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

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 12:21 AM 5/25/00 -0400, Carlos Murillo wrote: > >"High Sierra"??? > >El Torito. >The origin? beats me. I think these formats were developed around the time of beta Win95, code-named "Chicago". Other projects were named after cities or puns of cities. I recall other CD formats of Romeo and Joliet (as in the city in Illinois) that allowed long-style Windows filenames on older ISO9660 discs. The Unix equivalent trick is Rock Ridge. Mapquest.com didn't find an El Torito city in the USA, though, so perhaps they named it after any number of Mexican restaurants. http://www.cdpage.com/Compact_Disc_Variations/variationsi.html is a good guide to all this. - John

26 years, 1 month

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Wanted: Apple Power Macintosh

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

Ok, perhaps not quite falling into the '10 year' rule... but this seemed as good a place to start as any. I need a Mac capable of running Internet Exploder for a project, which means some level of "PowerMAC"... A low to mid level unit would do, probably something along the line of a 7100 or 8100. The AV model would be nice, but not required... So, anyone have a unit like this that they would part with? If so, please drop me a note with asking price and or possible trades. Thanks; -jim --- jimw(a)computergarage.org The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

26 years, 1 month

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Wanted: Apple Power Macintosh

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

IE Exploder 4.5 for the Mac can install as PowerPC, 68k, or FAT (both). I just checked mine; it's a FAT app. hth, -dq > -----Original Message----- > From: James Willing [mailto:jimw@agora.rdrop.com] > Sent: Thursday, May 25, 2000 12:47 AM > To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org > Subject: Wanted: Apple Power Macintosh > > > Ok, perhaps not quite falling into the '10 year' rule... but > this seemed as > good a place to start as any. > > I need a Mac capable of running Internet Exploder for a project, which > means some level of "PowerMAC"... A low to mid level unit would do, > probably something along the line of a 7100 or 8100. The AV > model would be > nice, but not required... > > So, anyone have a unit like this that they would part with? > If so, please > drop me a note with asking price and or possible trades. > > Thanks; > -jim > > --- > jimw(a)computergarage.org > The Computer Garage - http://www.computergarage.org > Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174 >

26 years, 1 month

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Bootable Floppy from CD?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 25, 8:18, Pete Turnbull wrote: > If you want a bootable CD for a PC, you *do* make it ISO 9660 format but > with an El Torito boot catalog addition Idiot -- after all that, I forgot to say *how*. I think Adaptec's CD Creator software will do El Torito. However, if you have (access to) a Unix (Linux, Solaris, Irix, etc) system, the best way is to use 'mkisofs' to create the image and then 'cdrecord' or 'cdwrite' to write it. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 1 month

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Bootable Floppy from CD?

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On May 24, 17:45, Chuck McManis wrote: > In an effort to preserve all my miscellaneous driver floppies I've been > copying them to CD-rom. I figured I should also do this for my DOS 6.3 > disks but realized that I don't know how to create a bootable DOS 6.3 > system disk from the disk itself. I've considered using dd(1) on unix to > create just the disk image that I can later use dd to copy back out but > was wondering if perhaps there was a better way. As Roger pointed out, you're better to keep a boot floppy (or several varieties) -- it's more reliable. Bootable CDs require BIOS support which not all BIOSes have. On May 25, 0:56, Eric Smith wrote: > What I use on Linux to back up images of 1440K floppies is: > dd if=/dev/fd0 of=floppy.img bs=18k [...] > There's a DOS program called "rawrite" that can recreate floppies All true, and Chuck may find it useful to have several floppy images on a CD, but that won't make the CD bootable. An IDE CDROM doesn't look the same as an IDE hardrive, as far as the BIOS is concerned, so 'dd' from a bootable harddrive won't work. On Wed, 24 May 2000, Richard Erlacher wrote: > don't know what the appropriate spec for a bootable CD would be. I do > recall that ISO9660 or whatever it was is NOT the right format. If you want a bootable CD for a PC, you *do* make it ISO 9660 format but with an El Torito boot catalog addition (Carlos was right about the name). As far as I remember, what this actually does is make a CD that has an image of a boot floppy embedded within it, but if you really want to know how it works, look in Andy McFadden's CD-R FAQ, or check the standard at http://www.ptltd.com/techs/specs.html . The "bootableness" isn't a function of DOS, by the way; it's a function of the BIOS, and you would make a bootable Linux CD the same way. On May 24, 20:47, Charles P. Hobbs (SoCalTip) wrote: > "High Sierra"??? FYI, High Sierra is nothing to do with El Torito -- it's the name of the format system used prior to the ISO 9660 standard, and from which the ISO standard was derived. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

26 years, 1 month

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Altair parts substitutions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>> I've just checked the schematics, and the chip I replaced (on the PROM >> memory board (which uses 1702s, of course)) was a 3205. Same pinout as >> the '138, etc. >> Any idea if that's a renumbered TI part? > >The 8205 and 3205 are exactly the same part. Not according to my intel books, similar but it's like saying a 74ls138 is the same as 74hct138... very close. Apparently there was a process difference. Though intel did at times morph one part/process into another. Allison

26 years, 1 month

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Altair parts substitutions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

