Re: Women of Computing

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

I'm curious what your definition of 'woke' is, because it seems grossly 
misapplied in this instance.


--Jason


On 12/4/21 10:20, Chris Long via cctalk wrote:

Great.not.

Why do we need woke Lego?

-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Zane Healy via cctalk
Sent: 03 December 2021 17:35
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Subject: Women of Computing

I really want to see this set produced, especially for the “Ada Lovelace” and 
“Admiral Hopper” portions of the set.

https://ideas.lego.com/blogs/a4ae09b6-0d4c-4307-9da8-3ee9f3d368d6/post/f39b7001-bf76-46ba-9d61-cb586f1c7a7d

https://ideas.lego.com/projects/3bf5b46c-6c87-4a2d-a2e1-d31ed0e2739e

Zane

Re: Writings on AI from 17 years ago....

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On Sun, 2021-05-23 at 21:34 -0400, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
> Anyone know if the LCM will be open 


Considering there is no staff as they were all laid off and have now
all found other jobs, I'd guess that's a hard no.  They'd basically
need to spin up from 0 again -- considering Vulcan shut down LCM,
Cinerama and the Flying Heritage Museum as soon as they could after
Paul's death -- I put my money on asset dispersal, rather than
reopening.

I say with a pit in my stomach as a former member and regular visitor.

EMP (or whatever the hell they're called now) survived because they had
been spun off as a separate legal entity from Paul's Vulcan empire.


--Jason

Re: Way off topic: posting to the list using default Samsung Android Mail Client

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 11/10/20 3:45 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote:



Proper old-fashioned internet-standard email is totally unknown to the
authors of modern email clients, such as for phones etc.


Hell, even Gmail borked the display of plain text emails a while back.

I started getting questions like, "What happened to the formatting of 
these auto-emails?"  Gmail.  Gmail happened.


--Jason

Re: OpenVMS Community License

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 7/28/20 9:39 AM, Camiel Vanderhoeven via cctalk wrote:


Not supported, sure, but it will probably work just fine. When we released 
8.4-2L1 I tested it on DEC 3000 AXP and DEC 4000 AXP systems, and it ran fine 
on those.

Kind regards,

Camiel Vanderhoeven

VMS Software, Inc.
R Department

OpenVMS Kernel Engineer
www.vmssoftware.com


Hi Camiel,

I'm curious how much memory your DEC 3000 has and if you found the 
8.4-2L1 release was less of a memory hog than the latest 8.4 release 
from HP.  I have 192Mb in my DEC 3000 and while that was more than 
adequate for 8.3, once I moved to 8.4 I ended swapping to disk a lot 
during seemingly mundane tasks.


Best,
Jason

Re: Dilithium Press (Computer Books)

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

Agreed, this sounds like a ton of fun to implement.

--Jason

On 7/14/20 6:45 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

I’d love details on this!  This sounds vaguely like a game I played on a Harris 
Minicomputer in the late 80’s.

Zane




On Jul 14, 2020, at 12:03 PM, Henk Gooijen  wrote:

  
If I am not mistaken, I have a book called Star Trek and it is from Dilithium Press!

Memory is a bit vague, but it must be on one of my shelves.
The book describes in “FORTRAN style” the procedures for an NCC1701 simulator 
But if you dig deeper, there is * a lot * to do yourself.
Anyway, this book was my inspiration to build a StarShip simulator back in the 
(19)80-ties.
  
Henk
  
Van: Zane Healy via cctalk 

Verzonden: dinsdag 14 juli 2020 15:53
Aan: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 

Onderwerp: Dilithium Press (Computer Books)
  
Out of curiosity, does anyone know anything about this publisher?  They apparently existed in the late 70’s and early 80’s.  They were apparently located in Beaverton, Oregon in the same business park, on Nimbus, where Norvac Electronics was.  They obviously published some very strange computer books, including what looks to be a teen romance.  I find myself with an embarrassingly nice little collection of the books, that my Dad apparently had.  Considering I think he touched a computer twice in his life, they’re something of a mystery.


Best title, “Nailing Jelly to a Tree”, which is apparently a book on Software.

The publisher sounds vaguely familiar, and I think I might have one or two 
other books from them in my collection.

Zane

Re: Compaq Smart Array 3200 Controller as a SCSI Controller

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 7/14/20 10:47 AM, Ali via cctalk wrote:

This may be a bit too new for this list but I thought what the heck - maybe
one of you Compaq/DEC/HP guys would know:

Is there any reason a Smart Array controller can't be used as a simple SCSI
controller? I.E. No array, just using it to drive a tape library? TIA!

-Ali



All the Smart Array controllers, to my knowledge, have the ability to 
run as a JBOD, so I imagine that would work. The biggest issue I've 
found with older SA controllers, is getting them configured (and driver 
support for really old ones on modern OSes).


--Jason

Re: DS10 Alpha question = Sata Drive card?

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 6/11/20 11:32 AM, Bob Smith via cctalk wrote:

Correct.  One of he BSDs or Linux
bb

On Thu, Jun 11, 2020 at 2:24 PM Zane Healy  wrote:





On Jun 11, 2020, at 11:19 AM, Bob Smith via cctalk  
wrote:

Can anyone recommend a SATA card that will work with a DS10 Alpha, and
which OS supports that card?

thanks
bob


I take it you’re trying to run something other than OpenVMS?

Zane


I mean it's a PCI Bus machine (With PCI-X) so any card that has drivers 
for your given OS will "work".


The major caveat is that there are no SATA cards that SRM will boot from.

My DS20, however has a boot partition on IDE->CFCard Adapter, (which SRM 
knows how to boot from), and then load the OS from the 3ware 8xxx Raid 
card.


I'm running Gentoo Linux, but I have to imagine that NetBSD would 
function in a similar way.


--Jason

Re: Living Computer Museum

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 5/29/20 2:31 PM, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:

On 05/29/2020 03:05 PM, Rich Alderson via cctalk wrote:

Just to make sure everyone knows that we haven't lost our minds:

Nothing is going in the skip/dumpster/e-waste recycling bin.  It's a 
long pause, that's all.



