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101090 discussions

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

This is an update to my earlier post regarding the availability of VAXStation 4000 VLC's. It is being posted to both CLASSICCMP and port-vax(a)netbsd.org. The interest in these beasties has been strong, and I had some inquiries as to further details about the unit's innards and specs. With that in mind, here's what I've gotten so far. They are indeed VLC's. Actual model number: VS48K-CA Quantity available: 20. Each unit includes an LK401 keyboard and DEC three-button mouse (not the 'Hockey Puck' style... looks more like a rebadged Logitech). (Also available: One ea. VAXStation 4000/90, condition (like the others): Uknown, pulled from working setup). Installed memory: At least 24 MB. These units appear to use standard 72-pin FPM Parity SIMMs. Video subsystem: Difficult for me to tell. The video board has a bank of 16 each Toshiba part #TC524258BZ-10 memory chips installed. I -think- this means there's 4MB of video memory... someone check me on that, please? 1MB per bank of four chips? Anyway... more details on the video. The board has a 130.808 MHz oscillator, and sports the Bt RAMDAC and chip set. This could be good, bad, or indifferent... I don't know enough about such things to say. Chip numbers are Bt458LPJ135 for the RAMDAC, and Bt438K for the other chip. There do not appear to be any hard drives in any of the units, though I could be mistaken (I didn't examine them all). It does appear that the hard drive mounting brackets were left in, so putting a drive in the thing would not be a huge hassle. Price: $50.00 or best offer per unit plus shipping. Local pickup also available. Contact: Mark Dabek, RE-PC, Tukwila, WA. Phone is 206-575- 8737. Hours are Monday-Saturday, 10:00 - 19:00 Pacific time. Web is www.repc.com. Please tell him I referred you if you go and buy one or more. He likes to know where his business comes from. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com) kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com "SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"

25 years, 11 months

The "Bigger Picture"

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

I've already asked ... heck, told... Sellam that I don't want to continue the thread regarding what happened to Haltek. That still holds true. What I would like to add here, now that I've cooled down a bit, is some background on why I reacted as I did. I see the whole Bay Area mess -- skyrocketing housing prices, demand outpacing supply, etc. -- as only one symptom of a much larger pattern of badly distorted values and priorities that, to my eyes, has been developing at least since the mid-80's. That pattern is one of a culture that has, in large part, come to value money above all else. Above family, above skills, above the ability to create something that's truly an innovation (and I do NOT mean web-enabled refrigerators!), and above the ability to take something old, but still usable, and give it new life. Don't get me wrong: I'm not in any way against making a comfortable living, nor am I against a business making a fair profit. That would be as silly as expecting honest behavior out of White House politicians. What I do have a problem with is the pattern I see is "make as much money as you can in as short a time as you can, and to blazes with whoever you might screw, or what you might do to the long-term picture for the planet along the way, because money is the ONLY important thing!" That kind of thinking is as destructive, in the long term, to this world and everyone on it as a nuclear blast would be in the short term. I do not agree with such a warped philosophy. I do not subscribe to it. I will fight it in any way that I can, anywhere I can, in this world or wherever I end up in when my number comes up. I currently do so in many different ways, one of which is by preserving and using older technology that might otherwise serve to choke a landfill even higher than it already is. I think a lot of the list's members are the same way. Every surplus dealer that goes under represents, to my eyes, that much more possible content in the landfills, that much less of an opportunity for a budding hobbyist to learn what real "hacking" is, and that much more of a win for a the mindset of "Plug-and-Play- and-ThrowItAway" rather than doing a 'Quality Job.' Given the above, is it any wonder that I got ticked off when I learned of Haltek's demise, and (more specifically) how they'd come to an end? If Sellam, or anyone else on the list, wants to judge me as short-sighted, or lacking "perspective" because of these beliefs, then I can only say "Guilty as charged, and thanks for sharing your opinion." I'm not out to offend anyone, and I'm certainly not crazy enough to think that everyone is going to agree with me. That would be really dumb. All I was trying to do was express my disgust that a place I considered as a valued resource had been, in my view, unfairly forced out of business. If that did offend anyone, I apologize. Whatever the case, I think I will keep "death notices," as it were, on my web site instead of in the group. Thanks for reading. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com) kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com "SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"

