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

by peacock＠simconv.com

>Hmm; I'm glad to hear that the N* isn't *too* fussy about the memory >cards it plays with - it makes the job of finding spares a whole lot easier! > >Regards repairs to the existing boards, I may well end up admitting >defeat in the short term - if it's a duff 4027 chip, I'm stuffed - >there's 32 of 'em to choose from! > Now that's where an IMSAI front panel really paid off. You put in the card, stored an FF in the first location, the panel display show EF instead...bingo, the RAM on D4 is bad (or more likely a bent pin or upside down in socket). Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

1
0
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Northstar S100 compatability

by peacock＠simconv.com

>Well, the mains transformer is wired OK; it happily takes the 240V in and >spits out something (?) like 8VAC, 16VAC and respectively. The 16VAC then >goes through what I assume is a bridge rectifier, and out comes approx. >+32VDC and -32VDC. The snag *is* that it's meant to be supplying 16, not >32v! The 8v rail, fortunately, is fine. Are you sure you measured from the right ground? I have never seen a bridge rectifier that would take 16VAC going in, then provide +/-32VDC coming out the DC side. Connect your ground lead to pin 50 on the S-100 bus (the rightmost side, pins 50 and 100 are signal/power ground). You should see +8VDC (roughly) on bus pin 1/51, +16VDC on pin 2 (or 52, I forget which, don't have a schematic in front of me), and -16Vdc on pin 52 (or pin 2). If you still show +/-32VDC, look at the transformer, something's wrong there (you would have a 120V xfrmr instead of a 240V one). Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

1
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Crisis Over, Back To Your Homes, Wanted: Apple ][ Card Info

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

The list is, more or less, on topic, and I've taken this oppertuinity to ask a question: My Apple ][ has a Language card called a "Pocket Rocket". Now, what does this do? Does it let me write in such languages as Pascal, C, or, on my ][+, Integer BASIC? Also, is RAM expansion avaible to increase RAM to 128K (As I've heard that it could go to...) Thanks, Tim D. Hotze

28 years, 1 month

1
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Symbolics 3650..

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

> :[Symbolics 3650] A couple of resources I found online... The Online Symbolics Museum: http://www.brightware.com/~rwk/symbolics/ Symbolics Technical Summary: http://www.lavielle.com/~joswig/symbolic-computing.html --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

28 years, 1 month

1
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Northstar S100 compatability

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Out of interest, what would a N* want with 256K anyway? Presumably, <whatever OS it is running is pretty hefty stuff! It ran NSdos which was pretty lightweight. and didn't care much about how much ram there was. It was possible to run multiuser NSdos. CP/M was commonly ported to it and 2.2 could be banked if you weren't faint of hear and CPM-3 was designed for banked operation. MPM was a multiuser cpm that also could use banked ram while running multiple users. Mine has 128k in it at current, running CP/M-2 banked. Allison

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Catweasel, etc.

by jfoust＠threedee.com

"Richard A. Cini" <rcini(a)email.msn.com> > Here's my idea. Why can't we contact those vendors that are still in >{corporate} existence and who at one time produced interesting and useful >hardware or software (examples would be MicroSolutions, or CentralPoint), >and try to purchase, for nominal $$$, the rights to produce and distribute >these goods in small quantities. Because as soon as they think there's a buck to be made, the price will become prohibitive. :-) There's some hope for classic computers from the Catweasel people. In their FAQ, they admit knowledge of eight-inch drives, and would be willing to add support for them and their disk formats if someone loaned them a drive and some disks. The problem? They're in Germany. Andrew De Quincey <adq(a)tardis.ed.ac.uk> recently posted some messages to various Usenet classic groups regarding a project where he's capturing the bit-level signals from a drive, and using a Java program to decode it to higher levels of representation. I've been improving my ANSI C tools for getting directories and bursting disk image files for UCSD Pascal and RT-11. Right now they work on logical-order disk images, but I want to improve them to read physical-sector-order images, as well as Anadisk's extra eight-byte sector-header format. Sadly, Anadisk doesn't work under a WinNT command shell, I have to boot back to DOS. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 1 month

1
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Vic-20 heads-up

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Uncle Roger <sinasohn(a)ricochet.net> wrote: >Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that >there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges. >This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended. What is he doing to address the question of copyright? Might not some of these titles be owned by someone? - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 1 month

1
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Cleaning up classic books

by Marty＠itgonline.com

First, you should appeal to these thrift shops to use a pencil. Some thrift shops I haunt will pencil in the price on the inside cover, then to thwart repricers, pencil it in again on a different page. I've never had any luck removing grease pencil and have ended up smearing it. I suggest you look up the Library of Congress on the web and email them for advice if they have nothing listed for book preservation. Marty Mintzell ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Cleaning up classic books Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/19/98 7:42 PM Many of the old computer books I get from thrift stores have the price of the book written in grease pencil on the inside cover of the book. I'd like to remove this safely. Can someone point me to the right place to find this sort of information? Thanks. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details! ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists2.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar19.194222.1767.33023; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:42:23 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id QAA11739; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 16:35:56 -0800 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id QAA17044 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 16:35:50 -0800 Received: from shell.wco.com (root(a)shell.wco.com [199.4.94.16]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id QAA08101 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 16:35:49 -0800 Received: from shell (dastar@shell [199.4.94.16]) by shell.wco.com (8.8.5/8.8.5/WCO-18jul97) with SMTP id QAA28027 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 16:35:46 -0800 (PST) Message-Id: <Pine.GSO.3.96.980319163413.10428C-100000@shell> Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 16:35:40 -0800 (PST) Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Cleaning up classic books MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-To: Classic Computer Discussion <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> X-Sender: dastar@shell X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 1 month

1
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Found few chips and one interesting chip.

