1 Dec
2008
1 Dec
'08
4:50 p.m.
I just ran across this page:
http://cryptome.info/0001/loc/loc-images.htm
It seems that LOC has been rather ham-handedly censoring some of its
online historical content. Of particular interest is a shot of
computer peripherals (printers, card readers, tape drives), all of
which appear to be vintage CDC gear (military versions of the 512
printer, 65x tapes, 405 card readers...). I don't know what the
mainframe behind this was, nor does it seem to be shown. Anyone have
any idea?
BTW, the TIFF images are 20MB each and very high quality--enough so
that I could read the CRT displays and the notice of "Volley Ball"
and "Hayride" on the bulletin board.
Cheers,
Chuck
2 Dec
2 Dec
1:23 a.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
I just ran across this page:
http://cryptome.info/0001/loc/loc-images.htm
It seems that LOC has been rather ham-handedly censoring some of its
online historical content. Of particular interest is a shot of
computer peripherals (printers, card readers, tape drives), all of
which appear to be vintage CDC gear (military versions of the 512
printer, 65x tapes, 405 card readers...). I don't know what the
mainframe behind this was, nor does it seem to be shown. Anyone have
any idea?
BTW, the TIFF images are 20MB each and very high quality--enough so
that I could read the CRT displays and the notice of "Volley Ball"
and "Hayride" on the bulletin board.
Hrm, one of the displays reads 08 OCT 1992...
Gordon
7:14 a.m.
Isn't the PAR still in active use? I assume the MSR's are all
deactivated due to the ABM treaties and the fact that the Sprint/Nike
systems have been superseded by the Patriot and newer missile defense
systems.
While we are all supposed to be "friends" - Glasnost had faded out and
Russia is beginning to strengthen its nuclear arsenal again, plus China
is on a massive military build up, so one would have to assume that the
US Space Command would still have its active eyes and ears in operation
on the outside chance of a Russian or Chinese missile attack...
Curt
Gordon JC Pearce MM3YEQ wrote:
Chuck Guzis wrote:
I just ran across this page:
http://cryptome.info/0001/loc/loc-images.htm
It seems that LOC has been rather ham-handedly censoring some of its
online historical content. Of particular interest is a shot of
computer peripherals (printers, card readers, tape drives), all of
which appear to be vintage CDC gear (military versions of the 512
printer, 65x tapes, 405 card readers...). I don't know what the
mainframe behind this was, nor does it seem to be shown. Anyone have
any idea?
BTW, the TIFF images are 20MB each and very high quality--enough so
that I could read the CRT displays and the notice of "Volley Ball"
and "Hayride" on the bulletin board.
Hrm, one of the displays reads 08 OCT 1992...
Gordon
10:57 a.m.
On 2 Dec 2008 at 10:14, Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
Isn't the PAR still in active use? I assume the
MSR's are all
deactivated due to the ABM treaties and the fact that the Sprint/Nike
systems have been superseded by the Patriot and newer missile defense
systems.
There's a note on the page that correctly points out that (at least
two) of the displays show a date of 08 Oct 1993. That the US would
still have much of the equipment shown in the other photos still in
service at that late date is mind-boggling. In 1993, where could one
even find parts for a 405 card reader?
I don't recognize the disk drives shown there with their militarized
skins. Some sort of pack drive--the pack is too small to be an 844;
maybe an 854?
But everything shown that I can recognize is clearly early 70's
vintage.
If this stuff was simply mothballed, any equipment remaining and due
to be surplused would be a vintage collector's treasure trove.
Cheers,
Chuck
10:58 a.m.
On 2 Dec 2008 at 10:14, Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
Isn't the PAR still in active use? I assume the
MSR's are all
deactivated due to the ABM treaties and the fact that the Sprint/Nike
systems have been superseded by the Patriot and newer missile defense
systems.
There's a note on the page that correctly points out that (at least
two) of the displays show a date of 08 Oct 1993. That the US would
still have much of the equipment shown in the other photos still in
service at that late date is mind-boggling. In 1993, where could one
even find parts for a 405 card reader?
I don't recognize the disk drives shown there with their militarized
skins. Some sort of pack drive--the pack is too small to be an 844;
maybe an 854?
But everything shown that I can recognize is clearly early 70's
vintage.
If this stuff was simply mothballed, any equipment remaining and due
to be surplused would be a vintage collector's treasure trove.
Cheers,
Chuck
11:35 a.m.
