test-drb June 2001

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

273 participants
682 discussions

by bill＠SunSouthWest.com

ISA Card? There were several. *very* expensive - maybe $500 or so for maybe 12-14 TTL chips on a short 8-bit ISA card. I've got one - been thinking (maybe not very seriously) of putting everything into an ASIC or FPGA as a do-it-yourself project. Realistically, how many tapes are there out there that need to be read? Found a Qualcom open style deck not long ago - it's a SCSI, and a lot lighter and easier to haul around than those F-880 Cipher pigs. Which are taking up space ''just in case''. Bill Hemmings Tucson, AZ bill(a)sunsouthwest.com = ==================== = = > Re: pertec interface > > From: John Honniball (John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk) > Date: 04/06/01-12:12:57 PM Z > > I' looking for data sheet of the PERTEC interface, > > electrical and timing caracteristics > > So, much as I hate to say "Me Too", I'd also like to find > out more about the Pertec interface. Was there ever a PC > ISA-bus card for this? Or a VME (Sun-3) card?

25 years

pertec interface

by mcguire＠neurotica.com

On June 20, bill wrote: > ISA Card? There were several. *very* expensive - maybe $500 > I've got one - been thinking (maybe not very seriously) of > putting everything into an ASIC or FPGA as a do-it-yourself > project. Realistically, how many tapes are there out there > that need to be read? Be careful, it's very easy to underestimate this...a great many organizations are still using 9-track tapes. Your FPGA idea sounds really neat. > Found a Qualcom open style deck not long ago - it's a SCSI, > and a lot lighter and easier to haul around than those F-880 > Cipher pigs. Which are taking up space ''just in case''. Heh. You've never moved a Fuji M2444AC, have you. The Cipher F-880 is tiny. The "right" way to do 9-track these days is the HP 88780. SCSI, caching, fast, quiet, self-threading, and as far as I'm aware, still being produced. -Dave McGuire

25 years

PC-ISA Pertec-Interface 9-Track Magtape Drive Controller Sought f or Rent/Lease

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

Ok, Has anyone got a PC- (actually any bus will do except MCA) compatible controller card for Pertec-interface tape drives like the Cipher F880 that they would rent or lease to me for a while? Electrovalue has one for $250, but if I could spare that much I could get the Prime running and wouldn't need the controller. Of course, loans are acceptable as well. I'd need docs on how to address it in code, or some code that will talk to it, etc. Tia, -doug quebbeman

25 years

CD Eating Fungus?

by jeff.kaneko＠juno.com

On Wed, 20 Jun 2001 09:05:50 -0700 Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> writes: > >At 07:43 PM 6/19/01 -0700, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: > >>The original post that started this thread spoke of TRANSPARENT > spots > >>where the aluminium was "gone". Reduces the overall credibility > of the > >>story. > > > >I suspect the aluminium went from reflective to transparent, > >so they said it was "gone". > > Oh my goodness, we have invented transparent aluminum! Well it would figure-- most of the really *important* discoveries were accidental. Take the microwave oven, fer example . . . :^) ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj.

25 years

CD Eating Fungus?

by cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com

At 10:39 AM 6/20/01 -0700, Fred wrote: >In the meantime, this list has been putting a lot of effort into trying to >come up with ways that what is apparently an urban legend COULD POSSIBLY >be true. Has anyone tried playing them backwards? I had thought it was common knowledge, the reflective layer in many CDs is sputtered aluminum. When exposed to oxygen (as can happen when oxygen migrates through the plastic or the plastic is cracked) the Aluminum oxidizes and turns black. It does look a bit like a fungus but only because it tends to follow the grain pattern in the deposited aluminum. Aluminum-oxide is black and quite hard actually. I've seen several examples of this in "real life" and while I have never seen the process to actually _remove_ Aluminum from the disk it is conceivable that the Al02 would form a different crystal matrix and thus change its orientation relative to the original sputtering. That could leave 'gaps' where the original reflective layer was. So folks to don't understand chemistry invent the 'fungus' idea and off it goes into urban legend-dom. --Chuck

