[cctalk] Re: Might be antique computer parts
On 02/10/2024 16:01, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: On 10/2/24 09:11, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote: On Oct 1, 2024, at 8:06 PM, donald donaldwhittemore.com via cctalk wrote: I rue the day I lost an eBay auction. It was a PR photo with a good looking model mounting a disk in an open drawer of a 2314. If you looked carefully you would see she was holding a 2311 disk. The 2314 pack was probably too heavy to use for all the repeated takes the photographer wanted. đ Funny. Drawer? I thought 2314s are top loaders, like the DEC RP03 (which looks about the same including having a look-alike pack) and the RP04/05/06 series. "Drawer" sounds like the 3330, or DEC drives like the RL01. You spin down the drive, wait a while, pull up on the big blue handle and roll the drive out of the cabinet. This reveals the top of the pack. You then lower the cover onto the pack, twist the handle to jack the pack off the spindle, and lift it out. Reverse process to load new pack, then roll drive back into cabinet and flip switch. So, the drive is essentially a drawer in a cabinet of 9 drives. look up on google to see what the whole system looked like. Jon There is a nice picture here:- https://web.archive.org/web/20230822210411/http://history.cs.ncl.ac.uk/anniversaries/40th/images/ibm360_672/29.html Dave
[cctalk] Re: Fwd: Civility; Was Re: Re: LCM auction pre-notice
On 17/07/2024 20:15, Adrian Godwin via cctalk wrote: The number of UK museums seem to be growing. Perhaps some of the newer ones are not yet full. I think the large Science Museums are pretty well off but the smaller ones may be more flexible. Of course, they are also in greater danger of fading away. The Science Museum Group has space but I believe it struggles money. It has made staff redundant recently and closed the Air and Space hall in Manchester last year and scaled updates to the spaces there. I'm sure you're aware of TNMoC at Bletchley Park (though not the same organisation as the Bletchley Park Trust) . I am a member of the "TNMOC Supporters club" . I'm hoping to get involved there myself soon. They seem to be mainly limited by the rate at which they can restore the many old buildings on the site. There are still a lot left semi-derelict. Very few now, and all the TNMOC buildings are leased from the Bletchley Park Trust so as interest in the park grows the Trust may be inclined to let them to commercial concerns. They will accept some donations. Although both organisations have improved their standing a lot recently, I'm still astonished when I compare it with the museum Curious Marc and his team recently visited. I think we expect Museums in the UK to be free. They have to be free to get government money. I think TNMOC charges ÂŁ10. Its not really enough, but I am sure folks would gripe at more. I recently visited the OXO Museum in Malaga which is 15⏠for two hours. Its much smaller than TNMOC yet because of its location I am sure it takes a lot more money. OXO is well worth a visit even if you are not a gamer... https://oxomuseo.com/ Two other notable but more recently established museums are Cambridge's 'Centre for computing History' which has a variety of HP and DEC systems in addition to many homegrown Cambridge machines, A great place, but I think they would only accept things of real importance. They have recently sold off surplus items.. and Sam Battle's 'This museum is not obsolete', a volunteer-run museum with a very dedicated staff and an astounding ability to take on work and exhibits. I'd recommend both for a visit and perhaps a donation. Not managed to get there yet but on my "Must See" list There is also the "Retro Computer Museum" in Leicester https://retrocomputermuseum.co.uk/ This is a great place to visit, and has an extensive Library. Andy who runs it has taken a few items from me, but also turned down a few .. and the Northwest Computer Museum.. https://www.nwcomputermuseum.org.uk/ which is pretty new, but again a great place for post-mainframe exhibits ... not sure where Joe is with donations... Dave G4UGM On Wed, Jul 17, 2024 at 6:53âŻPM Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote: On Wed, 17 Jul 2024, Alan Perry wrote: My wife worked at the part of Sun that made many of the machines in my collection when they were being made, so she is fine with my computer collection. Does she have a sister?
