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

by jbmcb＠hotmail.com

>From: Scott Stevens <sastevens(a)earthlink.net> >Reply-To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic >Posts"<cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" ><cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> >Subject: Re: WARNING: RANTING COMPUTER NUT... >Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:02:50 -0500 > <SNIP> >I've never committed the crime of having anything to do with the SGI >boxes that sport an Intel processor and run NT, though. > >(Aieeee!, huh? ) > <SNIP> I think those are going to be collectable machines. I've been looking for a cheap one for a while. It's a really interesting architecture. Custom memory bus (== EXPENSIVE memory modules) Custom system bus and integrated video controller. These things were way ahead of anything else at the time, unfortunatly for SGI the PC hardware market catches up quickly and commodity PC hardware had the kind of bus speeds their workstations had within a year (RAMBUS, BOO! HISS!) As vertically marketed as they were they don't run anything other than Windows NT. I think there's a version of Linux floating around for them, and odds are NetBSD will at least boot on them (Horray for serial console! :) >(** I'm probably one of the .0001% of people who has seen a Windows NT >desktop on a PowerPC system) I've got Visual Studio 5 for PowerPC if you're interested... _________________________________________________________________ Watch the online reality show Mixed Messages with a friend and enter to win a trip to NY http://www.msnmessenger-download.click-url.com/go/onm00200497ave/direct/01/

21 years, 9 months

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hp 7974a

by clint.d.young＠boeing.com

Dear JHT, Recently, I got a new hp 7974a drive. Do you have any interest in them? Do you know what they are worth? Thanks, Cllint

21 years, 9 months

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3com etherlink III MCA

by KParker＠workcover.com

That's disappointing as I've got one too. Given that its MCA I thought it would be at a premium and therefore quite valuable. The one I've got is in an IBM PS2 Model 60 but when I boot it I get some gobbledy-gook on screen which is not very promising - if anyone has any clues I'd be grateful. I thought of disabling the HD and trying to boot from a floppy to see if it was just the HD that's cactus. Ahhhh such is life! +++++++++++++++++++ Kevin Parker Web Services Manager WorkCover Corporation p: 08 8233 2548 e: webmaster(a)workcover.com w: www.workcover.com +++++++++++++++++++ -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of chris Sent: Tuesday, 22 June 2004 5:45 AM To: Classic Computer Subject: 3com etherlink III MCA I've got a 3com EtherLink III MCA card available if anyone wants it. It failed to sell on ebay, so just cover postage costs (plus paypal fees if you pay me that way) and its yours. Anyone want it? If you want to view it, see below: <http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5704862265&ssPageName=A D ME:B:EOAS:US:3> the ad lists as $3.85 for shipping via Priority Mail. That is my prefered method to ship things like this, because I get free boxes. If you want some other method or are out of the USA and can't use that method, I'm open to changing it. If I don't get a taker, its heading to the trash... so hopefully someone will want it. (I no longer have any MCA bus hardware, so it is useless to me) -chris <http://www.mythtech.net> ************************************************************************ This e-mail is intended for the use of the addressee only. It may contain information that is protected by legislated confidentiality and/or is legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you are prohibited from disseminating, distributing or copying this e-mail. Any opinion expressed in this e-mail may not necessarily be that of the WorkCover Corporation of South Australia. Although precautions have been taken, the sender cannot warrant that this e-mail or any files transmitted with it are free of viruses or any other defect. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy the original e-mail and any copies. ************************************************************************

21 years, 9 months

3
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Amdek system/88

by kenziem＠sympatico.ca

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 Going thought my old floppies and I came a disk labelled SETUP and TEST Diskette for System/88 Boot from this diskette Copyright Amdek Corporation. 1997 ver 1.31 There is also some MS-DOS 3.2 diskettes with them. Does anyone know anything about a system/88. Google indicates that there has been a few machines named system/88, but nothing for Amdek. - -- Collector of vintage computers http://www.ncf.ca/~ba600 -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.2 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFA3NOiLPrIaE/xBZARAvVPAKCrdDmv84j8KyOML0MTRADGR6seBgCgwzMj pOmgf1bfyIrFmNCT4ti25Xo= =eRaS -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

21 years, 9 months

1
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Reading old tapes

by pkoning＠equallogic.com

Over dinner with a friend the other night the conversation landed on the subject of reading old magnetic tapes. I learned something which sounds different from what I've heard in the past, so I figured I would pass this along. This was for audio tapes, but it makes sense that it would apply to digital data tapes too. The comment was that old tapes absorb moisture into the oxide, which makes things sticky and causes the oxide to stick to the wrong spots and flake off the tape. The solution is to set the tape in a fruit dryer at modest heat (150 F or so) for a while. Presumably a desiccator, vacuum or otherwise, could serve too. Apparently this worked well for 20 year old audio tapes. paul

21 years, 9 months

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Help ID this IBM ISA video card please

by SUPRDAVE＠aol.com

It's not in any of my PC ref guides, even ones old enough to include family one types. It's two full length 16bit ISA cards bolted together. There's a connection betwen them. Two EPROMs and several big square chips. No standard FRU number that I can see anywhere. One of the cards is labeled DISPLAY CONTROLLER. One of the cards has a 25 pin female connector. The other board has a connector I've never seen before. It's a D shaped shell which has 3 holes side by side no more than .25 inch in diameter. In each hole, there's a small pin. What in the world is this? I can provide a pic if that will help.

