of years. > > There is a lot of panic about the future EOL of the Alpha, with > a lot of people equating that to the end of OpenVMS, which is > wrong. This is just another architecture transition. I would Yup. > have preferred that the Alpha go on, but the real point is the > OS, not the CPU. Well, for some folks, maybe. If someone sticks me in a project with a crappy OS, I will find the source and fix it (unless it's Windoze, of course, but I don't consider that an OS!)...whereas if someone sticks me with a crappy processor, well, there's little one can do. > I can see people trying to stock up spares ahead of the EOL, > though. It would be better to grab them while they are > plentiful and cheap than to wait until the EOL when people > will want to stockpile some of the items that will be harder > to get later. Good point. But the EOL is *years* away. Isn't this a little premature, even for the "careful folk"? -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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DEC LP25 (help?)

by classiccmp＠knm.yi.org

Hi, I'm new to the list, so just a quick bit about me - I'm in my 3rd year of a 4 year MEng Software Engineering degree at UMIST, UK, and I'm quite happily collecting machines (much to the annoyance of my parents :&) Anyway - the point of the mail is... I've been given an LP25, and it's not a happy beastie :&( When you turn it on, it's status display says "P" (power fault), and lo and behold, it's right. There's a definate lack of any regulated voltages on the motherboard, the only voltage there is the 38V RAW voltage, which is within limits. So I've decided that the power board is at fault. The Maintainance Manual says "Check fuses..." which I've done - all fine. So I figure there's a fault on the power board. Problem is, I don't have any schematics for the power board, so I can't really test it, without a lot of trial and error. I'd be very grateful if someone could point me at somewhere I might find something useful, or even lend me the details, if you've got them :&) (oh, and if anyone in the UK has a spare VMS 5.x docset up for grabs... or perhaps a DECwriter :&) -- Matt --- E-mail: matt(a)pkl.net, matt(a)knm.yi.org, matt(a)printf.net matt(a)m-techdiagnostics.ltd.uk, matthew.london(a)stud.umist.ac.uk mattl(a)vcd.student.utwente.nl, mlondon(a)mail.talk-101.com Web Page: http://knm.yi.org/ http://pkl.net/~matt/ PGP Key fingerprint = 00BF 19FE D5F5 8EAD 2FD5 D102 260E 8BA7 EEE4 8D7F PGP Key http://knm.yi.org/matt-pgp.html

24 years, 11 months

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Another Amiga question

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> At 07:22 PM 7/19/01 -0700, Zane H. Healy wrote: > >Though as I was cursing this morning, even with MacOS 9.1 a Mac can't format > >a floppy and do something else. I love my G4/450, but that's just plain > >pathetic. > > And I thought that having dual processors on my G4 would have > some effect allowing doing more than one thing at once, but > it doesn't. I bought it (that is, Apple sold it) months before > OS X was shipped. OS X will use the dual processors. A few > odd PhotoShop plugins use it. The distributed.net client uses it. > Other than that, I wasted a few hundred bucks. > > - John Yes, BUT this has been a known problem dating back to the Quad-Processor 3rd Party Mac's that were made around '95. How good of a job is OS X doing at dual processors? One would hope pretty good, but I honestly don't know. I bought OS X the day it came out (and have every beta ever released going back to the OPENSTEP 4.2 "Prelude to Rhapsody" release), but I've barely used it, it just isn't ready for my everyday use. By this Fall/Winter it's starting to sound like it will be. I've got to admit I'm looking forward to the release of Microsoft Office for it, with that, Eudora, Netscrape, and eXodus I should be able to switch. Though in the long run I'll also need to upgrade Photoshop and some other apps. Who knows, I'm happy with 9.1, and might just stay there for another year or two, if not longer. After all it does everything I need, and something tells me it's going to be a minimum of another year before I feel the need to upgrade to a newer system. I made about 2.8 years with my 8500/180, and it looks like I'll do even better with the G4/450 as they're just finally starting to come out with systems that should be significantly faster than my system (something to realize is my system is from the very first batch of G4/450's sold). However, unlike the 8500/180, it doesn't look like I'll be skipping a processor family (though who knows I might). Zane

24 years, 11 months

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Anyone need some LN-03 toner refills?