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<One guy had list of stuff for sale or trades recently within last <week or so and was asking for those 8228 chips. <1 x AMD 8284A <1 x Fujitsu 8284A <3 x Nec 8284AD 8284 .NEQ 8228. The 8284/A is specific to 8088/v20 and 8228 is specific to 8080. <MC857P, dated '71 of 18th week. uRTL or DTL (utilogic) , real slow and real old. Generally simple gates or maybe a dual flipflop. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
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information

by turloughobrien＠tinet.ie

I am a student in Trinity college Dublin,Ireland.I have been assigned a project on "videotext" but there is little to no information available on the net about "Videotext" or in the libraries.I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me some informatin on the subject. Yours sincerly Turlough O'Brien. turloughobrien(a)tinet.ie

28 years, 1 month

1
0
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Vic-20 heads-up

by cgregory＠lrbcg.com

I second Uncle Roger's comments. Ward is a great guy and is doing the Vic-20 community a great service. I have also contributed to the archiving and CD project. BTW, the URL is http://members.aol.com/wshrake/index.htm Cliff Gregory cgregory(a)lrbcg.com -----Original Message----- From: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> To: Cgregory <Cgregory> Date: Friday, March 20, 1998 1:55 AM Subject: Vic-20 heads-up > >Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that >there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges. He has >a list posted on the web (and of course, I don't have URL here on the >train) and is actually taking images of the cartridge ROM's for a CD-ROM >(as well as scanning pictures of the labels and such.) > >If anyone is really interested, e-mail me and I'll dig up the URL where >he's got a list of all the cartridges that were available. (If you have >one that's not on the list, please let him know!) > >I'm proud to say that I did have one that wasn't on the list (Fun with >Music, by Epyx) and am sending it, along with another (apparently >incredibly rare) cart (Dot Gobbler) for him to take images of. > >This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended. > >(I remember staying up late and playing one of the text adventures on a >Vic-20 with a friend of mine. His first introduction to computers. I was >happy to be able to offer him a new experience, since he had provided me >with so many.) > > >--------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/ > >

28 years, 1 month

1
0
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Vic-20 heads-up

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

Sorry for the on-topic post, but, I just wanted to let folks know that there is a guy (Ward(?) Shrake) who is archiving Vic-20 cartridges. He has a list posted on the web (and of course, I don't have URL here on the train) and is actually taking images of the cartridge ROM's for a CD-ROM (as well as scanning pictures of the labels and such.) If anyone is really interested, e-mail me and I'll dig up the URL where he's got a list of all the cartridges that were available. (If you have one that's not on the list, please let him know!) I'm proud to say that I did have one that wasn't on the list (Fun with Music, by Epyx) and am sending it, along with another (apparently incredibly rare) cart (Dot Gobbler) for him to take images of. This sort of serious, practical preservation is definitely to be commended. (I remember staying up late and playing one of the text adventures on a Vic-20 with a friend of mine. His first introduction to computers. I was happy to be able to offer him a new experience, since he had provided me with so many.) --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

28 years, 1 month

1
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oddball find PS/2-50, NOT oddball PS/2. :))

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Guys, everyone should have this book by Scott Mueller, "Upgrading and <Repairing PCs". Tis' have good INFO on most PS/2, PS/1 and some late <IBM boxens including the PC, XT and AT in all types, convertible, <5155 portable. I have that book and it's leaving me guessing on some of this. <Not in this sense. Correctly stated, in IBM's words: for this 50 <series uses either MFM/RLL card that plugs into that MCA bus or the <IDE MCA hd and pass thru card called IDE (MCA IDE) on Interposer <Card. It must be the mfm/rll as the card in the MCA bus is fairly busy and the drive is sparse. <BTW, got a spare working 1.44 FDD for that 50 series? All I have is <this battle damaged naked 50Z board with CPU and rom with stand up <floppy adaper. Or better yet, any luck finding a spare PS/2 with <386 or better boxen? I have no desire to get into MCA bus or for that fact PS/2 or machines of that era. Older ISA I have but that's it other than the more current 386 and 486 box to run mail, linux and gcadd. I may trade off these ps/2s. Allison

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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information

by peacock＠simconv.com

Turlough O'Brien wrote: "videotext" but there is little to no information available on the net about "Videotext" or in the libraries.I would greatly appreciate it if you could send me some informatin on the subject. (This is from memory and unreliable) There was a proposed standard for North America called NAPLPS, for videotext presentation. I believe it was sponsored by Philips. If someone has a complete collection of BYTE magazines, I recall there was an issue devoted to videotext, circa 1981. The one clever feature of NAPLPS was that the graphics were based on floating point coordinates. Because screen sizes and resolutions would vary, positioning and sizing graphics was a problem. NAPLPS used a coordinate system where the width and height of the screen ranged from 0 to 1. For instance, to place a pixel in the center, you referenced coordinates (0.5, 0.5). Videotext never really caught on in the US except on cable TV as a non-interactive display. I believe there are still a few videotext services piggybacking on satellite channels. They transmit on one of the unused scan lines at the top of the picture, similar to closed captioning for the deaf. To my knowledge the only truly successful videotext implementation was the french minitel telephone directory. Hope this gives you a place to start. Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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New Adds to Museum

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

Well all the last couple weeks have 50/50 as my sources stsrt to have less and less computer items. But I did some of the following Mac IIfx, Mac IIsi, Mac IIci (all for $15 each); all were loaded with software and worked fine no kb's or mice with them just the boxes. A couple of servers one Dell and the Compaq but not 10 years old yet for $10 each with no memory or hard drives. A NeXt black laser printer for $15, NEC MultiSpeed EL with power brick and manuals $20 at Goodwill. COMQuest PC for .80, IIc mono monitor and stand .80, Apple IIc free no power supply with it. Atari newstyle 2600 .80,Mac 512k model M0001E will not power on .80, IBM 6156-003 Portable Disk Drive unit,Pitney Bowes in AT style case with black 3.5 FD $10 not tested yet, and todays finds have not been listed yet in the computer so I can't tell you what all I got but my pickup was full. Yes I got 2 IBM 5494's anyone know something about them ?? Thanks and keep computing John

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Northstar S100 compatability