25 years, 11 months

OS/2

by allisonp＠world.std.com

From: SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com <SUPRDAVE(a)aol.com> >a minute. if you want networking, go get warp connect. i've been told that >it's been tweaked a little after warp 3.0 came out. i have it running on a Where would I find that? I'm not warp savy, barely PC savy. >PS/2 server 95 with 48meg with scsi and i get full multimedia and can connect Hummm... How would that run on a 386sx/16 with 5mb? If not that a 486dx2/66 with 12mb. Allison

25 years, 11 months

Apple DiskCopy 4.2 disk image format?

by eric＠brouhaha.com

Does anyone have (or know where to find) the specs for the Apple DiskCopy 4.2 disk image format? I know the specs were published (unlike the new Apple Disk Copy 6.x NDIF format), but searches with Altavista, Google, and Ask didn't turn them up. I have some raw disk images of 720K and 1440K diskettes on my web site, and I want to write a Linux program to take a raw image and turn it into an ADC4.2 image, so people with Macs can more easily deal with them. Eric

25 years, 11 months

OS/2

by stevemas＠persys.com

Close, but not quite correct. GPF is a general protection fault, the most common problem is a bad or uninitialized pointer. What makes a DLL get loaded, or paged in, is a page fault. Its the same mechanism that causes a swapped out page to be swapped back in on a 4K boundary. At 02:56 PM 5/26/00 -0400, you wrote: > > Don't forget that OS/2 was written by Gordon Letwin > > AT MICROSOFT! > > > > > > You might enjoy reading "Inside OS/2" by Gordon Letwin; from Microsoft > > Press. > >While I agree OS/2 is a better operating system than Windows, this >book depressed me due to Gordon's wrongheaded-belief that a GPF >should always be considered an indicator of a programming problem. > >Since Intel didn't give us a pointer fault, the GPF is the only >proper way to implement dynamic linking. As they shipped, OS/2 >from version 1.0 to 1.2 never did properly implement dynamic linking; >and Windows inherits the wrong way from OS/2. > >Strangely, Ed Iacobucci (who was Gordon Letwin's counterpart at IBM) >wrote an article that appeared in a magazine that described OS/2's >dynamic linking as operating the way it should. > >The key difference is this: in real dynamic linking, CALL instructions >that are supposed to invoke procedures in a DLL are constructed in the >executable image such that when the processor executes the CALL, it >causes a GPF [pointer fault]; then the GPF handler looks at the faulting >instruction. If the pointer is a faulted pointer to a routine in a DLL, >then snap the link [map the DLL into memory and then modify the faulting >instruction to point to the entry point of the routine as described in >the DLL's export table], and restart the instruction. Otherwise, it's a bug >and you signal a condition which somehere generates an error message. >In this scenario, programs start up much faster because the OS is not >reading and linking every routine in the executable's import table. If >you never use feature <X> in the program, and if feature <X> resides >tottally in a separate DLL, then that DLL never gets mapped into RAM. >MUCH, MUCH better execution, more robust operation, in particular, the >machine wouldn't thrash at startup dur to all those programs in your >startup folder. > >Due to Ed's article, I always assumed that there was a turf was between >IBM and Microsoft on this and other salient technical points. MS won >and was wrong. > >So, having said that, you might see why I'm not a big fan of Letwin's. > >Shew! Glad I got _that_ off my chest again. > >respectfully submitted, >-doug quebbeman - Steve Mastrianni

25 years, 11 months

Bootable Floppy from CD?

