[cctalk] Re: 1-click exploits was Re: BEWARE: Phishing

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

TLDR:

“your computer can be infected by clicking on a single link … please click on 
this single link.”

Is this an IQ test?

Did I pass?


On Jul 9, 2023, at 2:51 PM, Todd Pisek via cctalk  wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

Be aware that clicking on a malicious url can result on malware or spyware 
being installed on your machine without any further action on your part. All 
browsers have vulnerabilities. The most famous of these was the older version 
of Pegasus by NSO back in the 2014-2016 timeframe. These so called 1-click 
exploits are well known to bad actors. It’s a continuous cat and mouse game 
between exploit writers and infosec. For the interested, look at this report 
regarding Apple and the “Trident” series of exploits from 2016.

https://info.lookout.com/rs/051-ESQ-475/images/pegasus-exploits-technical-details.pdf

—-Todd

P.S. Exploits have evolved considerably since Trident and now include 0-click 
exploits. See Google’s Project Zero for instance.

[cctalk] Re: NextStep/Intel, 486's and Pentium overdrive, thoughts.

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

Chris,
one question on the conclusion: was the Mandelbrot program set to use floating 
point, or fixed-point arithmetic? I’m pretty sure the DSP version was 
fixed-point (integer, scaled) arithmetic to make it run faster. The conclusion 
might apply to the Pentium’s performance in integer tasks but not be relevant 
to floating-point tasks.

- Mark

On Mar 3, 2023, at 4:21 PM, Chris Zach via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

As part of fixing the Pro/380 I dug out and decided to get running my two Intel 
systems. These are Compaq Deskpro/XE systems. One is a 4100 which has an Intel 
486/100 (25mhz, quad clock), the other I upgraded with a Pentium P524T 
overdrive chip at 83mhz (33mhz external clock).

The P524T was an interesting duck: It's a 5 volt pentium, 32 bit external bus 
but they did double the amount of 64 bit on-chip cache so it can perk along 
quicker than one might think. Not many were sold, but I have one and there you 
go. It even has a little fan on the heat sink that is powered off the chip. 
Cute.

The Deskpro/XE's were great systems, slimline, Compaq business audio, QVision 
video interface with 2mb of RAM, IDE drive, and oddly enough a 3 slot ISA bus. 
Most of the system ran at native 32 bit, so you just ran a slow network card in 
the ISA. They also had up to 32mb memory, and an optional memory cache card to 
speed things up.

The systems had issues, both on-board batteries were dead, resulting in me 
having to find, download, run (not easy) and extract a setup floppy for this 
model as you can't do the system settings without it. Not quite an EISA config, 
but similar levels of stupidity in the ISA world. And one of them does not seem 
to see the ISA bus, but not a big deal as it will just be a DOS floppy maker.

Anyway, finally got one of them running and decided to do some benchmarks. 
Booting NextStep 4.2, and tried out a few basic tests.

Findings:
For general booting and such the Pentium does not offer that much of an 
advantage. Time to go from login window to system quiet with 20mb memory (I 
load several apps by default) is:
486/100-121 seconds
Pentium: 120 seconds

Installing and removing the 256k cache card (an option I have one of) doesn't 
change the time much at all, maybe a second.

Boosting memory to 32mb brought that number down to 84 seconds. Moral: Memory 
matters.

Then I figured I would try a CPU intensive app: Good old NeXT Mandelbrot. While 
a true NeXT slab will kick the rear of any Intel chip (due to the on board 
DSP56001) I figured I would put the Pentium up against the 486/100 and running 
the 486 at 33mhz external bus (133mhz) in insane overclock mode.`So rendering 
the "Valley of Fear" (a complex subset) resulted in:

Pentium, no external cache: 36 seconds.
Pentium, external cache: 34 seconds.

Not bad, cache really doesn't do a whole lot here.

486/100, no cache: 90 seconds. Wow, that is slow.
486/133, no cache: 65s. Faster, but very slow.

So the addition of the Pentium makes a huge difference on floating point CPU 
intensive apps. I'm also guessing the extra large cache makes a difference as 
well for highly iterative loads.

With this done I can continue looking for a 5.25 floppy to see about making 
more PRO disks.

[cctalk] Re: Chatgpt : I had a retro dream

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

Where can I buy that bumper sticker?

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

On Feb 7, 2023, at 1:05 PM, Fred Cisin via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

How does ChatGPT say to do it?

[cctalk] Re: Inline Serial Device?

