[cctalk] Re: the 1968 how to build a working digital computer

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

> Confusing myself as I thought about it, what category is a relay computer?
> It's electric and I would say mechanical but then not sure if mechanical can 
> be electric.
> Is it still analog?

It's digital, in the sense that it operates on data that is encoded into 
discrete values, as opposed to operating on continuous data elements, which 
would be analog.

I would classify it as an electromechanical digital computer.  Also, it's 
pretty neat, and I want one!

-mike

[cctalk] Re: After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active again

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Nice!   Years back I gave Dr. Jones my PDP-8/L, prior to moving out of Iowa.  I 
wonder if he still has it, and put it to use.

-mike

-Original Message-
From: William Sudbrink via cctalk  
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2023 3:29 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts' 
Cc: William Sudbrink 
Subject: [cctalk] Re: After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project 
active again

Forgot the link:

https://homepage.divms.uiowa.edu/~jones/pdp8/UI-8/log.shtml


-Original Message-
From: William Sudbrink via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
Sent: Thursday, February 02, 2023 6:28 PM
To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'

Cc: William Sudbrink 
Subject: [cctalk] After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active 
again

After more than three years, U of Iowa's PDP-8 project active again



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[cctalk] Re: Computer of Thesus (was: Re: Re: Computer Museum uses GreaseWeazle to help exonerate Maryland Man)

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

I must have missed your offer for 8" floppies!  Please let me know if you still 
have any.

I was looking for some a while back, and mostly found them in the $5.00/piece 
range, which is just ridiculous.  I finally just happened across someone in a 
facebook group with about a hundred to sell, fairly inexpensively.  Turned out 
he was in Kyiv, which lead to some very interesting conversations about living 
in and shipping from a war zone.

When I get my IMSAI running I hope to dump the contents somewhere; seems they 
were from a Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer during the cold war; would be 
interesting to see what sort of data might be on there.

-mike


From: Mike Stein via cctalk 
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2023 11:13 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Cc: Mike Stein 
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Computer of Thesus (was: Re: Re: Computer Museum uses 
GreaseWeazle to help exonerate Maryland Man)

I think the issue of finding media tends to be a little overstated.

I offered some 8" diskettes a while back and didn't have a single inquiry,
and there doesn't seem to be a real shortage of other sizes either if you
don't mind sorting through used ones; even paper and mylar tape seem to
still be available.

When it comes to parts I often read complaints that a certain IC or part is
unobtainium when a quick look on ebay or even Amazon will find a dozen
listings; some people get satisfaction from finding parts or documentation
that no one else could and sharing with the community.

As to the reliability of mechanical devices, again, to each his/her own;
what is a frustrating experience for someone trying to get something done
is an opportunity for someone else to repair it and get that satisfaction.
At least, unlike some mysterious custom IC you can see what the problem is
and repair it.

m

On Mon, Jan 23, 2023 at 1:31 PM Chris via cctalk 
wrote:

>  I've never ever heard anyone state they like Goteks better then floppy
> drives. The media is difficult to find in a usable state. That puts a big
> crimp on any joy you may obtain from using original equipment. Hence people
> opt for the next best thing. Which offers a number of conveniences I'll
> add. On Monday, January 23, 2023, 01:26:40 PM EST, Christian Corti via
> cctalk  wrote:
>
>  On Mon, 23 Jan 2023, Chris Zach wrote:
> > Is it a valid repair? Yes. Is it not "100% original" nope, and I don't
> care
> > too much. However one of the supplies was a total wreck from someone else
>
> Replacing a failed and possibly unrepairable component is something
> different than changing working parts with newer ones "just because I like
> the modern ones more". Then, I would not be in classic computing but just
> in "running old equipment".
>
> Christian
>

[cctalk] Re: Computer of Thesus (was: Re: Re: Computer Museum uses GreaseWeazle to help exonerate Maryland Man)

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

In a lot of ways it's entirely contextual, or a matter of practicality.  If the 
goal is to just get the original operator/software experience, then emulators 
should do the trick.  If it's about the original feel of the hardware, with all 
its limitations and warts, then stock hardware is the way to go.  For 
components that fail and are hard to replace, then FPGAs are cool, and it's fun 
to see how far they can be tweaked using modern hardware and design 
sensibilities.

