[cctalk] Re: VCF SoCal

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

Liam, TriPOS ?

If i'm not wrong it was a OS developed in Cambridge (Cambridgeshire).

Did someone port it to other arch than ARM ? 

[cctalk] Re: The World Wide Web

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

The main problem with that lorry hurtling down the freeway is
latency.

I need to move 1 PB . how long will it take filling and packing
enough IBM LTO-9 tapes to send 1 PB ?

How long does it takes to fill 1 tape with 18 TB ?

[cctalk] Re: i860 vs. i960 WAS Intel's i860, Cray-On-A-Chip

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2022-09-23 klockan 22:27 -0700 skrev Cameron Kaiser via cctalk:
> > I always thought the i960 was an upgrade to the i860 (sort of like
> > i386 to i486 upgrade). However, based on the info on wiki it seems
> > as if the i960 actually came first and although a RISC chip it was
> > in no way in the same league as the i860. Anyone can clarify or
> > verify this?
> I'm not even sure I'd call them related. The i960 is a very
> different, almost
> "normal" RISC chip compared to the i860, though it uses Berkeley
> register
> windows like SPARC. It has excellent XOR performance, so it got used
> a lot
> later on in RAID arrays (my Apple Network Server 500 has a RAID card
> with an
> i960 on it). A few systems used it and it was popular in military
> applications
> but it never achieved its potential mostly due to internal politics
> at Intel --
> not because it sucked -- and the DEC StrongARM settlement mostly put
> a stake
> through it.
> 

and a number of X terminals.

[cctalk] Re: Intel's i860, Cray-On-A-Chip

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2022-09-23 klockan 10:30 -0400 skrev emanuel stiebler via cctalk:
> Hi all,
> anybody has some GCC or any other tool chain for the above?
> Or some pointers, which was the last version of the GCC tool chain
> which 
> supported the i860, and would be still compile-able on this days
> tools/OS's?
> 
> Anything?
> 
> Thanks in advance!

pick together something like a sunos 5 or sunos4 machine and build the
tool-chain on that ?

i believe it is enough building binutils (which has gas) and gcc late
90s version. The trouble is mainly finding a compiled compiler for
sunos5.  Sun's compiler in sunos4 is part of the OS, not unbundled.

NetBSD or FreeBSD is another possibility.

Re: VAX 780 on eBay

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2022-01-04 klockan 08:40 -0700 skrev Grant Taylor via cctalk:
> On 1/4/22 12:14 AM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
> > Seymour Cray, along with Bill Norris and Jim Thornton and others 
> > left Remington Rand/UNIVAC after Rand bought the near-bankrupt ERA.
> > Apparently, the work environment at Rand was felt to be stifling. 
> > Norris had all of the Navy connections and was a great marketer, 
> > so bringing some of Rand's engineering talent along was a natural.
> 
> Interesting.
> 
> I guess I thought that since Seymour left CDC to form Cray Research, 
> that meant that he was more of an employee at CDC and had less
> influence 
> on how it operated as a company.  I would have assumed that someone
> that 
> was a founder would have had more influence and tried to improve
> things 
> before splitting off and forming yet another new company.
> 

CISCO ?
Bosack and Lerner ?

And after getting kicked out by the venture capitalists sold of all
their remaining shares in cisco.

Re: The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2021-11-23 klockan 18:06 -0800 skrev s shumaker via cctalk:
> In fact, it's standard language in most DOD contracts that ALL
> materials 
> related to a contract must be destroyed at contract closure unless
> the 
> contractor receives specific permission from the gov't  to retain it
> - 
> usually for some specific reason such as a projected follow-on 
> contract.  When major contracts close, there is often a great
> cleaning 
> out of file cabinet and storage areas, done as quickly as possible 
> because it's all on company time rather than paid by uncle.
> 
> Steve

Hmmm, good for the company employees/managers and the DoE.

If not, FBI could have had better material from the examinations of
Rocky Flats 'cleanup operations'  

who said it was ok burning plutonium infested material ?

And other misbehaviours : ie tri plumes in different parts of the US.

Re: Compilers and languages (Was: Help reading a 9 track tape

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2021-08-02 klockan 20:00 -0500 skrev Gavin Scott via cctalk:
> 
> 
> Another interesting question is whether the currently shipping
> version
> of a language written in itself was compiled using the same version
> of
> itself or the previous version. I recall HP compilers generally being
> built with the previous version (at least the last time I looked
> which
> was probably in another century).

GNAT itself was written in Ada from the beginning, though the backend
is part of gcc so partly rewritten to support some Ada constructs
(which also benefitted C++).

>From the beginning I believe they used the Alsys compiler until
GNAT was able to compile itself.

Re: Anyone know ancient versions of XLC?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2021-04-14 klockan 17:39 +0200 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> On Tue, 13 Apr 2021 at 18:44, Kevin Bowling
>  wrote:
> > 
> > Linux tends to churn that amount of code in a release.  I find it
> > interesting how large systemd has become as well:   
> > https://www.theregister.com/2020/01/06/linux_2020_kernel_systemd_code/
> 
> I didn't know but I can well believe it. Virtually _any_ 30-40+ year
> old code is, by modern standards, lightweight and fast.
> 
> Compared to, say, C++, Ada is a lightweight, clean language. Compared
> to modern *nix, Multics itself is a sylph-like slip of a thing.
> 

Ha, on my debian system i get more memory available when instead of
gnome i instead run e.

And when i i got some problem with printing from evolution 
webkitgtk in its sandbox version cant print so now i run
webkitgtk inside the normal evolution process more memory saved
but i'm living a bit more unsafe now

> One of my personal favourites... there is a lot of word-processor
> advocacy online now and the one most people praise as The Best Thing
> EVAH is WordPerfect.
> 
> I used and supported WordPerfect in the late '80s & early '90s. I
> never liked it that much. Fast, feature-rich, yes, but a UI one could
> only love because of Stockholm Syndrome.
> 

FRAME from that era was nice and fast.

> But I remember 5.x introducing pull-down CUA-type menus and being for
> me significantly easier to use as a result. And I remember v 6,
> lambasted as sluggish bloatware at the time, having a graphics-mode
> GUI on DOS if you wanted.
> 
> So I found a copy and installed it on PC DOS 7.1 on a Core 2 Duo
> Thinkpad. On a modern multi-gigahertz x86, it _flies_ along. It's
> snappy and responsive even in graphics mode, and by modern standards
> it's tiny. A dozen meg or so.
> 
> I don't use it much but it's fun to do so occasionally.
> 
> My main go-to WP on my primary laptop is MS Word 97 for Windows,
> under
> WINE on 64-bit Ubuntu. Again, sluggish bloatware when new, but ¼
> century later, lightweight and positively snappy. Does everything I
> need and more, including the all-important Outline mode. Has proper
> menus, not a Ribbon. Runs perfectly under WINE including being able
> to
> install service releases to get it as current as possible. Same file
> format as used up to 2003.

I had to try to use word 20xx a few years ago   compared with word
6 (current 1991 on mac) HILFEE

Nowadays I hate being forced to mouse  along ... while having a
strained right wrist.

Re: OT: Newsreader for Windows

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2021-04-01 klockan 12:15 -0600 skrev Grant Taylor via cctalk:
> On 4/1/21 11:36 AM, Rob Jarratt via cctalk wrote:
> > what Newsreader programs do people use on Windows?
> 
> I run Linux, so I don't have first hand experience with news readers
> on 
> Windows.  But I do know that people use the following:
> 
>   - Gravity (S.G. is updating it at GRC; 
> https://www.grc.com/discussions.htm)
>   - Thunderbird (I use this on Linux)
>   - Xnews (I think?)
> 
> I know that there are a lot more GUI options on Windows than there
> are 
> on Linux.
> 
> There is probably also the option of using the TUI news readers in /
> via 
> Windows Services for Linux (?is that the proper name for /today/?).
> 

Do gnus work in GNU Emacs running native on windows ?

Re: Rod Coleman's personal history of founding, building & running SAGE

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2021-01-04 klockan 16:38 +0100 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> 
> The Sinclair QL was arguably the first affordable mass-market 68K
> box,
> and it used the somewhat crippled 68008 and 8-bit RAM to keep costs
> down.
> 

The veird machine is the Luxor ABC 1600 computer.

It was a test from them together with a consulting firm to design and
sell a UNIX based system (an version of Sys III if i'm not wrong) using
an MC 68008 but with a A4 portrait monitor.

The weird thing: why did they try to use a crippled processor (but
it gave them cheaper peripherals)
but a fairly expensive graphical subsystem with monitor

Have and Have nots...

See http://www.datormuseum.se/computers/luxor/abc1600 
and yes it is Mattis Lind together with his father Rune who run this
little museum.

Re: Well Heeled "Rescue"

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2020-10-19 klockan 20:13 -0500 skrev Will Cooke via cctalk:
> Since I'm a bit short of change I thought I'd pass this along.
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/APPLE-1-Original-1976-Computer-System-1st-Steve-Wozniak-designed-computer-and/174195921349?hash=item288ee2d1c5:g:UNoAAOSwWqtdrkDz
> 
> 
> Will

i didn't check out how many zeroes were in the dollar amount soo..

13 millions ??? ohh 1.5 x 10^6  OH YEAH

the seller is obviously not dependent on getting it sold...

Re: Remote job submission from PDP-11

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2020-10-07 klockan 14:08 -0400 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk:
> 
> Not flags, that's an HDLC concept.  Bisync uses sync characters (as
> DDCMP does) but instead of doing framing by byte counts it does it by
> a frame terminator, and for transparency if that occurs inside the
> data it has to be escaped.

Bit stuffing ? ie if the payload contains a sequence which is reserved
add a an escape for example an A after three consecutive spaces.

ON the receiving end remove the A, if it came after three spaces.

Four consecutive spaces in the wire stream, that is a frame marker...

