> I can only conclude that
> he
> is someone who enjoys having a private collection and showing it off,
> but
> is entirely uninterested in sharing - or perhaps, playing well - with
> others.
>
> -Henry
That is a strange assumption. My experience has been totally different. Long
before I got on
> My world std (Software Tool and Die) account which was the first in the
> US to offer a unix shell account and email had a dialup service that is
> still in existence with local non toll numbers today to get onto the
> network via dialup.
Huh... This is pretty cool. I just checked them out and t
> In a few weeks, California will be flooded with 5.25-inch floppy
> drives,
> which are still used today by the San Francisco Municipal
> Transportation
> Agency.
I hope so. The price of Floppy drives has gotten ridunculous!
-Ali
After all of this all I want to know is if an autopsy was done or not?
;)
-Ali
> -Original Message-
> From: Fred Cisin via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
> Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2024 1:44 PM
> To: Christian Liendo via cctalk
> Cc: Fred Cisin
> Subject: [cctalk] Re: Ward Chri
> Also, a clandestine drug lab needs to be disclosed (another fun fact).
>
That kind of defeats the purpose of it being clandestine, no? ;)
-Ali
> As for my Mom, she had a heart attack, heart stopped , paramedics got
> it restarted but she passed before she could even be loaded into the
> ambulance. It took about 7 minutes from call to ambulance arriving.
> The death certificate said she died of a heart attack, which she was on
> medicati
> Are there differences in different areas?
> Is "autopsy has to be performed" a city, county, state, or federal
> mandate?
Fred,
There are no Federal mandates regarding autopsy. However, each state has its
own criteria but generally the criteria are for referral to a coroner who
then determines
> Ward was 3 years older than me. I email someone every morning with an
> email that is titled Up. No deep discourse. Just a sentence saying what
> I plan to do that day. They either send or reply to me with the same.
> If we have not heard from each other by 11:00 we try text. If that does
> not
> when my brother died at home, in bed, with his wife, in evanston so
> same state different city, an autopsy had to be performed. What if a
> relative came back 5 months later and claimed the wife killed him?
> what if a home intruder killed the person, including by feeding carbon
> monoxide into
> When my mom died, at home , at age 99, the ambulance people said that
> an autopsy has to be performed when someone dies at home. The police
> also came and said the same thing.
> When my mother-in-law passed, in the hospital, no autopsy needed to be
> done.
> I did not ask specifics in either ca
> Don’t know when it started, but at least 30 years.
> Cause of death is a must.
What does that even mean: "Cause of death is a must"?
Are you referring to a cause of death being listed on the death certificate?
Then yes, a cause needs to be written. However, that does not require an
autopsy in
> When someone dies at home with no doctor present, an autopsy is always
> done and it takes awhile.
Since when?
-Ali
> I remmeber using X-Modem to download a term program that had Z-Modem,
> so I
> didn't have to type in filenames and could batch stuff. Plus auto-
> start.
> I think I started with Procom (yuck) then moved to Telix and QModem. I
> do
> remember Telemate as well.
When Z-modem started being built i
> > I assume it's not easy to copy alignment disks, but I guess I will
> find out.
> >
>
> It's actually not possible to copy them. Not for any "copy protection"
> reasons, but just the very nature of the analog signal laid down on the
> disk. No "regular" disk drive can recreate the signal.
>
C
Well I managed to make it to the 2nd day of VCF-West. Very nice. I haven't been
to many of them (this was my third one) but by far this was the best, and at
least to me, most heavily attended one I had seen. The age group of
participants was also significantly different. Lots of younger folks, c
Q: Will a schedule of speakers be posted?Fred,Try
https://vcfed.org/events/vintage-computer-festival-west/vcf-west-exhibits/-Ali
>Having been to VCF-West many times in the past,
>I'd be very surprised if you can't just show up Friday or Saturday and buy
>tickets there at the CHM.
>I always did.
>(Exhibitors are setting up today and that probably consumes all the time of the
>volunteers that make this event possible. So if
> https://vcfed.org/contact-us/
There doesn't seem to be an exact contact for VCF-West so I sent an email to
the general info box. Let's see if anyone responds.