For DECVax stuff, I just use an emulator on a pi because anything larger than 
the smallest VAXen are way too power and space consumptive to be at all 
practical.  I used to have a VAXStation 2000 that might be reasonable to keep 
powered up 24/7, but other than that and maybe some of the desktop VAXen it's 
just silly to keep them running unless you're a well-funded museum willing to 
buy carbon offsets.

For my HP 9000 stuff, it's all straight original hardware, although I'm 
diskless and just do netbooting of NetBSD off a PC.  My Tektronix 4132 is still 
running on its original 40mb hard disk.

I have a few fully stock Atari 800s, and one I'm in the process of fully maxing 
out with modern upgrades, because it's fun to see how far the machine can be 
taken while maintaining the original hardware.  But I like to keep a fully 
stock machine around as well.

Right now, I'm going back and forth on an IMSAI I am restoring.  Part of me 
wants to do as slavishly accurate a restoration as I can, but the another part 
insists that there really is no such thing, really, as the whole culture around 
S100 was about taking the bus and extending it in a myriad of ways.  I'll 
probably fall somewhere in the middle, but if I could ever find a CCS Z80 main 
board I would probably switch to that and put the original IMSAI 8080 MPU board 
into storage.  I had a CCS machine back in the day and just found that to be 
really solid hardware with a good onboard monitor for debugging.  BTW - if 
anyone has an IMSAI MIO board they are with (or a CCS z80 MPU board), please 
contact me!

Replacing "doomed to fail" components like hard disks, or even potential time 
bombs like capacitors & batteries just makes sense.  But when something becomes 
way too far afield from the original specs, it does kind of defeat the purpose, 
from my point of view.  I view it as akin to classic car restoration vs hot 
rodding.  They're both different perspectives on the same machinery, and 
there's value & intersections between both sides of the community from which 
each side can benefit.

-mike


From: Jim Brain via cctalk 
Sent: Monday, January 23, 2023 8:37 AM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org 
Cc: Jim Brain 
Subject: [cctalk] Computer of Thesus (was: Re: Re: Computer Museum uses 
GreaseWeazle to help exonerate Maryland Man)

On 1/23/2023 10:17 AM, Chris Zach via cctalk wrote:
> It's the classic "ship of Thesus" argument. And a 2,000 year old
> debate is not going to be solved on this list.

Though the comments started with an absolute (replacing all drives with
Goteks), I assume many of us take a more pragmatic approach.  As such, I
do take a bit of issue with the "where do you stop" concern raised by
another poster.

I have all 3 here.

* I have emulators for many of the machines I own, because often,
answering a question can be best/fastest done that way

* I have "need to get things done on this" machines, where problematic
components are replaced by contemporary equivalents. I know I'm a "young
un" on this list of Mini computer owners, but al most all of my daily
driver home computers have their floppy drives replaced by SD card or
USB equivalents.  Because, when I want to enjoy firing up an app or
game, I want to enjoy the game/app, not spend an hour/day/week
diagnosing and fixing the system.  I also use these to demonstrate the
units for interested visitors, and these are the machines I take to show
to demo and such

* I have all stock machines, because, sometimes, only the original will
do.  Validating specific behavior for emulator writers, checking failure
modes on certain apps, understanding actual latency/delays associated
with original equipment, etc. These units are used for even the mundane
efforts of determining PCB sizes or heights for folks who wish to build
add-ons and such.

I can't imagine I am the only one of the list with this setup (though I
do understand having a daily driver PDP 11 and an all stock PDP 11 might
be un-realistic, and so that owner has to make the decision on how to
keep the machine configured.)

But, for all the smaller units, I must be in a larger community who does
this.

