30 Jan
2006
30 Jan
'06
5:21 p.m.
OK, now I know there are some mainframe freaks out there on this list
:-), but I would be absolutely flabbergasted if someone had a working
CDC mainframe running PLATO!
However, I figure there is still a small chance that someone has a
PLATO terminal? These were Z80-based, IIRC, had plasma screen
displays at first, and later had raster displays. They were *heavy*
and if I recall correctly they had a card cage on top of which sat the
monitor. They also had a funky PLATO specific keyboard.
Any other PLATO users out there? I was on udel's system in the
1978-1986 time frame, off and on, although PLATO wasn't the primary
focus of my activities. I did a little Tutor programming, but somehow
the language never quite gelled with me.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
30 Jan
30 Jan
5:49 p.m.
On 1/30/2006 at 6:21 PM Richard wrote:
OK, now I know there are some mainframe freaks out
there on this list
:-), but I would be absolutely flabbergasted if someone had a working
CDC mainframe running PLATO!
However, I figure there is still a small chance that someone has a
PLATO terminal? These were Z80-based, IIRC, had plasma screen
displays at first, and later had raster displays. They were *heavy*
and if I recall correctly they had a card cage on top of which sat the
monitor. They also had a funky PLATO specific keyboard.
IIRC, there's still a Cyber down in Texas running the Plato software. At
least it was a few months ago. If
Are you certain that the earliest plasma versions used a Z80? It seems to
me that they preceded the Z80.
Cheers,
Chuck
8:51 p.m.
In article <200601301749080661.44DB0C7C at 10.0.0.252>,
"Chuck Guzis" <cclist at sydex.com> writes:
IIRC, there's still a Cyber down in Texas running
the Plato software. At
least it was a few months ago. If
Cool!
Are you certain that the earliest plasma versions used
a Z80? It seems to
me that they preceded the Z80.
Nope, I'm not certain. I don't think I ever saw the insides of the
plasma terminals, but I did get a peek inside the raster terminal
once. It looked like a card cage :). Someone else told me it was a
Z80 at the time, I think.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
31 Jan
31 Jan
7:54 a.m.
Any other PLATO users out there? I was on udel's
system in the
1978-1986 time frame, off and on, although PLATO wasn't the primary
focus of my activities.
I used PLATO in the late '70s at the University of Colorado (Colorado
Springs branch) - they had a couple of terminals which were connected
to a machine somewhere farther north; my memory waffles on whether it
was at Urbana-Champaign or Minneapolis/St-Paul.
I feel very nostalgic about it. I'd like to find a live PLATO
community. (cyber1.org is out because they demand agreeing to foreign
legal jurisdiction, and worse, the jurisdiction they demand is in the
USA, one of the most unreasonably litigous places on the planet.)
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9:20 a.m.
On 1/31/2006 at 10:54 AM der Mouse wrote:
I feel very nostalgic about it. I'd like to find a
live PLATO
community. (cyber1.org is out because they demand agreeing to foreign
legal jurisdiction, and worse, the jurisdiction they demand is in the
USA, one of the most unreasonably litigous places on the planet.)
Well, it's kind of fitting--CDC was probably the most litigious of the
seven dwarves. :)
--Chuck
9:26 a.m.
In article <200601311607.LAA22786 at Sparkle.Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>,
der Mouse <mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca> writes:
I used PLATO in the late '70s at the University of
Colorado (Colorado
Springs branch) - they had a couple of terminals which were connected
to a machine somewhere farther north; my memory waffles on whether it
was at Urbana-Champaign or Minneapolis/St-Paul.
Probably was at the Shampoo Banana campus :-).
I feel very nostalgic about it. I'd like to find
a live PLATO
community. (cyber1.org is out because they demand agreeing to foreign
legal jurisdiction, and worse, the jurisdiction they demand is in the
USA, one of the most unreasonably litigous places on the planet.)
Dude. You *so* need to read some H.L. Mencken if you haven't
already! :-) <http://www.io.com/gibbonsb/mencken>
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
9:56 a.m.
der Mouse wrote:
UCCS terminals went through a concentrator to Boulder first, then on to
the CDC system
in Minnesota. At least in Colorado Springs, we did not have access to
the UI machines.
