31 Jul
2001
31 Jul
'01
3:02 a.m.
Brief article with a few pics:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45699,00.html
31 Jul
31 Jul
3:40 a.m.
On Tue, Jul 31, 2001 at 11:02:40AM -0400, Bill Sudbrink wrote:
Brief article with a few pics:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45699,00.html
Wow - Megan, got any more details on that "laptop" ? I dont
see it listed on your web page..
Bill
--
Bill Bradford
mrbill(a)mrbill.net
Austin, TX
4:07 a.m.
New subject: new URL
For those of you that have links to it or whatnot, my website has it's
own domain now and is at:
http://www.cchaven.com
Thanks
Jeff
6:39 a.m.
--- Bill Sudbrink <bills(a)adrenaline.com> wrote:
Brief article with a few pics:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45699,00.html
Nice pics. What's up with the RT-11 laptop? I've never even
heard of the prototype. Any specs or info on it anywhere?
-ethan
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7:37 a.m.
BTW, although I took the photos, I didn't write the caption stating that
RT11 was a "BASIC-like" operating system. The editor apparently garbled my
phone comments to him.
Megan didn't have a lot of information about the laptop, but I'd love to
know more, too.
--Mike
Michael Nadeau
Editorial Services
603-893-2379
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ethan Dicks" <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 2:39 PM
Subject: Re: Wired covers VCF east
--- Bill Sudbrink <bills(a)adrenaline.com> wrote:
Brief article with a few pics:
http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,45699,00.html
Nice pics. What's up with the RT-11 laptop? I've never even
heard of the prototype. Any specs or info on it anywhere?
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/
8:25 a.m.
At 03:37 PM 31/07/2001 -0400, you wrote:
BTW, although I took the photos, I didn't write the
caption stating that
RT11 was a "BASIC-like" operating system. The editor apparently garbled my
phone comments to him.
Megan didn't have a lot of information about the laptop, but I'd love to
know more, too.
--Mike
Michael Nadeau
Editorial Services
603-893-2379
Nice photos. Reading the captions on the thumbnails I thought we
were going to get a look at Megan. Had to settle for Sellam! Rather
disappointing.
Cheers
Charlie Fox
Chas E. Fox Video Productions
793 Argyle Rd. Windsor ON N8Y 3J8
foxvideo(a)wincom.net
Check out:
Camcorder Kindergarten at http://chasfoxvideo.com
9:05 a.m.
Thanks. I didn't get Megan in the photo because I wanted a close-up of the
portable.
That laptop proto is a heavy sucker--thick metal case. A paper label on the
bottom of it says "Digital Prototype #6". I thought that it might have been
a prototype for the GiGi VK-100, but having since compared photos, I'm not
so sure.
--Mike
Michael Nadeau
Editorial Services
603-893-2379
----- Original Message -----
From: "Charles E. Fox" <foxvideo(a)wincom.net>
To: <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 4:25 PM
Subject: Re: Wired covers VCF east
At 03:37 PM 31/07/2001 -0400, you wrote:
>BTW, although I took the photos, I didn't write the caption stating that
>RT11 was a "BASIC-like" operating system. The editor apparently garbled
my
phone comments
to him.
Megan didn't have a lot of information about the laptop, but I'd love to
know more, too.
--Mike
Michael Nadeau
Editorial Services
603-893-2379
Nice photos. Reading the captions on the thumbnails I thought we
were going to get a look at Megan. Had to settle for Sellam! Rather
disappointing.
Cheers
Charlie Fox
Chas E. Fox Video Productions
793 Argyle Rd. Windsor ON N8Y 3J8
foxvideo(a)wincom.net
Check out:
Camcorder Kindergarten at http://chasfoxvideo.com
10:03 a.m.
Thanks. I didn't get Megan in the photo because I
wanted a close-up of
the portable.
As I said, I'm just as happy not to be in the photo...
I wish I'd been able to bring the other 'never'-11, the techmate.
It unfortunately appears to not power-up correctly, so I need to
do some work on it and try to figure out what is wrong. I think
it may be as simple as needing a replacement VT100 basic video
board...
That laptop proto is a heavy sucker--thick metal case.
A paper label on
the bottom of it says "Digital Prototype #6". I thought that it might
have been a prototype for the GiGi VK-100, but having since compared
photos, I'm not so sure.
I have some VK100s, they are most definitely different...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
11:08 a.m.
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Charles E. Fox wrote:
Nice photos. Reading the captions on the
thumbnails I
thought we were going to get a look at Megan. Had to settle for
Sellam! Rather disappointing.
Gee, thanks! ;)
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
2:15 p.m.
