[cctalk] Re: Great Vintage Computer Heist of 2012

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

Apologies for the off-topic.

On Wed, 19 Oct 2022 at 15:34, Nigel Johnson Ham via cctalk
 wrote:
> I got a government official to give me the legal definition and
> published it on wikipedia, quoting the official source.
>
Was it Measurement Canada's complaint form? Because they - that is,
Measurement Canada - has now published a helpful poster on the
definition of what units of volume draft beer may be sold by:

For the curious it's in the link above.

Best regards,
Christian

Re: PMI memory on an -11/93 (Was: Installing an operating system on an 11/83)

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

On Tue, 22 Feb 2022 at 16:10, Henk Gooijen via cctalk
 wrote:

> half populated with memory. I don’t think you can add memory
> externally.  But I might be wrong …
>
You are not wrong. From the KDJ11-E module user's guide (on BitSavers)
the solder-side of the CD fingers is left unpopulated, but for the +5
and ground pins.

The only PMI compatible option then would be the KTJ11-B UNIBUS
adapter. (You could probably use an MSV11-Q non-PMI memory to fill out
the last 2MB though.)

Best regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: PDT11/150 supported in RT11 5.7?

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

>From the freshly installed RT-11 v5.7 disk image I have available to me:

.type pd.mac
.MCALL  .MODULE
.MODULE PD,VERSION=09,COMMENT=,AUDIT=YES

On Tue, 23 Nov 2021 at 14:44, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk
 wrote:
> I was just reading the RT 11 5.7 documentation the other day and noticed the 
> mention that PDT-11s were desupported with that release. I think the follow 
> up to that was that the device drivers are still there, but no longer built 
> for you. Maybe you could build it yourself and be fine!
>
So yes, to confirm what Jake says: the handler is included as source
only, you will need to compile and link it yourself to use it. (There
are several other drivers in a similar state, including the TU-58
driver and DECtape driver.)


Best regards,

Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: IEEE-488 on the PDP-11

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

On Tue, 16 Nov 2021 at 16:27, Ethan Dicks via cctalk
 wrote:
> Fun card.  Thanks for starting this thread.  I have one too (came with
> my MINC-11) and I have experience with IEEE-488 from my many hours
> spent with Commodore PETs.
>
Hmm now that I'm reminded that a large proportion of Commodore's
"stuff" was IEEE 488 or a serialized version thereof.

I kind of want to see now if an IBV11 and Commodore 1541 can be abused
into cooperating. (There'd need to be a small "box of stuff" to turn
the real 488 bus to CBM's serial thing.)


> Thanks to all for sharing code and software.
>
I'll second this; many thanks for sharing the official DEC RT-11
drivers and code.


Best regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Massbus - was: Re: VAX 11/750

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

On Thu, 25 Feb 2021 at 21:32, Rich Alderson via cctalk
 wrote:
> As for operating system support, the only DEC operating system which could put
> tapes and disks on the same Massbus was TOPS-20.  Tops-10 explicitly tells you
> in the SYSGEN process that disks and tapes must reside on different channels; 
> I
> believe that ITS follows that same principle.  WAITS, although originally a
> highly divergent offshoot of Tops-10, took the Massbus code from TOPS-20 v5
> when it was ported to a KL-10 at SAIL, so could in theory have disk and tape 
> on
> the same channel.
>
RSX-11/M+ should as well. It is possible during SYSGEN to define a
"mixed MASSBUS".

Best regards,
Christian
--
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Text encoding Babel. Was Re: George Keremedjiev

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

On Wed, 28 Nov 2018 at 09:27, Paul Koning via cctalk
 wrote:
> I learned it about 15 years ago (OpenAPL, running on a Solaris workstation 
> with a modified Xterm that handled the APL characters).  Nice.  It made a 
> handy tool for some cryptanalysis programs I needed to write.
>
I am interested in this cryptanalysis program...


> I wonder if current APL implementations use the Unicode characters for APL, 
> that would make things easy.
>
I can confirm that both NARS 2000 and Dyalog APL both use the Unicode
APL characters.

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Text encoding Babel. Was Re: George Keremedjiev

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

On Mon, 26 Nov 2018 at 03:44, Liam Proven via cctalk
 wrote:
> If it's in Roman, Cyrillic, or Greek, they're alphabets, so it's a letter.
>
Correct, Latin, Greek, and Cyrillic are alphabets, so each
letter/character can be a consonant or vowel.

> I can't read Arabic or Hebrew but I believe they're alphabets too.
>
Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, Punic, Aramaic, Ugaritic, et cetera are
abjads, meaning that each character represents a consonant sound,
vowel sounds are either derived from context and knowledge of the
language, or can be added in via diacritics.

Devanagari and Thai (and Tibetan, Khmer, Sudanese, Balinese...) are
abugidas, where each character is a consonant-vowel pair, with the
"base" character being one particular vowel sound, and alternates
being indicated by modifications (example in Devanagari: "क" is "ka",
while "कि" is "ki"; another example using Canadian Aboriginal
Syllabics "ᕓ" is "vai" whereas "ᕗ" is "vu").

> I don't know anything about any Asian scripts except a tiny bit of
> Japanese and Chinese, and they get called different things, but
> "character" is probably most common.
>
Japanese actually uses three different scripts. Chinese characters
(the kanji script of Japanese, and the hanja script of Korean) are
logograms.

Japanese also has two syllabic scripts, katakana and hiragana where
each character represents a specific consonant vowel pair.

Korean hangul (or if you happen to be from the DPRK, chosŏn'gŭl) is a
mix of alphabet and syllabary, where individual characters consist of
sub parts stacked in a specific pattern. Stealing Wikipedia's example,
"kkulbeol" is written as "꿀벌", not the individual parts "ㄲㅜㄹㅂㅓㄹ".


And now for even more fun, Egyptian hieroglyphics and cuneiform (which
started with Sumerian, and then used by the Assyrians/Babylonians and
others) are a delightful mix of logographic, syllabic and alphabetic
characters. Because while China loathes you, Babylon has a truly deep
hatred of you and wishes to revel in your suffering.


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: DEC PDP-14 Programmable Controller simulator

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

On 4 April 2017 at 20:21, Charles Dickman via cctalk
 wrote:
> I have written a PDP-14 simulator using the simh framework. Paired
> with a PDP-8 simulator as a front end it passes all the DEC
> diagnostics. A pointless effort, perhaps, because there isn't much
> that can be done with it without connecting it to something to
> control.
>
Please release it! I/O access isn't too exceedingly complicated. I
just finished up a university class on industrial controllers and
networking, and we covered Modbus RTU and Modbus TCP. The latter
protocol would prove to be pretty useful for this PDP-14 emulator. The
emulator would act as one Modbus master and send out packets (in the
Modbus TCP format) to a remote/distributed I/O unit of the user's own
provision. Making it generic means it doesn't require specific
hardware; making it Modbus protocol means it talks to a gigantic swath
of hardware.