Any other
PLATO users out there? I was on udel's system in the
1978-1986 time frame, off and on, although PLATO wasn't the primary
focus of my activities.
I used PLATO in the late '70s at the University of Colorado (Colorado
Springs branch) - they had a couple of terminals which were connected
to a machine somewhere farther north; my memory waffles on whether it
was at Urbana-Champaign or Minneapolis/St-Paul.
I feel very nostalgic about it. I'd like to find
a live PLATO
community. (cyber1.org is out because they demand agreeing to foreign
legal jurisdiction, and worse, the jurisdiction they demand is in the
USA, one of the most unreasonably litigous places on the planet.)
I don't mind, living in this "unreasonably litigous place"....
I was also at UCCS in the later 70's and spent a fair bit of time on the two
PLATO plasma terminals that were across the hall from the "computing
center" (the room with the batch terminal to the CDC machines in boulder)
Bill
1 Feb
1 Feb
11:15 p.m.
I used PLATO
in the late '70s at the University of Colorado
(Colorado Springs branch) - they had a couple of terminals which
were connected to a machine somewhere farther north; my memory
waffles on whether it was at Urbana-Champaign or
Minneapolis/St-Paul.
UCCS terminals went through a concentrator to Boulder first,
then on
to the CDC system in Minnesota. At least in Colorado Springs, we did not have access
to the UI
machines.
"We"? You were at UCCS at the time? (See below.)
I feel very
nostalgic about it. I'd like to find a live PLATO
community. (cyber1.org is out because they demand agreeing to
foreign legal jurisdiction, and worse, the jurisdiction they demand
is in the USA, one of the most unreasonably litigous places on the
planet.)
I don't mind, living in this "unreasonably litigous
place".... I was also at UCCS in the later 70's and spent a
fair bit of time on
the two PLATO plasma terminals that were across the hall from the
"computing center" (the room with the batch terminal to the CDC
machines in boulder)
Now that is cool. Small world.
There's some chance you'd even remember me, since I was somewhat
memorable at the time - UCCS News even did a few pages on me, and while
I'm not thrilled by the direction the spun some of it, it was kinda
neat to be in the student paper.
I was that kid of 13 or so. :-)
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2 Feb
2 Feb
12:37 a.m.
In article <200602020721.CAA28775 at Sparkle.Rodents.Montreal.QC.CA>,
der Mouse <mouse at rodents.montreal.qc.ca> writes:
I was that kid of 13 or so. :-)
Well, I never got any publicity over it, but similarly I was 13 and
teaching myself BASIC on UDel's HP3000 and then later the PDP-11/70
run by Project DELTA. I was in 8th grade (middle school) at the time
and everyone seemed rather impressed, but it just seemed like another
intellectual pursuit to me. I also used PLATO (the educational
software was fun at that age), did a teensy eensy bit of Tutor
programming, and got my EE undergrad degree there as well.
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
6:27 a.m.
I was that kid
of 13 or so. :-)
Well, I never got any publicity over it, but similarly I was 13
and
teaching myself BASIC on UDel's HP3000 and then later the PDP-11/70
run by Project DELTA. I was in 8th grade (middle school) at the time
12:33 a.m.
In article <43DFA4BF.9020606 at mcdermith.net>,
Bill McDermith <bill_mcdermith at mcdermith.net> writes:
I was also at UCCS in the later 70's and spent a
fair bit of time on the two
PLATO plasma terminals that were across the hall from the "computing
center" (the room with the batch terminal to the CDC machines in boulder)
Once again it sounds like I was lucky enough to be in a spoiled
environment. UDel had a *large* PLATO installation, with PLATO
terminal rooms located in the music building, the computer science
building, and the education department building. The smallest of
these PLATO terminal rooms had ~10 terminals, while the largest easily
had 25-30. Of course, we had our own CDC machine, I can't recall the
model number.
Our timesharing terminal room easily had 100 terminals in it: a mix of
HP2621s, HP2648As and LA-36s. Over time the LAs were all swapped out
for VT-100 clones, I think they were Wyse?
--
"The Direct3D Graphics Pipeline"-- code samples, sample chapter, FAQ:
<http://www.xmission.com/~legalize/book/>
Pilgrimage: Utah's annual demoparty
<http://pilgrimage.scene.org>
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