Well, that's a relief, at least!

Jon
Honestly, I'm less concerned about the equipment itself.  It will either 
be on display again at some future LCM incarnation, or sold off in some 
fashion where interested parties can try to buy it.


The loss of the institution is very sad and I'm mourning that loss, as 
we all are.


Right now, however, I'm mostly worried about my friends who work there. 
They are not only mourning the loss of the place that they've poured 
themselves into for years, but now are also scrambling for economic 
security.  Even during this pandemic, most of us working in the tech 
sector enjoy a truly uncommon level of job security.  Even in the tech 
sector though, the hiring process totally fucked everywhere right now 
and these folks now have to navigate that nightmare.  This is what I'm 
most worried about.


--Jason

Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

One of the machines I have still has it's permanent license (along with 
the pretty paper license) for the OS.  It's all the auxiliary packages 
you need to do anything useful that are going to be the headache.


--Jason

On 3/7/20 9:27 AM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:



On Mar 7, 2020, at 9:07 AM, John H. Reinhardt 
 wrote:

On 3/7/2020 8:10 AM, Zane Healy wrote:

On Mar 7, 2020, at 5:00 AM, Michael Kerpan via cctalk mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

Well that's sad news. Since VMS Software may or may not ever launch a
proper hobbyist program and has stated that they don't have the ability to
issue licenses for VAX versions of VMS, that means we have until 2021 to
legally use VMS on the vintage hardware or emulations. After that, I guess
we will have to either sail the seven seas or learn to love 4.3BSD...

Mike

If VSI doesn’t have the ability to issue VAX versions of the VMS license, will 
it be possible to buy VAX licenses?  I’m curious as about five years ago, I had 
to help buy VAX/VMS licenses for a project.
Zane

On the HECnet list, David Moylan had sent an inqujiry to the OpenVMS Customer 
Lab and got this as a response

"  Users who wish to avail of HPE OpenVMS long term licenses are encouraged to

  purchase permanent licenses at standard prices. You may contact [Fellman, Jon]

   for the same."


So this HP person, Jon Fellman looks like the person to ask about buying an OpenVMS VAX 
license.  I've sent him an email but I don't expect a response until Monday at least.  
The "standard prices" part doesn't' look encouraging.

--
John H. Reinhardt
  
The thing is, most people don’t know they need a real VAX/VMS license, until they find themselves doing something that will require it at some point in the future.  It’s not a normal need, but it is one I’ve seen.  I sure can’t justify buying any right now.


Zane

Re: FW: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

I've been looking for a Selectric terminal for some time.  Sadly, I'm 
not really in driving distance to Carson City.



--Jason

On 12/14/19 11:19 PM, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote:

I wonder if there is any interest here...



-Original Message-
From: greenkeys-boun...@mailman.qth.net  On 
Behalf Of John Lawson
Sent: 10 December 2019 17:41
To: greenk...@mailman.qth.net
Subject: [GreenKeys] DURA Selectric ASR terminals free


Greetings List!

I have a couple of "DURA" Selectric ASR terminals.  I also have some limited 
documentation on them. Neither of them work as far as I know. I tried to run the one in 
the pic when I first got it, but it's jammed - so on the shelf it went.

They appear to be an 8-level code, dunno if ASCII, EBCDIC, or what.

These are joining the ever-expanding list of "Projects Never to be Completed", 
so if anyone is interested, lemme know.

They are free, you pay shipping, they are about 50 pounds each and will require 
some thoughtful packing.

Local pickup is happily offered, and I could possibly be bribed into delivering 
them within a day's drive of Carson City (weather permitting).


Cheers

John KB6SCO

Carson City

Re: 1983 UBC PDP-11 Unix tools distribution

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On Thu, 7 Mar 2019, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote:


I'm sure there are.
Usenix threw out the copies of their tapes that were given back to them to 
preserve.



Oof, that reads like a punch to the gut.

--Jason

Re: Bogus "account hacked" message

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On Tue, 8 Jan 2019, Grant Taylor via cctalk wrote:

What's easier to do:

1)  Go find and repeatedly scrape mailing list archives for sending email 
addresses.


2)  Subscribe one email address to the same mailing lists and have the 
messages delivered to you where you can have an automated process scrape the 
incoming messages.


I know what I think has the better RoI and lower TCO.



--
Grant. . . .
unix || die

Um, it's easiest to write one script which can scrape and harvest 
thousands of email archives everynight.   So, 1 it is...


--Jason

Re: More old stuff incoming

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

Indeed.

Just this year, we pulled our Pentium Pro box off our museum shelf and 
did a fresh install of NT4 for a faculty member and their scientific 
instrument.


--Jason



On 12/18/18 5:48 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

On Dec 18, 2018, at 2:51 PM, ben via cctalk  wrote:

I would take a guess for custom hardware or software that never migrated to 
Windows 13 or USB IIV. Ben.

Being a photographer, I know there is a real market for this.  Many high-end 
scanners will only work with older Macintosh or Windows systems.  I have a scanner 
that originally cost $10,000, and the only software for it runs on Windows XP 
(thankfully I can use Parallels Desktop to run XP and use it).  Other, even more 
expensive scanners require even older software that requires physical systems.  I 
also have some pretty high-end Macintosh A/V HW & SW that won’t run on newer 
systems.

I’m sure there is plenty of lab type equipment in this category as well.

Zane

Re: Swap clarification (Was: bill was my first "real" computer comoany customer"

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 11/13/18 2:37 PM, William Sudbrink via cctalk wrote:

Fred Cisin wrote:


Opened to public at 10:00 AM, by which time, the vendors had been buying
each others stuff for quite a while.  "It's worth getting a vendor table,
just for the early admission!"

That's true for just about any hamfest/swap meet, isn't it?  Buy stuff right
out

of the back of the truck as it is unloaded.