--->Intel's 5V 1K*8 part was the 2758. Other posts have claimed that an Intel >2758 is a half-bad 2716, but my fuzzy recollection from that era was that >the ones I looked at had substantially different die sizes. For half-bad >parts Intel usually added a suffix to the part number to denote which half >was bad, and I didn't see such a designation on any of the 2758s I used. I have samples of both with the same PN large die half bad and small die 1k part. >> My sense is that they called their 5-volt parts 8708's. > >Nope, that required the same supplies as the 2708, since it was >really the same part. Both right, same part. Different catalongs and different years. >Because there *wasn't* an industry standard on the 2K*8 EPROM at the time >when TI and Intel both announced their parts. I think Intel's move to >the single 5V supply caught TI completely by surprise. That and TI cpu of the time (TI9900) was three voltage so any system was likely to have the needed voltages. What caught TI off guard is the industry desire for single voltage. Allison

26 years, 1 month

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Lisa 1 OS

by jd＠hq.sjaa.com.au

Greetings all, I have managed to restore a Lisa 1 from an upgraded Lisa 2. Found some twiggy drives, front panel and the correct ROM to drive it all. I have even found a complete set of Lisa Office disks on twiggy diskettes. Thanks to all who helped in this venture (I know some follow this list). However, to date I'm having alot of trouble getting the Lisa 1 OS itself. If anyone has a set/copy I would be interested in hearing from you about purchase, copying or installing onto ProFile. Kind regards, Justin ___________________________________________________________________________ Justin M. Dunlop email: jd(a)hq.sjaa.com.au ____________________________________________________________________________

26 years, 1 month

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Altair parts substitutions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>> > I wondered at the time what the difference was between an 8205 and a >> > 74LS138. Now I know... >> > >> > -tony >> >> Hi Tony >> As I recall, the difference was that the Intel parts could >> stand a much lower negative voltage ( -10V? ) than the general purpose > >Well, from what Allison was saying, there's a TI silicon die in that >8205. Why would it see -10V??? Your thinking maybe of the 8224 clock gen? >_Apart_ from the clock lines (and power supplies :-)), I thought all pins >on the 8080 were at standard TTL levels. Certainly the address bus was, >which is where you'd be most likely to use a 3-8 decoder. Yes they are but not much drive, 2 LS loads are it. >> I recall, the 8205 were also Schottky's. > >Possibly. But wether it's a 74138, 74S138 or 74LS138 makes little >difference on the average 8080 system memory board... Right on. It was LS part. Also it was introduced when the 8085 was released and not the 8080. Whats funny is when TI had that 74LS yeild bust in the late 70s that part became real important to intel. Allison

26 years, 1 month

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Altair parts substitutions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

> 3205's were part of the 3000 series bit slice family. >I don't know when they started these but I think it >was before MDS800's because they used 3001/3002's in >the floppy disk controller for these. This puts them in >at least the 8080 or 8008 time frame someplace. Maybe >even earlier. Yep. Also the 300x was used to proto the 8080, or so the story goes. I'd seen a 300x based 8080 (ran at 4mhz then) once. Allison

26 years, 1 month

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Strange box

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Hi, I found this in a pile of surplus computers yesterday. Can anyone tell me what it is? It looks like an ordinary external 5 1/4" drive box but on the back of the box it has a DB-25M connector marked "MODEM/CPU" and a DB-25F connector marked "TERMINAL". There's also a rotary switch labeled "RATE" with positions marked "10", "30", "120", "240", "480", 960" and "EXT". Then there's a toggle switch with positions marked "BIN CTRL ON" "ODD" and "EVEN". And another toggle switch with positons marked "FULL" and "HALF". It has a socket for a standard AC line cord. It's made by Techtran Industries of Rochester, N.Y. and it's a model 950A. My guess is that it's a disk drive that's made to go between a terminal and it's MODEM or computer but I've never heard of one before. If that's what it is, then how do you give it coomands? Joe

26 years, 1 month

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Old Mac stuff FS in UK and DEC terminals

by mark_k＠iname.com

Hi, I have a number of Mac base units, Apple Trinitron monitors and external SCSI 44MB & 88MB SyQuest drives for sale. I hope the prices are reasonable; they should be worth it for the parts value alone (memory, floppy drives, case, video card, PSU, CPU). Most of the Mac stuff is around 10 years old. Unless stated, everything is tested working and can be seen working. Collection from Dorchester, Dorset, England would be preferable. Also, would there be any interest in Digital VT420 terminals, maybe other types of DEC terminal too? I may be able to acquire a quantity of these very cheaply. I'm no DEC expert; does a complete terminal consist only of the monitor and keyboard? Mac base units -------------- None of these have hard disks. Would be good for upgrading an existing Mac setup. Mac II. Has 800K floppy drive, 20MB RAM (four 1MB and four 4MB 30-pin SIMMs). 68851 MMU chip fitted. Has NuBus video card made by Apple (FCC ID of video card is BCG9GRM0201). 20 pounds Mac II. Two floppy drives, one 800K other 1.44MB. No RAM or video card. 10 pounds Mac II. 8MB RAM. two floppy drives, one 800K other 1.44MB. Has Megascreen 2001 NuBus video card by Megagraphics (may be able to output NTSC/PAL video according to text on PCB). The 800K floppy drive may need cleaning. 15 pounds Mac II. High density floppy drive. No RAM or video card. Probable PSU or main board fault; unit shuts down when a floppy disk is inserted. Floppy drive is good. 4 pounds Mac IIx. Two 1.44MB floppy drives. Has 16Mhz 68030, 68882. 8MB RAM, NuBus video card. Second floppy drive may be unreliable. 20 pounds Mac IIci. High density floppy drive, no RAM. Has 25MHz 68030, 68882. 15 pounds Mac IIvi. Has 16MHz 68030, unsure of amount of RAM on board. High density floppy drive. 15 pounds Mac IIvx. Has 33MHz 68030, unsure of amount of RAM on board. Contains Apple NuBus video card with 1MB RAM (FCC ID of this card is BCGM0121) 20 pounds Mac Centris 650 w/ 44MB SyQuest drive. Has 68040 CPU, unsure of amount of RAM on board. High density floppy drive. 30 pounds Power Mac 6100/60. 16MB RAM (I think). Has Apple PC emulator card with 486DX266 CPU and additional 8MB RAM (FCC ID of this is BCGM3581). High density floppy drive. Unable to fully test due to not having correct monitor cable, but unit makes normal "bong" sound when powered up. 35 pounds 12" Trinitron monitors ---------------------- Macintosh Color Display (M1212) 20 pounds Macintosh Color Display (M1212) 20 pounds AppleColor High_resolution RGB Monitor (M0401Z) 20 pounds External SCSI SyQuest drives ---------------------------- I have tested all these to the extent of powering up, drives are visible on SCSI bus. However I do not have any SyQuest media to fully test. Will offer DOA warranty. These are probably worth it for the cases alone. Mass Microsystems DataPak 44MB drive 10 pounds Mass Microsystems DataPak 88MB drive 15 pounds Computex 44MB drive 10 pounds d2 88MB drive 15 pounds Micronet 44MB drive. Case damaged, drive probably okay 4 pounds External SCSI cases ------------------- Case from Apple Hard Disk 40SC, no drive FREE with other purchase Case from Apple Hard Disk 20SC, no drive FREE with other purchase -- Mark

