Hi Guys,
Still happily rooting through my big pile of ju.. er,
"Fine high quality vintage material".
Hit upon a big box full of assorted parts, ICs, etc.
found a couple of white-ceramic 8080s, some keyboard
encoders (also white-ceramic), lots of ROMs, RAMs
(some very old), lots of interface logic, some disk
controllers (including several 1793s which I needed
but never did get around to ordering), and lots of
other oddball stuff, including:
about a dozen interesting looking chips, which are
labled: MK4116E-3
This appear to be a 9-pin DIP ceramic carrier with
two smaller chips mounted on-top - each of the smaller
chips has the MK4116E-3 designation. The smaller chips
also have 9 pins, however they are not DIP but rather in
a 4, 5, 4, 5 arrangement all the way around the device.
Anyone recognize these? My guess is some sort of RAM
(dynamic)? Clearly not the same as a standard 4116 DRAM.
Don't recall having seen these before (although a fair
bit of trivia has drained away from the memory array
over the years) - anyone know what they were used in?
Still inventorying the documenation but I should have a
complete list soon. Lots of S-100 hardware, NorthStar
software and TRS-80 documents. Did find an original of
David Ahl's "101 Basic Computer Games" published by DEC
in 1973 (this one is from the 1974 2nd printing).
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
At 16:35 17/01/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>> David Ahl's "101 Basic Computer Games" published by DEC
>> in 1973 (this one is from the 1974 2nd printing).
>
>Does it have a DEC Order Number on it? Is it EB-04873-76?
>
>Ahl's DECUS submissions of these games are online at
>
> http://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-013/index.html
> http://pdp-11.trailing-edge.com/rsts11/rsts-11-014/index.html
>
>Tim.
I can't find a DEC order number - the cover has the little blocks
"digital" logo in the lower right hand corner (as does the spine),
and inside it says:
1st printing -- July 1973
2nd printing -- April 1974
Copyright (C) 1973, 1974 by:
Digital Equipment Corporation
Maynard, Massachusetts 01754
But there is also a "box" which says:
Additional copies of "101 BASIC Computer Games"
are available for $7.50 plus .75 postage from:
Creative Computing
P.O. Box 789-M
Morristown, N. J. 07960
So it doesn't look as though DEC actually offered the
book through it's own sales channels - at least not in
1974. -- anyone know for sure?
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
[ I've been trying to organize the backlog of cctalk ]
[ mail sitting unread on my server... ]
Way back in September, Dan Veeneman wrote:
> At a recent hamfest I picked up two volumes of
> Digital Equipment Corporation's Consultant's Reference
> Guide.
> Does anyone have a full set of these?
I might. I picked up a lot of them along with RT-11 docs
when I picked up a VT103 and DSD disk/tape box many years
ago. However some of the manuals fell victim to a large
basement flood a few years back - over 15" of water in
that section, when we got about 5" in 5 hours early one
March. Frozen ground doesn't absorb much water, and I had
*just* moved the home datacenter down there after watching
for flooding for a couple years. Figures. Haven't had any
flooding to speak of before or since.
I haven't gone through them since the crisis, and I'm
sorry to say some may have molded up so bad before I
could deal with them that they may have been pitched.
I'm gearing up for a cross-continent move, so don't look
for any news on this other than an inventory of what's
left as it gets packed.
There was a bunch more stuff, going from memory, than
the company history. In particular it included system
configurations from the period in question. I recall
seeing the first generation of VAXen, pdp-11s, and a
number of DECSYSTEMs in there, along with software and
whatnot.
--Steve.
> Jameco still shows a robust selection of NiCad cells and batteries.
It's true that they have a lot listed, although I'm not sure if I'd apply
the term "robust" when they don't name any manufacturers.
I suppose that like any technology it gets dropped first by the big-name
distributors, then the catalog houses, then the grey-market distributors
like Jameco, then the surplus places.
I may be anal about it but I've always been leery of buyng grey-market
consumables like batteries. I guess I'll just have to lower my standards!
Tim.
Hi
Jameco still shows a robust selection of NiCad
cells and batteries.
Dwight
>From: shoppa_classiccmp(a)trailing-edge.com
>
>> Each battery technology has its own charging rules...
>
>That actually makes me feel better for taking the time to hunt down
>real NiCads for my scopemeter. Everywhere I looked I found that
>the NiCads had been discontinued, eventually I found a place
>that still had the right physical size in stock, but even then they
>only had a small quantity left and they told me that they weren't gonna
>be getting any more.
>
>Tim.
>
At 16:33 17/01/2005 -0500, you wrote:
>> labled: MK4116E-3
>> This appear to be a 9-pin DIP ceramic carrie
>
>9 pins? Surely you mean 16.
Actually - I ment to say 18 --- But I only counted one side, and
my brain failed to perform the x2 for DIP between my eyes and
fingers ...
Thats why I said these are obviously not standard 4116 DRAM's -
they are 18 pin devices!
regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
Fred and Dave,
I found this thread via an internet search. Did either of you find a copy of
the IBM/MS-DOS software for the Seiko RC-1000 wrist terminal? I'm trying to
revive mine but my computer can't read the floppy (I have a good 5.25 disk
drive, the computer just can't read that particular disk.)
Regards,
Stuart Anderson
Madison, Alabama, USA
On Mon, 13 Oct 2003, Dave Mitton wrote:
> Does anyone have a copy of the host system software for the circa 1984
> Seiko RC-1000 watch terminal?