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Simon, how timely of you. I just acquired a NorthStar Horizon yesterday which uses four 64KB memory boards (parity). Each board has four 9 chip rows of 16KB dram. I haven't got the documentation for this machine yet, the previous owner has it in storage with software as well (he claims) and said he might have it for me by next week. I'll let you know more details when I get the docs. Marty Mintzell marty(a)itgonline.com ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Northstar S100 compatability Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/19/98 3:50 PM Hi there, guys. I've been lurking on this list for a good long while now, and some of the recent talk of Northstar crates actually prompted me to dig one out that I had aquired a good few years ago and promptly forgotten about...! Does anyone have any idea what sort of RAM cards the Horizon likes to play with? My system already has an (albeit flakey) RAM-16 card, and I have the remains of an old Godbout Econoram-II card, sans about half its chips. I have *no* idea whether this card was ever used with the N*. The machine is not in great condition, bless it; it seems to have been robbed of a couple of voltage regulators at some point in the past, and the full-height 5.25 drives are, I fear, past their best, and shall be retired gracefully. I think that the PSU could do with some adjustment, too; if anyone in the UK has schematics for any of these bits, and would be willing to make copies in exchange for money or eternal gratitude, please let me know! Still, despite it's problems, I suppose I should at least be grateful that I have at least found a manufacturer of hard-sectored diskettes! [1] Thanks. Simon. -- Simon Coombs simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk Don't stand on ceremony; just bow low. CP/M - The once and future O/S! [1] Or, at least, they still were as of Jul 97. ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists3.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar19.155025.1767.32971; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 15:50:25 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id MAA05533; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:33:18 -0800 Received: from mxu4.u.washington.edu (mxu4.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id MAA21170 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:32:48 -0800 Received: from post.mail.demon.net (post-10.mail.demon.net [193.195.0.154]) by mxu4.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with SMTP id MAA12994 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:32:47 -0800 Received: from nenevr.demon.co.uk ([158.152.207.39]) by post.mail.demon.net id aa1021057; 19 Mar 98 20:01 GMT Received: (from simon@localhost) by nenevr.demon.co.uk (8.6.9/v3.2) id TAA13790; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:45:08 GMT Message-Id: <Pine.3.89.9803191910.A13753-0100000(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk> Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 19:45:08 +0000 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Simon Coombs <simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Northstar S100 compatability MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 1 month

3
2
0 0

Archive Corp FT60 Adapter Board Jumper Settings

by dar617＠idirect.com

I have 2 EAX6GPSC-499R cards and a FT-60 tape drive. I have just cleaned up the tape drive (the interior tape mechanism is marked Archive model #9050B) and have yet to try it as I need a tape. I also have the software to run the board and drive and they appear to work. Thanks for the info on the type of tape needed. I have three sets fo jumpers {kk(on), hh(off), ff(off), jj(off), q24(on), 45mb(on)} {3(on), 4(on), 5(on), 6(on), 7(on), 8(on), 9(off), 10(on)} {RR(off), IRQ 1thru3(3 on), DRQ 1thru3(1 on), DACK(?) 1thru3(1 on)} Doug Rea

28 years, 1 month

1
0
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Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again....

by bwit＠pobox.com

---------- From: Max Eskin[SMTP:maxeskin@hotmail.com] Sent: Monday, March 16, 1998 9:40 AM To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers Subject: Re: Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again... >What's wrong with COBOL? The OBOL part.

28 years, 1 month

4
4
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Northstar S100 compatability

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Well, the mains transformer is wired OK; it happily takes the 240V in and <spits out something (?) like 8VAC, 16VAC and respectively. The 16VAC then <goes through what I assume is a bridge rectifier, and out comes approx. <+32VDC and -32VDC. The snag *is* that it's meant to be supplying 16, not <32v! The 8v rail, fortunately, is fine. Fix that! That 32v is way to high and will snuff the regulators used for +/-12v. I would expact something closer to 22v DC. Also the caps used would be stressed if subjected to that for an extended time. It sounds like the power is wired wrong. <Methinks that the previous owner may have been a little naughty with the <wiring; but I'm not confidant enough with electronics to play with it <too much. This is one machine I don't want to risk blowing up! :) Sounds that way. Get help from someone on your side of the pond if your in over your head as that's a fine machine. With 64k of ram and software it's still pretty useful. At least mine still earns it's keep. Allison

28 years, 1 month

1
0
0 0

whoa there...

by maynard＠jmg.com

Jeesh folks, I'm really sorry about this. It may take some time for your local DNS servers to update their cache. Until that time the Admin at my remote ISP (the guys maintaining my DNS records), have set up a sendmail virtusertable to forward mail from their local mail server (see www.sendmail.org if this is greek to you). OK, so if any bounce messages wound up on the mailing list it should stop now.... J. Maynard Gelinas

28 years, 1 month

1
0
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mail problems

by maynard＠jmg.com

Folks, I'm in an mx record tangle with my primary nameserver (which of course, I don't admin). If you can get your nameserver to kill the TTL on it's cache you'll get me, otherwise it's going to bounce until the TTL ends. I've unsub'd from classiccmp to prevent any bounces (I assume there were bounces <*cringe*>?). Will subscribe back once this is straightened out.... J. Maynard Gelinas

28 years, 1 month

1
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What I think to be a good idea...

by rcini＠email.msn.com

On the list, Don was talking about the MicroSolutions MatchPoint card, which, with its associated software, permitted reading and writing Apple disks on a standard PC drive, and another hardware item I can 't remember at this time. Here's my idea. Why can't we contact those vendors that are still in {corporate} existence and who at one time produced interesting and useful hardware or software (examples would be MicroSolutions, or CentralPoint), and try to purchase, for nominal $$$, the rights to produce and distribute these goods in small quantities. Although it would take some of the sport out of trying to locate a MatchPoint card, for example, it would enable us to produce these tools for ourselves, thus becoming self-sufficient in a way. Rich Cini/WUGNET <nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use) ClubWin! Charter Member (6) MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking ============================================

28 years, 1 month

1
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Apology, Info, Etc...

