This last week's been busy. I've finally found my own VAX system, a VAXstation 3100. Hardly state of the art, but at least it's got graphics and ethernet. The 'station has got two RZ23 (100 MB) drives and a floppy drive mounted internally. I also got some external cases, the markings seem to imply that they contain VMS. VMS is one OS which I've never, ever run, which is interesting. But what about breaking into this system? Is there any trick to forced entry into VMS, and what are you to do once you're inside? Any pointers for a VAX newbie? I also salvaged three monitors for the VAX. One 21" DEC, another 16/17", and a 16" Eizo 9070S, which unfortunately is broken, but the error seems to be a documented case, so I'll have a go at fixing it. The Eizo is the top dog, since it's a digital/analogue multisync (or Flexscan in Eizo language), unfortunately, it will only sync down to 20 KHz. Unfortunately, while I was loading the screens inside the bulding, some bastard walked off with the 17" DEC. Bloody idiot, what's he going to do with a 1989 vintage sync-on-green fix-frequency screen? Fortunately, I found an identical screen today. I'll have to try it out once it's dry. I also found a DEC drawing tablet. Plugs into the DEC mini-DIN-6 mouse port. Unfortunately it's got no pen or puck. There is no plug for the drawing instrument, so I suppose it's some kind of magnetic device. Anyone know some kind of replacement? The unit is called the VSXXX-AB. I found some ARCnet equipment, including two Thomas-Conrad 16-port active hubs. Another big haul was a motherlode of retired Luxor equipment. I grabbed four ABC806 units (flattish desktop boxes made out of a lot of metal), along with four keyboards. The keyboards were three different models. Two were more or less the same as the ABC800 keyboard, only in a stand-alone enclosure. One was the smaller, numerical-less unit, and one was a Facit-made one with a lot of keys (such as a very odd tilting arrow key) and LEDs. It also had a D15 at one end. I suspect that this keyboard was designed for the ABC1600, and the mouse would plug into the D15. Besides, the '806es, I found an ABC16, which is a rare PC-compatibility unit for the ABC series, mounted in an ABC806 enclosure. I also grabbed one or two dual 5?" drives (I can't recall the number right now, but it's not the ABC838), an ABC-bus expansion enclosure (the diskdrives were mounted in the same kind of box), and an absolutely hulking enclosure with dual 8" drives and ABC-bus backplane. Besides that, I had to leave about as much stuff behind. Most of it is at a friend's house, so I haven't been able to test it much. I suspect that some part of my monitor is dead, though. It will power up an '806 (I can determine that by the beeping), but there is no image. It could be a cable issue, though. This particular cable is the one with the "Stenmark switch", designed for the monitors which doubled as TV receivers. Unfortunately, they seemed to have eliminated all the software, or perhaps they're still running parts of the system. If you want to have a look at some of the systems I'm talking about, have a look at this site: http://user.tninet.se/~lmx072e/abc800/abc800_pics.htm I've found two pretty little terminals. One is called the "Datascreen" or "Compuscreen", IIRC, and is an integrated unit, seemingly from the late seventines. Looks a bit like a sleeker version of a PET or a Superbrain. The other one is a TECO VA-120, and I absolutely adore it! It's a sleek design with the intelligence fit into the foot and a very spacy look. Unfortunately, the display makes a squealing sound, though the keyboard seems to indicate that the unit works otherwise. The pitch of the squeal may be calibrated through the V.HOLD pot in the back. What do you do with a unit like this? At the fleamarket, I bought a Sanyo Sanword Mini-J, which is a late- eighties/early nineties Japanese word processing machine with built-in printer. The printer doesn't seem to work for me, but the wordpro is good enough in itself, what with the sad state of Japanese wordpros for the Amiga. =) I've also got hold of a Spectrum, rehoused into sa rather amateurish case with a mechanical keyboard. The case could have been done by anyone with a piece of sheet metal and a pincer. -- En ligne avec Thor 2.6a. Och har du en TV utan Scart, vilket nittionio procent faktiskt har, kommer de f?rmodligen att ringa fr?n Antikrundan. Martin Timell