--- "Daniel A. Seagraves" wrote:
[Can't blue box in the US anymore]
Ehehehe.... Do you know this from experience?
Has anyone here actually done this? I once tried recording the payhone
quarter tones, but it didn't work.
--- end of quote ---
Quarter tones -- that's red box territory, not blue box. Red boxing IS still possible today, though not with most COCOT's. Bell/Nynex (well, they're the same now, aren't they?) all happily respond to red box tones. But, operators sure don't!
(actual quote: "I can't accept that, I need REAL money.") Hee hee...
-- MB
On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 22:00:59 -0600 (CST), Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote:
>>Oh boy. I've had a back-burner BYTE index project that I moved forward by
>>almost a millimeter last weekend. How far along are you on putting
>>together an index?
This is not a complete indexing project; I don't have the time to do
that.
I have about 75 or so issues from 1978 to 1987. I'm culling the index
for classic-related articles: reviews, home brewing projects, type-yourself
programs, and the like. I've left out all of the regular "departments" and
generally, the generic articles. As you may know, each Byte magazine had a
particular focus, such as the "Logo" issue, or the "Forth" issue. Some of
these articles made it; some didn't.
I'm in1982 now, and I have about 200 entries in an Excel spreadsheet.
When I'm done, I'll post my TofC. Eventually, I'd like to make it a DHTML
Web page.
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<================ reply separator =================>
>[Can't blue box in the US anymore]
>
>Ehehehe.... Do you know this from experience?
>
I notice that no one has admitted to it. I also hope no one does - when I
was a teenager there was a federal grand jury that was just about blue
boxes - one city away from me. I would know nothing about 2600 or 700, 900,
1100, 1300, or 1500 Hz tones.:)
Dan
On Dec 8, 13:01, Hans Franke wrote:
> Yesterday I tried a similar way as described above. I took a sheet
> of Butterbrotpapier (sorry, I dont know any translation, its a kind
> of semitransparent paper used to cover sandwitches - Butterbrote :)
"greaseproof" paper. A treated but not waxed paper, rather like thin
tracing paper. In fact, kids here often use it as tracing paper.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
On Sat, 5 Dec 1998 roblwill(a)usaor.net wrote:
> -Networking software compatible with the internal networking card (there"s a
> plug next to the keyboard connector that looks like it wants to be connected
> to some sort of network hub).
As far as I am aware, that's a weirdo keyboard connector. There's a
matching one in the monitor and the keyboard.
> -An old Vectra keyboard? Can't get the numeric keypad to work on the
> keyboard I have.
> -Networking hardware (mainly a hub and network cards)
>
> I have a copy of DR-DOS 7.x with networking extensions. Will this work with
> the Vectra (haven"t installed it yet)? For one thing, I don"t even know if
> there"s something in setup that enables/disables the network card. I"d like
> to use the built-in card, since most of the networked computers will be
> 8086"s -286"s, and speed isn"t an issue.
>
> ThAnX,
> --
> -Jason Willgruber
> (roblwill(a)usaor.net)
> ICQ#: 1730318
> <http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
>
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
At 06:56 PM 12/8/98 +0000, you wrote:
>> I also have HP-IL here, but that's used to interface a gas chromatograph
>> /mass spectrometer to a HP 9000 series workstation. I know of others here
>> that have used HP-IL for other HP systems, but I've never seen it on HP
PC's.
>
>HP-IL is somewhat unconventional for that. HPIB (similar to GPIB or
>IEEE488) is much more common for linking up test gear, etc.
Many of HP's late 70's and 80's analytical instrumentation used HP-IL
extensively to control instruments and sampling accessories, such as
autosamplers. Indeed, the connection to the 9000 series for the GC part of
the system is to the system HP-IB bus via a 82169A HP-IL to HP-IB
interface. The mass spectrometer itself is directly connected to the HP-IB
bus. Newer HP analytical equipment generally uses only HP-IB .
>
>I don't know if an HP150 counts as an HP PC (HP seemed to think so in the
>manuals), but I have a card in mine with a parallel port and an HP-IL
>port on it. I also have software to make the HP-150 emulate an HP-IL disk
>drive so I can save files from my calculators.
>
>HP-IL is more common on HP calculators, like the HP75, HP71 and HP41 series.
>
>-tony
>
>
>
Kenneth L. Marshall
Research Engineer, Optical Materials
Laboratory for Laser Energetics
University of Rochester
250 East River Road
Rochester, NY 14623
Phone:(716)-275-8247
Fax: (716)-275-5960
Doug,
I might be able to save you some work. I have an original copy of Byte's
Keyterm index dated 1977. It has an index by subject to all the Byte
articles from Sept 75 through Dec 1976, Interface Age articles from Dec 75
through Dec 76 and HamRadio Magazine from March 69 through Dec 76. It's 78
long.