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

...for cost of shipping? Also usable in most Ricoh engine based laser printers. Have five complete, and a sixth partial. -jim jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by workstations＠poczta.onet.pl

Hello everyone! I'm looking for sources of inexpensive Digital Alpha CPUs and motherboards for a hobby project I'm putting together with my friends. I tried eBay, but there is not much Alpha gear to be found there. I'd be very grateful for any pointers. PS. I love this list. Jacek -- Czatuj, wyslij sms-y, sprawdz poczte Zainstaluj OnetKomunikatora [ http://ok.onet.pl/ ]

24 years, 11 months

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Need helpers for VCF East

by vcf＠siconic.com

Does anyone know where I might find three teenagers in the Marlborough, Massachusetts area wanting to make some money by working various roles at the VCF? If so, please reply to <sellam(a)vintage.org> ASAP. I will discuss the details with you and you can pass them along to any potential slave^H^H^H^H^H Event Services Engineer ;) Thanks! Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

24 years, 11 months

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OT: Coke/Pepsi (was: Apple II for intro to microprocessors

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 18, 11:21, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: > Shortly after that, the U.S.A. and USSR (CCCP) normalized diplomatic > relations enough to import vodka and export Pepsi to Russia. Definitely OT: one of my prized T-shirts is a Russian Pepsi one :-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 11 months

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Winchester Technology (was Re: MicroVAX equipment

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 20, Bill Bradford wrote: > On Thu, Jul 19, 2001 at 09:41:59PM -0400, Dave McGuire wrote: > > I've seen references to "3030" in many books over the years...I'm > > nowhere near old enough to have been there though. > > -Dave McGuire > > Same here, in the "IBM's Early Computers" and "IBM's 360 and Early 370 Systems" > books, which are as close to canon as I can find on the subject... Speaking of which...anyone know where I might get my grubby paws on one of those Micro/370 boards? -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 20, Eric Dittman wrote: > > > have preferred that the Alpha go on, but the real point is the > > > OS, not the CPU. > > > > Well, for some folks, maybe. If someone sticks me in a project with a > > crappy OS, I will find the source and fix it (unless it's Windoze, of > > course, but I don't consider that an OS!)...whereas if someone sticks > > me with a crappy processor, well, there's little one can do. > > I meant the point is the OS (OpenVMS) and not the CPU (VAX, Alpha, IPF), > not the OS vs. the CPU in general. Ahh, ok... > > Good point. But the EOL is *years* away. Isn't this a little > > premature, even for the "careful folk"? > > Not really. For some of the odd-ball stuff, the sooner the better > (just ask anyone that has to keep a VAX going that uses the Pro3x0- > based console). Eeeek! Yes, you have a point! 8-) -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by dittman＠dittman.net

> > > That would be downright silly, because they haven't EOLed the > > > line...they've announced that the WILL EOL it, in what should be a > > > couple of years. > > > > There is a lot of panic about the future EOL of the Alpha, with > > a lot of people equating that to the end of OpenVMS, which is > > wrong. This is just another architecture transition. I would > > Yup. > > > have preferred that the Alpha go on, but the real point is the > > OS, not the CPU. > > Well, for some folks, maybe. If someone sticks me in a project with a > crappy OS, I will find the source and fix it (unless it's Windoze, of > course, but I don't consider that an OS!)...whereas if someone sticks > me with a crappy processor, well, there's little one can do. I meant the point is the OS (OpenVMS) and not the CPU (VAX, Alpha, IPF), not the OS vs. the CPU in general. > > I can see people trying to stock up spares ahead of the EOL, > > though. It would be better to grab them while they are > > plentiful and cheap than to wait until the EOL when people > > will want to stockpile some of the items that will be harder > > to get later. > > Good point. But the EOL is *years* away. Isn't this a little > premature, even for the "careful folk"? Not really. For some of the odd-ball stuff, the sooner the better (just ask anyone that has to keep a VAX going that uses the Pro3x0- based console). -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 11 months

