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Prices & Rants(was: Future Computing Trends. Still is, I g

by maxeskin＠hotmail.com

>Oh, and as per a previous mail by someone that you had replied to with a >hotmail.com account (so this isn't at you directly, but I cannot find the >intermediate mail): Last I checked, Russians don't use dollars, they use >Rubles. I have a 1990 5 Ruble proof coin I purchased in East Berlin while I >was there in my collection. (25 years ago, most coins were cheaper than >computers -- now it's the other way around!) So I was making a statement >about the pitiful (IMHO) status of the American dollar, just to clear >things up. Not to go too much off topic, but I made the russia comment, because I was born in the USSR, and it is very apparent to me. They DO use rubles, but before they artificially deflated it (with a clone case :), the xchng rate was something like 5000 Rubles to a US Dollar. I was watching a Russian comedy program a few days ago, and they mentioned that Russia has more dollars than the US, discussing the aid US gives them :) Actually, dollars are pretty much common there now, with slightly greater value. ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com

28 years, 4 months

Altair price check

by adavie＠mad.scientist.com

And I was losing bidder in one on the net recently, consisting of an 8800a and two 8" drives. It went for $1800 A -----Original Message----- From: John Foust <jfoust(a)threedee.com> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers <classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu> Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 2:34 AM Subject: Altair price check > >Regarding the three Altair machines that were recently posted >to the net auction at ebay.com - they went from $1525 to $2025. >Mind you, these weren't complete systems. The software, extra >drives, etc. were auctioned separately. > >- John >Jefferson Computer Museum <http://www.threedee.com/jcm> > >

28 years, 4 months

dhgf

by rus_wallden＠bc.sympatico.ca

28 years, 4 months

9370 is a dog! Was: Re: Re[2]: Firsts

by Philip.Belben＠powertech.co.uk

William Donzelli quoted me as having written: >> All 3090 models are indeed water machines. The 3090 was IBM's large >> mainframe of the late 1980s. > > Are you sure that there were not a few air cooled models towards the end? > I have an air-TCM from, I believe, a late 3090. I paid two bucks for it. > In hindsight, I should have purchased all of them in the chassis (25 or > 16, I do not remember offhand. OK. To be strictly accurate, all 3090 models of which I am aware are water cooled machines. I was a student when I worked at IBM - a year before going to university, and two summer vacations - after which I somewhat lost touch with them. My last job with IBM was in 1988, and not at the marketing location where I had worked before, but in a factory building cash dispensers. My last real knowledge of IBM was >from 1987, then. >> involved!) to replace the strange 400Hz thingies. And a little circuit >> to provide a 400Hz heartbeat if the machine uses this at all... > > This is probably the best solution. > > It probably does monitor the 400 Hz, and machine check if it goes away. > Remember, these machine monitor EVERYTHING (like the earthquake sensor in > some of them - give them a good kick and they will report a seismic > check). Ouch! But you may get away with providing a fake "ac good" signal, rather than ac for it to monitor. > The "Mill" was chopped up into smaller rooms - our room just happens not > to have mice power, but the one next door does. Strange - I shouldn't have thought it took much to power a mouse :-) Still, this means you shouldn't have much difficulty with the upgrade. Philip.

28 years, 4 months

Timeline of the Micro

by groberts＠mitre.org

fyi, interesting time line of the microcomputer: "Chronology of Events in the History of Microcomputers" http://www1.islandnet.com/~kpolsson/comphist.htm - glenn +=========================================================+ | Glenn F. Roberts, Falls Church, VA | Comments are my own and not the opinion of my employer | groberts(a)mitre.org

28 years, 4 months

RQDX3 problem?

