test-drb

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

101090 discussions

by jfoust＠threedee.com

John Higginbotham <higginbo(a)netpath.net> wrote: >At 11:20 AM 1/4/98 -0600, John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> wrote: >>of people out there who like to play old computer games, but you think >>the software owners shouldn't be free to sell to that market because >>there's no gain in productivity or increase in "harm"? What about >>learning or enjoyment? > >If you can find any message where I said that, I'd be happy to argue >against it, but I don't think I would type that in so many words. Software >companies SHOULD be able to sell these old games, but they can never expect >to get the original price out of them. It was the text in surrounding by <rant> in your January 4 message: ><rant> >Which brings up an interesting point: Why do the self appointed software >cops go after software archives of "abandonware" that most of today's >computers usually run too fast anyway? Do these ancient games really hurt >todays software market? Anything 10 years old or older should be >freeware/public domain as far as games are concerned. They don't increase >productivity, and the collectors of these old games aren't doing any harm >are they? ></rant> I'll restate what you said, as I saw it. One, there are self-appointed software cops - you mean people who defend copyright, even of old software? Two, that today's computers run old software too quickly - that doesn't sound like archaic software to me, if it's running directly on today's machines and OSes. Three, that ancient games don't "hurt" today's software market. Doing what? Four, you say the ten-year-rule "should" apply to games, making them (who sez?) be PD/freeware. Five, that games don't increase productivity and that "collecting" them (pirating them?) doesn't cause harm. And in your reply, you say that even if the developers sell their old games, they shouldn't expect to get the old retail price, so ... so, you say they should give up on them? A tenth of something is still something. My point is that people want to play games as much as use anything else when it comes to old software. They want to recreate their experience of years ago. Emulation and re-creation can be very handy! I'm surprised there aren't non-MS products that streamline the gotcha's out of running DOS, Windows 1.0, 2.0, 3.x software under Win95/NT. Or maybe there is and I haven't heard of it. I'd love to get a copy of Brief that wouldn't hog so much CPU in DOS emulation under WinNT. I'm still running my 1986 copy. Is that archaic? Don't get me wrong and think I'm just flaming you... I agree, I wish there was a better mechanism that authors of extinct software could use to allow new life for their old software. Sort of a national park or conservatory for old software would be nifty. If it resulted in payments back to the registered authors, I bet it could work. You'd need to find volunteers altruistic enough to donate their efforts in order to be able to send other people checks. The checks might be small or non-existent - perhaps the authors understand that the price charged would just fund the charity set up to distribute the software. It would be a strange sort of charity, sort of like the Old Actor's Home, except the charity cases might be Time-Warner or the programmer who was a millionaire at 15 with his Commodore 64 games, who's now pushing 30 and running his own 200+ person company. In terms of effort, the hard part will be tracking down the proper owners of all that old software. - John Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>

28 years, 3 months

HP 85 printer belt PN

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

Joe wrote: > I don't remember who asked for the part number for the HP 85 printer drive > belt but I finally dug out my service manual and found the numbers. There > are two belts in the printer. One drives the carriage and is PN 1500-0529. > The other drives the paper advance and is PN 1500-0572. If one is bad you > should go ahead and replace both. During the week you can call HP's > automated ordering line at 1-800-227-8164 and order them if they're still > available. Let me know if these are still available and what they cost. If > you can't get them, let me know and I'll open up one of my 85s and measure > the belts and to to match them up with something from Small Parts Inc or > one of the other companies. Thanks, Joe. Someone posted HP part numbers a while back, and my colleague is going to try the HP order line in this country first. Meanwhile, I have extracted the belts from my own HP-85 and measured them - FWIW they are 175T80 and 78T80 (according to the markings on the belts) - 0.080 inch tooth spacing, 78 teeth for the paper feed and 175 teeth for the print head. My colleague says that if he manages to buy some new ones, he will get me a spare set as well... Philip.