21 years, 9 months

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DEC PC350-D2

by d_cymbal＠hotmail.com

Are these interesting at all? Found one buried over at the archaeological dig today.

21 years, 9 months

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SRAM cards for Commodore CD-TV?

by dickset＠amanda.spole.gov

I was cleaning up today and ran across an old 64K battery-backed SRAM card for a Sharp OS-781. The box mentions the OZ-7000, but I was wondering if this is one of the cards that will work with a Commodore CD-TV (there's a PCMCIA-ish slot in the front, and ISTR 64K was one of the sizes mentioned in some of the documentation for what would work in there). Specifically, my recollection is that the CD-TV takes a "Type I" card, and this OZ-781 _is_ 1/2 as thick as a Type II (with one row of pins, not two). Do I have a match? (I'll still have to find a CD-TV to replace the one that was stolen in a burglary years ago - so long ago, in fact, that the insurance company paid out 100% for the loss with no questions asked, based on the pricetag on the corner of the box - $795). It was a fun little box that fit well with the other components by the TV. I did replace it with a CD-32 later, but the two just don't compare, stylistically, even though the CD-TV is, essentially, a repackaged A500, and the CD-32 is a crippled A1200 (but I do have an SX-1 expansion for it). Speaking of expansions, has anyone ever seen the MPEG cartridge for the CD-32? I don't "need" one, since I can watch VCDs on my Apex DVD player, but I've always wanted to find one at a reasonable price to see how well it plays VCDs. -ethan -- Ethan Dicks, A-130-S Current South Pole Weather at 25-Jun-2004 23:10 Z South Pole Station PSC 468 Box 400 Temp -76.8 F (-60.5 C) Windchill -107.2 F (-77.40 C) APO AP 96598 Wind 6.7 kts Grid 059 Barometer 670 mb (11005. ft) Ethan.Dicks(a)amanda.spole.gov http://penguincentral.com/penguincentral.html

21 years, 9 months

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FREE VMS Programmer's Manuals

by bob＠jfcl.com

I've got some VMS manuals Vol 1 Introduction to Programming Vol 2A Utilites and Debugger Vol 2B Utilites (CDU, Librarian, Linker, Message) Vol 3 System Library Routines Vol 4A System Services Vol 4B System Services and just for fun Obsolete Features. I think this is pretty much all of the "P" section of the infamous VMS gray wall. All are brand new, still shrink wrapped, never opened and were current as of VMS version 5.2 (i.e. a long, long time ago!). All you have to do is pick them up in Milpitas CA - sorry, but they're just not worth the trouble of shipping. Bob Armstrong

21 years, 9 months

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3com etherlink III MCA

by KParker＠workcover.com

Thanks guys - the junk I'm getting is a whole heap of trash in the top left corner of the screen (no error codes) so I do really think its cactus but I'll try your suggestions. +++++++++++++++++++ Kevin Parker Web Services Manager WorkCover Corporation p: 08 8233 2548 e: webmaster(a)workcover.com w: www.workcover.com +++++++++++++++++++ -----Original Message----- From: cctech-bounces(a)classiccmp.org [mailto:cctech-bounces@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of jpero(a)sympatico.ca Sent: Thursday, 24 June 2004 8:02 AM To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org Subject: RE: 3com etherlink III MCA > That's disappointing as I've got one too. Given that its MCA I thought it would be at a premium and therefore quite valuable. > > The one I've got is in an IBM PS2 Model 60 but when I boot it I get some gobbledy-gook on screen which is not very promising - if anyone has any clues I'd be grateful. I thought of disabling the HD a> > Ahhhh such is life! Parker, Of course, if you have gotten thick paperback book of Muller's, this has whole lot of IBM PS/2 error codes. Or google. The info will help you to decode errors and act on that info. PS/2 stuff (not those PS2 (that's playstation 2, they do die easily. :-P) doesn't simply die easily. I still have couple PS/2 (70-Axx, P75) that still works. For example 1701 generally means hard drive problem, so on, it has several sub errors under that 1700 specific to hard drive system. Gee, been years since I last cracked that book for reference. :-O SWAG: There is about 200 or so error codes total for everything including several types of beeps. Whew. Cheers, Wizard ************************************************************************ This e-mail is intended for the use of the addressee only. It may contain information that is protected by legislated confidentiality and/or is legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you are prohibited from disseminating, distributing or copying this e-mail. Any opinion expressed in this e-mail may not necessarily be that of the WorkCover Corporation of South Australia. Although precautions have been taken, the sender cannot warrant that this e-mail or any files transmitted with it are free of viruses or any other defect. If you have received this e-mail in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and destroy the original e-mail and any copies. ************************************************************************

21 years, 9 months

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'Lorenzo' by Technology Modeling Associates ?

by julesrichardsonuk＠yahoo.co.uk

I just stumbled across a DAT tape amongst my pile of spares labelled as "Lorenzo version 1.1.2" made by a company called Technology Modeling Associates. Anyone come across this software before and can tell me what it does? The copyright date's 1993-1995, so it's almost on topic :-) Googling doesn't turn up much. I'm just curious - I don't have a DEC Alpha system to run it anyway, plus it says that it needs authorisation codes to install anyway, which I don't have. I have no idea where I came by the tape from! cheers Jules