So, please do submit it to be merged into the SIMH framework, it
sounds like fun! (And sounds like practice for writing a Modbus TCP
master… to me.)

Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Full immersion emulation

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove via cctalk]

I'm replying to the "top level" original message just to put some
other comments in on "full immersion" emulation, without trampling
over the discussions that are going on about the sound experience.


On 1 March 2017 at 14:14, Charles Anthony via cctalk
 wrote:
> Part of the iconic mainframe experience is the cold room sounds; for early
> Multics installations (and other systems) the sound of the Selectric
> operator's console.
>
Don't forget what a machine room and the equipment looks like.


If one wanted to go "full immersion" it might be an idea to acquire an
HTC Vive and develop the it as a simulation VR experience. Then you
get the sights and the sounds. With the Vive (and not the Oculus Rift)
you also get the room scale VR "stuff" and hand tracking controllers.
You can add in more things than just the sounds of the terminal, you
can include mundane tasks like swapping disk packs, swapping tapes,
and using the various consoles and buttons on the devices.


Just to point out this kind of simulation of an location with "things
to do" has been done in VR. May I present to the list, for your
delectation: "New Retro Arcade: Neon" 
It's a VR recreation of an arcade.


Naturally, there's all kinds of hurdles to deal with in creating a
simulation like that. First of all VR (at present) needs beefy
computers (Do you have a high end gaming graphics card on a modern up
specced PC? No? Then no VR for you!) and the VR hardware itself isn't
cheap. Next there's the development time investment, and while the
Vive's hand controllers do let you manipulate things in the VR
envrionment they're most assuredly not what you'd want to use for
typing at a simulated keypunch, printing terminal, or video terminal.
(Though you can just use your PC's keyboard for that. And for machines
that have mice (workstations, anyone?) you can also use the mouse too;
light guns/light pens can be "done" with the hand controllers.


Then there's the topic of *cost* you could release it for free, but
there's a lot of work that has to go into the thing. Selling it for
cost well, the market is limited so you'd probably not really make
anything (I'd sure as hell buy it... if I could afford a beefy PC and
VR hardware).

And let's not get anywhere *near* the topic of including the software
to run on the simulated hardware with the program. Though, if it was a
simulator of an IBM System/370 ("Who wants to reimplement Hercules in
a game engine? No one? Smart move...") you could throw in MVS or
OS/360 since they're both in the public domain. You could provide the
software as just the "naked" simulator, with the user needing to
acquire disk/tape images on their own initiative, but now you've
reduced the number of people from outside of the already "expert"
community of us classic computer hobbyists who would be able to use
the software.


One could also make such a simulation in a regular 3D game engine and
then bolt on VR support later. That's a much larger "market" in terms
of people who could run it, though it wouldn't be nearly as immersive
as a VR experience. Though it would still be fun to try. (Look up "My
Summer Car" it's an indie game where a main is putting together and
then driving a beat up junker of a Datsun 100A.)



Anyways, I'm rambling.

Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: For sale 128K Core RAM Industrial PDP 11/40 Massbus System

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 30 October 2016 at 18:09, Mike Ross  wrote:
> Unix? Probably a complete brain fart by me - but I thought Unix
> required a machine with separate I/D spaces and the 11/40 wasn't one
> of them?
>
V5 and V6 will run on an 11/40. I *think* but I might be wrong, that
V5 doesn't support split I/D.


> If I'm wrong that will be of some assistance to me actually :-)
>
Why, plannign to run an old UNIX on a blinkenlights '11? :P


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: DEC bus transceivers

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 26 October 2016 at 10:02, Philipp Hachtmann  wrote:
> BTW Why isn't there a separate list "ccbusinterfacechip" where those
> recurring 8881 discussions can be separated from the more interesting stuff?
>
The discussion is enlightening. It would be nice, however, to
summarize the various conclusions into, say, a Wiki page (isn't there
a classic computers Wiki out there?). That way the discussion needn't
be rehashed ever so often like it always does.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: interesting ... look at both these HP desktops - style come to the computer!

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 17 September 2016 at 01:38,   wrote:
> look at both these HP desktops -  style come to the   computer!
>
If we're going to talk about "modern" computers... I'd like to direct
the list to these YouTube videos by Clint, of the Lazy Game Reviews
channel (is he on this list?):

"Strangest Computer Designs of the '90s": 
"Strangest Computer Designs of the 2000s": 

There's also actual classic computer stuff on his channel too. Here's
an example of him talking about his IBM 5160 PC/XT:


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Front Panel update - Catalog

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 19 August 2016 at 10:31, Rod Smallwood  wrote:
> Now for the fun version. How do I do the same sort of thing but with DEC
> hardware?
>
You mean host a website with DEC hardware?

With a PDP-11:
> Johnny Billquist has a lovely TCP/IP package for RSX-11/M+ which includes an 
> HTTP server if I recall correctly.
> I haven't used it (because reasons) but I think 2.11 BSD might have an HTTP 
> server too.

With a VAX:
> VMS, later versions provide all the stuff you need to host a website, though 
> I've not set one up to do so.
> OpenBSD 5.8 (the last VAX version) also provides all the servering that you 
> need.
> NetBSD is also a thing.

With an Alpha:
> VMS
> OpenBSD still supports Alpha in the current versions
> NetBSD, again


Cheers,
Christian



-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Front Panel - Update. - PDP=8/i and PDP-8/l - Bezels - PDP-11

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 13 August 2016 at 14:32, Don North  wrote:
> Like this maybe:   http://www.ak6dn.com/stuff/1174.jpg
>
Yes, exactly that one! Based on the rest of your e-mail I'm guessing
it's yours, right? Any chance you could get a higher res scan of it?


> This is a 'true' 11/74 panel from the never-production variation of the
> 11/74, with CIS.
> Not just a relabeled/recolored 11/70 panel. Note the additional LEDs on the
> right hand side.
> AFAIK no front panel exists that mates with this plexiglass.
>
Yeah, I can see that your panel is different from the other 11/74
panel. The 11/74 panel I linked was one of the four CPUs (CPU C as the
green sticker shows, and giant painted "C" indicates) of DEC's DAEMON
system (apparently it might also have been called PHEANX?) quad
processor setup.

More pictures here for people to oggle and drool over:


It looks like your 11/74 panel might have been designed for a mounting
similar to the other 11/74 (we'll call it DAEMON-type) panel mounting
(same visual style and colour scheme) which is distinctly different
from the standard 11/70 mounting (though the DAEMON panels all follow
the same general layout as an 11/70), though the actual mating PCB
would have been different, since the keylock and parity lights have
swapped places and the display indicator LEDs have been re-arranged.


> I also have a complete DEC DataSystem-570 panel (frame, plex, switches)
> which is just
> a standard 11/70 panel, but recolored in light blue / dark  blue / gray
> color scheme.
>
This might or might not be blasphemous to some, but I think the
DDS-570 colour scheme looks much nicer than the standard PDP-11 colour
scheme.