26 years, 1 month

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ASCII art and plotting

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

Using ASCII line art and a printer for plotting allows the human brain to see patterns in large amounts of data. If I plot 3,000 points using a pen plotter with 6 points to the inch I would end up with 40 feet of plot paper with a fine wiggle line on it. If I used a printer, the paper was cheaper, the plot was cruder, but your brain doesn't get lost in the fine detail but sees an overall pattern. If you look at 100's of plots, the overall pattern will become clear. This may be analogous to looking at a highway versus a string to see the trend in points of data. All of a sudden I just realize that if you looked at enough data maybe your brain spontaneously creates patterns. Occasionally I looked at data after consuming a "few" beers, there was lots of patterns then. OT: OT: Have you ever punched cards after a few beers? I seem to remember finding occasional duplicate lines of code or code of the form: 100 IF(I) 100,100,100 you may recognize FORTRAN II. Mike "more patterns than brains"

26 years, 1 month

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When new advertising meets old computers

by fauradon＠mn.mediaone.net

As a matter of fact and in light of previous exploits on YOUR part yes we do expect you to remember it. If it was anyone else we wouldn't even bother to ask;) Francois >> >> > A maths book we used at school had a paper tape strip as part of the >> > picture on the cover, and that _did_ make sense when read as 5-level >> >> What did it say? > >Look, this was 20+ years ago, and I no longer have the book :-). Since >then I've seen _hundreds_ of pieces of paper tape, and had to read a >number of them by hand. You expect me to _remember_ one of them ??? :-) > >-tony

26 years, 1 month

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ASCII art pictures

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

There was "actual" work done using ascii art. We used to plot growth curves of bacteria using ASCII characters. We looked at the growth patterns of 1000's of samples with varying concentrations of antibiotics included. This was very cumbersome and slow. We then purchased a Versatec printer to speed the process. Still ASCII plots but faster. One research run would consume an entire box of versatec paper. For recreation I developed a raster plotting version on the Versatec but it was much slower and computer intensive, it did do b/w pictures nicely. The next refinement after plain ASCII printer art was output on a Printronix P300 or P600. You could print raster pictures. The sound of the printer tipped off the staff to the production of a picture. Afterhours was always available. I may try and read my old tape and recover the images. I know it was scanned using a vidicon tube over a light box at 256 X 256 resolution 8 bits grayscale. I have kept and moved the tape for the last 25 years. Mike "Old computer guy"

26 years, 1 month

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!Re: Nuke Redmond!

by allisonp＠world.std.com

Richard: >available and more used in the U.S. than anywhere else. Consequently the >techniques spread. I doubt programming will ever be freed from the mantle >of "mystical art" or "right-brain activity" long enough to allow the >introduction of discipline. I'm beginning to believe that programming is >more a disease than an engineering discipline. It seems more folks get into >it indirectly and almost against their own wishes. Thank goodness that they >stick with it long enough to generate the tools we all use and love to hate. This is a good point. I write code, lots of it. I'm a hardware person so I'm one of those that really do not see myself as programmer save for I'm forced to! Also while I do see hardware as art (right brain) programming for me is mostly mechanical/procedural and IDEs drive me nuts for that reason. On the other hand, in the last 10 years there have been more lines of code generated the likely the preceeding 20 years and so on. The need to solve problems does force this forward. SEANS copy: >> The project he's on is a complete disaster as the manager went for a >> Microsoft solution using slews of programs communicating via COM, >> DCOM, OLE and other alphabet soup of Microsoft technology. A year >> later and it still doesn't work and my friend has basically told the >> manager it has to be scrapped and done from scratch, preferably >> using something other than Microsoft (although my friend might have >> a slight bias). Richard: BTW, your apparent juxtaposition of one word for its homomymn, and it >happens all too often with this particular one. There's this term, >pronounced "sloo" which is often misspelled "slew" but which should be >"slough" also pronounced "sloo" meaning a swamp or quagmire. To me fyi, SLEW is my word of choice for things that have a delta, IE: any moving target. MS interfaces are clearly slewed over time. While it must bother some as misuse, I read it as both usages as one rather funny pun. It is a quagmire and also there are a rather large collection of goo all adhering to the mess called Windows. Got any Windex? The idea of a windowing system, thank xerox parc for that, apple and MS put it in front of people when hardware to run it got reasonable, it was a hit. historically "windowing" was the killer idea just like visicalc and easy to use databases (dbase) that needed to happen to get a lot of computers on more than desks of computer savy people. Allison

26 years, 1 month

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another good CC day!