21 years, 9 months

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Floppy drive oddity? (TEC FB-503)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi Don, >It would seem that there are a couple of possibilities for your >problems: - a damaged lower head or read electronics that do not >permit the drive to find a directory or - less likely - incorrect >strapping for drive select and the variables on the drive board. I doubt it strapping, as these are the original drives that were installed by Morrow. I thought it was odd that both of these drives (and only these two) failed with exactly the same symptom - My guess is that something in the read electronics is prone to an age related fault - I was hoping that someone might respond with something like "Oh yeah - thats a known problem with those drives - check capactor x". >The rather brief Service Guide that I have for the Morrow MD >series provides no detail at all on the drives. However, they do >caution to replace the A and B drives in the position that they >were removed from such as to not cross up their identity to the >computer. No other manual that I have provides any information on >the TEC FB-503 beyond the fact that it is a half-high 5.25" DS >drive with a 360k capacity. It is an odd configuration with a separate cable and terminator for each drive ... Any chance you could be talked into copying or scanning that service manual? Do you have other info on these systems (Technical or otherwise)? Were you involved these machines? Looking to collect as much info as possible. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Paul Koning <pkoning(a)equallogic.com> wrote: > Then there are special cases: the Cray and Alpha integer units, which > don't offer divide at all. Instead, you're supposed to multiply by > the reciprocal of the divisor. Ahmm, but the reciprocal of an integer is not an integer, so you are stepping out of integer-land into floating point territory. Do you really want to use floating point to implement integer division (dividing an integer by an integer to get quotient and remainder)? And how do you guarantee that the final integer result will be exact? (I guess you convert the dividend to a float, get the reciprocal of the divisor, which will be a float, do float multiplication, and integerise the result, right? Are there enough bits of precision in a float to guarantee an exact result for integer division done this way? I doubt that, since AFAIK Alpha has usual 32-bit and 64-bit floats, which have other things besides mantissa in those bits, but has 64-bit integers.) And how do you get the remainder? Floating division (whether direct or via multiplication by the reciprocal) doesn't produce a remainder at all. MS

21 years, 9 months

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ASR-33 H-Plate

by CPUMECH＠aol.com

You can reset the keybd. by pushing down on the lever on the front right corner of the keybd. and it should latch in the down position. Then if the H lever still won't line up you can trip the distributor clutch and the rotate the motor which will then turn the distributor clutch, which will rotate the arm for the H lever to line up on the same plane. If you have any questions call Dataterm Inc.-they are very knowledgeable with 33 TTY's and have many parts for Teletypes too.- 781-938-1010

21 years, 9 months

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Australia Computer Museum in trouble

by David.Kane＠aph.gov.au

I received the following from John Geremin from the Museum late last month: Hello David, At this stage there is no suggestion of folding up. We are just trying to rationalise our storage requirements prior to setting up some displays at Kariong. The current hassles are related to delays in getting an agreement on what the people at Kariong want. Max Burnet will have the latest info on Kariong. We are planning to hold an AGM meeting next month, where all members will be invited to have their say on any future plans. There are membership forms on the web site if you don't have one already. John G. David > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk-bounces(a)classiccmp.org > [mailto:cctalk-bounces@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of David V. Corbin > Sent: Thursday, 24 June 2004 10:41 PM > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > Subject: RE: Australia Computer Museum in trouble > > > Looking through the site, it appears that this may be too > late. According to the site they needed do vacate the > warehouse at the end of last year. I have seen no updates. > Hopefully any and all resources are safe. >

21 years, 9 months

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Reading old tapes

by aek＠spies.com

The comment was that old tapes absorb moisture into the oxide, which makes things sticky and causes the oxide to stick to the wrong spots and flake off the tape. The solution is to set the tape in a fruit dryer at modest heat (150 F or so) for a while. Presumably a desiccator, vacuum or otherwise, could serve too. -- This has been discussed here in the past. Some tape formulations (for me, late 70's BASF, Memorex is the worst) absorb mosture and the polymers in the binder decompose into lighter molecules which migrate to the surface. A temporary solution is to bake the tapes. 150 F sounds somewhat high though. There are dangers to doing this, though, depending on the condition of the tape. You can dry out and glue adjacent layers of tape together if you aren't careful. There are also things you can do with custom tape transports to minimize sticking when attempting to recover poorly preserved tape.

21 years, 9 months

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looking for DG docs

by aek＠spies.com

If anyone has spare copies of Data General S/130 and S/200 documentation, I'd appreciate a chance at 'em! -- A complete set of docs for the machine went to Bruce Ray, since he wanted to scan them and I have been letting him deal with archiving DG stuff. I asked him to give the paper to you when he was done. If he is ignoring you, please remind him that there are some things I'm picking up for him and rest assured he will never see them if he doesn't get this documentation to you.

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by Lee.Davison＠merlincommunications.com

> Again, I'm thinking in terms of vacuum tubes, and I can't see how losing > the knowledge of how they worked is going to affect the future, or even > the present for that matter. I'm guessing that there is at least one piece of equipment in your house that relies on a vacuum tube to opperate that is not some sort of display device. > We're so beyond them technologically that they are irrelevant today. So you don't want television, or radio, or communications satellites, or radar, or ... Lee. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

