[cctalk] Re: Old vintage computing magazine/newsletters
> I miss the HP Journal (started publication in 1949). "raise". I have held in my hands the BSTJ issue with "the" Shannon Paper. I hope Rice University still has its copy. Per wikipedia: "In 1948, the promised memorandum appeared as "A Mathematical Theory of Communication", an article in two parts in the July and October issues of the Bell System Technical Journal." And, no, I didn't understand one bit of it -- other than the significance. (Especially the part about "this is why I am going to have a job.") mcl
[cctalk] Re: Revocable Living Trust for Computer Collectors
> If you think I've libeled you, go right ahead. IMHO it's time the two of you take this mini-discussion offline. mcl
[cctalk] Re: what to do with our "treasures"
> On 06/27/2024 9:36 AM CDT Bill Gunshannon via cctalk > To date, I have sold nothing. I once went back to the list that > suggested I use ebay to report my failure only to be greeted with, > "Well, what did you expect. You are not an established seller." I also have a whole pile of stuff that needs to go "somewhere". Sounds like we more need a "make offer" page. Is there somewhere on the net that already does this? mcl
[cctalk] Re: DEC Processor Books
> were just DEC employees that caught somebody's eye when they were > planning the shots. "Planning" may assume facts not in evidence :-) Some photographers wandered around my employer of the time, Recognition Equipment. (Like my Canadian girlfriend, you haven't heard of it.) I was near enough to a piece of machinery to be told "point to that console like you are doing something to it". So somewhere in some ancient Annual Report you can find a picture of a clean- shaven me. My 15 seconds of fame. Well maybe not all 15. So the "plan" was, we're on deadline, get some shots. mcl
[cctalk] Re: Paper tape in casettes...
> On 02/27/2024 12:29 PM CST paul.kimpel--- via cctalk > wrote: > Bitsavers has a collection of G-15 manuals. Rob Kolstad (formerly of BSDI) and I sat down last August to categorize his online scans. AFAICT he has the largest collection. (Of course I forgot to bring my copy of the technical manual with all the waveforms penciled in.) He and I need to get back to that project. It had been a long time (high school days!) since I looked at that doc. To an experienced engineer, it's now clear how much of a work of genius it was (so few gates!) No wonder I had trouble understanding it all as a teenager. > David Lovett has been restoring a G-15 for the System Source Computer Museum > in Maryland (US). Hmm. I don't remember if Rob told me about that project. He knows of two in Texas. Some of my old notes are at http://obscurecomputers.org/g15/index.html . mcl
[cctalk] Re: Paper tape in casettes...
> On 02/27/2024 9:05 AM CST Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > > I think the Bendix G-15 had cassettes for the 5-level tape > they used. I can confirm this from personal experience. mcl
[cctalk] Re: Vmebus
> On 01/30/2024 9:35 PM CST Glen Slick via cctalk wrote: > I have a couple of PA-RISC based HP/Agilent V743/64 (E1497A) and > V743/100 (E1498A) single-slot, C-size VXI embedded computers. OMFG I thought *my* co-design of a Sparc VMEbus board was rare/obscure. mcl
[cctalk] Re: Vmebus
> On 01/30/2024 5:48 PM CST Chris Hanson via cctalk > wrote: > VMEbus was widely used as a successor to MultiBus in the workstation market Or, in the case of Mizar, Inc., their STDBus line of cards. > The biggest uses of VMEbus though were in laboratory automation, process > control, and robotics Yep. That's where many of Mizar's boards went; the rest went to military applications. It was a good enough living for a number of years in the 1980s. mcl
[cctalk] Re: 11/15, 11/20 systems and parts, more
I sincerely doubt I could afford a PDP-11/20 but I still have nostalgia for the first machine I used at university. So I have to ask. mcl
[cctalk] Re: PDP-8/L $15,000
> On 08/28/2023 5:07 PM CDT Sellam Abraham via cctalk > wrote: > I think I've come up with a nice way to get that accomplished through good > old market dynamics (i.e. voluntarily) with a subtle twist. Well at some point in the next N years I need to sell off my S-100 stuff. If I croak first it will all probably be scrapped. mcl
[cctalk] Re: IBM 1620 Model 2 software wanted
> Some 20 years ago, I led the Computer History Museum's restoration of an > IBM 1620 Model 1 computer. We all owe you thanks for this. mcl
[cctalk] Re: PDP-8/L $15,000
> (I'd normally sell one of mine for 6k working with Focal loaded up. Man, I hadn't thought of Focal in years. Never could beat that lunar lander someone wrote in it. mcl
[cctalk] Re: PDP-8/L $15,000
"not tested" and "mice have been inside of it". sheesh ** 2. mcl
[cctalk] Re: TI 960
> On 08/27/2023 3:30 PM CDT Sellam Abraham via cctalk > wrote: > found them a joy to work with. But then, I went into it with a positive > attitude because, of > course, it was my first vintage computer love. By that time I was well-experienced with my high school machine (a Bendix G-15, which I wound up maintaining because no one else wanted to), and the college's PDP-11/20, which I also had hands-on access (wound up building an interface to a line printer). Those machines were fun. And paper tape >> cassette tape. This is probably why my experience differs. mcl