>
> I thought I had a copy that ran on DOS as a character mode app, but I
> cannot find the original diskette. The original PC I used is long gone.
I *used* to have one of those (actually, just threw out my
broken watch a couple of weeks ago) but I do seem to remember
I still have the box... that might still have the cable and
the floppies. Will look for ya :)
--f
--
Fred N. van Kempen, DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation) Collector/Archivist
Visit the VAXlab Project at http://www.pdp11.nl/VAXlab/
Visit the Archives at http://www.pdp11.nl/
Email: waltje at pdp11.nl
<http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk> BUSSUM, THE
NETHERLANDS / Sunnyvale, CA, USA
Hi
I thought I'd pass on some info about these batteries.
I received a laptop with a "dead" battery. The voltage
as read from a meter was "0" volts. I mean dead!
I first stuck it into the laptop but quickly noticed
the smell of hot resistors ( bad idea ).
I then connected it to a bench supply running at about
200ma. I watched the level of the voltage until it
gradually came up to about 12v ( 14.4v pack ). I placed
it back in the laptop and allowed it to charge until
it indicated a full charge.
I ran it down once to the battery low level and repeated
the charge. That was last night. Leaving it for 8 hours,
it seems to be maintaining its charge.
Moral of the story, don't give up on these batteries.
They are remarkably tough. Most NiCads batteries would
not recover from such a level.
Dwight
//.:
"Panix <http://www.panix.net/>, the oldest commercial Internet provider
in New York, had its domain name 'panix.com' hijacked by persons
unknown. The main effect on users is that mail sent to panix's customers
is being routed to a bogus mail server run by the hijackers."
/
--
Jim Brain, Brain Innovations
brain(a)jbrain.com http://www.jbrain.com
Dabbling in WWW, Embedded Systems, Old CBM computers, and Good Times!
Hi
My understanding is that NiMH's have a higher internal
resistance when mostly discharged and should be charged
slowly until the internal resistance drops. They are also
suppose to be less tolorent to over charging than
NiCad's. In general, I'd expect one to get poor battery
life using a NiCad charger on NiMH's.
0.1C is not a trickle. 0.02-0.01C is. 0.1C will cause
quite a bit of heating in a fully charged cell. 0.1C
is only recommended for normal rate of charging NiCad's,
not as a trickle level.
Dwight
>From: shoppa_classiccmp(a)trailing-edge.com
>
>> I have noticed that NiMH prices have gone down
>> about half over the last 5 years.
>
>In many cases they are cheaper than NiCads now.
>
>This raises a question for refurbishing older equipment: is it always
>OK to just drop a set of NiMH's in place of same-size NiCad's? Most
>of the "stupid" NiCad battery chargers were just 0.1C trickle chargers,
>but the "smart" ones that looked for the voltage rise at the end of charge
>of a NiCad may not see this with a NiMH pack. Anyone have any experience?
>
>Last time I had to put some new Sub-C cells in my Fluke scopemeter I had
>to look rather hard to find true NiCads as opposed to MiMH's.
>
>Tim.
>
In a message dated 1/17/05 12:28:29 A.M. Pacific Standard Time,
mike(a)ambientdesign.com writes:
I have a very nice one, as-new, with original
carry bag, printer, external floppy, manuals, etc, but didn't think it was
overly rare. I'll be happy enough if I'm wrong...
A 128K Mac set like that is a nice collectable, especially with the docs and
disks. It could make epay live up to its name. Condition is all important as
are the original SW and docs. I don't know of it's rarity. Many were upgraded
to 512K so there are not that many in existence.
Paxton
Astoria, OR
Hi
I would guess that your method is most likely the
best. Keeping them at full charge tends to create
those metal fingers inside that short them out.
Discharging them as packs tends to reverse charge
some of the cells causing out gassing and cell
rupturing.
I don't know if the NiMH I had was drained by load
or just by sitting around. It is an old machine ( about
13 or 14 years old ). I would guess that these cells
have a similar problem if fully discharged as
a battery stack. The laptop had no normal signs of
wear like a similar one that I had ( video is failing ).
It may have only been used for a year or so and
then just placed in storage.
Most times when I come on NiCads that have zero volts,
I find the cells to have an internal short. Either
NiMH have something that keeps this from happening
or I was real lucky.
I do know that wet NiCads ( those with vents ) are
usually shipped with a shorting bar. I would guess that
if one individually drained the NiCad cells, they
could be stored a long time.
I'll let you guys know how things are after a couple
more days. Hopefully the battery will remain useful.
Dwight
>From: "John Allain" <allain(a)panix.com>
>
>> Most NiCads batteries would not recover from such a level.
>
>How should NiCads be stored?
>Sounds line 0v is a terrible idea.
>I usually put them away at normal discharge,
>about .8-1.0v and then charge a few hours before
>next use.
>All I really know is that:
> o. 300 recharges is about all you can expect, and
> o. topping off is no good
>
>My guess is that unused NiCads could reach 0v
>after a year or two on the shelf. If you restore a
>collectable and then shelve it for 10 years only
>to find it's dead _again_ it won't be gratifying.
>
>It might not be worth sweating this detail, however.
>I have noticed that NiMH prices have gone down
>about half over the last 5 years.
>
>John A.