28 years, 3 months

CBM 8032 and other things

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

> Once you find software on-line - One of the real bummers is that the > 8032 does not have an RS-232 port for easy communication (read: file > transfer via null-modem) nor is the 8050 drive compatible with any other > Commodore disk drive (like the 4040/2031 is compatible with the 1541 thus > making it easy to get software to a 4040 by doing a null-modem to a 64 > and writing with a 1541). I thought the 8050 was compatible with the 1571. Am I mistaken? I know it's not compatible with the 8252 (or whatever it's called - the double sided 8050 that's also built into the 8296D) which is silly and v. annoying. > Though I am not saying it is impossible; the PET does have a parallel > user port which is VERY easy to program. With a bit of coding knowledge > a few parts and soldering you could whip up a PET-to-Whatever connector > and the appropriate software for transferring files. Absolutely. I have a couple of amusing tales about this. In 1983-84, a friend, M J Richards, and I (aged 15 and 16 respectively at the time) developed an adventure game for the BBC micro. But we started by typing in all the text on an 8032, followed by compression and encryption. We then wanted to squirt this module across to the Beeb. Alas, MJR's Beeb only had OS version 0.10, which didn't support input on the serial port. Also alas, the 8032SK uses IEEE-488 (GPIB) style connectors for the user port and we didn't have any. In the end, we used the cassette motor output on the PET and the analogue input on the BBC. Data rate was 30 baud as I recall! Later we wanted to produce a full program listing from a disassembler program on the BBC. By then, 8032 had returned to Dad's office, and the only printer we had left was a Teletype ASR33. Alas again! The BBC serial port didn't support 110 baud. PET to the rescue again - I had an old ROM 8K machine. A few wires and a transistor later, I had an interface - PET received data at 4800 baud on one pin of the user port and transmitted it (via the transistor) to the Teletype on another pin. Finally, we wanted to port the software to other machines. Acorn Electron port was easy - it actually runs on the BBC micro if you try hard enough - but Commodore 64 port was more difficult. I cannot remember if I had upgraded my PET to 32K by then - I think probably not - but we somehow got it across the same 4800 baud link and onto tape, whence it was loaded onto a 64. On my list of things to do now is finish the PET port of the game... I'd be interested to hear from anyone who actually played the game - it was licensed to a software house called Alligata who sold it as "Xanadu Cottage" - about 400 copies were sold, I think (BBC model B only). Also, if anyone wants a copy for their BBC B / Electron / C= 64, please get in touch. There are still slight bugs in the tape routines for saved positions, afaik, but otherwise it runs well. Finally, who would like to see / play / beta-test a PET version? And what model(s) of PET do you have? Terms for software distribution will be shareware - if you want to pay for the game, a suitable donation to a charity caring for Hodgkins' Disease (of which MJR later died) is requested. Philip.

28 years, 3 months

Linux???? is it real

by rigdonj＠intellistar.net

At 12:08 AM 1/5/98 -0600, you wrote: > >Send me a private email if you want to do this. I've left this public >because I thought it might be of use to others. > >Anthony Clifton - Wirehead > No! Leave it public. I'm curious about Linux and I'm following this. It's better than the day time soap operas! Joe >