-Ali
Hello All,
I was trying to buy tickets for VCF-West and the ticketing system (through
CHM) seems to be down. Anyone have more info or an ETA on repairs? Thanks.
-Ali
> Tuxera Systems acquired Datalight in 2019 and now sells ROM-DOS. They
> claim it's still fully compatible with MS-DOS.
>
> Single User ROM-DOS costs $55 USD, and the SDK for building it embedded
> is "Call for a Quote".
$55 isn't that bad. If it was a real commercial product with printed manua
> FreeDOS is cheaper :-)
> Long Live FreeDOS!
>
> https://freedos.org/
Unfortunately FreeDOS (as expected given the nature of the project)
progresses very slowly. I would love to see FreeDOS become a full fledged
MS-DOS 7.0, would have/could have/should have been, replacement. I still run
DOS 6.22
Might be of interest to some on this list. A 30 minute video detailing the
start of Cray computing from the Rand days all the way to its final resting
place in HP.https://youtu.be/SOQ6F7HMfSc?si=YTGTcexPZOoNhxHZ
> Totally opposite. GSP rates from the US to UK were crazy cheap.
> I sold a bunch of items. Compared to USPS rates they were 1/3 often.
Again I am talking about getting stuff from the UK to the US. Generally
speaking it seems like shipping from the US to anywhere (except maybe China) is
chea
> seller.* While some categories are excluded from eIS, there is
> absolutely positively no reason for US sellers to not sell abroad the
> majority of categories with it.
Except cost, time, and of course poor tracking. I haven't used eIS to ship
from the US but GSP (which I believe the same thing)
> Yes, the Chinese government does subsidise exports. So do
> most countries.
>=20
Actually my understanding was the other way around. That is, the US =
government is subsidizing (or at least providing preferential rates) to =
China for shipping. It actually came up as a point of contention during
> You don't seem to understand that eBay's customers are its sellers. As
> a
> buyer, you're the seller's customer.
Nope. I understand perfectly. Sellers are at best a customer of the eBay
platform if they have a store that they pay monthly fees for. Once eBay stopped
charging listing fees sell
> > > For some vintage computers, one has limited opportunity to purchase
> and
> > > may need to buy what’s available.
> > >
> >
> > Which is exactly what is driving the predatory pricing and massive
> > increase in the cost of items.
>
> It's simple supply and demand, Ali. There is no conspirac
> Can confirm. Even when I was clearly screwed by an unscrupulous buyer,
> and
> no matter how much I complained about it, they would not remove the one
> negative feedback that marred my perfect 100% feedback score. I had to
> wait 6 months for it to slough off before my score was restored to it
> If something is sold for parts then unless there is a big difference in
> the
> pictures compared to what you actually receive you are SOL.
Not true at all.
> And even stuff sold as used working isn't working because the seller
> doesn't
> spend a minute to even bothering checking and will is
> For some vintage computers, one has limited opportunity to purchase and
> may need to buy what’s available.
>
Which is exactly what is driving the predatory pricing and massive increase in
the cost of items. The sellers know this and are banking on it. Also to be
clear my original points were
> It can be important at the other end of the scale.
> If a seller has too many negative reviews, I read every one of those,
> and
> decide whether the risk is worthwhile.
Fred,
I agree if the seller has really crappy ratings (80s or lower) then that may
matter if it is an easily found commodit
> Buyers aren't stupid, quality listings where it is clear that the
> seller
> has put time and effort into creating the listing are appealing.
I never said they were. In fact I argued the opposite that buyers are very
savvy.
> If I list an item as "used" under eBay then I make sure it's clean,
> Simple really.
> If you list something as used then it better work, EVERYTHING on it
> better
> work or buyer can get a refund.
>
Well if it is for parts then you better also describe it as such. None of that
"it worked the last time I used it", looks real clean, stored well, etc. etc.
becaus
> I am an expert occasional eBay buyer and seller. After joining in ‘97,
> I have a 100% positive rating with 370 feedbacks.
No comment ;)
> Unless it is something I haven’t seen elsewhere, I definitely look at
> the rating of the seller.