Joe
At 10:00 PM 12/7/98 -0600, Doug wrote:
>
>If you, or anybody else, wants to collaborate on a project like this,
>there's already several thousand BYTE's that have been indexed in BibTex
>format. I plan (OK, hope) to automate entry and searching of this and
>similar indices. Currently the coverage of material of interest to this
>group (like early BYTEs) is pretty thin.
>
>Check out Nelson H. F. Beebe's web site for a sense of what's been done
He's also tried to sing in Triumph of the Nerds I _think_ and I know he
tried to sing the Beverly Hillbillies song in Plane Crazy. Have you checked
his faq on pbs.org?
> What's up with THAT!?
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>Always being hassled by the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 12/07/98]
>
At 02:43 PM 12/8/98 -0600, Doug Yowza wrote:
>I read an interview of Richard
>Stallman in which he whined a bit about how the collection of GNU stuff
>combined with a Linux kernel is called "Linux." There's probably more GNU
>code than Linus code in any given Linux distribution.
RMS whining? Almost as bad as his singing voice. He was only
whining because he wants a share of the Linux spotlight. Hmm,
the MacArthur grant money must've run out by now.
- John
Found while house cleaning. Appears to be for one of those small BASIC
handheld computers. In very good condition but I have no way to test it.
Contact me directly if you're interested in it.
Joe
More house cleaning. I dug out a model EM-180B Z-80 Diagnostic/Emulator
made by Applied MicroSystems. It appears to be developement system for
Z-80s. It says has 64K of RAM. It has a RS-232 port and a socket for a
target EPROM. It also has a hex keybaord and keys for setting breakpoints,
memory addresses, I/O address, (data) Store, examine, decrement and
increment, single step, run, etc. The LED display shows the adress and
data and the various CPU status bits and the machine cycle states. It
powers up but the 1 and 3 keys no longer spring back like they should. It's
about 12" square and 4" high and runs on 110 VAC. I know nothing else about
this thing. If anyone wants it contact me directly.
Joe
Apart from an index of Byte or other old magazines, wouldn't it be
more interesting to scan the actual pages? If I could buy a DVD
with the first ten years, I could at least decimate my piles in
the basement. The article compendiums that are offered for Byte,
DDJ, etc. are interesting, but so are the ads, and they aren't included.
- John
At 10:27 PM 12/7/98 -0000, you wrote:
>> I have had several older HP vectras here that have had HP-HPIL interfaces,
>> including an HP Vectra CS (8086) and a Vectra RS-20 (386). The HP-HPIL
>> interface was generally supplied as an 8-bit card that plugged directly
>> into the ISA bus.
>
>If you're talking about HP-IL, that is *entirely* different from HP-HIL.
>
>There's nothing called HP-HPIL.
You are correct. I meant HP-HIL. HP-HPIL was a typograpical error.
I also have HP-IL here, but that's used to interface a gas chromatograph
/mass spectrometer to a HP 9000 series workstation. I know of others here
that have used HP-IL for other HP systems, but I've never seen it on HP PC's.
>
>As far as I know, there was never an ISA plug-in card to do HP-HIL. The
>cards for HP-IL are not too rare.
>
>
Kenneth L. Marshall
Research Engineer, Optical Materials
Laboratory for Laser Energetics
University of Rochester
250 East River Road
Rochester, NY 14623
Phone:(716)-275-8247
Fax: (716)-275-5960
Zane writes:
> >Ebay item #47353951 is two 8" floppies. If you look closely at
> >one of them in the picture, it appears to be a diagnostic floppy.
>
> Good GRIEF! He has the starting bid is set at $8.50, and wants
> the winner to pay $3 for shipping. You can buy them new for that!
True...but the interesting point to this thread
is that one of the disks has a memory diagnostic ...
*that* might be of use to some VAX collectors!
SS
Here's a few more (some are not x86 but I thought you guys might
still be ineterested) that I stole off a web page. Particullarly interesting
is the last site with a *lot* of oddball stuff. Enjoy!
The following is a list of free operating systems that are
specifically
made for, or will run on, "obsolete" computers. The OS name's are
followed by the intended processor/system and the "mainstream"
operating system it attempts to emulate.
ELKS (Embeddable Linux Kernel Subset)
http://www.linux.org.uk/Linux8086.html
ELKS is still in development and is an attempt to port Linux to run on an
8088/8086 processor. Future plans include 68000 and possibly Z80 ports.
Caldera OpenDOS
http://www.caldera.com
OpenDOS is a replacement for MS-DOS or PC-DOS on 80x86 processor
based systems and includes the source code for the kernel.
LUnix
http://wwwcip.rus.uni-stuttgart.de/~etk10217/c64.html
LUnix is a UNIX type clone for the C64/128. Future plans include support for
TCP/IP amomg other things.
Proolix
http://www.infocom.kharkov.ua:80/~prool/proolix.htm
Another UNIX clone for 8088/8086 processor based systems that is somewhat
similar to MINIX.