  


Bill S.
My favorite thing is watching someone buy a thing from one table at a 
pretty good deal, then a few rows later, see that same guy at his own 
table, re-selling that same thing for 2x the price.


--Jason

Re: Computing from 1976

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

On 01/01/2018 05:15 AM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:

The machine I'm
typing this on has a 1.4GHz single-core CPU, and _most_ things run on it just
fine - but going to many Web sites is now painful, since the 'obligatory'
HTTPS (another hot button, one I'll refrain from hitting right now, to keep
the length of this down) makes even simple Web operations slow.

Noel
I find that the boatloads of javascript are what bring my old machines 
to their knees.  The initial https handshake really isn't *that* bad.


--Jason

Free Not really old software

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

All,

I picked up a big lot of stuff this past weekend.  Amongst the pile of 
quite desirable Apple items (Feb '84 Macintosh!!!) were versions of 
"Canvas" graphics software for Windows.  Boxed versions of Canvas 3, 5 
and 6.


Free if anyone wants it.  Comes with training material on VHS tapes!

I'm not inclined to waste the shelf space on these myself. Pickup in 
Seattle or  I guess I'll ship it if you have a burning desire for it.


http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomputing/tmp/re_20171114_193434.jpg

--Jason

Re: DEC Alpha 3000 and OpenVMS 8.4

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

Hi Camiel,

Is there a solution for Hobbyists to get the VSI 8.4 Alpha release?

Last time I checked/inquired it seemed like there was uncertainty about 
it.  And from what I understand the standard HP Hobbyists License PAKs 
won't be of much use on a VSI system.


Thanks,
Jason


On 10/13/2017 03:36 AM, Camiel Vanderhoeven via cctalk wrote:

On 10/13/17, 6:50 AM, "cctalk on behalf of Zane Healy via cctalk"
 wrote:


The system can actually run stock 8.4?  I believe that at least the
latest 8.4 release from VSI requires a 21264 CPU.

VSI here :-)

While it¹s not supported, and hasn¹t been qualified, 8.4 - including the
VSI release 8.4-2L1 for Alpha - would probably run fine on a DEC 3000 or
4000. The one release that won¹t run on it is 8.4-2L2, which is the
performance build version of 8.4-2L1. Performance build means that the
compiler was told to optimize for EV6, and hence it won¹t run on anything
older than that.

Camiel.

Re: DEC Alpha 3000 and OpenVMS 8.4

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

I have 8.4 running on a DEC 3000 as well.  SSH works fine for me.  I 
think I have a 4GB system disk and have all kinds of extra software 
installed.  It's currently on the shelf, so I can't tell exactly how 
much space I'm using -- but erm, I'd look for at least a 4GB drive ;)


I've wanted to upgrade to a 68pin drive myself, but there's just no room 
in the case for a drive + adapter, so you're kinda looking at an 
external drive cabinet at that point.


--Jason


On 10/12/2017 09:50 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:

The system can actually run stock 8.4?  I believe that at least the latest 8.4 
release from VSI requires a 21264 CPU.

IIRC, you can make it work with a 68-pin drive, but you may need an adapter 
with active termination on the pins that get dropped.  I’m pretty sure I had 
something like this going on one of my early Alpha’s.  Though it might have 
been going the other way.

Question, have you tried SSH under 8.4?  My XP1000 is still running 8.3, and 
TCPIP 5.6-9.  I’ve found that I can no longer SSH into the system from my Mac, 
as the version the VMS system is running is unsupported.

Zane



On Oct 12, 2017, at 9:38 PM, Douglas Taylor via cctalk  
wrote:

I'm trying to bring up an Alpha machine, a 3000-300, the hardware is working 
fine, but I have some questions-

The system disk is an RZ26 (1.06GB) and I installed the OS and one layered 
product and the disk is full.  How much disk space is needed for 8.4?

There is a power regulator next to the CPU chip and it runs pretty hot, I 
measured the heat sink at 140 deg F.  Is this normal?  The chip is LT 1083 CP.

Can I use 68 pin SCSI drives in this computer, is there an adapter to go from 
68 to 50 pins that would work?

Doug

Re: Teletype 43

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

I'm in Seattle and am very tempted by this

--Jason


On 05/22/2017 11:04 AM, Pete Lancashire via cctalk wrote:

If someone in the Pacific NW would like to have one, I'm in Portland and go
to Seattle from time to time.

Would like to at least see of it can find a home

https://goo.gl/photos/e2J5vHDGB6UtVFS49

The tractor feed belts have gone to plasticizer heaven



On Mon, May 22, 2017 at 10:44 AM, Jim Brain via cctalk <
cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:


OK, go ahead and roll your eyes at me, but I was Dayton Hamvention last
weekend, and there was a lonely Teletype Model 43 sitting in the flea
market (on the ground, no less) for free, and so I decided I needed it in
my life.

I know it's not considered a "true" teletype, because it's essentially a
little uC, a KB, and a little dot matrix printer, but I will wear the
stigma of shame of not owning a "proper" mechanical model 33.  I got home
last night, and the unit fires up and works (well, in local mode.  Docs
claim it is rs232 out the back, but could not coax anything from my PC to
it yet), though the ribbon has seen better days.  I used a bit of WD-40 to
free up the ink, and so things are legible now.

Not sure I need help yet (did not do much debugging yet on rs232), but I
see the ribbons are no longer available. Thus, I am wondering if anyone has
a spare one for it, or knows of someone who can restore this ribbon (looks
like it needs a new polyester ribbon and the internal foam roller looks
like it will fall apart if I try to rinse it out and re-ink it)

I know it's a long shot to ask, but I figure there was no harm in
inquiring, and I believe making a home for a model 43 is not entirely
without value. :-)

Jim

--
Jim Brain
br...@jbrain.com
www.jbrain.com

Re: Teletype 43

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

No eye rolling here.  I'd have picked it up too!

I would love to get my hands on hard-copy terminal.

(Still kicking myself for not grabbing a free DecWriter III several 
years ago).