Hmm, now I'm wondering how close of a match the "business system" blue
PDP-11/7x models match up against DEC's other blue coloured systems;
i.e. KL10s of the DECsystem-10xx flavour, PDP-15s, and the alternate
blue-coloured PDP-12
().

Actually speaking of the KL10, I forgot about the fact it's front-end
processor was a PDP-11/40 with an alternate colour scheme panel.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: The Great TK revival

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 19 June 2016 at 12:11, Rod Smallwood  wrote:
> I'm sure there's an RT-11 TCP/IP around I have enough parts to extend the
If you were unaware of it, here is an (the?) RT-11 TCP/IP package:



Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: http://hackaday.com/2016/05/29/dragging-teletypes-into-the-21st-century

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 29 May 2016 at 20:15, j...@cimmeri.com  wrote:
> Tangent: is it true as written that *all*   "teletypes speak 5-bit ITA2 code
> "?
>
As Ed, Jon, and Chuck said; no not *all* teletypes speak 5-bit code.
The "most common" machines in the classic computing community of the
Model 33 family (ASR and KSR) speak 7-bit ASCII 1963 with a parity bit
(either marking parity, or even parity; usually).

The 5-bit equivalent to the Model 33 is the Model 32, as Chuck
mentioned. Similarly, there are other ASCII machines, the Model 35
family, for one is absolutely beautiful; it's based on the mechanisms
of the older (and tank-like) Model 28 family. In fact if I recall what
was said on the Greenkeys list, the Model 35 parts all have the same
names as their corresponding Model 28 parts, except with an '8' in the
name. But ask an actual expert.


Also, just to be slightly nit-picky, many 5-bit code speaking Teletype
machines made in/for the US speak the similar, but not quite the same
USTTY code. It only differs in the figure shift, where the bell and
apostrophe characters swap places (bell is on J in the standard, S in
USTTY), WRU (figure shift of D) is replaced with a normal printing
character (dollar sign), and the "national use" characters of F, G,
and H are defined as the excalamation mark, ampersand, and number
sign. The remaining figure shift characters are completely compatible
(and the letter shift doesn't differ at all).

Hence why in the ACPs that deal with teletype communications the
acceptable characters for use include only those which are held common
between the two versions of ITA2 and USTTY. And also why the bell code
for Flash precedence messages is JS (so that no
matter if the message ends up in Europe or the US, the machine's bell
will ring). (See: ACP-127(G), paragraph 137.e.)


Also, being I'm a process engineering student: The article makes it
seem like current loop signalling is a weird dead interface standard;
it's not. Current loop isn't that confusing a thing to deal with. We
still use it for whenever we need to have electrical signalling that
is more noise resistant or goes a longer distance than voltage level
signalling. Problem is that current loop converters cost way too damn
much. Also, unlike the generic "RS-232C on one end, 20mA current loop
on the other" converter boxes that are dumb as a bag of hammers, the
board in question has some active electronics for conversion "stuff";
which makes the board infinitely more cool.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: beige rant (was Re: IBM 5150 with red case on ebay)

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 14 May 2016 at 00:41, Chuck Guzis  wrote:
> It's not just LEDs, but intense "blue" LEDs.  I'm starting to hate that
> color.
>
Blue? That's so passé! Right now the popularity is to go full
*RAINBOW!* with the RGB LEDs...

Though yeah, intense blue is getting just a bit annoying; though I
admit I'd love to see a DECdatasystem-570 version of the PDP-11/70
panel (i.e. "the blue one") with blue LEDs instead of the standard
red; or bright white. If only because those colours would fit.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: beige rant (was Re: IBM 5150 with red case on ebay)

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 13 May 2016 at 22:06, william degnan  wrote:
> Today, who has a  colorful case on their modern PC?
If we exclude case modders, and people who build their own cases...

Most "gaming" cases are slightly colourful. Still mostly one colour
with highlights. Though the cases have very... interesting... design
choices.

A lot of time however you'll find colour in your components and of
course the strange obsession with "Let's put LEDs on everything." Thus
why a lot of cases marketed towards "gamers" have transparent plexi on
the side.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Tape reader

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 11 May 2016 at 21:58, jwsmobile  wrote:
> http://retropcdesign.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=6

Massively off-topic (sort of), but that tape reader is really quite
similar to the functioning of the KOI-18 reader for loading keys into
crypto devices. Link for those wanting to know what I'm blathering
about: 


Sorry for the off-topic-ness.

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Programming language failings [was Re: strangest systems I've sent email from]

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 29 April 2016 at 15:43, Chuck Guzis  wrote:
> I don't know what people do now.
>
The answer, apparently:

Step 1: Install package manager of choice.
Step 2: Create a blank project using the package manager and Framework
X (which is the "in" thing this week).
Step 3: Slap together two lines of code which are:
theThing.do();
theThing.show();
Step 4: Pray to every deity in existence no one changes anything in
the TWENTY-EIGHT THOUSAND dependencies of your blank file.
Step 4b: Shoot yourself in the head when someone "unpublishes" their
shitty eleven line implementation of the left pad function/algorithm
which promptly breaks your everything. No you didn't use it, but it's
somewhere inside your 28000 (yes, really, twenty-eight thousand,
that's not a typo) dependencies needed to work your blank
jspm/npm-based app template.
Step 5: Shoot yourself in the head again because "Dude! Like,
Framework X is s uncool right now. Everyone's using Framework Y!"
or Framework X completely changes everything in the way it functions.
Because Reasons™.


Seriously, here's a blog post about the relatively recent fact that
one person managed to break some of the "big name" JavaScript
frameworks/apps/whatever-the-shit-they're-called-now:

"Functions are not packages," the author states, and I agree fully.
This is considered a "package" in the JavaScript world of the npm
package manager:
return toString.call(arr) == '[object Array]';
Yes, one line. The "isArray" package, on which seventy-two (72) other
packages depend.

Best thing is there's people in the comments defending this kind of
insanity as "hiding complexity." If you can't write something as
simple as a left padding function yourself because it's too complex,
why in the name of all things holy should I let you even go near any
kind of software development?



Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Calling all typographers

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 29 April 2016 at 02:11, Paul Birkel  wrote:
> http://miktex.org/pkg/az
>
> Wow, is that some list.  In my era it was a *lot* shorter, by orders of 
> magnitude.  The list does include these:
>
> miktex-metafont-baseMETAFONT base
> miktex-metafont-bin-2.9 METAFFONT binaries
> miktex-metafont-miscMETAFONT misc
>
> (and: logic A font for electronic logic design)
>
> (and what's not to like about: comicsansUse Microsoft Comic Sans font)
>
Instead of using that package list, I prefer to just browse CTAN
directly:  Since that's ultimately where MikTeX
downloads packags from. Also, CTAN includes the package documentation
(if it has any), which is handy when using some of them. ("Halp, how
can use pgfplots?" "Have you tried reading the manual?" "THERE'S A
MANUAL!?")