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I stopped by one of my favorites scrap yards yesterday and found SIX Cromemco Z2D S-100 bus computers. They were getting ready to shove them into a container of scrap that was heading for China. These a nicely loaded copmputers that have two floppy drives and a hard drive. They were mounted in 19 inch racks and were used to operate some kind of test stations and were in perfect condition. I managed to get one more or less complete one and most of the cards out of the others but they wanted the racks to appear full so that won't let me have any of the other cases, power supplies or drives. I watched as one was smashed to half it's original size trying to make it fit in the shipping container and another was torn to shreds (20 pound computer vs 12,000 pound forklift). I substituted DEC stuff in the shipping container for the last three so they have a short reprieve. I think I've made a deal to swap some other rack mount stuff for the remaining cases and parts. (Keeping my fingers crossed!) I also found three TRS model 4s there. These just came in yesterday and should be safe until Saturday since the owner's are out of town till then. They appear to be complete and in good shape but have been in storage for a LONG time and are dirty and dusty. That's all I know about them. If anyone is in the central Florida area and wants one or all of the model 4s and can pick it up Saturday, contact me directly for directions. Joe

26 years, 1 month

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ASCII art

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

I guess I must be an old school type of programmer. About 1975 each student seemed to have a program they developed. I used a Fortran program that had 3 arrays each 10 characters deep. You scaled the picture value into the range 0-9 and used the value as an offset into the array. You printed the line 3 time with out a line feed and then issued a line feed. Example: picture value array 1 array2 array3 0 space space space 1 period space space 2 colon space space 3 plus space space . . . 9 0 W M With this scheme you could build up a fairly dark spot for black points. Later versions included image processing to improve the look of the image. Histogram equalization makes visually much better pictures. Early weather maps are a good example of this type of image. I remember seeing punch card decks that had ASCII pictures in comments at the beginning. It made it easy to see if your output was coming off the printer when you saw the picture in the source. Mike "old code dog"

26 years, 1 month

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good new/bad news on the VLC firmware

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

The good news is that I took apart my VLC, pulled out the two EPROMs holding the firmware and successfully read them out and saved them to a file on disk. The bad news is that the EPROMs are 27210's (64K X 16 bit) parts. Apparently these weren't popular enough to either make it into the "mainstream" or into over stock :-(. Digi-key, Mouser, JameCo, Future-Active, Wyle, all came up empty. JDR's web site claimed they had them but the order failed and said "call customer service" :-0. So there you go, a "valuable" IC for those with VLC's. --Chuck

26 years, 1 month

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Altair parts substitutions

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

They always said that you learn something new every day. Thanks for the dual-ported tutorial. Rich ========================== Richard A. Cini, Jr. Congress Financial Corporation 1133 Avenue of the Americas 30th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 545-4402 (212) 840-6259 (facsimile) -----Original Message----- From: Eric Smith [mailto:eric@brouhaha.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 5:45 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Altair parts substitutions > This is what I meant exactly - no bi-directional data bus. I'm guessing that > there is a fine distinction between dual-ported and separate input and > output busses... Specifically, a true dual-ported RAM chip has separate address busses and control signals/strobes (*RD and *WR, or *CS and R/*W, or the like) for each port. Dual-port RAM chips tend to be expensive and not very high-density, so they aren't commonly found in commodity computer hardware. It's usually more cost-effective to time-multiplex a single port. Current manufacturers of dual-port RAM chips include Cypress and IDT. There are even some quad-port RAM chips now.

26 years, 1 month

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Question about ASCII art

by foo＠siconic.com

I am making the assumption that most of these ASCII art files were scanned >from actual pictures and then rendered by some software? If so, is this software still around??? And what hardware was used to scan them? Sellam International Man of Intrigue and Danger ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Looking for a six in a pile of nines... Coming soon: VCF 4.0! VCF East: Planning in Progress See http://www.vintage.org for details!

26 years, 1 month

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New Finds Today

by jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au

I have a PC5000 stashed away somewhere. Can't readily look at it but as I recall is uses bubble memory carts. John R. Keys Jr. wrote: >Had a good day today as I got a digital TK25 with cable and a Sharp >PC-500 portable computer with a built-in printer for 10 bucks total. The >PC-5000 has a very small but long liquid crystal display of 640x80 dots >and is one weird laptop computer. No power supply was with it and the >battery seems to be dead. Anyone know anything about it. Also picked

26 years, 1 month

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good new/bad news on the VLC firmware

by allain＠panix.com

I have 1 (one) i-D27210 pull that can go to a good home. John. > On Tue, 23 May 2000, Chuck McManis wrote: > > > The bad news is that the EPROMs are 27210's (64K X 16 bit) parts.

