Re: thinking of the "ultimate" retro x86 PCs - what bits to seek/keep ?

On Fri, 3 Jun 2016, Sean Conner wrote: It was thus said that the Great Swift Griggs once stated: On Thu, 2 Jun 2016, TeoZ wrote: The ultimate gaming 486 would have an EISA+VLB motherboard. Yes, I would agree on that. However, since I'm mostly interested in running older Unix variants and

Re: thinking of the "ultimate" retro x86 PCs - what bits to seek/keep ?

On Thu, 2 Jun 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: CD-ROM was less work for installing Windoze 3.10/3.11 than a couple dozen floppies. Or installing SLS or Slackware with 40 floppies. :-) -Swift Oh, man, that brings back memories. Trying to bang Linux onto a 386SX-16 with 4 Meg RAM and some puny

Re: Front panel switches - what did they do?

On Tue, 24 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: It probably still impressed the suits when they walked the data center. I've done data center tours with row after row of HP or Dell x86 servers and it's not much to look at. -Swift It's true, modern computers are pretty dull to look at, but you

Re: strangest systems I've sent email from

On Sat, 21 May 2016, Liam Proven wrote: On 21 May 2016 at 07:14, Sean Conner wrote: Oh my! I'm reading the manual for the C compiler for the Unisys 2200 [1] system and it's dated 2013! And yes, it does appear to be a 36-bit non-byte addressable system. And you can run

Re: Classics long overdue a Boot.

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Jerry Kemp wrote: +1 Been looking for a Crimson for about 8 years now. A couple have come up, but none anywhere close to me. Due to size and weight shipping has been prohibitive. :( Jerry On 05/19/16 06:25 PM, Ian Finder wrote: You parted a Crimson into wall

Re: Classics long overdue a Boot.

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Sean Caron wrote: The IP19 is a looker. I use it to decorate ... Sorry. IP17. IP19 is for Challenge/Onyx. I wish ... ;) Best, Sean

Re: Classics long overdue a Boot.

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Austin Pass wrote: On 19 May 2016, at 22:09, Todd Killingsworth wrote: Ah! I've always wanted to play with a Crimson... ever since I saw them being used for visualization at the Army Corp of Engineers back in the early 90's. I was

Re: Classics long overdue a Boot.

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Dale H. Cook wrote: At 04:57 PM 5/19/2016, Austin Pass wrote: Systems we've neglected or failed to boot recently. My Amstrad PPC-640 gets booted a couple-few times a year when I need a native MS-DOS machine with a real serial port for work on some vintage broadcast

Re: Classics long overdue a Boot.

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Austin Pass wrote: Swift's thread on the "ones that got away" got me thinking about another source of guilt/regret common to the classic computer collector: Systems we've neglected or failed to boot recently. I've had a re-jig of my storage, and whilst it was great to

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

On Thu, 19 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: DEC microVAX III BA23 (w/ SCSI) DEC microVAX I BA23 I think thre is a DEC microVAX II still sitting powered down in a corner here at my office. I got lucky on the list maybe a year ago and Bob Rosenbloom helped me get my Q-bus VAX itch

Re: classics I threw away or sold ... foolishly

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: I've stack-ranked all the classic items that I, to my everlasting shame, let go of at some point and now I feel like it was a mistake: 1. Amiga 2500. I ditched it thinking I'd pick up a 3000 then never did. Ugh. It was free. They were using at some

Re: strangest systems I've sent email from

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Fred Cisin wrote: On Wed, 18 May 2016, Sean Caron wrote: Pascal was probably the predominant applications development language on Mac OS through the mid 1990s or so, no? Certainly all the Toolbox bindings were originally written with the idea that people would

Re: 'Inside Macintosh' books

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Fred Cisin wrote: On Wed, 18 May 2016, Sean Caron wrote: There were two printings of Inside Macintosh; the original printing was, I believe, a six or seven-volume set over time ... More than two printings. The first version was originally looseleaf. (4? volumes