Chuck Guzis wrote:
That the US would
still have much of the equipment shown in the other photos still in
service at that late date is mind-boggling. In 1993, where could one
even find parts for a 405 card reader?
We don't know that, but I suspect that the Government did - it wouldn't
surprise me at all if they didn't have a huge stockpile of such equipment
stashed someplace (and possibly still do).
11:47 a.m.
> That the US would
> still have much of the equipment shown in the other photos still in
> service at that late date is mind-boggling. In 1993, where could
one
even find
parts for a 405 card reader?
We don't know that, but I suspect that the Government did - it surprise me at all if they didn't have a huge
stockpile of such
equipment
stashed someplace (and possibly still do).
The last (that we know of) government Cyber was taken out of service in
2007. Admittedly that was a 8x0 series and, if it had a card reader, I
doubt it was a 415, but still, it was a real live Cyber running real
apps... (And, for that matter, NOS was maintained as late as 2000 --
there was a Y2K patch for it.)
paul
12:34 p.m.
Paul Koning wrote:
wouldn't
That's taken out of service, though... I'd expect that they'd retain a large
stockpile of spare parts too (possibly in the form of one or more entire
machines) somewhere - which raises questions as to whether such a spares cache
would necessarily get dumped at the same time as any in-service machines were...
> That the
US would
> still have much of the equipment shown in the other photos still in
> service at that late date is mind-boggling. In 1993, where could
one
even find
parts for a 405 card reader?
We don't know that, but I suspect that the
Government did - it surprise me at all if they didn't have a huge
stockpile of such
equipment
stashed someplace (and possibly still do).
The last (that we know of) government Cyber was taken out of service in
2007. 
1:27 p.m.
The last (that we know of) government Cyber was taken
out of service in
2007. Admittedly that was a 8x0 series and, if it had a card reader, I
doubt it was a 415, but still, it was a real live Cyber running real
apps... (And, for that matter, NOS was maintained as late as 2000 --
there was a Y2K patch for it.)
Certainly there were a few Cybers still going in the early 2000s.
This "last" one - was it a shipboard installation? If so, do you know
which ship?
--
Will
1:33 p.m.
>>>> "William" == William
Donzelli <wdonzelli at gmail.com> writes:
> The last (that we know of) government Cyber was
taken out of
> service in 2007. Admittedly that was a 8x0 series and, if it had
> a card reader, I doubt it was a 415, but still, it was a real live
> Cyber running real apps... (And, for that matter, NOS was
> maintained as late as 2000 -- there was a Y2K patch for it.)
William> Certainly there were a few Cybers still going in the early
William> 2000s.
William> This "last" one - was it a shipboard installation? If so, do
William> you know which ship?
Nope. FAA OK City training, running PLATO (actually, CYBIS, same
thing different name).
paul
3 Dec
3 Dec
4:31 p.m.
New subject: OT: Numitron clocks for sale.
on eBay (Eeek!)
eBay item number 200282170878
Disclaimer - I am afficiated with this sale. I designed and built these
clocks.
4:45 p.m.
New subject: OT: Numitron clocks for sale.
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 1:31 PM, Bob Shannon <bshannon at tiac.net> wrote:
on eBay (Eeek!)
eBay item number 200282170878
Disclaimer - I am afficiated with this sale. I designed and built these
clocks.
Very nice. I don't think I've run across numatrons before.
-ethan
6:45 p.m.
New subject: OT: Numitron clocks for sale.
Ethan Dicks wrote:
On Thu, Dec 4, 2008 at 1:31 PM, Bob Shannon <bshannon at tiac.net> wrote:
My understanding of the history is that RCA originally produced a
single-envelope incandescent 7-segment display device they called the
"Numitron" around 1969/70 (RCA Part #: DR2000), in a vacuum-tube style envelope
with a standard 9-pin miniature-tube base.
The Numitron is described and shown in the book "RCA Solid-State Hobby Circuits
Manual" (Printed Sep 1970). (The book includes several circuits, such as a
clock, utilising them. Most of the circuitry is discrete transistor logic,
except for the use of an early 7-seg decoder-driver IC, the CD2500E.) The
Numitron is referred to as being "recently developed". Other phrasing leads one
to believe that "Numitron" was an RCA trademark. I suspect the name went the
way of "Kleenex" and came to be applied more generally as other manuacturers
produced similar devices or copies.