[cctalk] Re: TI 960
> I guess not many have survived but I want to ask if someone/some place has > software (papertapes, ...) for the Texas Instruments 960 minicomputers. If any survive, please be sure to keep me at least ten feet away from them :-) The 960B is the only computer I ever walked away from and said "I can't do this". This was mostly, but not entirely, due to the Silent 700 and its cassette tapes. It took 20 minutes to load the loader, and, then, if I got that right, 20 minutes to load the editor, and *then* I could start doing work. As long as "work" was not "hit tab". Because then the editor would crash, and you were back to the beginning. Even in my younger and smarter days my error rate was more than one every 45 minutes. I had to BS my way through the coursework that required that machine. mcl
[cctalk] Re: Nixies..
> Kees Stravers, owner of the website about the Evoluon, reports that they were > scrapped when the museum closed in 1989. boo. mcl
[cctalk] Re: Apple 1
> there aren't a lot of places to encounter massive PMOS shift registers. I someone had told me around 1975 that these would become Valuable Collectibles I would have laughed my ass off. Maybe I should get around to doing something with those ceramic 1702s. Probably equally "collectible" now. mcl
[cctalk] Re: NRAO Data tapes
I wonder if those date to the first time I visited, where the PDP-11s were still installed :-) Are there still T-shirts available? Mine from that trip is trash :-) mcl
[cctalk] Re: VCF East 2023 photos
> On 04/17/2023 9:40 PM GMT Sellam Abraham via cctalk > wrote: > 3am? If that was happening around here then the shotgun would get > involved. Must be mating season. The next-to-last time I was in Canada, they let me sleep in all the way to 5am. Also note that they were *right* outside the window in my room. The only bad thing about my trip. mcl
[cctalk] Re: Looking for EPROMs
> On 03/27/2023 5:38 PM GMT rescue via cctalk wrote: > have a number of 2764, 27256, have some 27128 I think too Myself as well, probably down to 1702s. Right now with some current money trouble they are looking like assets :-/ mcl
tape drives, oscilloscopes, and test equiment in Austin, TX
Closing this Friday the 15th (sorry for noticing this late). At the University of Texas in downtown Austin. I have no association with the University, etc. https://swicoauctions.com/online/26/item/110345 https://swicoauctions.com/online/26/item/110400 https://swicoauctions.com/online/26/item/110404 There are a few other items that may be of interest. Note that these are all fine examples of the type of things I need *less* of :-) (including, of course, a Tek 564 that I have been lugging around for a few decades. Does anyone want to give it a good home? Fair warning: it's *heavy*.) mcl
Re: SETI@home (ca. 2000) servers heading to salvage.
How fortunate that I'm halfway across the continent :-) mcl
Re: LSSM is chasing this, was Re: General Data? Computer Equipment Auction - GSA
On Thu, Mar 17, 2022 at 04:22:27PM -0400, Dave McGuire via cctalk wrote: > I would posit that he does not have a museum; he has a collection > and a wish. When and if that wish pans out, and I hope it does, > then he will have a museum. But not before. +1. That's a positive way to look at it. mcl
Re: VAX9000 unearthed
On Fri, Feb 18, 2022 at 05:25:26PM -0500, Patrick Finnegan via cctalk wrote: > Yours will be a lot cheaper to run. Custom ECL chips? I think I can go with "relatively cheaper". Make sure you have a bazillion BTU of air conditioning ... (Yes, I have had experience with ECL, albeit 1970s low-scale tech. The power consumption ... eek ...) mcl
Re: Datapoint 2200 on ebay
On Mon, Nov 29, 2021 at 10:42:29AM -0500, Toby Thain via cctalk wrote: > But have you considered, maybe it's an NFT of a photo of a > Datapoint. That should make it worth 10 x $48,000 at least. Thanks. I needed a laugh today. mcl
Re: More cleaning out the Bob basement
On Sat, Sep 18, 2021 at 08:20:44PM -0700, jim stephens via cctalk wrote: > Wifey has phone numbers and knows about several of these lists. ;-)
Re: What's left of the Houston Museum stuff
What a complete fiasco. How sad. mcl
Re: Early Programming Books
On Tue, Jun 22, 2021 at 11:46:13PM -0700, Van Snyder via cctalk wrote: > Is there a G-15 emulator? I wrote a simulator yers ago. I don't think it is online ATM, I will have to check. Rob Kolstad is apparently also working on one. We keep meaning to cross-check each others' work but then life happens. mcl
Re: Motor generator
On Tue, May 04, 2021 at 10:07:28PM -0700, Chuck Guzis via cctech wrote: > "Power for the basic computer consists of one 250 kva, 400 Hz motor > generator set. The motor-generator set has the capability of providing > power for the CPU, MCS, I/O and the MCU. The optional memory requires > the addition of an 80 kva motor-generator set." I'm looking at this RISC-V board sitting here on my desk (with its "massive" 2-inch-long heat sink) and shaking my head at how far we have come. mcl
Re: Any interest in a Floating Point Systems AP-120 array processor?