Re: 'Inside Macintosh' books

On Wed, 18 May 2016, Alexandre Souza wrote: Ue...I have the 4 volume collection...is there another one?! Enviado do meu Tele-Movel Em 18/05/2016 12:29, "tony duell" escreveu: Still unpacking after a house move 18 months ago... I have found just over a dozen volumes

Re: strangest systems I've sent email from

On Wed, 18 May 2016, John Willis wrote: The problem is that type #2 here covers most people, and sadly, the ivory towers of the industry & academia do not accept that certain languages or language features are actually widely-liked or attractive to people because they do not fit with the

Re: T400 Transputer for sale @ebay.de

On Tue, 17 May 2016, Mattis Lind wrote: Once in the day I thought Inmos and their transputer family was quite interesting. I had an idea of doing som sort of project. But of course there were no real time to be found to do anything (not sure if this has changed today). While browsing for

Re: beige rant (was Re: IBM 5150 with red case on ebay)

On Sat, 14 May 2016, Mike Ross wrote: On Sat, May 14, 2016 at 12:29 PM, Tor Arntsen wrote: On 14 May 2016 at 00:20, William Donzelli wrote: Do not blame the computer companies, blame the customers. Beige and gray were the colors they wanted. When

Re: Backups

On Fri, 13 May 2016, ben wrote: On 5/13/2016 12:30 PM, Dave Wade wrote: What has this got to do with Classic Computers I don't hear tape drives going chunk chunk for backups for your favorte classic computer. Dave I suspect most people are lucky to have working hard disk with the

Re: Is there a C compiler for CP/M-80?

On Wed, 11 May 2016, Jacob Ritorto wrote: I think I still have the Mix C floppies kicking around somewhere. I remember that they were in a format manipulable by the Commodore 1571 floppy drive, operating in some compatibility mode. On Wed, May 11, 2016 at 7:24 AM, Dale H. Cook

Re: Memodyne M80 Digital Cassette Recorder

On Mon, 9 May 2016, Brad H wrote: Hi there, I have a Memodyne M-80 Digital Cassette 'Computer' which, in talking to people more experienced than me, seems to be just a digital cassette recorder. Googling around there seems to be very little info out there, although one paper written about

Re: _Processor_ magazine/newsprint?

On Thu, 5 May 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: On Thu, 5 May 2016, Shoppa, Tim wrote: Are there any archived issues of _Processor_ from the 80's or early 90's, online anywhere? That sounds really interesting. If you find a source, I hope you will share. -Swift Ah, I got my start in the industry

Re: Rolm Computers: 1602, 1602A, 1602B, 1666, MSExx (was Data General Nova Star Trek)

On Thu, 28 Apr 2016, Erik Baigar wrote: On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, Sean Caron wrote: I don't have any ROLM computers (not that I wouldn't love one) but I am proud to say that I have a complete ROLM SCBX 8000. I've tried to take some pictures and compile some information on my personal site

Re: Digital VAX, Alpha (Was RE: Mac "Workgroup Server" ...

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: 3. I know for a fact the US government and a few other folks are pretty well stuck with using Alphas for "certain" things. If the vendor was OK'd by the gubment, there might be some money to be made there, too. That is interesting. So does

Re: Digital (Was RE: Mac "Workgroup Server" (or "network server") hardware & AIX)

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, Dave Wade wrote: Don’t fret, once OpenVMS v9.0 is released, on x86-64, there won’t be any doubt as to who won. :-) Sadly, no one won. I doubt any one (well perhaps not anyone) would consider OpenVMS for a new deployment. Upgrading existing environments, yes, but a

Re: Rolm Computers: 1602, 1602A, 1602B, 1666, MSExx (was Data General Nova Star Trek)

On Wed, 27 Apr 2016, Bob Rosenbloom wrote: On 4/26/2016 11:23 PM, Erik Baigar wrote: Well - "are out there" I agree, but do you know of any PRIVATELY owned and ALIVE machines? There is lot of PDP* discussion here, but it is very hard to get in touch with people being working on Rolm stuff.