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Nov 13, 2022, at 9:09 AM, Paul Koning via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> 
> 
>> On Nov 12, 2022, at 1:08 PM, Anders Nelson via cctalk 
>>  wrote:
>> 
>> I bet NN/AI would be helpful with data recovery - if we can model certain
>> common failure modes with those old drive heads we could infer what the
>> data should have been...
> 
> NN maybe, I need to understand those better.  I see they are now a building 
> block for OCR.
> 
> AI, not so clear.  In my view, AI is a catch-all term for "software whose 
> properties are unknown and probably unknowable".  A computer, including one 
> that executes AI softwware, is a math processing engine, so in principle its 
> behavior is fully defined by its design and by the software in it.  But when 
> you do AI in which "learning" is part of the scheme, the resulting behavior 
> is in fact unknown and undefined.  
> 
> For some applications that may be ok.  OCR doesn't suffer materially from 
> occasional random errors, since it has errors anyway from the nature of its 
> input.  But, for example, I shudder at the notion of AI in safety-critical 
> applications (like autopilots for aircraft, or worse yet for cars).  A safety 
> critical application implemented in a manner that precludes the existence of 
> a specification is a fundanmentally insane notion.
> 
>   paul
> 

Paul,
not a fan of AI myself. But, I feel constrained to point out that the 
alterative to "AI in safety-critical applications” often is “a minimum-wage 
employee in a safety-critical application” which may or may not be an 
improvement. Agreed that AI is fundamentally not absolutely predictable - but 
neither are people. For problems complex enough to require either in a 
safety-critical decision-making loop, it may resolve down to a question of 
either 1) trusting the statistics (AI driving is maybe already *statistically* 
safer than human driving), 2) desiging the whole system in such a manner as to 
be tolerant of decision-making faults, or 3) Not doing the dangerous activity 
because it’s not monitorable.
I would say our current road and automobile system doesn’t satisfy any 
of those criteria, FWIW.
For problems simple enough to write closed-form, formally-verifiable 
software to handle, I *definitely* agree that is the way to go. 
- Mark

[cctalk] Re: seeking: vme chassis, in seattle

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

æstrid,
my institution is disposing of what I think is a VME chassis here in San 
Antonio. That is not particularly accessible by Seattle transit, but if you are 
willing and able to pay for shipping I think we can arrange to get it to you 
instead of our dumpster.
The unit has no power supply (room for two) and is missing most of its 
close-out panels. I think it’s mostly just a box and rack-mount rails, but it 
does have what looks to me like a VME backplane in it.
It’s heavy and oversized for just the VME cards - maybe an 8U rack mount box? 
At least 18” tall. So shipping may not be a reasonable thing, I don’t know.
Let me know if you are interested, and I think I can get photos of it tomorrow 
or today.
- Mark
210-522-6025 office

On Oct 11, 2022, at 5:24 PM, æstrid smith via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

hi folks,

i'm looking for a vme chassis.  i have a we 321sb vme cpu card
(derivative of a 3b2) and it wants to run!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:3b2-vme.jpg

not super picky about the details but if it matches aesthetically that
would be neat.  should be functional, i'd rather not start another
electronics project right now.  also interested in peripheral cards.

ideally, somewhere in seattle that's reasonably accessible by transit,
or if you're willing to ship that would work too.

thanks!

--
æstrid smith (she/her)
=<[ c y b e r ]>=
antique telephone collectors association member #4870

[cctalk] Re: Apple G5 Rebuild

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

A few more useful sites:

https://tim.id.au/laptops/apple/powermac/powermac_g5.pdf

This one includes official Apple “take-apart procedures"

http://resale.headgap.com

Parts and components, in case you actually are missing something in their 
catalog. Satisfied customer, no other relation.

https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/index-powermac-g5.html
https://lowendmac.com/tag/power-mac-g5/

Specifications, benchmarks, etc.

Once you get it running, we are headed into winter when electric heaters may be 
desirable.
These two sites:

https://www.distributed.net/Main_Page
http://tenfourfox.blogspot.com

Will give you semi-productive things to do with it; the G5 machines with 
altivec are pretty good at RC5-72 compared to most CPUs, and  TenFourFox is 
essentially a current web-browser.
I’m also not a black-belt goog-fu artist. There is more available.
Hope this much is helpful, though.

- Mark

On Oct 10, 2022, at 11:33 AM, Liam Proven via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

On Mon, 10 Oct 2022 at 08:20, Kevin Parker via cctalk
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

Problem is my GoogleFoo can't find any diagrams, illustrations etc on how
the internals are put together

What? I am *amazed*. I don't know how you could _not_ find the info.
There is loads of it.

This is the first hit on "apple powermac g5 disassembly" --

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Disassembling+Power+Mac+G5+Motherboard/7579

This is the 2nd:

https://www.ifixit.com/Device/Power_Mac_G5

It's one of the easiest machines ever to assemble or disassemble and
there's tons of info, videos, walkthrough, step by step guides etc.