On Sat, Feb 27, 2021 at 08:15:50PM -0800, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > I picked this up a number of years ago for reasons that entirely > escape me. Those are the best reasons!!!1 :-) mcl
Re: Electronics Plus
On Fri, Feb 26, 2021 at 12:00:05PM -0700, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: > I noticed someone named Richard Thompson just donated. If you are that > person, used to live in the Jemez mountains and hacked on Rainbow stuff > back in the day, please contact me... Or, if you are the Richard Thompson, guitar virtuoso, I will be *very* impressed. mcl
Re: Flip-Chip selloff
On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 07:10:14PM -0800, Christopher Zach wrote: > I've had 30+ years to acquire this "stuff". :-) I turned 65 last year ... mcl
Re: Flip-Chip selloff
On Tue, Feb 02, 2021 at 05:57:27PM -0500, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote: > Probably a lot more. "Probably" ??? Sheesh. I thought *I* had too many projects. mcl
Re: APL\360
On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 07:55:52PM -0800, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > Yes, I suppose that somebody of sufficient skill COULD write > accounting software with it, . . . > But why? When I was living outside Dallas around 1988 or so, I knew a woman who had a job-for-life with an insurance company that ran their whole company on APL. Of course by that time she was sick of working on the same thing all the time, but they could not afford to let her go -- no one else could do any maintance to it. (I no longer remember the name of the insurance company ...) mcl
Re: APL\360
On Thu, Jan 14, 2021 at 06:42:34PM -0800, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > APL was terse. That's a nice way of saying "It was a write-only language". Even back when my brain still worked 100% I could only remember what the code I had just written actually _did_ for 24-48 hours. After that it was easier to rewrite from scratch. mcl
Re: Bendix G-15 and Control Data 160 console on ebay
On Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 08:52:51AM +, Ed Groenenberg via cctalk wrote: > It can be debated of the price for the Bendix is high or not, but it > is truly a nice and rare machine. And by the looks of it, it seems to > be complete too. This was the machine I learned to program on. (What was then Humble Oil & Refining donated it to my high school. I was the only student curious enough to work on it.) I still have one of each of the vaccum tube plugin cards. Oh, and a copy of the technical manual with the FE's notes :-) The last time I tried to gather together information about it (see URL below), there were four still known. Even as late at 20 years ago there had been others, at McGill University in Canada, and one in Australia: http://obscurecomputers.org/g15/index.html > Not sure tough if the rack on the right belongs to it. I'm not either. I have never seen that before. > I hope it ends up in a proper museum and hopefully it can be displayed > in running condition. I hope so too. I'm not at the stage of my life where I could take on this task. But I would be glad to assist anyone actually working on one. mcl
Re: Bendix G-15 and Control Data 160 console on ebay
On Wed, Jan 06, 2021 at 09:54:23AM -0600, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > The G-15 was obsolete within a year after it was introduced, but it stayed in production, especially in highway departments, for many years afterwards. mcl
Re: FS: Tek scope, HP LA, and Electronic components!