Wired wrote:
"But the first East Coast gathering, held over the weekend in a giant,
deserted Best Western Motel in Marlboro, Massachussets, attracted only about
a dozen exhibitors and less than a hundred visitors."
That sounds kind of sad but sort of cozy at the same time. How was the
crowd? Were they in a fun, happy mood or did they just wander around and
leave? I could see how a small crowd in a deserted hotel might be fun if
they're a friendly and chatty bunch of folks. Was there much of a flea
market?
Ernest
2:50 p.m.
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Ernest wrote:
That sounds kind of sad but sort of cozy at the same
time. How was the
crowd? Were they in a fun, happy mood or did they just wander around
and leave? I could see how a small crowd in a deserted hotel might be
fun if they're a friendly and chatty bunch of folks. Was there much of
a flea market?
The turnout was actually very decent for the size of the room, but I
wanted it packed, and it was only "very populated" on day one and "a bit
sparse" on day 2. That was the really the only disappointing thing. The
turnout was far less than I expected. A lot of people who I'd expected to
see didn't show (including the Rhodes Island Computer Museum). Based on
the survey responses and the initial clamor for it, more people should
have come. Where were all the people wanting a VCF East last weekend?
Otherwise, the exhibition turnout was fantastic. A lot of VERY COOL
machines running VERY COOL programs were exhibited. I was even blown
away.
There could have been more vendors of course, but the vendors that were
there sold a very nice assortment of good stuff (and a whole lot of
vintage software). The consignment section had a terrific assortment of
items. I walked away at the end of the weekend with some very cool finds
(after I gave the attendees a chance to get all the good stuff first ;)
The main VCF is at least four times larger than VCF East was, and there's
no reason that VCF East can't be the same size. I know there are more
collectors on the east coast than bothered to show up.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
4:59 p.m.
Well, after driving 1000 miles each way (I live near Chicago) in order
to exhibit and attend the VCF East show, I can say that I had a good
time and am likely to go again next year.
I was a bit supprised that more people did not show up, but then maybe
they just did not know about it. Perhaps an article in the MIT alumnus
newsletter about Eldon Hall talking there would have helped... The flyer
could have been a little bit better too, indicating that the show was
in the hotel rather than the deserted convention center next door, and
perhaps listing the time of day for the various events. On the other
hand, if someone had ventured out and made it as far as the empty
convention center, they probably would have gone up to the hotel, just
to make sure.
All in all, it was a lot of fun. I saw a bunch of stuff that was fun and
interesting to see, and I heard a number of interesting talks. I also met
a number of people that I did not previously know. Maybe next year more
people will get out of the house and spend a day or two enjoying VCF
East 2.0, rather than wasting time writing endlessly about OT subject
on this mailing list. Or maybe not, either way those who do make it out
will have a good time.
--tom
At 07:50 PM 7/31/01 -0700, you wrote:
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Ernest wrote:
Festival
That sounds kind of sad but sort of cozy at the
same time. How was the
crowd? Were they in a fun, happy mood or did they just wander around
and leave? I could see how a small crowd in a deserted hotel might be
fun if they're a friendly and chatty bunch of folks. Was there much of
a flea market?
The turnout was actually very decent for the size of the room, but I
wanted it packed, and it was only "very populated" on day one and "a bit
sparse" on day 2. That was the really the only disappointing thing. The
turnout was far less than I expected. A lot of people who I'd expected to
see didn't show (including the Rhodes Island Computer Museum). Based on
the survey responses and the initial clamor for it, more people should
have come. Where were all the people wanting a VCF East last weekend?
Otherwise, the exhibition turnout was fantastic. A lot of VERY COOL
machines running VERY COOL programs were exhibited. I was even blown
away.
There could have been more vendors of course, but the vendors that were
there sold a very nice assortment of good stuff (and a whole lot of
vintage software). The consignment section had a terrific assortment of
items. I walked away at the end of the weekend with some very cool finds
(after I gave the attendees a chance to get all the good stuff first ;)
The main VCF is at least four times larger than VCF East was, and there's
no reason that VCF East can't be the same size. I know there are more
collectors on the east coast than bothered to show up.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
9:37 p.m.
The main VCF is at least four times larger than VCF
East was, and there's
no reason that VCF East can't be the same size. I know there are more
collectors on the east coast than bothered to show up.
I really wanted to be there but continuing health problems
with my wife didn't allow that to happen.
Jeff
--
Home of the TRS-80 Model 2000 FAQ File
http://www.cchaven.com
http://www.geocities.com/siliconvalley/lakes/6757
1 Aug
1 Aug
2:06 a.m.
