Re: PC-Letter "WUI" War over User Interface 1-1988
On Nov 21, 2017, at 8:36 AM, william degnan via cctech wrote: > Basically I am unsure what planet the author was from, but you can decide > for yourself. Talks a little about HP's GUI product, Sun/AT&T, Apple > Finder, etc. Mentions NeXT is coming, Commodore is dead, ... opinionated. I don't know, I found the authors observations apposite, and his conclusions pretty reasonable. He is more sympathetic toward DeskMate than I think I was inclined to be, but his angle re: Tandy's being in tune with small business is interesting, and something I hadn't really considered properly before. '87 was a little early to declare Amiga "dead", I suppose, but his criticisms of what (if I've figured correctly) would've been Workbench 1.1 are pretty well on the mark (though I don't understand why he thinks having drives named df0: etc. represents some kind of problem). It did improve in many necessary ways, but sometime after the A3000, Amiga seemed to me to be pretty well "stuck". New Wave was neat, but solved problems with Windows that ultimately nobody was interested in having HP solve. The proto-OLE features were very clumsy to make work in practice, as one might have predicted based on the state of the PC applications market at the time. I think the announcement of OLE probably took a lot of wind out of New Wave's sails (wind it may never really have had). The Xerox 6085 is certainly interesting, but not an especially powerful machine, and ViewPoint does indeed suffer from Xerox' insular development culture. It is without question a great tool, within its specific design parameters. But those same design parameters gave it profound (I'd argue "catastrophic") limitations w/rt finding success in the more general purpose personal computer market. Screenshots for a few of these systems (and a number of others from my collection) are on my site; http://www.typewritten.org/Media/ ok bear. -- until further notice
Re: Idle question: Color of tape coatings
On 11/22/2017 02:52 PM, Tom Gardner via cctalk wrote: > The following answer comes from a retired IBM tape technologist: > > The color of the coatings on a tape are dominated by the magnetic pigment (or > the carbon used in back coats..which is black)..the earliest iron oxide > coatings were based on the conversion of alpha-iron oxide which is a pale > yellow and some what needle shaped (longer than wide) but non-magnetic to > gamma iron oxide which is magnetic. The very early particles were not very > homogeneous and were very highly aggregatedpoor conversion as the early > particle were being produced by paint pigment manufactures as a specialty > product in low volume. These were a yellow brown color..but by the 60's > gamma iron oxide of 250-300 Oe was commonly used in the magnetic layer > coatings. These were typically brown to chocolate brown (if they had some > carbon black mixed in for surface conductivity (anti-static) which depending > on the use as well as the manufacturer varied a lot i n surface finish > (gloss) as well). This market was driven by audio primarily and dynamic range > and analogue signal characteristics such wow & flutter were driving > formulation and magnetic particle development. > > In the late 60-s and 70's new particles began to enter the market..Cobalt > doped and later cobalt 'modified" gamma iron oxide as well as chromium > dioxide..and some very early explorations of iron metal particles and some > exotic mixed metal crystals... The colors of the magnetic coatings based on > more acicular gamma iron oxide made specifically for the recording market > were now reddish brown , cobalt doped were a dark brown - to black, chromium > dioxide is very black..remember during this period digital recording in both > tapes and disks were now the growth areas driving new pigment development and > drastically improved formulations driven by the need for improved durability, > longevity and wear characteristics (drop outs (defects & debris), head wear > and head/drive contamination being increasingly problematic)..in the 90's > metal particle and BaFe pigments took over tape while disks moved to thin > film magnetic layers. > > As for reel materials and hub evolution..the initial reels were metal and > expensive...plastic became normal in the 60's and beyond for the most > part..but for master copies or sensitive archival reels..glass or metal were > preferred... but changes in the materials were driven by the higher tape > speeds,tensions and demands for improved reliability and durability. Hubs in > some drives had to be conductive so had carbon black or metals added to them > to improve the compressive strength and conductivity. A lot of very > innovative but subtle design features moved into tape reels/hubs specifically > designed for various transports and industry demands. In addition lubrication > and binder changes were common as the needs for the various products in > audio, video and digital recording advanced. > > Hope this helps..but if the interest is primarily in getting a useful > detailed knowledge of a particular