Re: Mac "Workgroup Server" (or "network server") hardware & AIX

On Tue, 26 Apr 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: Has anyone ever seen either A/UX or AIX running on an Apple Network Server or Apple Workgroup Server? I had several hundred AIX machines running in a server farm for a while, but even the oldest was POWER4 based, and I've only done a bit of legacy

Re: [OT] Alternatives to eBay

On Thu, 21 Apr 2016, Swift Griggs wrote: I haven't look at Craigslist much. Isn't it more oriented to geographically local sales? Can you setup search alerts like on ebay? Craigslist rocks, IMHO. I agree that Ebay is draconian and over-corporate. However, I also agree with others that I've

RE: DEC RK05 HEPA Filters

On Wed, 13 Apr 2016, Rick Bensene wrote: Bill Degnan wrote: I replaced my filters a little while ago, I was concerned about original filters' deterioration, perhaps these will have decomposed over time even if not in use. So I found a newly-produced filter, documented here:

RE: really old test equip

On Fri, 8 Apr 2016, Cindy Croxton wrote: No sorry, I do not recall the manufacturer. Most of the boxes had grey pattern bases with black lids, but a few were brown pattern boxes with dark brown lids. Not very helpful, I know. I should have taken some pics! Cindy Hi Cindy, Actually somewhat

Re: really old test equip

On Fri, 8 Apr 2016, Cindy Croxton wrote: When I was at the recycler last week, I saw a lot of really OLD test equipment. I started looking through it to see if there were things I could recognize, but the closest thing I could figure out was a 1940s telephone equipment tester. All of these were

Re: DEC fieldguide

On Thu, 7 Apr 2016, shad wrote: Hello, I'm a modest collector of DEC and PDP11 stuff, I always thank who wrote the PDP11 field guide with the almost complete list of all the existing boards... Now comes the idea: could be useful having a website where the field guide assume a graphical

IBM System z9 available near Ann Arbor, MI

Hi all, I was stopping by a local recycler to pick up a few Cisco switches I bought to add to my lab, and while I was there, I happened to spot a complete IBM System z9 machine out of the U-M Health System.

Re: Sale with a lot of ATT 3B2 stuff

I've seen this vendor's stuff before but their prices were so off the wall, I just laughed and moved on. Best, Sean On Wed, Oct 28, 2015 at 2:31 PM, Jerry Kemp wrote: > I know I'm a terrible person for saying this, but as a person who spent > several years as a 3b2 admin for

Re: Mac IIsi - SoG?

PM, Jules Richardson < jules.richardso...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 10/27/2015 12:54 AM, Sean Caron wrote: > >> AFAIK there's nothing special about the video on the IIsi ... pretty sure >> that if the adapter and monitor will work with i.e. a standard Mac II >> 640x480

Re: Mac IIsi - SoG?

AFAIK there's nothing special about the video on the IIsi ... pretty sure that if the adapter and monitor will work with i.e. a standard Mac II 640x480x8 NuBus board (or equivalent) it should work with the IIsi. Best, Sean On Mon, Oct 26, 2015 at 11:30 PM, Jules Richardson <

Re: ASCI u68 (SystemX)

There has to be some support for it in the ROM ... otherwise it won't do anything ... and may in fact cause the system to behave strangely (having an uninitialized ACIA just sitting there on the bus) ... I'm fairly new at writing assembly code but I found it was a few hundred lines of code to

Re: nut bars? ;)

I love those Nature Valley bars! Dark Chocolate Cherry is my favorite, LOL. The "speed rails" (with the latching mechanism to grab the holes in square post racks) we have nowadays are a real advance in data center equipment deployment. I can stuff almost an entire rack just working myself in

Re: The Burroughs B5900 and E-Mode

I stumbled upon that site a few months ago ... It's a great read! I wish he wrote more :O Best, Sean On Wed, Oct 14, 2015 at 9:33 AM, Liam Proven wrote: > I don't know if this memoir is well-known or not, but I thought it > might interest. > > « > > The Burroughs B5900 and

Re: VAX in action

Cool! I know of at least one "large state university" here in Michigan (not U-M, unfortunately) that still uses OpenVMS (on Itanium) extensively on their core enterprise systems. Best, Sean On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 2:55 PM, Jason Howe wrote: > I was just speaking with a guy

Re: TV Typewriter Cover Unit location?