And how does that help? Let's say seller has 98% rating
> Hogwash. I have attempted many times to sell stuff on ebay. Even at
> the suggestion of people I would have thought were potential buyers.
> To date, I have sold nothing. I once went back to the list that
> suggested I use ebay to report my failure only to be greeted with,
> "Well, what did yo
> > Sounds like we more need a "make offer" page. Is there somewhere on
> the
> > net that already does this?
The problem with this is it gets tedious from a buyer's perspective. The way I
see it either of three scenarios are occurring when I see make an offer:
1. You are fishing to see what t
> Sheets page, and met with a lot of success there. My terms were always
> payment through PayPal via "Friends & Family" (based on my previous
> reputation) and it worked out fine, I never had a problem with anyone.
I am not sure how good of advice this is.
This is also why I never buy from you
> Tim Paterson's article "Inside Look At MS-DOS" is a good read.
>
A good history and overview of DR including interviews from some of the main
players by the "Computer Chronicles":
https://youtu.be/bLVbSjDq0DE
-Ali
Fred
Never underestimate the sheer ludicrosity and gullibility of an audiophile!
-Ali
> -Original Message-
> From: Fred Cisin via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
> Sent: Monday, May 06, 2024 6:58 PM
> To: cctalk@classiccmp.org
> Cc: Fred Cisin
> Subject: [cctalk] Re: Double Density
>Fairly sure you could find something to run Doom >that uses less than 1.7MWBut
>what's the point of buying this monstrosity if not to play Doom? It is like
>SEVEN years old. ;)
>Just 7 year old and no longer in service.>Anyone with some space in the
>basement ?But will it run Doom?
>
> Don't forget to bring a towel.
>
> Sellam
The fact that we all probably got that reference is the amazing part.
-Ali
> Why are you paying for postage as an eBay seller? Buyer paying postage
> is the standard.
>
I think Bill is just being a decent guy and saying that it would cost more
to ship it out then the item would cost/be bought for (i.e. $20 for item,
$50 to ship) and how that wouldn't be nice or make sens
>I was able to make it, and the weather turned out very fair.
>
>Here is my summary review of the two days.Sorry about the ticket issue - I
>was able to get an online ticket the day >before the event without issue.
Steve,
Thanks for the excellent write up and the great pictures. It looks li
So did anyone go? How was it? I never heard back from the organizers
regarding the ticketing situation despite my, and Sellam's, best efforts so
I skipped it. Hopefully, the event went better then the organization and the
next one will have the bugs ironed out.
-Ali
> > One last question:
> >
> > Do kids get in free? If so what is the age cutoff? It looks like
> > tickets are needed for everyone but figure I would check just in
> case.
> >
>
> Never mind... Important to read all the WAY to the END. LOL. Kids 12
> and under are free!
Anybody successfully buy
> One last question:
>
> Do kids get in free? If so what is the age cutoff? It looks like
> tickets are needed for everyone but figure I would check just in case.
>
Never mind... Important to read all the WAY to the END. LOL. Kids 12 and under
are free!
-Ali
One last question:
Do kids get in free? If so what is the age cutoff? It looks like tickets are
needed for everyone but figure I would check just in case.
-Ali
>
> This VCF SoCal announcement just came into my mailbox this morning so
> I'm
> passing it along.
>
Great! Thanks for the info!
-Ali
> I am certainly with you on that, Marvin. I have exhibited at 8 or 9
> VCFs (my first was VCF 3) and was on the mailing list as recently as
> August 2023 (but apparently no more) and only happened to see the event
> being discussed in this forum. Thanks to Wayne Sudol for posting the
> informati
That would be very interesting. I always thought Apricot made some beasts and
remeber the cover of Byte for the first 486 system being an Apricot VX. I would
love to see that machine in person.
Original message From: Christopher Satterfield via cctalk
Date: 1/31/24 6:23 AM (
First time I am hearing of this. Are details up on the vcf site?-Ali
Original message From: Sellam Abraham via cctalk
Date: 1/25/24 11:45 AM (GMT-08:00) To: "General
Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" Cc: Sellam
Abraham Subject: [cctalk] VCF SoCal I'll be attending
Does archive.org have an up to date mirror? -Ali
> In the 1990s, I started writing about floppy disks, how FM/MFM worked,
> IBM/WD
> track and sector structure, directory structures, DOS Utilities, disk
> repair,
> etc.