21 years, 9 months

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Processor Technology Question

by awt＠io.com

A non-compressed format would be best. Considering the general quality of cassette tapes you may have some degradation and add to that any lossy format is asking for disaster. I would suggest that you read them into the computer first as data NOT audio. As I recall they are written to the tape as square waves in Intel Hex Checksum format which can help identify lost bits (Not great but better than some.) Square waves in an audio can generate distortion. (One of the early copy protection schemes?) I can remember lots of loads aborting due to checksum errors and the standard response was to back up the tape and restart. If you have problems let me know; I think I have the old source code for the monitor (BIOS) in a closet somewhere. Be careful though if you copy the BASIC. The MSA BASIC that was released for the SOL carries a copyright notice of the MICROSOFT CORPORATION and Big Bad Bill might come and get you. Seriously, this is some of the software B.G. wrote about in his open letter to hobbyists. Good Luck, Wayne > Question for those who know Sols, Solos, Cutter, etc. > I have many old original PT cassette tapes - basic, Gamepak 1 & 2, > ALS-8,etc. > Will an MP3 of those tapes work? [for the sake of argument, assume a > 128k bitrate]? -- Wayne Talbot <awt(a)io.com>

21 years, 9 months

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Floppy drive oddity? (TEC FB-503)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

At 11:01 24/06/2004 -0700, you wrote: >Hi > Check the termination. Make sure that only one >of the drives has a terminator and that it is >the correct type for that kind of drive. It >is prefered that the terminator is on the last drive >in the string but I've never seen problems when >the drives are side by side. >Dwight The Morrows use a very odd termination scheme - both drives have terminatore, and both drive have separate drive cables, going to two different (and spaced fairly far apart) connectors on the mainboard. I've tried all combinations (both in, one or the other in, both out) - always fails on the TEC drives, always works with the Panasonic. I would really like to keep the TEC's in it, as they are original equipment, and the serial #'s match the assembly manifest sticker inside the unit. Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 9 months

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Unisys System 80 available in Germany near Osnabrueck !

by p.spina＠makers.it

Dear Pierre. We are interested to have your Unisys System80, specially base unit and HDD. Can you tell me the model type and the HDD models that you have ? Thanks Pierluigi Spina Makers - System Division Italy mailto:p.spina@makers.it

21 years, 9 months

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WTB: MIT Radiation Lab books

by rigdonj＠cfl.rr.com

At 12:10 AM 6/20/04 -0700, you wrote: > >the other fun companion to this set is the yearbook that came out at the >end ..... it is like they turned the time life photo journalists loose and >lots of building plans lots of text.... really fun! Ed, Can you tel lme more about the year book including it's exact title. I'd like to try and track one down. Getting the Rad Lab books has been easier than expected. I've got over half of them already on their way here including several with original dust jackets and all of them are from the original McGraw Hill series. I'd still like to see a list of the extras that you have and what you want for them. Joe

21 years, 9 months

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(2) HP 88140LC tape cartridges

by paul＠montbay.com

Hello Wayne -- I am contacting you to see if you still have these (2) cartridges available? If so, I'm interested in acquiring them. Looking forward to hearing from you, Paul @ MBC Paul H. Brown Monterey Bay Communications 1010 Fair Avenue Santa Cruz, CA 95060 (831)429-6144 (831)429-1918 fax www.montbay.com paul(a)montbay.com

21 years, 9 months

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ASR-33 H-Plate

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Gerold Pauler" <gerold.pauler(a)gmx.net> > >Dwight K. Elvey schrieb: >> Hi >> You need to reset the keyboard first by twisting it to >> match up to the same angle. Once that is done, you jam >> a screwdriver blade into the slot of the H to push against >> the spring and get it reinstalled. >> Hope this makes sense. >> Dwight >> > >Sometimes (depending on the position of the distributor) >you can get a better fit by pressing a key on the keybord. >Thus giving the universal lever more space to move. > >- Gerold > > Hi He should try both and also rotate the motor to try to match with the keyboard. Dwight

21 years, 9 months

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Floppy drive oddity? (TEC FB-503)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Hi tony, >> I thought that perhaps they were 80 track drives or some such, > >Are there any letters after the FD-503 part of the number? In general >Teac suffixes tell you the number of heads and cylinders. Is TEC (Tokyo Electric Company) TEAC? No extra letters - I'm pretty sure they are standard 40 track drives, but I have not been able to dig up any hard info so far. >> Does anyone know anything about these drives? Are they 80 track >> or otherwise "odd"? Are they known to have a high failure rate >> (especially with age)? Any info would be appreciated. > >Does the disk rotate? Does the head seek to cylinder 0 at power on? Have >you tried looking at the ReadData line on the interface connector with a >'scope or logic analyser? Drives spin and seek - everything looks normal except that they reseek a couple of times and then report an error - haven't scoped the read data yet (this weekend). Regards, Dave -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 9 months

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MIT Swapfest (was: DEC at MIT)

by evan947＠yahoo.com

The MIT Swapfest, also known as "Flea@MIT" is a great event. I lived in Boston for four years, until last month when I moved, but I went to the swapfest many times and always found interesting things. There is a small-ish outdoors area and a huge indoors area. There are even people selling snacks (usually doughnuts and barbeque food, coffee and Coke) by one of the entrances. LOL, just don't do what I did the first time, and think the small outdoors part was the whole thing!