--Jason



On 05/22/2017 10:44 AM, Jim Brain via cctalk wrote:
OK, go ahead and roll your eyes at me, but I was Dayton Hamvention 
last weekend, and there was a lonely Teletype Model 43 sitting in the 
flea market (on the ground, no less) for free, and so I decided I 
needed it in my life.


I know it's not considered a "true" teletype, because it's essentially 
a little uC, a KB, and a little dot matrix printer, but I will wear 
the stigma of shame of not owning a "proper" mechanical model 33.  I 
got home last night, and the unit fires up and works (well, in local 
mode.  Docs claim it is rs232 out the back, but could not coax 
anything from my PC to it yet), though the ribbon has seen better 
days.  I used a bit of WD-40 to free up the ink, and so things are 
legible now.


Not sure I need help yet (did not do much debugging yet on rs232), but 
I see the ribbons are no longer available. Thus, I am wondering if 
anyone has a spare one for it, or knows of someone who can restore 
this ribbon (looks like it needs a new polyester ribbon and the 
internal foam roller looks like it will fall apart if I try to rinse 
it out and re-ink it)


I know it's a long shot to ask, but I figure there was no harm in 
inquiring, and I believe making a home for a model 43 is not entirely 
without value. :-)


Jim

Re: FTGH clear-out at Mesa Electronics, Richmond, CA, USA

[Jason Howe via cctalk]

Gah!  This is what I get for ignoring this list for a couple days.

I'd love to grab those DEC 3000's for spares. I'm in Seattle and a trip 
to Cali isn't in the cards right now. :(


--Jason


On 05/21/2017 07:36 PM, Steven M Jones via cctalk wrote:

Sorry, forgot - Alphas! Two DEC 3000 model 400, one DEC 3000 model 600,
one DEC 3000 model 600S, and an AlphaServer 600 IIRC.

VAXserver 3300
VAX 4000 model 300
DECtalk DTC01
numerous DEC BA42
DEC "leprechaun" boxes (think VAXstation 2000)

Mac 7200/90
5-10 color CRTs - VRT19, VR299, VR290
Couple smaller HP-badged Trinitrons

TEK 454
Summasketch 2 w/ cursor

Many cables, disks, other random bits!

RE: Wang 2243 drive enclosure

[Jason Howe]

On Tue, 8 Nov 2016, Rick Bensene wrote:


Jason Howe wrote:


Are there any Wang people on this list?
I came across a Wang 2243, which is an enclosure w/ 3 8-inch floppy drives in 
it for $75 in the local surplus shop.


Jim Battle might be interested:  http://wang2200.org.
He's got a keen interest in Wang Labs 2200 (among some other stuff from Wang 
Laboratories).

Rick Bensene
The Old Calculator Museum
http://oldcalculatormuseum.com



I actually reached out to Jim this morning.  Seems he's donated all his 
2200 to a museum, but has put me in touch with someone else... We'll see.


Kinda wish I had a snowballs chance in hell of finding a 2200 -- I'd just 
assume pick these up, but that's a lot of cubic footage for a someday 
project.


--Jason

Re: Wang 2243 drive enclosure

[Jason Howe]

On Tue, 8 Nov 2016, Brent Hilpert wrote:


On 2016-Nov-07, at 10:06 PM, Jason Howe wrote:

Are there any Wang people on this list?

I came across a Wang 2243, which is an enclosure w/ 3 8-inch floppy drives in 
it for $75 in the local surplus shop.

Is there a demand for something like this whole or is the value in the drives?

I've been wanting to mess around with some 8-inch drives, but it seems a crime 
to break this unit apart.

There's also a smaller Wang enclosure with dual 5-inch floppies in it, but I 
wasn't able to get a model number off it.   Also $75

There big to store, and cut into my retro computing budget a bit -- but I'm 
tempted to grab them.. Is there any potential interest here in these units 
before I go back for them?



I'd be interested, if I had the Wang 2200 to go with it.


Yeah that's kind of where I am -- there don't seem to be too many of them 
around.  I'm trying to reach out to some Wang 2200 people I've found.




A few years ago I figured a nice collection set / museum display would be an HP 
9830, Wang 2200 and IBM 5100 - three 'personal computers' from the 
early/mid-70s that predate the 'personal computer era'.
I have an HP 9830, but Wang 2200s seem to be rare and IBM 5100s are now in the 
multi-K$ range.

Would be good if it found a home with someone who has a 2200.




--Jason

Wang 2243 drive enclosure

[Jason Howe]

Are there any Wang people on this list?

I came across a Wang 2243, which is an enclosure w/ 3 8-inch floppy 
drives in it for $75 in the local surplus shop.


Is there a demand for something like this whole or is the value in the 
drives?


I've been wanting to mess around with some 8-inch drives, but it seems a 
crime to break this unit apart.


There's also a smaller Wang enclosure with dual 5-inch floppies in it, 
but I wasn't able to get a model number off it.   Also $75


There big to store, and cut into my retro computing budget a bit -- but 
I'm tempted to grab them.. Is there any potential interest here in these 
units before I go back for them?


--Jason

Re: Blue top DEC cabinet -- cheap

[Jason Howe]

This item has been claimed.

--Jason

On October 25, 2016 2:04:49 PM PDT, Jason Howe <ja...@smbfc.net> wrote:
>Sorry, This is in Seattle, WA.
>
>--Jason
>
>On Tue, 25 Oct 2016, Jason Howe wrote:
>
>> Hey All,
>>
>> Surplus at work has this right now:
>>
>> http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomputing/deccab/
>>
>> I'm happy to go pay for it and hold it if someone is interested and
>able to 
>> pick it up quickly.
>>
>> --Jason
>>

-- 
Sent from my Android phone with K-9 Mail. Please excuse my brevity.

Re: Blue top DEC cabinet -- cheap

[Jason Howe]

Sorry, This is in Seattle, WA.