4 words is not "Google-fu".


--
Liam Proven ~ Profile: https://about.me/liamproven
Email: lpro...@cix.co.uk ~ gMail/gTalk/FB: lpro...@gmail.com
Twitter/LinkedIn: lproven ~ Skype: liamproven
UK: (+44) 7939-087884 ~ Czech [+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal]: (+420) 702-829-053

Re: Commodore vic 20 poweroff

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Mar 16, 2022, at 3:29 PM, Jim MacKenzie via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> 
> 
> -Original Message-
>> On Wed, 16 Mar 2022, Diedrich, Bryce via cctech wrote:
>>> Just got a Commodore Vic-20. What is the safest way to power it off 
>>> when I am done using it?
> 
> In all seriousness, in the 8-bit days I always had everything on a power bar
> - computer, floppy drive(s) (if applicable), monitor, printer.  I'd turn
> everything on and off with the power bar switch.  I did the same on my
> Amiga, too.
> 
> I'd leave peripherals I didn't always use, like the printer, turned off with
> their own power switch much of the time.
> 
> This keeps the AC power off the supplies, saving a little electricity and
> protecting the devices against some surges, and saves wear and tear on the
> power switches.  Power bars are cheap and easy enough to replace if needed.
> And it's convenient.
> 
> Jim

Mostly concur. I actually have 2 really nice pizza-box “power bars” which are 
about the same footprint as a small CRT monitor. They have a single “master” 
switch, so can be operated as above, and also individual switches for computer, 
monitor, printer, … so that you can sequence all of the peripherals on before 
the computer itself if that is desireable. I’m pretty sure my TRS-80 
recommended that, and the monitor it had would definitely cause a minor flicker 
in the lights at power-on, so it makes sense to me to get that transient over 
with before turning on the computer’s power supply.
- Mark

Re: Commodore vic 20 poweroff

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Mar 16, 2022, at 2:58 PM, Fred Cisin via cctech  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
>> On Wed, 16 Mar 2022, Diedrich, Bryce via cctech wrote:
>>> Just got a Commodore Vic-20. What is the safest way to power it off when I 
>>> am done using it?
> 
> On Wed, 16 Mar 2022, geneb via cctech wrote:
>> Turn it off.
> 
> Then disconnect the power cord from the wall.
> Clean the machine
> Place it in a sealed container with vaccum or inert gas
> 
> Optional:  (if you are "done using it")
> Post it on eBay as "R@RE"
> or
> place in a vault
> or
> drop it off at the recycling center
> 

:-) 

I’m somewhat curious here, too. 

I *think* that as long as any file-write operations have completed (ie 
the tape isn’t still turning) there’s no risk of long-term data corruption - 
that is, there’s no open files as a modern hard-disk or SSD might have that 
need to be closed out. Of course, anything in RAM not written to tape (or 
floppy) would be lost, but maybe that goes without saying.

But the question still has merit. Some power supplies electrically 
sequence voltages relying on the 120V to still be present even though the 
switch is “OFF”, so powering down by pulling the plug out of the wall is a 
different (and possibly more stressful) operation that flipping the machine’s 
switch “OFF”. My DEC Rainbow, for example, has a 2PST switch that powers both 
the electronic power supply (one pole) and the cooling fan (the other pole) and 
obviously it’s not brilliant to turn off the fan while the electronics are 
still running, but in that case the “sequencing” works the same whether you 
throw the 2PST switch or pull the plug out of the wall.

I suspect none of this applies to the VIC-20 - the power switch just 
disconnects the 120VAC from the wall in the same way that pulling the wall plug 
out of its socket (or flipping the switch on a power-strip) would do - but I 
don’t know this at all. Is that the case?

I think the answer is different for almost any computer, so it’s pretty 
tough to answer generically, but it would be kind of interesting to explore all 
of the variations on this. 
- Mark

Re: The precarious state of classic software and hardware preservation

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

On Nov 21, 2021, at 1:39 PM, ben via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

On 2021-11-21 9:45 a.m., Adam Thornton via cctalk wrote:
On 11/19/21 9:33 PM, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote:

And what happens when you wake  up one morning to find 
archive.org is
gone, too?


