test-drb October 2018

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

176 participants
160 discussions

by db＠db.net

I rescued a pile of DAT and a drive from scrap locally. I have no use for it. I'd rather not ship :-( but I am two hours drive from Montreal 4.5-5 hours from Toronto here in Ottawa. Anyone want this box? Diane -- - db at FreeBSD.org db at db.net http://artemis.db.net/~db

7 years

Desktop Metaphor

by rickb＠bensene.com

Liam Proven wrote: <snip> >On the one hand, the cosmetics. *Every* Unix desktop out there draws >on Win95. I take exception to the "*Every*" in Liam's statement above. Replacing "Unix" with "Linux" would make the statement more correct. X-Windows-based desktop metaphor UI's existed within the Unix world long before Win95 came on the scene. The whole desktop metaphor UI existed long before Windows 95 in non-Unix implementations by Xerox PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) with the pioneering Xerox Alto, introduced in 1973, which implemented Alan Kay's concepts for the desktop metaphor that were postulated in 1970 using Smalltalk as the core operating system. Windows 95, and the earlier versions of Microsoft's desktop metaphor UI's, were patterned after these implementations. Microsoft simply took concepts that already existed in the world of UI design, and made their own implementation based on those concepts. -Rick -- Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com

7 years

Scan of Micro Peripherals Inc MPI 91/92 Product Manual Avail?

by billdegnan＠gmail.com

I got a request for a scan of the Micro Peripherals Inc MPI 91/92 Product Manual. I have the manual, I will scan it and post if no one has a copy. But I don't want to go through the effort if it exists somewhere already. I noticed on bitsavers there was no MPI nor Micro Peripherals Inc section so it very well may be that there is no copy of this manual out there.. Thanks in advance. Bill

7 years

trouble imaging badblocks on rl02

by jacob.ritorto＠gmail.com

Has anyone modified Warren's VTServer to ignore errors (or at least keep trying upon encountering them)? I'm trying to image some rl02s I found and am getting flack on some tracks, killing the whole recovery process. 200K received wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwrl(0,0,0) err cy=14, hd=0, sc=28, rlcs=104275, rlmp=4 Copying done. Either reset the system, or hit <return> to exit the standalone program. Or is there a better way? thx jake

7 years

does a reverse-engineering EDA tool exist?

by aek＠bitsavers.org

To draw out the schematics for the Displaywriter I have a bunch of boards to trace out, and I don't want to do the usual "scribble on yellow pad" to do it. Has someone written a graphical tool for doing this? What I would like to find is a tool that puts up a bunch of footprints with internal IC functions shown, then a way to rapidly enter the buzzed out interconnections, generating a netlist. This is exactly backwards workflow from normal schematic entry and pcb layout. I suspect I'm just going to have to bite the bullet and write it..

7 years

High res e-readers

by shadoooo＠gmail.com

Kobo have a quite plain Linux, run on iMX processors, and are very easy to modify/script, and last but not least, to unbrick in case of severe problems. In many models, the internal memory is an SD card, so it can be expanded easily. Then you have also external SD. On the software side, try koreader. It's an open source reader, developed for eink devices. It works very well with PDFs, and can do intelligent text reflow, even on raw scans of books, via a sort of OCR. The nice thing is that it doesn't convert bitmap to text, but seems to split long lines of text in shorter sections, then rearranges the pieces on the screen, following font size options. It can be instructed to work as expected on multi column pages. Very nice! Andrea