26 years, 1 month

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Altair parts substitutions

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

This is what I meant exactly - no bi-directional data bus. I'm guessing that there is a fine distinction between dual-ported and separate input and output busses... Rich ========================== Richard A. Cini, Jr. Congress Financial Corporation 1133 Avenue of the Americas 30th Floor New York, NY 10036 (212) 545-4402 (212) 840-6259 (facsimile) -----Original Message----- From: Dwight Elvey [mailto:elvey@hal.com] Sent: Monday, May 22, 2000 9:27 PM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Re[2]: Altair parts substitutions ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk (Tony Duell) wrote: > > In any case, the 5101 is (AFAIK) just a single-ported 256*4 CMOS RAM. > It's not a dual-ported device. Hi No, it is not dual ported but it has separate input and output ports and not a bidi bus. Dwight

26 years, 1 month

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Radio Shack Humour

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

How many of you are irritated by the personal questions asked by Radio Shack salespeople when you go there to buy parts for *your* classic computer? I got this message from one of the guys here at work. I think he has the answer. . . . Jeff --------------------- Attached Message Follows -------------------- Date: Mon, 22 May 2000 18:49:29 -0500 To: "jeff.kaneko" <jeff..kaneko(a)ifrsys.com>, From: <tim.mcenulty(a)ifrsys.com> Sender: <tim.mcenulty(a)ifrsys.com> Reply-To: <tim.mcenulty(a)ifrsys.com> Importance: normal Priority: normal X-Mailer: cc:Mail POP3 Server v8.30.00.4 X-MIME-Engine: v0.58 Subject: Radio Shack Experience Radio Shack Experience Do these guys at Radio Shack ever get on your nerves, asking you for a bunch of personal data when you're just there to buy something as simple as a couple AA batteries? I think we should inconvenience these people as much as they do us. A while ago I was in Enid buying a printer cable adapter and the guy asked me for my name. "Ghosseindhatsghabyfaird-johnson," I replied. (blank look of confusion) "How do you spell that?" he asked, obviously not wanting to know. "With a hyphen," I clarified. "Once more?" he asked. "Ghosseindhatsghabyfaird-johnson" "Could you please spell that?" he asked, glancing at the half dozen people waiting behind me. "Oh... just like it sounds," I said nonchalantly. Putting down "Johnson," he went on and asked about the address. "Washburn, Wisconsin, 14701 N.E. Wachatanoobee Parkway, Complex 3, Building O, Appt. 1382b," I replied. Almost through writing all this down, I said, "Or did you mean current address?" Stopping, he said, (becoming irritated) "Yes. Current address." "Diluthian Heights, Mississippi, 1372 S. Tinatonabee Avenue, Building 14C, Suite 2, Box 138201," I replied quite slowly. Waiting until he finished I said, "No, wait, it's NORTH Tinatonabee Avenue." Annoyed, he backed up and changed it. "I think," I interjected. "And is all this correct?" he asked in a standard manner. "Of course not," I replied, leaving, "If you want my REAL name and address, look at the damned credit card receipt." little mean, I must admit, but no jury would convict me... at least, none that had been to Radio Shack. ___________________________________________________________________ Try this next time your at R/S, Tim McEnulty Director - Business Development Defense Products Group ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

26 years, 1 month

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rescued a beehive!

by fmc＠reanimators.org

allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote: > I know, I worked for Haziltine and was part of manufacturing engineering > for terminals then. Hmm. This might have been before your time, but I might as well ask: got any stories to tell about the Hazeltine 2000? I ran across a few of them in the early 1980s, being used as 1200 bps terminals to a Univac 1108. 74-column green-screens in yellow-painted metal boxes. Very funky, even then. -Frank McConnell

26 years, 1 month

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DATASHIELD 800 UPS

by richard＠idcomm.com

Has anybody got detailed doc's on the Datashield AT-800 UPS? Apparently they were bought out by Tripp, who now has nothing by way of documents to help anyone who was orphaned by their acquisition. thanx, Dick

26 years, 1 month

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Need Software.

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>I have a variety of ancient DOS-based software on 5.25" >diskettes -- >mostly 360 KB. Not being familiar with >your Sharp machine, I have to ask: > how much RAM does it >have, and what version of DOS is it running? And >what >sort of programs are you looking for? > >Glen >0/0 Answering your questions: 1. I think about 380K or so of RAM (programs that run on 256K should be perfect) 2. DOS v. 3.2 3. Surprise me. I am looking for anything that I can use & that will work on my system. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
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Need Software.

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>I have a variety of ancient DOS-based software on 5.25" >diskettes -- >mostly 360 KB. Not being familiar with >your Sharp machine, I have to ask: > how much RAM does it >have, and what version of DOS is it running? And >what >sort of programs are you looking for? > >Glen >0/0 Answering your questions: 1. I think about 380K or so of RAM (programs that run on 256K should be perfect) 2. DOS v. 3.2 3. Surprise me. I am looking for anything that I can use & that will work on my system. ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
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Trade bait

by ckaiser＠oa.ptloma.edu

I have a few items I'm interested in trading. These are mostly collector's pieces but might be useful to others also. A Muppet Learning Keys unit for the C64 (and probably Atari). I don't have the software, but it seems to operate (I spied on the joystick lines and saw that it does send signals). Designed by the same guys who did the Koala Pad. It's basically a "kid-proof" modified membrane keyboard that connects to the joyport. A Laser 50 "personal computer" (looks like a Tandy Pocket Computer on steroids). It used to work, but a(n ex- :-)friend of mine decided he would take it apart and didn't put it back together properly. It might be repairable, but I haven't tried. Complete with box and manual, in original packaging. Call it a fixer-upper. COMPUTE!'s First Book of the Commodore 64. Spiral-bound. Includes lots of interesting sample programs. Great if you want to get a fast, instant introduction to the C64. I also have a few other C64 software items, mostly games. I'm always interested in Commodore 8-bit "stuff", and am also looking for Atari 8-bit (not 2600/5200/7800) cartridges. However, I am *particularly* interested in Model 100 or NEC 8201A RAM, and getting another Timex/Sinclair 1000 since the last one I got seemed to be DOA and I could not revive it (but I have a crapload of TS1000 software and a 16K RAM expansion waiting for it). I have the manual and all the accessories, and can probably scare up a power supply; I just need the computer itself. Sorry, not interested in cash. :-) I'm in San Bernardino, and will be for the next few weeks. Please reply off-list to ckaiser(a)ptloma.edu. -- ----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ -- Cameron Kaiser * Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser(a)ptloma.edu -- Any excuse will serve a tyrant. -- Aesop -----------------------------------