--Jason

On Tue, 25 Oct 2016, Jason Howe wrote:


Hey All,

Surplus at work has this right now:

http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomputing/deccab/

I'm happy to go pay for it and hold it if someone is interested and able to 
pick it up quickly.


--Jason

Blue top DEC cabinet -- cheap

[Jason Howe]

Hey All,

Surplus at work has this right now:

http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomputing/deccab/

I'm happy to go pay for it and hold it if someone is interested and able 
to pick it up quickly.


--Jason

Re: Unsticking a Seagate ST-419 head

[Jason Howe]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2016, william degnan wrote:


On Thu, Oct 20, 2016 at 4:25 PM, Jason Howe <ja...@smbfc.net> wrote:




On Thu, 20 Oct 2016, Mike Stein wrote:

I've got several ST251-1s that spin up just fine, no funny noises, but

then do a bunch of back-and-forth seeks and shut down again.

It's the usual, "they worked fine the last time;" any ideas what the
problem is and if there's anything that can be done? Presumably it's having
trouble finding the sync track; weak signal? Any ideas?

m


I'm actually trying to bring an ST251-1 back to life right now.  It
worked, then was intermitently not recongnized by the controller after
being powered on for a while, now not recognized at all.  When you apply
power it runs through whatever standard head-sweep routine (self-test?),
but there seems to be a communication breakdown between the Drive
electronics and controller board.

Various sources on the interwebs suggest me that the small SMD tant caps
by the power connector are a known issue on these drives and can lead to
all sorts of flaky behavior.

I've orderd a few from digikey, hopefully will have them by this weekend
to attempt a repair.

See my forum post here, where my shoot-in-the dark analsys is disagreed
with: http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?54516-Caps-for-an-ST251-1:

--Jason




Can you swap the controller board of the drive with another drive's?



I would if I had a spare ST251-1 hanging around.  I've been tempted to 
order one from the flea-bay for just such an experiment.


--Jason

Re: Unsticking a Seagate ST-419 head

[Jason Howe]

On Thu, 20 Oct 2016, Mike Stein wrote:


I've got several ST251-1s that spin up just fine, no funny noises, but then do 
a bunch of back-and-forth seeks and shut down again.

It's the usual, "they worked fine the last time;" any ideas what the problem is 
and if there's anything that can be done? Presumably it's having trouble finding the sync 
track; weak signal? Any ideas?

m
I'm actually trying to bring an ST251-1 back to life right now.  It 
worked, then was intermitently not recongnized by the controller after 
being powered on for a while, now not recognized at all.  When you apply 
power it runs through whatever standard head-sweep routine (self-test?), 
but there seems to be a communication breakdown between the Drive 
electronics and controller board.


Various sources on the interwebs suggest me that the small SMD tant caps 
by the power connector are a known issue on these drives and can lead to 
all sorts of flaky behavior.


I've orderd a few from digikey, hopefully will have them by this weekend 
to attempt a repair.


See my forum post here, where my shoot-in-the dark analsys is disagreed 
with: 
http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?54516-Caps-for-an-ST251-1:


--Jason

Re: MFM floppy and HD emulator DREM

[Jason Howe]

On Mon, 17 Oct 2016, geneb wrote:


On Mon, 17 Oct 2016, Peter Cetinski wrote:




On Oct 17, 2016, at 11:58 AM, emanuel stiebler  wrote:

Hi all,
anybody has any experience with that:

http://www.drem.info/


The device may be great, but their website is a script-laden dumpster fire. 
According to Lynx it has no non-script text to even render. Firefox with 
NoScript enabled renders a blank page as well.


I noticed that too, I keep a copy of Chrome around for just such horrid 
sites.  There's really no reason for it.


Regardless, this looks pretty exciting to me, as I get ready to repair the 
board on my ST251-1, I wonder how much longer the old drive can 
realistically last.


I wonder if they can put a small speaker on the board to emulate the 
sounds of an ST251, because damn, this drive sure does like to talk to 
you.  Much like an AirCooled Volkswagen, the first time you use it, you 
think it's going to blow up, then the crazy noises become the thing that 
let you know everything is working as it shouldbut I digress.


Agree it's a little pricey, but, in the end almost certainly worth it. 
I spent far more on my first 20GB 7200RPM IDE Drive.  Also, have you 
priced a NOS MFM hard drive lately?  Can you find one?  There's joy in 
keeping all the original stuff running, but at some point that becomes 
unfeasable -- we're not there yet, but in 10 or 15 years this may prove to 
have been a good investment.


--Jason

Re: IBM 370 Hard Drive

[Jason Howe]

On 10/14/2016 04:03 PM, Dave Wade wrote:

-Original Message-
From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Paul
Berger
Sent: 14 October 2016 23:49
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts
<cctalk@classiccmp.org>
Subject: Re: IBM 370 Hard Drive

On 2016-10-14 7:42 PM, Jason Howe wrote:

Came across this in the local craigslist today:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/sop/5820161303.html

I don't know if this is of interest to the Big Iron IBM guys, but if
there's any interest from folks not in the Seattle Area, I'm happy to
help faciliate.

--Jason

That is a 62PC I don't know of any 370 systems that used them, I think the
closed they came to a mainframe was they where used in the 8130 and
8140 systems.  There was also at least one in every S/38, in the later

days of

S/38 it was usually only one with the system microcode on it and it was

run

isolated from the rest of the disk storage because of their tendency to

die

suddenly.  I believe that 62PCs where also used in S/34 and Series/1.

Paul.

I was going to say it didn't look like any S/370 drive I had seen. Its also
only the Head and Disk assembly (HAD) and if the spindle has been turned and
who wouldn't turn the spindle, its probably toast. It would make a nice
museum exhibit, provided it was donated, but I think $185 is optimistic...]

Dave
G4UGM

Interesting.  I know nothing about older IBM stuff other than people say 
that it's a little hard to come by, hence why I relayed the find to the 
list -- just in case it was worth it.


