>>Early MS products were extremely good quality software,
>>particularly compared to their competitors at the time. Tight,
largely
>>bug-free and with well thought-out interfaces (exclude Multiplan, but
>>highlight MS Decathlon).
What is Decathlon? Is there a list of all these products somewhere?
>I have a copy of Microsoft Word for DOS 4.0; looks a lot like
>Multiplan. (A pity!)
I prefer the Word interface to Word Perfect. Less memorizing of strange
function keys
>Barry Peterson bmpete(a)swbell.net
>Husband to Diane, Father to Doug,
>Grandfather to Zoe and Tegan.
>
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>>If you believe Turing, there's nothing an analog computer can comput
>>a digital one can't. A brain is many things: it's wet, it's analog,
>>it's massively parallel. I don't think anybody believes that it's w
>>or analogness that matters, but clearly a high degree of parallel
>>processing seems important to solving perception problems quickly.
This
>>is the basic inspiration that drove Danny Hillis to create the Conne
>>Machine, with 64,000 simple processors working in parallel.
>Perhaps incredibly, Turing _did_ believe that there was something
>special about the brain (in particular he could/would not rule out ES
>and so I don't think he would ever have claimed that a Turing Machine
>could do anything that a human brain could. The TM was designed to
>solve a specific problem in mathematical theory, rather than as a
>theoretical ultimate brain.
>
>But now you've got me trying to think of something that an analog(ue)
>computer can do that a digital one can't. Reversibility might be one
>thing. I guess it's reasonable to argue that digital computers are a
>subset of analogue computers, as transistors are analogue.
>
>I'm going to stop thinking about this before I recurse.
a)If you think about it, a neuron in the brain is very much like an
AND gate or a transistor. It has multiple inputs and needs a certain
amount of electricty across them for its single output to go high.
b)I heard that people are working on computers with transistors so
small, they would be affected by quantum laws, and thus be analog
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After long hoping to get one someday, this weekend I found an
Teletype ASR-33 in a dumpster at the UW-Madison surplus center.
It appears to be working in most respects. In local mode, I was able
to type characters although the ribbon was a bit dry. However, when
it reached the right margin, it would not "return". Line feed works.
The geared belt is tight, and pressing additional characters strains
it and sometimes makes it "chunk" as if it were trying to jump a tooth.
I tinkered with the L-shaped catch on the belt that appears to engage
a lever when the carriage reaches the right side. Right now, this
L-catch is to the left of the lever, which gives me the impression
that it didn't catch the way it was supposed to, and now the machine
is stuck in a position that I need to learn how to free. Any ideas?
The data cable has nine wires to an HP-labelled edge-card connector.
Is this 20 ma current loop? I thought that was just four wires.
How difficult is it to get a service manual for one of these?
Is there a date-code some where on it? Will it read a five-level
Baudot paper tape as well as seven-bit, assuming I can translate
Baudot to ASCII?
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
>
>And I just learned that it was safe to tuch motherboard/cards when your
>computers on! (BTW, any one know aout DIMM stuff?)
> Ciao,
>
>Tim D. Hotze
Actually, I find most precautions such as anti-static and so forth to
be baloney. I must have done every illegal thing in the book, and the
only things I haven't gotten away with was plugging chips in
backwards (by accident). When I was upgrading RAM in the machines in
my school's MacLab, the person in charge of it constantly looked over
my shoulder and bleated, "Touch the case again, Max. I want to SEE you
touch the case. OK, now gently, gently, now. Oooh! Yeesh! DON'T touch
those chips!",etc.etc. I didn't damage anything, but he thinks there
is a problem even with touching the actual plastic case of the chip.
I don't discharge static all over chips, mind you, I just think most
precautions are waay overblown. Or have I just been lucky?
Also, have chips gotten more static-sensitive, or less? Should I be
more careful with a 64 MB DIMM or a 16K chip (cost aside)?
>>Same here but some of the kids may never have heard of a propane
torch!
I'm insulted...
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You know Bruce, it's offensive unthinking tirades like yours that make me
want to unsubscribe from this list and throw my classic computers in the
dumpster just so I would no longer have to count myself among your company.
Please give me an insight as to _your_ life's work so that I may call it a
steaming pile of horseshit as well.
Kai
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Bruce Lane [SMTP:kyrrin@jps.net]
> Sent: Sunday, March 15, 1998 8:36 AM
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
> Subject: Arrrgh! Micro$h*t again....
>
> First, Tim Shoppa noted...
>
> >contains a plaintext version of the message AND the HTML-ified version,
> >which is what your plaintext email reader is seeing while Eudora and
> >Netscape can pick out the plaintext version.
>
> Then Kip Crosby added...
>
> >That's it. MIME-enabled clients read the MIME part; MSIE4 reads the HTML
> >part; MS-Outlook and Outlook Express I _think_ offer the choice between
> the
> >two. Microsoft no longer considers flat-ASCII mail to be an important
> >fraction of the traffic.
>
> <grrrrrr!>
>
> The more I hear about Billy-boy, and the more I see of his company's
> "products" and arrogant attitudes, the less I like either one! Is there no
> amount of bandwidth waste or code-bloat that Micro$quat won't stoop to?!
>
> I knew there was a reason I'd started to get into Unix boxes.
> Thanks, guys!
>
>
> -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
> Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
> (Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)jps.net)
> "Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our
> own
> human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
On this subject, I'm interested in where CYC fits in. Hasn't the cyc "baby"
been running for a number of years? I really should look this up myself,
shouldn't I? I will.