About the comicsans package: It's , use xeTeX/xeLaTeX or
LuaTeX/LuaLaTeX and fontspec to use Comic Sans directly from the TTF
file.


An aside on Comic Sans: Even though it's a pretty bad typeface, it is
apparently really readable by those with dyslexia. There's still
better typefaces for that kind of application.



Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Calling all typographers

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 28 April 2016 at 13:05, Jon Elson  wrote:
> That should be available for most Linux distros.  You should also be able to
> get it on Windows, but might be a bit harder to find.
>
I believe the current easiest to get up and running TeX/LaTeX solution
for Windows is MikTeX. 

I don't know if it comes with the METAFONT utilities for creating a
font though. Then again I haven't looked too hard since it has xeLaTeX
which means "balls to it, I'm using OpenType!" (And there was much
rejoicing, as Computer Modern was replaced by Adobe Garamond Premier
Pro.)

But I digress.
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: VMS/RSTS/RSX manuals available, SOC, DECdirect books, Newmarket UK

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 11 March 2016 at 06:46, Adrian Graham  wrote:
> We're refitting the last unrefitted office here and there's a full bookcase
> of grey heading for the skip unless anyone wants to take them away? Must
> admit in the 12 years I've worked here I didn't realise there was a shelf
> of RSTS manuals!
>
I'm on the wrong side of the Atlantic, but I've got to ask: What
version of the operating systems? And are they manuals that are
already on BitSavers, if they're not please scan them?

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Recovery adventure - Re: Unidentified DEC gear available, NSW-AU

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 2 March 2016 at 17:50,   wrote:
> The I/O for the machine was (I believe) an ASR-35 the bigger brother to the 
> ASR-33. I couldn't take it, it was
> wedged in behind the other racks and I had only a limited amount of time to 
> load the equipment before I had to
> head back interstate to home. I did not see any sign of the optional I/O 
> Selectrics shown in the brochure, as I
> would definately have liked to have found those if I could have! I don't 
> think this machine had them, only the
> ASR-35, as no printout I found appeared to be done by a Selectric.
>
You definitely want that 35ASR. They're absolute tanks, and you could
probably bring it back up with a bit of oil and grease from its
current state (I exaggerate somewhat).

The Model 35 series of Teletypes just isn't as common as the Model 33
machines (though I think the "rarest" 35 right now is either the 35KSR
or 35RO; with the 35ASR being more common). They are definitely
worthwhile to have, since their mechanism is more robust and sturdy
than the mechanism of the Model 33, since the Model 35 is based on the
older (5-bit) Model 28 mechanisms (extended to 8-bit).


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: 10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 30 December 2015 at 01:25, Jacob Ritorto  wrote:
> okay, this is _really interesting_.  Where can I read more?
Another list member provided a good document archive, there's also Sam
Etler's site which has other documents:  I'll
point you specifically towards Western Electric's Fundamentals of
Telephone Communications Systems:
 which is all about the
switching equipment. Other documents can be found spread across the
net.

And for your audio pleasure, I point you to Evan Doorbell's and Mark
Bernay's recordings. Specifically:
 and the location of the new files
 The narrator on the tapes --- Evan
Doorbell --- is funny, informative, and knowledgeable. It helps that
he used to be a phreak back in the 70s and 80s too.

Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: 10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 29 December 2015 at 20:15, Chuck Guzis  wrote:
> It was particularly amusing that in the heart of Silicon Valley in the
> 1980s, Pacific Telephone still had many of its exchanges outfitted with
> crossbar switches--with your shiny new touch-tone telephone, you could hear
> the clicks in the background audio as the gear converted the DTMF to
> pulses...
>
Those pulses depend on what kind of crossbar you were homing on, and
where you were calling.

On a Number 5 Crossbar, your DTMF was never converted to dial pulse
for the switch itself. The Touch-Tone Register would connect to a
digit translator that inputs the 2-of-5 binary code directly into the
relays of the Originating Register (which can still receive dial
pulse). On Number 1 Crossbar and Panel however your DTMF would be
converted to 20 pulse per second dial pulsing. Only in Step-by-Step is
your DTMF converted down to "normal" 10 pulse per second dial pulsing;
though it should be noted that in step it either gets converted by a
"dumb" Touch-Tone Reciever Converter (DTMF goes in, dial pulse goes
out) in a direct control step, in a common control step (yes that was
a thing) the DTMF actually ends up getting converted in the same way
as on #5XB with the common control elements dial pulsing.


However it should be noted: Crossbar switches make noise when
connecting through the switch fabric; and depending on trunking and
the kind of switch you're calling you might hear dial pulsing, panel
call indicator pulsing, or revertive pulsing. RP would be sent on a
direct connection between a crossbar to a Number 1 Crossbar or Panel
switch (and to Number 5 Crossbar occasionally). PCI is something you'd
*never* hear in the 80s, since the only tandems that required PCI
(namely Panel Sender Tandem) were gone by the 70s, and the tandems
that replaced them (Crossbar Tandem) while it can still "speak" PCI
would be more likely to use MF tones; also end offices that would use
PCI, namely manual offices, were also dead and gone by the 80s. Dial
pulsing however... well that goes to step offices, and if you have a
step tandem anywhere in the chain (you could have a #5XB to #5XB call
which you'd think would be MF'd; but if you have a step tandem you get
dial pulse).


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: 10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 30 December 2015 at 01:34, Chuck Guzis  wrote:
> I'm not entirely sure, but I think the local stuff was type 4XB.  At any
> rate, I could punch in a DTMF number and listen for the dialing sequence to
> be complete before the first ring could be heard.
>
#4/#4A crossbar is *not* a local switch. It's a four-wire toll switch.
The only local crossbars were #1 (the replacement for panel), #5 (the
one that really embraced the common control ideas), and #3 (about as
close to a CDO as you can get with crossbar). Sounds like you had a #1
crossbar then, if only because #5 wouldn't dial pulse unless you had
to deal with a step tandem (or were calling into a step office).

The direct successor to the 4/4AXB was the 4ESS/4AESS. (Meanwhile the
successor to the local crossbar offices was 1ESS/1AESS; save for the
weird 3XB which was replaced by the small 3ESS.) And of course both
local and toll ESS have been replaced by the 5ESS.


Fun Facts about toll crossbars: There were three crossbars for toll
switching. The Crossbar Tandem (based on #1XB technology), the Number
4/4A Crossbar (four wire dedicated toll switch), and the Number 5
Crossbar. One can setup a 5XB to do double duty as a tanem switch; in
fact in the 1975 and 1977 Traffic Routing Guides you can see several
places where this is the case (for example Moncton, New Brunswick).