> 
> Bisync is usually associated with older IBM protocols like 2780, but
> it's occasionally found elsewhere.  One of my nightmare memories is
> debugging the communication between a PDP-11/70 running Typeset-11
> (on IAS) and a Harris 2200 display advertising graphics editing
> workstation.  That runs Bisync, half duplex, multipoint, with modem
> control, on an async comm link -- DL11-E devices at the PDP-11
> end.  Yikes.  At our customer site in downtown Philadelphia, it
> tended to lock up, but only during the "lobster shift" -- midnight to
> 8 am.
> 
> I don't really know anything about that particular protocol beyond
> what I just mentioned, but I'm fairly sure it didn't have anything to
> do with IBM products.
> 
>   paul
> 
> 

Re: NetWare 5.1 / BorderManager 3.5

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2020-09-09 klockan 13:08 +0200 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> 
> Oh dear...
> 
> TBH I have a suspicion nobody may have kept stuff like that, even
> inside Novell... :(
> 

I will have to check where i read this just recently but
well the industry is such that repeatibility and possibility to
reproduce something which was computed in different areas of science
10 years ago now is very hard to redo.

If the source code to the computations is available (which is a big if)

What to run it on ??

Different compilers ... so expect other results if the computations
isn't the one which have clear cut answers...

Re: CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2020-09-08 klockan 06:09 + skrev Lars Brinkhoff via cctalk:
> Michael Kerpan wrote:
> > AFS is also cool, but it's a separate project that's still actively
> > maintained and (presumably) used.
> 
> MIT uses it, as does the student organization Stacken.

So does Chalmers, at least two years ago, the student
data pool was AFS.

Re: CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2020-09-07 klockan 15:29 -0400 skrev Michael Kerpan via cctalk:
> Has anybody even been able to get the X-based version to build? I
> remember
> finding it on some Unix/Linux source code CD-ROM like 20 years ago,
> thinking it sounded useful and cool, and trying to build it on
> whatever
> Linux I was using on my hand-me-down 486 back in 1999/2000. Even back
> then,
> it didn't build for me.
> 
> Mike

I have a memory of someone running it on an ELC (SunOS4.1.3 days.)

So: a fully patched SunOS 4.1 system with dev tools and 1991/1992
sources to Andrew ?

Re: CMU Andrew system (and wm) preservation

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2020-09-07 klockan 11:43 -0700 skrev Chris Hanson via cctalk:
> On Sep 7, 2020, at 6:24 AM, dst...@execulink.com wrote:
> > The description I have for AUIS (6.3.1) is:
> > 
> > "AUIS (Andrew User Interface System) - compound document
> > environment offering a word processor, mail/bulletin board
> > reader/writer, drawing editor, spreadsheet, font editor,
> > application builder, and many other facilities"
> > 
> > Again, an application, not a windowing system per se.
> 
> Yes, the Andrew environment implemented proper layering, so ATK was
> made to work atop X and the applications (messages, ez, console,
> typescript, etc.) came along.
> 
> At Carnegie Mellon in the early 1990s, you could (with only a little
> work, to use a console rather than graphical login) use either X or
> wm on some of the campus workstations. On a DECstation 3100 running
> Ultrix, if you weren’t going to run any X applications wm was *much*
> more responsive. I wasn’t around when the clusters had Sun-3 or IBM
> RT hardware but I can imagine the differences there were even more
> pronounced. (With wm, a DECstation felt as much faster than a Mac II
> as it actually was…)

The hackers in the lab in Umeå Sweden said the same thing about X11
vs Sunview on the lab's 3/60 and 3/80 machines compared with the 1(+?).

Running Sun's debug tool (in its sunview version) on a 3/60 were ok, no
lag dito starting sunview's cmdtool , while xterm werent so snappy on
the same machine.

Re: Brittle plastic

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2020-09-02 klockan 13:46 -0700 skrev Chuck Guzis via cctalk:
> On 9/2/20 12:02 PM, Rico Pajarola via cctalk wrote:
> > I have a friend who is a Materials Science Technologist and
> > specializes in
> > injection molded plastics. So... basically the same thing that's in
> > computer cases (even though he doesn't deal with computer cases). I
> > grilled
> > him at length on this topic, and he insisted that the brittleness
> > with age
> > (and UV light) is expected and irreversible. Basically, the plastic
> > softeners are off-gassing, and there's no way to put them back in.
> > 
> > I'm still hoping for a happier second opinion, though I'm not
> > holding my
> > breath.
> > 


> 
> It's a very well-known problem among the museum conservation crowd
> --and
> with no practical solution.
> 
> For a discussion, WikiPedia is pretty informative:
> 

Textilmuseet (textiles and clothes museum in Borås, Sweden) have a
number of items which was haute couture in the 70s and 80s. Some of
them was done in a plastic which today is basically an awful mess...

And so they are basically forced to thwrow away items which cost them a
fair bit to buy.

Re: Sun/3-powered 737 flight sim

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2020-08-18 klockan 16:00 +0100 skrev Antonio Carlini via cctalk:
> On 18/08/2020 06:25, Plamen Mihaylov via cctalk wrote:
> > I’ve attached different AUI transceivers to Sun3/E SCSI/Ethernet at
> > least
> > 100 times while running and nothing happened. The Sun 3/E prom has
> > on board
> > diagnostic which could provide more information on the failure.
> 
> I must admit I was a little surprised by the statement that AUI
> cables 
> cannot be hot-plugged safely.
> 
> I certainly don't remember any such restriction back in the day 
> (although it's entirely possible that I was never told or have
> forgotten).
> 
> Anyone got a definitive statement from anywhere?
> 
> Antonio
> 

Neither I, but i'm really only knowledgeable of IPC/SS10/SS5 era , not
so much 1+ for example.

Re: About to dump a bunch of Compaq SCSI disk caddies (and disks)

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2020-07-08 klockan 20:41 +0200 skrev Johan Helsingius via cctalk:
> On 08-07-2020 12:41, Peter Corlett via cctalk wrote:
> 
> > As a guideline, PostNL quote €18.20 (≈USD20.50) fo
> 
> Indeed. I too am wondering if i can be bothered. Just don't want to
> recycle
> something someone might use/need.
> 
>   Julf
> 

Ursäkta att jag inte har hört av mig tidigare.

Har du fortfarande kvar några av systemen ?

Vikt (tittade pga frågan om diskarna på vad frakten från Nederländerna
skulle kosta dvs ca 250 SEK) ?

Re: Aquarius (was Re: Apple 1)

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2020-06-15 klockan 09:25 -0400 skrev Ethan O'Toole via cctalk:
> > 
> 
> That is wild! That would have been an interesting product.
> 
> > The justification for the Cray was to experiment with what could be
> > done 
> > if you had a Macintosh with the power of a Cray. It had a pretty
> > fancy 
> > frame buffer attached to it and some pretty sophisticated anti-
> > aliased 
> > rendering was produced.
> 
> Frame buffer attached to Cray? Or Mac with a fancy framebuffer and 
> offloading to the Cray? Pretty wild.
> 

That was one of the use cases of Sun's Display Postscript where another
program on another host was able to get equal access to a window on an
work-station.

Re: history is hard

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2020-05-31 klockan 10:04 -0500 skrev Jon Elson via cctalk:
> On 05/31/2020 02:06 AM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote:
> > 
> > On 5/30/2020 11:15 PM, Eric Smith via cctalk wrote:
> > > On 05/29/2020 02:38 PM, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:
> > > >  
> > > > Low-level machines did not even have storage protection
> > > > keys, and on the /40 and /50 (I think) it was an option,
> > > > although I'd guess almost any /50 had it installed.
> > Our /50 had it and I have never seen any indication in the 
> > documentation for the hardware that
> > indicated that it was an option.
> > 
> > I don't think that either MVT or MFT would have been very 
> > stable without it.  I certainly spent a lot of time
> > studying how to get around it, and am responsible for a 
> > couple of SPIE patches in the MVT product
> > from exploits trying to get into supervisor mode to muck 
> > with such.
> > 
> Yes, the SPIE call as supplied from IBM was surely the 
> security hole big enough for 5 ocean liners abreast to steam 
> right through! Everybody had to patch that, and the patch 
> was fairly simple.  But, it was a clear indication of how 
> LITTLE IBM thought about security. Of course, they were 
> thinking about banks where 3 teams reviewed code before it 
> ever ran on the machine, not universities where kids would 
> try all sorts of mischief.
> > Yes, I know supervisor state isn't tied to the storage 
> > keys, but that was the way I went to
> > try to circumvent the storage keys.
> Oh, once you have the P bit set to zero, you can do 
> anything, such as changing the storage protection key of 
> your own program.
> 
> Jon

I have a school memory of something like that:
my school had a PRIME 9955 with PRIMOS 19, well that system had a hole
in the handling of serial lines with modems. One municipality employee
was logged in from home/work and went home (basically pulled the plug
on the pc and went home.) My friend dialed in and got into the
employees login session

I have a memory of the responsible system admin when he speaks with
PRIME in Stockholm, well it wasn't the first time this happened...

Re: Looking for old Suns

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2020-05-05 klockan 15:39 +0200 skrev Johan Helsingius via cctalk:
> I have a bunch of the pizza box SPARC ones that need to find a proper
> home, but they are somewhat special as they were the ones from one of
> the first pan-European Internet service providers (EUnet).
> 
>   Julf
> 

Are they in the Netherlands ?

btw är du finlandssvensk ?

Re: Facit N4000 Schematic (BESK application)

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2020-04-30 klockan 13:49 +0100 skrev Tony Duell via cctalk:
> From time to time there are posts here about the Facit N4000 paper
> tape punch/reader unit. The one that looks like a Facit 4070 with a
> tape reader on the front (in fact the punch mechanism is much the
> same
> as that in the 4070).
> 
> I have reverse-engineered mine and traced out the schematics. Of
> course it's one of my hand-drawn ones but I think it's mostly
> legible.
> If anyone wants it I am happy to send out a copy (but as ever I'd
> rather send it out once and have somebody else pass it on)
> 
> -tony

On the page about the Facit N 4070, (the page is really about the BESK)
is a link to a early computer generated film: 
https://youtu.be/XhNT501DsJI

Using the BESK, the road designers of the motorway between Stockholm
and Nacka was able to simulate driving on the road.

