test-drb April 2020

test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

142 participants
114 discussions

DEC VR290 Colour Monitor, free to good home (UK)

by Aaron.Jackson＠nottingham.ac.uk

I have a DEC VR290 colour monitor for use with VAXstations. It was working fine when I last powered it on (2-3 years ago), hooked up to a 3100 M76. It's free to a good home (preferably a home with a VAX), absolutely collection only. I'm in Nottingham UK. It's too heavy and large to ship safely. I have two video cables which are intended for use with it. I think they are both for VAXstations of some kind, one might be for DECstation. You've welcome to have them both with the monitor. Please let me know if you are interested. If in the unlikely event there is more than one person interested, it'll be mostly whoever picks it up first but I will prioritise those who actually do have a suitable VAX to use it with. Also, if there are any documentation hoarders I have an entire book case of VAX/VMS manuals (thick red binders). Full list is here, let me know if you want any. aaronsplace dot co dot uk / dec-manuals.html Cheers, Aaron This message and any attachment are intended solely for the addressee and may contain confidential information. If you have received this message in error, please contact the sender and delete the email and attachment. Any views or opinions expressed by the author of this email do not necessarily reflect the views of the University of Nottingham. Email communications with the University of Nottingham may be monitored where permitted by law.

5 years, 3 months

Prime 50-Series emulator announcement

by drb＠msu.edu

I'm reposting this announcement from Jim Wilcoxson. De #### Newsgroups: comp.sys.prime Date: Wed, 11 Mar 2020 08:34:13 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <0c560b91-35d2-4dcc-b859-a8eb4d22bd17 at googlegroups.com> Subject: Prime emulator source released on GitHub From: Jim Wilcoxson <prirun at gmail.com> Today, with much help from Dennis Boone, I'm releasing the Prime emulator source code on GitHub for non-commercial use. This is the full version of the emulator running on Linux and supports: - all Prime CPU modes: 16S, 32S, 32R, 64R, 64V, 32I - all Prime models, from the P400 to P6550 - up to 512MB of memory, depending on the Primos rev and CPU - a system console - 128 incoming telnet terminal connections - 8 disk controllers, 8 drives each - support for all 25 disk drives sold by Prime - a tape controller, 4 drives, using the .TAP format - a PNC controller emulating RingNet over TCP/IP - a bypass for Primos system serial number checks - Unix utilities to read/write physical tapes & Magsav tapes Dennis owns the emulator GitHub repo and has also kindly agreed to take over hosting of the public Prime emulators that have been online since 2008. There are 7 public emulators running in a virtual Prime ring, allowing both remote terminal sessions (netlink) and remote disk access via PrimeNet. The Prime emulator on Linux is currently running 45-55 Prime MIPS in 64V mode. A wide range of Prime software is loaded on the public emulators: - ftn screaming fast Prime Fortran 66 compiler, written in assembler - f77 the not-so-screaming but full-featured Fortran '77 - pl1g the PL/I Subset G compiler - pl1 the full PL/I compiler - plp the original Prime systems language (like PL/I) - spl the 2nd generation Prime systems language - cc the C compiler written by Garth Conby of Pacer Software - pascal the Pascal compiler - modula Wirth's successor to Pascal - dbg Prime's source level debugger rivaling modern debuggers - pma the Prime assembler - basicv the Prime BASIC compiler - cobol the original Prime COBOL compiler - cbl the Prime COBOL '74 compiler - emacs the full screen editor still used by many today (me!) - midas the Prime indexed sequential file software This week we are working on releasing Prime disk images for all of the public emulators to make it easy for others to get their own Prime up and running. For the truly adventurous who want to bootstrap their own Prime system, there are links in the emulator readme to Prime tape images at Bitsavers and to a large library of Prime manuals. I learned more about operating systems, compilers, concurrency, and other systems programming topics by reading Prime source code, making changes to Primos, and fiddling with Prime hardware, than I did from all of my college degree work. I loved Prime computers, Prime software, Prime hardware, and the Prime Computer company, and am grateful to all of the former Prime engineers that provided this robust and interesting hardware and software platform. I hope you enjoy it too! https://github.com/prirun Jim

5 years, 3 months

Core Memory Photo

by keith＠saracom.com

"Ouch. Looks like that core took a serious hit." Yep it did. We ran the microscope into it at the lab. Ouch. Someone had asked for a picture of core memory without the cover so I thought it would do.