25 years

CD Eating Fungus?

by jfoust＠threedee.com

At 07:43 PM 6/19/01 -0700, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote: >The original post that started this thread spoke of TRANSPARENT spots >where the aluminium was "gone". Reduces the overall credibility of the >story. I suspect the aluminium went from reflective to transparent, so they said it was "gone". - John

25 years

Interesting British computer needs good retirement home

by vcf＠siconic.com

Roy Jenkins e-mailed me looking for a new home for his old "LSI System-M-Three" computer. The message below describes this machine. He lives in North Gloucestershire in the Village of Weston-sub-Edge near the small town of Chipping Campden. If interested, please reply directly to Roy. Reply-to: Roy Jenkins <jenkins(a)weston-sub-edge.demon.co.uk> On Mon, 11 Jun 2001, Roy Jenkins wrote: > It is an LSI System-M-Three desktop computer with Tokyo Electric Daisy > Wheel Printer. The software is CP/M based and includes very early > versions of Wordstar and Supercalc. For years it was hooked up to a > Telex machine via an RS232 port. There are something like a hundred 8 > inch floppies with it and a number of different daisy wheels. > > This system cost the equivalent of over twelve thousand dollars in > 1981 and was used virtually every working day for eighteen years. It > never went wrong ,never crashed and is still in working order. It has > 64K (yes K!) of static RAM and two 8 inch floppy drives of 198K (yes > K!) each. All the manuals come with it. > > It is British to the point of having a Union Flag on the panel! > > After so much faithful service I would hate to junk it. > > Roy Jenkins. Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org

25 years

Wave of the Future (Spam)

by jhellige＠earthlink.net

>who'd gladly send spam that conformed. In the paper world, it's called >"junk mail" and it seems to be quite popular. In the e-mail world, at >least half the junk I get does have reasonable attribution to the source. >The "problem" with spam is that it apparently works for some scams, >and that there's plenty of people willing to try it. Another difference between junk snail mail and spam is that the junk mailers actually have to pay for each item they send out. Not true with the email spammers. The only thing that holds them back is the lack of addresses and those are readily available from companies on eBay and such. Anything that is free and readily accessible will always be exploited by some, regardless of how it affects others. Jeff

25 years

retroarchive.org (Announcement 2)

by dhquebbeman＠theestopinalgroup.com

> I know that the Amiga and Atari ST's had their versions, but > there was a fairly major format change at some point that could cause > a problem for older versions of the software on non-PC clones. If I > recall correctly, PKZIP/UNZIP was actually an outgrowth of PKware's > earlier PKARC/PKXARC programs and it changed names when Sea > Associates complained about the closeness of the name to their > products (ARC & UNARC), whcih they were compatible with. This was in > late '87 or early '88 and BBS's started boycotting the use of > ARC/UNARC and switched to ZIP as the defacto compression standard. They didn't just change the name, they changed the format as well. I'd been a big ARC user, having switched from SQ/USQ/LU/LDIR etc. PKARC and PKXARC were so much faster, I switched immediately. You know the rest of the story. I kept DOS (for sure, and maybe CP/M) executables of them so if anyone needs them, let me know. However, they don't appear to run properly under CMD.EXE (maybe CONFIG.NT needs a tweak). Regards, -doug q

25 years

New finds in Houston

by jrkeys＠concentric.net

I just got back from 18 days down in Houston and in-between working (and the flooding) I was able to hit a few thrifts there. I got the following: 1. A handheld called Compact by Ultratec with a acoustic modem in the top cover. It's 8 1/2 x 3 1/2 and 1 1/8 inch tall. It has no other markings on it. 2. Six new in the box Vic20 game cartridges 3. R.O.B. by Nintendo robot 4. Something called a Xscribe that looks like a over grown C64. 5. A alphamicro 1000A model AM1000-47 6. Radio Shack TRS-80 TP-10 thermal printer 7. Several new in the box TI99 cartridges 8. And about 50+ more items that do not meet the 10 year rule. It was a good trip just wish the weather had been better.

25 years

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test-drb June 2001