So, while I don't have the same goal as the OP in replacing all drives
with Goteks, I honestly do have that configured already for all my
daily/weekly use machines. I lost no existential sleep over doing that.

In the spirit of the original thought, though, where I find myself
scratching my head are the folks who have replaced every IC on 

[cctalk] Re: Downsizing "feeler"

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

A friend of a friend helped someone out a few years ago who was in a similar 
situation, but with high-end audiophile stuff.  Same general deal, tho - had a 
collection build with love and detail over decades but for practical reasons 
had to make it gone.  The solution was to find someone also in the community so 
he had enough knowledge and insight and connections, but was also younger, 
stronger and had the time & mental bandwidth to handle the distribution.

Instead of trying to find one or a few buyers for the whole thing, or ebaying 
it all out, they worked in the community to redistribute/sell it.  They didn't 
make all the money they could have if they really tried, but they did good 
enough.  Not pennies on the dollar, but maybe dimes or quarters on the dollar?

But more importantly, they got the satisfaction of knowing that the collection 
was being seeded out to other audiophiles in the area, and that collections 
were being filled out, or in some cases collections started by new people 
entering the hobby.  And that the stuff would be put to use and loved and 
remembered, as opposed to just getting anonymously sold off, landfilled, or 
stuck in a museum's massive warehouse, like the Ark of the Covenant, never to 
be seen again (I've been in the basement of Seattle's LCM; you wouldn't believe 
what's down there!).

Anyway, if you could find someone local who has the time and interest to really 
go through your collection, identify people/organizations who would really use 
the equipment and handling distribution & shipping, that might really take the 
edge off divesting yourself of it.  From what you listed, some of it are true 
museum pieces, while others are more commodity items that still are appreciated 
by community members.  Both ends of the spectrum are worth finding new owners 
for, but they have very different strategies for doing so.

(I'd do it in a heartbeat if I were anywhere nearby!  But Seattle is just a 
smidge too far to drive!)

Regardless, best luck in downsizing your collection!  Looking forwards to 
seeing a list of items available!

-mike

-Original Message-
From: George Currie via cctalk  
Sent: Saturday, January 7, 2023 11:02 AM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Cc: George Currie 
Subject: [cctalk] Downsizing "feeler"

Greetings all, it's "that time", the time I've finally accepted that I no 
longer have the time/energy/space to devote to this collection/restoration 
hobby that I've been able to enjoy for several decades now.During this time, 
I've managed to amass a pretty sizeable amount of hardware, software, manuals, 
etc. We're talking half a garage, part of a large shed and a storage rental's 
worth of stuff. I need to go through and hit some highlights, but there are 
things from rack mount PDP-10's, an SGI (Challenge XL rack, Indy's), tons of 
old Macs (original, 512, original, Portable, etc), Lisa, Apple II, Commodore, 
TRS80, Grid, HERO robots, DG Aviion, HP PA-RISC, MIPS system, early luggables 
(e.g. Zenith), boxes of ISA cards, etc, etc, etc. A good 20ft uhaul trucks 
worth of stuff.There is no way I can piece meal stuff, so I'd be looking for 
someone, or an org like a museum, who is willing to take the whole 
enchilada.This is an early feeler before I start doing actual inventory to see 
if a) is anyone interested in/capable of dealing with a large collectionb) is 
anyone aware of someone, or a museum, that may be interestedI know I'm a bit 
light on the details, and we all know where the devil lives. But this is the 
first step.The collection is located in Central Texas.TIA for any interest, 
leads, pointers, sympathy, ridicule, etc.George

[cctalk] 8" floppy diskettes themselves (was: 8" floppy diskette storage cases)

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

With all the talk about 8" floppy diskette storage cases, I was wondering if 
anyone had any 8" floppy disks themselves they would be willing to sell?