5 years, 3 months

Prime Sample System Releases

by Kevin＠rawfeddogs.net

Prime Fans, I just noticed on comp.sys.prime that I missed a couple of sample system releases. I have a process set up to dump messages from some news groups into my IMAP server for easy reading with my mail client, but I don't have anything set up to easily reply via the news groups. Does anyone know what's new in the recent sample system releases? -- Kevin http://www.RawFedDogs.net http://www.Lassie.xyz http://www.WacoAgilityGroup.org Bruceville, TX What's the definition of a legacy system? One that works! Errare humanum est, ignoscere caninum.

5 years, 3 months

Computing and communicating in a COVID-19 world

by c.murray.mccullough＠gmail.com

The virus-world we are living in has seen Internet usage dramatically increase world-wide. Thanks to pioneers like Cerf, Kahn, Crocker and Kleinrock, sounds like a law firm, paved the way for the packet-switch system Bell & others fought to prevent. I recall the early days of computing, classic, retro or otherwise defined, that was slow, but had to do more than now, as the hardware wasn?t so great or more accurately small and fast. Their were machines that allowed us to communicate at 300 baud and I was happy! Stay safe. Happy computing and communicating. Murray ?

5 years, 3 months

Core Memory Photo

by keith＠saracom.com

Here is a link to pictures of core memory from a PDP1145. https://devilanse.wordpress.com/2009/11/03/nablopomo-digital-equipment-corp…