I believe the more-prevalent 7-seg incandescent displays in a
rectangular-envelope form factor (with DIP-IC pins to fit in standard IC
sockets) followed shortly thereafter from other manufacturers. These are often
referred to as "Minitrons", although, again, I believe that was actually one
manufacturer's tradename. There are variations in size and pinout between
different manufacturers in this style as well.
on eBay (Eeek!)
eBay item number 200282170878
Disclaimer - I am afficiated with this sale. I designed and built these
clocks.
Very nice. I don't think I've run across numatrons before. 
2 Dec
2 Dec
7:40 p.m.
William Donzelli wrote:
There's a complete installation from 1978 on 2 acres with two CDC Cyber
840 computers and almost two dozen SEL machines at Vandenberg AFB in
support of WSMC. this is was built in accord with the SALT treaty of the
70's. My friend over there was still providing support through his
company for this facility up until as recent as Sep until the contract
expired, and never renewed. He mentioned they're going to scrap all the
machines there. I would think that CHM would get their hands on
something before going to the scrapper. There's a couple of photos he
had sent me in the past here on my webpage.
http://www2.applegate.org/~ragooman/computers_mini_gallery_tips.html
=Dan
[ Pittsburgh 250th --- http://www2.applegate.org/~ragooman/ ]
The last (that
we know of) government Cyber was taken out of service in
2007. Admittedly that was a 8x0 series and, if it had a card reader, I
doubt it was a 415, but still, it was a real live Cyber running real
apps... (And, for that matter, NOS was maintained as late as 2000 --
there was a Y2K patch for it.)
Certainly there were a few Cybers still going in the early 2000s.
This "last" one - was it a shipboard installation? If so, do you know
which ship?
1:42 p.m.
On 2 Dec 2008 at 14:47, Paul Koning wrote:
The last (that we know of) government Cyber was taken
out of service in
2007. Admittedly that was a 8x0 series and, if it had a card reader, I
doubt it was a 415, but still, it was a real live Cyber running real
apps... (And, for that matter, NOS was maintained as late as 2000 --
there was a Y2K patch for it.)
What surprised me though were the 512 printers and 65x tape drives.
By 1993, these had long been historic artifacts. Can't say much
about the disk drives, but they're not 844s, but something earlier.
Cheers,
Chuck
12:28 p.m.
Yeah, probably in storage costing $10 million a month storage fee's
;-) Next to the stash of $10,000 each toilet seats...
Curt
Jules Richardson wrote:
Chuck Guzis wrote:
That the US would still have much of the
equipment shown in the other
photos still in service at that late date is mind-boggling. In 1993,
where could one even find parts for a 405 card reader?
We don't know that, but I suspect that the Government did - it
wouldn't surprise me at all if they didn't have a huge stockpile of
such equipment stashed someplace (and possibly still do).
12:38 p.m.
Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
Yeah, probably in storage costing $10 million a month
storage fee's
;-) Next to the stash of $10,000 each toilet seats...
I was more wondering if they got parked in a back-room somewhere because they
were in the way, then someone eventually lost the key to the room, then
everyone forgot what was in that room anyway...
(Well, sometimes when it comes to Governments there does seem to be a big gulf
between knowing what they have and knowing where it is!)
;-)
1:19 p.m.
Exactly - like just where the heck did they misplace that 1947 UFO ;-)
Curt
Jules Richardson wrote:
Curt @ Atari Museum wrote:
Yeah, probably in storage costing $10 million a
month storage fee's
;-) Next to the stash of $10,000 each toilet seats...
I was more wondering if they got parked in a back-room somewhere
because they were in the way, then someone eventually lost the key to
the room, then everyone forgot what was in that room anyway...
(Well, sometimes when it comes to Governments there does seem to be a
big gulf between knowing what they have and knowing where it is!)
;-)
11:56 a.m.
New subject: Apologies
All -
Just moved to a new NIC and my email client has been having problems
with it, resending outgoing mail that shouldn't be sent. Please
accept my apology for this glitch. Problem is resolved.
Sorry,
Chuck
5862
days inactive
5864
days old
22 comments
12 participants
participants (12)
-
bfranchuk＠jetnet.ab.ca -
bshannon＠tiac.net -
cclist＠sydex.com -
curt＠atarimuseum.com -
ethan.dicks＠gmail.com -
gordonjcp＠gjcp.net -
hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca -
jules.richardson99＠gmail.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com -
Paul_Koning＠Dell.com -
ragooman＠comcast.net -
wdonzelli＠gmail.com