test-drb

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101090 discussions

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 1, 13:33, Doug Coward wrote: > 2. About 1982 I started hearing that it was possible to > build a camera for your pc by "cooking" an EPROM under > UV light for an extended period until the memory cells > were still light sensitive but would no long hold a > charge. Then by placing a len over the EPROM's window, > you had a real time low-res video image mapped right into > memory. Again this is one that quite a few people had > heard about but no one knew anyone that had ever done it. I've not heard of an EPROM used this way, but DRAMs certainly have been. It's possible, with care, to remove the metal lid from some ceramic-packaged DRAMs and add a lens. The memory cells are light sensitive; the more light, the faster the charge leaks away, so the scheme is to write 1's into all locations, pause, then read them back. Unfortunately, on most DRAMs, the relationship between logical address and physical location in the array is not simply "add 256 for the next row", so some decoding is necessary. However, at least one DRAM does have such a simple mapping, and was sold for the purpose. I'm sure it was described in one of Steve Ciarcia's Circuit Cellar articles in Byte, around 1982, but I can't find it amongst my reprints. Anyone? -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years, 11 months

Tech Rumors/Legends?

by netsurfer_x1＠hotmail.com

>Nice little summary article. > >From that: > >"Aquarius > >Mattel > >When Mattel demonstrated this computer at a trade show >in 1983, employees >had to conceal one of the keys with >masking tape. For some bizarre reason >known only to >Matte l engineers, the Aquarius had a convenient key >that >instantly rebooted the computer and wiped out all >your data." > >It was called the RESET key and I hated it. They at >least designed a >little ridge around it so it was harder >to accidentally press. However, I >remember you could do >a CTRL-C or some other control key sequence and >"undo" >the RESET (basially it would cancel the reset and put >you back >where you just were). > >When you first turned the Aquarius on, you had a little >intro screen that >said whatever, something like "Mattel >Aquarius" ... "Press any key to >continue". When you >pressed a key it initialized BASIC and plopped you >into a prompt. > >Pressing the RESET key apparently didn't erase the >memory but just took >you to the initial startup screen, >so it was made possible to back out of >a RESET using the >control key sequence. > >Sellam International Man >of Intrigue and >Danger >--------------------------------------------------------->---------------------- >Looking for a six in a pile of nines... > > Coming soon: VCF 4.0! > VCF East: Planning in Progress > See http://www.vintage.org for >details! One thing I'm surprised that did not make it onto that list it the Macintosh Portable (it probably was #21 or thereabouts). If the DG/1 required Superman to pick it up, I don't want to know who they would have required to pick it up! ____________________________________________________________ David Vohs, Digital Archaeologist & Computer Historian. Home page: http://www.geocities.com/netsurfer_x1/ Computer Collection: "Triumph": Commodore 64C, 1802, 1541, FSD-1, GeoRAM 512, Okimate 20. "Leela": Macintosh 128 (Plus upgrade), Nova SCSI HDD, Imagewriter II. "Delorean": TI-99/4A. "Monolith": Apple Macintosh Portable. "Spectrum": Tandy Color Computer 3. "Boombox": Sharp PC-7000. ____________________________________________________________ ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 11 months

VMS media availability for VAX 8530

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Well, if you seek to install VMS 5.2, then you have no problem... simply kindly ask me for the use of my VMS 5.2 RL02 stand-alone backup cartridge, never used, was sealed in the box when I got it... And no, the shock meter was NOT red ;p Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 11 months

Rumor/Legend #3

by xds_sigma7＠hotmail.com

Welllll... as for the whacked out missing-corner looking disks, I can confirm this... I have an ancient Memorex 651 floppy disk drive, and this thing is circa 1973-74.. And those are the disks it uses... it CANNOT use "normal" disks. FYI, there are at least two types of those disks, FD IV and FD V, not sure what the diff is but I will look it up in the manual later tonight. I have around 40 or so of those weird disks... They are also notable (IMHO) for being freakishly colored... Indeed, you can easily tell FD IV's and FD V's apart by the fact that FD IV disks are icky 70's orange, while FD V disks are a funky dark blue sort of color. I actually have 3 other clone disks from Information Terminals (the chicken company!) too, but I couldn't tell ya if they're FD IV or FD V clones.. Will J ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com

25 years, 11 months

Please help ID this Mac board--I hope it's old enough for the list!