[cctalk] Re: Fwd: Civility; Was Re: Re: LCM auction pre-notice
On 16/07/2024 18:49, Joshua Rice via cctalk wrote: I think the key to preservation is assuring next of kin that the items in our possession have value, and are worth seeking out future custodians. There's a lot of stuff in private collections that can bring in great sums of money if only those in charge of selling the estate appreciate what they have to deal with. Making sure spouses and children know that at least some items in the collection are not just "old junk" will help immeasurably in their preservation, as well as pointing them in the direction of those knowledgeable enough to value it. Groups like this, as well as local/national computer museums will, i'm sure, help a lot with valuing pieces of equipment if and when the time comes to auction them off. I think you are living in some alternate universe. I remember when clearing out a significant (for the uk) collection which consisted of IBM 7090 tapes, cards and CE manuals, and a straight 8 PDP8, talking to the children of the widow, about their mums collection of china, some of it valuable which covered every inch of wall space within the house and which severely hampered our moving of the computers, radios and scopes and other electronic items through the house. What were their plans for that I asked? Toffee Hammers they replied, the intended to smash the lot in a sort of revenge for having to live with it. Money did not matter! They just wanted rid ... I am 100% certain my wife and kids feel the same, except perhaps for my ATARI ST on which we played "Buggy Boy", "XENON II" and Tynesoft "Winter Olympics" as a family. ... as for "national museums" all the ones I know of are totally over-whelmed with donations.  Space is expensive. They cherry pick the best because thats all they can afford to store. Certainly in the UK they exist because the offer STEM courses for which they get rewards, Since the UK left the EU their funding sources are further reduced as EU funding has gone, and not been replaced, as promised by the pro-brexit lobby. they wonÂŽt accept most of what we have, and any they do take must be donated without condition. ... so as I am now 70 years old my collection of junk is being dispersed as fast as I can to younger enthusiasts, who I hope are not out to make a fast buck on a quick cheap buy and re-sell on e-bay. If you want to have any confidence it goes to a good home you need to do it yourself .. Which brings us back to Paul Allen who sadly did not have the time to do this for LCM+L. I hope he passed peacefully. Dave G4UGM Of course, a great tool is a personal inventory. A book, or some such document with rough values and other information could be very useful for those unfortunate enough to have to rehome our collections once we're passed. Contact details of those who can help in assessing and distributing such stuff will also be quite useful. I, personally, am quite young compared to many here (no offense intended!), being 32 years old. However i have reassured my spouse that much of my "junk" (largely consisting of QBUS PDP-11's at this time) is actually quite valuable and well worth getting a good price for. Other, rarer items, i have assured her need to be rehomed to a museum. Of course, i intend to hang onto these pieces for at least another 32 years, as a good portion is somewhat "retirement projects", as well as "retirement funds", and i definitely intend to divest some of my ever-growing collection when the time comes. But then again, we all have those pieces that are actually quite valueless. It is definitely worth divesting those pieces if and when we get round to it. If and when the time is available to divest these pieces (i'm eyeing up the stack of 30+ Core i7 3770 boards in the corner as i type this, definitely not retro at this time, but definitely need to be divested) it is worth getting the money back when we can. It's a difficult one for those that love and cherish these machines, but it always hurts to see them end up in the trash. Ultimately, as custodians of this equipment, it is also our duty to assure their preservation, and sometimes it is us who know best where to rehome them. Don't hesitate to downsize and find younger folk that have the passion. There isn't a lot of them, but they are out there. Cheers Josh rice On 16/07/2024 01:59, Alan Perry via cctalk wrote: Drop the civility discussion or the LCM+L discussion? The LCM+L discussion raises important questions about finding good homes for oneâs vintage computer collection after one passes on. I got more passionate about making sure this kind of stuff got saved when in the late 90s I found that little of what I worked on at Burroughs in the late 80s was available most anywhere. I didnât donate the item that I donated to LCM+L just to see it get scrapped. I know of at least one other person who donated rare items there on the condition they wou