Minix
http://www.cs.vu.nl/~ast/minix.html
Here it is, the original 8088/8086 UNIX clone. This is the Operating System
that gave rise to the popular Linux OS and is currently available for PC,
Amiga, Macintosh, and Atari ST systems.
UZI
http://oak.oakland.edu/oak/cpm/uzi-pre.html
Currently, there are no UZI "Home Pages" (atleast none that I know of).
Here is a link for the FTP location of the UZI binaries for Z80 machines.
OS/A65
http://www2.tu-chamnitz.de/~fachat/csa
Originally made for a home built computer, OS/A65 was ported to the C64
and is theoretically portable to many other 6502 systems. Includes support
for multitasking and TCP/IP.
FreeDOS (DOS-C)
http://sunsite.unc.edu/pub/micro/pc-stuff/freedos/freedos.htmlhttp://www.freedos.org
FreeDOS is meant as a replacement for MS-DOS or PC-DOS for all 80x86 based
systems.
Other Operating Systems on the Net.
http://www.cs.arizona.edu/people/bridges/oses.html
This site has an exhaustive list of other free operating systems as well as
a few
links to other free operating systems pages.
Hmph. ALTAIR Collecting: Another rich man's hobby.
I'm just really glad there isn't this kind of interest in
'collecting' the stuff *I'm* interested in. I can still
get most of what I want pretty cheaply (although that's
starting to change).
Damn.
Jeff
On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 21:59:43 EST DaveyGF(a)aol.com writes:
>Just finished the beta on my new website dedicated to Altair
>computers.. Check
>it out. I will be making several additions soon- including a complete
>archive
>of '97 and '98 classiccmp list server messages pertaining to altair
>subjects
>and a virtual museum.
>
>http://altaircomputers.org
>
>David
>daveygf(a)aol.com
>
___________________________________________________________________
You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail.
Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html
or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]
Just finished the beta on my new website dedicated to Altair computers.. Check
it out. I will be making several additions soon- including a complete archive
of '97 and '98 classiccmp list server messages pertaining to altair subjects
and a virtual museum.
http://altaircomputers.org
David
daveygf(a)aol.com
Thanks for all of your replies. I have tried a number of these already.
Zane H. Healy wrote:
>QNX - There is a free demo version, about all you can do is surf the web
>with it
> though. The demo boots from floppy.
It's very good for what it does. The QNX Neutrino kernel is to form the
basis of AmigaOS 5. Check out http://www.amiga.com if you don't believe me.
Unfortunately the demo needs 8Mb of continuous memory, on top of the 640k.
The machine I'm buying only has a total of 8Mb.
>GEOS - Runs on top of DOS, the company currently supporting it, had been
> providing some sort of demo version for it. It looks really great
> actually, and come to think of it I believe my above mentioned 486
has
> a copy on it somewhere (probably still on a Linux partition) that I
> downloaded to try a year or so ago. I'd forgotten about it.
I've got this running on my Pentium 2. If I can get some cheap 386 I'd
install this use them as simple word processors. Perhaps also sticking a
Pentium logo and "designed for Windows" on the monitor just to fool everyone
;)
> Unfortunatly they no longer support the really low end systems, I
can't
> remember if they still support the 286 or not.
Runs on 286 according to the system specs.
--
Gareth Knight
Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856
http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"
I just acquired and fixed two Altairs (one 8800z and one 8800b) and have MITS 4K and 8K BASIC on tape. Problem is, I can't find any bootstrap loader for these programs. I have the simple cassette read program in the Altair manual, but that just gives me raw bytes. I suppose I could reverse engineer the tape format (I can read the tape fine) and write my own cassette boot loader, but I wondered if anyone out there could possibly lend a hand? Thanks,
-- Dave Norris
At 10:28 PM 12/7/98 -0800, Sellam wrote:
>
>Me & Eric Smith were just going over this trying to figure out whether or
>not we needed one for the original DC Hayes S100 modem card. The DAA was
>basically a device that converted the digital signals coming off the card
>into analog tones. You could only get this from Bell back in the day and
>you had to pay dearly for it.
Quote from 'Independance Day' (I love a good 'blow-things-up' movie!):
"That's not entirely accurate..." B^}
There was no conversion of digital to analog done in the DAA. Specifically
in the case of the Hayes for example, the (analog) audio modulation was
done in the cute orange blob on the board. The only digital signals coming
off the board drove the relay in the DAA box for acquiring the line and
pulse dialing. Beyond that, the DAA provided 'protection' and
coupling/limiting of the analog signals from the board to the phone line.
>The plexi-glass covered box that comes with the Hayes Micromodem ][ is a
>DAA.
Yep...