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 02:55 PM 3/18/98 -0800, you wrote: >> I encourage you to organize as you desire, by whatever >> means you can agree on if you haven't already done so. [...] >Ok fine. Until I'm able to take over ClassicCmp completely, we can put a >few issues to a vote. I thought we already decided a couple months back [...] >It's a mailing list for the discussion of classic computers. Topics center >on collection, restoration, and operation. It is also an appropriate place >for stories and reminiscences of classic computers. Lofty discussions I actually stopped to notice how many e-mails I got yesterday. Over 300. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to ignore all the off-topic BS (including the off-topic stuff about being off-topic and and the off-topic cat-fighting) and all the suggested changes and alternates and so on. I will continue reading whatever comes in from <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> and will (occassionally) post messages (maybe even including the occasional off-topic one) to <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> as if none of this had ever happened. Those that are unhappy are welcome to go off and start something new. Who knows, somewhere down the road, I might subscribe to your list/chatroom/website/whatever as well. Those that want to keep on whining, are welcome to do so. I'll delete your messages and somehow manage to go about my business without committing suicide. Those that want to talk about classic computers, great. I'll read your messages (even the bloody cax ones! 8^) and might even have something to contribute. So, if you liked it the way it was (and don't let Bill fool you, he's been doing a great job) just sit back, ignore it, and the nonsense will eventually blow over. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Hasbro buys ATARI

by jmg＠iac.net

This is old news. The ATARI newsgroups have been full of this for the last couple of weeks, so I'm sure most folks here know about it. However, Hasbro recently came out with an announcement stating that they are going to re-release old games such as Centipede just like they rereleased an updated 'Frogger.' A core ATARI constituancy still exists who would like Hasbro to update the ST hardware line. With clone European makers _still_ manufacturing ST compatible machines, and Gateway 2000's purchase of the Amiga line, one might think this could be a profitable move for Hasbro. Looks like they don't see it that way howver. What a shame. Both *BSD and Linux run on this hardware line and I _really_ want a decent alternative to PC hardware available which is also designed with <*cough*> games in mind (hey, I may be an adult but I still like videogames!) Maybe a letter writing campaign to Hasbro could help change their mind? Anyone else here fond of the old ATARI computer line and share my enthusiasm? J. Maynard Gelinas

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Old manuals free in Canada

by pjoules＠enterprise.net

Found on usenet - I assume that 40 years old makes them on topic ;-) (Sorry about the delay, message bounced twice because I couldn't type the address properly) On Tue, 17 Mar 1998 15:38:39 -0500, in comp.misc "John H. Lindsay" <lindsay-j(a)rmc.ca> wrote: >I'm in the process of trying to retire, and I have a collection >of computer manuals that go back to the I.B.M. 650 and 1620 >in the mid-late 1950's and run to, say, 10 years ago. This >stuff is History, and it shouldn't be thrown out. It needs a >good home - a computer archive, library, or museum, >Canadian preferred, but if one doesn't materialize, I'll consider >other possibilities. > >Ideas, suggestions or recommendations, anyone ? > >-- >John H. Lindsay lindsay-j(a)rmc.ca >Department of Mathematics and Computer Science >ROYAL MILITARY COLLEGE OF CANADA >P O BOX 17000 STN FORCES >KINGSTON ON K7K 7B4 CANADA > >Phone: (613) 541-6000--1--6419 >Fax: (613) 541-6584

28 years, 1 month

2
1
0 0

Pesky atari modem

by CharlesII＠nwonline.net

I have a problem with an Atari 1030 modem. While I can receive everything correct on the Atari modem I am not able to receive anything transmitted from it to another computer correctly. All I get from the Atari modem is binary garbage. Can anyone help me? BTW dose anyone have any spare Atari cables remember they have 13 pins. On another note I've noticed that flea markets are a pretty good place to find classic computers.

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Cleaning up classic books

by dastar＠wco.com

Many of the old computer books I get from thrift stores have the price of the book written in grease pencil on the inside cover of the book. I'd like to remove this safely. Can someone point me to the right place to find this sort of information? Thanks. Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0 See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!

28 years, 1 month

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More: Irreverence to irrelevance

by dcoward＠pressstart.com

I have to admit that I'm flame virgin, but it looks like fun so I'll give it a shot. I can't believe so many on the ClassicCmp List don't subscribe to the digest! That was the first thing I did.(Change over to the digest) I can't be sorting through 40-50 messages to find the work related one that need to be answered right away. And frankly, collecting computers is a hobby for me, one of many, and this is not the only digest I subscribe to.(Even though it's the one that takes most of my mail reading time.) Yesterday's digest came in SIX parts. In the last year thats nearly the record. Page after page of the same e-mail quoted again and agin. BUT I'm not complaining, instead I suggest that MAYBE the ClassicCmp List should default to digest when subscribing. I think that a digest allows people the time to think out their responses. Many of you are the CP/M-List, this is a good example. You may have to wait 24 hours for a response, but usually it a very thoughtful one. And I think its because (as I remember) CP/M-L defaulted to digest and it just become a slower paced discussion. Also with a digest there is no reason to quote someone in entirety (You just read the other message). You do have to cut and paste, so you're more selective. It true than I'm sometimes 24 hours late on a computer for sale. But then again everybody want to auction off their computers anymore. Well that my humble opinion. ========================================= Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com Senior Software Engineer Press Start Inc. Sunnyvale,CA Curator Museum of Personal Computing Machinery http://www.best.com/~dcoward/museum =========================================

28 years, 1 month

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IBM mainframe equipment (repost from another source)

by rhblake＠bbtel.com

There's a person on the Obsolete Computer Helpline at http://ncsc.dni.us/fun/user/tcc/cmuseum/helpline/helpline.htm that writes the following: --------------------------------------------------------------------- Anybody looking for some IBM mainframe equipment? Let me know what item you're looking for. --------------------------------------------------------------------- mailto:mkoch@mw.mediaone.net is his email contact address. No name other than "Mike" was posted. I thought that maybe someone in the list might be interested.... -------------------------------------------------------------------- Russ Blakeman RB Custom Services / Rt. 1 Box 62E / Harned, KY USA 40144 Phone: (502) 756-1749 / Data/Fax:(502) 756-6991 Email: rhblake(a)bbtel.com or rhblake(a)bigfoot.com Website: http://members.tripod.com/~RHBLAKE/ * Parts/Service/Upgrades and more for MOST Computers* --------------------------------------------------------------------

28 years, 1 month

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Hitachi 2.8" (was Preserving old floppies, fixed disks...)

by lisard＠zetnet.co.uk

On 1998-03-18 classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu said to lisard(a)zetnet.co.uk :> Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 23:56:43 GMT :> yep, they're quick disks. and they probably belong in the same :>bucket as sinclair's microdrive and phi mag's floopy tape (anyone :>else remember this one?) - nice tries that just couldn't keep up, :>either in cost, capacity or genericity. :Re: phi mag's floppy tape: Didn't this resemble that old :TRS-80 hack the 'stringy floppy'? I used to have one of those when :I was a kid (the TRS-80 Stringy Floppy before I could afford a real :5 1/4" drive), and still remember it fondly. It was a pretty cool :little unit. ditto the sinclair microdrives, which were about the size of an old 50p piece (oh, erm... about one and a half times a quarter?) and stored 100k in a ql. they were 2 track, 1/16" tapes - does anyone know the magnetic format in which they stored data? was one track datat and one track clock, or...? they were *sooo* cute :> it's just a shame they were also rather unreliable. most qls have disk drives and ours is soon to acquire one. -- Communa (together) we remember... we'll see you falling you know soft spoken changes nothing to sing within her...