21 years, 9 months

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ASR-33 H-Plate

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi You need to reset the keyboard first by twisting it to match up to the same angle. Once that is done, you jam a screwdriver blade into the slot of the H to push against the spring and get it reinstalled. Hope this makes sense. Dwight >From: "David V. Corbin" <dvcorbin(a)optonline.net> > > Aargh..... > >In the continuing quest to get my ASR-33 operational, it was discovered that >the typing unit had shifted at some point and the h-plate connecting the >typing unit back to the keyboard had popped out [I actually "found" it >laying in the bottom of the case under the typing unit. > >Although the lever from the typing unit is spring loaded, I can not get the >h-plate in. The connection levers are at different angles, preventing the >h-plate from properly being inserted. Although I can move the levers a bit >manually, I can not get them to rotate such that they are in the same plane. > >If anyone has any ideas, please contact me ASAP. > >I am pulling my hair out. > >David > >Ps: To all attending the RI Picnic or VC Feast. Beware the tall, thin, bald >guy with a mustache. [unless of course he gets is ASR-33 running before >then].... > >

21 years, 9 months

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Floppy drive oddity? (TEC FB-503)

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

Hi Check the termination. Make sure that only one of the drives has a terminator and that it is the correct type for that kind of drive. It is prefered that the terminator is on the last drive in the string but I've never seen problems when the drives are side by side. Dwight >From: "Dave Dunfield" <dave04a(a)dunfield.com> > >Picked up 6 Morrow MD computers this past weekend. > >All appear to work, however I have one with floppy drive >trouble ... > >The drives in question are TEC FB-503 1/2 height 5.25" >drives. Only one of the machines has these drives. > >What is odd is that both drives in the one machine will >not read diskettes (report disk error - won't even boot). > >Only one machine has these drives - when it failed to boot, >I first tried cleaning it - no improvement - then tried >swapping for 'B' drive - still no improvement - now thinking >that diskette controller is faulty. > >Then I swapped in a Panasonic drive from my parts shelf, and >voila - boot & access disk no problem. > >Seems really odd that two identical drives would fail so >completely in the same way when all of the other 10 drives >appear to be OK. > >I thought that perhaps they were 80 track drives or some such, >however Issue #1 of the "Morrow Owners Review" has an artical >about the floppy drives used in the MD's, and it lists the >TEC/NSA 5503, which looks like these drives - Can't say for >sure if they are the same ones, as the model number stated does >differ slightly from what is on the drive plate, but if they are >the same, the artical makes no mention of anything special about >them... > >Does anyone know anything about these drives? Are they 80 track >or otherwise "odd"? Are they known to have a high failure rate >(especially with age)? Any info would be appreciated. > >Regards, > >-- >dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield >dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com >com Vintage computing equipment collector. > http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html > >

21 years, 9 months

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Ricoh RS-5060E 5.25" MO

by auryn＠GCI-Net.com

Hi! Would anyone happen to have documentation on this drive that they could share with me? In particular, I am looking for a description of each of the DIP switch settings on the rear of the unit (Google was not helpful -- perhaps I have the only one of these ever *built*? :< ) Drive works, I would just like to see what *else* it can do (e.g., the laundry, balance my checkbook, mow the lawn...) Thanks! --don

21 years, 9 months

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Fw: Adopt Alpha 1000 - San Diego

by lcourtney＠mvista.com

Seen on comp.os.vms - contact Andy directly. Lee Courtney "Andy Bustamante" <a_c_bustamante(a)earthlink.net> wrote in message news:<HHsCc.76837$II6.4559(a)newssvr29.news.prodigy.com>... > We've got marching orders and will be disposing of assorted equipment > including 2 x Alpha 1000s, > 320mb and 384mb. I don't expect these to bring in much on the used market > and am trying to get approval to pass these on to a hobbyist in the San > Diego area. You'll need to arrange pick up, once I have disposal > authorized, I won't ship these. I expect this to be a quick timetable once > I have the okay. Any interest? > > -- > > > Andy Bustamante > Remove the ASCII 95s for e-mail > > >

21 years, 9 months

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^_^ meay-meay!

by cctalk-bounces＠classiccmp.org

I don't bite, weah! password -- 80660

21 years, 9 months

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"Nobody programs in machine language" (was: Modern

by ken＠seefried.com

I'm a big proponent of teaching my students assembly, though not machine language, but the following was simply silly... From: Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> >Regardless of whether you actually USE it in the project, >if you do not have an understanding of machine language, >then you can not write a good "driver", or anything else >that directly addresses hardware. True. But what percentage of programmers write drivers (clue: it's small). >Regardless of whether you actually USE it in the project, >if you do not have an understanding of machine language, >then you can not write a good operating system, or any >other system software. True. But what percentage of programmers write operating systems (clue: it's small). >Regardless of whether you actually USE it in the project, >if you do not have an understanding of machine language, >then you can not write a good game, or anything else that >needs to be efficient. Completely not true. Modern games (as in most anything past the 8-bit era) are written predominately if not exclusively in higher level languages (C, C++ or C#) and rely much more on content (story, textures, skins, etc.) than anything that has to be written in machine language for success. And the engines driving these games haven't been written in machine (or assembly) in a long, long time. Modern games use DirectX or OpenGL and are written in high level languages. Even Carmack doesn't program in machine language in modern history, and he's the demi-god of game optimization. You can download the source to many older games if you don't agree. I don't even need to go into things like Cg and how far they absract writing good games from machine language. >Regardless of whether you actually USE it in the project, >if you do not have an understanding of machine language, >then you can not do a good job of optimizing ANYTHING. Total rubbish. There are lot's of kinds of "optimizing", not all of which mean "doing it the way that Fred thinks it should be done" or "doing it in the absolute fewest instructions". If you are going to use words like "ANYTHING" (esp. with the caps), you need to include optimizing for a vast array of criteria. Is machine language the only way to optimize for user interface? Probably not, except for extremely narrow definitions of optimized. Is machine language the way to optimize for dynamic logic (like different tax laws from one year to the next)? Probably not. Is machine language the way to optimize for realistic, modern deadline or budget? Almost certainly not. >Regardless of whether you actually USE it in the project, >if you do not have an understanding of machine language, >then you can not do a GOOD job of programming anything. Total rubbish. I can't build an engine from scratch, therefore I can't excel at driving a car? I can't build a spin cast reel, therefore I can't fish. The folks who program Quicken have to know machine language to do a GOOD job at writing tax software? Rubbish. The folks at Adobe have to know machine language to do a GOOD job of rendering Acrobat pages? Rubbish. The Gnome, KDE, QT, etc., folks haven't done a GOOD job, for all values of GOOD, because they use high level languages. Rubbish. You can do anything in machine language. Can you do nothing well without it? Rubbish...Obviously you can.

