Back in 1998 (actually more like from summer 1997 until summer 1998,
i.e., the 1997-98 school year), before I started Quasijarus Project,
I was searching the World high and low for a copy of the 4.3BSD tape
set. That was before PUPS got its momentum with getting the $100
"Ancient UNIX" license deal from SCO, and more importantly, getting
people interested in preserving and working with Original UNIX, and
at that time the entire world was basically in a conspiracy of
anathema against original Bell/Berkeley UNIX, everyone just wanted
it to stay buried in its grave and not come up.
Getting a copy of the 4.3BSD tape set seemed next to impossible.
www.berkeley.edu was shockingly silent about the fact that Berkeley
UNIX aka BSD, UC Berkeley's greatest accomplishment in all of its
history, ever existed, much less saying how to order a tape. Finally
I found a phone number and a couple of E-mail addresses for some
office at UCB that was apparently kept for sending out tapes after
CSRG itself was gutted. The office was basically a voice mailbox and
a couple of E-mail addresses, with the two people who were actually
supposed to get those E-mail and voice messages being away somewhere
in San Francisco and taking a few weeks to answer inquiries.
Finally they got back to me and told me to send a check for $2400 for
4.4BSD and $1000 for 4.3BSD. Ouch! And of course some murky business
about licenses.
At that time, however, I attended Case Western Reserve University (CWRU)
and had a semi-staff relationship with their computer science department.
I realised that the university must have had a UNIX source license from
back in The Days, and most probably had the actual 4.3BSD tapes at some
point as well, especially given that the old-timers told me that they
were indeed running 11/780s before. But again the conspiracy of anathema
was working: everyone had completely forgotten about it, and no one on
the entire campus even knew that the university had a UNIX source license
(and old-timers confirmed that indeed there was one).
When spring 1998 came around, PUPS was making its debut with the $100
license deal from SCO. I didn't care so much about license stuff, but
it meant a resurgence of interest in Original UNIX and a community of
people involved with it, something that was completely lacking only a
few months prior. I wanted access to the PUPS archive, and I wanted to
use the university's license rather than fork over $100 for a personal
one. The only issue was *finding* that license. Then I got a bright
idea: since the license agreement was between CWRU and AT&T, there must
have been copies of it on both sides. If CWRU had chosen to forget
about the license they once paid big money for, how about if I dig up a
copy of the license agreement from AT&T side? So I asked SCO's Dion
Johnson about it, and lo and behold, a few days later a copy of CWRU's
original UNIX license agreement shows up in my box in the computer science
department mail room! Warren Toomey got another copy and soon I got an
overseas fax from him with passwords for his PUPS Archive! Whoo-hoo!
But I still needed 4.3BSD. It wasn't in Warren's archive since they
were still PDP-only at that time, and me holding a copy of my school's
AT&T UNIX license agreement didn't help convince anyone I knew who
might have had 4.3BSD tapes to share them with me.
In late 1997 I got myself an office at CWRU, it was the CES department's
computer junkyard room. I was quite happy, a room full of classic
computers was the best office I could get. It was actually two rooms,
411 and 412. Only 411 was accessible from the hallway, the entrance to
412 was inside 411. Both rooms were filled with classic computer gear,
but 411 was a little less full and actually had some room for a desk and
was usable as an office. 412, on the other hand, was *completely* filled
with classic computer gear (mostly Sun 3) and it was difficult for a
person to make it through to the end of the room. At the very end of
room 412 (the end opposite the entrance door from 411) there was
something that looked like a plastic curtain or plastic window blinds.
The architecture of that building was really intriguing, the kind one
finds only on good old university campuses, and I couldn't really tell
if there was supposed to be a window there or not. I just never gave
it much thought, and it was too difficult to climb over all that Sun 3
gear in the way to see exactly what it was.
On a shelf in room 411 there were some magtape reels, and I thought
that if they ever had 4.3BSD tapes, they ought to be there. But I
looked through all the tapes I could see and 4.3BSD wasn't there. Bummer.
Then one day in summer 1998 I came to work in the morning, went up
the stairs to my beloved Computer Engineering and Science department
4th floor, went to the end of the hallway to my office, and got in.
I turned on the lights and per my usual habit, peeked all over the
room to make sure all the fun classic computers were still there.
And lo and behold, at the very end of room 412, where I previously
saw those plastic curtains or window blinds or whatever, I now saw
two racks full of magtapes! It turned out that the plastic "curtains"
were actually vertically sliding doors (kinda like garage doors) of
two huge magtape cabinets! Another staff member must have had a need
to get some old magtape and didn't close the cabinet after he was done.