--Jason

IBM 370 Hard Drive

[Jason Howe]

Came across this in the local craigslist today:

http://seattle.craigslist.org/see/sop/5820161303.html

I don't know if this is of interest to the Big Iron IBM guys, but if 
there's any interest from folks not in the Seattle Area, I'm happy to 
help faciliate.


--Jason

Re: Gaming on old systems (was Re: Twiggys [was: Re: ka... ching!])

[Jason Howe]

On Mon, 10 Oct 2016, Ethan Dicks wrote:



I am actively seeking lists of favorite games on all platforms prior
to 1995.

...

If you've played anything in the past 3 years, I'd especially like to
hear about it since that speaks to enjoyment and replayability.  If
you like it, someone here will probably like it too.

Thanks for any and all suggestions!

-ethan

Some favorites that have stuck with me for a very long time, which I have 
played within the last year.

A8:
Star Raiders
Star Raiders II (The Last Starfighter)
Star Raiders II (The actual sequel, just uncovered ealier this year)
Super Breakout
Frogger
Asteroids
Star Wars (the Wireframe 3D one)

DOS (low spec 2/386)
SimCity
OregonTrail
Where in the  is Carmen Sandiego
Wolfenstien 3D

DOS (high spec 486/Penium)
Carmegedeon
X-Wing
Tie Fighter
Dark Forces
Doom
Might and Magic

(Okay, yes, I was a total LucasArts Junky for a while.  Dark Forces and 
the X-Wing/Tie Fighter twins are pretty much my favorite games of all 
times.  These run quite well in DosBox if you can't lay your hands on 
period hardware.)


--Jason

Re: DEC 3000 model 400 memory

[Jason Howe]

On Tue, 4 Oct 2016, Cody Swanson wrote:


A generous list member gifted me a DEC 3000 model 400 early alpha system. This 
is my first alpha and I'm excited to play around with VMS and Tru64 however he 
warned me that it was having some memory issues when he retired it several 
years ago. It does indeed appear to have some bad ram. I'm wondering if anyone 
on the list has memory modules they'd be willing to part with.

Assuming this DEC 3000 is the model with the memory daughter boards 
populated with endless rows of (expensive and hard to find) proprietary 
100 pin SIMMs,yes I have some extra memory and daughter boards.


Though wikipedia tells me that the 400 model only has two such daughter 
boards, for a total of 8 sticks.


For comparison, inside my 3000 700:
http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomputing/DEC3000_inside.jpg

A couple of fully populated daughter boards:
http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomputing/DEC3000_mem.jpg

I have to grab them from the garage, but I'm pretty sure I have a couple 
fully populated daughter boards ready to go, though I don't remember the 
capacty of the sticks that are in there.  I do remember, that the way the 
SIMMs are banked is counter-intuitive, so be sure to read the 
docs as you swap memory round.


Anyway, I'm happy to send them to you for testing.  If they solve your problem,
 we can work something out.

--Jason

Re: Atari 1400XL for sale...

[Jason Howe]

Indeed. I dream of what a 1450XLD with a fully populated 1090 XL might 
have been...


I also remember seeing the 815 Dual disk drives in an Atari catalog when 
I was a kid and being struck with the wants.  Only much later did I 
learn that they're similarly unobtanium.


--Jason


On 09/29/2016 07:10 AM, Peter Cetinski wrote:

On Sep 29, 2016, at 10:00 AM, et...@757.org wrote:
I thought the 1400 and more importantly the 1450XLD with the integreated disk 
drive were pretty much limited to the color brochure that was packed in with 
the XL series?

Ethan O'Toole


There were some prototypes built but never sold.  Some have survived to this 
day…apparently they were pulled out of the Atari dumpster!

For some of us Atari kids, the 1400XL and 1450XLD will forever be the ultimate 
computer.

Re: Components available - the rest of the story

[Jason Howe]

Have they thought about other museums, like the LCM up here in Seattle?  
I'd be happy to volunteer to go get it and bring it back North.


--Jason

On 09/09/2016 08:39 AM, Mark J. Blair wrote:

On Sep 9, 2016, at 00:59, curiousma...@gmail.com wrote:

I might be interested, as I already have two FFT systems that I am restoring 
(an HP 5420A and a HP 5451C). I am local. Just drop me an email.


If Marc adopts it, he'll surely make some excellent Youtube videos about it!

Re: Components available

[Jason Howe]

On 09/06/2016 08:59 PM, Mark Linimon wrote:

On Tue, Sep 06, 2016 at 06:16:23PM -0700, Al Kossow wrote:

There is also a Unicomp 18 bit minicomputer, paper tape reader,
and FFT processor circa 1972 in the garage (6ft rack) with full
documentation.

I think it would be a damned shame if this went to recycling.  I can't
drive the 30 hours to come get it though.  (tbh the '99 pickup truck
does not have that kind of trip left in it anyways.)

mcl
That sounds amazing.  I'm in Seattle.  My time is pretty tight these 
days, but if someone up here was interested, I might be persuaded to do 
a tag-team driving run over a weekend.  My '81 Ford has plenty of life 
left in her.


I don't think I'm interested in it personally though, as I really have 
no idea what an Unicomp minicomputer is in the grand scheme of things...


--Jason

Re: The huge lot that had the NIB 8" floppies is now on ebay

[Jason Howe]

On 09/06/2016 04:31 AM, Rob Jarratt wrote:



Some of us find them useful or interesting.



I agree. The volume of these eBay emails is not high. It would be another 
matter if there were really a lot of these emails, but as it is I find them 
useful/interesting.

Regards

Rob

Same here.  I don't troll ebay regularly and only have a couple very 
specific saved searches.  Some pretty interested stuff comes up on ebay 
occasionally which I might not have seen otherswise.


That said, when folks just dump an ebay item number rather than a full 
link, those posts should die in a fire ;)



--Jason

Re: old friend is slimming down the warehouse

[Jason Howe]

Can't wait to see!  A real VT-100 would be a prized possession.  Not 
sure how to get it to Seattle though.  I see too many horror stories 
about shipping terminals.