-jim
---
jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com
The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw
Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174
At 07:49 PM 12/7/98 +0100, you wrote:
>Frank McConnell wrote:
>>
>> "Jason Willgruber" <roblwill(a)usaor.net> writes:
>> > -Networking software compatible with the internal networking card
(there"s a
>> > plug next to the keyboard connector that looks like it wants to be
connected
>> > to some sort of network hub).
>>
>> Looks can be deceiving. That might be an HP-HIL connector -- does it
>> have a picture of the corresponding plug with one or two dots on the
>> cable, or maybe just the one or two dots? If so, it's HIL, and is
>> there so you can hook up a Vectra HIL keyboard (as shipped with the
>> real original Vectras that don't have alphabet soup after the word
>> "Vectra") or an HIL mouse or an HIL monitor w/touchscreen.
>
>That all sounds plausible, but I do not think that HP Vectras ever used
>the HIL standard. When I get back to Grenoble (where the Vectras were
>designed) next week I will root around and see what I can dig up on this
>machine.
>
>Regards
>
>_---_--__-_-_----__-_----_-__-__-_-___--_-__--___-__----__--_--__-___-
>Hans B Pufal Comprehensive Computer Catalogue
><mailto:hansp@digiweb.com> <http://digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc>
>
I have had several older HP vectras here that have had HP-HPIL interfaces,
including an HP Vectra CS (8086) and a Vectra RS-20 (386). The HP-HPIL
interface was generally supplied as an 8-bit card that plugged directly
into the ISA bus.
Regards,
Kenneth L. Marshall
Research Engineer, Optical Materials
Laboratory for Laser Energetics
University of Rochester
250 East River Road
Rochester, NY 14623
Phone:(716)-275-8247
Fax: (716)-275-5960
Back in the 70's, there was an individual who sold indexes to the various computer magazines (in hard copy format, and perhaps on Disk). I bought it and have a copy of it somewhere, but there is very little chance that I could now find it.
The later issues, starting sometime in the 80's, are indexed in Computer Library, a $1,000 per year Ziff-Davis service on a monthly CD-ROM (in fact, not only are they indexed, but I believe that the text of the entire magazine is included in the service)(yes, I know that ZD is a competitor of McGraw Hill, which publishes Byte, but Computer Library has competing publications).
But this didn't start until the late 80's.
Barry Watzman
----------
From: Doug Yowza [SMTP:yowza@yowza.com]
Sent: Monday, December 07, 1998 5:01 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Finished posting 8800b Manual/Next
On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, Richard A. Cini, Jr. wrote:
> and then an index to the Byte Magazines that I have.
Oh boy. I've had a back-burner BYTE index project that I moved forward by
almost a millimeter last weekend. How far along are you on putting
together an index?
If you, or anybody else, wants to collaborate on a project like this,
there's already several thousand BYTE's that have been indexed in BibTex
format. I plan (OK, hope) to automate entry and searching of this and
similar indices. Currently the coverage of material of interest to this
group (like early BYTEs) is pretty thin.
Check out Nelson H. F. Beebe's web site for a sense of what's been done
so far:
http://www.math.utah.edu/~beebe/bibliographies.html
-- Doug
Myself and another individual are trying to find the source of a magazine article which describes a modification to the IMSAI CP-A front panel.
The title of the article is "The Slow-Stepping Debugger" by Howard Bendrot.
We believe that it was published between 1976 and 1979, probably in 1977. We believe it is likely that it was published in Kilobaud Microcomputing magazine, and there is some suspicion that it may have been on Page 60. But none of this is confirmed, and we don't have these magazines to verify this.
Can anyone identify the Magazine, issue and page number of this article for certain ?
Thanks,
Barry Watzman
Tonight I finished posing the Altair 8800b manual. Enjoy!
The next thing on the plate is the Aim65 Users Manual, and then an index to
the Byte Magazines that I have. After that, probably a load of PDP-11
manuals.
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<================ reply separator =================>
i've found a web site where minix/ELKS can be obtained, but it was expected
for one to have a functioning linux system to download and create the disk
images. since i only have OS2/windont95 access, are there any other choices as
far as downloading a copy to install on an xt?
<< < Question, isn't Minix on the x86 platform still a commercial product?
< know the versions for stuff such as the Atari I believe are now free, bu
< thought you still had to buy the x86 version. >>
> Hi,
> I have one of the old IBM Edsels and I am currently trying to get the
> TMC850jr SCSI card I have to get a CDROM to work on it. Can anyone give me
> any
> clues as to how to do this? Can it be done at all?
>
> I also have the combo cartridge V3.0 in this machine and upgraded the
> harddrive from DOS 5.0 to DOS 6.22 and now I keep getting write errors when
> I
> try to install programs onto the harddrive. Any help here?
>
> Thanks everyone.
>
> John Amirault
CLASSICCMP folk and Dan B.,
I found this on Usenet. Any takers? You'd need LOTS of room and
(probably) lots of power, but this could be a neat addition to any
collection. Read on...