This winter I am hoping to start restoring an IMSAI 8080 I recently acquired, 
and while it came with one external 5.25" drive, it would be desirable to 
connect a "proper" 8" disk system to it as well.  However, the complete lack of 
the disks themselves makes that project more or less impractical even once I 
get hardware set up.  So before I even start that project, I'd love to pick up 
a collection of 8" media.  Years back I had an impressive collection of CP/M 
software on 8" floppies, but unfortunately, they were accidentally left behind 
in a move.  :-/

-mike

[cctalk] Re: Bendix G-15 Restoration

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

The folks at the Living Computer Museum + Labs in Seattle were working on a 
restoration of one of these, or another, similar Bendix machine.  They remain 
closed (who knows if they will ever reopen), but there might be a way to find 
some of the people who were doing the work.

-mike

-Original Message-
From: Jon Elson via cctalk  
Sent: Thursday, October 6, 2022 11:40 AM
To: Jon Elson via cctalk 
Cc: Jon Elson 
Subject: [cctalk] Re: Bendix G-15 Restoration

On 10/5/22 22:00, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote:
> On 10/5/22 16:14, Stephen Buck via cctalk wrote:
>> Hi All,
>> I wanted to let the group know about a Bendix G-15 Restoration 
>> project I just launched:
>> https://headspinlabs.wordpress.com/bendix-g-15-restoration/
>> It's a pretty intimidating restoration (do no harm and all), so I'm 
>> reaching out to related sources, such as this group, for any 
>> suggestions or interest.
>
> WOW!  I worked on one in 1973 or so, but it had dust get in and wreck 
> the drum surface.
>
> Certainly an ambitious project, and even their schematics are QUITE 
> unfamiliar looking.

There's a Rob Kolstad in Colorado Springs who actually used a G-15 many ages 
ago, and has created a simulator for the G-15. He has some info on internals as 
he was hoping to eventually find one to restore.  I think he has a bunch of 
software on punched tape.

Jon

[cctalk] Seeking Atari ANALOG magazine issue #3

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

I spent much of the pandemic focusing on filling out my 8-bit Atari 
documentation & ephemera collection, and have come pretty close to a milestone. 
 I am only missing one issue of ANALOG magazine.  Number 3 still eludes me.  
I've been on AtariAge and ebay and all the usual places.  I know I can get the 
PDFs online but I like having the originals.

Do you have a copy of this issue you would be willing to sell or otherwise pass 
on?

Thanks!

-mike
s...@hell.org

[cctalk] Re: [cctalk]Can someone explain...

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Yes, but yours wouldn't come with the oily grime of authenticity.

Some people have too much ebay, and too little common sense.

-mike

-Original Message-
From: William Sudbrink via cctalk  
Sent: Monday, July 18, 2022 7:56 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Cc: William Sudbrink 
Subject: [cctalk]Can someone explain...

Why anybody would bid more than three hundred dollars for a bunch of ribbon 
cables?

 

https://www.ebay.com/itm/234623364778?hash=item36a0a46eaa:g:y1oAAOSwwQdiz550

 

Unless there's something I'm not seeing here, I can easily (and exactly) 
reproduce them.

I could even make them with red or "rainbow" cables if you prefer.  I'll do a 
set for the

"bargain" price of $250.

 

Bill S.



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RE: Women of Computing

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Ugggh, as soon as I saw this conversation I new it was going to be a race to 
the bottom.  Actually, it was far less worse than I expected, so progress, 
perhaps?

I've been frustrated by the lack of women in the industry, because there's no 
rational reason for it and it feels like we're wasting half our talent pool.  
I've known too many women who were effectively chased out of the industry and 
the hobby because of creepy, insecure men and their enablers, and it's just 
infuriating.  There's no reason for it, and I'm glad we're finally seeing 
pushback, role models and positive encouragement, and garbage behavior is 
increasingly less tolerated and called out.

> Using the term ‘woke’ these days is a great way to render any point you are 
> trying to make moot.  Great
> way to make people people not take you seriously.
>
> He may as well have just come out and said, “It triggers me and I don’t like 
> having to acknowledge that
> women exist in the field of computer history.”