--Jason

On 06/24/2016 07:39 AM, Todd Killingsworth wrote:

Heh.  No, guys - I've not bought the whole building!

I've got the 100+ pictures loaded up for editing, but I still have to
resize them to jpg.   No SGI, a few IBM big peripherals,  some DEC VAX and
Alpha boxes (no PDP anything),  a Sun E3K, and $DEITY's own collection of
terminals and keyboards.
Terminals from IBM Mainframes and midrange, pallets of DEC terminals, HP
terminals (or monitor/keyboard combos for HP PA-RISC machines??).  Also
oddballs like AT, Qume, Texas Instruments, WISE, etc.

I'll get pics up somewhere this weekend and share the link

Todd Killingsworth

On Fri, Jun 24, 2016 at 10:25 AM, Swift Griggs 
wrote:


On Fri, 24 Jun 2016, Ben Sinclair wrote:

killingsworth.t...@gmail.com> wrote:

I'm set up to go onsite this afternoon, and I've got new SD cards and

two


I assume Todd is lost in the warehouse, or just kept all of the
new-in-box Lisp machines, SGIs, and System 360s for himself!

He's probably still waiting for some of them to boot up. *ducks* :-P

-Swift

Re: Usenet News Servers

[Jason Howe]

On 03/05/2016 07:27 AM, Mouse wrote:

What news servers do people round here recommend?

http://www.eternal-september.org/

Am I the only one who finds it amusing (in a dark-humour kind of sense)
that someone asked after news servers and got pointed to a web server?

Oh believe me, the irony did not escape me as I sent it.

The web interface to the service, is however, the only place where you 
can register an account and get the required connection information.


--Jason

Re: Usenet News Servers

[Jason Howe]

On 03/05/2016 04:53 AM, Robert Jarratt wrote:

My ISP appears to have stopped updating the newsgroups it hosts.

  


What news servers do people round here recommend?


http://www.eternal-september.org/

Text only, no binaries.

--Jason

Re: 10 forgotten wonders of 1980s homes

[Jason Howe]

On Wed, 30 Dec 2015, Ian S. King wrote:


I've had CL in Seattle for years with minimal disruptions.  Nothing
compared to my friends/colleagues with ComCrap.



I agree, I'm just north of Seattle, in Lake Forest Park.  With CL DSL I'm 
stuck at 5MB/800K.  Honestly, the 800K uplink is the real killer, 5MB down 
isn't awful, unless I'M trying to download an ISO or something -- in which 
case I can usually wait until I get to work (The UW has some fat pipes). 
The service is quite relable -- I think the Arris modem then sent me is shit, 
but that's a different issue.


Talking to some line techs in the neighborhood and confirming with CL 
customer service, CL fiber  is supposedly coming to my neighborhood in the 
next 6 months.  I'm not sure I believe it.


The one really interesting thing about DSL, which has me wondering if I should 
keep it is that a fixed IP only costs like an extra $2/month.  With any newer 
offering, (fiber/cable) I've seen that go as high as $20/month



--
Jason

Sent from my Atari 800

Re: Seasons greetings

[Jason Howe]

On Thu, 24 Dec 2015, Murray McCullough wrote:


To all readers/followers of this website - for those who love
classic/vintage computers - I want to wish all the best of the holiday
season no matter what your beliefs. In this day of political
correctness it is simply to acknowledge Mother Nature's transition
from fall to winter and we should take time from our busy schedules to
reflect on this 'special' time of the year.

Happy computing!

Murray  :)



And to you!  Today was a work from home day.  I used the opportunity to 
have my Atari running as an auxillary terminal to do some real work on.


http://archives.smbfc.net/uploads/retrocomupting/atari800/AtariTerminal_sm.jpg

--
Jason

Sent from my Atari 800

Re: Remember the old "Choose your own adventure books" By D & D! ! !

[Jason Howe]

On 12/21/2015 10:17 PM, Jason Howe wrote:


On 12/21/2015 04:46 AM, Mike wrote:

Has any of you took one of them old choose your own adventurer books and
coded it into a text RPG in basic? if so how well did it work as soon as
I get all my Commodore 64 setup on CHRISTmas day that is the first thing
that I am going to start working on. The one I am doing is *" THE DRAGON
OF DOOM "* I have been brushing up on my coding skills with old books
like BASIC COMPUTER GAMES AND SUCH...


In a similar vein, I found in the used book store by my house a year 
or two ago, "The Bytes Brothers" Volume 2.  Billed as a 
"Solve-it-yourself computer mystery, it takes you through a story, 
with clues, the idea is to write a basic program to solve some of the 
puzzles through-out the book.  It's pretty simple stuff, but would be 
perfect for an 8-9 year old just learning some BASIC on their family's 
home computer.  I've looked around for these and haven't found these 
in any other used stores.


...and now that I check amazon, the entire series of these is out 
there for about a penny a piece, I may have to burn a Christmas 
dollar, literally just one to get the rest.


http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Program-Problem--Yourself-Computer/dp/0553244191/ref=sr_1_2?s=books=UTF8=1450764970=1-2=bytes+brothers 



--Jason
I see now that I completely mis-read your original post.sorry for my 
off-topic reply.  Best of luck in your quest!


--Jason

Re: Remember the old "Choose your own adventure books" By D & D! ! !

[Jason Howe]

On 12/21/2015 04:46 AM, Mike wrote:

Has any of you took one of them old choose your own adventurer books and
coded it into a text RPG in basic? if so how well did it work as soon as
I get all my Commodore 64 setup on CHRISTmas day that is the first thing
that I am going to start working on. The one I am doing is *" THE DRAGON
OF DOOM "* I have been brushing up on my coding skills with old books
like BASIC COMPUTER GAMES AND SUCH...