26 years, 1 month

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TSS/8 stuff on ftp.dbit.com

by wilson＠dbit.dbit.com

I've just put a bunch of TSS/8 stuff at: ftp://ftp.dbit.com/pub/pdp8/tss8/ This is mostly a bunch of doodads I wrote when I had a TSS/8.24 system running briefly (from late 1983 when I bought it, to mid 1984 when the RS08 disk became too unreliable for the system to stay running), including an unfinished VT52 text editor and a pretty good start on a FORTH compiler. But also there's the source to the TSS/8.24 monitor itself, which I typed in from a borrowed listing (so some typos may have gotten through) and then lost on DECtape for many years. FYI in case anyone else ever needs this, TSS/8.24 DUMP tapes are really simple: The first and last blocks of each 1474-block DECtape are not used. Each 4 KW "track" (actually two tracks on an RS08) is stored as 32 (decimal) consecutive DECtape blocks, starting at block 1. Only the first 128 words of each block are used, and they're all recorded in the forwards direction. So up to 46. consecutive "tracks" fit on each DECtape, and you just concanate all the "tracks" from all the DECtapes in the set to get the disk. It starts at the very beginning of the disk, and even the swap tracks are saved. Anyway the ever-further-behind-schedule new version of my PUTR.COM utility for DOS will include at least read-only support for TSS/8.24 disk images (as long as they're similar to mine, i.e. SEGSIZ=256 and new enough to support the hack where filename extensions are added by encoding them in the high 5 bits of the protection code). It will read and write TSS/8 PUTR.SAV DECtapes too (which turn out to use the OS/8 file format, but with 11:1 interleave, TSS/8 style ASCII encoding, and the weird 5-bit filename extensions). Speaking of DECtape, does anyone know anything about PS/8 DECtapes? I have one image from David Gesswein which is supposed to be from PS/8, and it looks just like an OS/8 tape except that it uses only every other block for the first 256. OS/8 blocks on the tape. After that I can't figure out *where* things pick up again, I suspect some of the blocks may have been recorded backwards (like with TSS/8). Sound familiar to anyone? The tape has OMSI's hack of Edu-30 (?) BASIC on it and somewhere in there, there's a blurb about how proud they are of having sped things up on DECtape systems. So I suppose it's possible that this is just an OMSI-hacked DECtape driver and nothing to do with PS/8 at all. But then again maybe OMSI just changed how BASIC accesses the tape through the vanilla driver so it really is a PS/8 thing. Help!!! John Wilson D Bit

26 years, 1 month

1
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Altair parts substitutions

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

It's that time of year again, when I think about designing an Altair/IMSAI work-alike. Now that I have the ability to generate schematics/layouts, I may actually try it. Anyway, some parts have become scarce, so I would have to use substitutes. For example, Jameco no longer carries the 8T97 buffer/driver. As I recall the 8T97 is an LS373 without the inverter on the gate *and* is faster and has a higher drive current. I've heard that the MC6887 is a sub, but I can't find a datasheet on it. The 8101 dual-port 256bx4 RAM is no longer available, but Jameco has a 5101 which looks like a likely sub. I would forego this type for a larger SRAM, but I guess that it too would have to be dual-ported. I need to look at the schematics for an S100 memory board. Someone on-list did a design for his own clone, but I can't remember who it is. I'm sure that it can be done cheaper than Tom Fischer's IMSAI-2 though. Rich

26 years, 1 month

7
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Altair parts substitutions

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>> Anyway, some parts have become scarce, so I would have to use substitutes. >> For example, Jameco no longer carries the 8T97 buffer/driver. As I recall >> the 8T97 is an LS373 without the inverter on the gate *and* is faster and > >I thought that the 74LS367 and 74LS368 (the latter being the inverting >one) were almost direct substitutes. I think the 8Txx parts can drive a >heavier load, but I doubt if this will cause problems in an Altair/Imsai Tony is right. 8t97 and 8t98 are close to the 74LS367 and 74ls368 in drive and exactly the same pinout. >The '373 is an octal transparent latch (with 3-state outputs) and is not >the same thing at all. the '373 wasn't available when the altair was new. >> has a higher drive current. I've heard that the MC6887 is a sub, but I can't >> find a datasheet on it. >> >> The 8101 dual-port 256bx4 RAM is no longer available, but Jameco has a 5101 >> which looks like a likely sub. I would forego this type for a larger SRAM, That would work, the difference is the 5101 is cmos and the 8101 is mos. >I can't find the 8101 on any of the S100 card schematics I've looked at, >so I wonder what on earth it was used for. try 2101. the first ram card was a 256byte one using 256x4 parts if memeory serves. The denser cards were 2107/TMS4060 4kx1 Dram based. He may have meant seperate Input and output like the 2102 (1kx1). Allison

26 years, 1 month

3
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ASCII pictures available

by lemay＠cs.umn.edu

http://afterhours.lpmud.com/~james The tar file contains directories, which then contain files compressed with the unix 'compress' command. 'disk1' and 'disk2' contain the big multi-overprint files that came from an old magnetic tape i read back in the 80's on a Control Data mainframe. You will note that you can fit disk1 and disk2 onto 2 floppy disks, and that they also contain a DOS binary program for uncompressing the files, if you dont have unix access. the vt100 directory is just some old VT100 text animations, and the small ascii directory came from some ftp site over 10 years ago. -Lawrence LeMay

26 years, 1 month

1
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Vancouver, Cal's Computer Warehouse?