Fundamentally, eventually we're all going to be indistinguishable
mass-components inside the supermassive black hole that used to be the
Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies anyway.
Smoke 'em while you got 'em.
Adam
Who knows what lay ahead.
-
The Last Question by Isaac Asimov © 1956

The last question was asked for the first time, half in jest, on May 21, 2061, 
at a time when humanity first stepped into the light. The question came about 
as a result of a five dollar bet over highballs, and it happened this way:

Alexander Adell and Bertram Lupov were two of the faithful attendants of 
Multivac. As well as any human beings could, they knew what lay behind the 
cold, clicking, flashing face -- miles and miles of face -- of that giant 
computer. They had at least a vague notion of the general plan of relays and 
circuits that had long since grown past the point where any single human could 
possibly have a firm grasp of the whole.

Multivac was self-adjusting and self-correcting. It had to be, for nothing 
human could adjust and correct it quickly enough or even adequately enough -- 
so Adell and Lupov attended the monstrous giant only lightly and superficially, 
yet as well as any men could. They fed it data, adjusted questions to its needs 
and translated the answers that were issued...
——

https://www.physics.princeton.edu/ph115/LQ.pdf

I actually remembered the ending of that story without looking. If you don’t, 
it is worth a read.

Re: VT340 Emulation

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

On Jun 26, 2021, at 7:43 AM, Peter Corlett via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:
...
A bit of both. The USB communications device class (CDC) is designed for
modems, and it can be hit-and-miss trying to speak to something else. Of
course, that doesn't prevent one from ignoring that standard and just
creating a bespoke USB device which happens to produce RS232, and FTDI do
just that. FTDI's devices are better than standard CDC, but that's not a
terribly high bar.
...

At one point FTDI had a reasonably good reputation, and I own one of those 
devices based on that reputation. I have used it with no obvious problems 
connecting a TRS Color Computer 3 to an iMac G3 for a floppy-drive emulator 
(DriveWire on the iMac), but I think only for that application so far.

Are there any particular pitfalls I should watch out for with the FTDI device, 
when/if I can get back to working with it?

- Mark

Re: Apple 3.5" drive issue

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Apr 20, 2021, at 5:14 PM, Richard Cini via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> If you can hear the eject motor, you may want to inspect the eject gear. I 
> know I’ve had to replace them on both of my //gs drives. They’re 3D printed 
> and I think I found them on eBay or one of the 3D services. I forget. I do 
> remember it was $15 for 2.
> 
> http://cini.classiccmp.org/
> Long Island S100 User’s Group
> 
> Get Outlook for iOS
> 
> 
> From: cctalk  on behalf of David Williams via 
> cctalk 
> Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2021 5:56:13 PM
> To: CCTalk 
> Subject: Apple 3.5" drive issue
> 
> Moved recently and finally have space to set up the collection and play
> with it. I've set up my Apple IIgs and a Macintosh Plus and in testing
> they are still working but while doing so I've noticed an issue with the
> 3.5" drives. I have an Apple Superdrive and 4 Apple 3.5 Drives on the
> IIgs and where they all work as far as reading and writing, only the
> Superdrive can actually eject the disks. The Mac Plus has the internal
> drive and an external Apple 800K drive, both of which work except not
> being able to eject disks either. So out of 7 drives, I have one that
> doesn't need a paperclip to eject the disk. Haven't opened them up to
> look at them yet, wanted to see if this is common and suggestions on
> possible causes to check.
> 
> Thanks.
> 
> David Williams
> www.trailingedge.com

I have forgotten, is this the same drive type where the lubrication eventually 
turns gummy and needs to be cleaned off and replaced by something with the 
original, relatively low viscosity? I recall that being an issue with some 3.5” 
drives.
- Mark

Re: APL\360

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Jan 29, 2021, at 8:27 PM, dwight via cctalk  wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> If we'd thought about it we could count to 1023 on our fingers.
> Dwight

My kids actually do that (because I did think about it when they were growing 
up). And not just to impress me, I was watching the elder daughter in an 
orchestra concert via streaming cam one time. The camera happened to catch her 
during a really long rest, and I could see her hand resting on her knee, 
counting out measures in binary.

As far as I know, none of the kids have learned to control their toes 
individually, so they can’t actually count up to 1,048,575 :-).
- Mark

Re: The best hard drives??

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

On Nov 17, 2020, at 7:03 PM, Liam Proven via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

Argh! I was not posting to the list that I thought I was. I apologise
for using that nickname. :-(

Liam, …. does it actually make it better that you were posting to the wrong 
list?

I say this without rancor because generally you are right about our financial 
(and other) self-centeredness, I have to admit it. Heck, I’m from Texas, and 
*we* do it to the rest of the United States - to say nothing of furriners.