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(OT) Sgi Indy

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 18, 21:56, Jarkko Teppo wrote: > Quoting Pete Turnbull <pete(a)dunnington.u-net.com>: > > > On the subject of NeXTs, how do you get a NeXT to use standard files > > (/etc/hosts, et al) instead of the netinfo stuff? > What you may want to read is chapter 10 (Incorporating a NeXT Computer > into a Mixed Network) from NeXT Network and System Administration. Available > on paper back and probably on your system disk as well. I'll have a look for that. Any idea where I'd find it? I don't have any paper manuals, but I do have several CDs. > Man-pages on niload and nidump might help too. Honestly, I never remember > how to do it so I just improvise and create a local NI hierarchy and > use DNS for name resolution. I read them, and realised they didn't tell me enough, mainly because I don't understand the rest of it. > The chapter did mention NIS (yp) so that *might* be an option. No, NIS is *never* an option ;-) -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 19, Zane H. Healy wrote: > I've not been looking at the DEC gear recently, but last I did look the number > of Alpha boardc and CPUs seemed to have gone down drastically. I think > the supply is drying up. Seriously, unless you need 64-bit, or are like me > and running OpenVMS, the question becomes, why? What you're going to be > able to find and afford isn't going to be that fast compared to a > Pentium III or IV Motherboard and processor which is likely to cost less. I dunno, man. *I* sure won't run Intel-architecture machines. I'd be seriously surprised if Alphas were drying up. There were a LOT of them made. Machines of which there were far fewer, and that are far older, can still be found readily. Having no better explanation, I respectfully submit that this "shortage" of Alpha hardware is due to random market fluctuations. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by dittman＠dittman.net

> On July 20, Bill Gunshannon wrote: > > > Having no better explanation, I respectfully submit that this > > > "shortage" of Alpha hardware is due to random market fluctuations. > > > > I wonder how much of it is due to businesses sucking up spares to keep > > their real work going for the long term now that Compaq has EOLed the > > line (prematurely, many would say!!) > > That would be downright silly, because they haven't EOLed the > line...they've announced that the WILL EOL it, in what should be a > couple of years. There is a lot of panic about the future EOL of the Alpha, with a lot of people equating that to the end of OpenVMS, which is wrong. This is just another architecture transition. I would have preferred that the Alpha go on, but the real point is the OS, not the CPU. I can see people trying to stock up spares ahead of the EOL, though. It would be better to grab them while they are plentiful and cheap than to wait until the EOL when people will want to stockpile some of the items that will be harder to get later. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 20, Bill Gunshannon wrote: > > Having no better explanation, I respectfully submit that this > > "shortage" of Alpha hardware is due to random market fluctuations. > > I wonder how much of it is due to businesses sucking up spares to keep > their real work going for the long term now that Compaq has EOLed the > line (prematurely, many would say!!) That would be downright silly, because they haven't EOLed the line...they've announced that the WILL EOL it, in what should be a couple of years. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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Intro to Microprocessors

by jweder＠telusplanet.com

Hey Eric... Yes, it'd be great to put together a learning system that way, IF the person had the skill and determination to pull it off. This very scenario is why I suggested (back on Sunday I think) that a good way to go would be to pick up a 68HC11 Evaluation Board (EVBU or EVM). My EVBU (which is currently built into a little robot) already HAS: - serial port - monitor & assembler/disassembler program (Buffalo) - 1k EEPROM - wire wrap area - real-time clock - assembler & download software - five ports: A - pulse counters or general I/O B - parallel output or address selection if using ext. RAM/ROM C - parallel I/O or address/data port if using ext. RAM/ROM D - two comm ports or general I/O E - eight analog inputs or general inputs Joel A. Weder jweder(a)telusplanet.net 403-556-4020