-=-=- <snip> -=-=-
From: "Kent Rankin" <kentrankin(a)theatreorgans.com>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec
Subject: What is a VAX 8350 fully loaded worth?
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blushng.jps.net!news.pbi.net!131.119.28.147!su-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!cpk-news-hub1.bbnplanet.com!news.gtei.net!news.maxwell.syr.edu!newsfeed.usit.net!news1.usit.net!not-for-mail
A friend of mine has a VAX 8350 that he picked up recently. It's
quite
a large setup, to say the least. I was wondering if someone could tell me
what I should get(at least) for it for him, and what I could get for it.
Here's what it has:
VAX 8350 with 2 processors
SA482 Storage array loaded with 3 RA82(6.22MB) drives
A giant 200amp power conditioner that looks just like the VAX
A TU81-Plus Tape drive
Two DMB32-M things. I think that they are multiplexors
Anyone know about them?
Two LA120 printers. One DA model, and one AA model.
A LA75 printer
A VT420 terminal(JA model)
Five DECServer200/DL Terminal Servers. Anyone know what
the DL stands for?
I think that is all that is included, but I could be wrong. I'm
notreally sure as to what cards are in it(besides the TU81 Plus'
interface).
The box has absolutely TONS of packages from DEC on it with the
licenses. The manuals are all there, and many of them have extras that
are
shrinkrapped. Many spare parts for the machine are new, and in DEC boxes,
still wrapped. There are boxes and boxes of new manuals, to give you an
idea.
The machine was on maintenance until September of 1998. Plus, as an
added bonus, it has the whole Y2k support package.
I do know that all of the packages are very recent versions, and that
OpenVMS 7.0 is loaded on it.
It was used(until upgraded) with MANY terminals running off of it for
basic business uses, and for calculating the lights(andtheir positions)
needed in a stadium, and is in perfect condition.
Anyhow, anyone have any ideas on the pricing? Perhaps a good outlet
for
me to sell it?
Thanks in advance,
Kent Rankin
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner and head honcho,
Blue Feather Technologies -- kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech [dot] com
Web: http://www.bluefeathertech.com
"...No matter how we may wish otherwise, our science can only describe an object,
event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot possibly define any of them..."
< Question, isn't Minix on the x86 platform still a commercial product?
< know the versions for stuff such as the Atari I believe are now free, bu
< thought you still had to buy the x86 version.
Not really. It's a copyrighted, freely available for non commercial use
if memory serves. You can get it sources and all off the net or by buying
the book on OS Design and Implmentation with it's CDrom. The details are
educational/personal use I think. I doubt it would be popular for
commercial use except as maybe an embedded kernal.
It's supposed to work on PS2/50z but when I tried it there was a floppy
problem that kept getting in the way. I put it aside when a 386sx/16 came
my way as it was a excellent MINIX platform.
Allison
< > The whole of it is Malcom Wright's _Alphanumeric music with Amplitude
< > control_ C1975 article. I have a copy of this and have done mucic wit
<
< Where was this published?
Peoples Computer Company, PCC was Doctor Dobbs and the articles were there
and then published as a seperate thing.
Allison
At 08:36 AM 12/8/98 -0600, you wrote:
>the basement. The article compendiums that are offered for Byte,
>DDJ, etc. are interesting, but so are the ads, and they aren't included.
The NatGeo CD's that are out (around $150) have the ads as well, I
understand. I suspect someone will do the same with some of the better
known computer mags as well at some point.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
At 10:31 AM 12/7/98 -0500, you wrote:
>Take a 3.5 volt top hat LED. Spread the leads to the proper
>width and apply (I would recommend using a pair of pliers)
>to a fresh 9 volt transistor radio battery. I got shards of
>red plastic embedded in my fingers that way once.
Sounds like fun, but PLEASE -- WEAR SAFETY GLASSES! I can say from
experience that glass (or plastic) in your eye is no fun at all. (nor is
fuzzy eyesight/blindness.)
WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
> From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
> Subject: Re: PET Video (was: Replacing 6550s) & 128
> > > ::"chiclet keyboard" != "rubber keys", IMHO. I'm talking about the cute
> > > ::multicoloured keyboard with the small plastic keys that are arranged in a
> > > ::grid pattern. I call that a chiclet keyboard.
> > >
> > > Hmm, okay. But multicoloured? Which colours? Arranged how?
> >
> > Ummm they were all metallic tops, Red, Gold, Blue, Silver... Check out my
> > PET page:
>
> Gold? Your PETs have gold keys? I have two shades of blue. And my red
> keys look significantly less metallic than the others. I couldn't tell if
> they were 'metallic' or if I was looking at the nail polish my brother
> coated the keys with to keep the printing from rubbing off.
Maybe I'm mistaken about the gold ones, (that PET is currently back in
storage)... Fortunately I was given a spare set of by a friend who serviced
PETs and also once worked at Commodore (he also wrote the original PET uers
guide and some of the diagnostics, I had him sign my users guide) but so far
the original set on the PET haven worn all that much yet (the previous owner
was very good to that machine).