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

Sounds like a video frame grabber to me... -Dave McGuire On June 1, Stan Perkins wrote: > Hello all, > > I just came across this small PCI type board, labeled: > > APPLE COMPUTER INC. > 820-0510-A c1993 > > It also has a chip on it with the label: > > 341S0021 > c 1983-93 Apple > ^ > | > |-----That's why I'm hoping it's old enough to qualify :-) > > Anyway, on one side of the PCB it's got four large quad flat pack chips, > from Philips, TI, VLSI, and BT, and on the other side (with the Apple > labeled chip I mentioned earlier) it has two rows of 8 each Toshiba > TC528128BJ-80 RAM chips. On the back end it has a DB-15F connector (like > the old Apple monitor connector) and two round DIN connectors labeled "S > IN" and "S OUT" with 7 female contacts each. > > It came in a box labeled DOS Compatibility Card for Macintosh, but I'm > beginning to think it's not. > > Any clues are greatly appreciated! > > Thanks, > Stan

25 years, 11 months

Defining Disk Image Dump Standard

by pete＠dunnington.u-net.com

On Jun 1, 16:34, John Wilson wrote: > On Thu, Jun 01, 2000 at 11:12:11AM -0700, Sellam Ismail wrote: > >Insert "Disk Side (Head)" (1 byte) > > Hard or soft head number? I feel sure I ran into a format (Commodore?) where > the sector headers had the opposite head numbers to the side on which they > were actually recorded. This is also true on some Acorn disks, and I'm sure I've run across it elsewhere, where the "head" value encoded in each sector header is always "0", because the second side is treated as tracks 80-159 instead of each cylinder being two tracks distinguished by head number. -- Pete Peter Turnbull Dept. of Computer Science University of York

25 years, 11 months

Tech Rumors/Legends?

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: Doug Coward <dcoward(a)pressstart.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Thursday, June 01, 2000 2:41 PM Subject: Tech Rumors/Legends? >Hi All, > One the nice things about this list is the variety of >first hand experience that can be called upon to clear >up those nagging second hand rumors that you keep dragging >around for years, unable to track down a definitive answer. > >Up for review: >1. "The person that designed the Mindset PC later designed >the Amiga." I realize that computers like the Amiga are not >designed by just one person, but does anyone know anything >about the people that helped design these computers? I've never heard of the Mindset PC, but the Amiga story is very nicely told at The Amiga Interactive Guide, at www.amiga.emugaming.com . Follow the Features link, and see "Amiga History" and "The Amiga Corporation 1982-84". Although a team of designers was involved, the person generally credited as "the father of the Amiga" is the late Jay Miner, who came from Atari Corp. via Xymos.

25 years, 11 months

Tech Rumors/Legends?

by mgregory＠vantageresearch.com

-----Original Message----- From: Sellam Ismail <foo(a)siconic.com> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org> Date: Thursday, June 01, 2000 3:49 PM Subject: Re: Tech Rumors/Legends? > >When did Jay Miner pass away? > June 20, 1994. For a full bio, see http://www.jms.org/jay-miner.html Mark.

25 years, 11 months

OT: Archiving data (LONG)

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>I like the ideas about digitizing the stream of raw disk data. >I imagine it would be possible to perform some software-based >analysis and repair, rendering previously scrogged disks readable. >Or perhaps the forensic-style recovery of erased data, reading >and averaging adjacent off-center track information. > >I seem to remember a PDP guy on this list who recovers reel tape >data this way, digitizing the raw tracks and processing with >software, as opposed to relying on antique hardware methods for >decoding the stream. That would've been me, I think :-). It really is straightforward to do today - a PC, a few hundred dollars of investment for the A/D hardware and cabling, an old 9-track or 7-track drive that you can set up to spool forward at a constant rate, and you've got the hardware side done. The analysis software is where the real magic occurs - look up "PRML" in a good engineering or math bookstore and you'll be on the right path. Incorporating the data from non-flaky channels to recover the data in the flaky channel is easy for 1/2" magtapes because of the existence of both longitudinal and horizontal parity bits. The same techniques work for 8", 5.25", and 3.5" floppies, too. You don't have the luxury of parity channels there, but PRML techniques put you way ahead of traditional data separators. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

25 years, 11 months

OT: Archiving data (LONG)

by CLASSICCMP＠trailing-edge.com

>> >Yes, but how long can we expect the film to last? >> >> Decades, if processed sloppily, or centuries, if processed archivally. > >Sounds great, but how readily available is the process of film archiving >to hobbyists, how easy is it to master, and how much does it cost? This isn't rocket science; archival-quality film processing has been studied for most of a century already. Anyone capable of following the Kodak (or Ilford, or Agfa) directions and who has a kitchen sink, about $25 for hardware, and about $10 for photo chemicals can do it. No, it isn't the point-and-click interface you're used to, but some of us actually enjoy mixing chemicals and processing film and paper by hand. -- Tim Shoppa Email: shoppa(a)trailing-edge.com Trailing Edge Technology WWW: http://www.trailing-edge.com/ 7328 Bradley Blvd Voice: 301-767-5917 Bethesda, MD, USA 20817 Fax: 301-767-5927

25 years, 11 months

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