tape..color is pretty much useless..you > need SEM/EDAX and GC/MS and a database of tape analyses to compare to in > order to really begin..and then to really know the tape you need DMA/DMTA > mechanical analysis, and AFM/MFM surface profiles.but to my knowledge > only IBM had that data and I imagine it ..like so much of that knowledge > learned from 1962-2008 is now gone. Thank you for a very detailed answer, Tom! What's surprised me is how the 60's tapes have survived so well. Most of the problems that I've encountered have been with leaky leader splices and missing BOT markers--and a few broken flanges, all easily remedied. FWIW, I repair flanges when the pieces are still intact by slipping a sheet of Tyvek between the tape and the flange, then solvent-welding the flange pieces back together using MEK sparingly. The result is quite solid after a day of drying--and the Tyvek keeps any MEK out of the tape itself. I can usually pick up where a BOT marker used to be by shining a strong light on the back of the tape and slowly unspooling it until I can see the faint outline of where the BOT marker used to be and then apply a new one. Many tapes seem to lack EOT markers, but that's not an issue for these tapes. Dried-out glue on paper labels can be replaced with a bit of Scotch 77 spray adhesive. As far as redoing splices, I use a VHS tape editing kit. Works very well. 80's Memorex tapes, however have taught me to be cautious, some of them get very sticky. --Chuck
RE: Idle question: Color of tape coatings
Hi: The following answer comes from a retired IBM tape technologist: The color of the coatings on a tape are dominated by the magnetic pigment (or the carbon used in back coats..which is black)..the earliest iron oxide coatings were based on the conversion of alpha-iron oxide which is a pale yellow and some what needle shaped (longer than wide) but non-magnetic to gamma iron oxide which is magnetic. The very early particles were not very homogeneous and were very highly aggregatedpoor conversion as the early particle were being produced by paint pigment manufactures as a specialty product in low volume. These were a yellow brown color..but by the 60's gamma iron oxide of 250-300 Oe was commonly used in the magnetic layer coatings. These were typically brown to chocolate brown (if they had some carbon black mixed in for surface conductivity (anti-static) which depending on the use as well as the manufacturer varied a lot i n surface finish (gloss) as well). This market was driven by audio primarily and dynamic range and analogue signal characteristics such wow & flutter were driving formulation and magnetic particle development. In the late 60-s and 70's new particles began to enter the market..Cobalt doped and later cobalt 'modified" gamma iron oxide as well as chromium dioxide..and some very early explorations of iron metal particles and some exotic mixed metal crystals... The colors of the magnetic coatings based on more acicular gamma iron oxide made specifically for the recording market were now reddish brown , cobalt doped were a dark brown - to black, chromium dioxide is very black..remember during this period digital recording in both tapes and disks were now the growth areas driving new pigment development and drastically improved formulations driven by the need for improved durability, longevity and wear characteristics (drop outs (defects & debris), head wear and head/drive contamination being increasingly problematic)..in the 90's metal particle and BaFe pigments took over tape while disks moved to thin film magnetic layers. As for reel materials and hub evolution..the initial reels were metal and expensive...plastic became normal in the 60's and beyond for the most part..but for master copies or sensitive archival reels..glass or metal were preferred... but changes in the materials were driven by the higher tape speeds,tensions and demands for improved reliability and durability. Hubs in some drives had to be conductive so had carbon black or metals added to them to improve the compressive strength and conductivity. A lot of very innovative but subtle design features moved into tape reels/hubs specifically designed for various transports and industry demands. In addition lubrication and binder changes were common as the needs for the various products in audio, video and digital recording advanced. Hope this helps..but if the interest is primarily in getting a useful detailed knowledge of a particular tape..color is pretty much useless..you need SEM/EDAX and GC/MS and a database of tape analyses to compare to in order to really begin..and then to really know the tape you need DMA/DMTA mechanical analysis, and AFM/MFM surface profiles.but to my knowledge only IBM had that data and I imagine it ..like so much of that knowledge learned from 1962-2008 is now gone. Tom -Original Message- From: Chuck Guzis [mailto:ccl...@sydex.com] Sent: Monday, November 20, 2017 10:35 PM To: CCtalk Subject: Idle question: Color of tape coatings While working on some old (again!) half-inch tapes, I note that some of the very old ones have an oxide coating about the color of milk chocolate. Newer ones are anywhere from dark chocolate to black. Reel construction is another aspect. The really old ones tend to be all clear plastic, including the hub area. Newer ones have either a black plastic reinforcement to the hub or employ an aluminum sleeve. In most cases, the oldest of these is from around 1964, but probably older than that, as the only clues I have are dates placed by the tape librarian when a tape is put back into the pool or a label indicating when the tape was last recertified. Was there a date after which *all* half-inch tape became the dark brown to nearly black in color? --Chuck