0001010010110101010101000101000111000110010010
> From: Doug Spence <ds_spenc(a)alcor.concordia.ca>
> Subject: Re: Replacing 6550s
>
> > > Actually, IIRC my small-keyboard PET uses little rubber cups. But I
> > > suppose there may be springs as well. The keyboard didn't work when I got
> > > it, so I had to disassemble it and wipe the circuit board clean. I never
> > > disassembled it beyond pulling the circuit board off.
> >
> > No rubber cups. Rubber cups or domes always in my experience give some
> > sort of mechanical hysteresis when you press them. All PET keyboards I've
> > used are smooth until they hit the stop. Small keyboard had little black
> > rubber pads set into the plastic mouldings of the keys.
>
> I think there are rubber cups of some sort, but they may be soft
> protective things rather than what provides the 'bounce'. I just tried
> both PET keyboards and compared the feel to other keyboards, and you're
> right, they are smooth. Potential 'rubber cup' keyboards: CoCo 1, Amiga
> 3000. Weird undefinable keyboard that mushes/springs at the bottom: Atari
> 130XE. :)
The Calculator PET cups (which my keyboard has) are not all that deep, so you
would not feel the 'mechanical hysteresis' you were describing, they act as
the 'spring' I am sure. The large keyboard PETs used springs but later some
VIC-20s had cups again... strange... :/
> Where would you put ROM expansion? There's no empty sockets in this model
> PET.
With the ExpandaPET board you have I think 4 KIM bus slots, I have a couple
cards for one, one is an EPROM board and the othersome sort of floppy
controller (they probabably worked together)
> > > Why do POKE and PEEK fail there? Was that done on purpose or is it just
> > > the result of something lame like using a signed value to represent
> > > addresses?
> >
> > No, it's software. It was a feature that was supposed to prevent
> > inquisitive geeks disassembling the BASIC ROM between $C000 and (I think)
> > $E7FF. The OS ROMs, above $F000, were peekable, though, as was the I/O
> > space in the E block. You could of course peek and poke the screen, $8000
> > - $83E7 inclusive.
>
> An inquisitive geek wouldn't be stopped long by that! Bill should have
> known better. :)
All you had to do was poke in an ML byte transfer routine...
That 'bug' was corrected in the upgrade ROMs (good move on Commodre's part, by
opening access and info on the system more people devloped for it.) as well as
in the realase of the monitor program. Other companies who tried such stingy
tactics (Atari early on and most certainly TI) were really hurt by it.
> > I'll try and dig out my RAM expansion board, and work out what it did.
> > Meanwhile, have fun!
>
> No fun until all my assignments and exams are done. :/
On Mon, 7 Dec 1998 healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com wrote:
> Good GRIEF! He has the starting bid is set at $8.50, and wants the winner
> to pay $3 for shipping. You can buy them new for that!
Now I know what to do with all those boxes of 5 1/4" disks I've got...I'm
rich! Seriously, though, if someone here catches what that auction
closes at, let me know.
> Zane
----------------------------------------------------
Max Eskin | kurtkilgor(a)bigfoot.com | AOL: kurtkilgor
< Just to refresh my memory on Linux since I'm just now getting into
< looking at it, just exactly what machines work well with it, and with
< what versions/vareities for each? I have tons of machines from IBM 5170
< AT's, PS/2's of all sorts, other 286 and 386 machines, etc and I'm
< looking at possibly selling off the useful ones that will use Linux as
< cheap as I can to get some room to walk around here.
For the 8086 and 286 class machines look into MINIX V2.0 and for the 386
and up most linux versions (they may not support specific hardware
like some oddball video and disks though).
Allison
Hi,
Ebay item #47353951 is two 8" floppies. If you look closely at
one of them in the picture, it appears to be a diagnostic floppy.
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=47353951
I emailed the seller, and he said:
> That floppy has a label that reads: "EMC CORPORATION, MEMORY
> DIAGNOSTICS, FOR VAX 11/780 AND 11/785, 053-240-001 REV A"
>
> Hard to say what might be on the other floppy, it looks like the label
> that had been adhered has popped off long ago.
>
> We've long since decommissioned all our 780s and 785s, and a month or so
> ago we were doing a "cleanup" of the shelves in the back room, and I
> picked up a few "nostalgic" items like these floppies, but my wife has
> said there's no room left for computer collectibles.
>
> If you could actually use the software, that would be great!
I'm not interested in it, but I thought someone here might be.
--
Stan Sieler sieler(a)allegro.com
http://www.allegro.com/sieler.html
< Now *MY* Altair Synth (pardon the ego!) was all done in
< software, with a simple 8-bit d/a converter on an i/o
< port. It used 256 bytes of a waveform (fundamental sin(x)
< plus some harmonics) that were stepped thru by up to
there was a simplfied version by processor tech and a few others with
a less sophisticated D/A (used R, 2R ladders) that were able to do that.
