[cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

[Fred Cisin via cctalk]

OR, keep them all available, but include a mention and link to newest, or 
at least next, or precede each with a small visible meta-data block with 
date and links. 
If it's too cumbersome to edit every one when a new one is put up, having 
a mention/link to the next one would at least provide a linked list.


I was unaware that I was not looking at the current one.
(and was confused by your statements that Adkisson had recanted, which was 
definitely not present in the one that I was looking at.)
Feel free to use my error as an example in your campaign to improve the 
organization.




On Mon, 22 Aug 2022, Tom Gardner via cctalk wrote:


That's one of the "features" of the CHM oral history archives, they keep
older versions on line on "scholarly" principles.
I've suggest they keep only the current version on line and include a change
log to no avail
Tom

-Original Message-
From: Fred Cisin [mailto:ci...@xenosoft.com]
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2022 11:32 PM
To: t.gard...@computer.org
Cc: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: RE: [cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a
dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2022, Tom Gardner wrote:

Fred:
Please quote the current version of the oral history, It says:
Porter: Jimmy said that you guys got together with the guys at Wang in
a dark bar one night and, after a discussion, you decided on the size
of what the smaller diskette should be and there was a cocktail napkin
on the bar which was 5 1/4" square  napkin .
That's Jimmy's story.
[Ed. note: Contacted in 2009, both Adkisson and Massaro stated that
there was never any such meeting in a bar with Dr. Wang]
5.25 and 3.5 Floppy Disk Oral History Panel (computerhistory.org)
  at page 10
Will you now stop promulgating this fable?


Yes.  Knowing that BOTH deny it shows that it is an apocryphal tale.
I was, indeed, looking at an older version (2005) When I had only heard of
Massaro's refutation, I was wondering whether Adkisson agreed.  Now, it is
clear.
Thank you.

[cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

[Tom Gardner via cctalk]

That's one of the "features" of the CHM oral history archives, they keep
older versions on line on "scholarly" principles.
I've suggest they keep only the current version on line and include a change
log to no avail
Tom

-Original Message-
From: Fred Cisin [mailto:ci...@xenosoft.com] 
Sent: Sunday, August 21, 2022 11:32 PM
To: t.gard...@computer.org
Cc: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
Subject: RE: [cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a
dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

On Sun, 21 Aug 2022, Tom Gardner wrote:
> Fred:
> Please quote the current version of the oral history, It says:
> Porter: Jimmy said that you guys got together with the guys at Wang in 
> a dark bar one night and, after a discussion, you decided on the size 
> of what the smaller diskette should be and there was a cocktail napkin 
> on the bar which was 5 1/4" square  napkin . 
> That's Jimmy's story.
> [Ed. note: Contacted in 2009, both Adkisson and Massaro stated that 
> there was never any such meeting in a bar with Dr. Wang]
> 5.25 and 3.5 Floppy Disk Oral History Panel (computerhistory.org)
>  657925
> -05-01-acc.pdf>  at page 10
> Will you now stop promulgating this fable?

Yes.  Knowing that BOTH deny it shows that it is an apocryphal tale.
I was, indeed, looking at an older version (2005) When I had only heard of
Massaro's refutation, I was wondering whether Adkisson agreed.  Now, it is
clear.
Thank you.

[cctalk] Does anyone have MP/M II disks/images for the Altos ACS-8000?

[Chris Osborn via cctalk]

I just got my Altos ACS-8000 hard disk controller repaired yesterday and was 
able to connect the Gesswein MFM emulator and format it, run through the 
read/write tests, and copy some files onto it. Now I'd like to install MP/M II, 
but it seems there's no archive sites anywhere that have copies of MP/M II for 
the Altos with the 8500 board. I found a single zip file which has a smattering 
of some of the files that were on the two Altos MP/M II distribution disks, but 
doesn't have the OS tracks, and of course all the XIOS files are missing.

I'm going to see if I can find another way to get MP/M II, such as working from 
the generic version and making my own XIOS (using the Altos listing in the MP/M 
II manual as reference), or seeing if the MP/M II for the Altos 5 series might 
be usable with minor modification. But it would be nice to get a copy of the 
original distribution disks.

--
Follow me on twitter: @FozzTexx
Check out my blog: http://insentricity.com
RetroBattlestations.com

[cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

[Warner Losh via cctalk]

On Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 7:13 AM Paul Koning via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:

>
>
> > On Aug 21, 2022, at 8:35 PM, W2HX via cctalk 
> wrote:
> >
> > I always thought it was interesting how 5 1/4 is 3U (rack units). I
> thought there might have been some relationship to that. But could have
> been just coincidence.
>
> For floppies, likely yes.  That fact did get used later on, in storage
> arrays where you can line up 14 or so disk drives, standing on edge, in a
> 3U 19 inch rack mounted system.
>

I thought the initial 5.25" Hard Disks had ISSUES[tm] operating on edge. I
remember the RD50 (5MB in all its glory) being touted as also operating on
edge for the desk-side cases for DEC Rainbows and Professionals (and later
MircoPDP-11s).

Warner

[cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Aug 22, 2022, at 11:17 AM, Warner Losh  wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> On Mon, Aug 22, 2022 at 7:13 AM Paul Koning via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> 
> > On Aug 21, 2022, at 8:35 PM, W2HX via cctalk  wrote:
> > 
> > I always thought it was interesting how 5 1/4 is 3U (rack units). I thought 
> > there might have been some relationship to that. But could have been just 
> > coincidence.
> 
> For floppies, likely yes.  That fact did get used later on, in storage arrays 
> where you can line up 14 or so disk drives, standing on edge, in a 3U 19 inch 
> rack mounted system.
> 
> I thought the initial 5.25" Hard Disks had ISSUES[tm] operating on edge. I 
> remember the RD50 (5MB in all its glory) being touted as also operating on 
> edge for the desk-side cases for DEC Rainbows and Professionals (and later 
> MircoPDP-11s).

Could be.  The examples I was thinking about are from 2001, using 1/2 height 
SATA drives: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/EqualLogic#/media/File:EqualLogic_PS100E_PeerStorage_Array_(157832701).jpg

paul

[cctalk] Re: Wang bar napkin story [WAS:RE: Re: "Revival" of a dedicated Micropolis webpage on internet]

[Paul Koning via cctalk]

> On Aug 21, 2022, at 8:35 PM, W2HX via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> I always thought it was interesting how 5 1/4 is 3U (rack units). I thought 
> there might have been some relationship to that. But could have been just 
> coincidence.

For floppies, likely yes.  That fact did get used later on, in storage arrays 
where you can line up 14 or so disk drives, standing on edge, in a 3U 19 inch 
rack mounted system.

paul