A person on Reddit picked up what appears to be part of a Video Toaster
and is interested in getting it to someone who can actually use it. I
offered to pass on the message-
The system is in a PC case, with two full-height 5.25" Seagate SCSI disks
and a third-height 3.5" IBM SCSI disk, plus an optical drive and two 3.5"
floppy disk drives.
There's a standard-looking AT power supply and a (looks like) passive
16-bit ISA bus that has a single card in it which matches a NewTek TBCii
"Time Base Correction" board.
Pictures here:
https://imgur.com/gallery/lqmRz6i
They do want money, but not much, although shipping might be a bit steep
for a case of this size and with the weight of the PSU and two full-height
disks. I am not sure of their location, I got the impression (possibly
wrongly) they were US based.
eMail address is:
shishkebarbarian at gmail.com
I have no affiliation with the seller and all information is derived from
the images taken, so do please contact them directly.
- JP
>Downloading http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com/dos/sw/ddw2020.zip
>gets flagged by Windows Defender on Windows 10 Pro (1909)
>as "Worm:Win32/Spybot".
A new tool now available on the site:
Daves Distribution File Checker
I have received reports that Windows Defenfer incorrectly lables some of my
executables as naughty. I assure you this is not the case when published.
They are freshly compiled from my own/known source code on a secure system.
To help you know files are exactly as I uploaded then and not compromized in
transit, I created this tool. It uses a proprietary/unpublished algorithm and
multiple encrypted CRCs to validate that a file is exactly as I published it.
The tool which makes the database will never be distributed in any way.
You can check a complete .ZIP archive or individual files from it. The archive
does not have to be present for DDFC to check individual files, but you do have
to specify it so DDFC knows which file to reference in it's database.
This program and it's database are self protecting, but can't insure they don't
get replaced by something that looks the same without providing the protection.
To help avoid this, I will reload this file every time I update my site.
Dave
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Personal site: http://dunfield.maknonsolutions.com
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Hi All,
I'm restoring a Zenith MinisPort laptop, an 8088 based laptop with a
monochrome screen and 2" floppy drive.
I have a Twitter thread of the restoration so far with pics:
https://twitter.com/paulrickards/status/1272280795529519105
I recapped the internal power supply board which seems to be working well
now.
The next issue appears to be memory. The unit won't store the BIOS settings
properly, even with new lithium batteries or warm restart. In the BIOS
menu, setting the clock with a "0" changes to "32". Same with the date, if
you set the day or month, it adds 32 to it.
The internal memory test reported a memory error at B800:0000 bit 5. This
seems to coincide with the BIOS "0" turning into 32 on screen.
When it eventually boots from the internal MS-DOS 3.3 ROM, it looks fine
until the screen starts to scroll. The character case of all text on the
screen changes from lower to upper case.
Anyone know how to map a bit 5 error to a component on the motherboard?
Would a memory map help here?
Longshot: anyone have a service manual for the Zenith MinisPort ZL-1 (or
ZL-2)?
Thanks,
Paul Rickards
biosrhythm.com
A few of the self-tests I?ve seen on the 147s set BRDFAIL if the NVRAM doesn?t pass, so perhaps changing the NVRAM for a known good would be a place to start.
Richard
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
Hi,
Not hardware ... but an antique software / programming concept.
Some decades ago (circa late 1970s?), I *think* I came across a concept of
"raising the semantic level" of a program by using defines/macros and newly
written library functions. The concept was that a given language provided
a particular level of semantics. By judicious/clever use of things like
macros, one could "raise" the level of semantics, effectively appearing to
add new features to the language (or, in this case, the instance of the
language as used in the program).
I *thought* I got that concept from Terry Wingrad's excellent "Breaking the
Complexity Barrier again" (Nov, 1974,
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/951761.951764 )
...but, no. It's not in that paper.
Does the concept ring a bell?
Can anyone provide a pointer to where I might have seen it?
It's formed the basis of my own personal programming philosophy for nearly
50 years, and I want to know where I found it, or if I might have thought
of it myself.
thanks!
Stan
> From: Peter Dick
> As I expect you know, RSTS was 'born' on 11th June 1970 as shown when
> you print DATE$(1%) ...
> This means RSTS/E, the Greatest Operating System ever, has just turned
> 50 years old.
Err, I expect that that was RSTS-11 in June, 1970, not RSTS-E. Since RSTS-11
(which I learned to program on; happy memories :-) was a BASIC-PLUS only
system, and ran on a PDP-11/20, I suspect it was a fairly different operating
system (although no doubt it's BASIC-PLUS interpreter was ported to RSTS-E).
I think RSTS/E needed the -11/45, introduced around June 1972; sources
give 1973 for RSTS/E.
Noel
> From: Peter Dick
> Question: how do the three of you (Noel) cctalk at classiccmp.org and Paul
> Koning fit together?
CCTalk is a mailing list for people who collect antique ('classic') computers;
Paul and I are both members. I collect PDP-11's (I used them in school from
'72 to '76, and worked with them from '77 to the mid-80's). Jay West, who
maintains the list, forwarded your email query about RSTS/E to the list.
(Paul you can find in the RSTS 80th birthday spoof, BTW.)
Noel