The whole of it is Malcom Wright's _Alphanumeric music with Amplitude
control_ C1975 article. I have a copy of this and have done mucic with
it and voicing was possible.
Allison
I have your magazine, and I copied your article (rather long, about 20 pages). Now if you will tell me where to send it, it will be yours.
Barry Watzman
Watzman(a)ibm.net
----------
From: M McManus [SMTP:mmcmanus@direct.ca]
Sent: Sunday, December 06, 1998 9:46 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?
-----Original Message-----
From: Richard A. Cini, Jr. <rcini(a)msn.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Sunday, December 06, 1998 1:11 PM
Subject: Anyone have 1/83 Byte Mag?
>Does anyone have the 1/83 issue of Byte Magazine? In it is part 3 of an
>article by Steve Ciarcia about the MPX-16 PC-compatible SBC. I have parts 1
>and 2, so I need the third.
>
> Thanks!
>
>[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
>[ ClubWin!/CW7
>[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
>[ Collector of "classic" computers
>[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
>[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
><================ reply separator =================>
The local library has Byte on micrfiche. If you live in the Vancouver
Area, you can get a printout or just read it. It is at the Surrey library
in Guilford.
< Apparently it is a vinyl type record with recordings of music made on th
< Altair computer. It closed somewhere around $130 which I thought was
< impressive.
Now I know what mine is worth. ;) I have a few others I collected back
then.
Allison
>the disks and he gave me one, a Maxtor. I had it on a pc, laying
>on top of a table and one day it went "BLAM!" like someone set
>off a firecracker, and the pc shut down. Turned power off/on and it
>came right back like nothing had happened! Turned out to be
<a reversed biased diode across the power lines let got - nothing
>important.
Ah - you got one of those special NED's (Noise Emitting Diodes),
I see.
Tim.
That's the way it is with most inexpensive home micros (I think the
Commodore has one of the more complicated ways of doing it, since you need
to know the drive ID). Most of them are truly out-of-the box. And then
modern engineers came upon a working idea and decided to update it in such a
way that it uses all that power new computers have more effectively. You
know, I was impressed today that an MS Draw image that opened instantly for
me to modify in a Word 2.0 document on a 386 took about 30 seconds in Word
97 on a Pentium-200.
>disk in drive and turn power on. Instant boot. USB? Pfeh!
I dearly hope this doesn't stay this way. Why is it that one of the biggest
headline-makers in computers, Linux, is 30 years old? And why can't they
finally get object-oriented systems right? They've been trying to for
decades, and there still isn't a good version of OLE/OpenDoc that is
_really_ versatile. Flame away.
>Everything new in the computer realm was invented long ago. Engineers
>just re-discover good designs. Heck, the mouse turns 30 this week!
>
>Sellam Alternate e-mail:
dastar(a)siconic.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>Always being hassled by the man.
>
> Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
> See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
> [Last web site update: 12/07/98]
>
Hans B Pufal <hansp(a)digiweb.com> wrote:
> That all sounds plausible, but I do not think that HP Vectras ever used
> the HIL standard. When I get back to Grenoble (where the Vectras were
> designed) next week I will root around and see what I can dig up on this
> machine.
I'd like to know what you find, my recollection comes from having to
support 10-20 of the original Vectras and somewhat more ES and ES/12s
where I worked through most of the late 1980s. (Hey, I thought they
were OK for PC-compatibles.)
I'm not sure how "standard" the HIL support on the Vectra really was.
But the original Vectra had the connector, and its keyboard had two,
and you could plug a 46060A mouse into the keyboard. ISTR you could
put a touchscreen in the 375[34]1 monitors and hook that up with the
HIL connectors on the back of the monitor but we never bothered with
that (we bought Touchscreen IIs without the touchscreen too).
The original Vectra keyboard isn't the same HIL keyboard as used on
the 9000 line -- it has a hybrid layout that looks sort of like the
original PC/AT keyboard crossed with the HP150 keyboard, so it has PC
F1-F10 in two columns down the left, HP f1-f8 across the top, and a
numeric/cursor pad on the right.
The Vectra ES and ES/12 have the PC-standard 5-pin DIN connector for
the keyboard (which has the PS/2 layout with F1-F12 across the top and
Ctrl in the wrong place), but also have an HIL connector next to the
keyboard connector, and I think I remember using 46060A mice with
those too.
-Frank McConnell
>doable but, near unimplementable do to the lack of Qbus. The more common
>situation is unsupported, IE: DEC didn't consider it marketable or test
>it exactly that way. Two RDxx disks in a ba123 is an example.
Two RD5x's in a BA123 was definitely a supported configuration, and is
listed in the late-80's DEC catalogs.