28 years, 1 month

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On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about

by peacock＠simconv.com

Marty wrote: > very interested in learning about the history of the company itself. I > read everything I can find on early microcomputer companies and find > it fascinating reading. Northstar got its start, I think in late 1976, with one of the first affordable and reliable floppy disk systems for S-100s. It used the then brand new 5.25" floppy disk Shugart had just started making, matched to an S-100 controller board. Up to that time all the floppy systems were based on 8" floppies, which went for, oh, around $1000-$1500 for a drive (and weren't very reliable either). The NS drive was very cheap in comparison, I think around $500, but bets of all you just put it in the box and it worked, very rare for S-100 machines in that timeframe. The drive was single density, single sided, hard sectored with 10 sectors of 256 bytes each, total around 90KB. Paltry compared to the 243KB on an 8" drive, but infinitely better than a Tarbell cassette interface. The drive came with a crude operating system (CP/M didn't work right away because of hardware problems with the boot ROM on the NS controller) and Basic. Eventually Lifeboat got a version of CP/M working with the drive. After the floppy subsystem, NS came out with a unique S-100 floating point coprocessor board. This was actually a sort of bit slice state machine that did BCD arithmetic. A very clever design but somewhat difficult to use. It was fast for it's time. The only software that used it (to my knowledge) was the NS basic and I think one of the CBASIC or PASCAL compilers (Sorcim?). NS made enough from their floppy systems that they started making whole machines, the Horizon and later the Advantage. As with all the S-100 companies, PC's killed them off. Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

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More List Operation Stuff

by bcw＠u.washington.edu

Well, pretty soon you're all going to get sick of hearing from me, so this will be the last listop stuff I post for a couple days. I read back through a couple weeks of archive and I'm still letting thst digest. For the time being, I've decided not to make any decisions ;) It seems a little common sense and courtesy would go a long way in bringing this list back on track. I'm not so sure that hard-core officiating would make any difference. It would probably just spawn arguments defending the honor and freedom of listmembers (heads up aspiring list operators - that's a lesson I learned the hard way). Even when I was actively moderating this list, all I looked at was whether or not subjects were about classic computers or not. If it goes a little off track, all right. If that continues for too long, a polite message to the parties involved usually retires the thread to private mail. If you think about what you're going to post to the list for a minute or two, you'll know whether or not it will be well received. Spend that time. This list is for recreation. You should be on it because you think classic computers are fun. All of you are people with a common recreational interest - there's no reason to get nasty with each other. If you don't like certain people or topics, just delete them and focus on what you like. If you can't find anything you like, maybe this is not the list for you. I'm getting off my soapbox now. Thanks to all who have sent me their input. Keep it coming. I will lecture you more next week ;) -------------------------------------------------------- Bill Whitson bcw(a)u.washington.edu Network Administrator (425) 352-5209 University of Washington - Bothell Help Desk: 2-5275

28 years, 1 month

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On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Allison, thanks for the reply. I am hoping to get full docs from the previous owner (which should answer most technical questions) but am very interested in learning about the history of the company itself. I read everything I can find on early microcomputer companies and find it fascinating reading. Thanks again- Marty Mintzell ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: Re[2]: On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/19/98 5:30 PM < Vintage computer: I just became the custodian of a NorthStar Horizon < sporting four (count 'em) massive 64KB ram boards. Giving breath to < those memory boards is a four port serial board, a floppy controller < driving a 5 1/4" full height floppy drive, and a ST-506 interface hard < drive controller driving a hdd which I don't as yet have identified. < Of course it is powered by a Z-80A workhorse. This baby also sports a < lovely brushed aluminum front panel and I believe is one of the later They are good workhorse s100 machines. < production model Horizons as it has a red led on the front panel (the < Horizons I've seen in the old Byte Magazines from the late 1970's < don't have an led pictured). They all did, only the proto didn't. < Does anybody have any details on the history of NorthStar? I would < appreciate any ideas on where I might reseach their history. I built mine in early 1978 and it's celebrating it's 20th year! What do you need to know. Northstar* is long gone. The hardware refuses to die. Allison ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists2.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar19.173055.1767.32996; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 17:30:56 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id OAA01985; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:24:48 -0800 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id OAA42646 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:23:19 -0800 Received: from europe.std.com (europe.std.com [199.172.62.20]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id OAA03305 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 14:23:16 -0800 Received: from world.std.com by europe.std.com (8.7.6/BZS-8-1.0) id RAA13386; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 17:23:15 -0500 (EST) Received: by world.std.com (TheWorld/Spike-2.0) id AA06520; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 17:23:14 -0500 Message-Id: <199803192223.AA06520(a)world.std.com> Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 17:23:14 -0500 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: allisonp(a)world.std.com (Allison J Parent) To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: Re[2]: On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computer X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 1 month

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VAXStation Terminal Help Needed

by aaron＠lafleur.wfi-inc.com

Hi, Can one of the vaxheads help me with this one.... I have a 3100 who's monitor just died and I want to use a terminal emulator for it until I replace the monitor (should be here in a few days). I know that I have to change one of the dip switches inside but which??? And what's the pinout of the serial printer port (that *is* also the terminal output, right?) ??? I'd kill to get my hands on some original documentation/manuals for either my 3100's or 3200. BTW, the 3100 in question is a 38. Thanks, Aaron