>
>From: "Vintage Computer Festival" <vcf(a)siconic.com>
>
>On Thu, 13 Jan 2005, Paul Koning wrote:
>
>> >>>>> "William" == William Donzelli <aw288(a)osfn.org> writes:
>>
>> William> .... Some of the things were
>> William> pretty cool - a 400 cps (!) paper tape punch, ...
>>
>> Wow. I've love to see one of those. The fastest I have seen was, I
>> think, a 120 cps punch. Listening to one of those running at full
>> speed is pretty impressive.
>>
>> Paper tape readers can go much faster (I've seen 2000 cps) but those
>> are optical readers, so the job is far easier.
>
>I don't suppose anyone ever manufactured a laser-based paper tape punch?
>Is that even feasible?
>
Hi
Sure, it could be done. The only reason it hasn't
been done was that the medium was obsolete by the
time the LASERs were ready.
I used to have fun with a 20W CO2 LASER. I could
control it well enough to remove 6 or 7 layers of
paper. Each time I'd cut a little deeper. It would
make a pop sound and some of the paper would just
be disappear :)
Dwight
I recently got an old IBM PS/2 8570 (as mentioned to some earlier). Been
thinking about putting Linux on it as the original owner put some company
proprietary software on it for some unknown network monitoring via
proprietary hardware (that has since been removed before I came into
possession). The big thing is that it doesn't want to boot from SCSI. I
have 4 cards and the adf disks for them. 1 is an IBM (supposedly Corvette)
controller. 2 are Adaptec 1640's (different year manufacture and slightly
different layout/revision). The final one is a Storage Dimensions 3211B
(technically a compatible, yet rarer C/D). The other thing is that I've
been told it has some sort of special boot partition on the 60MB ESDI
drive. The SCSI drives I'm trying to use are all 1 and 2.2GB Seagates with
an external Sun 611 enclosure (again, making the 10 year rule from what
I've been told). If I can get the damned thing to take the SCSI drives and
not the 60MB ESDI, that would be the ideal situation. If I have to use the
60MB ESDI as the boot drive, how could I get this to work as I've never
tried Linux on an MCA before and everything I find out there seems not to
pertain to my situation? The other cards in the machine are an IBM Long
16/4 (DB9 out) Token Ring card and I was thinking of using a Kingston 8000
Memory card (any info on this unique piece of hardware would be greatly
appreciated as all I can find are the adf's for it). Anyone know what the
max size and type memory was for that card and how it was implemented?
Worst case scenario is that I simply don't use it, as the bigger goal is to
get the damned thing working with Linux on SCSI and Token Ring.
If people are hesitant on helping me, I have a bunch of spare MCA DB9 16/4
Token Ring cards (long and short), SCSI cards (as described above) and a
couple XGA and XGA2 cards wthat I'm willing to offer for shipping in
exchange for help. Hell, I've even willing to give up the odd Kingston
memory card if it got me some help. Any takers? Please reply off-list, thanks.
-John Boffemmyer IV
john at boff dash net dot nospamdhs dot org (just drop the nospam)
----------------------------------------
Founder, Network Engineer, Tech Analyst
and Web Designer Boff-Net Technologies
http://boff-net.dhs.org/index.html
----------------------------------------
It's only "slightly" off-topic because what I'm building is a new case for my
Apple 1 "Replica 1" board.
I've heard some horror stories about whole (expensive!) sheets of plexiglass
simply breaking in half when incorrectly drilled through. The guy at the
plastic supply company tried selling me a special drill bit, but I'm hesitant
about that. Does anyone has hands-on experience and tips (vs. just
speculation) about working with this stuff? This computer will be on display
as some public events, so the final appearance is very important.
=====
Tell your friends about the Computer Collector Newsletter!
-- It's free and we'll never send spam or share your email address
-- Publishing every Monday(-ish), ask about writing for us
-- Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all
-- W: http://news.computercollector.com E: news(a)computercollector.com
-- 653 readers and counting!
Western Digital made a 4 floppy controller for this. It is the 1002A-FOX
F002 / 004 according to my 1996 CSC Hard Drive Bible.
They say: F002 controls 4 floppys only. F004 has a BIOS on card which
permits installation of 1.2 and 1.44 MB drives in XT machines that normally only
support 360K or 720K drives.
A note at the bottom: Uses WS-37C65 cchip, works well in 286/386 machines.
You might look for one of those.
Paxton
Astoria, OR
A circular saw can also be used to cut plexiglass easily. Just use a
regular plywood blade, but put it on backwards and leave the protective
film on/use tape where you make the cut.
T.H.x.
Devon
Anyone have experience or know for a factor of a Bachelor's degree program
that teaches computer hardware and software in a logical order and
comprehensively?
On Jan 16 2005, 7:40, Vintage Computer Festival wrote:
> The MS TCP/IP stack works surprisingly well. The setup program is
easy to
> use and fairly powerful, and the accessibility you get on a DOS box
is
> really good. It has support for a number of NICs (including the
generic
> NE1000 and NE2000). And most of the modules can be loaded high,
saving
> your main memory for applications. I can mount WinXP drives on my
lowly
> DOS box would full read/write access. You don't get long filenames,
of
> course, but you can still access any file because of the "stem" that
MS
> puts in the filesystem to convert long names to 8.3.
