Ed doesn't have that manual set:
*From:* c...@groups.io *On Behalf Of *Scott Johnson via
groups.io *Sent:* Friday, June 14, 2024 6:52 PM *To:* c...@groups.io
*Sent:* Friday, June 14, 2024 6:52 PM
All-
With sadness, I must report that Ed Sharpe, KF7RWW, passed away 1 June
2024. He was 72.
Ed
ts.
[On behalf of my sister]: Are you also dealing with his tubas?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
XenoSofthttp://www.xenosoft.com
2245 Carquinez Avenue (510) 234-3397
ElCerrito, CA 94530
On Thu, 31 Jul 2025, Chuck Guzis via cct
Also, way back, there was a case where a SCADA manufacturer thought some of
their gear was being bought for the trans-Siberia pipeline, and couldn't be
sold for that under trade restrictions. Somebody at that company got in
touch with a contact at the CIA, and asked if they wanted to insert a
"
n his good work and his good attitude.
We obviously should try, but we aren't as knowledgeable, and don't have
attitudes comparable to his.
He was always GENTLE at telling any of us that we were WRONG.
He is missed.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Came in with a briefcase that contained his “tools”, which was a big brush that
you would use for light plaster work and a wood mallet.
He proceeded to sweep the brush across the wirewrap backplane and a wire cam
loose.
He replaced the wire and all was good again.
I never found out what the mall
On Fri, 4 Jul 2025, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
This is similar to an IBM mainframe story i have.
IBM 370 wouldn’t IMPL.
CE and FE couldn’t figure it out.
They called in a “Special Consultant.”
I
Came in with a briefcase that contained his “tools”, which was a big brush that
you would use for ligh
On Thu, 26 Jun 2025, ste...@malikoff.com steven--- via cctalk wrote:
Sure, by all means go for it. If you can make some sort of robust
circumferential clamp
to prevent axial sliding of the roll (think of a rolled up poster with one
conical (convex)
end and the other concave) due to imperfect ro
On Wed, 25 Jun 2025, The Doctor via cctalk wrote:
Just thinking out loud - how well would running one of those paper rolls
through a
band saw to make smaller, skinny enough rolls work?
Here is some discussion of cuttingrolls of paper on a cardboard tube.
That thread started with turning a 48 i
If toggling the laser isn't doable, then you could use a shutter. If the
shutter can't handle the heat, then a mirror that deflects the beam.
On Sun, 22 Jun 2025, Wayne S via cctalk wrote:
I think you could get around any potential damage by running the tape between 2
thin flat pieces of me
e one who said, "The Mac was supposed to have four
major software packages; but by the time that it was released, those had
become MacWrite, MacPaint, MacWrite, and MacPaint"
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
e &H notation; prior to that, "Level 2" BASIC did not
have a notation that the numerals were HEX, so you had to write all
numbers in base 10.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
t the nature of
the problem seems to be.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Tue, 20 May 2025, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Colby created an after-market case for 5150, that was smaller than Compaq.
https://vintage-computer.fr/tag/colby/
7;s for whether they could
handle SD/FM.
Inquiring minds want to know. :-)
The National Enquirer (who made popular the phrase: "Inquiring minds want
to know") had little or no coverage of microcomputers. THOSE inquiring
minds did not want to know.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
http://www.xenosoft.com
On Sat, 3 May 2025, Brian Knittel via cctalk wrote:
Passing on a request: anyone know of a way to erase user data off a Mac SE hard
disk that will leave the disk and Mac OS intact? The machine works and could go
to a new home but has privileged medical data on it so just deleting files
isn’t s
that can be used to
nibble the cut down.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Thu, 10 Apr 2025, dwight via cctalk wrote:
Once you have the lock off you can take it to a locksmith and have a new made.
That is what I did for my computer.
Dwight
Tony has removed the lock.
It is not a keyway that a regular locksmith would have the right blank!
ck key would.
--
Grumpy Ol' Honda Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
ot a major, nor even a full course, but discussed quite a bit in
"Information Retrieval" classes
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
MLIS (Master of Library and INFORMATION Studies), 1991
's keyways.
BEST FM? and JKLM?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
ooves and/or not having to mill
them deeply.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
ws that it is not a fully paracentric keyway. (where
"ridges" and "valleys" of the milling of the keyway would cross the center
line, making it impossible to insert a very thin flat piece of metal)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Mon, 7 Apr 2025, donald donaldwhittemore.com via cctalk wrote:
Lishi tools can decode the bitting. Surprised the locksmith did not use them.