> Then there was the matter the GTE-AT interconnect...
>
Interconnects between different networks: About as fun as IBM versus DEC.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: IBM channel-attached DASD emulation

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 25 December 2015 at 20:55, Mike Ross  wrote:
> What do people reckon would be the best target for emulation? 3340
> springs to mind initially... would that work on machines as old as
> System/360s? It's about the *only* option for 5415 DASD...
>
The 3340 is a pretty "small" disk at least for mainframe DASD.

More useful would be the 3330-1 and 3330-11. You can gen OS/360 21.8F
and MVS 3.8J to 3330 (assuming of course you have a 370 of some sort
knocking around).


Unless I'm completely wrong, most of the various control units
presented a programming interface that was relatively similar/the same
amongst the various kinds of DASD (looking at the 2844/2314 and
3830/3330 for example). Naturally the best way to double check that
would be to look at sufficient reference manuals, though if you felt
less inclined you could try browsing the source of the Hercules
emulator for how it does DASD emulation.


Now for the topic of System/3 DASD; firstly the control "speaks" a
completely different set of commands compared to the channel attached
DASD of the "proper" mainframe world. The 5444 disk is it's own thing
and not related to any of the channel attached DASD. The 5445 is
basically a single 2314 unit; and the 3340/3344 are exactly what they
say they are. Images of the 5445 and 334x drives would be
interchangable with the 2314 and 334x (since the format the System/3
uses on those disks is compatible with mainframe systems).


As a kind of dumb thought, for storing the images of the
Count-Key-Data DASD perhaps abuse the Hercules CKD/CCKD code into the
hardware emulator? (Means you can move your emulated disk packs to and
from a Hercules instance if you had reason to do so.)


Sorry for blathering on, I'm not an expert and I haven't a clue how
easy or difficult it would be to implement any of these ideas.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Has Anyone Written PDP-8 .XOR. Code Using the MQ Register (Without the EAE)?

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 23 December 2015 at 13:44, CLASystems  wrote:
> Ironically, the shortest and fastest seems to be avoidance of the MQ
> altogether [thus making it work on ANY model].
>
> TAD  ARGONE
> AND  ARGTWO
> CLL RAL
> CIA
> TAD  ARGONE
> DCA ARGTWO
>
> This works because .XOR. is addition ignoring the carry bits.  So, knowing
> they will happen, just allow them at first, then remove them.
>
Hmm, I just tried that in SIMH, and that doesn't XOR at all. I haven't
a clue what it does.

What I have entered:
sim> ie -m 100-105
100:TAD 76
101:AND 77
102:CLL RAL
103:CIA
104:TAD 76
105:DCA 77

Locations 076 and 077 being ARGONE and ARGTWO respectively, at the start:
sim> ie 076-077
76: 1234
77: 4321

After running the above code sample:
sim> ie 076-077
76: 1234
77: 0574

If we "flip" ARGONE and ARGTWO's values (to 4321 and 1234 respectively):
sim> ie 076-077
76: 4321
77: 3661

Neither of those is the expected 5115 of an XOR operation.

Am I missing something blindingly obvious?


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: IBM Selectric-based Terminals

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 15 December 2015 at 15:05, Mike Ross  wrote:
> What other OSes might have native 2741 support built in, anyone know?
>
I might be completely wrong, but I think some of the early UNIX
versions might "speak" 2741. But I'm not sure. Perhaps a sufficiently
"vintage" RSX-11 might as well?

Of course like Guy Sotomayor said, IBM mainframe operating systems can
speak 2741. OS/360 can, and I'm pretty sure so can MVS and VM/370 but
my IBM knowledge is somewhat limited.


Also, I really want one of those 2741s. Selectrics that can do I/O are
*bleep*ing cool.

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: IBM Selectric-based Terminals

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 15 December 2015 at 20:21, William Donzelli  wrote:
> DEC made a Selectric interface called LT33 or something, consisting of
If I recall my DEC naming correctly, the LT33 is *not* for the
Selectric. It (and the corresponding LT35) are the modifications made
to private line Model 33 (and Model 35, respectively) ASR Teletype
machines to make them work as the console teleprinter (and have the
reader work under computer control).

Then again, they could have reused the name "LT33" but that would get confusing.

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Accessible Computing (Was "Re: Display-less computing")

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 13 December 2015 at 13:46, Chuck Guzis  wrote:
> At CDC Sunnyvale ops back in the 1970s, we had a blind programmer working.
> His job output came as punched cards and he had no problem reading them by
> feel.  I remember him and his beautiful guide dog.
>
Hmm, that kinda makes sense. It would be kinda/sorta like braille. (I
guess that would also work for punched tape as well.) I couldn't tell
you how good it would be though, I might be vision impaired, but not
enough that I've learnt braille. I wonder if any minis or mainframes
(or micros) could actually produce output as braille...


> In the same sort of spirit, I recall that one of the secretaries used a
> monitor-cum-camera affair to enlarge her work documents so that she could
> read them.
>
CCTV readers. They're still a thing. The tests and exams centre at my
university has a bunch of them (one each per exam room, and a bunch of
old analogue ones still sitting about). I find the older analogue ones
are better than the newer digital ones. If only because the text zoom
is more "fluid" (my preferred size of "embiggened" (what, it's a
perfectly cromulent word) text is right between two of the settings on
the machines we have which is mildly annoying); they also have less
artefacts when using non-standard video modes (reverse video, or high
contrast modes).


> It's sad that early corporate efforts to accommodate all people, no matter
> the impairment, aren't better documented.
>
I'd buy a book on that in a heartbeat; necause that is very much of
interest to myself. I know DEC had their DECtalk speech synthesizers
(isn't the eminent Dr. Hawking's voice an old DECtalk?) and they could
be connected to serial lines.


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: IBM 2260 acoustic delay line

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 12 December 2015 at 22:13, Eric Christopherson
 wrote:
> I'm reading about those terminals and find it just fascinating how they
> used acoustic delay line memory to remember the pixels. But I have lots
> of questions:
>
> 1. Did the cables connecting the 2260s to the display controller
> actually contain the delay lines themselves, over the whole length; or
> were the delay lines just inside the controller and then some electronic
> signal was sent out to the terminals?
>
The delay lines were only within the 2848 control unit. From the
descriptions by others on the list, the 2260 displays were completely
dumb, and would display whatever was sent to them if I'm reading
things correctly.


> 2. I would think that the wave travelling along the delay line would
> weaken over time. How was it refreshed?
>
Once the signal reached the end of the delay line it was sensed,
regenerated and put back into the delay line, while also being
converted to scanlines to be sent to the 2260. Similar to the mercury
delay line memories of older machines like the UNIVAC, or EDSAC.
Though the 2848's delay lines were wire based not long mercury tanks.


> 3. What kind of speed could be acheived, and did this depend on the
> number of connected terminals?
>
You can most likely find that information in a manual. I think that
the A27-2700 manual will have it, located on BitSavers, of course:



Not an expert, just someone with some itnerest in it.

Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

SCSI Questions (Was: "Re: Purchased a Microvax 3800")

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 6 December 2015 at 13:24, Mark G. Thomas  wrote:
> As much as I love old CPUs, I've lost my patience with hard disk drives.
> I've been using AztecMonster (search ebay) CF-SCSI adapters, with several-GB
> CF cards instead of spinning disks. The KA660 and several PDP-11/83s
> here run reliably from CF storage. I see now there are SCSI2SD cards for
> half the price of the AztecMonster CF adapters I've been using. These
> might be an alternative, if they play okay with whatever q-bus SCSI
> controller you find. Installing from SCSI CDROM and using flash
> storage is definitely the way to go if you can get the parts.
>
That's great news to hear that the AztecMonster works on QBUS PDP-11s.
I now know exactly what my future plans are...

But I have a "random" question for those here. I know some of the QBUS
(and UNIBUS) SCSI controllers can act both as an MSCP and TMSCP
controller. (CMD CQD-220A/TM for one example.) And I know that several
of the PDP-11 operating systems install from tape, and can install
from TMSCP tape (hello RSTS/E). What I'd like to know is: Is there
anything out there that can emulate a SCSI tape device on a CF card/SD
card/USB stick/what-have-you?


Best regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: SCSI Questions (Was: "Re: Purchased a Microvax 3800")

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 7 December 2015 at 14:29, Johnny Billquist  wrote:
> I think all (modern PDP-11) OSes can install from TMSCP tapes. RSTS/E is
> more picky than some others, though, if I remember right...
>
Yes, RSTS/E installs from TMSCP just fine (as can RSX-11/M+); I know
that in simh you can bring up Ultrix-11 3.1 only on TMSCP
(specifically a TK50), at least if you want all of the packages to
install. I've installed RSTS/E 10.1-L from MASSBUS, TS11, TM11, and
TMSCP in my various experimentation with emulation, it really doesn't
care what the tape is as long as your SYSGEN device is consistent.


> As for your actual question, that is outside the scope of the PDP-11. You
> are asking if there is some SCSI storage, that physically looks like a CF
> card (or so), but logically on the SCSI bus looks like a tape.
>
Yeah, probably my phrasing or organization was a bit off, but what I
meant wasn't with regards to just the PDP-11, but with regards to a
general device that looks like a SCSI tape device. Since such a SCSI
device could, like you said, work on a PDP-11, modern x86-64 (if the
SCSI bus is right), VAX, Alpha, et cetera.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Looking for an IBM manual PDF

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

Hello all,

I'm looking for a PDF copy of IBM manual GC26-3792-8. The System
Generation manual for MVS 3.8; the only PDF I found of GC26-3792 is of
the -1 version, which is not particularly helpful.

I found a DjVu of the manual (via this site:
) namely here:

Unfortunately, downloading the DjVu file does nothing (SumatraPDF on
Windows can't render any of the pages, and Evince on Debian 8.2.0 just
ignores the file); the Java applet to view it works... except it
doesn't play nice with my accessibility needs.

So, anyone have a PDF of that manual?

Cheers,
Christian

Re: 11/70 front panel colors

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 21 November 2015 at 09:04, Charles Dickman  wrote:
> Here is my attempt to convert the DEC Standard 092 color specifications to RGB
>
> http://www.chdickman.com/pdp8/DECcolors/
>
> No Wild Rose on the list, but there is a Brite Rose.
>

A possible slight correction for your list.
Pantone Process Blue is 0, 133, 207 (X'0082CA'). Basing this off of
the Pantone Solid Coated colour library in Adobe Photoshop CC2015.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Looking for an IBM manual PDF

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 21 November 2015 at 20:40, Eric Christopherson
 wrote:
> FWIW, Christian's message is shown in Gmail along with a warning that
> "similar" messages (similar how?) are often phishing attempts.
>
Porbably because URLs were in the e-mail, I would guess.

...And now I'm probably in a spam list. So that's fun.


Also, I'd like to send my thanks out to Jim Stephens who found both a
better link to the manuals, and more importantly a way to get the DjVu
files to PDF. Thank you kindly!

Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Fair price and ways to find a teletype

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 14 October 2015 at 00:25, Brad  wrote:
> I only ever see teletypes for sale on ebay, only in the US, and of course I
> don't bite because of shipping costs, plus usually people ask insane prices
> for them.  I am wondering what a reasonable price should be for a unit with
> a paper tape reader, and any tips on how I might go about finding one beyond
> Craigs, etc, up here in Canada.  And anything I should watch out for and so
> on.
>
Greenkeys mailing list:
 Has everything you
ever wanted to know about Teletype machines (though most discussion
revolves around Model 15 and Model 28; e.g. the "Baudot" machines
you'd encounter for Telex, and in the applications most often
discussed, RTTY.

Of course discussion of the Model 33 (and other teleprinters both by
Teletype Corporation and others) is welcome, and so is buying and
selling and discussions of such.


Also, cheers from a fellow Canuck.


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: PDP-12 Restoration at the RICM

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 11 October 2015 at 10:42, Michael Thompson
 wrote:
> We are running out of things to try for debugging the TC12 controller in
> the PDP-12. At this point we are really stumped as to why the TC12 doesn't
> work correctly. We are going to try a few remaining ideas like running the
> TC12 from a laboratory power supply.
>
> We would welcome any ideas that you have.
>
I'm most assuredly not an expert, and have zero clue what I'm talking about...


But have you checked that the wire wrap on the backplane is all good?
Perhaps Some of the backplane wrap has gotten damaged and that's why
the TC12 isn't working correctly.


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: VMS and supported VAX hardware

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 3 October 2015 at 18:51, Johnny Billquist  wrote:
> As far as I can remember, none of the VAX-11 models were officially
> supported by OpenVMS 7.3. The oldest model that were supported (if I
> remember right) was the VAX 86x0.

Glen Slick posted the official list of what was supported and what had
support dropped for it. However…:
$ sho cpu

NEBULA, a VAX-11/730
Multiprocessing is DISABLED. Uniprocessing synchronization image loaded.