Re: Ideas for a simple, but somewhat extendable computer bus
On 11/20/2017 8:41 AM, Tapley, Mark via cctalk wrote: On Nov 19, 2017, at 11:54 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: So we agree on parallel standard buses, that STD bus is a strong contender with varied processor base. Catching up late, sorry if this is an old question, but what did the Digital Group computers use? My recollection is that they offered cards with 6800, 6502, 8080, and Z-80 CPUs on the same bus, and that part of the system seemed to work reasonably well. (At least, the Digital Group system complaints I read seem to center on the PhiDeck mass storage system not the CPU/memorylperihperal bus.) There is a nice website at: http://www.bytecollector.com/dg_cards.htm which seems to show cards with not a whole lot of pins to connect to the bus - maybe 36 pins on the visible side, though the card is definitely 2-sided so probably 36 more on the back side? I think they also had the chip that did the pdp8 instruction set too. That also brings up the other point, what software did they have? Ben. I can see it now, a pdp 8 time sharing emulating a 6502 emulating a 8080. :)
Re: DR-DOS
On Tue, Nov 21, 2017 at 08:15:00PM +0100, Liam Proven via cctalk wrote: [...] > A file-based virus could escape _if_ the VM had access to the host > filesystem. But mine don't, partly because it's moderately hard, partly > because it takes a _ton_ of RAM in DOS terms. Not really: QEMU can be configured to add a Virtio device, which exposes a host filesystem via 9P (the Plan 9 filesystem protocol). A DOS device driver for that would be of comparable complexity to a CD-ROM driver. [...] > DOSbox is an emulator, so I've not looked at it. Ditto Bochs. > DOSemu works but it's not very stable. It's easy to crash it and lose > your session. > I don't think there's much chance of getting DESQview or anything > ambitious like that running on it. I bet QEMU would run them. The only real downside is that its documentation is dire so advanced configuration to cope with more bizarre requirements is more difficult than it ought to be. The gdbserver support is also invaluable for people who hack on kernels. It works nicely on 32 and 64 bit code, but I've never tried to debug 16 bit code with it.
Re: Looking for AT&T 3B2 Networking diskettes
Hi Alan, * On Wed, Nov 22, 2017 at 12:26:53AM -0500, alan--- via cctalk wrote: > > I believe the yahozna archive has them under misc/network. Yup, this is where I originally got the NI card driver disk, and the Wollongong TCP/IP disks. Unfortunately, when I attempt to install the Wollongong package, I get the message: Installing Wollongong Integrated Networking WIN/3B: Release 3.0.1. Copyright (c) 1985 The Wollongong Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved **ERROR** Wollongong Integrated Networking WIN/3B: Release 3.0.1 cannot be installed -- It requires the Networking Support Utilities package to be installed first. Digging deeper, it appears that "Network Support Utilities" was a yet a third package that was distributed separately. It's mentioned in the STREAMS programming guide. > I believe Mowgli Assor also has a copy as I think he got his NI card > working in his 300. I can give you his contact info off list. Awesome, thanks, I appreciate it! > -Alan -Seth -- Seth Morabito w...@loomcom.com
Re: DS12887 pcb substitute with battery
What are you talking about? https://www.digikey.com/product-detail/en/maxim-integrated/DS12885/DS12885-ND/1196867 -Alan On 2017-11-21 14:16, Maciej W. Rozycki via cctech wrote: On Mon, 13 Nov 2017, systems_glitch wrote: Good stuff! I recently designed a module to build new DS1287 and DS12887 modules from the bare DS1285 and DS12885 ICs: https://imgur.com/a/cgKm5 Nice! That wouldn't solve my problem though, given the apparent unavailability of DS1285 chips (in any packaging, whether surplus or used), compared with the ubiquity of used DS1287 and DS1287A ones, possibly because they were often socketed. Using my systems as a reference for the Linux port I want to avoid any deviation from their original specification so that software does not make use of it by chance. As to the DS12887 and DS12887A chips -- these are still manufactured and readily available, as someone mentioned a while ago, although a bit highly priced, so either reworking an old one or using your alternative does help cutting cost, which may especially matter if you need more than just a few. Maciej