I think I can speak for a lot of people here on the list that I am sorry to hear this news. I really don't have the words, other than that. mcl
Re: IBM and Calcomp gear rescue in Toronto area
Please tell me someone is going to save this stuff so I don't have to annoy any of my Canadian friends :-) mcl
Re: mail on spool as G-d intended was Re: Future of cctalk/cctech
On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 04:44:26PM -0400, Diane Bruce via cctalk wrote: > mutt! +1
Re: IBM vacuum tubes
On Wed, Jun 17, 2020 at 05:14:11PM +, Mark Linimon via cctech wrote: > These were a higher-spec version of ... some really common tube which I > no longer remember. And which was mentioned in the original post -- oops! mcl
Re: IBM vacuum tubes
On Tue, Jun 16, 2020 at 07:58:14AM -0700, Guy N. via cctech wrote: > the part number (5965 or 5963) Ah, good ol' 5965s. These were a higher-spec version of ... some really common tube which I no longer remember. The Bendix G-15 was wholly based on them. I probably have one or two around the house since I kept one-of-each of the plug-in cards when my high school scrapped it. (It would have been too heavy even for *me* to haul around all these years.) I still have the technical manual, complete with the FE's hand-written annotations. mcl
Re: PC Fortran (Was: Microsoft open sources GWBASIC
On Sun, May 31, 2020 at 07:50:18PM -0400, Bill Gunshannon via cctech wrote: > Which is even funnier when you realize that the PL/M compiler > was written in Fortran. When all you have is a hammer ... mcl
Re: Early Nubus history
Side note that has been lost to history. >From 1987-1990 I worked at Mizar Digital Systems, which built STD bus boards and VMEbus boards. Its new president who came in in 1988 I think, Joe Rammunni, decided that the STD bus was a dying technology, and looked into NuBus. As I understood at the time, he went and talked to various PC manufacturers to try to get them to adopt the standard as well, for their next round of upgrades from ISA. Nothing came of this. Without the unified market there wasn't any incentive for Mizar to get into the business. But just imagine what the tech world would have looked like with interchangeable cards for PCs and Apples. The only remnant of this effort are my vague personal recollections and a "NuBus on board" fridge magnet which I retain to this day. mcl
Re: Bob Davis and old computer stuff
On Sun, Apr 26, 2020 at 07:23:48AM -0400, Noel Chiappa via cctalk wrote: > I'm recovering from a moderate case of Covid19 Please get well. mcl
Re: Bob Davis and old computer stuff
On Sat, Apr 25, 2020 at 08:13:24PM -0400, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote: > Well, it's dark, dirty, and a mess. Also stressful as hell to be > down there in a respirator, bandana, and long sleeve clothes. And a bit heartbreaking :-( I'm a long ways away so can't help. Good luck. mcl
Re: ICL1501 Cobol manual available
On Fri, Apr 17, 2020 at 09:35:09AM +0100, Dave Wade via cctalk wrote: > "If a DSORT6 job fails try running in a larger partition. If it still > fails try it a smaller partition" I love the old tales like this. Folks, please keep 'em coming! mcl
Re: REL APL-11
On Tue, Mar 31, 2020 at 08:33:45AM -0400, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: > Like any other language, APL is only obfuscated to those who never > learned to understand it. I was required to take it at Rice University circa 1974. I got quite good at it. A week later, I had *no* idea what the code that I had written did. mcl
Re: HPE OpenVMS Hobbyist license program is closing
On Wed, Mar 11, 2020 at 12:41:33AM +0100, Holm Tiffe via cctalk wrote: > What about the International Court of Justice? Hi, can we please not go down this route on this list? I'm drowning in such things on social media as it is. I like to hang out on this last as a refuge from all that. Thanks. mcl
Re: VCF PNW 2020: Cancelled
On Fri, Mar 06, 2020 at 01:02:50PM -0600, Jim Brain via cctalk wrote: > I hope you can weather the storm without too much personal hurt. As > much time and effort as you have put into the event and the pride we > are have for such events +1 mcl
Re: Mystery 1970 core board
On Wed, Mar 04, 2020 at 11:25:20AM -0500, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: > That's interesting. I remember seeing a SUE at the university, but > that was not a PDP-11 clone at all. The one at Rice University circa 1978 also had 6? 8? processors in the cabinet. mcl
Re: Bendix G15 Drum
On Tue, Feb 25, 2020 at 11:12:50AM -0600, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > Well, without the rest of the machine, it is just an ornament. ITYM "boat anchor" :-) It's pretty heavy for an "ornament". (Not that I have ever fiddled with one outside a machine.) > I know there are some people who are still trying to find G-15s that > could be rebuilt. My website about such things is currently down (too many things to fix around here right now) but let folks know that I'm trying to collect information about such projects. The Wayback Machine probably has the most recent version of my site http://obscurecomputers.org anyway. mcl
Re: 4054 in Sacramento
On Wed, Feb 26, 2020 at 01:57:24PM -0800, Bob Rosenbloom via cctalk wrote: > I hope I can get this one running. Good find! Good luck! mcl
Re: anyone heard from Cindy Croxton?