The main VCF is at least four times larger than VCF
East was, and there's
no reason that VCF East can't be the same size. I know there are more
collectors on the east coast than bothered to show up.
Bad timing for me. Couldn't get away this past weekend. In any case,
I'm Central Ohio, which is not exactly on the East Coast (unless you
are from California ;-) I drove to N.J. in June - out on Friday, back
during Sunday. Given that recent experience, there was no way I was
going to drive to VCF East, even if I _could_ have gone. 8 hours is
about my limit in a car before it gets to be too much.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Make international calls for as low as $.04/minute with Yahoo! Messenger
http://phonecard.yahoo.com/
31 Jul
31 Jul
11:18 p.m.
New subject: Wired covers VCF east (wayne green)
I'd like to thank Sellam for putting on the show..I had a lot of fun esp.
meeting a lot of you guys. I just hope Sellam is not financially in the
hole too much...otherwise he won't come back next year :-(
The strangest part of the show for me was the Wayne Green talk...when he
stayed on the subject he was great. I really didn't come to hear about the
moon conspiracy, that cold fusion is real or that we could cure AIDS/Cancer
if we all ate raw veggies/meat. He came off like a kook. I still have to
respect him though, without Byte I might be a lawyer or doctor somewhere.
-Chandra
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
[mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Sellam Ismail
Sent: Tuesday, July 31, 2001 10:50 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Wired covers VCF east
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Ernest wrote:
That sounds kind of sad but sort of cozy at the same
time. How was the
crowd? Were they in a fun, happy mood or did they just wander around
and leave? I could see how a small crowd in a deserted hotel might be
fun if they're a friendly and chatty bunch of folks. Was there much of
a flea market?
The turnout was actually very decent for the size of the room, but I
wanted it packed, and it was only "very populated" on day one and "a bit
sparse" on day 2. That was the really the only disappointing thing. The
turnout was far less than I expected. A lot of people who I'd expected to
see didn't show (including the Rhodes Island Computer Museum). Based on
the survey responses and the initial clamor for it, more people should
have come. Where were all the people wanting a VCF East last weekend?
Otherwise, the exhibition turnout was fantastic. A lot of VERY COOL
machines running VERY COOL programs were exhibited. I was even blown
away.
There could have been more vendors of course, but the vendors that were
there sold a very nice assortment of good stuff (and a whole lot of
vintage software). The consignment section had a terrific assortment of
items. I walked away at the end of the weekend with some very cool finds
(after I gave the attendees a chance to get all the good stuff first ;)
The main VCF is at least four times larger than VCF East was, and there's
no reason that VCF East can't be the same size. I know there are more
collectors on the east coast than bothered to show up.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--
International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
9:10 a.m.
"The laptop runs RT11, an early Basic-like
operating system"
Yeah... I saw that... and wrote to them to correct the info...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
9:14 a.m.
Nice photos. Reading the captions on the
thumbnails I thought
we were going to get a look at Megan. Had to settle for Sellam! Rather
disappointing.
Just as well... being a 'plus'-sized woman, I don't really
like being in pictures... I'm a behind-the-camera type of
person anyway... :-)
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
8:57 a.m.
Wow - Megan, got any more details on that
"laptop" ? I dont
see it listed on your web page..
I haven't taken pictures of it yet...
I'd like to try to get RT on it. The caption with the picture
is a little incorrect... RT-11 is not a BASIC-like program...
and I suspect it didn't make it as a product because of a couple
of things... need for AC power, limited display (4 lines x 40 chars),
a single diskette...
As for the diskette being proprietary, I talked with someone at
VCF-east and they said that they though that *really* early
3.5" diskettes were different from what we are used to now...
he thought he might have a drive and some media... (if you
are reading this, whoever, please contact me).
If I can get an old drive to attach to a regular -11, I could
try to load up RT on it and then try to boot the machine.
As for the machine, it has a 4x40 LCD display, 3.5" diskette,
2 serial lines, some sort of port on the back for something
(maybe another diskette?) and has a T-11 chip. The 'terminal'
part of it looks sorta like a VT100 (with a SETUP A like screen)
and it has rom code at 173000... uODT recognizes the B command
as boot from the floppy.
The machine is proto #6... I've not seen any others in all the
years since...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
9:47 a.m.
This is one way cool looking box -- how hard would it be to build one from
"scratch"? It would be neat to have a PDP-11 laptop (apart from running
simh, of course)!
-- Tony
At 04:57 PM 7/31/2001 -0400, you wrote:
Wow - Megan,
got any more details on that "laptop" ? I dont
see it listed on your web page..
I haven't taken pictures of it yet...