That keyboard does indeed look pretty far out ... it must have been ... "interesting" ... to type on :O Best, Sean On Mon, Oct 12, 2015 at 6:12 PM, Brad wrote: > Hey there, > > > > I'm currently working on a replica of Don Lancaster's prototype TV > Typewriter (pic

Re: VAX in action

, 2015 at 8:19 PM, Mike Loewen <mloe...@cpumagic.scol.pa.us> wrote: > On Mon, 12 Oct 2015, Sean Caron wrote: > > Cool! I know of at least one "large state university" here in Michigan (not >> U-M, unfortunately) that still uses OpenVMS (on Itanium) extensively on &

Re: IBM 3480 server and storage

Sounds like they may have confused the A22 Control Unit with a CPU? Although that doesn't explain any HDDs ... all the A22 pictures I've found show it having just a 5.25" floppy drive. In line with the confusion theme, perhaps the "HDDs" are really tape cartridges? If the price is right, maybe it

Re: Looking for RRD40 caddy

Hey, I actually do have an RRD40 caddy laying around all in one piece ... A little dusty but in perfect shape. Send me your address off-list and I'll hook it up for you ... I'll try to swing by the post office on Monday. I think the chance another RRD40 will cross my path is pretty low so you're

Re: This is sad...

I remember 15 or 20 years ago there was a pretty active collector scene with lots of people saving "worthless" or "junk" equipment from garbage cans, scrap heaps, loading docks, dispo yards and the like ... there was lots of redistribution of stuff for just shipping and maybe a minor consideration

Re: A new Lisp-based OS that hearkens back to the old days of comprehensible computers

x distribution, just a pre-rolled Asterisk appliance. Best, Sean On Thu, Oct 1, 2015 at 7:45 AM, Liam Proven <lpro...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 1 October 2015 at 02:34, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: > > While there are a few "forks" of BSD, there neve

Re: A new Lisp-based OS that hearkens back to the old days of comprehensible computers

Just the whole idea of so many Linux distributions makes me bang my head against the coffee table. One thing I greatly admire about the *BSD projects has been the strong arm of unification, all contributors are working towards one goal... It just so happened that Linux was the "free UNIX that took

Re: Active content [was Re: A new Lisp-based OS that hearkens back to the old days of comprehensible computers]

Plus a million. You can still view my personal page and get the full experience in Netscape 2.0, Mosaic and so forth :O Best, Sean On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 11:38 AM, Mouse wrote: > > If you want to have a system that's network-capable, which is pretty > > much

Re: A new Lisp-based OS that hearkens back to the old days of comprehensible computers

You can still have a useful machine without it being connected to the public Internet. Network access is indeed very important, Internet connectivity, less so. I too rue the loss of simplicity ... and this has been voiced by many people much more luminous than I ... Ken Thompson, for one, has

Re: A new Lisp-based OS that hearkens back to the old days of comprehensible computers

(with some reticence) because FreeBSD dropped support for my Fore PCA-200E cards and I didn't want to stop running OC-3 MM ATM at home :O I do still run some FreeBSD systems at home but just as ESXi VMs. Best, Sean On Wed, Sep 30, 2015 at 6:42 PM, Chuck Guzis <ccl...@sydex.com> wrote: > On 09

Re: A new Lisp-based OS that hearkens back to the old days of comprehensible computers