24 years, 11 months

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insignificant finds

by jarkko.teppo＠er-grp.com

Well, I didn't find a Symbolics LispM nor did I find a -64 Mustang but I did find Programming the PET/CBM by West and Pet/CBM Personal Computer Guide by Adam Osborne and Carrol S. Donahue. I also found a Simon's Basic module + Docs. Programming the PET/CBM was an especially nice find, since the only version I had previously was an old photocopy and the book is in mint condition. Now I can probably get enough motivation to actually fix my 3040 (or was it 4040). Still looking for that Mustang. -- jht

24 years, 11 months

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New find: DECUS RSX SIG Tapes

by wrking＠dadaboom.com

I recently acquired a load of 9 track tapes from eBay. What a deal, I only paid 1 cent for a trunk load of tapes. In there, I found an original DEC RSX11M+ (3.0) distribution, several DECUS RSX SIG tapes from the fall of 1981 to the spring of 1987 and a bunch of other miscellaneous tapes! I put a list of most of the tapes up on my www site: http://www.dadaboom.com/pdp11/software/tapes.html . If copies are not available elsewhere, I was planning on duping the RSX SIG tapes and putting them up on my www site. I won't be putting the RSX distribution online due to the copyright infringement problems :-( Now the questions 1.) Would having the tapes on-line be useful? 2.) If so, what's the best way to dup them and make them available for download? I have a PDP-11 running RT-11 (v5.03) and a uVAX-III running VMS v5.5. I can hook my 9 track tape drive (TS05) up to either of them. I'd bet VMS would be the better bet, but I'm not sure about the best way to dup them so that they would be useful for the rest of the world. Help would be appreciated. Thanks, Bill

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by dittman＠dittman.net

> I might be interested in a PC164 and CPU, if you have a spare... I don't have any spare CPUs, but you can generally find those on eBay. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by dittman＠dittman.net

> > I've got a few spare Alpha motherboards sitting around. > > I've got PC164, EB164, and PC64 motherboards. If anyone > > needs any as a spare, let me know. > > What are the differences? I have a "noname" board, AT form-factor. I think > it's the AXPPci133 or something similar. I got it running *BSD off of the > SCSI port a long time ago and haven't done much with it in the past year. The PC164 supports the 21164A, the EB164 supports the 21164, and the PC64 supports the 21064A. > Thought about trying to follow those instructions for loading OpenVMS. It's > really low on the priority scale. I installed OpenVMS on my Multia and added it to my cluster, but one of the patches broke something and the Multia quit being able to boot into the cluster. I later upgraded to V7.2-1 and the Multia patch doesn't work with that version. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 11 months

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Cray on ebay

by jos.mar＠bluewin.ch

It's OT , since less then 10 years old, but a "real Cray" has crept up on the german ebay site. Currently less than 200 USD.... Jos

24 years, 11 months

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Winchester Technology (was Re: MicroVAX equipment

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 19, 21:06, Bob Shannon wrote: > Don Maslin wrote: > > Rather minor correction - the Winchester rifle used 3030 caliber > > ammunition, but there were a number of models, the most famous being > > either the '94 or '96 (I'm having brain fade!). > Isn't that .308 for the 30-30. Maybe your thinking of the 303, which used > .311? Yes, the name 30-30 comes from the 30-calibre bullet (which is actually .308") and the original load was 30 grains of powder. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 11 months

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MicroVAX equipment

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 19, Iggy Drougge wrote: > >No, they're large, heavy and winchesters (HDA which can only be repaired > >in a clean room). > > AFAIK winchester is just old nomenclature for fixed disks. What do you mean by > winchesters? The term "winchester" (taken from the IBM 3030 disk drive) implies a sealed HDA which cannot (or should not) be opened in an "ordinary" environment. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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RSX11M+ v3.0 Distribution

by eric-no-spam-for-me＠brouhaha.com

"William King" <wrking(a)dadaboom.com> writes: > I'm going to pursue the possibility that it's legal to post the RSX11M+ v > 3.0 distribution on-line. I think I'd like to have a signed agreement with > Mentec that this will be okay. When you ask them, make sure that you tell them that it's for use with Supnik's SIMH, for which it is *already* licensed. Otherwise they'll almost certainly say "no". For that matter, I personally wouldn't have asked, since it's clear that Supnik did already arrange a license (for SIMH only). At this point, if they say "no", it will really muddy the issue. In general, when you ask a company for permission to do anything, the answer will be "no", just because that's the safe and easy answer, and doesn't involve any research or lawyers. So when one already has permission to do something, asking for permission again can only cause grief. Note: I'm speaking entirely of the general case; none of this is intended in any way to be critical of Mentec.