Yeah, "woke" is one of those terms, like "PC", that immediately signals that 
the speaker can immediately be dismissed out of hand as having nothing 
worthwhile to say.

-mike

RE: Vt131 4 sale in St.Louis

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

I just put in a bid on a few of the items.  I've confirmed someone in St Louis 
can pick up and get anything I win to me in Seattle in the next six months or 
so.

-mike

-Original Message-
From: cctech  On Behalf Of geneb via cctech
Sent: Wednesday, October 27, 2021 6:26 AM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Cc: General Discussion: On-Topic Posts 
Subject: Re: Vt131 4 sale in St.Louis

On Tue, 26 Oct 2021, Andrew Diller via cctalk wrote:

> https://www.estatesales.net/marketplace/items/579642 
> 
>
> ADM-3a. Some interesting stuff to be sure. too bad it too far from me.
>

I like how they position the manual so it hides the screen rot. :)

It's got the little dip switch cover too!  (If anyone has a spare they want to 
part with, please contact me off list.  My 3A is missing it.)

g.

--
Proud owner of F-15C 80-0007
http://www.f15sim.com - The only one of its kind.
http://www.diy-cockpits.org/coll - Go Collimated or Go Home.
Some people collect things for a hobby.  Geeks collect hobbies.

ScarletDME - The red hot Data Management Environment A Multi-Value database for 
the masses, not the classes.
http://scarlet.deltasoft.com - Get it _today_!

IBM 534 data entry (Keypunch) machine for sale near Spokane, WA

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Just saw this on CraigsList - not my ad.

It might be worth someone grabbing before it goes to a scraper.

https://spokane.craigslist.org/sop/d/spokane-ibm-card-punch-machine/7331662699.html

-mike

Interesting photos of a computer graphics lab from 1968

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

A friend of mine collects old photos, and sent me a link to this set he just 
recovered from film.  He doesn't know much about the provenance, but it might 
be interesting to figure out what we can about them.

The link is here:

https://www.espressobuzz.net/Found/GeorgeClark/GraphicsLab/

The film roll was dated June 1968, which was a month before I was born.

The most interesting (to me) is the photo of the Adage Graphics Terminal.  I'd 
never heard of the company before, but it looks like they were one of the many 
tech companies that sprang up in the MIT & Harvard orbit in the 60s and 70s.  
There's a small amount of info about the company on Wikipedia: 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adage,_Inc.

Also in the same photo, to the right of the terminal is a silver box that might 
be an early joystick.  It's hard to say.

The pictures of the graphics terminal output is pretty cool, given that it's 
probably really pushing state of the art at the time.  Also, they're in color, 
which was still not terribly common at the time.  The only few photos I was 
able to find of Adage terminals are all black and white.

Other recognizable hardware are a couple of ASR33 teletypes (one of which was 
rebadged as Adage), and some tape drives, the manufacture I don't recognize.  
Everything else, I pretty much can't make out what any of it is, but perhaps 
someone recognizes the particular layout of the blinkinlights?

He was told that the pictures were taken "somewhere in the northeast".  I 
suspect Boston, and therefore probably MIT or maybe Harvard.  On the same roll 
were some pictures of "a colonial ship with lots of cannons", which I suspect 
was the USS Constitution in Boston Harbor, but I haven't seen those pics yet.  
I wonder if the tile pattern on the floor is distinct enough or recognizable?

Anyway, it's an interesting set of archival photos, and I figured someone here 
might find them interesting or might recognize more than I do.

-mike

RE: Exploring early GUIs

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

There's also the windowing system used on the AT 3B1 (AKA Unix PC, AK 
PC7300), which I think was called MGR.  It may have also been ported to other 
systems as well.  When I had one of these machines it was adequate, although 
terribly slow on a 512K system.

There's a writeup, with images, here:
http://toastytech.com/guis/unixpc.html

and apparently an emulator here:
https://www.philpem.me.uk/code/3b1emu

I have a parted-out 7300 in my closet, but I'm not sure I have all the pieces.  
Part of me thinks I should dig it out and revive it, part of me thinks I should 
let sleeping dogs lie...