Cheers
A
>So, the connectionists tried to create machines and structures modeled
>after the brain, but they didn't get too far. Let's say that you build
>an OS and a programming language that allows you to accurately model a
>brain. If you stick a human brain in front of a newspaper, you get
>nothing. So add some input devices and actuators. Now you stick a baby
>in front of a newspaper -- still nothing. So let the baby run for a
>while, experience a variety of sensations, make a whole bunch of
>associations, stick it in front of many newpapers and many non-newspapers
>for many years, and finally you get a pretty good character recognizer.
At 01:31 AM 3/16/98 -0800, you wrote:
>
>I just finished watching that Discovery program on Robots and was
>wondering if anyone involved in the list has previously/is currently
>working in that field
>
>Also, does anyone know how much of an influence the use of computer
>systems by all of those AI reasearches in the late 70's/early 80's had on
>system designs? I'd be interested to hear any opinions/anecdotes/etc on
>this stuff.
>
>
>
>Aaron
I just caught the end of that special. I didn't realize that interest in AI
had expired.
Come to think of it, whatever happened to Prolog? I had always planned to
pick up Borland's Prolog and learn it, but I guess it's too late for that now.
Was there just no demand for AI, or has the market just taken the useful
aspects and abandoned the remainder? Isn't the Neural Net technology being
used in various pattern recognition applications (i.e. OCR) descended from
the AI research of the the 70's and 80's?
--
David Wollmann |
dwollmann(a)ibmhelp.com | Support for legacy IBM products.
DST ibmhelp.com Technical Support | Data, document and file conversion for
IBM http://www.ibmhelp.com/ | legacy file and media formats.
Tim Shoppa <shoppa(a)alph02.triumf.ca> wrote:
>I know some folks who work at Microsoft and everything they send me from
their
>"work" address is a several-hundred-line MS-Word document that is, of
>course, MIME-encoded. Typically I can decode it and dump the file to
>find the single line of real text that they thought they were sending me.
For those few of us who might also check their Word documents in
binary, you'll find that Word also stores quite a bit of its undo
buffers in the saved document. Yes, no kidding. I've received
letters and contracts from people who didn't realize this.
By studying the binary, you can see their last few revisions. :-)
People often create a "new" letter by revising an old document.
- John
Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm>
I need to unload a lot of things that are taking up way too much room.
In many cases I'm willing to part with large quantities of my items in
exchange for just a single little thing I might need:
Available
---------
1 - Complete working systems and lots of accessories and software for:
Apple II (no systems, just boards, drives, s/w)
Atari 8 bits
Atari 520ST/1040ST (including monitors)
Commodore Vic-20, 64, 128 (including monitors)
TI-99/4A
Tandy TRS-80 CoCo II and III
(Just let me know of anything specific you are looking for)
2 - Commodore SX-64. Missing the carry handle, the keyboard cable
(should be easy to make, I'll pinout the one I have), and the sound is
not working. Picture is good though and other than sound it works fine.
3 - Fairly dirty little Tandy MC-10. Has a substitute 6VDC adapter and
works fine.
4 - Several external SCSI HD (20, 65, 80 Mb models) and SCSI Syquest-44
compatible drive (PLI Infinity). These are all tested and work fine
with my Macs.
5 - Lots of older MPU, MCU, Peripheral, RAM, EPROM chips--some NOS, some
pulls--just inquire.
6 - Some non-classiccmp stuff but closely related:
Classic Video game systems and carts (2600, 5200, Colco, Intv, etc.)
Compaq DeskPro 4/33 w/DX4-100 CPU upgrd, 12Mb RAM, 1Gb HD (have 3)
Compaq ProSignia server 486-66
Wanted
------
1 - Disk Drives w/cables for CBM PET
2 - Modem and cassette cables, ROM upgrades, expansion items for Tandy
100/102
3 - CP/M cart for C64/128
4 - SpartaDos cart for Atari 8 bit
5 - Keyboard w/cable and DOS for HP 150A
6 - RGB DB-25 cable for Sony SMC-70
7 - Intel 8224 and 8228 peripheral chips
8 - Good battery packs for TI calcs: SR-50, SR-52, and TI-58C
9 - Systems: RCA Cosmac, AdventureVision game console, Exidy Sorcerer,
Magnavox Odyssey, Vector Graphics (anything but MZ), P.T. SOL-20... er
Apple 1, III, Lisa...
I'll consider just about any condition item from the last section above,
and would also consider most any working system or good drives, boards,
terminals, etc. from pre-1980, that I don't already have. Just let me
know what you've got...
BTW, I'm in California, about 20 minutes north of SF.
--
mor(a)crl.com
http://www.crl.com/~mor/tps/
Actually, I got my own copy of the "NAQ" when I subscribed; I don't
need another. I was just pointing out to Sam that the official
classiccmp web page has been out of reach for quite a long time
now, so there is no point in referring people to it.
So, once again, I'd like to urge everyone to participate in building
a classiccmp distributed web page. Take a look at this URL,
http://www.cs.unc.edu/~yakowenk/classiccmp/dwp.html
and then go add those meta-tags to your pages. Okay, now I'll stop
pushing this once and for all.
Cheers,
Bill.
] From dastar(a)wco.com Sun Mar 15 10:33:26 1998
]
] On Sat, 14 Mar 1998, Bill Yakowenko wrote:
] > As near as I can tell, the classiccmp web site has been down for
] > months now. I've tried probably fifty times since I-don't-know-when,
] > but haven't got it to come up. Do you have the inside scoop on that?
] > Without that, referring people to the FAQ isn't going to help much.
]
] Oh, sorry. That does tend to be a big problem. And yes, that web site
] has been flaky as hell for months now. I believe there is a mirror site
] somewhere that carries the FAQ.
]
] Can someone help Bill out? Anyone have a copy of the FAQ lying around?
]
] Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
] ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
] Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
]
] Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
] See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