Re: Facit N4000 Schematic

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2020-04-30 klockan 13:49 +0100 skrev Tony Duell via cctalk:
> From time to time there are posts here about the Facit N4000 paper
> tape punch/reader unit. The one that looks like a Facit 4070 with a
> tape reader on the front (in fact the punch mechanism is much the
> same
> as that in the 4070).
> 
> I have reverse-engineered mine and traced out the schematics. Of
> course it's one of my hand-drawn ones but I think it's mostly
> legible.
> If anyone wants it I am happy to send out a copy (but as ever I'd
> rather send it out once and have somebody else pass it on)
> 
> -tony

When was your punch made in Åtvidaberg ?

According to Tekniska museet (museum of technology) Stockholm, they
were made between 1968 to 1999.

About 145000 done in total.

Re: Looking for old Suns

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2020-05-03 klockan 16:22 +0100 skrev silvercreekvalley via cctalk:
> Hi,
> 
> Every now and again I have a bit of time to mess with old computers -
> and usually for whatever reason - its Sun machines for me.
> 
> I’ve had loads over the years, played with them and passed them on. 
> 
> Does anyone have anything old Sun wise available in the UK? I’d love
> to find an old VME bus machine but anything old or interesting. I can
> travel
> to pick stuff up etc, social distancing observed of course :D
> 

A reseller in Sweden earlier in this year had an rebadged 3/60.

gg serverparts.

Re: Ok, got the Perq tapes

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2020-04-26 klockan 19:33 -0400 skrev Chris Zach via cctalk:
> Ok, so this evening I went back to the house to do a quick evacuation
> of 
> the most critical stuff and take some better pictures. This time I 
> brought a massive xeon flashlight which helps to get quicker
> pictures 
> with less shake.
> 
> I also picked up a pile of Perq boards, and all the DC600 tapes and 
> floppies I could take out. The car was loaded with them, someone is 
> going to have to curate these. But since I know that the most
> important 
> thing is the software and not the hardware I decided this is what to
> get 
> as the top priority.
> 
> There appears to be a third Perq in there as well on the other side
> of 
> the basement. No big drives (14 inch or 8 inch) but a lot of MFM and 
> SCSI disks. Couldn't grab those, too heavy.
> 

Considering that i see at least one SMD controller in 0273
(xy 7053-105)

Could it be case that somewhere is pedestals and CABLES ?

Original issue Sun SMD cables is unobtanium, a number of people on the
list recently discussed copying the cables, but when you don't have any
originals one to study


0271:
at least one 3/60 cpu (serial b, ser a, scsi, video)
3/260,3/280: sio a, sio b, ethernet, reset/norm/diag keyboard "walking
leds" video (ecl)

0275: 
that card with a flat cable, that is i think a 3/80 cpu

It is enough to stuff to configure a rather beefy 3/80, a big enough
vme-crate...

Re: Ok, got the Perq tapes

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2020-04-26 klockan 19:33 -0400 skrev Chris Zach via cctalk:
> Ok, so this evening I went back to the house to do a quick evacuation
> of 
> the most critical stuff and take some better pictures. This time I 
> brought a massive xeon flashlight which helps to get quicker
> pictures 
> with less shake.
> 
> I also picked up a pile of Perq boards, and all the DC600 tapes and 
> floppies I could take out. The car was loaded with them, someone is 
> going to have to curate these. But since I know that the most
> important 
> thing is the software and not the hardware I decided this is what to
> get 
> as the top priority.
> 
> There appears to be a third Perq in there as well on the other side
> of 
> the basement. No big drives (14 inch or 8 inch) but a lot of MFM and 
> SCSI disks. Couldn't grab those, too heavy.
> 
> I'm going to put together a list of people and see if I can figure
> out a 
> way to get things out. The garage is blocked by an old car, and this 
> stuff will not go up the steps. Too narrow.
> 
> Never dull. Latest pictures are at https://www.crystel.com/bob (I
> moved 
> the old ones to a subfolder). I also took a better set of pictures
> of 
> the VME boards, look like Sun boards.
> 
> C

picture 0269 is ECC memory and depending on version of card for:

Sun-3/260/280 and Sun-4/260/280 (501-1102)

Sun-4/260/280 (501-1254 32 MB , 501-1576 16 MB)

Sun-3/460/470/480 Sun-4/260/280 (501-1451, 501-1576)

https://www.sun3arc.org/FEH/Memory/3200.phtml


The 501 code is visible on the card or plate.

Re: State of New Jersey needs COBOL programmers

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2020-04-04 klockan 21:47 -0700 skrev Fred Cisin via cctalk:
> On Sat, 4 Apr 2020, Jeffrey Brace via cctalk wrote:
> > 
> https://josephsteinberg.com/covid-19-response-new-jersey-urgently-needs-cobol-programmers-yes-you-read-that-correctly/
> 
> In December 1999, they were looking for COBOL programmers.
> 
> They were told to update their software.
> 
> Now, 20 years later, they are looking for COBOL programmers, to start
> the 
> update project.
> 

To be fair, in this case updating your software means:

throw out the baby with the water
build a completely new IT infrastructure with everything
and expect things to work badly the next 5-8 years
long enough to hinder/(be a millstone around) the governor's re-
election campagin

and then in 15 years, be prepared to redo

Pundits like this steinberg is right and wrong - they doesn't
acknowledge how expensive new fangled information technology is.

Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2020-03-21 klockan 14:44 + skrev Maciej W. Rozycki via cctalk:
> On Sat, 21 Mar 2020, Jan-Benedict Glaw wrote:
> 
> > >  Not a question for me, but for the record I have used a WTI
> > > remote site 
> > > manager, essentially a combined power distribution and terminal
> > > server 
> > > unit, for 5 years now.
> > 
> > That's this product line, itn's it?
> > 
> > https://www.wti.com/c-93-cpm-800-2-series-console-server-power-control-combos.aspx
> 
>  It is, however 5 years ago the choice was different and much smaller
> (in 
> this category).  They have since switched from Freescale Power to ARM
> as 
> the hardware platform, and presumably still use Linux with a custom
> app to 
> drive it.
> 
>  Control CLI access is over SSHv2 over IPv4/IPv6; likewise serial
> port 
> access (both ways).  Per-port and per-plug user accounts can be
> created.  
> There's also control HTTPS and I believe telnet access available, but
> who 
> needs that?  Of course both can be disabled.

telnet ? that is very much indeed useful if someone wants to run a pure
old school desktop while managing !

Re: Westward

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2020-02-21 klockan 14:17 +0100 skrev Christian Corti via cctalk:
> Hi,
> I'm looking for information about Westward graphics workstations, 
> especially for the 2019 (from about 1983) and the 2220 (about 1987).
> 
> Christian

I believe that is the type of terminals that my school (Skövde Sweden)
had when i was there in 1987-88. (PRIME 9955 II and Medusa)

See if you can get contact with Peter Eriksson (pen @ lysator)

He was one of the hackers at that time.

3/60 for sale in Sweden

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

someone is selling a Sun 3/60 labeled as Nokia Data AB.

I think that it is a 3/60.

https://www.tradera.com/item/340854/363918390/nokia-data-system-20-4mb

350 $ (2495 Sek) or so.

It is a re-seller.

Sun 3/60

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

someone is selling a Sun 3/60 labeled as Nokia Data AB.

I think that it is a 3/60.

https://www.tradera.com/item/340854/363918390/nokia-data-system-20-4mb

350 $ (2495 Sek) or so.

It is a re-seller.

Re: Fwd: Crypto AG

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2020-02-18 klockan 02:50 -0700 skrev Jim Manley via cctalk:
> Not everyone on this list was even alive when much of this happened,
> and
> others of us were busy dealing with other very important things going
> on in
> The Real World then, so this is a very interesting story for many.
> 
> Anyone willing to do business with the terrorists in Iran knew why
> they
> were getting the big bucks to do it.  It's like being surprised when
> you
> get eaten while swimming with Great White sharks - it's in their
> nature.  A
> regime that repeatedly violates sovereign foreign territory in the
> form of
> embassies and consulates should have been cut off from the rest of
> the world on Day One until they dried up and blew away.  They laugh
> when
> others treat them with civility and grant them unearned respect as a
> legitimate government.

???
Remember the Monroe doctrine ?
Including the overthrow of the monarchy of Hawaii (or Texas for that
matter) so whom is/was the bigger shark ?

With regards to the Iranian money:
the US previously accepted the arbitration.

Would the US prefer to not use arbitration at all ? Then it would be a
simple matter of who is the strongest.

Re: Transformer Fault in a PSU?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2020-01-12 klockan 21:10 + skrev Rob Jarratt via cctalk:
> The PSU in my VAXmate failed recently and I think I have found a
> problem
> with one of the windings on the transformer not ringing when I test
> it with
> a ringing tester. The technical description of the VAXmate says that
> one
> winding is operated in flyback mode and I wonder if that has any
> bearing on
> the ringing test. Also, one of the pins appears not to be connected
> to
> anything else, so possibly a broken (melted?) wire.
> 
>  
> 
> Can anyone help with the following questions:

The transformer is basically only intended to provide AC at a specific
voltage while preventing surges and noise from the utility to create
havoc.
What voltage is it specified to provide ? If so, can it be replaced
with maybe a new AC to AC device ?

Re: Hello All - new member in the UK

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2020-01-06 klockan 13:42 + skrev Salik Rafiq via cctalk:
> Hello all, a new member here.
> 
>  
> 
> I’m in the UK where I’ve lived for 17 years now. Before that I lived
> in
> Canada.
> 

Peter Stokes (Ashlyn Computer Services) have machines to sell
including some fairly recent eq at a good price, he is in Grantham.

