On Mon, 4 Apr 2016, ropers wrote:
On 4 April 2016 at 02:06, Adam Thompson <athom...@athompso.net> wrote:
On 2016-04-01 11:07, ropers wrote:
And if anyone has ever operated the OpenBSD installer via a teleprinter,
I want to hear that story.
I think there's still a first-generation TI Silent 700 somewhere in my
parents' basement. If, when they either die and/or move out to a seniors'
residence prior to that certain event, I should run across it, and I can
find a compatible telephone (acoustic handset coupler, remember!), and can
find a compatible 300bps modem to dial into, and can find an honest-to-god
POTS phone line (I expect this to be the hardest part) and can find a
compatible system with a serial console that can be stepped down to 300bps,
and the thermal paper is still viable, I'll do a fresh install just so I
can mail you the ~3-4m of thermal paper I suspect that would generate.
Would that be close enough for you? :-)
YES! I'd be extremely honoured to receive something like that. But, I think
there are probably more worthy recipients. Computer museums, even.
(Actually, it just occurred to me that I don't need the phone line as long
as I can also find the old PENRIL modem that can start training on a
front-panel button-press instead of a -90v ring signal. Or maybe the local
museum will have a 300bps acoustic-coupler modem I can borrow?)
Wikipedia currently says that at least some Silent 700s could be locally
connected:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silent_700
Of course, that technically sort of takes away the tele- part from the
teleprinter (which is not to say that the device was now just a printer),
but I definitely think that an install to a locally attached teleprinter
counts. The key here is that it's monitorless, so not a glass terminal; the
paper is the only place where you get to see output.
I love it, btw., that the Wikipedia article speaks of "the new high-speed
interactive computing environment" -- at 1200 baud. :)
That was advanced stuff. I remember how pleased we were when we
upgraded to blazingly fast 300 baud 'glass teletypes' from 110 baud
KSR35 teletypes.
Dave
Those were days when actual interactive use of a computer was not unlike
getting telescope time at a major observatory -- and before time-sharing
allowed concurrent multi-user access, it must have been almost exactly
alike.
Like Woz said in the Youtube video I linked: "Your use on these company
computers, it was so far above us in value."
I vaguely recall once doing an OpenBSD install where the "console" path
was:
Local VT220 -> multiplexer -> modem -> DATAPAC 3101 (Canadian X.25
service) PAD -> remote PAD -> remote dial-out service -> another modem ->
another multiplexer -> serial line into, IIRC, ttyA on a Sun system I was
helping someone repurpose. The entire install completed successfully off a
network boot in about an hour at 2400bps (*and* simultaneously 2400baud,
all you pedants out there...).
Wow.
--
Dave Anderson
<d...@daveanderson.com>