But one of ‘murikas biggest problems right now may stem at least partly from 
people referring, within their "in-crowd", to the "out-crowd" in a disparaging 
manner. Our political system is veering rapidly from a functional democracy (1) 
to a non-functional democracy (2) because of this. I strongly suspect almost 
nobody in either leading political party today would give me anything more than 
a blank look if I quoted to them the last lines of our Pledge of Allegiance: 
“one nation …. **indivisible**, with liberty and justice **for all**.” (double 
emphasis added). Even within our own borders, we can find plenty of reasons to 
disagree *without* having resort to stereotyping nicknames. And yet, every 
other word in a political discussion these days is emotionally loaded.

Not that it’s a huge deal, but, just for a while, it might be worth your 
consideration to think whether a nickname you don’t want to use in one group, 
for fear of offending, is a great idea to use in a different group. Echo 
chambers and internet bubbles being what they are, setting a trend of tolerance 
and respect for outsiders could do a lot of good these days.

All, sorry for the decidedly off-topic post, (figurative) freshly healing 
eyeball scars from watching the debates leading up to our recent election.

———

(1) The old-fashioned New England Town Hall meeting. Everyone gets their turn 
to speak and is listened to, arguments happen but so does compromise, and by 
the end of the meeting a vote is hardly necessary because the best compromise 
solution has become obvious to all.

(2) per Ambrose Bierce in “The Devil’s Dictionary”: Three wolves and a Sheep 
sitting down to decide what’s for dinner.

Re: 2 2010 macbook pro's --- vast performance differences....

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

My 2011 has a new battery as of this spring. *Everything* worked, including a 
several-hour battery life, but the swelling of the battery made it hard to 
click the trackpad. That is indeed worth a check. Tom’s suggestion is a good 
one.
- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

On Aug 21, 2020, at 9:33 AM, George Rachor via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

[EXTERNAL EMAIL]

Battery was replaced in the 15 inch last year…
On original battery in the 17….

George
...
I am curious how your batteries are doing in those two MacBook Pros. Are
they still original? If yes, is there any swelling noticeable and any
weirdness with the touch pad?

Thanks
Tom Hunter

On Fri, Aug 21, 2020 at 7:16 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>>
wrote:

There must be a better resource than this list for something THAT
obsolete.

On Thu, 20 Aug 2020, George Rachor via cctalk wrote:

I have 2 2010 macbook pro's. Each have 8GB of Ram and both have a 2 TB
hybrid seagate hard drives. Running Windows via Parallels. 15 inch system
have reasonable perfomance. 17 inch system just crawls running windows.
With RAM maxed out what else should I be looking for?

Re: Altair 8800 reproduction

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

On Jul 23, 2020, at 10:15 PM, Tom Hunter via cctalk 
mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org>> wrote:

The easiest and more affordable path would be the Altair
8800 clone but somehow I am more attracted to the non-emulated
implementation.

Understood space, time, and money are always factors, but I’m curious whether 
that’s an XOR function or a simple OR (which would be satisfied with both)? 
Having played in software on “modern” hardware might be pretty useful when it’s 
time to start bringing up the reproduction hardware.

Mac Performa 6214CD FTGH from San Antonio, TX (re-post; now tested)

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
Still trying to find a home for this system (re-post but with more information, 
testing)

For the visually oriented, here are pictures showing the machine running:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11j__mCYOFuBAil58hAdhmSK5GMaqmcUL?usp=sharing

Things in the pictures but NOT included in the giveaway are:

1) ADB cable (Mini-DIN4) (the one in the photos was borrowed from another 
system for testing)
2) “square” ADB mouse (also borrowed)
3) Power strip

You get everything else.

Mac Performa 6214CD, PowerPC CPU, 3.5” floppy and CD drive on front face
Apple Extended Keyboard II (NO ADB CABLE)
Apple Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II (round - not working)
Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display (matching, includes cable)
APS external SCSI hard drive enclosure and cable (Centronix on the hard drive 
end, DB-25 on the Mac end)
Epson Stylus Color 740 ink-jet printer with a spare (unopened) cartridge
UMAX Astra 1220S flat-bed SCSI scanner.
ZIP drive with SCSI interface
Cables

Pile of accompanying software including at least:

DeltaGraph
Now Up-To-Date and Contact
Sad Macs, Bombs and disasters
Retrospect Backup
Astra Scanner Driver

All Free to a Good Home.
You want this if:

a) you can afford shipping or pickup from San Antonio, TX, 78254, and
b) 15 years after “Take this job and shove it” came out you finally acted on 
it, quit your job and set up your own home office and accounting business, and 
now you want to relive your glory days.

All items tested May 23, 2020. Everything worked, with the following exceptions:

1) The round ADB mouse included does not work. The keyboard does work and the 
square ADB mouse worked when plugged into it, so the fault is probably in the 
round mouse.