That's neat ... I promised myself I'd finish my 6502 SBC before I moved up to building a 16 or 32-bit machine :O Just gotta finish my ROM monitor ... My aim is much simpler ... just "deposit", "examine", "fill", ... Looking forward to learning and moving on to more complex systems :O Best, Sean

Re: Backups [was Re: Is tape dead?]

inclusion of a Bigfoot drive by the vendor trying to push GB/$. Best, Sean On Sat, Sep 26, 2015 at 12:44 PM, Noel Chiappa <j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu> wrote: > > From: Sean Caron > > > the worst thing on the market since the old Quantum Bigfoot > > Just out

Re: Big Alphas available

Very nice looking set of DEC 4000 machines! I'd definitely be tempted to make an offer on one of they were in the US... Best, Sean On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 3:02 AM, Pontus Pihlgren wrote: > Hi > > I need to make room for new goodies. So I'm offering two Alphas: > > *

Re: Acquiring a bunch of Lisp Machines

I would call that like ... a frustratingly nice score, LOL. Lots of Symbolics equipment saved which is a huge plus, but if it were me, I'd rather have one Ivory machine that ran, versus a whole pallet of 3620s and 3640s with bad drives ... it'll be interesting to see if he's ever able to get one

Re: Big Alphas available

area code, I'm curious what > shipping would amount to. > > /P > > On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 11:18:22AM -0400, Sean Caron wrote: > > Very nice looking set of DEC 4000 machines! I'd definitely be tempted to > > make an offer on one of they were in the US... > > > &g

Re: Honeywell/Bull DPS-6 deskside info?

for the bus. Best, Sean On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 1:23 AM, Josh Dersch <dersc...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 9/23/15 2:56 PM, Sean Caron wrote: > >> Ah, so these are the vintagetech.com machines! Please take lots of pics >> of >> the DPS-8 inside and out; I've never really seen

Re: Backups [was Re: Is tape dead?]

The WDC REs are not bad drives at all but IMO Hitachi Ultrastar is the best line going right now. I have been working with them for some time from 0.5T through 3T under very high duty cycle and they are fairly bulletproof. The REs will do the work, but I have seen higher failure rates on them

Re: Backups [was Re: Is tape dead?]

Er, sorry, HDAs, not HBAs :O Best, Sean On Fri, Sep 25, 2015 at 6:55 PM, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: > The WDC REs are not bad drives at all but IMO Hitachi Ultrastar is the > best line going right now. I have been working with them for some time from > 0.5T through 3T

Re: Honeywell/Bull DPS-6 deskside info?

I think this anecdote is also referenced in the AFDC installation site story on multicians.org? Sounds familiar... Best, Sean On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 10:42 PM, steve shumaker wrote: > On 9/23/2015 2:44 PM, Josh Dersch wrote: > >> Along with the 11/44 I also picked up a

Re: Honeywell/Bull DPS-6 deskside info?

Ah, so these are the vintagetech.com machines! Please take lots of pics of the DPS-8 inside and out; I've never really seen the innards of a Honeywell machine before and I'm kind of curious what their "style" looks like. Best, Sean On Wed, Sep 23, 2015 at 5:47 PM, Dave G4UGM

Re: The desk has arrived - WAS: Somewhat OT: Freighting Items

Ah, sorry, I misspoke; CBX 8000, not a CBX II :O Best, Sean On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 5:52 PM, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: > I got a ROLM CBX II but I suppose that's pre-IBM-acquisition :O > > Best, > > Sean > > > On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 5:22 PM,

Re: The desk has arrived - WAS: Somewhat OT: Freighting Items

LOL ... poor woman ... I could only imagine getting all excited that I was gonna get a Sun workstation (especially back in the day when that counted for something a bit above the pale...) and then opening the box and it's just furniture!! Oh no!! Best, Sean On Tue, Sep 22, 2015 at 11:45 AM,

Re: Sheet Metal Fabrication Options?