> But, got bogged down with too much to do, such as closing my office,
> etc., . .
> .
Now this would be an interesting book to
> I'm a little surprised noone mentioned Google sheets or something
> that's cloud native? Probably only accessible from newer systems though
> but I've debated it since it would be instantly accessible from phone
> also.
Sheets is a spreadsheet program, right? Spreadsheets, while nice for keeping
> That may be the rub. The installation and update process is... well,
> let's just say it
> gives me fits and I spent a non-trivial amount of time working out the
> procedure. Suffice
> it to say that I think quite poorly indeed of composer and yarn, and
> really don't think
> that there needs t
> I can think of a couple of options that might be what you're looking
> for. The first is
> Part-DB-server (https://github.com/Part-DB/Part-DB-server). It was
> originally meant for
> managing inventories of parts but I've found that it's also good for
> managing my inventory
> of retrotech.
Well there is his obituary. plus news articles
Original message From: steve shumaker via cctalk
Date: 7/19/23 7:56 PM (GMT-08:00) To:
cctalk@classiccmp.org Cc: steve shumaker Subject: [cctalk]
Re: Death of Mitnick what's your source for this?On 7/19/23 7:35 PM, Murra
> I'm watching a video talking about Protoweb and one of the ftp sites
> that they are talking about is ftp.compaq.com.
>
> The video in question is:
>
> Link - Protoweb - Reviving the '90s Internet! (Overview & Demo)
> - https://youtu.be/1FSd-XhGLqk
>
> I'm interested in checking out Protoweb
>compaq-system-config-us-proliant-3000-333.disk1.gz
> compaq-system-config-us-proliant-3000-333.disk2.gz
> compaq-system-config-us-proliant-3000-333.disk3.gz
> compaq-system-config-us-proliant-3000-333.disk4.gz
> In my collection that I think I used to configure a Proliant 3000 with EISA
> bus.
Really long shot, and I have asked here before without much luck, but anyone
have a copy of the Compaq System Manager Facility 1.10 or 1.11 (or any
version for that matter). This would have been released in 1994/95 time
frame and is necessary for the use of the Compaq Server Manager/R EISA
board. T
> I am surprised the original Compaq diagnostics for 5 1/4"- native
> systems
> and early DOS and even OS/2 are not someplace
Bill,
I think those are out there. I believe the last version for DOS was 8.x and
that is in the first 500 Softpaqs. I can find the exact number for you if you
are inter
> I can't help with the mirror, but maybe I can help with the old
> spinning
> plastic that I have related to ProLiants and / or StorageWorks stuff.
>
> Please clarify what you're looking for and I'll see if anything I have
> is germane.
Hi Grant,
I am currently looking for the following:
Firmw
> I just found this the other day, but I see the update date in in 2014
> so it may not be of use.
>
> http://ftp.zx.net.nz/cgi-bin/archive-mirror
John,
Thanks. Actually I have been talking to David (the maintainer/owner of that
mirror) and he doesn't have those files either.
>
> There is som
Hello All,
I am wondering if anyone has a private or knows of a mirror for
ftp.compaq.com that is older than 2014? All the ones I have found online,
including the file at archive.org, are from 2014. By then a number of files
and directories had been purged e.g. "/pub/supportinformation/techpubs" a
> I doubt this will go thru either but other attempts to send to the list
> are
>
> now getting rejected as SPAM. Doesn't the list check addresses to see
> if
>
> the poster is a member?
In short: no. The spam filters on the list are antiquated at best
> VCF SW was this past weekend near Dallas, Texas.
>
> Here are some highlights from my perspective.
>
> https://voidstar.blog/vcf-southwest-2023/
>
Man there is always cooler stuff at the other VCFs the n VCFW. Just looking at
those pictures the Compaq 468 Portable is nice and the NEC Multisy
>that there were ways to write programs that _would_ fit in
> 640K and you should be doing that.
That sentiment is an entirely different statement and meaning from the quote
which is attributed to him.