Tel : +44 (0)7977 532320

Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 64, Issue 3

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2020-01-05 klockan 21:54 +0100 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> On Sun, 5 Jan 2020 at 19:02, Guy Sotomayor via cctalk
>  wrote:
> > I had been working on the IBM Microkernel (was one of the original
> > 6
> > people onthat team).  It was eventually to form the basis of OS/2
> > for
> > PPC.  The way thatthe microkernel project was structured was that
> > most
> > of the "OS" was personalityneutral (e.g. could be used for Unix,
> > OS/2,
> > DOS, etc) and then there was an OSpersonality that ran on top of
> > the
> > infrastructure.  OS/2 on PPC was supposed tobe the first to ship.
> 
> I think I read that it was based on CMU Mach -- is that right?
> 
> It did seem for a while that a lot of things were based on Mach, but
> very few seemed to make it to market. NeXTstep and OSF/1, the only
> version of which to ship AFAIK was DEC OSF/1 AXP, later Digital UNIX,
> later Tru64.
> 
> MkLinux didn't get very far, either, did it?
> 

Well in some way or another i got a copy with the book to Sweden.

Ran it from 1999 to 2002 or so (got a SGI challenge S as NetBSD machine
and a pc as a linux machine at that time in 2002 or so.)

Host was a 6100 with the Apple tilt display, i still have the hw, book
and MkLinux cd but the psu in the 6100 became bad

Re: Odd vintage computer sellers

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2020-01-02 klockan 11:36 -0800 skrev Cameron Kaiser via cctalk:
> > 
> 
> It's really rather ludicrous, given how even the IDT Solbournes
> really only
> run OS/MP. My affection for them is largely nostalgia; as SPARC
> systems they
> are quite finicky and the later SPARCstations surpassed even the
> S4100 in
> performance. It's really the S3000 that's the gem because of that
> wacky
> plasma display.
> 

Solbourne positioned the later multi-processor MP systems against
the Ultra 1 and Ultra 2 as long as the software mix gained from
multiprocessing were they a potent method of getting more CPU
especially if your app sw was dependent on SunOS 4.

When Solaris 2.5 came out or more properly when SunOS 5 with its
mp support became stable enough and more vendors ported their
software to SunOS 5 solbourne lost their edge against Sun.

Re: First Internet message

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2019-12-26 klockan 17:09 -0500 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk:
> > On Dec 26, 2019, at 12:23 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk <
> > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> > 
> > And, a Happy Humbug to you, too!
> > Fleas Navy Dad and Yo new huevo!spellling?
> > 
> > 
> > > I^@^Ym not familiar with U.S. law but didn^@^Yt Xerox ^@^Xown^@^Y
> > > the patent(s) t$ technology? Again to my knowledge Microsoft and
> > > Apple both ^@^Xappropriated^@^Y and/or ^@^Xmisapproriated^@^Y,
> > > depending on your point-of-view, this exact technology!
> > 
> > Xerox took the position that ideas like that were not patentable,
> > and could not be hoarded for financial gain.  It is not clear to me
> > whether that was a truly altruistic position, or a tacit
> > acknowledgement that it was resistance is futile.
> 
> The rules have changed over time.  Whether that's by bureaucratic
> fiat or by changes to the law I'm not sure.
> 
> For example, at one point software wasn't considered patentable,
> which meant Rivest, Shamir, and Adleman had to twist themselves into
> some contortions to patent the RSA algorithm.  It was done by
> describing it as a device, I think.  Not long afterwards, software
> patents became possible.  The Xerox work may have been in the earlier
> period.
> 
> Some companies weren't as serious about patents as others; I worked
> for a startup around 1997 that didn't care to patent anything, which
> was really rather stupid of them.   But large companies like Xerox do
> tend to understand their options here.
> 
>   paul

Patent's is an invention in itself, including the idea that you can hit
someone on their head (or threaten them with shutting them out of of
trading with you or your allies) until they agrees to accept your idea
of what a patent is and what is patented.

It is political idea which is necessary in an industrialised world
while it is a a not so liberal idea.

Remember the navigation laws and how they could be used against someone
? The british government used navigation laws against indian cotton and
weaving industry in the 1700 and 1800s so that Manchester woven cotton
and wool became cheaper on the world market than indian products even
in india.  American controlled media today decides what is viewable on
the world markets cinemas - producers of american controlled film
productions pays cinema owners to get their films showed (and
preventing the competitiors.)

Re: First Internet message and ...

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2019-11-26 klockan 19:16 -0800 skrev Fred Cisin via cctalk:
> Good point.
> 
> Some companies that COULD HAVE been the leaders made great
> inventions 
> and/or engineering, and then fumbled the marketing.
> 
> I'm thinking that Xerox Parc could be said to have "invented" the
> next 
> generation of personal computers, but did they ever cash in on that?
> I can visualize a Apple/Microsoft argument, "But we stole it FIRST!"
> (like English/French/Spanish in America)
> 

Regarding XEROX, i think that the project was to large for them to do
while having a proprietary mindset (we want to design the whole stack,
except some applications but we want to design the main one TOO.)

This included seeing Ethernet as a proprietary technology which could
be used to lock out the competition, Which turned out to be a tall
order.

Re: Is IBM RPG classic?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2019-12-15 klockan 08:40 -0800 skrev Guy N. via cctalk:
> Is it classic enough to ask about on this list?
> 
> A friend of mine finds himself in the awkward position of being asked
> to
> take on some RPG programming, but knows nothing about it.
> 
> Can anyone here suggest some good resources for a crash course in
> RPG?
> Yes, any web search engine will throw up a lot of hits, but I'm
> hoping
> someone here can help select the most useful ones.
> 

considering that an industry here in sweden is looking for people with
knowledge of RPG (in an iSeries environment) or with a personality
which suits. 
They also have a rather large MOVEX deployment (RPG is used in an ERP
solution.)

Re: OT(?): Emulation XKCD

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-10-30 klockan 16:01 -0700 skrev Zane Healy via cctalk:
> > 
> I rebuilt the system recently, and now the error seems
> intermittent.  I will say, that backing up my directory of files, and
> restoring it to the new system was a lot easier than fighting with
> the tape drives we had on the DPS-8 Mainframes I worked with nearly
> 30 years ago (we ran GCOS-8).
> 

My old university had an Pyramid with a normal tape drive - either
way one of my teacher had as his own last year student job being a
system administrator for said machine.

One day he had to restore from backup but finds out that the tape drive
is cranky.

One of his terse comments in the report was:
It is good to fix things immediately when the fault is found - not
waiting until you one day finds out that it is preferable to have said
thing in order.

He had to help the drive start (the drive was sluggish in startup) the
whole evening that day.

Re: 50 yrs. ago today

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-10-30 klockan 13:17 -0400 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk:
> > 
> In some countries, at least in the early 1980s (Sweden?) the law said
> that private organizations could run communication wires on a floor
> of a building, but to wire from one floor to another was the monopoly
> of the government PTT.  So DEC Ethernet bridges had PTT approval
> stickers on them from those countries, indicating those PTTs would be
> willing to build you a bridged Ethernet from floor 1 to floor 2.
> 

I remember stickers on modems and telephones (ie not televerket
provided equipment) which said that this equipment is certified
to be directly connected to televerket's telephone lines.

But computer network equipment owned by the organization and used
on the organization's premises ?? That i don't remember.

PS
Televerket : Sweden's state owned telephone monopoly, today
known by the public as Telia company. Ellemtel the development
organization was co-owned by Ericsson/LME/Three-bars and Televerket.
DS

PPS
LME still exist in name basically as a holding company for Ericsson.
DSS

Re: Original DEC logo in PostScript

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2019-10-29 klockan 17:48 + skrev Rob Jarratt via cctalk:
> I know next to nothing about PostScript and fonts, is it possible to
> convert this to a font that can be installed on Windows? I found a
> site that says it converts it (convertio.co), but I am suspicious of
> free sites like that.
> 
> Regards
> 
> Rob
> 

did you solve your problem ?

Either way doing RTFM - .pfm is binary encoded .afm.

I did a simple drawing with the font in a ps and exported to pdf.

Re: Lars Hamrén / Computer Automation Museum Project

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-10-16 klockan 09:16 -0700 skrev Al Kossow via cctalk:
> anyone know what happened to this?
> 
> the last sign of the web site was in 2010
> 
> https://web.archive.org/web/20100314165117/http://www.sdu.se:80/computer-automation-museum/
> 
> someone just asked about some floppies that I had archived in 2008,
> and noticed most of the
> CA stuff on the web has vanished
> 
> 

svensk datorutveckling i lund (swedish computer development in Lund)

His name is i believe Lars Nordenström , not Lars Hamrén

check out for example:
https://www.sdu.se/blog/outdoor-programming/

Re: VAX + Spectre

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2019-10-03 klockan 09:45 -0400 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk:
> > On Oct 3, 2019, at 8:25 AM, Maciej W. Rozycki  > > wrote:
> > 
> > On Thu, 3 Oct 2019, Maciej W. Rozycki wrote:
> > 
> > > > You need an extremely high resolution timer to detect slight
> > > > differences in
> > > > execution time of speculatively-executed threads. The VAX
> > > > 11/780 certainly did
> > > > not do speculative execution, and my guess is that all VAXen
> > > > did not, either.
> > > 
> > > The NVAX and NVAX+ implementations include a branch predictor in
> > > their 
> > > microarchitecture[1], so obviously they do execute speculatively.
> > 
> > For the record: in NVAX prediction does not extend beyond the
> > instruction 
> > fetch unit (I-box in VAX-speak), so there's actually no
> > speculative 
> > execution, but only speculative prefetch.
> 
> That's a key point.  These vulnerabilities are quite complex and
> details matter.  They depend on speculation that goes far enough to
> make data references that produce cache fills, and that those fills
> persist after the speculative references have been voided.
> 
> Branch prediction is only the first step, and as you point out, that
> alone is nowhere near enough.  For example, if a particular design
> did speculative execution but not speculative memory references on
> adresses that miss in the cache, you'd still have no issue.
> 

Can the speculative pre-fetch of instruction trigger cache fills ?