In a similar vein, I found in the used book store by my house a year or 
two ago, "The Bytes Brothers" Volume 2.  Billed as a "Solve-it-yourself 
computer mystery, it takes you through a story, with clues, the idea is 
to write a basic program to solve some of the puzzles through-out the 
book.  It's pretty simple stuff, but would be perfect for an 8-9 year 
old just learning some BASIC on their family's home computer.  I've 
looked around for these and haven't found these in any other used stores.


...and now that I check amazon, the entire series of these is out there 
for about a penny a piece, I may have to burn a Christmas dollar, 
literally just one to get the rest.


http://www.amazon.com/Brothers-Program-Problem--Yourself-Computer/dp/0553244191/ref=sr_1_2?s=books=UTF8=1450764970=1-2=bytes+brothers

--Jason

Re: Re-inking printer ribbons

[Jason Howe]

On 12/14/2015 04:28 PM, Mike wrote:


On 12/14/2015 08:13 PM, Jason Howe wrote:

On 12/13/2015 10:17 AM, william degnan wrote:

I have found that most vintage ribbons can be replaced with new
ribbons for
new devices.  Worst case you may find the right width but you'll have to
re-thread to fit the vintage spindle.  Just have to match the width.

I recently bought new ribbons for Decwriter II and TI Omni 810
without any
problem.

Bill


I'm having this issue right now with a Panasonic printer.  The black
ink ribbons are still a dime/dozen. The 4-color ribbons are NLA from
Panasonic and finding them is proving to get quite difficult.

I'd be more than happy to re-thread a cartridge, but where does one
find CMYK  1 inch fabric ribbon?

-Jason


Jason,

Is it cheaper to do it that way luckily I got 40 new ribbon cartrages
with my C-64 purchase.. Do they have screws or are they hot glued
together?
They are, of course, glued together...  I actually (finally) found a 
vendor online selling these new.  He said that while Panasonic has 
discontinued production, a Chinese company has picked it up.  I ordered 
2 at $25/each (ouch!).   We'll see when they get here. Regardless, if I 
can find a source for 1 inch CMYK ribbon stock I'll have a few carts to 
mess around with.


--Jason

Re: Re-inking printer ribbons

[Jason Howe]

On 12/13/2015 10:17 AM, william degnan wrote:

I have found that most vintage ribbons can be replaced with new ribbons for
new devices.  Worst case you may find the right width but you'll have to
re-thread to fit the vintage spindle.  Just have to match the width.

I recently bought new ribbons for Decwriter II and TI Omni 810 without any
problem.

Bill

I'm having this issue right now with a Panasonic printer.  The black ink 
ribbons are still a dime/dozen. The 4-color ribbons are NLA from 
Panasonic and finding them is proving to get quite difficult.


I'd be more than happy to re-thread a cartridge, but where does one find 
CMYK  1 inch fabric ribbon?


-Jason

Seattle free teletype??

[Jason Howe]

Check out the 3rd picture

http://seattle.craigslist.org/skc/zip/5340655886.html


Someone go get this -- I'm stuck at work with no car at the moment


--Jason

Re: Pine (was: Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 17, Issue 20)

[Jason Howe]

Demonstrating reading your work mail (hosted by gmail) on a VMS system 
via pine is totally worth the speechless responses.


--Jason

On 11/20/2015 11:39 AM, Eric Christopherson wrote:

On Fri, Nov 20, 2015 at 1:20 PM, Fred Cisin  wrote:


Am I the only one left using Pine!?

On Fri, 20 Nov 2015, Fred wrote:
No you are not.
I use (al)pine on my OpenVMS system here as well as my main Linux host.  I
have mail going back to 2004 here and since 1996 at another public access
Unix host I use.  It's great when I'm out of town and can ssh in from my
phone and check the mail. :)  Pine does most everything I need without
having to worry about malware, phishing, etc ... the beauty of text.


PINE.
I also have a gmail account, mostly for forwarding/viewing non-text stuff.


I use mutt (text-based) on my laptop, connecting to Gmail via IMAP. When I
get non-text stuff I can just hit a key and open it in a browser or picture
viewer. It works pretty well, but I wish it didn't take so long to load the
headers each time (they're supposed to be cached but it sure takes a while
to go to my "All Mail" folder with its 33,000+ messages).

I'm considering doing something that actually downloads my Gmail content
locally and keeps it in sync periodically, but I haven't really looked at
what's necessary for that. One thing I'd love would be a way to change some
threads as mutt sees them -- the client has had the ability to associate
messages with or disassociate messages from a thread manually for years,
but it seems that when I do that, Gmail later reverses my decision. I'm not
sure how I could keep synchrony with Gmail *and* have that.

VAX in action

[Jason Howe]

I was just speaking with a guy who works in the physics department at 
work (A large State University) .  He was looking for a 68pin SCSI card 
for some purpose, which I was able to find for him in my pile-o-stuff.


It turns out he's trying to revive one of their VMS machines which 
didn't come back after a power outage a couple weeks ago.   Then I learn 
that they're still using a VAX to run their freakin' particle 
accelerator, I asked if I could see that stuff in action.  So, I'm going 
to go over for a tour sometime in the next couple weeks.  :)


He also mentioned that they're starting to transition off the old DEC 
hardware -- this is also my chance to be sure it doesn't just end up in 
the bin.


--Jason

Re: DEC Alpha 3000 Model 600

[Jason Howe]

On 09/20/2015 05:41 PM, Rod Smallwood wrote:
I'm pleased to be able to report the successful installation of 
OpenVMS 8.3 - Alpha on my  3000 M600
It now runs Dec Windows on the graphics screen and a terminal on the 
serial port.

TCPIP works and I can get to my local network OK.

Now to find a browser. There must have been one

Rod



Rod,

There is the Compaq Secure Web Browser, which is a horribly ancient 
compile of netscape? Mozilla?  can't remember at the moment.


http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/products/ips/cswbs/cswbs.html

It barely runs on my Dec 3000 w/ 192 MB of memory.

There are VMS builds of lynx/links out there for VMS which run much 
better, but as with all terminal based text web browsers are of dubious 
utility.


--Jason