I don't know the size and curvature of the area to be treated but I would maybe try just doing like the auto body guys do and sand down with some fine grit sandpaper, maybe treat with a corrosion inhibitor, degrease and then repaint. Seems like hand sanding would have less overhead in equipment;

Re: The desk has arrived - WAS: Somewhat OT: Freighting Items

Huh, interesting ... I bet that thing is built like an old Steelcase! Looks heavy :O Best, Sean On Mon, Sep 21, 2015 at 5:24 PM, Ali wrote: > Well, > > In case anyone is still interested the desk arrived on Friday. The seller > did a very good job of packing it and it

Re: Cryptolocker (was RE: Is tape dead?

Cyber systems didn't get much love from the H/P kids back in the day :O http://phrack.org/issues/18/5.html That said; NOS is one of the few mainframe systems ever really discussed in Phrack... MVS/TSO and VM/CMS you also see occasionally, but beyond that, it seems like most of the G-files were

Re: Cryptolocker (was RE: Is tape dead?

And I actually got to play with NOS ... many years after the fact ... never thought I'd see that! What the cray-cyber.org guys are doing is remarkable. Best, Sean On Wed, Sep 16, 2015 at 3:22 PM, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: > Cyber systems didn't get much love from the H/P

Re: Backups [was Re: Is tape dead?]

I ride herd on maybe three or four thousand Hitachi Ultrastar A7K{2,3,4}000 2 TB and 3 TB disks and they take a real pounding with the workload here and they have just been fantastic ... great drives; very solid ... Also used the WDC RE4 when Thailand got flooded out a few years ago and we were in

Re: DEC Alpha 3000 Model 600

CD to support >> booting older systems. >> >> As I said, this comes from memory so I could well be wrong… >> >> Huw >> >> On 8 Sep 2015, at 12:52 am, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: >>> >>> I have a 3000/400 and I was never able

Re: Is tape dead?

We just procured a new Overland LTO-6 library this year at work so I can tell you from direct experience that tape is not dead! Although direct-to-disk and to-tape backup cost has more or less converged from a price standpoint, there are still some nice aspects of tape ... you get practically

Re: internet blocking problem ?

Me too, especially as a working sys admin ... the business model is not really original ... just the old time "service bureau" or "timesharing company" but we have to have a hip new marketing catchname for it, LOL... Well, if I've learned one thing, the computer industry is kind of like the

Re: bendix GE-15?

His prices are pretty off the wall in general but he's got some neat ephemera if you browse through his other items. Lots of Univac boards, miscellaneous parts, old documentation, bits and pieces of several old computer lines... Best, Sean On Fri, Sep 11, 2015 at 4:32 PM, Paul Koning

Re: punchcard svg file available

I have a few old ... let's just say Hollerith cards ... LOL ... and the stock feels a little reminiscent of that of a manilla folder or 3x5 card, but slightly thicker. It's kind of an odd basis weight ... too heavy for cheap folders, too light for expensive folders ... wouldn't be amenable to

Re: internet blocking problem ?

It didn't work for me ... just hangs infinitely at "Waiting for members.iinet.net.au..." ... feels like packets just being dropped outright. I am on Comast Business, SE MI, USA my packets seem to get as far as Cogent in LA but then from there, nothing. Incidentally, it seems to work okay from

Re: 21MX proms (per request

The median listing price for them on eBay for a 29B with pack seems to be around $3-400 which IMO is a little steep for a 30+ year old PROM programmer. Hopefully your best offer successfully accepted was much lower! I think the part cost on the PROMs pales in comparison. For the cost of the 29B,

Re: 21MX proms (per request

Well, we all have differing levels of electronics knowledge ... and net worth... which tip the calculus one way or the other depending on the one's personal situation... As much as I do wish money could be no object, that's not realistic for me. Best, Sean On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 5:39 PM, Jay

Re: 21MX proms (per request

... Best, Sean On Tue, Sep 8, 2015 at 6:17 PM, Sean Caron <sca...@umich.edu> wrote: > Well, we all have differing levels of electronics knowledge ... and net > worth... which tip the calculus one way or the other depending on the one's > personal situation... As much as I do w