21 years, 9 months

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Amiga 2000 help/info needed.

by netsurfer_x1＠fastmailbox.net

I just today acquired an apparently stock Amiga 2000. Unfortunately, I have no boot disk for it & it has no hard drive. I cannot get it to show the "Insert Disk" animation (does it even have this?). The screen flashes between gray & white. My apologies for the stupid questions, but Amigas are new animals to me!

21 years, 9 months

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FW: Australia Computer Museum in trouble

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

Hi, gang, I figured this article would be of interest. Apparently, the Australian Computer Museum is on the verge of losing their space due to lack of funds. http://slashdot.org/articles/04/06/23/1254203.shtml?tid=126&tid=137 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?"

21 years, 9 months

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Commodore/PET Cassette to PC transfer...

by wolfgang＠eichberger.org

Hi, I'm on this list for a while now, mostly passive as reader... This week I tried to get some of my older PET/CBM Cassettes onto my PC. This Tapes are originally written with a Rom- upgraded Pet 2001 (the model with cricklet-keys) around 1980. Everythings working so far, I have a digital image now in case the tapes fail. But I really would like to convert the (now wave)files to an emulator readable format. I tried tapeload, tape64 and wavprg and had nearly no success. Is someone out there with some more experience on this? The Pet's datasette is a little buggy at the moment, so I'd like a standard Audio Deck. Maybe It is an issue that I only have a stereo deck? At http://www.funet.fi/pub/cbm/crossplatform/transfer/datassett e/index.html are plenty of infos, but I have no Idea where to start... Regards, Wolfgang Eichberger PS.: I'd really like to obtain a disk-drive for my Pets, in case theres someone who has one for sale or so...

21 years, 9 months

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Commodore/PET Cassette to PC transfer...

by wolfgang＠eichberger.org

Hi, I'm on this list for a while now, mostly passive as reader... This week I tried to get some of my older PET/CBM Cassettes onto my PC. This Tapes are originally written with a Rom- upgraded Pet 2001 (the model with cricklet-keys) around 1980. Everythings working so far, I have a digital image now in case the tapes fail. But I really would like to convert the (now wave)files to an emulator readable format. I tried tapeload, tape64 and wavprg and had nearly no success. Is someone out there with some more experience on this? The Pet's datasette is a little buggy at the moment, so I'd like a standard Audio Deck. Maybe It is an issue that I only have a stereo deck? At http://www.funet.fi/pub/cbm/crossplatform/transfer/datassett e/index.html are plenty of infos, but I have no Idea where to start... Regards, Wolfgang Eichberger PS.: I'd really like to obtain a disk-drive for my Pets, in case theres someone who has one for sale or so...

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by Lee.Davison＠merlincommunications.com

>> Then you'll know why the HV supply is almost invariably voltage >> doubled AC and not rectified and smothed DC. From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk > I know it is (the magnetron itself is one of the diodes in the doubler, > along with one capacitor and a semiconductor diode), but I don't actually > know _why_. Presumably it's to simplify the insulation of the transformer > or something. Water molecules [1] have three resonant frequencies around 2.45GHz and to couple the H field microwave energy into the water you need to be operating at one of these frequencies. A magnetron when used as an oscillator has a frequency that is voltage and output load dependant, so having a varying supply will sweep the frequency across the whole operating range. When you get near a resonant frequency the output load changes and this bcomes the dominating effect until the voltage changes enough to pull the frequency to the next resonant point. This way you can be sure to couple most of the energy into the water. From: Dwight K. Elvey > Also, once the magnetron gets to the threshold voltage, it likes to > run at a constant volage. ... If you try to feed it with a fixed voltage, > it will destroy the tube. Magnetrons, even those in microwave ovens, can be run from a constant (fixed) voltage without any danger of destroying the tube. This works whether using it as an oscillator or an amplifier. Lee. [1] other OH bonds will absorb energy in this band such as those in carbohydrates, but not nearly as well. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