With trembling hands, I raced there and started looking through all
the tapes. And sure enough, in a few minutes I found all 3 tapes of
the 4.3BSD 1600 BPI distribution.
I spent pretty much the whole year prior to that moment searching the
World high and low for 4.3BSD tapes when they were sitting the whole
time in my own office! Now that's a "Duh!" moment.
MS
I've more of these than anyone will need and they're all brand new.
3 packs of Bernoulli 5.25 44meg disks
KAO 5.25 88meg syquest disks. The label inside says they are formatted for
Macs but includes software for wintel machines also.
$1 each plus whatever for shipping and they're yours. Just say how many you
want.
--
I am not willing to give up my privacy for the false promise of 'security'
Does anyone have docs for this beastie? it's an apple-II on a card that
goes into an XT... or does anyone have any interest in it? it's been
sitting on my shelf for ~ 12 years now...
> ----------
> From: John R. Keys Jr.
> Reply To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
> Sent: Friday, February 15, 2002 2:54 PM
> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
> Subject: Re-finding more items as I open boxes
>
> Found the following while unpacking in the warehouse:
<<<<<clipped>>>>>>
> Took some other goodies home to play with like the 20th Annv. MAC,...
>
---
20th Anniversary Mac? You booger... I may have to grab it when
you're not looking.
;-)
--- David A Woyciesjes
--- C & IS Support Specialist
--- Yale University Press
--- mailto:david.woyciesjes@yale.edu
--- (203) 432-0953
--- ICQ # - 90581
Mac OS X 10.1.2 - Darwin Kernel Version 5.2: Fri Dec 7 21:39:35 PST 2001
Running since 01/22/2002 without a crash
Well, the Univac III is back: UNIVAC III Computer (In Storage since 1975),
eBay auction Item # 2733726990. This time the starting price is $7,500 and the
buy-it-now is $11,000.
The URL is:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2733726990&category=1247
OK, somebody, jump right on it! :-)
(Not me, I'm into LITTLE computers like PDP-11's and VAXen, with an occasional
side dish of 6502 or 8085)
Stuart Johnson
Certainly, there are a lot of logic analyzsers (or
analysers, if you are English) floating around. I was
told by a guy who specializes in "refurbished" (i.e.
dusted off) test equipment that this is because a lot
of it is gov't surplus where they just grab the unit.
He also mentioned that a lot of university surplus has
partially blown pods because of carelessness - due to
the nature of what they do, not much protection on the
inputs.
I have a Tek 1230 which I was lucky enough to get some
pods with. I had another one w/o pods and GOOD LUCK on
getting schematics, etc on this stuff - it's a "black
art" proprietary sort of thing.
=====
-Steve Loboyko
Incredible wisdom actually found in a commerical fortune cookie:
"When small men cast long shadows, then it is very late in the day."
Website: http://juliepalooza.8m.com/sl
__________________________________
Do you Yahoo!?
New Yahoo! Photos - easier uploading and sharing.
http://photos.yahoo.com/
I'd posted here a while ago looking for info on a Tally 420PR tape
punch and have built a driver board to interface it to a PDP-8A.
But there is a problem with consistent punching/feeding (the
result is often a longitudinal tear instead of holes) even with
the pulse widths set to the recommended 4.5 ms +- 0.5 ms, -24
volts, and the feed mechanism intermittently binds up too.
Currently I'm running it with only the sprocket and feed drivers
hooked up, and simulated punch commands from a 555 timer, so the
result should be continuously feeding tape with just sprocket
holes punched in it.
I suspect the problem is that the feed pulse starts immediately on
the falling edge of the punch pulse, so the pin hasn't cleared the
tape as the feed mechanism starts to move. It also tends to stick
in that position with the tape not moving (you can hear the
solenoids buzzing but the feed sprocket is not moving until
tweaked backwards a few degrees by hand). According to the
schematic, the escapement solenoid (which allows the tape to feed
one row per pulse) is supposed to be actuated internally by
contacts on the feed solenoid so there shouldn't be a timing issue
there.
Does anyone have more info on this punch model, or experience with
these asynchronous mechanisms in general? Is there a requirement
for a delay between punching the holes and pulsing the feed
solenoid? How long does it take for the pins to move up or down
after drive is applied/removed?
thanks
Charles
I saw this in today's copy of my local newspaper
on-line. The location of the building is in New
Windsor, NY. Stewart International Airport -as
some of you know- sits on the border of the Town
of Newburgh and New Windsor. It used to be and
still is to a degree, a major Marine, Army and
Air Force base. More currently, it is a
commercial international airport and a base for
the Air Force, local Army and Air Force Reserves
and touts a pair of the biggest runways in the
USA. It is the 3rd location on the list for
emergency landings for the Space Shuttles if
something should go wrong. Unfortunately, as this
piece suggests, the military has already removed
the actual SAGE equipment from the building. I
used to go on walks past this building as a kid
as there is a path near it that my family would
take through a wooded area (scenic stuff) and up
until recently, was open to the public, sort of
like a park. I figured I'd send this to cctech
because it has a lot of historical relevance.