Yes, that's pretty much how I set it up, except I don't publish shares
on Windows machines; I use samba instead. The MS client does
everything I want to do with DOS, and you can upgrade the support for
NICs by adding drivers, too.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
On Jan 16 2005, 7:18, Cameron Kaiser wrote:
> > I built a similar setup a few months ago, but I used the Microsoft
> > TCP/IP stuff on top of DOS 6.22. It was easy to set up, and now I
have
> > telnet, FTP, ICMP (some stacks don't support that), and the whole
thing
> > uses DHCP and mounts drives from my Samba server.
>
> Showoff. ;)
>
> Did you use LAN Mangler, er, Manager, or something else?
Nope, I used the "Microsoft Network Client 3", which comes as a couple
of DOS disks. I seem to remember having to update one of the files,
and add a driver from a 3Com disk. Even so, it only took an hour or so
to download and set up, including at least one false start, and some
messing with HIMEM. I spent maybe an hour more messing with things to
save as much space as possible. If anybody wants to try it, I
bookmarked the webpage I found most helpful:
http://www.windowsnetworking.com/j_helmig/dosclnt3.htm
IPX/SPX are banned from my networks, so obviously I only installed the
TCP/IP stuff.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
On Jan 16 2005, 9:14, Stan Barr wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Cameron Kaiser said:
> > > Remember the joys of TCP/IP on MS-DOS in the late 1980s?
> >
> > Remember it? I live it. The 486 DOS laptop besides me took several
days to
> > piece everything together. It runs a 3Com packet driver on top of
some
> > crufted together Card/Socket Services TSRs, and then NCSA Telnet
and FTP
> > have their own TCP stacks that will talk to it. So does Arachne, it
seems.
>
> I've just been doing much the same thing so I can ftp stuff over to
my
> headless 486 that thinks it's a PDP-11 - old NE2000 card, Crwnyr(sp?)
> driver and NCSA telnet/ftp.
I built a similar setup a few months ago, but I used the Microsoft
TCP/IP stuff on top of DOS 6.22. It was easy to set up, and now I have
telnet, FTP, ICMP (some stacks don't support that), and the whole thing
uses DHCP and mounts drives from my Samba server.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
On Jan 16 2005, 15:53, Stan Barr wrote:
> > Question - is plexiglass the same as perspex, or is it a totally
> > different animal?
> >
>
> They're similar, both are trade names for a type of transparent
synthetic
> resin. Perspex is, I think, more similar to Lucite, or is that yet
> another trade name for the same thing?
>
> Over the years I've used "Perspex", "Lucite" and "Plexiglass"
(courtesy
> of the US Air Force!) and they appear to be identical.
They're all acrylic resins, but while in my possibly limited experience
Perspex and Lucite seem to be trade names for much the same stuff,
Plexiglass seems to be more brittle.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Thanks to all for the good advice.
I don't own a drill press, and I'm not certain about which type of plastic it
is (lexan, plexi, etc.) -- I used the term 'plexiglass' generically -- and I'm
storing it at my father's house so it is not handy for me to check right now.
Avoiding fabrication during the cold weather will also be tough, as his
workbench is in the garage, and it's very cold here in New Jersey (there is no
space to work on projects like this here in my tiny apartment). Maybe I'll
plug in a space heater in his garage before I start drilling and such.
When the project is finished (hopefully in a couple of weeks) I will post a
note about it here, photos on my web site, etc.
Evan
=====
Tell your friends about the Computer Collector Newsletter!
-- It's free and we'll never send spam or share your email address
-- Publishing every Monday(-ish), ask about writing for us
-- Mainframes to videogames, hardware and software, we cover it all
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-- 653 readers and counting!
There was a discussion here in the latter part of December about old
sites on the web, someone asked about whether anyone had saved an old
Google page. Anyway, here's a link to a site that has a massive
archive of old web pages, they say they have 100 terabytes of material
with 10 billion web pages saved :
http://web.archive.org/collections/web.html
Some of you will know about the site but others may not. I've done
searches for the Apple site (now that I'm really into macs) as well as
IBM and both Ebay and Google. The Ebay pages that come up still have
all of the listings on them but when you try to click any individual
link, you get a 'delisted' page. But the listings are still
interesting. The Apple site dates back to when OS 8.6 was the cutting
edge. Doesn't seem to be anything before 1996 but then there wasn't a
whole lot out there before that anyway.
Point of all this is that if you had an old site saved as a favorite,
an owner's manual site for instance, you should be able to put in the
url and get an archived copy of the old site. I know people who have
been able to recoved lost/hijacked sites using this url and I hope
some of you find it interesting. If something has disappeared on the
modern web, it might still be at this site in the archives.
BM
I'd seen the commercials for this instant-on battery-powered
soldering iron and wondered if I should add it to my tool box.
I saw this FAQ on Thinkgeek:
http://www.thinkgeek.com/files/FAQ040504.pdf
which made me think twice:
Q: What kind of soldering projects is this tool recommended for?
A: Based on the specifications mentioned above, we recommend this
tool for most electrical projects (such as wires 18-24 AWG), small
jewelry repair, and larger electronic projects. We do not recommend
it for soldering of large metallic components that require a lot
of heat transfer or for soldering sensitive electronic components
that may be damaged by fast-rising temperatures or high electrical
current. (Momentary high-amperage current will be created during
active soldering.)
Q: What is the spark I see sometimes during soldering?