[cctalk] Re: Double Density 3.5" Floppy Disks
On 01/05/2024 00:27, Mike Katz via cctalk wrote: Thank you. My goal is not to use HD floppies on a drive not designed for them. I saw some on ebay and amazon but I thought I would try here to see if anybody had some they don't need. I would help keep them out of the trash. I have lots, but being in the UK its probably more expensive to post them that to buy from E-Bay. My recent experiences with real floppies leads me to believe that almost all media and/or the drives are deteriorating and although I have several drives and lots of disks obtaining reliable performance seems as attainable as unicorn horns... Thank you again. Dave G4UGM On 4/30/2024 6:15 PM, Wayne S wrote: If itâs any help, i second the reformat completely a disk in a old pc. I had some issues many years ago where disks formatted on an ibm pc didnât work correctly on a non- ibm pc. Reformatting and doing the error checking by reading and writing all sections fixed it. A quick format didnât. There are lotsa 720k disketteâs available for sale⊠prices vary. Even Amazon has them! Sent from my iPhone On Apr 30, 2024, at 15:39, Mike Katz wrote: ï»żThank you. I didn't see any new procedures that I have already tried. I do not have a problem with the drive or with trying to format a HD disk with the HP-41 and therefore I was looking for a few DSDD disks instead of DSHD disks. On 4/30/2024 5:13 PM, Wayne S wrote: There is also these 2 procedures to tryâŠ. From https://literature.hpcalc.org/community/hp9114a-ms-en.pdf TheHP9114Ausesdouble-sideddiscs.Dataiswrittenonboth sides of the disc. Thus the normal formatting procedure is double- sided formatting. Single-sided formatting is allowed for transferring data from older systems. See the next section for single-sided formatting. Before a flexible disc can be used for the first time, it must be formatted. Formatting establishes the directory and volume label as wellasverifyingthatthemediaisnotdamaged.Shownnextare two ways to format discs. Insert a blank disc into the disc drive.  From the P.A.M. display, pressing the âFile Managerâ (f2) softkey gets you to a âFormatâ softkey. Press the key labeled ââFormatâ (f5) and answer the next questions. âEnter the disc to formatâ. The first disc drive is assigned the letter C. Type C: and press return. âEnter a volume label (optional).â The volume label is the name you want to call the disc. This can be up to 11 characters. For example, letâs call this disc âFirstâ. Type First and press Return.  The information is displayed on the first two lines below the cursor.PresstheStartFormatkey(f1)ifthesetwolinesarecorrect. âFormatting Disc. Please wait.â appears on the display. Formatting a disc takes about 1 1/2 minutes. The interleave used with this formattingmethodis8,theoptimalforHP Portable/9114A operation. After formatting is complete, pressing the ââExit Formatâ (f8) softkey returns you to the main File Manager display. To exit File Manager press the âExit File Managerâ softkey. This ends the format procedure. ThesecondmethodofformattingdiscsistousetheMSDOS Format command. From the initial P.A.M. display, tabbing over to the area called âDOS Commandsâ and pressing âReturnâ allows you to use the DOS command called Format. The interleave used inthiscommand is8whichisoptimalforyourHP Portable/9114A system. Type FORMAT C: and press Return. âPress any key to begin formatting C:â is displayed. Press any key on the keyboard. Formatting takes about 1 1/2 minutes. After formatting is complete there is another prompt on the display ââVolume label (11 characters, Enter for none)?. *âPress âReturnâif you donât want a label or enter the name and press âReturnâ if you want to label the volume. When completed âFormat another (Y/N)?â appears on the display. Typing âNâ gets you back to entering MS DOS commands. Type âEXITâ to return to P.A.M. Formatting Single-sided TheHPPortable/9114Asystemcanformatdouble-sideddiscsina single-sided format. This is allowed for data compatability with other 3 1/2-inch disc systems. There is a utility called âFormat.ComâontheutilitydiscsuppliedwithyourHP Portable computer.YoumustloadtheâFormat.ComâutilityintoyourHP Portable. Use the following sequence. PlacetheUtilitydiscintoyourHP9114A. TabovertotheDOS Command blockandpressStartApplic.  