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by mbg＠world.std.com

I might be interested in a PC164 and CPU, if you have a spare... Megan

24 years, 11 months

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Alpha CPUs & motherboards

by dittman＠dittman.net

I've got a few spare Alpha motherboards sitting around. I've got PC164, EB164, and PC64 motherboards. If anyone needs any as a spare, let me know. -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 11 months

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scrap yard inventory

by brian＠quarterbyte.com

Is there any progress on the stuff-for-sale website, Sellam? I was just thinking: how about setting up a similar page for where-stuff-can-be found? For example, I ran across an RH780 massbus controller today in a salvage shop today -- new in its shipping box, the whole set of cards in a backplane. I don't want it, and I don't think many of the subscribers of this list would want to get a few dozen emails of this sort every day, but it would be nice to be able to record the information. I picture a website where you could enter items found in shops as well as personal inventories of things we'd part with if asked. Location, item, price if known, date spotted, etc; and a way of checking it off: "gone", "I bought it", "it blew up", etc. A sort of very narrow inventory system for the world's scrap shops and basements. Would this be useful, or would it just make it too easy for dealers to vacuum up all the good stuff? Impossible to keep up- to-date, or worth the occasional stale entry? What do y'all think? Brian

24 years, 11 months

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Winchester Technology (was Re: MicroVAX equipment

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 19, Chuck McManis wrote: > > > AFAIK winchester is just old nomenclature for fixed disks. What do you > > mean by > > > winchesters? > > > > The term "winchester" (taken from the IBM 3030 disk drive) implies a > >sealed HDA which cannot (or should not) be opened in an "ordinary" > >environment. > > Does anyone know the actual reason that IBM picked the term "winchester" ? There are two reasons...First, it was developed in Winchester, England, and stored 30MB on each of two platter surfaces. Second, the model number, 3030, made people think of the Winchester model 3030 rifle. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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Eproms Available (was RE: IMSAI EPROMS)

by Mzthompson＠aol.com

I fell behind in my reading and was catching up today when I came across Joel A. Weder's <jweder(a)telusplanet.net> posting from 8 Jun 2001 and the responses on Eproms. One of my recent hauls included a box of Eproms. There was around 100 tubes of 2708/2716/2732. A rough count shows around 1000 2708's, and 125 or so each of the 2716's & 2732's. Since I will never need that many, I would like to make them available to the list. For now and to be fair to all list members, I was thinking of dividing them up into 45 (2708 35 ea, 2716 5 ea, 2732 5 ea) to a small box. I'll ask $5 per box to cover shipping and handling. If you really want more than one box, we'll wait and see after those wanting just one box have had their chance and then figure out shipping for 'bulk' orders. Mike Thompson

24 years, 11 months

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Winchester Technology (was Re: MicroVAX equipment

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On July 19, Don Maslin wrote: > > > > > AFAIK winchester is just old nomenclature for fixed disks. What do you > > > > mean by > > > > > winchesters? > > > > > > > > The term "winchester" (taken from the IBM 3030 disk drive) implies a > > > >sealed HDA which cannot (or should not) be opened in an "ordinary" > > > >environment. > > > > > > Does anyone know the actual reason that IBM picked the term "winchester" ? > > > > There are two reasons...First, it was developed in Winchester, > > England, and stored 30MB on each of two platter surfaces. Second, the > > model number, 3030, made people think of the Winchester model 3030 > > rifle. > > Rather minor correction - the Winchester rifle used 3030 caliber > ammunition, but there were a number of models, the most famous being > either the '94 or '96 (I'm having brain fade!). Ahh, I understand. Thanks for the correction...my knowledge of gun technology is very limited. -Dave McGuire