28 years, 1 month

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On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computer

by allisonp＠world.std.com

< Vintage computer: I just became the custodian of a NorthStar Horizon < sporting four (count 'em) massive 64KB ram boards. Giving breath to < those memory boards is a four port serial board, a floppy controller < driving a 5 1/4" full height floppy drive, and a ST-506 interface hard < drive controller driving a hdd which I don't as yet have identified. < Of course it is powered by a Z-80A workhorse. This baby also sports a < lovely brushed aluminum front panel and I believe is one of the later They are good workhorse s100 machines. < production model Horizons as it has a red led on the front panel (the < Horizons I've seen in the old Byte Magazines from the late 1970's < don't have an led pictured). They all did, only the proto didn't. < Does anybody have any details on the history of NorthStar? I would < appreciate any ideas on where I might reseach their history. I built mine in early 1978 and it's celebrating it's 20th year! What do you need to know. Northstar* is long gone. The hardware refuses to die. Allison

28 years, 1 month

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On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computer

by Marty＠itgonline.com

Let's all take a minute to digest a new daily affirmation/mantra: Vintage computers.... Vintage computers.... Vintage computers.... Vintage computers.... Vintage computer: I just became the custodian of a NorthStar Horizon sporting four (count 'em) massive 64KB ram boards. Giving breath to those memory boards is a four port serial board, a floppy controller driving a 5 1/4" full height floppy drive, and a ST-506 interface hard drive controller driving a hdd which I don't as yet have identified. Of course it is powered by a Z-80A workhorse. This baby also sports a lovely brushed aluminum front panel and I believe is one of the later production model Horizons as it has a red led on the front panel (the Horizons I've seen in the old Byte Magazines from the late 1970's don't have an led pictured). Does anybody have any details on the history of NorthStar? I would appreciate any ideas on where I might reseach their history. Thanks- Marty ______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________ Subject: Re: On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computers Author: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu at internet Date: 3/19/98 3:19 PM Here we go again......you'll never learn from past experience, will you? enrico Jack Peacock wrote: > > Enrico Tedeschi wrote: > >I feel that ANY rule in ANY organization is wrong. > > > >In the case of mailing lists or newsgroups if messages are off > topic than > >either the senders are not answered OR the recipients who do > not agree move > >away from that list or newsgroup. There no need to police and > policing: they > >should be self adjusting. History has proved time and time > again that > >centralized and fascist societies do not last long and do come > to and end > >(often abruptedly). > > Good heavens, another libertarian anarchist. It's people like > you who build computers in your garage instead of accepting that > only billion dollar corporations have the resources to build > computer products. Where would Bill Gates be today if he > believed in ideals like that? Why, he'd be worth billions of > dollars....hmm....wait a second, that didn't come out right. > Jack Peacock -- ======================================================== Enrico Tedeschi, 54 Easthill Drive, Brighton BN41 2FD, UK Tel/fax(+01273) 701650 (24 hours) and 0498 692465 (mobile) please visit my website at: <http://www.brighton-uk.com> ======================================================== ------ Message Header Follows ------ Received: from lists2.u.washington.edu by smtp.itgonline.com (PostalUnion/SMTP(tm) v2.1.9i(b5) for Windows NT(tm)) id AA-1998Mar19.151936.1767.32963; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 15:19:36 -0500 Received: from host (lists.u.washington.edu [140.142.56.13]) by lists2.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with SMTP id MAA19677; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:06:26 -0800 Received: from mxu1.u.washington.edu (mxu1.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.8]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.05) with ESMTP id MAA33526 for <classiccmp(a)lists.u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:06:08 -0800 Received: from andromeda.ndirect.co.uk (andromeda.ndirect.co.uk [194.74.254.17]) by mxu1.u.washington.edu (8.8.4+UW97.07/8.8.4+UW97.09) with ESMTP id MAA08134 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 12:06:06 -0800 Received: from ndirect.co.uk (th-pm01-62.ndirect.co.uk [195.7.225.126]) by andromeda.ndirect.co.uk (8.8.5/8.6.6) with ESMTP id UAA07413 for <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>; Thu, 19 Mar 1998 20:06:01 GMT Message-Id: <35117ADB.AAF0B296(a)ndirect.co.uk> Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 20:06:58 +0000 Reply-To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu Sender: CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Precedence: bulk From: Enrico Tedeschi <e.tedeschi(a)ndirect.co.uk> To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Subject: Re: On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computers References: <00e101bd5369$84f3bec0$14ac31cf(a)jack.simconv.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Listprocessor-Version: 8.1 beta -- ListProcessor(tm) by CREN

28 years, 1 month

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On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computers

by peacock＠simconv.com

Enrico Tedeschi wrote: >I feel that ANY rule in ANY organization is wrong. > >In the case of mailing lists or newsgroups if messages are off topic than >either the senders are not answered OR the recipients who do not agree move >away from that list or newsgroup. There no need to police and policing: they >should be self adjusting. History has proved time and time again that >centralized and fascist societies do not last long and do come to and end >(often abruptedly). Good heavens, another libertarian anarchist. It's people like you who build computers in your garage instead of accepting that only billion dollar corporations have the resources to build computer products. Where would Bill Gates be today if he believed in ideals like that? Why, he'd be worth billions of dollars....hmm....wait a second, that didn't come out right. Jack Peacock

28 years, 1 month

2
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On Flames and Mailing lists, and a bit about computers

by spc＠armigeron.com

I'm surprised that it took so little time for this list to get to this point. Another list I'm on took about two years for it to reach critical mass before it exploded into three additional mailing lists, all covering the same topic (with the result of many hurt feelings, a list that only lasted about six months before it imploded, with the original list still going strong). As I said to Sam in some private mail I sent to him: I'm not sure what can be done, but if the topic of a mailing list is held too tightly, eventually it'll die (like one of the mailing list I host now, although there are some other reasons for that as well) as there is little or nothing new being added. ... I don't want to seem overly pessimistic, and yes, perhaps the topics have drifted off a bit too much, but actions like yours (and I'm not trying to blame or pin anything on you, this is just my observations from about 5 years of being on several mailing lists (almost all of them high volume)) tend to do more harm over time than good, by splitting the community up, causing confusion, ill feelings and political overtones. And yet it continues (and Sam, in your reply to the above you appear sane and rational, yet your diatribes on the list show a completely different side, and one that isn't very flattering). Bill may "own" the current list, but that still doesn't prevent anyone >from starting up a new list dedicated to the same topic, only time and resources. And perhaps against my better judgment, I'm doing such a thing (Lord help me), and so let it be. If Sam feels that he can run a list better than Bill, or even I, then he is certainly free to start his own and see who signs up. Much like I am doing now. It's there. If no one subscribes and this list continues to flurish, so be it. If, on the other hand, my list takes off and this one dies, so be it. Currently, the only person subscribed is me. I'm not going to add people, it's up to you. To subscribe, send a message to classiccomp-request(a)lists.armigeron.com with a subject line of 'subscribe' (you might want to put this on the first line of the body as well). That's it. You'll then recieve a welcome message describing the rules and regulations of the list, as well as the unsubscribe rules. If you don't like the rules, we can talk, or you can walk. Simple, eh? -spc (We shall see ... )