-mike


-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Michael Kerpan via 
cctalk
Sent: Thursday, September 17, 2020 7:19 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Subject: Exploring early GUIs

Something in another recent thread about LISP machines got me wondering:
how many early graphical systems are well emulated (or emulated at all)? I know 
that there are more or less functional emulations of Alto, Star, and Lisa out 
there, but what about the various LISP machines or the early workstations (Sun 
68K, Apollo, etc) Also, assuming that there are emulators for some of these 
systems out there, has any software to run on them and been archived?

Mike

RE: Network gear that supported StarLAN 1 (not 10)

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Wow.  I ran StarLan 1 around my apartment in college, using an AT 3b1 as the 
hub and a collection of 8088 PCs with 8-bit ISA cards scattered around.  I 
could rlogin (not telnet, from my recollection) from any of the PCs to the 3B1, 
and dial out through a 14.4 modem into the university network.  Only one at a 
time, mind you, I never got SL/IP or PPP running, but still, it was like living 
into the future.  A network...in my own house!

To my recollection, StarLan was entirely an AT product, and few if any other 
vendors supported it.

I MAY still have the StarLan board for the 3B1 around (along with most of the 
3B1 disassembled in parts).  But all the PC cards, the hub and documentation 
are long gone.  I believe I sold them to someone in Yellowknife, but this would 
have been well over a quarter century ago.

You might be able to find some additional info in the archives in the 
comp.sys.3b1 usenet group.  Shockingly, I just noted that has actually been a 
smattering of on-topic (not spam) chatter there in the last few years, even as 
recently as April, so there's a handul of users still out there with these 
machines in hand.

Good luck,

-mike

-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Steven M Jones via 
cctalk
Sent: Wednesday, August 19, 2020 7:55 PM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Subject: Network gear that supported StarLAN 1 (not 10)

I was wondering if anybody remembers which networking vendors supported StarLAN 
1, or 802.3e / 1Base5, back in the 1980s? Hoping to get product names and/or 
model numbers.

I've come across some references to Western Digital, Micom-Interlan, Cross Comm 
Corp (Massachusetts), and Fox Research (later DCA?) possibly having offered 
products to bridge StarLAN to Ethernet. But in the few cases where I've seen a 
model (ex. Cross Comm 487 Series) I haven't been able to get past blurbs in 
Info World.

I have one host interface, expect more to arrive shortly, and would love to 
track down a bridge/switch/router that might allow me to make them reachable 
from Ethernet.

Thanks,
--Steve.

RE: Any interest in "newer" hardware, software?

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

A lot of the younger collectors are spending ridiculous amounts of money on 486 
& Pentium class machines on assorted facebook vintage and retro groups.  I 
don't get it either, but everyone has their fetishes and I try not to judge.  
Parted out you can possibly get a couple hundred bucks out of a machine if you 
get lucky.

I personally might be interested in an 8" floppy drive, mainly to show my 
coworkers, some of whom didn't know such things existed.  I'm also vaguely 
interested in one of the PDP 11/23s, but I know it's already been vetoed by my 
wife without even asking.    Any VT100-compatible terminals in the stash you'd 
be willing to part with?

I'm down in Seattle, and occasionally get up that way while camping, but this 
year you might as well be on the moon.  Maybe we could arrange to meet on the 
border near Oroville and Osoyoos, and you can throw them across the border.

-mike

-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Boris Gimbarzevsky 
via cctalk
Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2020 11:36 PM
To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
Subject: Any interest in "newer" hardware, software?

Have been going through my shop and storage room trying to see what can get rid 
of and wasn't aware of how much old electronics and computers have accumulated 
over last 50 years.  Should note that this process has been at insistance of my 
wife as a lot of these boxes just got moved whenever I moved and much of this 
stuff haven't looked at for decades.