7 years

Advice needed: Entry point into things PDP-8

by ce.murillosanchez＠gmail.com

Greetings all... I have been pondering something and would love to receive feedback from you.? The thing is, I would like to have something pdp8-ish that would allow me to play a little bit with the programming languages that were available for these machines, FORTRAN 4K and FORTRAN IV in particular.? Now,? I would love to be able to time some FORTRAN jobs just to get an idea about what it was like back then.? I am aware of PiDP-8, simh, as well as SBC6120, SBC6120RBC. I happen to have three VT78 cpu boards (sans the RAM board) and two vt278 cpu boards. All were in rather sorry condition; I picked them up from a junk pile that was stacked several feet high and in which the contents were mostly random. Thus, the VT78 boards' components were scratched and in fact two of them are missing the control panel ROM chip. Otherwise they are complete, but I am missing the RAM boards.? The VT278 boards were further abused by someone who yanked out the oscillators and a few TTL chips, damaging several traces, which I have now repaired.? Alas, only one of them has the HM6120 cpu chip, and I do not know if it is good or not. Both are missing the SMC5037 CRT generator chip.? Other than that, they are complete. So, now that we all know what I have, let me say out loud what I've been thinking: If I try to build actual hardware: I've read that the VT278 has serious software compatibility issues with older software due to the use of the HM6121 I/O chip.? So even if I get an adequate keyboard, buy the CRT chip and manage to use it to drive a monitor, I would need an original floppy drive system and media, because I do not have the DP278 serial comms board that would allow me to send the VT278 a program to run; For the VT78, I would need to hack a memory board, and, since it can be coaxed to accept a program to run if it is fooled into thinking that it is loading a program from an MR78/paper tape, perhaps I could make it boot something.? I would need to wire-up and arduino or something like it to translate the keyboard and display terminal chatter in the serial console into something usable.? But, that's three hardware projects (memory board, MR78-like contraption, microcontrolled serial console translator)... The last hardware option is to go and make an SBC6120RBC;? I would need to buy programmers for the GAL/PAL devices, and I've heard that not all programmers can deal with the kind of chips used in it.? And, if it turns out that the HM6120 chip that I have is bad, I would have to hunt down one of those rare beasts.. It would be awesome, though, to have an SBC6120RBC up and running, and be able to time actual hardware running FORTRAN. And then comes the emulation option, with the PiDP-8.? I have to say that the emulation of the blinkenlights is very, very attractive to me, and this option is a no-brainer hardware-wise. So...? am I missing something in my estimation of the effort involved in these options? What would _you_ do? Carlos.

7 years

Action Computer Enterprise and ADES

by kylevowen＠gmail.com

Anyone have any manuals or software for an ACE 1600? Or manuals for an ADES hard drive? I've had this one in storage for a while, but it seems fairly interesting and possibly complete. http://imgur.com/a/KR83Okw Thanks, Kyle

7 years

Not really vintage computing, but just in case it's of interest to anyone..

by evanlinwood＠hotmail.com

Message: 103 Date: Wed, 24 Oct 2018 09:46:35 -0700 From: Al Kossow <aek at bitsavers.org> To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: Re: Not really vintage computing, but just in case it's of interest to anyone.. Message-ID: <8e90dfc4-8cc2-9d33-9031-52ad4690e76c at bitsavers.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 On 10/24/18 1:08 AM, Evan Linwood via cctalk wrote: > taken from the listing : > > "It was used ( I Believe ) to process Geophysical Seismic Data during the exploration of Oil in Bass Straight. The circuitry is all NASA standard." > > https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/gosford/other-electronics-computers/vintage… > http://www.vcfed.org/forum/showthread.php?66273-I-am-putting-the-CART-befor… Thanks Al - I hadn't seen that. Hopefully something is still happening with it.

7 years

UNIX - An Open Solution

by silent700＠gmail.com

I recently came across an eight-volume set of comb-bound, A4-sized booklets titled "UNIX - An Open Solution", by Mick Farmer and Richard Murphy. In trying to uncover more info about them, I found Mick Farmer's old home page: http://www.plan7.co.uk/mick.html. The books are mentioned there with the text "videos and workbook". Has anyone seen the videos from these lessons, or know where they could be found? Mr. Farmer's email is listed on the page - I can check with him if nothing turns up here. - j

7 years

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test-drb October 2018