Just dropped by the Uni Surplus for their grand unveiling... Open one
day a week now, with inventory soon to appear on the web.
Got a PowerMac 7200/90 for $10, just to get cables and accessories
with it (needed a AV adapter for my 6100/60av). Also got a nice
Barco monitor, c. 1989. Will go great with an old Amiga.
The big win, though, was a fully loaded (SCSI drives, 4 x MS440
and TSZ07) VAX 4000-710. I would have thought it was an Alpha
box, but unless the sun was in my eyes, it says "VAX 4000" on one
name plate on one end, and "Model 710" on a name plate on the other
end. It's still in the back of my station wagon, so I haven't even
fired it up. From the stickers on the devices, it's running UNIX
(/dev/whatever on all the disks and tape drives).
I bought it without powering it on because a) I wanted the TSZ07 and
it was cheaper than the shipping alone, and b) they don't have
a 20A plug at the surplus barn (the one with the blades like (- |)
not the usual (| |) for a 15A plug).
I only found a few hits for it while googling. Any good resources for
a box that new? I figure I'll get it home, stick a VT220 on it and
go from there. Yes, I have MMJ cables to plug into the console port.
If I decide to keep it, I'll want to think about OpenVMS on it. There's
nothing magical about modern DEC Unix that makes it special to me. If
I want Unix, I'll go with *BSD or Solaris on beefy hardware. Ultrix
only in special cases.
-ethan
__________________________________________________
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> What's always annoyed me with "brand-name" PC's is that the packaging ALWAYS
> deviates from the "norm" established by the DIY market. Consquently, your
> DELL, Gateway, or Compaq was never upgradable, because the CPU or hard disk
> wasn't supported by the BIOS, or some peripheral wouldn't fit in the system
> because of address conflicts. Simple things like the on-board video caused
> problems when they failed because one couldn't disable them, or, if one did,
> the now-broken native video interfered with the replacement. Even printer
> ports posed such problems. Many times the packaging itself was the problem.
> Have you ever tried to replace or upgrade the CDROM drive in an HP PC?
It just depends on the model.
We bought several Dell Precision Workstations, 410s and 420s.
They use non-standard mobos and non-standard PSUs. Everything
else is standard. We also have Dimensions, which have similar
attributes w/r/t peripherals.
-dq
>From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502(a)yahoo.com>
>Would you have 10-12 DL1416s? That would give me enough for two
>display boards and a spare or two for the future.
---
Hmm.. probably not. I do have about a dozen, but I might need some of
them for my AIMs if & when I finally get around to looking at them.
Also, I doubt that there are even five matching ones; some are Siemens
and some are Litronix/NSL, with different profiles, and they are also
various brightness codes. But if you need a replacement or two I could
probably help out.
But from the other perspective, what were you planning to use? And
do you know of a source for a cheap 1x20 parallel VF or LCD display?
Lots of 2&4x20s; guess one of those would do...
---
>Right now, my "spare" time is all focused on displays anyway - the
>LCDProc project (http://lcdproc.omnipotent.net/) is closing in on
>a new point release and I'm trying to debug a development environment
>to be able to add support for some new display hardware (PD3000 "pole
>displays" like you see attached to cash registers/tills).
---
Looks like there are a few of these display/monitor projects out there;
what's so different about the PD3000? Aren't they all RS-232?
I'll be in touch off-list when I know more.
mike
>It's just that the 250% price premium
>paid for it because it's mainly a single-vendor system is pretty steep. Now,
>I haven't looked at any pricing in over 15 years,
But when you compare a similar package Gateway, Dell, or other "name
brand" PCs, you will find that there is actually very little difference
in price. Certainly not enough to justify the significantly higher TCO of
the PC.
Where the price difference really shines is in the generic branded PCs,
or in the "build your own" PCs.
>What I don't understand is, if the
>supply is lower and the devices are as reliable as those on the PC market,
>where's the demand that drives the prices up coming from?
Because people WANT a Mac. How does BMW get away with charging a price
premium when they only have a 5% market share. People will pay the price
because they want the item.
I have long felt that Apple could make much larger sweeps into the market
if they would stop being "cool" and just make a $400 bare bones iMac.
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
> From: Richard Erlacher <edick(a)idcomm.com>
> I'm also looking for a recommendation for a decent but not too rare or
> expensive 56K dialup modem that's also fax-capable.
Any external 56K modem should work, right? You should be able to get one
for $20 or so.
> I'm sure I can find a
> reasonable MAC for a few dollars, but the real question with the MAC is
the
> peripherals.