On Wed, Jan 15, 2020 at 08:28:36AM -0600, sales--- via cctalk wrote: > This has been a bad 3 months (health-wise) for my family. Best wishes. Let me know if someone from Austin can come be of help. mcl
Re: Anyone interested in ARCNET, Token Ring, FDDI, HIPPI, Strip network code?
On Tue, Jan 14, 2020 at 11:34:00AM -0800, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: > Goose step to the monoculture Apparently you don't understand that "maintaining software requires effort". If you want to make changes to e.g. a kernel then there are things that have to get changed to keep in sync. Someone (TM) has to do the work. And if you *don't* make changes to your kernel, then you fall behind on: performance, running on newer systems (think ACPI, EFI), multi-core, NUMA, and so on and so forth. You simply become irrelevant for anything that people can *actually buy new*. IIUC the NetBSD folks are as understaffed as the FreeBSD folks are in terms of keeping "the union of all things that ever ran" working. FreeBSD has abandoned its old slogan because it was deemed too rude, but in this case, let's bring it back for a moment: "Shut up and code". (yes, you have hit a nerve.) mcl
Re: Classic equipment available & my bad year.
On Fri, Nov 08, 2019 at 05:27:27PM -0500, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > I am glad you are recovering my well wishes to you from me and my family. Hear, hear. mcl
Re: Estate sale
Any hints about where in the world this is? mcl
Re: Unix v2 in PDP-7 assembly language
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 03:41:51PM -0600, ben via cctalk wrote: > where as back then you made notes and paper printouts of your code > that got archived in a back room. Until the University decided to throw it all out to use the space for their new Department of Basket Weaving. fwiw, at one time I had a large set of G-15 paper tapes (including the diagnostics). Got left behind in a move because I was tired. mcl
Re: Unix v2 in PDP-7 assembly language
On Fri, Oct 18, 2019 at 02:56:36PM -0700, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: > fsck off While we appreciate your efforts, you're only one guy, and I think you would have to agree that bits are vanishing faster than any one person can keep up. mcl
Re: IBM MST extender cards
On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 09:58:58AM -0500, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > Oh, and by the way, that is an UNWRAPPING tool in the picture, not a > wire-wrap tool. (I have both.) The one I have has wrap on one end, unwrap on the other end, and a stripper in the middle. mcl
Re: IBM MST extender cards
On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 03:17:38PM +1000, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: > But I do still have the tool bag identical to the one in the foreground, > in the same russet brown colour but the zipper canvas has dry rotted. Oh wow, what a great resource page :-) What I kind of meant to imply was "but doesn't *everyone* have one?" Sigh. It's probably over in the same closet as my ear trumpet ... mcl
Re: IBM MST extender cards
On Fri, Oct 11, 2019 at 10:16:34AM +1000, Steve Malikoff via cctalk wrote: > That wire wrap tool is identical to one my dad had in his CE toolkit I ... should take it from this that people don't just *own* these anymore? This was an "essntial device" in my younger engineering days. Sigh. Yes, I still have it. Yes, I have used it (albeit not recently). Yes, I have used the Gardner-Denver electric tool as well, although in those days I never could have afforded it. mcl
Re: Nuke Redmond!
On Mon, Oct 07, 2019 at 05:24:23AM +, null via cctalk wrote: > This list is really going down the tubes. ITYM "Integrated Circuits". Tubes is before the time of most of the folks on this list, I think. (ok folks, it's a joke ...) mcl
Re: Vintage Computer Warehouse Liquidation
On Wed, Sep 25, 2019 at 06:43:43AM -0500, Jules Richardson via cctalk wrote: > Thanks for the clarification - they're not too far Not too far??? I take it you've never driven Interstate 45 :-) What it lacks in miles it makes up in aggressive driving ... mcl
Re: Update: Received my 50lb Datapoint 2200 computer from Austria via regular post.
On Mon, Sep 23, 2019 at 09:36:20PM +, steven stengel via cctalk wrote:
> First, I have to rewire it from 220vac to 110vac.
I bought one of the 110-220 converters off ePay ("Superite"). It has
performed well for me for several years.
(IBM Power5s *really* want 220 if you have both power supplies installed.