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what <terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS200 Yes and no. Yes I've had drives a VS2k would not touch but the drives were otherwise ok. The PDP-11 formatter would however format them. Most of the drives I have that the VS2k didn't like were formatted on my CP/M crate using a teltek card(oddball format) or the older PC mfm controllers. You could have an incorrect hookup, power problems or other things going on. Are the RD5x's powered from the same powersupply as the rest of the system (in the same box)? RQDX3s do fail though the failure modes can be vary varied as they have their own PDP-11/memory/eprom on board. If it passes self diagnostics it's a 98% safe bet, if it's self testable it's ok. That does mean there are parts that selftest cannot verify. <So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller m <problem? I think your suffering from a multitude of things and with an apparent lack of docs to reference too. Your trying to attack it was if it were a PC and it's not even close. Those drives generally don't fail that suddenly and my expereince is they are generally reliable. But when you start with a box of junk it's hard to get to a know working point. Me I have Q-bus PDP-11s that can boot faster and off a wider variety of devices so any testing is done that using good old RT-11. I also have a set of diags for that platform so testing things like disks, tapes and interfaces is doable either with diags or by using them. At some point I have know good boards and questionable seperated and can move the known good to the uvax. PDP-11 and uvax Qbus commonality can be handy. Allison

28 years, 4 months

Copying TU-58's?

by healyzh＠ix.netcom.com

The person I've been getting a bunch of DEC stuff off of has a whole pile of TU-58 tapes that he would like to get transfered over to something he can read. I'm wondering if there is anyway I can attach the TU58 drive I've got for my PDP-11/44 to my MicroVAX II and copy these tapes for him. Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | | For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |

28 years, 4 months

Found a decent use for a PC...

by allisonp＠world.std.com

<I'd say it's not so much a matter of there being "no need for them" <(front panels), so much as the fact that machines are so fast any more <that I'm not sure how much use they'd be, especially with <multi-tasking operating systems. Before the address and data LEDs <stabilized with any useful information, it would be somewhere else. In some respects that is true even back then when instruction cycle time were in the 2-10uS bracket. You did get to see the average addresses that were freqently accessed. However, front pannels also posessed the ability to stop the cpu, and single step or single instruction advance it. A true front panel on a PC would have to be able to do that and that is no small trick considering the caches, Dram refresh and other dynamic timings. < -Bill Richman < http://incolor.inetnebr.com/bill_r < (Home of the COSMAC Elf Simulator!) Cosmac ELF sim? Humm, I still rin one of those chips for fun. Allison

28 years, 4 months

HP 935

by adam＠merlin.net.au

Hi! Anyone know what a HP 935 is? I assume it to be a Hewlett Packard laptop of some sort, with an LCD display, but I don't know if it is MS-DOS, CPM/M, a full laptop or one of the Tandy Model 100 computers, or what. :( A mining company just offered me a pile of them (along with my choice of their old computers), but I figure I should know something about them before I make the journey. Thanks heaps, Adam.

28 years, 4 months

RQDX3 problem?

by healyzh＠ix.netcom.com

Is it possible for a RQDX3 to be bad, and trash a RD53 (Yes, I know what terrible drives they are) to the extent they can't be formated in a VS2000? I'm still trying to get my VAXstation II/RC up and running, and I was trying to load it with a questionable tape today. I booted with a standalone backup tape and started reloading. I then proceeded to get a parity error, which I told it to ignore. It sat around for a couple of hours not doing much of anything, so I halted the system and unloaded the tape. Then later on today I went to load it from a known good system tape, only this time standalone backup wouldn't see the disk. Thinking the drive needed reformated I pulled it out, and put it in my VS2000, and when I go to format it I get the following. >>> t 70 KA410-A RDRXfmt VSfmt_QUE_unitno (0-2) ? 0 VSfmt_STS_Siz .?? VSfmt_RES_ERR #2 84 FAIL >>> I had formated this same drive in this same system early last week with no problem. I just hadn't had time until today to try loading it. This is the second Hard Drive that has quite working and I've been unable to format after placing it in this system. I have yet to actually get the system to work with a Hard Drive (although the standalone backup recognized the one earlier today). So my question is, am I just having very bad luck or is the controller my problem? Thanks, Zane | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator | | healyzh(a)ix.netcom.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast | | healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | For Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/ | | For the collecting of Classic Computers with info on them. | | see http://www.dragonfire.net/~healyzh/museum.html |

28 years, 4 months

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