-----Original Message-----
From: Vintage Computer GAWD! <foo(a)siconic.com>
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 10:37 PM
Subject: Re: Finding Vintage Computers - A Primer
>
>Also, I think I'll mention Pawn Shops in a revised edition, mostly to warn
>people not to even bother. Anything they have will be too recent to be of
>any interest, and they certainly wouldn't give anyone good money for an
>old piece of junk computer, and thus have any for sale. Also, the stuff
>they sell is, in my experience, horribly over-priced, sometimes over
>retail!
>
In my area, there's a related type of store that is worth a look. It's a
chain called "Cash Converters", where they buy your unwanted goods (at
substantially less than the estimated value) and then sell them in a retail
environment. Like a permanent garage sale under one roof. Unlike a pawn
shop, you can't reclaim your item for what they gave you for it. They
occasionally have classic comp stuff; I've found TRS-80s of various kinds,
Model 100s, PS/2s, Newtons and a lot of older software. The prices are
initially set high, but if an item doesn't sell, they progressively reduce
the price until it does. IIRC, the concept originated in Australia, and
there are also stores in the States.
Regards,
Mark.
>> Model 100s, PS/2s, Newtons and a lot of older software. The prices are
>> initially set high, but if an item doesn't sell, they progressively
>reduce
>> the price until it does.
>
>You in Sydney? The Ca$h Converter$ in Adelaide seem not to have heard
>of the progressive reduction in price part of the concept. I saw an
>real IBM XT, 2FDD no HDD, Monochrome, about 6 months ago with a $250
>price tag on it. It was still there with the same price 3 weeks ago.
>Perhaps the Sydney stores get more turnover. I've yet to see a good
He can't be in Sydney. I am and I've never seen them behave like that.
I rarely even look. At the Bondi Junction store there's usually more staff
than customers at the hours I visit and they look mean and hungry.
Hans
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com>
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Date: Tuesday, May 16, 2000 4:08 PM
Subject: RE: Finding Classic Computers
>
>There is a couple in AZ with a working, flying, F104. (one of those neat
>ones if not the 104).
>
Actually, it's an ex-CF-104, built for the Canadian Armed Forces. The main
differences (IIRC) were in modified flaps, leading edge slats and air
brakes to provide better low-speed performance. The perennially
cash-strapped CAF actually operated the Starfighter, designed as a
high-speed interceptor, as fighter-bombers (!) for ground support in
Europe. This doubtless contributed to the 104's reputation as a
"widow-maker" in the CAF.
Nice toy if you have money to burn and like to sightsee at Mach 2.
Mark.
OK, I'm feeling lazy. Is it possible to build a PDP-11 TK-50 Boot tape
under OpenVMS V7.2?
What can I say, I really don't feel like getting my DECstation 5000/133
fully up and running with NetBSD, moving the TZ30 from my PDP-11/73 to the
DECstation, making the tape, then moving the TZ30 back just to build a tape.
Hmm, maybe I should just use an emulator to build UNIX V7M RL02 images for
my /44 and then use a VAX to make the diskpacks :^)
BTW, PUP's is now setup so you can access it after going through the SCO
'click-through' AT&T Source License.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
*shipping is not included in listed price.
DEC PDP-11 DR11-C GENERAL DEVICE INTERFACE MANUAL, 1974 ($15)
====================================================
? ORIGINAL ISSUE
? UNUSED CONDITION
? 46 PAGES
? SECTIONS ARE (1) INTRODUCTION, (2) SOFTWARE INTERFACE, (3) USER INPUT/OUTPUT SIGNALS, (4) THEORY OF OPERATION, (5) MAINTENANCE,
(6) EXAMPLES, AND (7) ENGINEERING DRAWING SET.
? APPENDICES ARE (A) INTEGRATED CIRCUIT AND (B) USE OF BB11.
>OK, I'm feeling lazy. Is it possible to build a PDP-11 TK-50 Boot tape
>under OpenVMS V7.2?
Yeah, sure it is. Question is, what do you want to boot into?
Just make sure all the files are laid down correctly, all the record
lengths are right, and you've got the tape marks in the right places.
Those are the essential ingredient to any tape.
Tim.
On May 17, 0:16, Vintage Computer GAWD! wrote:
> On Wed, 17 May 2000, Pete Turnbull wrote:
>
> > If I remember correctly, Applesoft BASIC is one of those that searches
from
> > the start of program every time it executes a GOTO or GOSUB. If I'm
right,
> > the easy way to preserve variables (and all the rest of the program
state,
> > including the GOSUB/FOR..NEXT stack) would be to POKE in the new start
> > address and then GOTO 10 instead of RUN.
>
> I think you'd have to do more than this since the interpreter won't know
> the difference between Program A running and Program B. In other words,
> the varibale A$ in Programs A&B will both point to the same variable
> (hmmm...an interesting way to implement shared memory in BASIC!)