24 years, 11 months

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Test:

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 19, 14:25, John Allain wrote: > Test =99% ? > > Hoping this turns off most if not all of the text encoding > that MS so thoughtfully provided for me <g>. Not quite, it still is using a non-standard character set: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="x-user-defined" Can anyone tell John how to set the character set to ISO-8859-1 (or ASCII) in Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2615.200? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 11 months

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schematic for Philips BM7502/00G monitor

by stefan＠softhome.net

Hi, Can anybody help me with schematics for a Philips BM7502/00G monitor ? A good scan is also fine of course and preferred even. Thanks! Stefan.

24 years, 11 months

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OT: DSL Woes

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

>My only gripe is that the Cisco 675 DSL router/modem they sold me MUST be >in routing mode, not bridging mode, and it does not have the capability to >do port forwarding. <sigh> So you can't run a server to save your soul. So what's the deal with that? The Cisco wants to route to some IP address, fair enough just make the target of that IP address another router that happens to be running NAT, a Firewall, etc. A VAX works great for this, or an old PC, or a junked laptop, etc. You don't need port forwarding to run a server, you only need either a static IP address or a rendezvous protocol for finding your server. --Chuck

24 years, 11 months

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Light Pens ...

by mbbrutman＠chartermi.net

Fred, Where was I during VCF? Probably tiling my bathroom. I'm relatively new to the list, so I haven't done any VCFs yet. The one in two weeks is too far away - I'm in Minnesota. Tony always elaborates. :-) That's a good thing. Tony: I hadn't realized that on a PC w/ CGA that the light pen was getting help from the CRT controller. That explains how a relatively simple device can report positioning information - it doesn't, the video card is doing it. So here's a trick question .. what happens when a person holds a lightpen to a dark section of the screen. Is the lightpen completely blind unless come pixel is lit up? Thanks, Mike

24 years, 11 months

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Light Pens

by mbbrutman＠chartermi.net

Wow, I feel like I've contributed something here. I started a long running thread that didn't involve the 4th of July or gun control! Ok, forget the dry humor. Thank you all, now I know more about light pens than I would have imagined possible. The $65536 question now is, how do I get a hold of one? I'd like to try it on my 6845 video controller based machine (PCjr CGA). I'm willing to learn to solder if necessary. :-)

24 years, 11 months

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Apple II for intro to microprocessors

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jul 18, 22:51, Richard Erlacher wrote: > Say ... Which Apple OS is the ][e supposed to run? I have checked out that IIe > and it appears to work OK, but I've not yet found a bootable diskette. Does it > run the same DOS as the ][+? Yes. The ones I've seen were supplied with Apple DOS 3.3, but they will of course run ProDOS if you have the disks. > Apparently the ][e uses a serial printer. Perhaps I should have looked around > for that. It uses a wierd PS/2-like connector to communicate with the thing. Out of the box, an Apple //e didn't have a printer port fitted. That would be an add-on. Most common option in my experience is a parallel card, usually fitted to slot #1, but there's no reason you could use a serial card (typically in slot #2) instead. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Network Manager University of York

24 years, 11 months

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repairing a DEC VT420

by Mzthompson＠aol.com

Gunther Schadow wrote: > I bought a VT420 from a neighborhood garage sale ($5) that > turned out not to work. <snip> > Opened the box and powered on, the kathode in the tube didn't > seem to glow. More inspection turned out that what seems like > a ceramic capacitor was exploded or fried, all black and > crummy, impossible for me to identify its specs. Can someone > help me out with a schematics or databook or something? > the blown-up capacitor is C621. I popped the hood of a VT420 and the only markings I found on C621 was "1J250". My years of electronics leave me with out an opinion as to what the actual value is. As you know, that capacitor is located inside the confines of a heatsink. That is the heatsink on the horizontal output transistor. Without a schematic, I would guess that capacitor is associated with the horizontal output transistor or possibly is in the flyback transformer circuit. Experience has taught me that is best to check the windings on the flyback, albiet hard to do without a schematic. More times than I care to remember, I have found a bad flyback. At that point it goes out the back door, I just don't mess with them anymore like I used to. Granted there are companies out there that sell replacement flybacks, but the prices almost lead to the decision to pitch the one unit and use the money instead to buy several others and hope for better luck. Mike