Two RD3x (half-height) disks in a BA23 is also supported, and indeed is
the reason behind the 6-button BA23 front panel. Many 11/53
configurations were shipped from the factory this way.
Two full-height hard drives in a single BA23 was never officially supported
(at least for the various microPDP-11 configurations), because
they refused to support a base box sold without removable media.
Tim. (shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com)
Come on you guys! This is now something emitting something, ad
nauseum.
I must admit, though, that I liked the concept of the shrapnel-emitting
diode. I, too, have seen some of these!
William R. Buckley
At 11:12 12/04/98 -0800, Aaron C. Finney wrote:
>This is giving me fits. There's something strange with my minivan, that it
>generates a *ton* of static electricity whenever I drive even a few
-- snip --
>box of Bounce dryer sheets (don't laugh) in my jockey box. Does anyone
>know what could be causing this?
Yes. It's not the car but it's the tires. I've had the same problems with a
couple of Toyota Camrys I've leased over the past years. Extreme and rather
painful shocks are generated especially in this part of the country when it
is very cold and low humidity.
Finally getting tired of the fireworks, I asked a few tire dealers and auto
dealers about this and they told me that modern tires nowadays have
somewhat less carbon black, which is conductive, in their rubber compounds.
Something about reduced wear, etc. Static charges built up from the motion
of the tires over the road don't drain off as fast. Hence, when you step
out of the car you get nailed. This is because the resistivity of the tire
rubber is higher because of less carbon black content. Carbon black,
incidentally started to be put into tire rubber back around 1910-1912,
IIRC, when it was found that it drastically reduced the damage to the
natural rubber caused by the sun's UV rays. Tires up until then were as
white as the original rubber tree sap was when harvested and did not last
very long. You can see examples of reproduction white tires on
correctly-restored antique cars from around the early teens and earlier at
an antique car show or auto museum.
I found a solution by holding my fingers on the unpainted door jamb
hardware as I turn and step out of the car (if I'm wearing normal
rubber-soled shoes). This keeps my body and the car at equal potentials as
the static continues to drain off through the less resistive tires. Minimal
or no zaps anymore.
I worry a bit about those shocks at the gasoline station if somebody is
fueling their car and there is a significant concentration of fuel vapors
and no wind about. It takes at least a 14:1 air to vapor ratio for ignition
to occur which is not too likely at the gas bar.
I have a pair of ESD-type work shoes which I wore at work and still wear
around the house. There is a high amount of carbon in the heels and soles
which allows them to be used as an anti-static device for electronics
workers. I never get nailed in the house on a carpet nor from my car
whenever I wear them. They're great! Made by Titan Safety Shoe Company.
Needed them in the cleanroom at work and when repairing electronic controls
around the plant or working up in the R&D lab. Additionally, I recall that
I had very little problem when I wore leather-soled shoes back in the days
when I had them. Seems the leather was a bit conductive especially when damp.
Incidentally, do some of you remember the automobile accessory fad from
back in the 70's which was an anti-static strap that hung from the bottom
of the car? If it was conductive it would serve a good purpose for you
today Aaron. You've probably seen fuel tanker trucks with a metal chain
dragging. It too was used as a static drain for obvious reasons ;)
Happy zapping! --Chris
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA cfandt(a)netsync.net
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
-----Original Message-----
From: R. Stricklin (kjaeros) <red(a)bears.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, 1 December 1998 16:00
Subject: Re: DG Aviion video
>The green connect is labelled "G/MONO" so I'd be inclined to agree with
>you.
Mine are just labelled "R" "G" and "B"
>I at least knew that much. (: I was given a fat wodge of QIC tapes and
>DG/UX 5.4R3 at least was included as well as some older versions and
>possibly one newer.
Did better than me, I just got the bare boxes, no mice, no monitors, no
keyboards, no docs.
>Not surprising; they're an Intel/NT shop now for the most part. q: How
>boring.
How right!
>> is the same connector as on a Sun, but not sure if the Sun mouse would
>> work or not, and I don't have one to try.
>
>Outwardly they are identical. Both are Mouse Systems optical mice
>(although the DG mouse doesn't say so). I dismantled the DG mouse and a
>spare Sun type-4 mouse to make sure, but the electronics and signalaling
>are wildly different. From cord conductor-count alone, I'd say the DG
>mouse is quadrature and the Sun mouse is serial.
Erk. That's going to make life difficult. Sun mice are $$ but at least you
can
get them. Any ideas where one would obtain a couple of the appropriate
rodentia?
>It is the same connector as on a Sun mouse, though.
Trap for the unwary I suppose.
Thanks for the info.
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Systems Manager
Saint Marks College
Port Pirie South Australia.
My ICQ# is 1970476
Ph. 61-411-623-978 (Mobile)
61-8-8633-0619 (Home)
61-8-8633-8834 (Work-Direct)
61-8-8633-0104 (Fax)