I'd like to try to get RT on it. The caption with the picture
is a little incorrect... RT-11 is not a BASIC-like program...
and I suspect it didn't make it as a product because of a couple
of things... need for AC power, limited display (4 lines x 40 chars),
a single diskette...
As for the diskette being proprietary, I talked with someone at
VCF-east and they said that they though that *really* early
3.5" diskettes were different from what we are used to now...
he thought he might have a drive and some media... (if you
are reading this, whoever, please contact me).
If I can get an old drive to attach to a regular -11, I could
try to load up RT on it and then try to boot the machine.
As for the machine, it has a 4x40 LCD display, 3.5" diskette,
2 serial lines, some sort of port on the back for something
(maybe another diskette?) and has a T-11 chip. The 'terminal'
part of it looks sorta like a VT100 (with a SETUP A like screen)
and it has rom code at 173000... uODT recognizes the B command
as boot from the floppy.
The machine is proto #6... I've not seen any others in all the
years since...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+ 
10:25 a.m.
New subject: "Early" 3.5" diskettes (was: Wired covers VCF east
On Tue, 31 Jul 2001, Megan wrote:
As for the diskette being proprietary, I talked with
someone at
VCF-east and they said that they though that *really* early
3.5" diskettes were different from what we are used to now...
he thought he might have a drive and some media... (if you
are reading this, whoever, please contact me).
I assume that you were NOT talking with somebody who thinks 720K was
*really* early!
The early Sony drives ran at 600RPM, with a correspondingly faster data
transfer rate, and can sorta use more modern media.
The first 3.5" diskettes did not have a shutter. (I have some from
Shugart)
The next had a manual shutter. YOU slide it open before putting it in the
drive, and YOU close it when done.
The next had a semi-automatic shutter. They are labelled "Auto Shutter".
SOME drives can open the shutter, or YOU open it, and when you are done,
"pinch"ing the corner of the disk releases a latch that closes the
shutter. There is a little arrow showing where to pinch. Those are not
very rare. I suppose that I could trade away some of them.
Then they came out with the fully automatic shutter. Those are the common
720K diskettes. The little arrow that used to show where to pinch is
still there on many diskettes! People now think that it is for telling
them which end to shove in.
Modern drives don't seem to mind missing shutters, and all of the early
drives that I've tried are happy with modern diskettes with the shutter
removed. So try taking the shutter off of a diskette and see whether that
makes the drive happy.
--
Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
PO Box 1236 (510) 558-9366
Berkeley, CA 94701-1236
10:41 a.m.
What little I could see in the picture looked sort of
like a
Sony drive mechanism with the square eject button. True?
I would have to open the device up to check on that... and they
packed stuff in there pretty tightly. The last time I tried to
open it up, I had to stop as I hadn't located all the release
points for the boards. I'll have to try again...
Early Sony 3.5" diskettes and drives had a manual
diskette shutter.
You had to slide the shutter to the open position, and it would lock
open. Then you could insert the diskette. When you ejected the
diskette, you were expected to pinch it (that little arrow in the
upper left corner used to point to the word "PINCH") to release the
shutter; a spring would pull it closed.
Interesting... I know that I was entirely unable to insert a
standard 3.5" floppy... I had to remove the sliding window,
adn even then it didn't feel like it was inserting correctly...
Fred Cisin probably knows more about this than I do, I
just remember
seeing some of the early HP stiffies that were usable this way so that
they would work in older stiffy drives. They weren't hard to find in
1984 or so, though then-current drives were "automatic".
If I can take it apart and get a picture, maybe you or he could
truly identify it...
Megan Gentry
Former RT-11 Developer
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
| Megan Gentry, EMT/B, PP-ASEL | Internet (work): gentry!zk3.dec.com |
| Unix Support Engineering Group | (home): mbg!world.std.com |
| Compaq Computer Corporation | addresses need '@' in place of '!' |
| 110 Spitbrook Rd. ZK03-2/T43 | URL: http://world.std.com/~mbg/ |
| Nashua, NH 03062 | "pdp-11 programmer - some assembler |
| (603) 884 1055 | required." - mbg KB1FCA |
+--------------------------------+-------------------------------------+
8496
days inactive
8497
days old
21 comments
14 participants
participants (14)
-
bills＠adrenaline.com -
cbajpai＠mediaone.net -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
emu＠ecubics.com -
erd_6502＠yahoo.com -
ernestls＠home.com -
foo＠siconic.com -
foxvideo＠wincom.net -
jhellige＠earthlink.net -
mbg＠world.std.com -
menadeau＠mediaone.net -
mrbill＠mrbill.net -
tony.eros＠machm.org -
uban＠ubanproductions.com