A: The spark (arc) is caused by the passing of electrical current from
one half of the tip to the other. Although in testing the tool’s spark
did not damage any electrical or electronic components, we recommend
caution when soldering sensitive components. Also, ensure that the
tool is not used in flammable or explosive environments.
- John
Hello!
I just aquired not only a very cool TDV2200 (which is currently printing
with its matrix printer the entire bash manpage, muahahaha, one hour and
counting), but also a Tandberg X-terminal - this terminal needs a boot
image that is to be served to it at startup. Apparently this came on a
CD-ROM - does anyone have the boot files or the CDROM?
TIA!
--
Tore S Bekkedal <toresbe(a)ifi.uio.no>
On Jan 15 2005, 18:51, Computer Collector Newsletter wrote:
> I've heard some horror stories about whole (expensive!) sheets of
plexiglass
> simply breaking in half when incorrectly drilled through. The guy at
the
> plastic supply company tried selling me a special drill bit, but I'm
hesitant
> about that. Does anyone has hands-on experience and tips (vs. just
> speculation) about working with this stuff? This computer will be on
display
> as some public events, so the final appearance is very important.
The biggest problem is likely to be as the drill bit breaks through.
If you look at the end of a twist drill you'll see that the centre
doesn't cut in the same way as the edges, and it's the force of the
centre distorting the plastic as it breaks through that causes cracks.
The other problem is if you don't have enough control of the drill,
and the bit "snatches".
Tips:
use a really sharp bit
drill a small pilot hole first, and maybe enlarge that to some
intermediate size so the pilot hole is a little larger than the
point of the final drill
put the plexiglass on a smooth block of wood or spare plexiglass,
hold it down *firmly*, and drill through into the wood (make sure
there's no swarf from earlier holes trapped between the plexiglass
and the sacrificial material)
run the drill slowly enough to avoid generating heat, but keep
just enough pressure on it to ensure it keeps cutting, and
doesn't rub
use a drill press, not a hand-held drill
practice on a piece of scrap first
I drill lots of plastics, some very brittle, this way.
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
Sellam Ismail wrote:
.
> I can make a really good argument ... that e-mail could never have
> gotten as big ... as it did without the modern (1990+) Internet,
> which could not have gotten where it is today with Linux.
I assume that was supposed to be "without Linux." I'll bet someone
like Tom Jennings will have a totally different take on this than I
do, too. [ Ah, there's his note... Clearly I've been editing this
response too long. ]
Where to start... I disagree about the growth of the Internet not
being possible without Linux. It would have been different, perhaps,
but I honestly don't think it would have changed enough to surprise
someone who popped into a Linux-less parallel universe as regards
email and the Internet. Might have changed a lot more regarding the
popularity of open source software, but that's a different
discussion.
I think that the growth of email and the Internet in everyday life
rode two big trends. One is the rise of CompuServe and AOL, which
I'll leave for another discussion. The second was the rise of small
scale ISPs in the 1993-1994 timeframe, at least in the Northeastern
US, and that they were offering raw dialup IP connections. They'd
give you a POP account, maybe shell access, and that set the stage
to a great degree for non-corporate, non-academic participation in
the Web when it came on-stage.
Regular folk with Windows/Mac machines were signing up for these
accounts, not just tech weenies, for all the reasons that email was
popular. No long distance charges, asynchronous between sender and
receiver, faster than the post, etc. I recall some who were
downloading freeware and shareware like crazy, but the major thrust
for this non-tech segment I observed appeared to be email, with some
IRC/chat junkies. This led a gentle but steady ramp that was ready
to explode with the advent of Web browsers. And the low-usage email
customers were what supported the model, not the high-usage geeks
who would try to nail up connections all the time for the low-ball
prices.
Why don't I think Linux was a major factor in this? Surely many of
these ISPs used Linux? Well, maybe so. The ones I dealt with would
use whatever they could get their hands on to provide the backend
services they needed, and didn't care what they had to use to do
it. No Linux? Hey, that free thing 386BSD works, or this 1993 fork
called NetBSD. But to be honest, most of the time they very, very
grudgingly spent the money for Sun gear, at least for the most
critical machines/services. And then ran them without any service
contract or spares on-hand, which always made me cringe... At
least, this is what I ran across in my adventures, your mileage
obviously varied.
But again, I wouldn't give Sun credit for the spread of the 'Net and
email either, for the same reason. If it hadn't been Sun, it would
have been something else, and I ran into odd bits of DEC and SGI
here and there. I think there were several factors coming to bear,
like the NSF AUP changes, like the appearance of PCs with IP stakcs
in many more homes, like falling prices for the low-end leased lines
that the new ISPs depended would massively oversubscribe... ;^)
You want a technical change to point to? I'd point to TCP/IP coming
to Windows and the Mac. (Yes it had started much earlier, but it was
now getting easier and more reliable.) I'd point to terminal servers
getting good SLIP/PPP and connection accounting support. And
whatever it was that prompted the Baby Bells to start providing DS0
lines and fractional T1 loops to anybody who could scratch up the
cash, if that was in fact a technical change.
Would many companies have done things differently without Linux?
Sure. But even so, I think it would have happened at a slightly
reduced pace with *BSD under the cloud of the USL/UCB lawsuit and
the high price of a BSDI license -- which when I looked at it was
closer to $1,000 per host, not $100 for a site license! (Might have
been a built-in support cost, memory is fuzzy...) The hardware
savings alone would have continued to make that a compelling
combination versus $10-20k for Sun workstation.