It only tells you that on page 2349134 of the manual.)
mcl
Re: analog computer - texas
I'm local. OTOH I have $ problems right now so I can't promise to go over there, pick up stuff, and pack and ship it for free. I do have a bid in on the biological sample cases. (OK, it's a joke, but I do have one in on a rack) mcl
Re: Identification of an HP minicomputer
On Thu, Aug 15, 2019 at 02:27:16PM -0700, Guy Sotomayor Jr via cctalk wrote: > Between work and preparing for potential fire evacuations (they're > expecting ~300 wild fires in my area this fire season: we've only had > about 6 so far so I expect *a lot* more soon) Yikes! Please stay safe. mcl
Re: Alphaservers for free in Athabasca, Alberta
On Mon, Aug 05, 2019 at 10:39:01AM -0600, Richard Loken via cctalk wrote: > Athabasca, Alberta is about 1.000km North of the US Montana border > and 10,000km from nowhere And 2,248 miles from my house, according to Google Maps :-) I'll bet it would be a pretty road trip but I think I'll have to pass ... mcl
Re: Computer Reset shop, liquidation. (USA)
On Wed, Jul 17, 2019 at 11:12:22AM -0500, John Foust via cctalk wrote: > So, to deal with my own hoarding / collecting, I'll strive to make > a list of stuff I haven't touched in 10, 20, 30 years, and I'll > post here to see if anyone is interested. Same here -- but life keeps getting in the way of me completing the list :-( There's nothing "superbly classic" around here, though. Bunch of working sun4u gear and old databooks. And I *do* have the space -- in my shop outside. But the stuff that's *inside* is just in the way; and if I move it at all, it's to move it off the property. (psst: the Raptor Blackbird is _not_ included in the above list ...) mcl
Re: cctalk Digest, Vol 58, Issue 9
> On Jul 9, 2019, at 10:00 AM,Tomasz Rola wrote: > BTW, you would like a ride to the past? I would like a ride to the > future. Although from what I have seen so far, maybe not... I absolutely believe in the future of 2505 as shown to us by Mike Judge. Please let me stay in this century. Thanks. mcl
Re: Wtd: advice upcoming visit to Bletchley Park / comp museum
On Sat, Jul 06, 2019 at 02:06:12PM +0200, Peter Corlett via cctech wrote: > they've closed the West London Line this weekend, ostensibly for > maintenance, but possibly just spite. Thanks. I needed a laugh today. mcl
Re: Identifying some boards
On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 01:09:08PM -0400, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > This class machine (for example) > http://vintagecomputer.net/Tricord/ Heh. That's a name I hadn't heard in a while. Your Tricord system was probably designed by a guy named Rick Nicholson who I later worked with. mcl
Re: OT: the end of Dyn DNS
On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 10:54:58PM -0700, Ali via cctalk wrote: > As I understand it DynDNS is still being offered as a service. Is it > because there is no longer a free option? There has not been a free option for seveal years. I switched to the paid version. But now it seems that having been eaten by Oracle, it is now being digested. (I have seen this process happen over and over again with acquisitions. The final stage, of selling off whatever is left afterwards, is "excretion".) mcl
Re: OT: the end of Dyn DNS
On Wed, Jun 26, 2019 at 09:36:30PM -0400, Charles Dickman via cctalk wrote: > Now that Dyn has been absorbed by Oracle I need a new DNS service for my > vanity domain. I welcome suggestions for a replacement provider. I was just investigating free alternatives myself earlier today. (I have not yet come up with a conclusion.) I currently use the free he.net ivp6 tunnel so I may already be set up for their free DNS service, but I don't know yet. (I can recommend the tunnel.) Most of the articles on the web mention: Dynu, afraid.org, Duck DNS, and No-IP among a few others. The latter sounds like they are really pushing their paid model, though. (OTOH each of the above has paid tiers for all but the most basic users.) If you are using pfSense like I am, they already support: https://docs.netgate.com/pfsense/en/latest/dns/dynamic-dns.html I would be happy to hear of actual experiences with any of these. mcl
Re: PDP 11/15
On Wed, Jun 19, 2019 at 03:01:50PM -0400, Jacob Ritorto via cctalk wrote: > You know, one of the reasons I'm still on here is for the anecdotes Agreed! mcl
Re: Pleas ID this IBM system....