I won't comment on Dave's videos because I don't have enough "insider"
knowledge to say how m
> Based on other videos of Dave's that I've watched he doesn't really
> know
> what he's talking about so I wouldn't lend much credence to his
> apocrypha
> either.
>
Well, I am willing to believe him given the PC World article that I also linked
to in my original message And snopes.com B
So I had always heard the quote "640KB is enough memory" being attributed to
Bill Gates. However, recently I was watching Dave Plummer on YT and he said
that it is not true:
https://youtu.be/bikbJPI-7Kg?t=372
And apparently the man himself has denied it as well but it just will not go
away...
ht
> If/when I dig it out, how much should I ask for it? (Berkeley
> California)
The 5150 or the ROM? :) I don't know about either but prices have been
getting ludicrous lately. I would be interested in playing around with the
ROM so if you ever dig it up and dump the contents. Or I can always
> The 5150, as released in August 1981, had SIX ROM sockets. It had one
> 8K
> ROM for the BIOS, four 8K ROMs totaling 32K for BASIC, and one empty
> socket, which usually stayed empty. A company calling itself MBI sold
> an
> accessory ROM for that socket thatr added some trivial features.
>
I
>AH! NUTS! :)>Runs and ducks...That's actually pretty funny and much milder
>then what I was screaming...-Ali
> I heard that Duracell now has a "bitterant" coating on its 2032
> batteries;
> so that you will spit it out.
Fred,
That's been there for a while. It is aimed at babies swallowing coin
batteries of all sorts. Mine was pure stupidity. I had spent the whole
weekend working on and rebuilding the i
> No kidding. That 64GB fingernail can easily hide in clothing
Or make it easily edible... Say if you were munching on some nuts while
waiting... Ask me how I know *sigh*
-Ali
>
> Far more than you wanted to go through:
>
Fred,
Not at all. As always lots of wisdom condensed into a short post. This one
is going into my "Posts to Save" folder!
> "2.8M" has an unformatted capacity of 4M
> The disk that you linked a picture of says "406TPI"!
> Therefore, it presumably h
Chuck,
> Oh, you mean the Japanese TD disks. As far as I know only one machine
> was produced that used them, the NEC PC 88-VA3:
>
> https://necretro.org/PC-88_VA3
Yep, that the one.
>
> It was an expensive market flop. You might try to hunt down a drive if
> you're a collector, but as far
>
> https://auctions.c.yimg.jp/images.auctions.yahoo.co.jp/image/dr000/auc0
> 312/users/4f92de2852282d0c4055f15836cd43f760275f36/i-img1200x675-
> 1672137143s8ehmb271085.jpg
>
Looking at this picture it indicates the disk is 406TPI which is significantly
higher than the 96TPI used with 1.2MB HD
> Sure; consider the very common Samsung SFD-321B, particularly page 5:
>
> Another type of "tri-Density" drive is the fairly common Teac FD-235J,
> which can do 720K, 1.44M and 2.88M. I've got a couple installed in
> older systems.
Chuck,
I don't know if we are talking about different
> Most likely, the 3-mode drive. 8x1024 sectors on each track, giving a
> capacity of about 1.23MB. Many PCs of the era could also handle the
> drives, which would change spindle speed from 300 to 360 RPM. 3 mode
> drives were manufactured right up until the end, but usually were
> configured a
> My floptical drive (20MB SCSI) could also handle 1.4M
Yes, those could only write 20MB max though. Still pretty cool for the time.
>
> My 2.8M drive (Micro-Solutions "Backpack" parallel port) could also
> handle 1.4M
The BackPack drives are nice for quick testing or adding a temporary drive.
> I never had problems with zip disks myself, but never dove into the
> floppy
> things since the price seemed prohibitive.
I can't say either technology has been bad to me. I have found IDE and SCSI zip
drives excellent for exchanging large amount of data between vintage and modern
system. The
>It’s a 1.2 MB format (360 RPM) as used in the>Japanese market.Ahh so it is a
>triple mode drive not a triple density drive. Thanks!
y
Sun enthusiasts can shed some light?