Okay, I've spouted off enough for now. I'm curious to see what other
responses come in, and what others remember from that time, now as
on-topic as anything else since it's more than 10 years ago. Gulp!
--Steve.
Been following the discussion on fabbing HV assemblies with plexiglass.
There's another type of plastic called 'Delrin' that's very hard, very durable, has high temperature resistance, and it machines, drills and cuts as easily and cleanly as aluminum (better, in many cases).
I used Delrin blocks to fabricate the insulators for a high-current diode isolator bank. While that application was high-current/low-voltage, Delrin's dielectric strength is huge. It's rated for 380V/mil in that regard, and it has a resistivity rating of 1x10 to the 14th ohms per centimeter. I don't see any reason why it would be unsuitable for high-voltage insulator assemblies as well as high-current.
Keep the peace(es).
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Owner & Head Hardware Heavy,
Blue Feather Technologies -- http://www.bluefeathertech.com
kyrrin (at) bluefeathertech do/t c=o=m
"If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"
>Hello, cctech!
>
>I recently recieved a call from a friend of a friend regarding a laptop
>that has come into her posession after a coworker of her died. She was
>doing some sort of environmental research, and all her work is stored on
>this computer.
>
>I tried taking the path of turning it on and just doing a copy that way.
>No such luck - the plasma display has a garbled and not stable display -
>text is garbled to the point that I can't read it, and it basically
>looks like it's about to go straight to hell. It does boot from harddisk
>- I feared that the plasma might be sensitive to power variations or
>something like that, and thus tried getting the machine apart.
> ...
>Is the floppy drive 1.44M?
If it's a T3100 (8Mhz), the floppy drive is 720k - if it's a T3100E
(12Mhz), the floppy drive should be 1.44M.
If it boots to DOS, or you can get to a DOS prompt (ALT-F4/Enter in
Win 3.x), then you should be able to communicate with the DOS prompt
via a terminal on the serial port: CTTY COM1
[I recall that the default speed is somewhat low, but it won't really
matter as long as you can figure out what it is with your terminal
emulator - if you like you can blind-type a MODE command first to set
the serial parameters]
Once you get to a DOS prompt, you can format diskettes and copy files
to them - Don't try to run any non-command-line software!
Another option would be to use INTERLNK - you can "blind type" the
MODE and COPY CON: commands required for RCOPY and then run INTERSVR,
or you can prepare a DOS boot disk that runs INTERSVR in the AUTOEXEC
and boot the machine from floppy.
You could also use the boot disk approach to get LAPLINK running on
the machine etc...
As long as the machine is still actually running, it shouldn't be that
hard to get the data off - Enjoy the LSI-11.
Regards,
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
> From: Fred Cisin [mailto:cisin@xenosoft.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 2:59 PM
>
> > Now, by disassembling and cleaning the B: drive, I was able
> > to get the machine booting off this drive (cabled as A:).
> > However, the same cleaning procedure on the A: drive did
> > not allow it to boot. I still have to clean
> > the heads. Maybe that'll make a difference. If not, I think
> > I may have other Qume drives without the IBM monniker on
> > them that I can swap the bezels with. I just have to dig
> > through the cabinent and see what'll fit.
>
> THe early, original Qumetrak 142 drives have my nomination
> for the second
> to worst drive ever, coming in right after the early versions
> of the BASF 2/3 height drives.
> The Qume drive was SO slow, that PC-DOS 2.10 had to extend
> the times to prevent timeouts on normal disk I/O.
Well, I just went through the "closet-o-drives" and I don't have any other
Qumes laying around. Furthermore, the DS/DD drives I do have the card edge
connector on the wrong side. The included cable is not long enough to plug
one of these in and leave the one working original drive. Does anyone have
the service manual online for this drive? I would really like to get the
Qume drive working, but don't know where to go next. I guess I could swap
the boards between the two units, but that'll only tell me if it is
electronic or electro-mechanical.
Other than that, any suggestions for figuring out if it is alignment, broken
sensor, or something electrical?
Here is what's happening with this drive:
The computer goes through it's mem-test, then advances the head. The head
retracts, then the system immediately dumps to cassette basic. It doesn't
even seek again.
I don't have an oscilloscope handy, and wouldn't know exactly what to look
for anyway.
Thanks for any help.
Kelly
>Other than that, any suggestions for figuring out if it is alignment, broken
>sensor, or something electrical?
IIRC, you mentioned that the other drive works, and you were able to boot DOS?
If so, setup the faulty drive as drive B:, boot DOS, and try formatting a blank
disk in the B: drive - if it works and you can read/write files to the drive,
the it is probably just a little out of alignment (You will probably find that
the disks it makes cannot be accessed on other drives).
Assuming this doesn't work, what error message does DOS give whwn trying to
access the drive? Also, normally the system will try much longer to access
the drive if it is seeing sector pulses - if it behaves pretty much the same
with the diskette in as with it out, then you may have an index sensor problem.
With power off, manually move the head out some distance from track-0 - does
it step back when the system starts - does it perform the "Seek test" at power-
up and does it look and sound exactly like the other drive? - if no to any of
these, perhaps there is a problem in stepping/track select, track-0 sensor.
Also, "scopes are your friend" - of you have one, take a look at what is
going on at the interface when you try and access the drive - you should see
the select line go low, look for index pulese, step pulses, track-0 detect, data
>from the drive etc. - it might be fairly obvious what the problem is.