21 years, 9 months

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cctalk Digest, Vol 10, Issue 54

by lgwalker＠mts.net

> Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 11:58:45 +0100 > From: "Geoffrey Thomas" <geoffreythomas(a)onetel.net.uk> > Subject: Re: Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & > headcount... ; -)) > To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" > <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org> > Message-ID: <000101c457bc$253c6640$bb72fea9@geoff> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" > > > Don't forget that there is more then one generation at work in an industry > > at one time. Lots of people on this email list probably work with younger > > techs who don't know half of what they do. Once the senior people retire > (or > > get fired because they cost too much on a spreadsheet) its up to the > younger > > ones to pull the slack (if they were smart enough to hire any before the > old > > ones got the boot), and quite a few are not up to the task. It takes time > to > > notice your workforce is deficient, and by then its too late to do > anything > > about it. > > This is what has happened to the rail industry in Britain, it frightens me > to think of the skills that have been lost -particularly in track > maintenance -not very high tech. you may think , but the number of > crashes/accidents we've had since privatisation started on an accountant's > spreadsheet. The fact that the industry now swallows more money for an > inferior service is common knowledge , we all know where the money goes > (went - it's called asset stripping ) but vested interest and political > lethargy prevent any radical solution.As with our health service there is > now an inverted bloated bureaucratic pyramid stuffed full of accountants and > clerks. > > Geoff. I worked many years in the rail running trades in Canada. As in many countries the workforce has been slashed, while the top end has ballooned. The caboose which was once the last human warning source has been replaced by a sensor. Sensors can't see anomalies such as a "hot-box" on passing trains or problems with the boxcar string itself. As we all know electronics are plagued with many anomalies. And even the best software designers can not possibly duplicate the warning signs learned by many years of experience of being there. Does the public think that a computer can duplicate the knowledge of a flight controller ? We have many years to go to replace the often flawed knowledge of humans but bean counters should be easily replaced and the "decision-makers" were outmoded years ago if sufficient will were available. Watch out for "Hal" tho, he might be a clone of some psychotic Enron "executive" Lawrence

21 years, 9 months

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Yet another same-old, same-old classic gaming article

by evan947＠yahoo.com

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&ncid=528&e=1&u=/ap/2004… I have to laugh when I see stories like this one. On one hand, I'm laughing for joy, since any such mainstream press (of gaming or computers) is great for the growth of our hobby. On the other hand, I'm laughing at the sillyness, because every few months some new reporter hears about our hobby, writes the SAME story about Atari joysticks, and thinks he or she is the one who scooped it. (As a reporter myself and a collector, you can see why I find this funny.) The same thing happened with VoIP. I was technology editor of Internet Telephony magazine from early 1998 to mid-2000. But in the past few years, every mainstream reporter heard that, hey, you can make free phone calls using your PC and the Internet... (which of course is about 1/25 of the real business-class intentions of the VoIP industry.) Anyway, I'm just pointing out that there's another article about our cousins in the classic gaming world... thought ya'll might care. :) PLEASE don't use this as another reason for a million replies about how bad "the press" is. (Honestly, it hurts my feelings.)

21 years, 9 months

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Weeeeee! ;)))

by cctalk-bounces＠classiccmp.org

Looking forward for a response :P pass: 77600

21 years, 9 months

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Floppy drive oddity? (TEC FB-503)

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

Picked up 6 Morrow MD computers this past weekend. All appear to work, however I have one with floppy drive trouble ... The drives in question are TEC FB-503 1/2 height 5.25" drives. Only one of the machines has these drives. What is odd is that both drives in the one machine will not read diskettes (report disk error - won't even boot). Only one machine has these drives - when it failed to boot, I first tried cleaning it - no improvement - then tried swapping for 'B' drive - still no improvement - now thinking that diskette controller is faulty. Then I swapped in a Panasonic drive from my parts shelf, and voila - boot & access disk no problem. Seems really odd that two identical drives would fail so completely in the same way when all of the other 10 drives appear to be OK. I thought that perhaps they were 80 track drives or some such, however Issue #1 of the "Morrow Owners Review" has an artical about the floppy drives used in the MD's, and it lists the TEC/NSA 5503, which looks like these drives - Can't say for sure if they are the same ones, as the model number stated does differ slightly from what is on the drive plate, but if they are the same, the artical makes no mention of anything special about them... Does anyone know anything about these drives? Are they 80 track or otherwise "odd"? Are they known to have a high failure rate (especially with age)? Any info would be appreciated. Regards, -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk > >> > I don't like to test memory. >> > My tests are all open book - they don't need to write anything on their >> > shirtsleeves. >> > open notes - they don't need to write anything in the margins of the >> > book. >> >> Couldn't agree more. In "real life" you normally have access to > >I'll go along with this too. Hi One of the most important parts of school learning is to learn how and where to look for information. Another is to learn how to simplify concepts so that they can be applied more universally. Dwight ---snip---

21 years, 9 months

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A pack of Morrows available in Toronto

by dave04a＠dunfield.com

At 21:03 13/04/2004 -0400, you wrote: >I've been contacted by someone with "5 or 6" Morrow MD-3s, a couple of >MD-2s, and maybe an MD-11 (she's not sure). Most are working, and they come >with lots of software. She wants some money for them, but I'm not sure how >much. Drop me a note if you want me to put you in touch with her. The >systems are in Toronto. > >--Mike Just a follow-up in case anyone is interested... I finally made it to Toronto this past weekend and picked up the Morrows. In total, there were 7 machines, of which one was given to York university. I received 6 Micro Decision machines of which two are MD-2's, and 4 are MD-3's, All appear to work! I also received 5 terminals, 3 Morrow OEM versions of the "Liberty 100", one Morrow MDT-60 (can't find any other manufactorer name), and a Morrow OEM ADM-20 by Leir Siegler. I haven't tested all of them yet, but the ADM-209 does work. The "mistery" machine was not an MD-11, it was another MD-2 with the odd looking 2/3 height SA-200 drives, and paired with the ADM-20 terminal - this is in fact the exact configuration shown in all of the Morrow advertising materials for the MD's that I have been able to locate. There is a fair bit of software, including a CP/M edition of Wordstar for which the diskette packet has never been opened! I also have a full compliment of Morrow manuals. Still have lots to go over - Pics and other material will appear on my site within the next few weeks. I'd be interested in corresponding with anyone having experience with Morrows, especially the MD series. Please see my next posting for a inquiry involving a "floppy drive oddity". Regards, -- dave04a (at) Dave Dunfield dunfield (dot) Firmware development services & tools: www.dunfield.com com Vintage computing equipment collector. http://www.parse.com/~ddunfield/museum/index.html