Re: LISP implementations on small machines

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-10-02 klockan 19:02 + skrev Rich Alderson via cctalk:
> From: Mark Kahrs
> Sent: Tuesday, October 01, 2019 7:24 PM
> 
> > The first implementation was done for the 7090 by McCarthy (hence
> > CAR and
> > CDR --- Contents of Address Register and Contents of Decrement
> > Register).
> 
> In the 70x series of IBM scientific systems (704, 709, 7040, 7090,
> 7044, 7094),
> the word "register" referred to memory locations rather than to the
> accumulator
> or multiplier/quotient.  Each memory register was 36 bits long, and
> could be
> treated as 4 fields: A 15 bit address, a 15 bit decrement, a 3 bit
> tag, and a
> 3 bit index selector.
> 
> In the earliest implementation of LISP, there were 4 functions which
> returned
> the different parts of a register: CAR, CDR, CTR, and CIR.  These
> were
> abbreviations for "Contents of the {Address, Decrement, Tag, Index}
> PART OF THE
> Register", not "Contents of the {Address, Decrement} Register" as is
> so often
> misstated.
> 
> Rich
> 
> NB: Information from a talk given on the history of Lisp by Herbert
> Stoyan at
> the 1984 ACM Conference on Lisp and Functional Programming Languages,
> and later
> verified by personal inspection of the code.

It seems that simh has prebuilt ibm 70xx machines with lisp installed.
https://simh.trailing-edge.narkive.com/WiVs5570/release-of-a-set-of-simulators-for-ibm-7000-series-mainframes

Re: Tandem Minicomputers

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2019-09-29 klockan 23:46 -0500 skrev Jason T via cctalk:
> Well I said no more computers I can't lift, but exotic systems keep
> finding me.  So today we pulled a Tandem CLX out of a basement, along
> with a few boxes of docs, 9-track tapes and random odd and ends:
> 
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/m2N7RKN3JXcmVTUC8
> 
> There's such as thing as "so obscure that no one knows/cares about
> it".  I've had those before.  Do I have another?  It sure is heavy.
> 
> -j

Where in the world ?
did you have the passwords and so on so you didn't need to crack it
(which i hope is NOT easy.)

Re: Vintage Computer Warehouse Liquidation

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2019-09-22 klockan 16:25 -0400 skrev Patrick Finnegan via cctalk:
> On Sun, Sep 22, 2019, 16:21 William Donzelli via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> 
> > > Keep in mind, this is a Classic Computing list, not all of us
> > > have a way
> > to send Texts. :-)  Hopefully you’re monitoring email for replies.
> > 
> > There are,of course, no email to text methods out there. None. Zip.
> > 
> 
> Also, I'm guessing that if Tony Duell can figure out how to post
> photos on
> Flickr, the rest of us have a chance at figuring out how to send text
> messages. :-)
> 
> Pat
> 

In the case of Tony D, does it works sending SMS messages from US to a
UK/Europe mobile phone and vv ??

It works between GSM/4G phones in Europe but to a US number ?

Re: UNIBUS FTGH: EMM / CMU MICRORAM memories

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2019-09-16 klockan 11:17 -0700 skrev Guy Sotomayor Jr via cctalk:
> 
> And that’s just the HW.  Hydra (the OS that ran on C.MMP) was a
> capability based system (so you needed the proper capability to do
> anything).  I recall at one point the grad student who was doing work
> on the file system, “lost” the root capability to the file system…so
> it was no longer possible to create new file systems.
> 
> 

Which also means that for boot-strap you need to create a correct fully
populated binary dump of all the file system in the system.
A dump which is sane which regards to capabilities and user
capabilities 

It is a little like kick-starting a database system ie writing the
system database (pg_system) into such a state that is it possible to
correctly run for example:
---
create tablespace 'stefan';
create schema 'pg';
---
and so on...

Re: Connecting SIMH to teletype via USB

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2019-09-14 klockan 09:22 +0200 skrev SPC via cctalk:
> El sáb., 14 sept. 2019 6:09, J. David Bryan via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> escribió:
> 
> > On Friday, September 13, 2019 at 18:31, Charles via cctalk wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm using a slightly older SIMH and user's guide (3.8 something).
> > > This
> > > SIMH will not allow Set Console Serial, apparently
> > 
> > Serial support is not present in versions prior to 4.0.
> > 
> 
> I plugged in one DEC VT220 terminal to a version of SIMH 3.x running
> UNIX
> V7 (and CP/M and CTSS but that's another story) about four years ago,
> by
> serial port. I used one utility program (available for free at this
> time)
> to redirect a serial port to tcp/ip. I don't have its name at hand
> now,
> sorry.
> 
> Regards,
> Sergio

conserver ?
It should be possible to turn it around ie using it for the opposite of
its usual usage

Re: Connecting SIMH to teletype via USB

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2019-09-14 klockan 09:22 +0200 skrev SPC via cctalk:
> El sáb., 14 sept. 2019 6:09, J. David Bryan via cctalk <
> cctalk@classiccmp.org> escribió:
> 
> > On Friday, September 13, 2019 at 18:31, Charles via cctalk wrote:
> > 
> > > I'm using a slightly older SIMH and user's guide (3.8 something).
> > > This
> > > SIMH will not allow Set Console Serial, apparently
> > 
> > Serial support is not present in versions prior to 4.0.
> > 
> 
> I plugged in one DEC VT220 terminal to a version of SIMH 3.x running
> UNIX
> V7 (and CP/M and CTSS but that's another story) about four years ago,
> by
> serial port. I used one utility program (available for free at this
> time)
> to redirect a serial port to tcp/ip. I don't have its name at hand
> now,
> sorry.
> 
> Regards,
> Sergio

Which is basically what you would find inside a console port server ie 
a box with a lot of serial ports connected to console ports on servers.
ssh and telnet to specific ports or if the console server has several
ip addresses assigned ssh to port 22 on an specific IP address.

Re: SMD disks

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2019-08-30 klockan 11:05 -0700 skrev Guy Sotomayor Jr via cctalk:
> I’m actively working on SMD and ESDI emulators.  However, given my
> work schedule this is a long term project.  :-(
> 
> TTFN - Guy
> 
> > On Aug 30, 2019, at 10:56 AM, Jonathan Haddox via cctalk <
> > cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
> > 
> > With SMD disks even harder to come by than MFM disks, has there
> > been any plug-in replacements developed for them? I've seen MFM
> > disk emulators, haven't seen SMD ones though, anyone know if they
> > exist?  


It exists SMD disk replacement (ARAID for example, but they are
somewhat expensive but...)

Re: Current MANX location

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-08-21 klockan 18:30 +0100 skrev Antonio Carlini via cctalk:
> On 21/08/2019 15:46, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote:
> > I have mixed reactions to it. I use it some, often to see if
> > something is
> > online at all. (If I buy a manual, I usually check, to see if I
> > need to
> > scan it, and get it to Al. Have a backlog at the moment, sigh.)
> > 
> > The problem is that there are 'false negatives'; i.e. entries where
> > they say 'none known online', but which are available.
> 
> It is (AFAIK) a one-person effort (although it's now on its second 
> person after the originator dropped out).
> 
> 
> There's always been a link to create a "bug report" for missing
> manuals 
> (or incorrect ones I guess). However that points at codeplex, which
> MS 
> have made read-only, so I don't know what the correct mechanism might
> be 
> to get things fixed. I guess the owner needs to move the code
> somewhere 
> else ...
> 
> 

would something like mender.io be something like that ?

Re: VCF Berlin

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2019-08-30 klockan 10:37 +0200 skrev Angelo Papenhoff via cctalk:
> So many VCFs happening in the US but we have them in Europe too!
> VCF Berlin is not even two months away (Oct 12th and 13th) and
> you can still register as an exhibitor till Sept 8th.
> Our special topic this year will be Computer from Germany.
> The show will be located at the Technikmuseum (do I need to translate
> that?) which is itself worth a visit.
> 
> So please attend, as exhibitor or visitor, admission is free!
> 
> For more information and a list of exhibitions see
> https://vcfb.de/2019/index.html.en
> https://vcfb.de/2019/ausstellungen.html.en
> 
> Hope to see you there,
> Angelo/aap

The old Anhalter bahnhof ?

Re: Resurrecting integrated circuits by cooking them.

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2019-07-25 klockan 05:52 + skrev dwight via cctalk:
> Failure of the POKEY chip were likely bonding wire failures. Voltage
> stress failures are not likely to self repair.
> I would agree, the fix is likely temporary.

If chip inside consumer stuff is so prone to this failure,
what is the difference in working technique behind military grade
things which in many cases has a shelf life between 20-30 years ?

Re: One of the deeper dives into RISC vs CISC I've seen

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-06-12 klockan 14:35 -0700 skrev Chuck Guzis via cctalk:
> On 6/12/19 1:47 PM, alan--- via cctalk wrote:
> > I especially appreciated he not only offered an opinion - his
> > specific
> > ideas on where the boarder between RISC and CISC was - but then
> > provided
> > an analysis of a bunch of processors based on those criteria and an
> > analysis of the outliers that challenged his criteria.  It's a well
> > thought-out and explained opinion that just doesn't happen often on
> > the
> > Internet.
> > 
> > I assume from RS/6000, he meant generally the Power gen 1
> > architecture. 
> > And IBM RT/PC he meant ROMP.  I'm pretty sure Alpha was well
> > established
> > when he wrote the analysis.  Would have been nice to see that
> > included. 
> > If I had more time, I'd research it.  Maybe SuperH and WE32 as
> > well.
> > 
> 
> Is the discussion restricted to microprocessors?
> 
> --Chuck
> 

With VAX 11/780 and S/360 involved ? I don't think so soo
the Cyber series and 709(4) could be interesting.

Re: Modems and external dialers.

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2019-06-06 klockan 13:43 +0200 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> On Wed, 5 Jun 2019 at 20:06, Fred Cisin via cctalk
>  wrote:
> > I don't think that my Fossil (Palm-OS WATCH) does IRDA.
> > I should find somebody who will pay me money for such a piece of
> > crap^H^H^H^H NEAT technology.
> 

I also hate my samsung a5 mobile - the stupid thing
doesnt have something which the two ericsson mobiles i used before (and
a nokia and i believe a samsung to) had.