Was about to toss a 1987 box containing DOS 3.3 but then figured someone might 
want it.  Have a couple of XT systems kicking around somewhere but in 1987 I'd 
discovered the Mac and considered 68000 processor a far superior architecture 
as it was an easy transition from someone who'd spent most of their time 
programming on a PDP-11.  Also have early Mac software, hundreds of 3.5" disks 
which are primarily taking up space and all of them have been copied to HDD's 
and now run my Mac code under Basilisk2 was faster than it used to run on my 
MacIIvx (of which I have a couple).

Also managed to find, in no particular order, a couple of C64's, a TI99, ZX81, 
VIC20 and an 8" floppy drive with full documentation that I faintly recall 
buying at a surplus electronics place in Seattle.  Also found a box of old 
Univac cards which appear to be DTL with individual transistors and then go on 
to having DTL IC's as well as some old IBM cards.  Used to pull transistors and 
diodes off these to build my own circuits 50 years ago.  Now, with storage 
being so ridiculously cheap haven't even come close to making a dent in the 
capacity of a 256 Gb SD card in my Samsung S8 handheld supercomputer of which 
I'm using the camera function to create high res images of what I'm going 
through.

Also have lots of PC motherboards starting with XT's and progressing upwards.  
Never liked 80286 and so only collected from 80386 and higher.  Seem to have 
lots of various parallel port adapters, disk interfaces as well as parallel and 
serial port boards.  Was planning on using these as dedicated processors for 
data acquisition but found that technology progressed faster than my getting 
around to use them and it's a lot simpler to either use Phidget's SBC with 
various sensors for environmental monitoring or a much less power hungry 
Parallax Propellar chip for more demanding data acquisition applications.  
(Haven't let my wife know how many of newer systems I have stashed away but 
they take up way less room than old hardware).

Do also have a couple of PDP 11/23 systems which I'll probably have to part 
with as I haven't used then in last 15 years.  Also have a number of unibus 
boards which haven't run into yet but won't be using them.  Lots of old 
computer books as well which would be nice to keep but likely have most of 
documentation in digital form and usually back up all important pdf files to 
separate drives.

The PC stuff is most voluminous and, if there's any interest, can post images 
of what I have on my web site.  Only components I've tested are disk drives of 
which most work but SCSI drives are all old and a number of them didn't take 
kindly to be powered off after running for years and being moved from Vancouver 
to Kamloops.

Boris Gimbarzevsky

Heathkit H8 and other items on Minneapolis craigslist

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Hey, all.

I was browsing various craigslist places around the US and found someone 
selling off a substantial collection of classic micros outside Minneapolis

His ad is here:
https://minneapolis.craigslist.org/csw/sys/d/silver-lake-vintage-computer-collection/7100922754.html

Through our email chats I've determined that he has these components of an old 
Heathkit system of unknown workingness:

H8
H17-3 floppy drive
H17-2 drive chassis
Zenith data systems ZVM-131 monitor

Also, he has a terminal made by Data-100, for which I can't find much info but 
I suspect will be a 3270-compatible terminal of some sort.

He also has a variety of micros, particularly some Atari 8-bit, Apple II , 
CoCos, and other things.  The photos in the ad only show a fraction of what he 
has.  He's not terribly knowledgeable - he came into this stuff as part of an 
estate cleanout and had 4 pickup truck loads of this stuff, so who knows what 
has been lost.

I let him know that I would be posting here, so feel free to reach out to him 
directly.

Anyway, I figured I'd post this here given that someone in the Minneapolis area 
might be interested in checking some of this stuff out, in a covid-compliant 
manner, of course...

-mike

RE: ISO: Cipher F880 tape drive, Fujitsu Eagle disk drive

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Years and years ago I owned a Lambda, along with a couple friends.  I'm going 
to guess this was around 1993 or so, give or take a few years.  It had been 
owned by Ames Lab at Iowa State University.  We had it running for about six 
months and decided to sell it to someone I believe was in Madison, Wi or 
Minneapolis.  I always wondered what happened to that machine.