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: "Dan Veeneman" <dan(a)ekoan.com> > >Fred, > >Do you really give out tests like this: > >At 06:06 PM 6/23/04, you wrote: >>int N = 10; >>while (N--) printf("&d\n",N); >>What are the first and last numbers displayed? >>is appropriate for open-book. > >I'm presuming there's a typo inside the quotes... >otherwise you have a nice trick question! > Hi Evaluation order can be important in many context. That is why I like a more concise language than C. Dwight

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by dwight.elvey＠amd.com

>From: ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk > >> > I know how, just about every part of, a microwave oven works and >> >> Then you'll know why the HV supply is almost invariably voltage >> doubled AC and not rectified and smothed DC. > >I know it is (the magnetron itself is one of the diodes in the doubler, >along with one capacitor and a semiconductor diode), but I don't actually >know _why_. Presumably it's to simplify the insulation of the transformer >or something. > >-tony > Oops I missed this question. Tony is right. Also, once the magnetron gets to the threshold voltage, it likes to run at a constant volage. The capacitor source is better at supplying this as part of the sine wave. If you try to feed it with a fixed voltage, it will destroy the tube. The capacitor works like a current limiting resistor without the power loss. Dwight

21 years, 9 months

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"Nobody programs in machine language" (was: Modern

by msokolov＠ivan.Harhan.ORG

Fred Cisin <cisin(a)xenosoft.com> wrote: > Q: Current C compilers are written in C. > What was the FIRST C compiler written in? Assembly (PDP-11). MS

21 years, 9 months

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small drives spotted

by robert＠irrelevant.com

I know some of you need small-ish drives for various systems. I spotted these on eBid so thought I'd mention them as they would probably get missed by eBay browsers.. 40MB IDE Miniscribe - ?0.05 !! http://sumo.ebid.co.uk/perl/objects/auction.cgi?auction=1083534025-3951-0&m… 1GB SCSI Compaq - (res not met, but buy-now is ?10) http://wrestler.ebid.co.uk/perl/objects/auction.cgi?auction=1084462930-2708… Pair of 5.25" SCSI 1Gb Maxtors - ?1.00 seller wants collection (Kent, England) http://wrestler.ebid.co.uk/perl/objects/auction.cgi?auction=1081506050-4818…

21 years, 9 months

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"Nobody programs in machine language" (was: Modern

by aek＠spies.com

Q: Current C compilers are written in C. What was the FIRST C compiler written in? -- PDP-11 assembly language. You can look at the sources in the early Unix archives, or.... -- From: Dennis Ritchie <dmr(a)bell-labs.com> Newsgroups: comp.lang.c,comp.std.c,alt.folklore.computers Subject: A primeval C compiler Date: Thu, 29 Jul 1999 06:43:22 +0100 Organization: Bell Labs, Lucent Technologies Lines: 12 Message-ID: <379FE9FA.7D08(a)bell-labs.com> Reply-To: dmr(a)bell-labs.com NNTP-Posting-Host: cebu.cs.bell-labs.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.01 (Win95; U) Xref: news.apple.com comp.lang.c:83397 comp.std.c:9285 alt.folklore.computers:33793 I finally prepared another fossil for museum exhibition: from DECtapes written in 1972-73, there are exhumed C compilers (including source) to show what the very early stages of the language were like. This was a highly transitional stage; for example, the earlier one anticipates a "long" type, but doesn't have struct; the 6-months-later compiler implements struct, but reuses long's slot in the type table. http://www.cs.bell-labs.com/~dmr/primevalC.html Dennis

21 years, 9 months

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Modern Electronics (was Re: List charter mods & headcount... ;

by Lee.Davison＠merlincommunications.com

>> wired the fan and magnetron together ... and controlled it with >> an ordinary wall light switch > I wouldn't have done this. I would have used an egg timer switch (one that turns off after a pre set time) but otherwise it sounds a reasonable fix. > I know how, just about every part of, a microwave oven works and Then you'll know why the HV supply is almost invariably voltage doubled AC and not rectified and smothed DC. > Also, I doubt that a normal wall light switch is rated for that > large of an inductive load. A microwave oven is a resistive load and most light switches (in the uk at least) are rated adequately to switch a microwave (1.2KW for a 600W rated oven). Lee. ________________________________________________________________________ This e-mail has been scanned for all viruses by Star Internet. The service is powered by MessageLabs. For more information on a proactive anti-virus service working around the clock, around the globe, visit: http://www.star.net.uk ________________________________________________________________________

21 years, 9 months

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21+ Years of DDJ Indexed

by vcf＠siconic.com

Whilst doing an unrelated search, I came across this gem: Twenty-One + Years of Dr. Dobb's Journal Indexed http://www.cstone.net/~bachs/ddj/ It's maintained by a person who used to get paid by DDJ to index their magazine, but after CMP bought it out he says he continues the service gratis. He has a donation link to help keep the site up. I did my part ;) -- 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 ]

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