No doubt ;>) I don't know about availability where you are, but I get a
couple of calls from PC parts vendors every day, and I have not had one
call from a Mac vendor in 10 years. If I could find a reliable wholesaler
of Mac parts and peripherals I'd start doing Mac repairs.
> I've noticed that there's software out there for doing
> long-distance jibberjabber between computers on the internet. If I equip
one
> of these babies with that and send it to my S.O's sister in Portland,
they can
> yack without running up the long distance bills. That's easily going to
pay
> for an older MAC in a week or so.
Does anyone on this list know of anyone who has gotten "free long distance
telephone calls over the internet" software to work consistently?
Glen
0/0
On Tue, 30 Apr 2002, Ethan Dicks wrote:
>
> --- "Douglas H. Quebbeman" <dquebbeman(a)acm.org> wrote:
> > > ...will "Hercules" talk BISYNC or SNA down a sync serial pipe?
> >
> > I'd think you'd either need a PC serial card that uses a
> > USART instead of a UART, or a convert of some kind... but
> > I don't know how the converter would supply synch...
>
> Naturally. I wouldn't expect a 16550 to sprout clock lines and
> stop being asynchronous. I guess I should have been a little
> clearer on my inqury. I do not know of any off-the-shelf sync
> serial cards for the PC, so I didn't know the best way to phrase
> the question.
There are/were apparently a number of Apple LocalTalk cards made
for PC usage. One of them is the PC MacBridge by Tangent Technologies -
now defunct - which is a short 8-bit card based on the Zilog Z8530APC
chip. A google search will disclose multiple others also.
- don
> > But it wouldn't be too hard to kludge up a design for a
> > single-port 8251a-based serial card...
>
> If I were going to build hardware, I'd probably go with the ZSIO
> because a) I have some and b) I programmed one at the register
> level for a living 10 years ago, and know how to make it tick.
>
> More to the point: does Hercules support any off-the-shelf sync
> cards? I'd rather this be as light on the customization as possible.
>
> -ethan
>
>
> __________________________________________________
> Do You Yahoo!?
> Yahoo! Health - your guide to health and wellness
> http://health.yahoo.com
>
In a message dated 5/1/02 5:51:42 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
doc(a)mdrconsult.com writes:
> Sounds like an Altos. I'm looking for a BIOS file for my 580 with a
> Seagate ST225.....
>
I will keep an eye out for my Altos SW, I too had a 580 at one time. Nice
machine.
I just salvaged an Altos 8000-12 out of my house. More about that later.
The box I am referring to is a small white minitower that used RJ connectors
for terminal connection. I believe it is an 8 bit machine like the Altos 580.
I cannot remember the name, I will have to get it out of storage. Ran 8 bit
MP/M. Cute.
Paxton
Astoria, OR
In a message dated 5/1/02 12:55:08 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
dquebbeman(a)acm.org writes:
>
> MP/M-86: multiuser, multi-terminal version of CP/M. Supports
> more memory than CP/M-86 though...
>
I liked MPM. I am still sitting on a MPM box that supports 4 terminals and
hope to get it running again some time. Hmm. that reminds me, I am going to
need a new (used) 10 meg HD for it. It is nice to see the SW for it on the
Internet.
I should bring it home from the storage locker.
Paxton
Astoria, OR
>Are you certain? If the Mac was running the same network services as
>that Unix box, I'd bet your chances of a problem are even -- if not
>worse on the Mac, due to their popularity among "home users," which
>unix isn't...
The wonderful bonus you have here with the Mac is... AppleTalk isn't
passed by home internet routers or modems. So you can safely have the
default settings of a home file/print sharing turned on on your Macs, and
no one outside of your home network will know it is there.
This changes if you turn on AppleTalk over IP, but since that is off by
default, you must explicitly set it when you turn on your filesharing. At
that point, if you don't know what you are activating, you deserve what
you get.
Also, even if I run servers/services that DO interact with the
internet... I am far less likely to be hacked simply by virtue of there
is almost no one trying to hack the Mac servers. That isn't true with
Windows and Unix where any 13yr old script kiddie can get tools to make
attempts.
I don't pretend that Mac internet servers are unhackable... just that
people aren't making easy tools to try, so the script kiddies ignore them.
Much like Mac users being "immune" to viruses. We are FAR from immune...
we just don't really see them because no one is interested in trying.
There are advantages to being a 5% market... small targets don't get hit
often.
(so how long now until someone hacks my web page to prove a point :-) )
-chris
<http://www.mythtech.net>