28 years, 1 month

5
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Irreverence to irrelevance

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Joe Thiemann <jthiemann(a)castleton.com> wrote: >A private news server is a Bad Thing for those of us sitting at >work with a firewall inbetween ourselves and the net. I do not think I >will have much success convincing the firewall admins to allow news >traffic to go through. You're behind a firewall that doesn't let you read news? Why do your admins let you read mail - why, you could read a *virus* by accident! :-) Russ Blakeman <rhblake(a)bbtel.com> >Good idea in a way but my days back as a SysOp on my own private Fidonet BBS >shows these closed areas/news servers to be VERY boring. I've been on Compuserve since the early 80s, and I tend to like their style of management. The forum managers tend to rule with a very light hand, in the style of a good bartender. (Another factor I believe helped raise the quality of patron was CIS's $/hour fees. :-) Sam wrote: >Ok fine. Until I'm able to take over ClassicCmp completely, we can put a >few issues to a vote. Huh? "Supporters of democracy deserve to get it, good and hard." Please, Sam, it's within your ken to set up and administer a mailing list, and you can even moderate it, which will probably take more than an hour a day, and people will complain when you don't do it fast enough. Sound like fun yet? Life being what it is, you'll probably revert to the "sit back and let the flames die on their own" approach to list management, which works pretty well, considering the alternatives. Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote: > After all, I've been talking about Weller soldering >irons, HP LogicDarts (which are far too new to be called classics), >ASR33's (which, although old, are not computers), etc. I'm sorry. I had no idea that my questions about the ASR-33 would be considered off-topic by anyone. My 70s computer experiences were nearly defined by I/O through these beasts, and they were certainly a popular interface for DEC and S-100 era computers, so I thought they were supremely on-topic! - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 1 month

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Northstar S100 compatability

by simon＠nenevr.demon.co.uk

Hi there, guys. I've been lurking on this list for a good long while now, and some of the recent talk of Northstar crates actually prompted me to dig one out that I had aquired a good few years ago and promptly forgotten about...! Does anyone have any idea what sort of RAM cards the Horizon likes to play with? My system already has an (albeit flakey) RAM-16 card, and I have the remains of an old Godbout Econoram-II card, sans about half its chips. I have *no* idea whether this card was ever used with the N*. The machine is not in great condition, bless it; it seems to have been robbed of a couple of voltage regulators at some point in the past, and the full-height 5.25 drives are, I fear, past their best, and shall be retired gracefully. I think that the PSU could do with some adjustment, too; if anyone in the UK has schematics for any of these bits, and would be willing to make copies in exchange for money or eternal gratitude, please let me know! Still, despite it's problems, I suppose I should at least be grateful that I have at least found a manufacturer of hard-sectored diskettes! [1] Thanks. Simon. -- Simon Coombs simon(a)nenevr.demon.co.uk Don't stand on ceremony; just bow low. CP/M - The once and future O/S! [1] Or, at least, they still were as of Jul 97.

28 years, 1 month

1
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Symbolics 3650.. and Toobs!

by prp＠hf.intel.com

> Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 10:41:49 -0700 > From: Jack Harper <jharper(a)bs2000.com> > To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu > Subject: Symbolics 3650.. > > Question - I very recently obtained a Symbolics 3650 lisp machine -- along > with six large boxes of associated 'stuff'. With luck, I hope to get this > beast back to life -- it apparently worked prior to being shipped to me (by > truck) but I obviously expect some problems. Does anyone on the List have > any experience or have any available spare parts or documentation -- or, > most important, actual experience with Symbolics lisp machines??? I also have a big Symbolics and supposedly some documentation, but I haven't opened any of the boxes so I don't know whats there. I don't have any experience with these machines and don't expect to be able to try mine any time soon, but other than that would be happy to share experiences. I also have contacts in a shop that ran them fairly recently, but they are a startup (of sorts) so don't have spare time to hold our hands. Corresponded with a fellow who has a complete listing of LISP 1.5, we talked about how to get it into machine readable form so it could run on a 7090 emulator. Definitely something I'd like to see happen. If you run across any LISP on 7-track tape I can read it. > ------------------------------ > > Date: Wed, 18 Mar 1998 14:12:28 -0500 (EST) > From: William Donzelli <william(a)ans.net> > To: classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu > Subject: Toobs! > > I now have sitting on my desk six modules from an IBM 700 series > mainframe, destined for the Mill at RCS/RI. Of course, six modules does > not make a computer, but I think we should at least try them out, just to > see how badly they perform. If they are from a 704, 705 or 709 or ancillary equipment I may have module diagrams. Look for a 4-digit number rubber stamped on the metal on the tube side, also there may be a 6-digit part number. To get an idea of what machine they might be from list the tube types. For instance, the higher performance 704/709 modules used mostly 5965's in the processor. Also look at the parts on the sides, logic modules have resistors and lots of diodes and maybe a few inductors. Other modules will have few or no diodes. One common module from card equipment has a small double row of core memory in the middle near the connector. Paul Pierce http://www.teleport.com/~prp/collect/

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Confidential E-mail

by bcw＠u.washington.edu

If I send any of you messages, I would expect that they will be held in confidentiality. I will certainly give the list a chance to input before making any decisions. If I wished to communicate to everyone, I would post to the list. -------------------------------------------------------- Bill Whitson bcw(a)u.washington.edu Network Administrator (425) 352-5209 University of Washington - Bothell Help Desk: 2-5275