I do have manual for it that had gotten separated from it before the sale.  
"Introduction to the Lambda - A Guide for Programmers".  It's about a hundred 
pages or so, and it goes into the basics about setting up and booting the 
machine, using the windowing system and zemacs, and general environment 
information.  I don't know if anyone would be interested in this document.  I'm 
interested in keeping the original artifact for nostalgia reasons, but I'd be 
willing to scan it in if there was interest.

-mike

-Original Message-
From: cctalk  On Behalf Of Josh Dersch via cctalk
Sent: Friday, April 3, 2020 3:42 PM
To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts 
Subject: ISO: Cipher F880 tape drive, Fujitsu Eagle disk drive

I'm working on restoring an LMI Lambda, which is missing both its tape drive 
and its disk drive.  If anyone has a Cipher F880 9-track drive or a Fujitsu 
Eagle SMD drive, drop me a line.  Be nice if they were in working condition, 
but so long as they're repairable I can work with 'em.

Thanks!
Josh

RE: HP 9000 Series 360 Thin LAN

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

>> I am using an HP 9000 Series 360 with a "Thin LAN" coax card to run a piece 
>> of equipment.

[...]
 
> Assuming it's standard 10Base2 Ethernet, you need either a 2 to T adapter, a 
> repeater with BNC
> as well as RJ45 connectors, or a repeater with an AUI connector plus a 
> 10Base2 AUI.

I just passed on a 10baseT hub with both RJ45s and a BNC connector - I knew I 
should have grabbed it.  However, I did grab a few AUI to 10BaseT converters 
that I'm probably never going to need - drop me a note if you'd like me to ship 
one out to you.  I'm in the Seattle area, FWIW.

I did a lot of work on my 9000/300 back in the day.  Now it sits in my closet 
waiting for me to run NetBSD again...

-mike

RE: One of Bay Area's last Fry's Electronics stores closes

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

>> 
>> Palo Alto Fry’s closing 
>> > .  Sad, but not the end of an era – apparently the loss of lease
>
> When I last visited a couple months ago, the one in Wilsonville, Oregon 
> hadn’t done any restocking to speak of
> (except a couple video games) for months.  The shelves were largely bare, and 
> all the places they used to store
> excess stock were empty.  I might be down that way in a few weeks, if so I’ll 
> try to check on the status of the
> store.  I know in October there was a news article or two claiming they were 
> in the process of restocking,
> but based on my last visit, they seem dead.

I went to the one outside Seattle a few months ago, and the shelves were 
perhaps 15-20% full, at best.  It was kinda creepy and kinda sad.  We chatted 
with one of the stockers, and they said that they just didn't have the traffic 
to bring in inventory, so it's the chicken & the egg problem.  They're were 
also allocating part of the store to do online fulfillment, and just trying to 
ramp up their online presence.

I doubt they'll last until spring.  There's no way they can afford the rent, 
inventory and payroll on the amount of customers they have these days.

-mike
s...@hell.org

New Member Introduction

[Mike Begley via cctalk]

Hello!  New member to cctalk here.  I am located in Seattle, and in the past 
have worked for a couple largish companies in the Seattle area you've heard of.

Through the 80s and 90s I had accumulated a fairly sizable collection of 
classic (and not yet classic) computers.  Mostly this was along two branches of 
machines - Atari 8 bit computers and 80s-era minicomputers & workstations, 
including a couple smaller VAXen, a PDP-8 and a large stack of HP9000/300 
machines.   Also I had a couple of no-name S-100 machines and a pretty nice one 
from California Computer Systems.

When I moved from the Midwest following college I had to abandon much of that 
collection.  In the last several years I have started to reconstitute that 
collection, at least in the basics.  I'm still looking for a genuine VT100 (or 
stretch goal - VT278), and in 2020 I'm planning to finally bring up a simulated 
VAX cluster using Raspberry Pis and SIMH, since original hardware is pretty 
much impossible to find anymore (and fragile when you can find it).  It's 
frustrating to be hunting for things I had three or four of at one point...

Happy to be here,
-mike begley
s...@hell.org