10 Apr
2014
10 Apr
'14
2:28 p.m.
Who else caught the last episode? In it, the spies were trying to steal
information about the ARPANET. I found it to be surprisingly technically
accurate. Could that be because of the MARCH connection?
10 Apr
10 Apr
2:47 p.m.
On 4/10/14, 4:28 PM, Geoffrey Oltmans wrote:
Who else caught the last episode? In it, the spies
were trying to steal
information about the ARPANET. I found it to be surprisingly technically
accurate. Could that be because of the MARCH connection?
I watched. Didn't like the fiber optics and the decade newer IBM
terminals/PCs. But the IMP was neat,
Ryan
5:06 p.m.
????
On Thu, Apr 10, 2014 at 4:47 PM, Ryan Brooks <ryan at hack.net> wrote:
On 4/10/14, 4:28 PM, Geoffrey Oltmans wrote:
Who else caught the last episode? In it, the
spies were trying to steal
information about the ARPANET. I found it to be surprisingly technically
accurate. Could that be because of the MARCH connection?
I watched. Didn't like the fiber optics and the decade newer IBM
terminals/PCs. But the IMP was neat,
Ryan
5:43 p.m.
> Who else caught the last episode? In it, the spies
were trying to
steal information about the ARPANET. I found it to be surprisingly
technically accurate. Could that be because of the MARCH connection
I haven't yet watched that episode, but the short answer is "no". They
haven't done any official business with us since renting various PETs,
terminals, printers, etc. ahead of season one.
14 Apr
14 Apr
10:44 a.m.
I did find the use of VT100 terminals in the desks of the KGB interesting.
--
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The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org>
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Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>
12:01 p.m.
On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 2:38 PM, Evan Koblentz <news at snarc.net> wrote:
Bozhe moy!
It begs the question... for the era, what _would_ be the right thing?
Real DEC VT100s weren't under export restrictions, but they were
expensive in the early 1980s (then when the VT220 came out, _those_
were expensive and VT100 prices dropped quickly on the 3rd-party
market).
I'm sure the Russians would have had their own terminals, just for
Cyrillic characters if nothing else, but what did the housings look
like? Boxy metal like old Beehives? Rounded boxes like VT100s? I
know a little about Russian PDP-8 and PDP-11 clones but very little
about Russian dumb terminals.
-ethan
I did find the
use of VT100 terminals in the desks of the KGB interesting.
It's better than the alternative: I had to talk them out of using Commodore
PETs. 
12:44 p.m.
On Apr 14, 2014, at 3:01 PM, Ethan Dicks <ethan.dicks at gmail.com> wrote:
On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 2:38 PM, Evan Koblentz
<news at snarc.net> wrote:
Bozhe moy!
It begs the question... for the era, what _would_ be the right thing?
Real DEC VT100s weren't under export restrictions, but they were
expensive in the early 1980s (then when the VT220 came out, _those_
were expensive and VT100 prices dropped quickly on the 3rd-party
market).
I'm sure the Russians would have had their own terminals, just for
Cyrillic characters if nothing else, but what did the housings look
like? Boxy metal like old Beehives? Rounded boxes like VT100s? I
know a little about Russian PDP-8 and PDP-11 clones but very little
about Russian dumb terminals.
I don?t know much either. But I have one bit of marketing material from a company in
Vilnius named Sigma ? the document says ?STIMTI? on the front page, whatever that means.
Anyway, they made DEC clones of various kinds, and possibly other machines. One photo,
which I think is from 1983, shows a computer that might be a PDP11 clone, and next to it a
terminal that looks a lot like the ?boxy Beehive? you mentioned.
Unfortunately my Lithuanian is just as weak as my Russian, so I can?t read the text. I
have a scanned PDF if anyone is interested. It must have been downloaded from somewhere,
but I can?t find the source.
A photo of another machine from that company (M5000) can be seen in a Wikipedia article
about the company: https://lt.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vilniaus_skai?iavimo_ma?in?_gamykla ?
note the typewriter style terminal on the desk, vaguely like an IBM (pre-Selectric)
typewriter as you might have found on a 1620 mod I. It also lists their products: note
the SM1600 ?copy of an 11/34? and SM1700 ?copy of VAX 11/730?.
paul
I did
find the use of VT100 terminals in the desks of the KGB interesting.
It's better than the alternative: I had to talk them out of using Commodore
PETs. 
9:42 p.m.
It begs the question... for the era, what _would_ be
the right thing?