That's right; I just assumed you wanted to keep all the variables around
all the time. If you want something more like a real mutitasking system,
and program independence (not to have to worry about variables in one
program sharing names with those in another) then you need to
save-and-restore all the relevant pointers: start of variable space, start
of arrays, end of numerics, start of strings. Maybe more (I've not tried
it personally).
> > If you do this, you better set LOMEM as well (but only once), or make
sure
> > the highest-loaded program is the first one RUN, so the variables start
in
> > a suitable place.
>
> LOMEM does almost what you need: it moves the start of the variable data
> pointer to the address specified with the command. However, I do believe
> this initializes the variable space, which would not be good.
No, it wouldn't be good, and the LOMEM comand probably does reset the other
pointers (I can't check, my Apples are both in store at the moment). I
really just meant "set the LOMEM pointer".
> I've never
> devled into the way BASIC variables are kept but I am pretty sure that
> they are searched for from the beginning of whatever LOMEM is to the end
> (as given, I believe, by HIMEM). LOMEM and HIMEM simply set pointers in
> the zero page that BASIC uses to keep track of the low and high memory
> locations for variable storage. So manually keeping track of these and
> POKEing them in for each swap should appropriately keep the variable
> memory for each program in memory separate and intact.
Yes, the variables aren't stored in any specially structured way (they are
in some other BASICs). You probably want to keep track of the end of
string space as well (HIMEM, essentially) and make liberal use of FRE() to
minimise waste.
> I was just thinking that a sort of Multi-Tasking BASIC Operating System
> (MTBOS) could be developed that would take care of all this for you.
> Also, since the text screen on the Apple ][ can be defined by poking in
> the left column, right column, top row and bottom row into the
> appropriately zero page addresses, one can also specify a screen area
that
> each program is allowed to run in. This could be maintained by the
MTBOS.
>
> The MTBOS would basically reside somewhere in memory (a simple one could
> probably be made to fit in $300-$3A0 which is the common unused space
> where simple machine language utilities go) and can be CALLed from each
> program running at regular intervals to allow a swap to the next process.
> It would be sort of like Windows 3.0 :) (but probably faster).
Yes, probably :-) Since you wouldn't need much code, and nothing on a
standard Apple uses interrupts, you could go one further and make it a
time-sliced system instead of a cooperative one, with a very simple circuit
(not much more than a 555 timer, though you might want it on a card with a
PROM to hold the code).
--
Pete Peter Turnbull
Dept. of Computer Science
University of York
Back on May 6, I said:
>RK05s? I bought five RL02 disk packs the other day for $2 each.
>I see they're going for $30 on eBay. I'll use the proceeds to
>fund other bad habits.
Just to confound the eBay hysteria, I'll recount what happened
with these RL02s. I was all excited because eBay's history showed
a single RL02 went for $28 a few weeks ago.
I mentioned I had these packs on this list on May 6 and no one
responded. I listed one pack on eBay on May 9. I composed a nice
page, sent private e-mail to likely bidders telling them of the
auction.
Chuck McManis missed my original post to this list, but he was
the winning bidder and picked one up for $5.50. I sold the rest
to him for that price, so he got five with shipping for $45.
(Did I bend any eBay rule by selling him the other ones?)
In another eBay story, I was the top bidder for a Leitz illuminator
transformer for an old microscope I have, at $5. However, the
seller wanted to charge $12 shipping. This item is two-three pounds
at best. I questioned this and haven't heard from them yet.
Similarly, someone sent me a note about Pascal MicroEngine schematics
they're auctioning. For 50 xeroxed pages, the first bid is $9 and
they want $7 shipping.
No doubt some eBay sellers have discovered the old mail-order
rule of thumb that the cost of goods and shipping should be covered
by the "shipping and handling" charge, and that the price is
just gravy. :-) BTW, I always charge "actual shipping cost".
- John
Check this site out http://www.commodore2000.com
The Commodore Evolution (in the development process) looks like a
fat PC keyboard. I e-mailed the guy to try to get some more detailed specs.
I wonder if this is for real or not. It looks like a recent domain
registration.
FYI, the domain is owned by:
Administrative Contact: Barton, Raymond
(rbarton(a)ONEBOX.COM) Computersnational, inc. 112 Carman Place Amityville ,
NY 11701 (516) 827-8667 (FAX) (516) 691-1589
Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Mindspring Domreg
(domreg(a)MINDSPRING.COM) Mindspring Enterprises, Inc. 1430 West Peachtree St.
NW, Ste. 400 Atlanta, GA 30309 US 888-932-1997 Fax- - 404 815-8805
Record last updated on 24-Nov-1999. Record expires
on 11-Oct-2001. Record created on 11-Oct-1999.
It looks like it's a small e-commerce Web site hosted by Mindspring.
The page link for the PeeCee compatible seems to be broken...
Rich
==========================
Richard A. Cini, Jr.
Congress Financial Corporation
1133 Avenue of the Americas
30th Floor
New York, NY 10036
(212) 545-4402
(212) 840-6259 (facsimile)