-Ali
> -Original Message-
> From: Ali via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
> Sent: Sunday, March 26, 2023 11:11 PM
> To: 'General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts'
> Cc: Ali
> Subject: [cctalk] LS120, LS240, Flo
In the golden age of the floppy before its downfall caused by CD-R, CD-RW
and flash USB a number of new technologies were introduced to allow for
cheap removable storage (Yes MO drives existed but they were expensive).
Many of the tech were a great step forward. For example the LS-240 drives
from P
Hi Jared,
Please send the invoice for $19.50 to afah...@alumni.usc.edu. I believe once
payment is made you should get all the address info. Thanks!
-Ali
> -Original Message-
> From: Parts via cctalk [mailto:cctalk@classiccmp.org]
> Sent: Saturday, March 11, 2023 1:28 PM
> To: cctalk@cla
> anybody remember the numbers for 8"?
This is the official KB from MS on the topic:
Standard Floppy Disk Formats Supported by MS-DOS
===
Article ID: 75131 - View products that this article applies to.
This article was
> For ordinary CD's I've always used MAM-A Gold. Started buying when it
> was a Mitsui brand and haven't had a single failure.
Chuck,
Which brand is MAM-A?
-Ali
> However, it may well be that writing is the only way to refresh cells,
> as reading won't, if I understand flash operation correctly. But
> rewriting a sector or block of a file doesn't usually write back to the
> original, because of the write-leveling firmware in the drive.
Chuck,
But does t
> If you just need READ, and not WRITE, howzbout COPY *.* NUL
> actually
> XCOPY *.* NUL /S/E
> to include subdirectories
But would a red suffice to refresh or do you need to also write?
Also, this solution, and Chuck's, while workable for reads would leave you
with a blank screen for a long time
>It depends on the drive's firmware. Some do background scans of blocks while
>idle. Others do not. Since you >have no way of knowing which is which (or even
>when the backgroundscan is done), the safest way to force a >scan is to read
>the whole drive... any blocks whose raw error count is to
> I thought Flash could only hold the data in them X amount of years
> until
> the junctions discharge or whatever? It's less permanent than decent
> quality optical or pro magnetic media?
>
> You have to plug them in every so often to refresh I believe.
Does REFRESHING mean reread and rewrite or
> (~$300), monitor (CGA had compoosite output, so could connect to cheap
> CCTV, etc. monitors, and CGA even had a dedicated 4 pin Berg for the
> SupRMod RF adapter), and maybe serial, and/or parallel.
Fred,
This is the first time I am hearing about this. I always thought the connector
was for
>
> From NYT website:
>
> You’ve reached your limit of free articles.
>
> Purchase a subscription yadda-yadda
>
> THET! :)
>
> Don Resor
https://sf.funcheap.com/city-guide/ny-times-free/
Problem solved and completely legal...
-Ali
> > Hmmm I wonder where The Pentagon buys them to keep the launch
> > codes
> > on? :-)
> >
> >
> > bill
> >
>
> I believe the Pentagon finally upgraded last year and got rid of the 8"
> floppy drives. There used to be one manufacturer that continued to make
> and supply them to the governme
> Hmmm I wonder where The Pentagon buys them to keep the launch
> codes
> on? :-)
>
>
> bill
>
I believe the Pentagon finally upgraded last year and got rid of the 8" floppy
drives. There used to be one manufacturer that continued to make and supply
them to the government from back East
> Bring back the light pen!
Have you tried dragging and dropping in Excel with a light pen? OMG, never
again ;)
-Ali
> I'm glad I'm not the only one having rejections. I noticed a resend
> tends to get it onto the list, which seems like a bogus filter (He's a
> spammer, DENY!... Um, he sent it again, I guess not, let it
> through...:-)
>
Jim,
My understanding on this is that the filter is based on IP address
> I find touch pads
> superior, make that way superior to that horrific track point used on
> old Thinkpads.
I am the exact opposite. I love my track point. Hate touch pads. They take up
too much real estate, are consistently being touched inappropriately (see what
I did there... lol), and are
> Since the switchover I am getting more and more of my messages
> rejected as suspected SPAM. Anyone else seeing this?
>
> bill
Same here bill. I contacted the new list owner and the response was pretty much
tough cookies
-Ali
p.s. It would be interesting to see if this one makes it thro
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