On Tue, May 21, 2019 at 09:52:19AM -0600, Grant Taylor via cctech wrote: > I think Google and their YAWNs Definition, please? Wikipedia and Urban Dictionary are no help. A Google search itself is nothing but false positives. mcl
Re: RCA Spectra 70 manuals on Ebay
On Mon, May 06, 2019 at 09:28:03PM +0200, Mattis Lind via cctalk wrote: > Maybe of interest to someone? Oh cool! I remember it as being a neat industrial design. mcl
Re: Dallas drive
On Fri, May 03, 2019 at 02:26:41PM -0500, Electronics Plus via cctalk wrote: > Original DEC things that have orange flippy switches-WARNING! Smells like > dead rats and rat poop. Nasty condition! Looks something like this > https://obsolescence.wixsite.com/obsolescence/pidp-11 I'd love to help drive up, especially to look at this unit, but I have already made other committments. Consider the F-150 volunteered for "next time". mcl
Re: Pleas ID this IBM system....
On Sat, Apr 06, 2019 at 10:13:51AM -0400, William Donzelli via cctalk wrote: > And looking again, some of a System/370 pile (model 125)? I hope all of this equipment can be saved, even if only for display value. mcl
Re: Hewlett-Packard 3000, 9000, Itanium (HP-UX & MPE/iX) Servers, Storage Arrays
On Wed, Jan 23, 2019 at 04:23:32PM -0800, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: > Although I would love to get an oversized cheap print reproduction > of it, and cut out the faces to make a carnival picture taking set > for Humane Society fund raisers. (few know that that idea of a > picture with cutouts for faces was ALSO invented by Cassius > Marcellus Coolidge!) "We just want the nose" -- Peter Sellers in The Magic Christian mcl
Re: Houston stash sorting this coming Saturday
On Tue, Jan 22, 2019 at 12:45:14PM -0600, Electronics Plus via cctalk wrote: > Terminals included Harris, a huge Televideo, Check the "huge Televideo" for actually being a CP/M machine. I was involved with those for a while (sigh). mcl
Re: IBM in TX
On Fri, Jan 11, 2019 at 11:49:33AM -0600, Electronics Plus via cctalk wrote: > https://drive.google.com/open?id=1xwq1JKaMPVXLXJwhocWf9qTogANG2iye That looks like a job for many, many, people. mcl
Re: Who is in Houston?
I'm in Austin but am due for a road trip to Houston I suppose. If no one else in Houston can go check it out ... mcl
Re: Motorola M88K books & user manuals (looking for)
Well as it turns out I have several boxes of databooks that I need to get catalogued and listed. (My decluttering task was supposed to be finished *last* year ...) Here we have: MC88100 RISC Microprocessor User's Manual MC88200 Cache/Memory Management Unit User's Manual Please pay shipping from Texas 78746. Whatever else you want to pay on top of that will be used exclusively to buy more high-quality beer :-) mcl
Re: Modcomp aquired
On Mon, Nov 05, 2018 at 05:48:22PM -0500, devin davison via cctalk wrote: > Soon to be picked up and brought home. Lots of documentation with it as > well. Christmas came early, eager to get it home and set up. Nice! mcl
Re: 2 huge warehouses full of old computers
On Tue, Oct 30, 2018 at 02:04:53PM -0600, Warner Losh via cctalk wrote: > Yes, their business model is to sell a once common $10 part for $500 > because it's an exact replacement and the cost to warehouse it is dwarfed > by the huge profit margin... Before anyone scoffs, warehouse space is expensive. It drove the company I was last working for to move out of Austin. Their business was similar but more oriented towards e.g. getting newer machines, disk-wiping them, and selling on eBay. The selling prices are/were competitive and so the margins were much lower. Thus, they couldn't afford to keep things around for years. Two different business models. mcl
Re: DG microNOVA in Cleveland on CL
On Thu, Oct 04, 2018 at 03:37:59PM -0400, Bill Degnan via cctalk wrote: > oops sorry I mean I did not get it. dang, and I already had my samurai sword nearly sharpened. mcl
Re: Next 'stack' of computers to go, IBM p7's - not classics this time
On Fri, May 18, 2018 at 11:42:52PM -0700, Pete Lancashire via cctalk wrote: > Last call is there any interest ? Would love to if you can change your mind on shipping? Austin, TX, is kind of a far drive. mcl
Re: 18 bit CPU; was: Speed now & then
On Wed, Apr 11, 2018 at 11:45:07PM -0700, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > Looks pretty much like standard C until you get into the minutiae, such > as "A character constant is 1 to 4 characters" and page 4-4 "Data Types" > (9 bit characters and 36 bit ints and 18 bit short ints). > > So, it should be pretty straightforward unless you assume that a char > is 8 bits, with a signed char having a range of +/-255. "pretty straightforward" Thanks. I needed a laugh. As someone who tries to get/keep a zillion open source packages building on FreeBSD, on non-x86 archs, I constantly refer to a piece of paper that hangs on my wall. It was given to me many years ago at a conference, by its author, Henry Spencer. An annotated version may be found here: https://www.lysator.liu.se/c/ten-commandments.html Of course these days s/VAX/32-bit Linux distro/, but the principle still holds. Finally, for any remaining disbelievers, the most recent update of FreeBSD's toolchain to include Clang version 6, regressed 419 port builds -- on x86 alone. mcl
Re: WeirdStuff going out of business
On Thu, Apr 05, 2018 at 08:16:35PM -0700, Eric Korpela via cctalk wrote: > I'm not religious, but I consider this a sign of the apocalypse. Agreed. I am glad I am far out of driving distance. mcl
Re: Speed now & then (Space and time?)