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>Anybody up in Vancouver familiar with this place? > >They have a service manual for my NEC Silentwriter 2 model 90 on eBay right >now, but I am also curious about them in general. > >http://www.goseecal.com/ > >Cal's Computer Warehouse Inc. >3083 Grandview Hwy. >Vancouver, B.C., V5M 2E4 >Canada Kevin or some other Vancouverite may want to double-check the address, but I'm 99% sure this is the place that used to be called "Computer Warehouse" five or six blocks West of the Superstore on Grandview Hwy. Two years ago they had a fairly good selection of older PC-clone stuff, and some random other office equipment from around the area, but at generally pretty high prices. I mainly visited them when I needed networking cables and parts on a Sunday afternoon :-) I also got some working MFM drives >from them, and numerous broken MFM drives! They had some moderately interesting stuff in their "museum" area, but generally just bits and pieces that had been ripped out; nothing resembling any sort of complete system. For a while, they did have a rather good selection of Apple II GS units and parts, judging by the burn-in on the CRT's they'd been used at a local video rental chain as point-of-sale terminals. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

26 years, 1 month

1
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Altair parts and the like

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

Thanks for the 8T97 offer. My goal for this project would be to make for myself an 8080-based SBC using modern parts and having some sort of front panel. I have no illusions of reproducing an Altair or IMSAI. Just thinking about this a little...maybe I could take Claus Guiloi's Altair "emulator" code and connect a virtual terminal to it. I have a dot-matrix printer font and a teletype font...hmmm...this is more interesting. Rich -----Original Message----- From: Will Jennings [mailto:xds_sigma7@hotmail.com] Sent: Tuesday, May 23, 2000 10:37 AM To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org Subject: Altair parts and the like Hi, Well if whoever was building the thing really wants to use 8T97's, I have 15 of 'em... Let me know if you're interested. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

2
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good new/bad news on the VLC firmware

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

OK, I tried to send this direct to Chuck, but the e-mail bounced... anyway, I have 7 D27210's, all Intel, new in the tubes... Ironically, I got them >from a former DEC engineer ;p If anyone needs some, let me know. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
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DEC stuff 11/73

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

Will the guy that made me an offer on the 11/73 contact me again? I lost your address. E-mail me directly. Joe

26 years, 1 month

1
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Altair parts and the like

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Hi, Well if whoever was building the thing really wants to use 8T97's, I have 15 of 'em... Let me know if you're interested. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
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OT: Show how old you are with printer/punch card control codes.

by mmcfadden＠cmh.edu

Punch card trivia Any character in column 6 made this card a continuation of the previous card. This only applies to Fortran program source cards not data cards. Also don't triple punch any columns, the card reader with usually produce a check error I don't remember the drum card programming codes, you could skip columns, force numeric, automatically insert zeros and periods. Line printer trivia Many printer control codes were very useful when trying to print pictures on the back side of green-bar. Output on line printers + in column 1 don't start a new line 0 in column 1 double space 1 in column 1 form feed We used to turn over the paper and attempt to print "pictures" after hours. Somewhere I still have a 9-track tape from 1975 that has a "beautiful" woman on it. I heard that IBM sequentially printed Christmas banners at a trade show by using 3 printers each with a different color ribbon, Red, Green, Black, and feeding the paper continuously through each printer in turn. Nostalgia or is it Altzhimers Mike

26 years, 1 month

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Teleprinter Font

by RCini＠congressfinancial.com

I found a copy...on a low-used laptop. Thanks. Rich

26 years, 1 month

1
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Free in Socal: DEC PCXCV-B2 VGA Monitors

by elmo＠mminternet.com

I have two Digital VGA monitors destined for the curbside. Help me avoid carrying them down the stairs. They're only standard VGA resolution, but they're pretty, and they'll mate nicely with your lpv's or other DEC PC's. And yes, with mfg date of 1992, they're _almost_ classic. Regards, Eliot (Santa Monica)

26 years, 1 month

1
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Back, I'm back...

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Ok, to anyone who might have tried to mail me over the weekend, only to have it bounce back in their face, my apologies. I just finished getting Blue Feather's domain relocated to USWest.net. The only thing that's still down at the moment is my web site, and I expect that to be taken care of Tuesday morning. The move to USW is a temporary one until I can get my own servers up and running. After that point, I'll not be depending on USW for anything more than the DSL pipe and DNS service. You may now return to your regularly-scheduled looniness. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com) kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com "SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"

26 years, 1 month

1
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When new advertising meets old computers

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>I haven't yet decoded the tape (if it says anyhthing at all). Luckily I >just got _Computers and Typesetting_ which covers plenty of obscure >typesetting codes (which is the only area I know of in which six-hole tape >ever became popular). Check out BAUDOT code used for the old mod 15 teleprinters and reperforators. those were 5level code with a shift character. Commonly used for TTY services like Western Union and Hams. Allison

26 years, 1 month

2
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Need Software.