Re: DEC Alpha 3000 Model 600

I have a 3000/400 and I was never able to get 8.3 to install on it ... I don't think I was ever able to get it to even boot from the 8.3 media (with most recent firmware) ... I just dropped back to V7.3 and it works great. Best, Sean On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 9:48 AM, Mark Wickens

Re: 21MX proms (per request)

But I do think there's merit in Alexandre's general argument that one could theoretically emulate the older bipolar PROMs with some mix of modern components ... and the programmable device would be (a) more easily obtainable than the old bipolar PROMs and (b) programmable with inexpensive,

Re: Keys resurfaces

I agree; it seems like if he really needed to raise some money, he could offer even a few of those choice pieces to other collectors ... sounds like he's got plenty of stuff other collectors would offer good money for, if it's not completely soaked or corroded out ... Best, Sean On Fri, Sep 4,

Re: OmniUSB - further boards to make

My dad shops out prototype PCB manufacturing to a firm called Omnitrace ( http://www.pcb4u.com). He sends them layouts and they send back bare boards which he stuffs in the lab ... He says the price is the best he's found, there's no minimum run size (not sure on the plated edge connectors,

Re: Future Computers FX31

Alphabook is indeed a real thing; it was made by RDI, IIRC. They also did a HPPA laptop as well as their more commonly known SPARC machines sold in competition against Tadpole. These machines all suffered from the vices you describe however some people seem to still dig them just to have the

Re: Cold War Tech - Area 52

If you're like this kind of stuff, I most emphatically suggest the book Valkyrie: North American's Mach 3 Superbomber by Landis and Jenkins. In addition to covering the XB-70 inside and out, it discusses contemporary programs of same i.e. the XF-103, XF-108 and even the Pye Wacket there in the

Re: VMS 5.4 AUTHORIZE issues

Nice one! A big'un and fully loaded, too! You tried this procedure? Always worked for me. http://h71000.www7.hp.com/openvms/journal/v1/atw.pdf Best, Sean On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 2:25 PM, Kyle Owen kylevo...@gmail.com wrote: Just picked up a very complete MicroVAX 3800. I have very little

Re: Pre-VCFMW Sales and Free Stuff

That TS05 is probably in excess of 100 lbs, no? Pity it's not a little closer, I'd definitely take a 9-track to play with for free! Best, Sean On Wed, Aug 26, 2015 at 7:17 PM, Jason T silent...@gmail.com wrote: It's a bit late but I may as well post my list of stuff I'd like to see go away

Re: ColourPET

Nuts and Volts is a neat little magazine ... I had a subscription for a while back when I was in high school ... I ought to re-up one of these days. Best, Sean On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 12:59 PM, Eric Christopherson echristopher...@gmail.com wrote: I just noticed the September 2015 issue of

Re: Applikon Workstation?

The name sounds familiar ... not sure why ... it turns out they had their main offices here in Ann Arbor, MI at some point, as an aside. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Applicon Best, Sean On Tue, Aug 25, 2015 at 5:02 PM, Holm Tiffe h...@freibergnet.de wrote: In the nineties I've workes as

Re: Indianapolis: More classic computing equipment than I can shake a stick at.

Would you willing to ship the A500 up to Michigan? I'd give you a few bucks for it as a spare unit for the one I've got. Best, Sean On Sun, Aug 23, 2015 at 4:52 PM, Maxx Wood max...@gmail.com wrote: Anyone who's passing through, or lives near Indianapolis, feel free to give me a shout to

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

That's odd, as long as I can remember, Lucent/Avaya distributed the manuals at least for their PBX and key products pretty openly; Nortel tried to keep them more closely held but eventually relented, too. Carrier-grade stuff (i.e. 5ESS and SL-100/DMS-100) was always another story, of course. I