I assume you have already done this, but clean the head, and check all connectors
for even a little corrosion (edge, head, steppers etc.), especially if it has been
sitting around for a long time - same goes for config jumpers and option blocks
A good cleaning often does wonders!
Regards,
Dave
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
>> Set it up on two working computers to get the cable and two boot
>> floppies correctly configured. Not easy, but you'll never have to do it
>> again -- just boot the floppies.
>
>Assuming INTERSVR configures one of the serial or parallel ports properly
>upon booting...
It should, as the T3100 ports I believe look like standard hardware (I can
set it up and get it working if you want me to verify etc.). Worse case, you
can set ports and serial speed on the command line, so it might take a few
tries with the boot disk - but you should be able to get it working.
Regards,
DAve
--
dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield
dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com
com Collector of vintage computing equipment:
http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html
OK, for a little on topic. Before I go tearing the whole machine apart.....
I am the proud new owner of a nice example of the IBM 5155. This thing is in
pretty good shape. Turned it on, A: did a quick seek and the I was into
BASIC. So far, so good. Now, I'm trying to boot DOS. I have several known
good DOS 3.1 boot floppies on 360K disks. I keep an old 486 with a 360K
drive just for this (and for creating disks for my Tandy model 4).
Anyway, the original A: drive only gives a "boot failure". The B: drive
(after a cable swap) boots sometimes. Taking out these drives looks to be a
MAJOR undertaking. Not along the lines of multiple years, but they are
pretty securly installed. However, I'd like to keep them because they have
the IBM faceplate.
Now, for the questions...
Are these Qume drives subject to any known failure? Should I just dig in,
remove these drives and give them a good cleaning and lubricating? I'm used
to working with the big 8" drives, where everything is a bit larger. What is
the best way to clean the heads? Lint free swab and 90% Isopropyl alchohol?
Cleaning disk? Nail file ;-) What's the consensus?
Any suggestions or comments in general about this machine?
Thanks,
Kelly
> From: John Allain [mailto:allain@panix.com]
> Sent: Saturday, January 15, 2005 9:59 AM
>
> > Any suggestions or comments in general about this machine?
>
> I gave myself 30 minutes to get one of those going once.
> I got access to just about all subsystems/components in that time.
> The coolest thing that really made me like the machine was that the
> video monitor was IIRC 5V,NTSC in, picture out. Very easy to use.
You're correct about disassembly. It was much easier than I thought. The
biggest problem was getting to the drive mounting bolts on the side by the
expansion cards. After removing all the cards, there was just enough room
for a socket and ratchet to fit in there.
> - - -
> You might want to try Rewriting fresh floppies on a true 360K drive,
> heat,time, and 1.2M drives all can degrade the data to some degree.
I do use a 360K drive in my 486 just for creating these discs. I guess I
wasn't clear on this.
Now, by disassembling and cleaning the B: drive, I was able to get the
machine booting off this drive (cabled as A:). However, the same cleaning
procedure on the A: drive did not allow it to boot. I still have to clean
the heads. Maybe that'll make a difference. If not, I think I may have other
Qume drives without the IBM monniker on them that I can swap the bezels
with. I just have to dig through the cabinent and see what'll fit.
>
> John A.
>
Thanks,
Kelly
I've got a surplus of these DEC VT520 terminals that I'd like to clear out
of here so I'm proposing what I think is a good deal. Normally I sell
them for $25 each but I'll offer TWO for the low low price of only $35
plus shipping. Since the keyboard for these things is about 2.5 times the
width of the terminal itself, and because the terminals don't weigh that
much, shipping will not be too much more than shipping for just one. So
you actually get a pretty good deal here. But you have to buy two ;)
For more information on the DEC VT520, check out my VCM listing:
http://marketplace.vintage.org/view.cfm?ad=1158
If you're interested, let me know and I'll setup the listing on the VCM so
you can go nab it. I'll create the listings on an as-requested basis to
save myself time.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
I got in a Convex Meta Series 19" cabinet. It's in terrific condition and
has a cool black and metallic silver color scheme. Unfortunately, the
rest of the Convex has been gutted :( And not by me, BTW.
Unfortunately, it doesn't seem terribly useful as a generic cabinet for
non-Convex stuff. It doesn't have standard rails for mounting your basic
rackmount type gear. It has a power supply at the base that used to power
the Convex, and also has four power strips lining the back side. A very
nice cabinet, but of limited use unless you're a Convex junkie.
So if anyone wants it, it's yours. Because of its weight, I doubt you'd
want to ship it, in case you're really after one for some ridiculous
reason. If you do want me to ship it, e-mail me privately and we'll
discuss.
Otherwise, any local takers come and get it. If it isn't gone by next
week, off to the scrapyard :(
Photo available upon request.
--
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
[ Old computing resources for business || Buy/Sell/Trade Vintage Computers ]
[ and academia at www.VintageTech.com || at http://marketplace.vintage.org ]
Is anyone aware of a *nix program to go through mailbox format mail files,
and removing duplicate emails (I would guess by message id). In addition,
I'd like to split up a single very large mbox file into separate chunks,
say... 200mb each. Would be nice if the program would show the date ranges
of emails in the chunk.
Yes, I can write something like this, but before I spend the time on it I
was wondering if anyone had, or knew of, a tool to do this.