24 years, 11 months

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New find: DECUS RSX SIG Tapes

by healyzh＠aracnet.com

> My understanding of the Mentec hobby license only covered use fo rthe > emmulators, not real hardware. > > Am I mistaken? > > Gary No, you are not mistaken. It is only good for emulators from DEC, which covers simh up to about version 2.3d, it is unknown if the latest version is still covered. Of course the only thing I'm using the latest version for is the PDP-10 emulation so I can run TOPS-10 :^) Zane

24 years, 11 months

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OT: DSL Woes (was RE: Plato terminal

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I have been involved in the installation of 5 ISDN, 7 cable modem and 2 DSL installations. One of the DSL installations never went live. The other works, sort of, now being replaced by Cable Modem. DSL SWBell was unable to handle having a router and then wanted us to remove the sniffer we were using to troubleshoot the line. I was lucky the police didn't arrive when the DSL and the alarm system phone line couldn't coexist. I also didn't enjoy crawling under beds and furniture to place filters on all of the phone jacks. Unable to authenticate unless connected, unable to connect unless authenticated. Cable Modem I have lost service twice due to creatures eating my coax cable. It's now routed through a pipe and they instead chewed my phone line last night. I think they are squirrels, "rats with tails". ISDN My nightmares have almost subsided from these installations. If you hear the work ISDN start drinking immediately. The installation crews want to leave all of the problems to the service crews. Configuring ISDN modems is a nightmare, SPID=profanity. All of the companies have no clue about support. First level wants you to reinstall your operating system. Second level reads script and will call you back. System status knowledge is always a joke. I've called in after a 1/2 hour server outage and been told the system was never down. My first troubleshooting technique is to call several of my neighbors who have cable modem and ask if their systems are up. My last cable eaten by squirrel adventure, the TV still worked by the modem wouldn't connect. Download speed only varies a little, slower about 6-7 PM. I'm troubled by the desire of companies to provide mission critical services over consumer quality telecommunication and computer equipment. Mike mmcfadden(a)cmh.edu

24 years, 11 months

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Xerox 860 IPS needs a good home

by Pat.Thielen＠aexp.com

Hi there, I was given this e-mail address from a person who wanted to buy my 860 IPS, but couldn't afford the high cost of shipping it out East. So, he suggested I send a note to this mail list to see if anyone there may want it. The stats for it are: Xerox 860 IPS (circe 1980 or so) Printer Full page monitor with a portrait orientation (so you see the full page) 2 8 inch disc drives COM card (I'm really not sure what this is for) Operating system disc Word processing disk Utilities disc As far as I know, the system still works, although I haven't powered it on in quite awhile. Its been residing in my garage for the last year or so, so you may want to make sure all the cards are seated nicely before turning it on. Otherwise, it works just fine -- I used to use it for work processing until I got a PC. Anyway, it'd be an "as-is" agreement. Of course the price is right -- free! For any further info on this beast, feel free to e-mail me at my home address (this is my work account): loki(a)visi.com Also, keep in mind that I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and its *very* expensive to ship any great distance. If anyone is interested in aquiring this system they'll really want to come and pick it up. Thanks! Pat Thielen 651-501-8067 loki(a)visi.com www.axolotyl-studios.com