by Glenatacme＠aol.com

Please see reply below. In a message dated 05/22/2000 6:47:22 PM Eastern Daylight Time, netsurfer_x1(a)hotmail.com writes: > f it would be possible, could somebody please send me (via snail mail) > MS-DOS programs that will work on my Sharp PC-7000. I am asking because the > 5.25" drive in our computer is not completely compatible in DSDD mode (it is > > a 1.2 Mb drive), and all of my tries to transfer programs have been > unsuccessful, so I have decided to give up & go here. > > A word of warning, the Sharp does not have a hard drive, so I'll need > programs that will run off one or two floppy disks. I have a variety of ancient DOS-based software on 5.25" diskettes -- mostly 360 KB. Not being familiar with your Sharp machine, I have to ask: how much RAM does it have, and what version of DOS is it running? And what sort of programs are you looking for? Glen 0/0

26 years, 1 month

1
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Mac IIcx video connection

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

In a message dated 5/22/00 10:02:40 AM Eastern Daylight Time, foxvideo(a)wincom.net writes: > > The video card ic an Apple Computer Inc. 820-0198-A7 Mackintosh II Video > Card. > It was packed separately from the computer, and condition is unknown. > The story here is that a couple of friends closed up their repair > business, and yesterday contributed a van load of computers and other odds > and ends to my collection. I have had no Mac experience, the only other one > in the collection is a Mac +, so don't really know what I am doing. I would > like to make an adapter to go from the Mac 15 pin video,(size of a game > port) to a standard VGA monitor. i have a 4 bit video card in my cx, and i tried one of those cable adaptors that allows a mac to use a vga monitor. the best i could get was a rolling screen that was green to due to the sync on green signal not connected right. i do have a ci that uses an adaptor and successfully worked with a nec multisync display. only thing i can suggest is get one of those video cable connectors for macs with all the dip switches, and a multisync monitor and try various combinations to see if it works. DB Young ICQ: 29427634 hurry, hurry, step right up! see the computers you used as a kid! http://members.aol.com/suprdave/classiccmp/museum.htm

26 years, 1 month

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OT: Font needed TELETYPE.TTF

by rcini＠msn.com

Hello, all: In the process of repeatedly restoring various betas of Win98 et. al., I seemed to have deleted my copy of the Teletype TrueType font that someone made. If someone has this, could they please send it to me. Thanks. Rich [ Rich Cini [ ClubWin!/CW1 [ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking [ Collector of "classic" computers [ <http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/> <================ reply separator =================>

26 years, 1 month

1
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classiccmp-digest V1 #148

by mtapley＠swri.edu

Hello, A DEC Rainbow in Vancouver. (Kevin?) Get it while it's hot! Alan said "...as you see fit" and I don't know many groups fitter than this. If you *have* a RB but not MS-DOS 3.10B, you likely want the latter at least. - Mark >Date: Mon, 1 May 2000 13:10:57 -0700 (PDT) ... >Subject: Surplus Rainbow > >Hi Mark. Thanks, I've found no interest locally yet, so spread the word >as you see fit: > >Free for pickup in Victoria, B.C. on Vancouver Island: > >(I could get it to the mainland sometime or have it picked up by a >forwarding agent in Victoria if they handle *all* the packing and >processing.) > >Rainbow 100A in working condition in tower case, VR201 monitor (occasional >rolling), LK201 keyboard, Letterwriter 100 printer (untested) > >cable, ribbon, installation manual, owner's manual, user's guide, MS-DOS >introduction even the floppy disk inserts that say "Save this card". > >DOS 3.10b for the Rainbow, a variety of utility programs and games but no >*real* software but there's shareware available. > >For those who don't know, this is *not* compatible with IBM-PCs. The >diskettes cannot be interchanged although there is a utility to allow >reading Rainbow diskettes in a PC drive. So, unless someone likes to >play, it's probably a museum piece. > >Contact Alan at yjNOSPAM105(a)victoria.tc.ca (remove NOSPAM)

26 years, 1 month

3
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Semi-OT: DECstation/TZ30 question

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On May 21, Zane H. Healy wrote: > Since this is related to getting 2.11BSD up on my PDP-11/73 I figure it's > Semi-OT. > > OK, I figured since I'd had to pull the TZ30 I might as well just plug it > into the DECstation 5000/133 I've got. I take it that such a beasty won't > recognize a TZ30? Doing a "CNFG 3" turned up the two RZ25's in the thing, > but not the tapedrive, and I couldn't see it from Ultrix 4.3 either. Hmm...can't help you with that; never tried it. I do remember, however, reading something recently (here? or maybe NetBSD's port-vax list?) about the TZ30 not being a well-behaved SCSI citizen and needing some tweaks in somebody's (NetBSD's?) SCSI driver somewhere to work properly. Coincidentally though, Zane, I'm doing the same thing tonight...I just finished putting together an 11/73 and now (in parallel with a few other things) I'm trying to figure out how to get the distribution onto a TK50. I have a MicroVAX 3100-80 running VMS 7.2 with a TZ30...perhaps I could write that tape there? Anybody know what VMS incantations I'd have to do to "get there from here"? > Once again I'm asking myself *why* am I doing this, I like my UNIX > lightening fast and flashy. Well, I've never run Unix on an '11...but you and I both have run a lot of 11s in our day, and you know darn well there's nothing slouchy about a J11. ;) -Dave McGuire

26 years, 1 month

4
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Need Software.

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

This may sound ridiculous, but here goes. If it would be possible, could somebody please send me (via snail mail) MS-DOS programs that will work on my Sharp PC-7000. I am asking because the 5.25" drive in our computer is not completely compatible in DSDD mode (it is a 1.2 Mb drive), and all of my tries to transfer programs have been unsuccessful, so I have decided to give up & go here. A word of warning, the Sharp does not have a hard drive, so I'll need programs that will run off one or two floppy disks. ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

26 years, 1 month

1
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