PRIMARY CPU = 00
Active CPUs:  00
Configured CPUs:  00
$ sho mem
  System Memory Resources on  3-OCT-2015 23:21:43.53

Physical Memory Usage (pages): TotalFree  In UseModified
  Main Memory (5.00Mb) 1024037046439  97

Virtual I/O Cache Usage (pages):   TotalFree  In Use Maximum
  Cache Memory   347   0 3473819

Slot Usage (slots):TotalFreeResident Swapped
  Process Entry Slots 80  70  10   0
  Balance Set Slots   17   9   8   0

Dynamic Memory Usage (bytes):  TotalFree  In Use Largest
  Nonpaged Dynamic Memory 765440  341248  424192  233984
  Paged Dynamic Memory558080  431888  126192  431440

Paging File Usage (pages):  Free  Reservable   Total
  DISK$OVMSVAXSYS:[SYS0.SYSEXE]SWAPFILE.SYS
100810081008
  DISK$OVMSVAXSYS:[SYS0.SYSEXE]PAGEFILE.SYS
   31985   17850   34000

Of the physical pages in use, 4063 pages are permanently allocated to OpenVMS.
$ sho sys
OpenVMS V7.3  on node NEBULA   3-OCT-2015 23:21:48.08  Uptime  0 00:12:13
  PidProcess NameState  Pri  I/O   CPU   Page flts  Pages
0081 SWAPPER HIB 160   0 00:00:00.04 0  0
0084 CONFIGURE   HIB  8   10   0 00:00:00.01   113158
0086 IPCACP  HIB 106   0 00:00:00.01   128 95
0087 ERRFMT  HIB  8   32   0 00:00:00.02   145211
0089 OPCOM   HIB  8   52   0 00:00:00.03   327 96
008A AUDIT_SERVERHIB 10   68   0 00:00:00.09   690488
008B JOB_CONTROL HIB 10   27   0 00:00:00.02   191200
008C SECURITY_SERVER HIB 10   32   0 00:00:00.09  2533456
008E SYSTEM  CUR  7  544   0 00:00:02.39  3769349
$

So yes, [Open]VMS 7.3 will run on a VAX-11 series VAX. And probably
even on a microVAX as well (though I haven't tried).



That's SIMH, by the way, not a real 11/730. (Unfortunately.)


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Is tape dead?

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 15 September 2015 at 13:52, Fred Cisin  wrote:
> Would anybody really trust the miscreants to provide the key after the
> ransom is paid?
>
They actually do deliver. It's their "business model"; if they didn't
deliver the keys to decrypt your data after paying them, then
eventually word would get out that they don't and no one would pay
them anymore. Plus, delivering the keys is pretty much an automated
e-mail system probably.

Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: internet blocking problem ?

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 10 September 2015 at 22:07, Alexis Kotlowy
 wrote:
> iiNet have been outspoken about users' rights and privacy in the face of
> the War on Piracy. While they don't condone piracy, they have serious
> concerns about the way it's being dealt with (or at least that's my
> understanding).
>
> I get the impression some ISP's are blocking access to iiNet. I don't
> see how this could do anything other than hurt the end users, but that
> seems to be the tactic the content owners have taken in the past so I
> wouldn't be surprised.
>
It'll only get worse if the TPP goes through…


> Can you do a traceroute to members.iinet.net.au? In case DNS is blocked,
> the IP address is 203.0.178.90. I've been on iiNet since they bought out
> my previous ISP.
>
Doing a traceroute from my home, which is serviced by TekSavvy (in
Canada); my connection to members.iinet.net.au dies at a router owned
by Hurricane Electric, Inc. of California. Since it seems to bounce
through a few of their routers, I'm assuming that whoever Hurricane
Electric hands off the packets to kills it. (Based on my traceroute;
other results may vary.)

>From a friend of mine on RoadRunner (I won't say where, but in the USA
of course); their trace dies as it leaves the Cogent Communications
network (since it bounces through a few of their servers before
dying).


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: ASR-33 differences

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 26 August 2015 at 14:03, tony duell a...@p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:
 I've only ever seen the ones with 3 position levers, but from reading the
 manuals I think the 3 position levers are manual control models and
 4 position levers are automatic control models (with extra levers and
 swtiches in the stunt box to start and stop the reader using XON/XOFF
 characters)

You are correct. The four position reader control lever are for
machines that use DC1/DC3 (XON/XOFF) to control the reader
automatically.


 The 3 position lever models (manual control) can certainly take the reader
 run relay and be used with PDP8s and PDP11s.

If I recall correctly; weren't the preferred versions of the 33ASR
for use where the reader was controlled by the computer the 3-position
manual reader control models? Since the reader won't run unless the
computer is asserting the reader control lines anyway, and with such
hardware flow control XON/XOFF automatic control become redundant.


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 21 August 2015 at 14:08, Chuck Guzis ccl...@sydex.com wrote:
 This leads to some interesting situations.  Archibald Joyce wrote his
 Autumn Dreams waltz in 1908 and it has been reported to be the tune the
 orchestra was playing as the Titanic sank in 1912 (contrary to popular
 belief, it is extremely unlikely that the band played Nearer My God to
 Thee as they would not have been familiar with the hymn).

They might have been familiar with a different arrangement of the hymn
tune; though no one really knows what was played during the sinking of
the Titanic.


 As Joyce lived to a ripe old age and died in 1963, the work is still very
 much under copyright protection in the UK.  However, the same work was
 published in 1921 in the USA, so it is public domain there.

You want fun with music copyrights? Please go look at the IMSLP
project. Here's their page on how copyrights work with regards to the
sheet music/scores they are archiving:
http://imslp.org/wiki/Public_domain


 As mentioned before, works of Soviet writers and composers were considered
 to be PD (unless copyright was obtained outside of the USSR) by the US
 during the Cold War--similarly, the USSR did not recognize foreign
 copyright.  So you could purchase the sheet music of Shostakovitch for a
 pittance.  After the fall of the Soviet Union, the US moved to restore
 Soviet copyright and so removed works back into copyright status.  If you
 want to publish Shostakovitch, you now must deal with his estate--and
 copyright will endure to about 2050.

 --Chuck

2026 is when IMSLP will allow you to start uploading works by
Shostakovitch to their archive. (Canadian servers only! The US and EU
need to wait.)


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: PDP-12 at the RICM

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 13 July 2015 at 16:09, Noel Chiappa j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu wrote:
  From: Rich Alderson

  PDP-1212-bit word, PDP-8/i + LINC hybrid

 Err, DEC sold a PDP-8/LINC hybrid themselves (interesting machine, it's
 covered in one of the standard PDP-8 processor manuals), before the PDP-12
 came out; the -12 was basically a re-engineered version of the 8/LINC.

 Noel
Yes, that's the LINC-8 (you nearly had the name right). Though Rich's
list was just of the machines that had PDP- in the name.


As an aside comment. Didn't the PDP-14 require a PDP-8 for setup? (An
OMNIBUS '8, so an /e, /f, /m, or /A if I recall right.)


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: TTY 33 - Finally

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 3 July 2015 at 21:50, Rick Bensene ri...@bensene.com wrote:
 Hello, all,

 Today I received a very nice, (mostly) operational Teletype ASR-33.  It is in 
 really stunning condition...no cracks, very little discoloring, everything is 
 there, and the best part is that it is very clean inside, and it works great 
 as far as I can test it in local mode, except for one thing:

 The paper tape reader has a problem.  Put a tape in, clip down the cover (not 
 this is all done in LOCAL mode), and press the lever to START, and the tape 
 reads one frame, prints the character, the reader stops, and the printer acts 
 like it is receiving a BREAK signal...just free-runs without printing 
 anything more.  Only way to stop it is to power it off, then power it back on 
 again.