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 04:05:10PM -0700, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > And yet, productive work was performed on it. Indeed the industrial > variant, the 1710 was used for early process control. There were a lot of highway improvements made in the US in the 1950s/ 1960s using Bendix G-15s. That particular branch of civil engineering was probably that machine's biggest customer. (OTOH, disclaimer: the one I used in high school had previously been owned by an oil company.) mcl
Re: Speed now & then (Space and time?)
On Thu, Mar 29, 2018 at 09:00:35PM -0500, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > It was an absolute DOG! It took several minutes for Emacs to load. So, uh, I hate to tell you about the state of the art these days ... mcl
Re: PDP8/e programmers consoles
cool post, thanks. mcl
Re: Bendix G-15 [was: Re: VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!]
On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 11:55:04AM -0800, Josh Dersch via cctalk wrote: > Small correction: there are three -- two upstairs, one in the basement (with > CDC badging) :) Well, get to work guys, I'd like to be able to sit at the IBM typewriter one more time, just for old time's sake :-) May I ask which serial numbers these are? mcl
Bendix G-15 [was: Re: VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!]
On Sun, Feb 18, 2018 at 01:04:38PM -0600, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: > Wow, even a Bendix G-15 in there (although with Control Data logo). Nope, look again, there are two :-) > Talk about a restoration project!!! AFAIK these are the only ones being restored. The last time I checked, the remaining inventory was: - Smithsonian (S/N 1) - CHM (on static display) - these 2 - the one at MARCH - a University in Australia who was attempting to restore theirs My G-15 website is pretty stale but here it is: http://www.obscurecomputers.org/g15/index.html The site is in dire need of attention; helpers wanted :-) mcl
Re: VCF PNW 2018: Pictures!
I've looked through a lot of these but had to stop because my eyes were crossing. And my parents told me never to do that. My count of the number of (pre-microcomputer) machines I have used: 5 so far. Maintained for a period of time: 2. mcl
Re: DEC Tape drive, controller, formater parts
Does this mean you finally got that shipment in that you were expecting? mcl
Re: chip technology dead-ends (was: Foonlies)
On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 07:07:23PM -0800, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > Back in the 70s, 4000-series CMOS was among the slowest logic around. I really wish I still had one technical magazine that came out during the late 70s/early 80s. (I don't remember which one it was, anymore.) It was devoted to keeping you up with the latest chip/minicomputer technology. It contained a very serious editorial about "what are we going to use to replace CMOS" now that the > 10MHz chips were starting to be avialable. "Clearly" there was no way to push the technology past that: it was simply impossible due to heat dissipation -- the chips were going to burn up. It was an open-ended question; clearly neither ECL nor TTL were going to fit the bill. (Hey, at least the author got _that_ part correct.) Oh and while we're skewering early CMOS chips, they were grossly sensitive to static. The company I was working for during the summers was buying these $40 4-digit LED things with a CMOS driver and if you even looked at it wrong you could watch the chip swell up and bake underneath its protective plastic. This was not not very amusing to management. I'll bet I still have one in a box somewhere. mcl
Re: Foonlies
On Wed, Jan 31, 2018 at 10:00:53AM -0800, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: > An all-ECL redesign (details escape me) resulted in no appreciable > improvement in performance. But I'm sure the local power company appreciated the extra revenue they got from it. (I recently donated the little chunk of ECL logic I had back to Rice University, where it came from lo those many years ago. Even by the time they were building their "fast" computer in 1970, 74S was already starting to catch up.) mcl
Re: Televideo 970
That reminds me, I still have one or two in the garage (yes, stored in uncontrolled conditions). Maybe a manual as well. If anyone is interested, contact me off-list. I'm in Austin, Texas, USA. mcl