2) The printer doesn’t move any ink to the page. The ink is dried out, so I’m 
not at all surprised. I expect it to work with new cartridges, but did not test 
that. There is an unopened replacement cartridge included, so you can test at 
least the black printing if you open that.
Replacement cartridges available at: 
https://www.compandsave.com/Epson_Stylus_Color_740_Ink_Cartridges_s/1396.htm 
under $4 each.
Everything else about the printer seems to work. I hooked up to it via USB 
using my MacBook and software from http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net and it 
responds as expected for an ink-jet with dried-up ink but otherwise functional.

3) I have no ZIP cartridge to test the ZIP drive. It is recognized on the SCSI 
bus as a removable-media drive, power light comes on, etc, but I don’t know 
that it reads or writes.

4) The Mac OS 8.5 on the drive will not allow me to set the year to 2020.

5) Backup battery is dead, so the unit won’t remember dates between shutdown 
and startup again.

5) The door to the monitor’s controls is broken, and just taped back into place.

Things that do work include the floppy drive, the CD drive (plays audio CDs), 
all other aspects of the computer itself and the external drive, the keyboard, 
and the monitor.
Driver software and media for scanner and printer are included. The scanner 
works, I scanned an image with it and it came up clear. The glass could use 
cleaning, though.

Please, please, please take this as a group, I really don’t want to split it 
up. Shipping will be challenging; if you are out of driving range but want it, 
contact me and we can talk. If you are in driving range and want it, let me 
know and we can meet half-way. Not looking to make any money, I just don’t want 
to throw it away and don’t want to lose money giving it away.
- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

Re: DIGI-COMP 1 enhanced

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On May 8, 2020, at 10:08 AM, Jörg Hoppe via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> Guys,
> 
> I added a motor drive to my DIGI-COMP I, and wrote 4 web pages about that 
> device.
> 
> See http://www.retrocmp.com/articles/digi-comp-1/
> 
> or just the video https://youtu.be/D6GgxXRJXnw
> 
> best regards,
> 
> Joerg

I can hear the overclocking crowd coming already.
:-).

And, I love the program - that looks a lot like my first program.

Re: Grinnell Systems

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

I’m fairly sure there was one at University of Texas Center for Space Research, 
circa 1980 (+/- a year or 4). It would have been in a separate room from the 
PDP-11 I normally used. I got to “fly” a space-suit with a manned maneuvering 
unit around a wire-frame space shuttle representation on it for about 3 
minutes. I turned upside down, and everyone thought I was out of control, but I 
sailed right in through the cargo bay air-lock door as planned. The author of 
the sim shrugged, and commented, “I guess in space, nobody knows if you are 
upside down."

> On Apr 22, 2020, at 5:54 PM, Randy Dawson via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> Hi Emanuel,
> 
> I remember them well, I was their manufacturer's rep in Houston, and sold 
> several to petrochem, NASA and universities.
> 
> It was a big ticket item, selling for upwards of 40K when loaded up with all 
> the options.
> 
> NASA was using it for animation, the petrochem guys for geology 
> visualizations in oil exportation.  A bought one for LANDSAT imagery.
> 
> I see if I can find some old ads, they were in the IEEE computer graphics 
> mags quite a bit.
> 
> Randy
> 
> 
> From: cctech  on behalf of emanuel stiebler 
> via cctech 
> Sent: Wednesday, April 22, 2020 12:27 PM
> To: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts Only 
> Subject: Grinnell Systems
> 
> Hi all,
> was just fishing in old memories & graphics systems. We had in the
> 1980's a big fridge from Grinnell Systems as a frame buffer on a 11/34.
> 
> Anybody remember those? Links to any documentation?
> 
> Cheers!

Re: ICL1501 Cobol manual available

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Apr 15, 2020, at 11:57 AM, Tomasz Rola via cctalk  
> wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> On Tue, Apr 07, 2020 at 02:11:25PM -0500, Will Cooke via cctalk wrote:
> [...]
>> 
>> And of course there is this :-)
>> http://www.keil.com/cobolad.pdf
> 
> Oh goad. Have they ported it to Arduino?
> 
> -- 
> Regards,
> Tomasz Rola

Tomasz, forgive me but I have to ask. You did note the date on which that 
announcement appeared, right?

Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

> On Mar 10, 2020, at 7:59 PM, John H. Reinhardt via cctalk 
>  wrote:
> 
> [EXTERNAL EMAIL]
> 
> On 3/10/2020 1:17 PM, Tomasz Rola via cctalk wrote:
>> I really liked the idea of running VMS on simh (and learning some more
>> skills), even if I had to register online. But when I looked, it
>> seemed I would have to make Polish users group first, became its only
>> member and president (hehe) and only then register... Holy Schwartz,
>> they tried to drag me on the dark side, but I resisted.
>> 
> Nope. All you have to do is go to eisner.decuserve.org and register (follow 
> my earlier instructions).  They don't care what country you are from. All are 
> welcome.  Do it now and get your OpenVMS Hobbyist license(s) that will last 
> until the end of 2021 at least.
> 
> -- 
> John H. Reinhardt

Was already registered, and got my current PAK text file yesterday (2 day 
turnaround, not bad). 
Where’s the best set of current instructions to install from CD? I think I have 
actual Hobbyist CDs.
I want to install on my 3 capable machines:

VaxStation VLC
AlphaStation 300
AlphaServer 2100 4/275

Thanks in advance!

World's most frustrating FTGH giveaway - Palm Pilot box

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
Next to go is a box in which a Palm Pilot was originally sold.

The box is in great shape, shrink-wrap intact except where it was sliced just 
enough to open the top.
The manual is in great shape.
The registration card is in great shape.
The order receipt is in great shape, name of original owner mis-spelled but 
otherwise apparently correct.
The accessories catalog is in great shape.
The software on 3 each 3.5” floppies and on CD appears to be in great shape 
(not test-read yet).
The Now Sync accessory software, on 2 more 3.5” floppies, appears to be in 
great shape.
The leatherette protector is in great shape, with its foam insert still inside 
keeping it shaped for the Palm Pilot.
The DE-9 to DB-25 serial port adaptor is in great shape.
For Pete’s sake, the screen protector that peeled off the Palm Pilot screen is 
in great shape,
lovingly tucked into the manual.

You have probably noticed what is missing.
There are no electronics included.
No Palm Pilot, no charging/syncing cradle.
G.

You probably want this if you picked up the Palm Pilot at ShopGoodwill 
somewhere, want to re-create that 1997 “first on the block with a personal 
digital accessory” feeling and really enjoy going through the accessory 
paperwork.

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/87198940

(but I think that is a different model).

Free to a Good Home, preferably one with an actual Palm Pilot. Shipping will be 
from San Antonio TX, 78254. If as I suspect, nobody interested, headed to the 
trash. Standard rules, I’ll wait for a week or so, ship to the sender of the 
first email in my in-box or to Al K if he emails before I ship.

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

Mac Performa 6214CD FTGH from San Antonio, TX

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
Next to go is a home-office setup.

Mac Performa 6214CD, PowerPC CPU, 3.5” floppy and CD drive on front face
Apple Extended Keyboard II (NO ADB CABLE)
Apple Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II (round)
Apple Multiple Scan 15 Display (matching, includes cable)
APS external SCSI hard drive enclosure and cable (Centronix on the hard drive 
end, DB-25 on the Mac end)
Epson Stylus Color 740 ink-jet printer with a spare (unopened) cartridge
UMAX Astra 1220S flat-bed SCSI scanner (NO CABLE - DB-25 connector)

Pile of accompanying software including at least:

DeltaGraph
Now Up-To-Date and Contact
Sad Macs, Bombs and disasters
Retrospect Backup
Astra Scanner Driver

All Free to a Good Home.
You want this if:

a) you can afford shipping or pickup from San Antonio, TX, 78254, and
b) 15 years after “Take this job and shove it” came out you finally acted on 
it, quit your job and set up your own home office and accounting business, and 
now you want to relive your glory days.

All items working when decommissioned, about 15 years back. Fred’s ingenious 
guarantee (“Guaranteed not to work, double your money back if it does work”) 
applies. Please, please, please take this as a group, I really don’t want to 
split it up. If I locate the missing ADB or DB25 SCSI cables in time, I’ll 
include them, but I’ll double the price :-).
FWIW, this was a companion of the Palm Pilot in my other post.
- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

StyleWriters FTGH

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
next thing to go from my pile is a set of Stylewriters.

2 ea. StyleWriter (1st generation)
2 ea. Color StyleWriter 1500
1 power supply for Stylewriter (condition very iffy)
1 power supply for Color StyleWriter 1500 (condition believed to be good)
1 spare circuit board (Stylewriter I believe, not certain)
3 spare ink cartridges (StyleWriter).

Caveats:

All printers believed to be operational when last stored. Some paper guides 
missing. I think I can plug in the CSW 1500’s and check power - on, at least. I 
*may* be able to plug in the SW’s and check power on, but I worry about that 
power supply (see below). I have not done any of the above, nor tried to plug a 
computer in to any of them, anytime this millennium.