I'm trying to get the complete mailing list archives in order. There are
definitely chunks of the archives missing (so if anyone has a complete set
back to the start, just send them to me on CD *grin*). There's always been a
few chunks missing, and I'd really like to get it all back together for the
new server. Plus, set up some stuff to automate maintenance of the raw mbx's
which are running "just a tad large" right now.
Thanks for any help.... (off list please)
Jay West
G'day Latent "Nova-heads" -
A "distress rescue situation" exists for a Nova 4/X system , dual 9-track
tape drives, top-loader disk drive in a 3-bay rack, in Bakersfield, CA. I
was told by a representative of the owner of this system that it will be
trashed or "donated to a local charity" by
Saturday.
Please contact me off-list for more details if you can help save this nice
system.
Bruce
Bruce Ray
Wild Hare Computer Systems, Inc.
bkr(a)WildHareComputers.com
...preserving the Data General legacy: www.NovasAreForever.com
>From: aek(a)spies.com
>
>
>
>
>> Remember 'the little garden'?
>
>Great little Chinese place on El Camino just before Arastradero.
>
>RIP
>
>
Hi
Some how, I am missing the context of the "The Little Garden / TLGnet Inc."
messages. What the heck is all this about?
Dwight
On Jan 15 2005, 0:04, Tom Jennings wrote:
>
> [ Attachment (text/plain): 1058 bytes
> Character set: X-UNKNOWN
^^^^^^^^^
Where did that come from? :-)
> I assume this thing runs Windows? Any idea what version?
It could easily be DOS. Frameworks was a DOS office applications
suite. IIRC it included a word processor, a spreadsheet, and a basic
database. Borland bought out Ashton Tate but they kept Frameworks as a
DOS suite.
I think Frameworks is still around, and it should run under windows, so
if Tore can get the files off the machine they should be usable. Ah
yes, I've just found www.framework.com (they seem to have dropped the
"s"). Tore, I think you should ask around and see if anyone has an old
copy you could borrow.
> ??? isn't this an LCD laptop? I can't imagine the interface
> to the screen is anything but proprietary.
A lot of older Toshibas are plasma displays. Tore said this one is
plasma, so it must be fairly old and probably runs DOS or Windows 3.1.
I agree, Kermit might not be a bad way to get the files off. The .exe
file from MS-Kermit will easily fit on a 720K floppy, and version 3.15
will also run under Win95 (and probably XP, I can't remember if I tried
that last time I used it because I upgraded the old bench PC to Linux
after a few days). You can get it from
http://www.columbia.edu/kermit/mskermit.html
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Network Manager
University of York
John Allain and others mentioned PANIX recently on the 90's Internet
Boom thread. I got a response from my friend David Spector, who helped
out with Panix. At the time he was working as a UNIX system manager
and senior systems programmer at NYU's business school.
David identified the systems used as the Mac IIfx, but the IIfx wasn't
introduced until 1990. The IIx was introduced in late 1988. Since he
pegs the time as early 1988, the machines in question must be a Mac II
with PMMU; David still has the receipts somewhere and might verify
this sometime. This period would correspond with the announcement of
A/UX in February of 1998. (These introduction dates are taken from the
book Apple Confidential 2.0 by Owen Linzmayer.)
Here's what David had to say:
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
With regard to PANIX...
In a nutshell, I helped start PANIX, which was funded by my old friend
Alexis Rosen, by supplying the developer discount that bought a couple
of MacIIfx's. I provided the UNIX expertise to get everything up and
running; they ran A/UX and we used nuBus-based serial cards (name
escapes me at the moment... I'll surely remember it later). At the
time I was the Senior Systems Programmer at NYU's Graduate School of
Business (long before it was the "Stern School of Business."
The original machines lived for a while on my dining room table in my
5th floor walkup on 18th St & 8th Ave in Chelsea and used my spare
lines with a couple of Zyxcel 9600bps modems until we got the machines
configured correctly and did all sorts of hacking on the serial
drivers for those (at the time) very kool (now, they would be
dreadful) serial boards. After the systems were set up we moved
everything to Jim Baumbach's Brooklyn Height's basement where we had
16 phone lines brought in. The MacIIfx's lived on top of a hand-wired
plexus UNIX machine that Jim had liberated from one of his past lives.
At the time (late 80s) the only other interesting dial-up in NY was
Echo (East Coast Hang Out) run by Stacey Horn; I mean there were lots
of BBSes but nothing at all resembling either Echo or PANIX. Echo, by
the way, was considered by most people to be the East Coast equiv. of
TheWell. I had an account on echo for a zillion years... still have
my panix account too, of course..
As an ex-Systems Programmer from Courant (the NYU Academic Computing
Facility) I arranged for Panix to get mail and news from NYU via UUCP
(Bill Russell, a great friend and mentor, was NYU's Network Manager);
the path was ...ihnp4!{cmcl2,acf4}!panix. They didn't get a real
Internet connection until the ARPAnet/NSFNet split happened and the
rules loosened up which if I recall correctly was a UUNet connection
in about 1990.
..ah! those were the days...
feel free to pass on to whomever might be interested in such
historical tidbits.
David HM Spector
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
I stopped at a surplus place today and found a NIB Hayes "Government
Model" 2400 baud MODEM. The box says "Government Use Only". Does anybody
know what the story is about that?
Joe