Namely a small led which was on all the time. A great thing when
you need to look for the damn things while it is dark.

For example in the car or in bed or out in the nature inside a tent.

Stupid little things...

that little led usually changed colour when the battery became low.

Re: Modems and external dialers.

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2019-06-06 klockan 13:43 +0200 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> 
> Result of the eventual convergence on the American model:
> 
> We have amazingly sophisticated, high-spec smartphones and tablets,
> but they have a battery life of a single day, replacing European
> phones that lasted a week and PDAs that lasted a month.
> 
> Why, no, I am *not* happy about that.
> 
> The European PDAs had excellent keyboards you could type on. My Psion
> 5MX paid for itself in the first weekend of ownership: on a
> long-distance coach with a fold-down table the size of an iPad, I
> wrote 2 articles, both of which I sold and which paid for the device.
> 
> 

The economist wrote about this (
https://www.economist.com/briefing/2019/06/08/how-the-pursuit-of-leisure-drives-internet-use
)

The current situation is this:
it is much more important for Apple and Samsung to sell overpriced
things to consumers which then basically only will be used to play
games, look on sport games and youtube films.


What you used the Psion for will only sell about 4 percent of apples
volumes last year
The screen of the machine i write this on, stands on a sun sparcstation
10.
If i had that machine running well i would be as productive writing
reports on that one as on the asus tower which i now uses.

Re: M7264 Troubleshooting

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2019-05-27 klockan 12:47 -0500 skrev Mister PDP via cctalk:
> I took a look at all the lines you mentioned. BDAL3-13, BDIN, BSYNC,
> and
> BBS7 are all active and jump around in some manner. BRPLY is still
> the only
> line that does not have any activity on it. None of the BDAL lines
> seem
> shorted to ground or to each other. My DLV11-J is configured to
> essentially
> factory settings (J3 set as console, 8 bits no parity) except for the
> fact
> that J3 is at 9.6k baud instead of 300, the address jumpers are
> exactly the
> same as the one you provided.
> 

Someone had a bit of trouble (whom ?) with things. Erratic behaviour
in device addressing.

He found that (i believe) that 8 switches in  dip jumper was broken.

Re: HP/UX 8 and hosts vs DNS

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2019-05-26 klockan 21:09 -0700 skrev Cameron Kaiser via cctalk:
> I've been doing more work on my 9000/350 now that I have actual space
> to
> do work on it in. Although the 10b2 is flaky, I can usually coax it
> to work.
> 
> However, the damn thing won't query DNS even though I have a
> populated
> /etc/resolv.conf. It can ping the name server, and if the name
> server's
> name is in /etc/hosts it will resolve it (and even telnet to it), but
> it
> won't talk to it for anything else.
> 
> I'm not as adept at HP/UX before 10.20 (my first experience with the
> OS),
> but I understand 8.0 "fails over" to /etc/hosts if it has some issues
> with
> DNS. Fine, but how can I get it to switch *back*? There's no
> /etc/nsswitch.conf
> and I don't think this version supports it anyway.


look for sam(8) i believe.

Re: HP/UX 8 and hosts vs DNS

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2019-05-26 klockan 21:09 -0700 skrev Cameron Kaiser via cctalk:
> I've been doing more work on my 9000/350 now that I have actual space
> to
> do work on it in. Although the 10b2 is flaky, I can usually coax it
> to work.
> 

HPUX 8 has smit, doesn't it ?

I did some works with  HPUX almost 30 years ago but only used smit

Re: Raised Floors

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2019-05-24 klockan 23:38 -0700 skrev Chuck Guzis via cctalk:
> On 5/24/19 9:12 PM, Carlos E Murillo-Sanchez via cctalk wrote:
> 
> > Sulfuric acid is hard to wash off; the amount that made it to the
> > room
> > must have been pretty small, otherwise people couldn't be allowed
> > in. 
> > And, if it was bad enough to corrode boards, imagine what that
> > would do
> > to your lungs and all mucous membranes in your body...
> 
> In my limited experience, there's nothing much worse than
> concentrated
> hydrochloric acid. A contain of the stuff inadvertently left open
> will
> soon corrode anything corrodable in the room.  HF may be worse; I
> don't
> know.
> 

HCl is a gas dissolved in water.

At room temperatures (or higher) it will gas off
but because of the air moisture tiny drops of liquid HCl will form
instantenously.

Add water until around 25 percent concentration should stop most of the
gasification.

Re: Raised Floors

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-05-22 klockan 08:45 + skrev Wayne S via cctalk:
> All true. Just sayin' that water can get into the DC even when it's
> not intended. 
> When fighting a fire in another part of a structure, the water may
> find it's way into the DC.  
> 
> Not sure about not allowing water to get near a dc, can you explain
> that statement?
> The 2 Liebert a/c units that cooled the DC were located inside the
> room and were water cooled so there was water around. I also remember
> the old IBM 3032 computers at my first site needed chilled water to
> operate so there was a lot of piped water going into the room. 
> 
> The FD did regular inspections and it didn't seem to bother them in
> either case.
> Funny, but Halon is outlawed and having it around did seem to bother
> them. It was replaced with some other gas system that i can't
> remember the name.
> 

It is a gas bottle with gas under pressure - they dont like getting hot
they become explosive in that case.

halon is also very much oxygen depriving ie asphyxiating.

Re: Raised Floors

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2019-05-22 klockan 01:42 -0600 skrev Jim Manley via cctalk:
> No firefighter in their right mind is going to knowingly pump a drop
> of
> water anywhere near or in the direction of a data center, let alone
> into
> it.  That's why they're equipped with Halon or other oxygen
> displacement,
> cooling, and flame suppression systems, and the FDs are equipped with
> appropriate Class 2 (Electrical) firefighting equipment.  FDs conduct
> periodic inspections of all on-site fire-fighting equipment and the
> local
> station shifts do walk-throughs to review their procedures.  If any
> hazardous materials are present (guaranteed in a DC), they're also
> taken
> into account.

Halon should be completely and fully illegal in civilian installations.
No excuses. Deionized water is just as effective.
(Halon is still permitted in EU in some military applications and
aircraft but the clock is ticking on the usage of halon in civil
aircraft.)

Re: More old stuff incoming

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tis 2018-12-18 klockan 14:41 -0700 skrev Grant Taylor via cctalk:
> On 12/18/2018 02:08 PM, Zane Healy via cctalk wrote:
> > Cindy, I’m curious, is there really a market for 8086/88, 286, and 
> > 386 computers?  What are folks using them for?
> 
> I know that there is an active IBM PS/2 collectors community that
> would 
> be happy with anything in that range.
> 
> I think PS/2s range from 286 - (very few) Pentium.  I don't /think/ 
> there were any 8086 / 8088 PS/2s, but I could be mistaken.
> 

The PS/2 collectors ... any internet foras for them ?

I do have PS/2 55Sx (which i do intend to run aix and os/2 on.)

Which version of NT is current with an HP Netserver LCII ?

Re: Conferences/Exhibitions (Was: DECUS PDP-11 SPACE WAR?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2018-12-08 klockan 13:56 -0800 skrev Fred Cisin via cctalk:
> 
> 
> CeBIT (Hanover Germany) was the largest.  Started in 1970; ended? in
> 2018.
> Sorry, I have little or no information about it; I never got a chance
> to go.

Heinz Nixdorf died (heart failure) on the showroom floor in 1986.

Re: Sun Monochrome TTL Monitors

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2018-12-07 klockan 08:07 -0600 skrev Kyle Owen via cctalk:
> Upon closer inspection, it appears as though I have no frame buffer.
> Drats.
> 
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/ariFxb8xggERExkU9
> 
> Anyone have a spare that would work?
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Kyle

You have one the ECL one ie (i think) bwtwo.

https://www.sun3arc.org/FEH/CPU/3_60.phtml

Re: sun model 47. code 4/40 does it have the nvram with battery?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2018-12-01 klockan 22:08 -0500 skrev ED SHARPE via cctalk:
> Hi  Alan - The  hard drive is same  size cabinetwith  I 
> guess a  SCSSI   cable.  I  will have  to  look  at  it   further... 
>  wonder if starting it  out on  a  variac   would  help the
> capacitors  like  I  do  with the old radio sets  here in the museum 
> ed#  
> 
> 

Is the hard drive inside a lunchbox separate from the CPU's one ?

The CPU box do as someone else said have space for a halfheight device.
But the PSU is obviously probably in bad shape...

Those things (ie the IPC) had a habit of dying already in 1995

Re: IP address classes vs CIDR (was Re: Reviving ARPAnet)

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2018-02-05 klockan 10:31 -0700 skrev Grant Taylor via cctalk:
> On 01/18/2018 12:23 PM, Dennis Boone via cctalk wrote:
> > You all talk about Proxy ARP in the past tense for some reason. :)
> 
> You might find it entertaining to know that I was just talking with 
> colleagues that are currently using Proxy ARP to solve the lack of 
> subnet problem at 40 Gbps line rate.
> 
> It's the same old problem, but this time it's how to sub-divide a
> /26 
> into a /27 and two /28s without the router for the /26 being re-
> configured.
> 
> So Proxy ARP FAR from dead.

hostapd in some configurations does that ie proxies arp on the
behalf of a phone for example.

virtual switches can i believe be configured in a proxy arp
configuration ie the host's OS proxies arp request from a
switch/router.

Re: IBM Xstation 140?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2018-11-01 klockan 14:36 -0700 skrev Al Kossow via cctalk:
> Wondering if this is an IBM Xstation 140 with token ring
> 
> Wonder what processor it uses..
> 
> https://www.ebay.com/itm/273538296972
> 

The seller has a seagate 4038 (ST-412) disk for sale.