28 years, 3 months

Linux???? is it real

by photze＠batelco.com.bh

Well, if anyone wants it I can ship my FreeBSD 2.2.5 CD which I got a part of a misorder. Because I got it for free, I'll charge whatever shipping costs. Actually, I just am finishing installing my first Linux (Unix too!) system on my 200MHz "Demon" (for Linux), but I need to contact the tech support guies because they orginazied the CD so @%^# poorly. It's Debian, and the install was slicker than ANY other OS that I've installed, from billg's DOS 2.0 to Windows 95. Also, I feel like I've got the POWER pre-installed, not something that you need to spend about 5 or 6 months looking for. Plus my Debian package came with browsers, server software (Apache included, along with the Cern servers, NCSA servers, etc.), and almost any X-Window look you can imagine, from the NeXT style to Mac to Win 95. Well, if I ever get to an area of the planet with unlimited access time measured in items smaller than tens of thousands of bucks for a modem, I think that I'll see what I can do. Well, contact me if you want FreeBSD (anyone), Tim D. Hotze -----Original Message----- From: Zane H. Healy <healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Monday, January 05, 1998 9:22 AM Subject: Re: Linux???? is it real >>PS: Sheesh the FreeBSD people are always jumping around saying, "Can't >>get Linux to work? Try FreeBSD!" >> >>Linux only has a few stable kernels and Slackware uses them. > >Heh, you know my answer for the BSD people, which BSD? Let's see; FreeBSD, >OpenBSD, NetBSD, 386BSD, BSD/OS, BSD Lite, I don't know what else is there. >Personally I've got a Hard Drive with OPENSTEP, that's the only BSD system >I'm currently running. At least Linux development is pretty much >controlled chaos, BSD on the other had seems to be to simply be chaos. >Yes, I know that there are quite a few different Linux distributions, but >they all run the same kernal and to a great extent the same software. > >Linux has two types of kernals, production and development. If you want >stable use production, if you want "Bleeding Edge" use development. My >Linux fileserver has been running for over 15 months with the same software >install, without a crash. > >Seriously the question you need to ask yourself when deciding which to use >is if you want a UNIX System V based system, or a BSD 4.3/4.4 based system. >If you want SysV go with Linux, if you want BSD then chose your poison, >personally I'd recommend FreeBSD for the Intel architecture, OpenBSD for >anything else. > >Realistically the two are basically the same, on the topic of documentation >is about the only real difference. You can find a ton of books specific to >Linux, as far as I know the only BSD 4.4 specific books are the Berkley >docs that Linux printed. > >I find OpenBSD of intrest because it's purpose is to be multiplatform, >however, I think the total USENET traffic for it is less than >comp.os.linux.announce > >I've got to agree with the comment that Linux is great for running >emulators. I'm still looking for a PDP-11 of my own, but in the mean time >I can play with the PDP-11 emulator under Linux and run stuff like RT-11 or >Version 5 UNIX. > > Zane > > >| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | >| healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | >| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | >+----------------------------------+----------------------------+ >| For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | >| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | >| For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | >| see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html | > >

28 years, 3 months

WTB or Trade: GRiD 1535EXP External 3.5" disk drive

by higginbo＠netpath.net

The subject says it all. If anyone has this or any GRiD portable equipment, let me know. - John Higginbotham - limbo.netpath.net

28 years, 3 months

WTT: MITS Altair 8800 for DEC PDP-8

by jimw＠agora.rdrop.com

Let's start the new year off with an interesting one, eh? Since it seems that there are as many people out there looking for Altairs as are looking for PDP-8's, and the original PDP-8 ('straight' 8) is the one major model of the line that seems to keep eluding me, I'm offering the following: --- One electronically restored and functional MITS Altair 8800 (the original, not the later 'a' or 'b' series), 16k of static memory, MITS serial card, complete documentation set, and a set of MITS (Microsoft) Altair BASIC paper tapes (4k, 8k, 12k version) and other paper tape based utilities. (NOTE: memory is non-MITS, docs may be mix of original and reprints) In trade for: One Digital Equipment Corporpation PDP-8 (original, not later 'i', 'e', etc... series), with 4k or more of core, and serial (teletype) control. Any additional options welcome. Desktop configuration desired, but rackmount configuration perfectly acceptable. Documentation and engineering prints desired as is any original software (diags, languages, etc.), but lack of same does not disqualify. Functional unit desired, but non-functional units will be considered as long as they are complete (all cards, modules, etc.) and have no unusual physical damage. Shipping/delivery arrangements for both units to be discussed separately. Location of unit may be a consideration. (my location: Beaverton Oregon) Any takers? -jim --- jimw(a)agora.rdrop.com The Computer Garage - http://www.rdrop.com/~jimw Computer Garage Fax - (503) 646-0174

28 years, 3 months

FS: Coleco Adam, Franklin Ace, Lanier somethingorother

by yakowenk＠cs.unc.edu

Saw these things in a second-hand store in Las Vegas the other day: Coleco Adam Franklin Ace 1200 Lanier <somethingorother> (it had two 5.25" floppy drives, two LEDs, and two rocker switches on its front panel) CoCo 2 Although I was awfully tempted, I ended up deciding they wouldn't fit in my luggage, so they are probably still there, at the "Faith Lutheran" thrift store, at 707 N. Rancho. Let the race begin! Bill.

28 years, 3 months

UNIX questions?

by manney＠nwohio.com

Which I use depends on the job I want to > do, how I want to do it, etc. Nobody restricts you to only having one > computer. Wives?

28 years, 3 months

UNIX questions? Wives?

by higginbo＠netpath.net

At 10:56 PM 1/4/98, you wrote: >>Wives? > > OK to have more than one of those too, just not at the same time! Unless you live in Utah... -John Higginbotham- -limbo.netpath.net-

28 years, 3 months

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