Re: maybe OT: Powerbook 5300 OS upgrade

Joe, that's a good offer, you should take it :O Best, Sean On Fri, Aug 21, 2015 at 2:45 PM, Brent Hilpert hilp...@cs.ubc.ca wrote: Yesterday I sent a power book 5300 to recycling. The display hinge was quite broken, it was given to me a while ago and I didn't see accomplishing anything

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

In these times where income inequality in the USA is the worst it's been since the Gilded Age, I think a little bit of perspective is best used when dropping the term meager income. If you've got pocket money for computer collecting, I don't think you get to make that claim. Best, Sean On

Re: maybe OT: Powerbook 5300 OS upgrade

Hi Joe, System 8 and subsequent were only available on CD-ROM. I think newest you can get on floppies is 7.5.3 or 7.5.5. You should be able to do the installation no problem with an external [Apple] SCSI CD-ROM. Might also work from a Localtalk share, if you have another Mac available? I don't

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

At what point should historic preservationists be concerned with preserving someone else's obsolescent business model? Selling Xerox copies and burned CDs ... and that's hard cash out of the pocket of every hobbyist that could undoubtedly be better spent say, preserving actual equipment, than

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

I guess if philistines want to pillage themselves, that is their sad perogative ... but if releasing the entirety of Manuals Plus to the public domain will break them, maybe they don't really have anything all that unique after all? Best, Sean On Wed, Aug 19, 2015 at 7:50 PM, William Donzelli

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

for someone's dead trees, I haven't stolen anyone's manual; they still have it ... It's just not worth what he thinks it's worth. Best, Sean On Thu, Aug 20, 2015 at 9:39 AM, Paul Koning paulkon...@comcast.net wrote: On Aug 19, 2015, at 3:28 PM, Sean Caron sca...@umich.edu wrote: At what point

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

I don't care too much about file sizes with how cheap storage is these days but I've done some scanning projects in the past and there's always a critic, LOL. Best, Sean On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 4:20 PM, Noel Chiappa j...@mercury.lcs.mit.edu wrote: From: Sean Caron I have found

Re: More on manuals plus rescue

I agree, you really just have to try and run a test through with a representative page from the document with fine detail and see how it comes out ... I have found that even fairly fine detail reproduces okay with a 300 DPI scan ... there's no need in scanning with extraneous bit depth and then

Re: test equipment / Re: Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

I used to watch Dave but his ego got to be a bit much for me ... I now prefer mikesslectricstuff and w2aew on YT when I'm looking for some inspiration in the form of a video. Best, Sean On Tue, Aug 18, 2015 at 9:12 AM, Jay Jaeger cu...@charter.net wrote: On 8/17/2015 10:06 PM, drlegendre .

Re: MP3000's

I would've been game at that kind of price ... hopefully someone who can appreciate them actually got them and will have some fun with them. Did they sell? Best, Sean On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 7:07 PM, William Donzelli wdonze...@gmail.com wrote: Not me. -- Will On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at

Re: Probs w. M3119 CXY08 MUX on VAX VMS 7.3

Have you tried just a quick-n-dirty serial cable with only TXD, RXD and GND wired? Sometimes trying to accommodate all those modem control lines will just lead you down the rabbit hole ... Just a thought. Best, Sean On Mon, Aug 17, 2015 at 1:40 PM, Johnny Billquist b...@update.uu.se wrote:

Re: Z80 / Z84C Swap (Doh!)

You should be able to get a replacement NMOS Z80 from Jameco for four or five bucks ... if you put a 5V CMOS Z80 in there, I wouldn't expect it to really hurt anything; it might not run exactly right depending on tolerances in the system design I would suspect mostly due to (a) logic threshold

Re: QBUS boards on eBay checp

Thanks for the tip! He's got some nice stuff and the prices are not awful although I'm pretty well stocked on what's he's mostly selling; 11/23 CPUs; MOS memories and SLUs... I was hoping for RX01 or RX02 interface for $20, heh. There's definitely some good opportunities here if someone wants to

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