From theMS DOS command displaytype: COPY C: FORMAT.COM A: and press Return This loads the utility and allows you to use the extra parameters explainedinthefollowingFORMATcommand. TheMS DOS command thatallowsthiscompatibilitywithits parameters isshown next. Format C:/W -Single-sided /X -Double-sided with 256 byte sectors /Y -Double-sided with 512 byte sectors /Z -Double-sided with 1024 byte Sent from my iPhone On Apr 30, 2024, at 14:39, Mike Katz wrote: ï»żThank you for your help. That is the command I am using on the 41 to try and format the disk. With a directory size of 60. On 4/30/2024 4:22 PM, Wayne S via cctalk wro
[cctalk] Re: Cleanup time again
> -Original Message- > From: Bill Gunshannon via cctalk > Sent: Saturday, March 23, 2024 3:24 PM > To: Bill Gunshannon via cctalk > Cc: Bill Gunshannon > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Cleanup time again > > > > On 3/23/2024 11:16 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote: > > > > > > Here's something operators of older systems might find useful. > > > > Allied Telesis CentreCOM 210TS Twisted Pair Transciever > > Â Â IEE 802.3 10 BASE-T (MAU) > > > > I have 14 used and another 14 still in the box, never been opened. > > > > > Wow!!! Maybe I should try eBay again. I was going to let > them go for $20-$25 but I according to google they are listing for $180 to > $250. > :-) > > bill You can list them for whatever you want, and if you are lucky someone might pay it. On the other hand, the most one has sold for on E-Bay in the past 90 days is $50 so if you want to sell them $20-$25 seems a good price point .. and there is one currently listed for $9.99... https://www.ebay.com/itm/326023934007 ... I think I paid around $30 for the last one I bought but it was a while ago... Dave G4UGM
[cctalk] Re: Unused Punched Cards
Are they really Punch cards? Could the be for a Selectric Mag Card device They use a mylar card the same size a a punch card. Dave > -Original Message- > From: Mike Norris via cctalk > Sent: 13 August 2022 12:55 > To: cctalk@classiccmp.org > Cc: Mike Norris > Subject: [cctalk] Unused Punched Cards > > Hello Everyone, > > I have just come across around 900 blank punch cards, they are plastic about 5 > thou in thickness. > > Would they be of interest to anyone on the list, they in the UK in > Lancashire, but > might be expensive to post as they are heavy (430 grams per 100)? > > Cost a few GBP for a beer and postage costs, if interested please contact off > list > mike_t_nor...@hotmail.com. > > Regards Mike Norris
[cctalk] Re: Posts Blocked
I have had to switch from gmail to outlook. Gmail won't send because its on the SORBS list Dave > -Original Message- > From: Ali via cctalk > Sent: 02 August 2022 18:40 > To: CCTalk Mailing List > Cc: Ali > Subject: [cctalk] Posts Blocked > > Hello All, > > Since the new hosting has taken over I am having a ton of issues posting to > the > list. Anyone else experiencing legit posts being blocked as spam? > > > -Ali > > >
[cctalk] Re: Connecting a physical terminal via LAN to Serial Port
> -Original Message- > From: Ali via cctalk > Sent: 31 July 2022 06:51 > To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' > Cc: Ali > Subject: [cctalk] Re: Connecting a physical terminal via LAN to Serial Port > > > I feel like a Raspberry Pi or similar would fit the bill for this > > nicely. > > > > Yes, but it wouldn't be ready to go ;). I would need to find a raspberry pi > with a > built in serial port and a flavor Linux already loaded on it plus > configuration. > There are plenty of SERVER devices out there (i.e. take data from the serial > console of a device and present it over the LAN via TCP/IP and accessible by > Telnet, SSH, even HTTP) so I am hoping someone has a client device as well. > > -Ali Ali, Many of the "server" devices work both ways. So you can configure the ports to be "host/server" or "terminal" ports. I think for example this https://www.ebay.com/itm/402706717955 will let you have both types of ports. Itâs a bit modern and complex but seems to fit the bill.. Dave
VCF Europe
Folks, Rod has spurred me on to pay a visit to VCF Europe. I wonder if any one else on the list is going. If so any thoughts on Hotels? I will probably only manage the Saturday! Dave