At least one ink cartridge I think has a short which breaks printers. All ink 
cartridges are likely bricks by now, having been stored (climate-controlled, 
but …. ) for ~2 decades, so I’m pretty reluctant to try printing with any of 
them.

The StyleWriter power supply was worked on by someone rather ham-fisted 
(CoughMeCough) and is somewhat the worse for wear - structural parts rattling 
around inside, etc. (Is there a good name for those things? *Way* too big to be 
a wall-wart - wall-growth? wall-turret? wall-obstacle?)

All "Free to a Good Home", shipping from Texas, USA (Zip 78254) and I’ll split 
shipping costs with you (as before, I want space and I don’t want to add these 
to landfill). Partial orders filled in the order they come in.

I have checked with Operator Headgap and tried to check with the Mac rescue 
place in Denver, not interested in the first place and no response in the 
second.

Respond to (preferably) mtapley(at)swri.edu, or phone below. 
I’ll be travelling the next couple of days, but will try to get back to you 
ASAP.

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

Apple II DOS User's manual

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
next thing in my disposal pile.

3-ring binder, containing a repro copy of the subject line and a 5.25” floppy 
labelled “Apple II DOS 3.3 System Master For Apple II, II+, and IIe”.

computer is given away a while back, should have sent this with it. I bought it 
in 2006 and won’t use it. I think all reproductions, not originals. FTGH.

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

Commodore PET interfacing description.

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
Another thing that surfaced recently on my pile is a manila envelope containing 
a big photocopied stack of papers, with a title page saying:
—

Interfacing the Commodore PET

by Bill Durham, David Paul, and jim Wilman
University of Arkansas.

—

It’s got about 45 pages of text, interspersed with block diagrams showing chip 
in/out signals and snippets of BASIC code, then a repeat of all that, then a 
copy of the 6502 instruction set and copies of multiple data sheets for various 
integrated circuits.
Thought I identified an interested party on the list, but no response to PM, so 
offering it to all. Free to a Good Home, usual terms, first response unless I 
hear from Al K. before I ship in which case he gets it instead.

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

SCO software box last chance

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
have not yet brought myself to throw away this big box of SCO software. Last 
call, though.
I’ll pay media rate to get it to you in the US, just let me know that you want 
it and where to ship it. If you are abroad, email me and we can split postage, 
depending on total price.

SCO OpenServer (TM)
Development System
Documentation Package

Version 5.0

Part Number: 505-000-101

Model Number: MC105-UX00-5.0

Order Number: 87873506

Big Aqua-colored bocx that says, SCO: It’s Business Critical,. It’s SCO.

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

Re: George Schmidt, Distinguished Lectures, January 16, 2020

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
Southwest Research Institute will be hosting a talk in San Antonio, (Texas, 
USA) by one of the engineers involved in the Apollo navigation effort, George 
T. Schmidt. I understand he is aware of and very interested in the Apollo 
Guidance Computer work done by some of the folks on this list and others, but 
anyone who has not had a chance to talk to him might well be interested in 
attending, and would certainly be welcome.
The abstract and title for the talk are below, along with the URL for the IEEE 
distinguished lecturer website (which doesn’t say any more than I have copied 
below).
Anyone interested in attending, let me know and I’ll forward more details as I 
learn them. I expect the lecture will be around noon on Jan. 16 at SwRI, with a 
repeat at St. Mary’s University in the evening.

   Inside Apollo: Heroes, Rules and Lessons Learned in the Guidance, 
Navigation, and Control (GNC) System 
Development

This Abstract was written in March 2019 which is halfway between the 50th 
Anniversaries of Apollo 8 (Dec 1968) and Apollo 11 (July 1969).  Those 2 
flights were among the greatest explorations of mankind.  In 8, astronauts 
deliberately put themselves in orbit around the moon expecting the rocket 
engine to later fire and bring them home to Earth.  In 11, it was mankind’s 
first visit to the moon and Tranquility Base.  Movies, books, articles, and 
documentaries have covered the space race.  The author will give his thoughts 
based on 10 years inside the GNC program design, many hours in the Spacecraft 
Control room at Cape Kennedy monitoring GNC performance through liftoff, and 
then providing real-time mission support to NASA from MIT in Cambridge, MA.

that abstract appears on this website:

http://ieee-aess.org/education/distinguished-lecturer-and-tutorial-program#distinguished_lecturers-page-43

- Mark
210-522-6025 office
210-379-4635 cell

OT(?): Emulation XKCD

[Tapley, Mark B. via cctalk]

All,
my daughter is well aware of my affinity for old computers and software, and, 
as usual, she pointed out that there’s an XKCD for that:

https://xkcd.com/2221/

I found this remarkably accurate.
- Mark