 I know there is the Green Keys list, but I'm not a member (though I probably 
 should be now), but knowing the knowledge base of folks on this list, I 
 figured I'd ask here first, and see if anyone has any ideas.

Congratulations on getting a nice 33ASR! Yeah, still you should hit up
the Greenkeys list:
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/greenkeys

Just never discuss what oil to use.


 I'm wondering if perhaps TTL or (I'd never get so lucky) RS-232 signals are 
 used for the coupler.  I haven't taken the cover off the unit yet to 
 determine if how the cable is connected into the terminal, as I'm really 
 itching to hook this thing up to my PDP 8/e and do some period-correct 
 computing.   If the terminal only does current-loop, I think that I can make 
 a cable that'll work with the serial card in the 8/e to get the terminal 
 going (I seem to remember the serial card (can't remember the M number) can 
 do both current loop and RS-232), but if the TTY could easily do RS-232, then 
 it'd be a snap to hook it up.
 Last week I did order a nice little Black Box Current Loop to RS-232 
 converter, which will make things easier, but it'll be a few days before it 
 gets here.

Not seeing it, or the modem, that six prong cable from the Teletype
itself is probably current loop. What four pins for the actual loop
(RX+, RX-, TX+, and TX-), the other two I guess could be power for the
modem if it doesn't have an external supply. (Or they could be
unused.)


Unfortunately to connect it to your PDP-8/e, you would need to modify
the Teletype according to DEC's LT33 modifications. Most of which has
to do with putting the reader under computer control. Dave Gesswein's
site I believe has a scan of the manual/printset/thing I believe.



 Fortunately, the TTY also came with original Teletype technical docs, so once 
 I get it open, I should be pretty easily able to figure things out.

That's excellent. Still, Greenkeys list for all things teleprinter.
They'd probably also be able to help with making the machine usable
with your 8/e as something other than a remote terminal.


Regards,
Christian


P.S. The proper nomeclature is 33ASR, not ASR33. Teletype Model
33, Automatic-Send-Receive is better sounding (and seems more
grammatically correct) than Teletype Automatic-Send-Receive Model
33. Though, I believe we can blame DEC for swapping the the model
number and type (ASR, KSR, or RO) of the Teletype machines. Since in
the PDP-4 brochure on BitSavers they say KSR28. If I recall
correctly.
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: out-of-mainstream minis

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 2 July 2015 at 17:39, Mike Ross tmfdm...@gmail.com wrote:
 Take the IBM System/7. Successor to the 1800, succeeded by the
 Series/1. They were *ubiquitous* - one in every telephone exchange in
 the USA, I've heard. They even made a special ruggedised version for
Being into telephony, I can say that I've not heard anything about IBM
System/7 machines being used in exchanges. I do know that the WECo ESS
exchanges did, of course, have computers. But the ESS exchange
computers were custom systems and architectures built by Western
Electric.

The 1ESS/1AESS computer architecture is however, nearly completely
extinct. There are, I believe, only two 1ESS/1AESS switches left. One
is a partial, and non-functional exchange at the museum of
communications in Seattle; the processor is complete, and it has one
of each requisite switching frame, but it can't be used as they need
to recompile the software that runs it (which isn't possible as
they're lacking the crucial internal compiler that ran on WECo's IBM
System/3x0 machines). The other 1ESS/1AESS switch is a complete and
functional unit, still in service, last I heard. But there are plans
to scrap it and put in a modern switch in its place. Saving it would
be a difficult proposition, to say the least.


Regards,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Nopecraft - was Re: OT: learner kits

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 21 June 2015 at 18:21, Tapley, Mark mtap...@swri.edu wrote:
 It’s actually full V10 Mathematica, which was the thing that pushed me into 
 getting it. It does depend on the web-link for lots of the help features, but 
 I think is otherwise complete. It is also SLOW compared to most Mathematica 
 platforms. I didn’t find out about the availability of the obsolete Minecraft 
 version until later; my son spent some time with it but didn’t get hooked 
 into other Pi features (and now owns his own x86 laptop).

The RPi comes with a free full version of Mathematica? That intrigues
me; I've never used it before but I hear it's similar to MAPLE? (Then
again in terms of CAS's I'm quite happy with the one on my TI-89
Titanium.)


 Many thanks to all for the Minecraft mod suggestions; I’ll pass those on to 
 Will the 14-year-old and see whether he feels like downloading some to make 
 his redstone creations more programmable; like Toby I’m not a huge MineCrack 
 fan but Will is spending time on it anyway; if he learns FORTH or 6502 
 assembly as a side-effect of fooling around in MineCraft, that seems like a 
 step forward.

The mod that does FORTH on a 6502 is a bit dead. Right now the best
you can get is Lua. Yo uneed an obsolte version of MineCraft to use
old RedPower 2 (which has the 6502 and FORTH interpreter). I think
V1.4.6?


 He did help me write some code on the CARDIAC simulator (which rocks) but may 
 have run out of interest in that, but at least he has this much intro to 
 machine language.

 https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardiac.html
 https://www.cs.drexel.edu/~bls96/museum/cardsim.html

Have you tried setting him at a PDP-8 or PDP-11 simulator yet? Much
more productive than Minecraft, and if you can find a simulator that
also simulates a front panel...


Cheers,
Christian
-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Will Anyone Sell Me A Couple Of DecTapes?

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On Friday, 19 June 2015, tony duell a...@p850ug1.demon.co.uk wrote:

 [1] No, not a TU55. This is a TU56 with just one transport and a blanking
 plate over the other holes, It is
 an official DEC variant.

 TU56H  is the name of that one. If I recall correctly.


Cheers,
Christian


-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Front Panels Personal Update

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On Thursday, 18 June 2015, Pontus Pihlgren pon...@update.uu.se wrote:

 The article pointed to by URL above specifically state that it isn't.

 /P


Yeah, I realized that once my phone's *bleep* internet actually loaded the
page... about two minutes after I sent the mail.

That article is quite neat, I must say. I always thought that the logo was
only Helvetica, but it's interesting to see what it really is.


Cheers,
Christian


-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.

Re: Bitcoining on a 1401

[Christian Gauger-Cosgrove]

On 28 May 2015 at 14:12, Fred Cisin ci...@xenosoft.com wrote:
 Excellent!
 Does anybody have enough 1401s to run them in parallel to speed up the
 process?

Well, I think there are a few IBM System/360 and System/370 machines
out there, I think. Why not just use them in 1401 emulation mode (if
they have that option)? Should help as well.

...What do you mean just use them natively? But that's not nearly as funny!


 I wonder whether the 1401 emulator for the 1620 could do it?


Probably would still be a bit slow though. Maybe we could convince all
the people doing mining to just not mine one block and let the 1401s,
and hardware emulations of said architecture mine it? You know, for
the shits and giggles.


-- 
Christian M. Gauger-Cosgrove
STCKON08DS0
Contact information available upon request.