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VINTAGE-SEAGATE-TECHNOLOGY-ST-4038-HARD-DISK-DRIVE-HDD/283230331379

I wonder... shape (have a DEC PRO and something which uses an ACB 4000
ie SCSI-MFM...)

Re: i860: Re: modern stuff

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2018-10-31 klockan 14:27 -0700 skrev Eric Korpela via cctalk:
> The i860 did find some use in the radio astronomy world.
> 
> Here's an excerpt from the 1998 annual report for the Arecibo
> Observatory...
> --
> Telescope pointing and realtime data acquisition are controlled using
> a
> network of VMEbus single-board computers running the VxWorks
> operating
> system kernel. Custom-built data acquisition devices (‘‘backends’’)
> include
> (1) a general purpose A/D system capable of sampling four analog
> channels
> at up to 10-MHz rates with programmable resolutions of 1 to 12 bits
> per
> sample per channel, (2) an ~interim! 50-MHz, 4096-lag Spectral Line
> Correlator with programmable bandwidth from 195 kHz to 50 MHz, (3) a
> 50-MHz
> Radar Decoder, ~4! a 100-MHz Spectral Line Correlator being
> developed, (5)
> a 10-MHz bandwidth Pulsar Search/Timing Machine with up to 256
> channels,
> and (6) a wideband continuum/polarimetry instrument being developed.
> An S2
> VLBI system is also available. Additional realtime signal processing
> capability is provided by four Skybolt i860-based VMEbus single-board
> computers with 240 MFLOPS peak combined capacity.
> --
> Remember when 240 MFLOPS was a lot?
> 

Was the 1983-84 year multibus sky floating point card the first
offering from Sky Computers ?

Did anyone use those in an embedded and online floating-point realtime
type of setting ? Or was they only used for off-line number-crunching ?

Hrrm, i now know that SKY computers had a dual-port memory system for
DEC LSI-11 computers (good if you have for example a really fast
accessory) so the FFP wasnt the first thing for them.

Re: 400Hz supplies; was: RK05 spindle pulleys - trade 50Hz vs 60Hz?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2018-07-26 klockan 12:15 -0700 skrev Chuck Guzis via cctalk:
> On 07/26/2018 11:51 AM, Ed Sharpe wrote:
> > 
> > smecc has  stashed a  huge  mother gen  set115  60cy  in  115
> > 400 cy  out. was used to  runrca avq  10  raradr
> > we  have
> > but  could  run many   many things... it is  huge,,, these things
> > exist out there  if you need one,...
> 
> 400Hz power was also used in aviation gear.  I remember having a
> stock
> of small surplus 400Hz transformers salvaged from various bits of
> equipment purchased on Chicago's "Surplus Row".
> 
> Transformers are much smaller than their 50/60 Hz cousins.
> 
> On the other hand, when I worked in a steel mill, much of the power
> distribution was 25Hz.  Transformers were much larger.  At some
> point,
> one of the mills converted their lighting from incandescent to
> mercury-vapor running from that 25Hz supply.  I'm surprised that
> nobody
> experienced seizures from the flicker.
> 

The electric arc furnace works much better at 25 Hz.

The hydro power station in Trollhättan was first built as a 25 Hz
because :
desiredness of electric power for the metallurgical industry in
Trollhätan.
Trouble: the other intended customer Gothenburg city wanted 50 Hz.

The last 25 Hz generator in Trollhättan was taken off the electric grid
in 1959.

Re: Thicknet/10base5 Test Segment: The Cable is In!

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2018-06-28 klockan 20:37 +0200 skrev Liam Proven via cctalk:
> 
> 
> Sounds very sensible, but the Isle of Man isn't part of the USA, nor
> even part of the UK. It's its own little country and this was the
> late
> 1980s. I suspect the Manx Electrical Code or equivalent had no
> mention
> of data cabling at that time. :-)
> 

The telephone companies knows about it yes ...

Two things:
- induced voltages in telephone lines due to solar activity (only at
northern and southern latitudes like in northern sweden and norway or
Canada/Alaska.)
- induced voltages (around 300 V) in telephone lines due to the new
railway electrification. Forced Televerket to move their telephone
lines away from Malmbanan in 1915 and SJ to add current transformers
along the line.

Re: Any interest Risc 6000/250

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2018-01-10 klockan 18:10 -0800 skrev Glen Slick via cctalk:
> On Wed, Jan 10, 2018 at 11:30 AM, Pete Lancashire via cctalk
>  wrote:
> > https://photos.app.goo.gl/qqEF53fVbpNhYoTX2
> > 
> 
> Looks like it might be this system from the 1993 timeframe?
> 
> The IBM RISC System/6000 7011 Model 250, Page 1-22
> 
> http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/rs6000/GA23-2406-03_RISC_System_6000
> _System_Overview_7ed_Oct93.pdf
> 
> 66-MHz 601 PowerPC processor
> 16MB standard system memory
One integrated SCSI-2 controller
One integrated Ethernet IEEE 802.3 port, with a communication rate of
10Mbps. A thick (10Base5) connector is standard on the system and a
twisted pair (10BaseT) adapter is included standard with each system;
an optional transceiver for use with thin (10base2) connectors is
available
Type-3 Micro Channel adapter slots
One diskette bay available for expansion
Standard device ports and connectors:
  Keyboard/speaker port
  Mouse port
  Tablet port
  Two serial ports
  Parallel printer port
  SCSI-2 SE port
  Ethernet port


ie a far deal faster than an base-line Sun SS10
and AUI for the Ethernet connection (with included vampire-tap
transceiver.)
It is concurrent with the IPX (small box and the same time-frame.)

Re: Any interest Risc 6000/250

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2018-01-10 klockan 11:30 -0800 skrev Pete Lancashire via cctalk:
> https://photos.app.goo.gl/qqEF53fVbpNhYoTX2
> 
> In storage, if any interest will find out what's in it and the
> condition.
> 
> Location Portland Oregon
> 
> Price cheap/trade
> 
> -pete

Is that related to IBM Xstation of the same era (i do have one of
those) ?

Re: Restoring a VT50 (VT52 actually) .

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2017-12-23 klockan 20:12 -0800 skrev Chuck Guzis via cctalk: 
> On 12/23/2017 07:24 PM, Chris Elmquist wrote:
> 
> > I’m not sure you can smell the difference between failed selenium 
> > rectifiers and lutefisk...
> 
> It probably doesn't get interesting until you toss in a can of
> surströmming...
> 
> --Chuck
> 

Surströmming isn't a christmas tradition.

It is more like a late august,september tradition (or in summer together
with the season potatoes, onion and bread.)

the  sale of this year surströmming was until 1998 legally delayed until
the third thursday in august (the herring is fished in early spring
april-may.)

Re: Restoring a VT50 (VT52 actually) .

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2017-12-23 klockan 11:39 -0800 skrev Fritz Mueller via cctalk: 
> The most documentation I’ve seen re. the PROMs is pages A-1 and A-2 of the 
> VT52 maintenance manual here:
> 
> http://www.pdp8.net/pdp8cgi/query_docs/tifftopdf.pl/pdp8docs/ek-vt52-mm-002.pdf
> 
> I think you’ve probably seen that already.  I’ll post more info from my VT52 
> later when I make it downstairs to my shop later.
> 
> I have noticed the flaky PROM sockets also; maybe I’ll just go ahead and 
> replace them since I’ll have mine out on the bench anyway.
> 
> Mattis’ place probably smells like ham, pudding, and 70’s-era solder flux 
> right now — sounds like a good holiday :-)
> 
> —FritzM.

Hmm, i think maybe his place has a smell like this:

stearinljus (candles)
some glögg (mulled wine)
julskinka (ham)

or as in our case:
lutfisk (dried ling later on soaked in lut and boiled) och potatis
(potatoes) och vitsås (a white sauce.)

Re: looking at buying a pocket PC / PDA

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

sön 2017-10-29 klockan 23:49 +0100 skrev Tomasz Rola via cctalk: 
> On Sun, Oct 29, 2017 at 08:43:36PM -, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote:
> > 
> > 
> > > -Original Message-
> > > From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of Tony 
> > > Duell
> > > via cctalk
> [...]
> > > 
> > > Doesn't randomly crash.
> > > Doesn't get viruses
> > > Doesn't have licence agreements
> 
> Also: no ransomware.
> 

Personally i got myself this weekend a a nice ballpen.

A ballpen with normal inards but a outside of wood - real Jakkaranda
(old stock from an well known swedish carpenter.)

> > These devices are not without problems...
> > 
> > If I use a Pen the ink leaks all over my shirt, 
> 
> > I switched to a clutch pencil and when I dropped it all the leads broke...
> 
> I have been using ballpen a lot. Problem was, when original ink holder
> ran out, the replacements I could buy were of mediocore quality. So I
> optimised and now go with disposables - like Stabilo. Also, Bic, if I
> have chance. Or anything from that shelve, I am not purist.
> 
> As of ink leaks, perhaps holding pen in some hardened case would do?
> Maybe together with notepad?
> 

The ink patron itself is a standard version (unfortunately not
Ballograf.)

Re: HP 7970E - interest to split?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

fre 2017-09-29 klockan 12:52 -0400 skrev Paul Koning via cctalk: 
> > On Sep 29, 2017, at 12:33 PM, Jon Elson via cctalk  
> > wrote:
> > 
> > On 09/29/2017 10:56 AM, Henk Gooijen via cctalk wrote:
> >> 
> >> 
> >> 
> >> On a related note my plan is to make a USB-based, Pertec-compatible
> >> controller for it. Not sure how SimH connects with peripherals so I'm
> >> /very/ eager to talk with someone familiar with its workings. I'll also
> >> release all the board files and firmware as open-source. Timeline as always
> >> is completely unknown, though I do have a now-vested interest in making it
> >> work.
> 
> It looks like it only handles tape container files (.TAP files) right now.  
> But the machinery basically has a tape emulation module (sim_tape.c) which 
> has a number of functions roughly corresponding to what a tape drive does 
> (read forward, write tape mark, rewind, etc.).  It doesn't look like a 
> terribly hard task to support a real tape drive as another "container file 
> format".  One question I can think of is how OS-dependent raw SCSI access is.
> 
> The approach would be somewhat similar to the disk support in SIMH, which 
> does already have "RAW" as one of the formats, meaning direct access to a 
> real disk.