-John Boffemmyer IV
STORY AS FOLLOWS:
July 16, 2005
Cold War building faces colder reality
By Jeremiah Horrigan
Times Herald-Record
jhorrigan at th-record.com
New Windsor ? You'll find it on the edge of
Stewart International Airport, a windowless,
four-story concrete cube that looks like it could withstand a nuclear blast.
And that's exactly what it was built to do.
If things had gone as many Americans feared
during the Cold War, if the Russian bombers had
finally come over the horizon, the Semi-Automatic
Ground Environment building was the key to the
country's military defense system.
The building that once thrummed with the
tensions of a time when nuclear Armageddon was a
constant threat was abandonned by the military
decades ago. The unnerving skeleton of its legacy
remain, including the war room, where
etched-glass maps of the Eastern U.S. display
likely Russian targets. Above the maps looms a
doomsday tote board, meant to track the "progress" of World War III.
Even before the '50s faded and ICBMs became
the weapon of choice among the world's
super-powers, the SAGE building had become as
antiquated as an Edsel. It's now slated for the
wrecking ball under the airport's new 20-year master plan for development.
And that plan is under siege by a group of
people who for years have been laboring to
transform the SAGE building into what they call a Cold War Peace Museum.
Ulster County Legislator Susan Zimet has
spearheaded the effort, lobbying, fundraising and
proselytizing on the building's behalf for the past five years.
To her, the building isn't a dead relic but a
living reminder of an era she believes we forget at our peril.
"All the stuff we deal with daily ?
terrorism, the possibility of nuclear terror or
the situation in Korea ? it all began with the Cold War."
Zimet's not much of a history buff herself,
and, after years of exploring possibilities,
she's doubtful the building is suitable for becoming a first-class museum.
But that, she argues, doesn't mean the
building should be demolished. Taking it down (at
an estimated cost of nearly a million dollars)
would be no different than destroying
Washington's headquarters in Newburgh, she says.
Tanya Vanasse toured the building's interior
recently. She wasn't impressed. Vanasse is the
airport's director of marketing. She sees no
reason to keep the building around.
The airport's master plan calls for the
building to come down sometime between 2008 and
2012, to make way for a rail yard that would be
part of a new train station, according to Zimet.
"I can see no viability of making this into a
public space. It's far too dangerous, it's got
far too many accessibility problems," she said
last week. "I could see removing the (etched
glass) pieces and building a display around them."
Vanasse said the plan is open ended, that no
hard-and-fast timetable exists. Nevertheless,
Zimet's group is urging people to sign petitions
that would preserve the building.
In the meantime, the SAGE building, silent
and foreboding as a tomb, continues to do what it has always done: It waits.
Anti-blast from the past was built to last
If it goes, the Semi-Automatic Ground
Environment building won't go easily. Its thick,
lead-reinforced concrete walls were intended to
withstand the ravages of a nuclear holocaust.
Only a direct hit could have taken it out.
The building was designed in the mid-1950s as
part of a network of identical
information-gathering centers built throughout
the country that was supposed to protect the
country's nuclear bomber fleet. Its designers
intentionally made it so nondescript that only a
handful of military personnel even knew of its existence or purpose.
Its computer system was beyond compare,
requiring thousands of square feet and at least
as many delicate transistors to track potential
intruders. Watching the skies at a SAGE building
console, said one retired Air Force veteran, was
like something out of "Buck Rogers."
But, like so many other state-of-the-art
defense systems, this one was obsolete almost
before it became operational. It was designed to
combat nuclear bombers. By the end of the decade,
intercontinental ballistic missiles had become
the bomb delivery system of choice.
The structure was officially decommissioned
in 1969. Since then, it has served as a
free-trade zone. Its ground floor is now occupied
by a chocolate- packaging factory.
Jeremiah Horrigan
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While reading an old resume, I came across something I forgot about. I
used to admin some 3Com 3+ and 3+/Open systems. 3Com made the hardware
(beefed up PC stuff) and wrote or owned the OS.
Anybody know what became of 3+/Open?
-James
James Fogg
JD Fogg Technology Consulting
18 Watershed Lane
Wilmot, NH 03287
(603) 724-2243
www.jdfogg.com