28 years, 1 month

1
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Running Classiccmp

by bcw＠u.washington.edu

Yesterday I began talking to people about taking over list functions. The response has been amazing and overwhelming. Before making any decisions, I am going to go over the list archives and attempt to read the list for a week or two to get a feel for what's going on. If you have strong feelings about how the list should be run, or by whom it should be run, please e-mail me directly. -------------------------------------------------------- Bill Whitson bcw(a)u.washington.edu Network Administrator (425) 352-5209 University of Washington - Bothell Help Desk: 2-5275

28 years, 1 month

1
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Robots again

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

:::cautiously leaving bomb shelter in order to post::: back in the 1980s, i came across a book that also had a design for a robot dog but i think this was a different book. it was built around a 8085A and 8155 support chips, totally wire wrapped and included schematics for building a programmer to program the robot dog itself. i never did get around tuit, but would have been fun to build. why didnt robots catch on as big as computers did? i remember robots were the thing back in the 1980s like the web is now but never really gained critical mass. there were a few models made, ( hero 1 and 2, rb5x, et al) but nothing really caught on. ::returning to bomb shelter, continuing to delete 97% of classiccmp messages for the moment::: In a message dated 98-03-18 21:28:38 EST, you write: << > >I have here a book from the Philips Technical Library called 'Practical > >Robot Circuits' published in 1960. The first half of this book contains > >the design for a robot 'dog' using essentially an analogue control > system > >(mostly amplifiers and comparators) to process the signals from various > >sensors (photocells, microphones, thermistors, etc). The outputs of the > What can this "dog" do? Does it have any kind of interesting > abilities? Not a lot. To keep it simple there's no 'learning by experience' (the book does mention this in passing) or large memory stores (using only valves and relays, that's not suprising). Looking quickly at the book I can find : 1) Detecting/following a light source (turning its 'head' towards it, moving towards it). 2) Detecting a sequence of 2 tones (its 'name') and coming towards the sound source 3) Detecting that it's walked into something and backing off. 4) Detecting a hot object ('food'), turning its 'head' towards it, licking it. 5) Using a sonar (accoustical radar) system to detect objects and avoid them OK, trivial compared to what can be done with even a PIC microcontroller. But I'd still like to make one one day.... >>

28 years, 1 month

2
1
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Osborne OCC 1 Drive C:

by adept＠mcs.com

I just acquired a couple of Osborne 1's and one of the two of them has a Drive C: in it. I got some docs with the boxes but nothing describing this exciting little add-on. I've scoured the classic computer mailing list archives and I've found a previous question (from may of last year) on just this topic, unfortunately nobody really knew anything then. Any help or pointers would be greatly appreciated. Cheers and thanks, Dan ps -- I'm currently in dire need of a CRT for a TRS-80 Model 12.

28 years, 1 month

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DING DING! Back to your corners... WAS: Re: Irreverence to irrelevance

by lfb107＠psu.edu

At 04:12 AM 3/19/98 GMT, Bill Richman wrote: >How many do you need? I've got about 15 that aren't doing anything >important. I bought two of the SQ drives when they first came out, >sank a bundle into the cartridges, and then they flaked out on me. >One drive had some kind of head crash and started eating cartridges, >and the other one just ceased to function. Frankly, I was not >impressed. Perhaps their new products are better. Do you know of any >way to re-format a SQ disk that has been bulk-erased? I had this >bright idea several years ago that maybe just completely clearing the >disks by bulk-erasing would be a good thing. I'm thinking now that I >obliterated some factory tracks that the drive can't reproduce. >Ideas? To tell you the truth, I don't know the first thing about these drives. I just got one for free a whilke ago and was really just wondering if the damn thing worked or not. I'll let you know what i find out tho... Les

28 years, 1 month

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Finding machines (was: Question for the Faq)

by sinasohn＠ricochet.net

At 12:48 PM 3/17/98 -0600, you wrote: >be asked again - What are the top ten hotspots for finding old >equipment? In no particular order: Friends and Family (and the companies they work for) Thrift shops Garage Sales Dumpsters Surplus dealers Internet (this list, especially) hamfests/swapmeets/fleamarkets classified ads typewriter/office equipment repair businesses Okay, that's only nine. Sorry. --------------------------------------------------------------------- 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/

28 years, 1 month

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Symbolics 3650..

by jfoust＠threedee.com

Jack Harper <jharper(a)bs2000.com> wrote: >Question - I very recently obtained a Symbolics 3650 lisp machine -- along >with six large boxes of associated 'stuff'. > Does anyone on the List have >any experience or have any available spare parts or documentation -- or, >most important, actual experience with Symbolics lisp machines??? I know of them from the computer graphics market. (I'd love to get one, if you have two. :-) I think the 3D modeling / rendering software was sold off to various other companies (Triple-I / Autologic) and these days at least the concept of a Lisp-based modeler can be found at www.nichimen.com . The symbolics.com domain is still registered, and by reading between the lines of some messages I found, I think it's owned by some Symbolics enthusiasts or employees in Princeton Junction, NJ. There is/was apparently a related newsgroup or mailing list. Go to www.dejanews.com and search "info.slug" (with the quotes). I found a message that said that Symbolics had laid off its last three employees just this past January, and that the lawyers are fighting over the assets. Good start on your Lisp history page. I have one for UCSD Pascal. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 1 month

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Bulk erased SyQuest carts WAS: Re: DING DING!

by jfoust＠threedee.com

I've got a spare SQ 555 as well as about a dozen carts that I'd be willing to let go... a trade for something nifty would be great! - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 1 month

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Web page lists

by kyrrin＠jps.net

Hi, folks, Like most of the list subscribers, I'm a scrounge. To this end, I've placed on my web page listings of electronics and computer-related surplus stores and swap meets in Washington and (northern, Bay Area) California. Oregon (Portland and Vicinity) will be added as soon as I can swing a survey trip there. Hoping these listings may be of use to at least a couple of you, the URL is: http://www2.jps.net/~kyrrin Or... http://table.jps.net/~kyrrin Enjoy... -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272) (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net) "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."

28 years, 1 month

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