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

In an effort to preserve all my miscellaneous driver floppies I've been copying them to CD-rom. I figured I should also do this for my DOS 6.3 disks but realized that I don't know how to create a bootable DOS 6.3 system disk from the disk itself. I've considered using dd(1) on unix to create just the disk image that I can later use dd to copy back out but was wondering if perhaps there was a better way. --Chuck

25 years, 11 months

A moment of silence...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>Yes, seems more and more people here have been watching "Wall Street" (the >movie and the real thing) and embracing Sam Geckoe's motto, "Greed . . . is >good." Seems to be the way of the new millenium, starting with the gas >pumps. Nah, the move was a late comer, the gas gag was done 28 years ago and then pulled out every 12-15 for another try. They get away with it every time. Allison

25 years, 11 months

Notes on repairing the Apple Lisa power supply

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

I have a Lisa 2/5 that doesn't want to work. Here's some things that I've found out in the process of troubleshooting it. (1) The PS in the 2/5 and the 2/10 are interchangeable but the 2/5 PS has a lower capacity. (2/10 and the Mac XL hardware are the same). (2) The card cage must be installed in a before the PS will turn on but the memory and I/O cards need not be installed. (3) The CPU does not have to be installed for the PS to work but if it's not installed the PS will keep resetting and will make a chirping sound. (4) The card cages for the 2/5 and 2/10 have different brackets and don't appear to be interchangeable. (5) An I/O card from a 2/10 will work in a 2/5, at least properly enough to power it on and get a display. >(6) A "bad" I/O card in a 2/5 will prevent the PS from turning on and will cause the PS to appear defective.< (see note 2!) My 2/5 will not power on. I installed a known good PS from a 2/10 and it still doesn't work. The 2/5 PS DOES work in the 2/10 so it is good. The 2/5 will power up with an I/O board from a 2/10 or with no I/O board installed so the problem appears to be in the I/O board. The battery condition seems to not matter. Does anyone have a schematic of the interlocks and interconnects for the Lisa 2/5 or know what signals the power supply gets from the I/O board? Joe

25 years, 11 months

OS/2

by allisonp＠world.std.com

>OS/2 was modified at 2.0 to include a flat memory model. Apps and DLLs went >to 32-bit flat model code. Legacy apps got their APIs thunked to 32-bits. >It was also possible to use legacy DLLs from 32-bit apps, which got their >APIs thunked 32 to 16 and back. Some called it a hack, for IBM it was a way >to get legacy 1.x apps to run in 2.x. Older DOS and Win apps were run the >V86 mode, each with their own 1MB sandbox. > >Of course none of that matters now. 8-) As I happen to have an IBM OS/2 warp V3 kit with bonus pak it makes me want to play again with it. I did in the last outing try installing it and it went well but I found the interface feeling a bit strange. It sounds like it has attributes that would make it ideal for smaller 486s and any 386s with enough ram but unlike some that want Multimedia I'd want IP (eithernet) networking. Allison

25 years, 11 months

EQUIPMENT ALERT: MultiBus goodies & VAXen!

by kyrrin＠bluefeathertech.com

CC'd to Port-VAX and Classiccmp... Hi, folks, The local (Seattle) used computer place I work with on occasion has turned up a whole stack of DEC VAXStation 4000's (desktop/'pizza box' configuration). I think these are the VLC model. Very little is known about them, though I also saw a whole pile of in-the-box LK401 keyboards with them. I'm pretty sure the owner of the place would let 'em go pretty cheap, especially since they're mainly a PC store. If there's any interest in these, let me know and I'll go over one or more in detail. Now, on the MultiBus front: The Seattle store has turned up a MultiBus computer that's full of boards, and at least one tape drive. It's in a rack chassis, pretty light for its size, and has a whole slew of serial ports (9-pinners) on the backside. It also has an SMD disk controller, and what appears to be a SCSI adapter (at least it's tied to a SCSI/QIC-xx bridge board to run the cartridge tape drive). Again, if there's any interest, let me know (and please include any offers -- don't be shy!) and I'll see what I can do to rescue the beastie. Thanks much. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Bruce Lane, Owner/Head Honcho, Blue Feather Technologies (www.bluefeathertech.com) kyrrin(a)bluefeathertech.com "SCSI Users, Unite! Beware the IDEs of March!"

25 years, 11 months

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