5 years, 3 months

RIP John H Conway - Creator of the game of life

by frank＠tuccio.net

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Horton_Conway

5 years, 3 months

RIP John Conway

by frank＠tuccio.net

https://www.math.princeton.edu/people/john-conway Creator of "the game of life" -----Original Message----- From: cctalk [mailto:cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org] On Behalf Of cctalk-request at classiccmp.org Sent: Sunday, April 12, 2020 1:00 PM To: cctalk at classiccmp.org Subject: cctalk Digest, Vol 67, Issue 12 Send cctalk mailing list submissions to cctalk at classiccmp.org To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://www.classiccmp.org/mailman/listinfo/cctalk or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to cctalk-request at classiccmp.org You can reach the person managing the list at cctalk-owner at classiccmp.org When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of cctalk digest..." Today's Topics: 1. Re: Discord (Anders Nelson) 2. Re: pdp11/05 key? (Liam Proven) 3. Re: pdp11/05 key? (Eric Smith) ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Message: 1 Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2020 13:40:39 -0400 From: Anders Nelson <anders.k.nelson at gmail.com> To: Jay West <jwest at classiccmp.org>, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Discord Message-ID: <CAJ2mpAhK_iwO0J8mD2_9E64LED=CiRKpxmVDB-GXpQuQRpMTMw at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" Medal of Honor is one of my all-time favorite games. -- Anders Nelson On Fri, Apr 10, 2020 at 4:09 PM jwest--- via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > Perma-invite > > > > https://discord.gg/CwhYHY2 > > > > From: Derek Newland <derek.newland at gmail.com> > Sent: Thursday, April 9, 2020 7:47 PM > To: jwest at classiccmp.org; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic > Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> > Subject: Re: Discord > > > > Hi J, it appears the invite has expired. Any chance to get a fresh one? > Thanks! > > > > On Fri, Nov 15, 2019 at 12:55 PM jwest--- via cctalk < > cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org> > wrote: > > I believe I sent the invite to my game channel, NOT the new classiccmp > server..... please use this instead: > https://discord.gg/gV6PKYW > > -----Original Message----- > From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org <mailto: > cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> > On Behalf Of jwest--- via cctalk > Sent: Friday, November 15, 2019 11:26 AM > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' < > cctalk at classiccmp.org <mailto:cctalk at classiccmp.org> > > Subject: Discord > > Greetings folks > > > > The past few years I?ve become fairly focused on a particular old > 1999/2000 ww2 fps computer game. Of course playing it but I?m also on the > development team for the game (EA has given up on it, but we still put out > new releases, maps, patches, etc.). As a result of that, I pretty much live > on Discord text/audio chat these days. If you send me an email I will > eventually see it and may even respond heh. But if you send me anything on > Discord I?m going to see it immediately. If any of you are on discord, I am > ?Todesengel#9624?. Feel free to add me as a friend and that way you can get > me usually immediately. I am not leaving the hobby, nor am I saying not to > email me at the usual address. But a lot of you do talk to me > semi-frequently and I?m just saying discord will get to me far quicker. > > > > In addition, mostly as an exercise to see how to do it, I set up a > ClassicCMP discord server. That Discord server is NOT meant to replace this > list, nor should it be taken to signal any less commitment on my part to > keeping this list running. They are fundamentally different things; Discord > is great for real time text chat back and forth. There are also audio and > video channels if people want to use that to talk verbally or via video. To > get on that server, here is a semi-permanent invite: > https://discord.gg/U8Skw5g Joining the server gets you to all the other > folks who may join the classiccmp discord, not just me. Of course, that > could be zero ? Like I said, I just did it as an exercise, and discord is > how some of my family and friends stay in touch. But it is there if peeps > want to use it. > > > > I?d rather not turn this into a long debate of whether discord is good or > bad or anything like that. I?m just saying it?s there, and it?s quicker to > get ahold of me that way at times. > > > > Best, > > > > J > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > > -- > > Derek Newland | (828) 234-4731 | <mailto:derek.newland at gmail.com> > derek.newland at gmail.com > > ------------------------------ Message: 2 Date: Sat, 11 Apr 2020 23:51:29 +0200 From: Liam Proven <lproven at gmail.com> Cc: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: pdp11/05 key? Message-ID: <CAMTenCGrLP8yHOsQMtAzm2+Emq9CfFfFZJJEXZTJmHod9XboAQ at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Sat, 11 Apr 2020 at 13:55, Chris Elmquist <chrise at pobox.com> wrote: > > This might be one of those jokes that if you have to explain it, it looses the punch ... but I?ll try, > > There used to also be something called a Hong Kong Whore House, similarly staffed with young Asian women, but they didn?t make core planes there. I've been to HK and I was never aware of this! Thank you for the clarification. :-D -- Liam Proven ? Profile: https://about.me/liamproven Email: lproven at cix.co.uk ? gMail/gTalk/gHangouts: lproven at gmail.com Twitter/Facebook/LinkedIn/Flickr: lproven ? Skype: liamproven UK: +44 7939-087884 ? ?R (+ WhatsApp/Telegram/Signal): +420 702 829 053 ------------------------------ Message: 3 Date: Sun, 12 Apr 2020 02:14:12 -0600 From: Eric Smith <spacewar at gmail.com> To: Norman Jaffe <turing at shaw.ca>, "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: pdp11/05 key? Message-ID: <CAFrGgTRg_xc3_QSNaL79h5cP-LhjoQD-xBaEWGQ_L3aUtG=BQw at mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8" On Thu, Apr 9, 2020 at 11:35 AM Norman Jaffe via cctalk < cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: > I hope that you mean 'hardware porn', not 'hardcore porn'... :) > Trivia: for a while in the mid-to-late 1990s, a Google search for "computer porn" had as the number one result one of my web pages, of that title, containing images of computers with covers removed. I could see from the server log that the search was fairly popular, but nevertheless I believe that most of the people doing the search were not satisfied with the result. End of cctalk Digest, Vol 67, Issue 12 **************************************

5 years, 3 months

Weird Behaviour of VAXstation 4000 Model 60 Power Switch

by robert.jarratt＠ntlworld.com

This machine acts oddly. After powering it off, you usually can't power it back on again for about 30 seconds or so, it just seems to ignore the power switch. Similarly, if it has been switched off at the front power switch, it will switch itself on after maybe a minute of two of being switched off. In all other respects the machine seems fine. I have not opened up the PSU at all, just wondering if anyone has ever seen this and might know what the problem is? Thanks Rob

5 years, 3 months

John Conway

by aek＠bitsavers.org

https://www.i-programmer.info/news/82-heritage/13614-john-conway-dies-from-…

5 years, 3 months

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test-drb April 2020