24 years, 11 months

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New find: DECUS RSX SIG Tapes

by Gary.Messick＠itt.com

My understanding of the Mentec hobby license only covered use fo rthe emmulators, not real hardware. Am I mistaken? Gary > -----Original Message----- > From: Jerome Fine [mailto:jhfine@idirect.com] > Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 12:59 PM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Re: New find: DECUS RSX SIG Tapes > > > >William King wrote: > > > I recently acquired a load of 9 track tapes from eBay. What > a deal, I only > > paid 1 cent for a trunk load of tapes. In there, I found an > original DEC > > RSX11M+ (3.0) distribution! I won't be putting the RSX > > distribution online due to the copyright infringement problems :-( > > Jerome Fine replies: > > Since I the only operating system I use from the PDP-11 is RT-11, > I have no interest at all in RSX-11. But I have seen a > number of others > who are very interesting in running RSX-11 as a hobby user. > > Based on what Zane Healy just provided about the Mentec hobby > license AND the fact that V5.03 of RT-11 is available from two > sites to be downloaded. I just provided those URLs in my last post - > if anyone missed them, here they are again: > ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/digital/sim/software/ > for the file > ftp://gatekeeper.dec.com/pub/digital/sim/software/rtv53swre.tar.Z > And the other is: > ftp://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/pub/PDP-11/Sims/Supnik_2.3/software/ > for the file > ftp://minnie.cs.adfa.edu.au/pub/PDP-11/Sims/Supnik_2.3/software/rtv53swre.ta r.gz > > It seems to me (as a non-lawyer) that a similar download for RSX11M+ V3.00 > should be totally accepted by Mentec in the same manner. > > >Now the questions > > 1.) Would having the RSX11M+ V3.00 tape on-line be useful? > > YES! > > > 2.) If so, what's the best way to dup them and make them available for > > download? > > I don't know if Megan Gentry can arrange to add RSX-11, but probably > "minnie" would be glad to accept the file. That way everything would be > managed in the same manner. > > Sincerely yours, > > Jerome Fine

24 years, 11 months

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Test:

by allain＠panix.com

Test =99% ? Hoping this turns off most if not all of the text encoding that MS so thoughtfully provided for me <g>. John A. ----- Original Message ----- From: John Allain <allain(a)panix.com> To: John Allain <allain(a)panix.com> Sent: Thursday, July 19, 2001 2:19 PM >> Test // Test \\

24 years, 11 months

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Intro to Microprocessors

by dittman＠dittman.net

My take on learning microprocessors: 1) Pick a reasonable processor. An 8085, Z80, 6502, or 680x is reasonable. A Pentium III is not. 2) Read the data sheets. Get an idea of what the timing requirements are, how you interface to the timing, address, data, and I/O. Don't rely on other people's schematics unless you absolutely have no idea what you should do. Make sure after using other people's schematics that you do under- stand what they did and why. 3) Build a simple circuit on a large wire-wrap board. Include the processor, minimal ROM, minimal RAM, and a simple I/O port with eight LEDs attached. Write a small program to write different values to the LEDs. Verify they are correct. Use a wire-wrap board with enough room to add lots of stuff later. You'll be glad of the room later. 4) Add a serial I/O port. Write a small program to read data from a terminal (or equivalent) and echo the data back. 5) Start extending the program to write your own machine language monitor. You've got the I/O routines. Add the functions one or two at a time, testing along the way. You'll want to add memory read, memory write, memory fill, register read, register write, port read, port write, program start, breakpoints, but not a disassembler or assembler. Learn the machine code first. Later you can add the assembler/disassembler. 6) Add some kind of program storage, either out through the serial port, through an additional serial port (adding another shouldn't be difficult), or some other way. Be creative. 7) Go off on your own. Experiment. Add some A/D converters. Add some D/A converters. Whatever you find interesting. But the most important point to remember is to understand the whats and whys of everything you do. Step (5) is probably the one you'd be most tempted to cheat on, but it really isn't that difficult to roll your own. If you'd like, after you've got the basic functions going, you can either add features from some other monitor program, or use a completely different monitor program modified to work with your system, but definitely write the basics yourself so you know what's going on. Any comments? -- Eric Dittman dittman(a)dittman.net

24 years, 11 months

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