Real DEC VT100s weren't under export restrictions, but they were
expensive in the early 1980s (then when the VT220 came out, _those_
were expensive and VT100 prices dropped quickly on the 3rd-party
market).
Control Data probably would have been most appropriate. They had a
foot on the door behind the Iron Curtain - the current tin foil hat
reason is that it gave the West a chance to look at Soviet weather
models, or more importantly, the data - which is very useful when you
might go to war with nuclear weapons. Control Data managed to do this
using all sorts of tricks, involving Soviet art, vodka, and shotguns -
they traded for these things (don't believe me? Go to Bookfinder, and
you will see that THE way to see Soviet art in the 1980s was the
Control Data press), probably to make the whole deal less visible to
prying eyes.
Control Data also manage to get things made behind the Iron Curtain
during the 1980s as well. Many of their printers and smaller
peripherals were made in Eastern Europe.
As a show, The Americans sort of sucks. I was bored, and tuned out on
two trial run. Skip it.
--
Will
15 Apr
15 Apr
6:32 a.m.
I quite enjoy the show. It's not perfect but I think it's gotten better
over time.
On Mon, Apr 14, 2014 at 11:42 PM, William Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com>wrote:
It begs the
question... for the era, what _would_ be the right thing?
Real DEC VT100s weren't under export restrictions, but they were
expensive in the early 1980s (then when the VT220 came out, _those_
were expensive and VT100 prices dropped quickly on the 3rd-party
market).
Control Data probably would have been most appropriate. They had a
foot on the door behind the Iron Curtain - the current tin foil hat
reason is that it gave the West a chance to look at Soviet weather
models, or more importantly, the data - which is very useful when you
might go to war with nuclear weapons. Control Data managed to do this
using all sorts of tricks, involving Soviet art, vodka, and shotguns -
they traded for these things (don't believe me? Go to Bookfinder, and
you will see that THE way to see Soviet art in the 1980s was the
Control Data press), probably to make the whole deal less visible to
prying eyes.
Control Data also manage to get things made behind the Iron Curtain
during the 1980s as well. Many of their printers and smaller
peripherals were made in Eastern Europe.
As a show, The Americans sort of sucks. I was bored, and tuned out on
two trial run. Skip it.
--
Will
7:18 p.m.
>>> I did find the use of VT100 terminals in
the desks of the KGB
interesting.
>> It's better than the alternative: I had to
talk them out of using Commodore
PETs.
> It begs the question... for the era, what _would_
be the right thing?
Of course, we had to balance the line between "what's historically
appropriate" vs. "what do we have enough of in surplus from our collection to
sell them". :)
Non-museum-quality terminals was the answer.
14 Apr
14 Apr
12:19 p.m.
-----Oorspronkelijk bericht-----
Van: cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org]
Namens Evan Koblentz
Verzonden: maandag 14 april 2014 20:39
Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
Onderwerp: Re: The Americans
> I did find the use of VT100 terminals in the desks of the KGB
interesting.
It's better than the alternative: I had to talk them out of using
Commodore
PETs.
Mmm, the Cold War could have been a lot shorter than ;)
So I don't think McCarty should have approved your actions..
4:24 p.m.
In article <534C2B31.7020305 at snarc.net>,
Evan Koblentz <news at snarc.net> writes:
Yeah, that would have been horribly wrong.
I can find a case being made for using US equipment for work that was
local to the installation.
However, I find a case to be made for using Russian equipment for
interacting with remote databases, data tapes, etc.
The Electronika 60M seems like it might be an appropriate period
machine for 80s russian computing.
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0gAgQQHFcQ>
<https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electronika_60>
<http://www.leningrad.su/museum/show_calc.php?n=257>
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline" free book
<http://tinyurl.com/d3d-pipeline>
The Computer Graphics Museum <http://ComputerGraphicsMuseum.org>
The Terminals Wiki <http://terminals.classiccmp.org>
Legalize Adulthood! (my blog) <http://LegalizeAdulthood.wordpress.com>
I did find the
use of VT100 terminals in the desks of the KGB interesting.
It's better than the alternative: I had to talk them out of using
Commodore PETs.
3907
days inactive
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days old
13 comments
9 participants
participants (9)
-
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
hp-fix＠xs4all.nl -
legalize＠xmission.com -
news＠snarc.net -
oltmansg＠gmail.com -
paulkoning＠comcast.net -
ryan＠hack.net -
tdk.knight＠gmail.com -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com