RAW disk does that also includes using a zfs/fc/iscsi volume as disk ?
It should considering they appear as sd{a-z} on the host.

Re: ICL 1501 terminal available in Sweden.

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2017-09-27 klockan 19:54 +0200 skrev Mattis Lind via cctalk: 
> 2017-09-27 17:33 GMT+02:00 Stefan Skoglund via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org
> >:
> 
> > ons 2017-09-27 klockan 16:03 +0200 skrev Mattis Lind via cctalk:
> > > >> In a closed Facebook group in Sweden there is someone that want to
> > sell a
> > > >>> number of ICL1501 terminals.
> > > >>>
> > > >>>
> > > >> There doesn't seem to be any information about ICL terminals at the
> > > >> Terminals wiki http://terminals-wiki.org/
> > > >>
> > > >> But some information is found
> > > >> http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dev_en/
> > > >> icl1501/icl1501.html
> > > >>
> > > >> looks like these are a bit more than terminals
> > > >>
> > > >>
> > > > Indeed, the 1501s are real computers, built by a firm called "Cogar".
> > At
> > > > the end of our page about the ICL1501 is a link to the technical
> > > > information: schematics and programmers manual.
> > > >
> > >
> > > Apparently the terminals this guy is selling was connected to a Diablo 30
> > > type drive. He just uploaded a couple of pictures of the drive as well.
> > >
> > > Quite an interesting little system.
> >
> > Pictures (or did he only post inside the FB:group) ?
> >
> 
> https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/22007786_10156051698148570_5172629553901310482_n.jpg?oh=702928bcc49671c32995f82c6dbb5066=5A4CAB74
> 
> https://scontent-arn2-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/21766522_10156051700663570_6972929011325858586_n.jpg?oh=b10c6c1d3f324f18cd627e359f10ef18=5A43AE91
> 
> I think the pictures  should be visible outside Facebook. Otherwise I have
> to put them on some other hosting service.
> 
> Looks like the drive is in decent condition.
> 
> /Mattis

They are OK.

Re: ICL 1501 terminal available in Sweden.

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2017-09-27 klockan 16:03 +0200 skrev Mattis Lind via cctalk: 
> >> In a closed Facebook group in Sweden there is someone that want to sell a
> >>> number of ICL1501 terminals.
> >>>
> >>>
> >> There doesn't seem to be any information about ICL terminals at the
> >> Terminals wiki http://terminals-wiki.org/
> >>
> >> But some information is found
> >> http://computermuseum.informatik.uni-stuttgart.de/dev_en/
> >> icl1501/icl1501.html
> >>
> >> looks like these are a bit more than terminals
> >>
> >>
> > Indeed, the 1501s are real computers, built by a firm called "Cogar". At
> > the end of our page about the ICL1501 is a link to the technical
> > information: schematics and programmers manual.
> >
> 
> Apparently the terminals this guy is selling was connected to a Diablo 30
> type drive. He just uploaded a couple of pictures of the drive as well.
> 
> Quite an interesting little system.

Pictures (or did he only post inside the FB:group) ?

Re: Bitsavers size

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

lör 2017-04-22 klockan 10:13 -0700 skrev Fred Cisin via cctalk: 
> https://what-if.xkcd.com/31/
> 
> internet V Fedex
> 
> Unfortunately, their 2040 number is based on an assumption that bandwidth 
> will continue to increase, but that media capacity won't.

Andrew Tanenbaum makes another of those points in his "Computer
Networks" is responsible for another such (this in a ref to a diagram of
the electromagnetical spectrum) :
it should now be obvious why networking people like fiber optics so
much. df/dLambda = -1 * (c / (lambda*lambda))


Which basically says that people who believes wireless
radio-telecommunication can compete against optics in pure thruput is
smoking. 

Another language : SDL

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

Anyone with access to a distribution of SDT (Telelogik's SDL programming
system) for old era SunOS 4 ?
I have a SS10 which is a beggar for SDT (or KEE or Frame.)

Re: If C is so evil why is it so successful?

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

ons 2017-04-12 klockan 10:57 -0400 skrev Noel Chiappa via cctalk: 
> > From: Alfred M. Szmidt
> 
> > No even the following program:
> >   int main (void) { return 0; }
> > is guaranteed to work
> 
> I'm missing something: why not?
> 
>   Noel
> 

If the compiler doesn't have ANSI C prototypes.

What is the meaning of '0' (and the return call itself) on different
platforms ?

C is special because so much of a program's behaviour is 'undefined' and
so everything which goes is ok and so inherently non-portable.

Re: How to refurbish plotter pens? (roller-ball pens)

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

tor 2017-04-06 klockan 19:59 +0200 skrev Mattis Lind via cctalk: 
> A late follow up on this topic.
> 
> I got my IBM 1627 running. Actually it is not mine, it belong to my father
> that got it used for his home built computer somewhere around 1977. It
> became a project that never was finished... There are still some simple
> drawings he did on how to interface it.
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/8JK8wwO.jpg
> http://i.imgur.com/8YJA0Qb.jpg
> 
> First thing I recognized was that the Mallory FP type capacitors in this
> one both measured below 1nF capacitance. A quite serious problem. It turned
> out that when I pulled them apart the positive electrode was subject to
> severe corrosion. It was simply cut off..
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/XUaQtPn.jpg
> http://i.imgur.com/nMLoFbN.jpg
> 
> One of the stud mount 1N2547 rectifiers diodes was broken at off from its
> studmount in the middle of the insulating ceramic material. Since this type
> of rectifier was hard to find I replaced it with a modern part.
> 
> Then on I replaced other electrolytics that all measured marginal (after
> all this machine is from 1967, 50 years old!). The two Mallory AC
> capacitors which are the run capacitors for the paper feed system were
> replaced as well. Not that they measure bad but I simply don't like oil
> filled caps from the sixties. They might contain PCB oil. And I didn't find
> a list that certified that Mallory RP-3301 is PCB free.
> 
> Then the PSU was fine and all voltages measured well.
> 
> On to the mechanics. The drum was working fine in both directions, but the
> carriage was not moving in either direction. Checking the electronics
> revealed that it tried to drive the stepper motor but nothing happened. It
> was stuck.
> 
> The motor was removed and disassembled. There was a small gearbox on top of
> the stepper motor and it turned out that the motor axis was completely
> stuck.
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/O043J9J.jpg
> 
> By removing the last six screws it was possible to get the axis out by
> knocking on the axis with a screwdriver handle. It turned out that there
> was quite some rust in there. Cleaning, re-lubricating and new grease and
> it worked quite well.
> 
> One note for others who repair these. Do not remove the big wheel that is
> driven by the stepper motor and drives the carriage. It is not necessary
> unless you plan to put some new grease in the gearbox. It is a small hell
> to get the carriage cable back into position again..
> 
> After this the plotter moved nicely in all directions and then it was time
> for serious testing with pens which bring us back to the topic of the
> thread.
> 
> This plotter was supplied with non-pressurized pens. As far as I understand
> there are pen holders for both varieties of pens as well as felt pens. Mine
> are definitely non-pressurized.
> 
> http://i.imgur.com/ZquhQMT.jpg
> 
> As per Randys suggestion I put them into an ultrasonic cleaner and they
> become much cleaner. Then onto filling them which turned out to be a
> complex and a messy business..
> 
> From what I understand there are different types of ink. The type of ink
> that are used for reservoir pens or Harry Potter feathers which is more
> liquid and then a thicker ink which is used in ballpoint pens. The former
> is sold in small bottles the latter is not sold except for in ballpoint
> refills.
> 
> The next step is to try to extract ink from the ballpoint refill and use a
> ink refill syringe to push it into one of the cleaned pens. We'll see how
> that works out.
> 

Ballograf in Mölndal is nowadays the only roller-ball pen producer in
sweden (Scandinavia too?) Maybe they would be amenable to sending a
bottle of ink (they are world-famous for producings roller-ball pens
with
archive-longevity inks.)

> The other option is to find new pens with the same diameter which can be
> cut into the correct length and tip dimensions. Maybe even plastic ones
> will work if they are stiff enough.
> 
> In parallell I am working on the interfacing part. As far as the
> description in the manual interfacing is quite simple. Either negative
> going or positive going pulses, at least 10V amplitude and more the 4us
> long with less than 10us rise time. Source impedance less than 500 ohms.
> 
> A ULN2004 or similar together with some simple AVR microcontroller will
> probably do it.
> 
> /Mattis

Re: FTGH (you come get): VAXstation 100 terminals

[Stefan Skoglund via cctalk]

mån 2017-03-06 klockan 20:52 -0800 skrev Zane Healy via cctalk: 
> > On Mar 5, 2017, at 11:56 PM, Cameron Kaiser via cctalk 
> >  wrote:
> > 
> > I picked these up as part of an estate liquidation, but I don't have a
> > Unibus setup to run them off, and they are large and taking up space. They
> > now need to be gone. The condition is unknown but they are intact.
> > 
> > If you know what one is, you probably know how to hook it up and use it. If
> > you don't, they are NOT VAXen -- they're more like overgrown graphics
> > terminals that connect over Unibus. They are not like other VAXstations.
> > 
> > Take as many as you like (greater Los Angeles area). However, units that
> > are not spoken for, or haven't made other arrangements regarding, will go
> > to the recycler this weekend. E-mail me offlist if you are interested.
> 
> Cameron,
> Please keep in mind that these things are rare as hens teeth, if not rarer.  
> This is only the second or third mention I’ve ever seen of them, and the 
> first I’ve seen of anyone having any.  Please do not recycle them.  If 
> nothing else, see if you can get them to one of the museums.
> 
> About the only thing I know of that’s rarer seems to be the DECnet kit for 
> RT-11!
> 
> Zane

Which kinds of VAXen can accept the terminal server card ?