Just need to identify the keyway style.
https://covertinstruments.com/collections/lishi-tools
Tony has been unable to find a blank that fits the key
a friend asked me whether ChatGPT designed and planned DOGE ?
In those days, FORTRAN IV was handy as a "portable" language just because it
was the one language (other than COBOL) available *everywhere*. It could be
used as a sort of "high level assembler" too.
"FORTRAN --"the infantile disorder"--, by now nearly 20 years old, is
hopelessly inadequate fo
, who weren't around before Y2K, now call half-height
drives, "Full height", and use "half-height" to refer to quarter-height or
other slim drives.
Were all of the FG (and even the G) dual speed, or did some rely on a
controller supporting a 300K bps tran
correct answer.
Perhaps, ask it to do it in Level I BASIC, and fit in 4K, . . .
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Tue, 1 Apr 2025, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
And now I have to clean the coffee out of my keyboard
I asked the question with slightly diffe
ndex.html
Not exactly what you asked for, but related.
Fred Jan
hether this means it
just supports 2 write currents or also 2 speeds I am not sure.
and, THAT is a better wording of my question
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
:-)
Jon I don't think that there is a cause for thanking me for somewhat..we
all getting older and the memory fades all the time.
I don't think it fades, just slower access time.
un-refreshed dynamic RAM, particularly wetware, fades, slows down, and has
more errors, including loss of access t
it was.
'course, you could accomplish the same task with an external parallel to
serial printer buffer, and come in through the serial port.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On 2025-02-03 5:06 p.m., Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
Really? The x86 family does indeed have stack-based addressing. In
particular, The BP register holds the base of the stack frame and the
assumed segment is SS. Even the lowly 8085 has some (undocumented) nod
toward stack addressing.
On
On Feb 3, 2025, at 2:08 PM, Donald Whittemore via cctalk
wrote:
I am an old mainframe guy. I could give you my COBOL deck of cards or the
compile listing. You could pour through the code looking for
nefarious/malicious code. I then hand you the object deck. You have no idea if
it matches the
On Sun, 2 Feb 2025, Steve Lewis via cctalk wrote:
Didn't the original TRS-80 have a kind of screw up, where the tape and
display connector were the same?
Actually, years later the Atari Lynx had a similar mishap - the power
charger and headphone jack port look identical? (something like that, an
Another pet gripe of mine is calling the old 50-way SCSI/etc. connector
a "Centronics" connector,regardless of application or number of
connections.
I prefer to refer to them as "blue ribbon" connectors, developed by
Amphenol in 1950 and used extensively in commercial telephone systems
long before
n
Interface.
TRS80 also had more of the same issues of multiple same connectors for
different purposes, such as Power/Video/Cassette
Sorry, if I have errors in this (unrefreshed dynamic wetware memory)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025, Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote:
Microsoft, or is it Micro-Soft or MICROSOFT, is a 50 yr. old trans-national
corporation. Whether it has been good or not-so-good for society is
debatable but on the financial-side its been very kind to investors(the
earliest ones anyways).
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025, David Wade via cctalk wrote:
Lets look at some of the other pins:-
RTS/CTS - Request to send/clear to send - Hardware flow control.
DTR/DSR - Is comms up and running
RI - Ring Indicator - a call has arrived
TCK/RCK - Used for timing on synchronous links so BI-
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
As far as RS232 and history, I submit that current-loop has more of a
place in telegraphy, as it's far more suited to long distances and is
less susceptible to signal noise. Many early 1970s serial interfaces
offered the choice between 20ma or
On Fri, 31 Jan 2025, Frank Leonhardt via cctalk wrote:
And for amusement, someone wrote in the PCW saying they'd heard a
salesperson at Radio Shack trying to convince a punter that RS is RS232
stood for Radio Shack.
I have seen a Radio Shack store manager (Albany, California) say exactly
that
One factor, gravity may have been .5 G back then.
On Mon, 27 Jan 2025, Adrian Godwin wrote:
It may have been only 4.9 m/s^2 but it would still be 1.0 x the
acceleration due to gravity, wouldn't it ?
And, THAT is why nobody noticed any change,
the Gravitometer continued to show "1.0"
On Tue, 21 Jan 2025, ben via cctalk wrote:
One factor, gravity may have been .5 G back then.
On Sun, 26 Jan 2025 at 14:54, Alexander Schreiber via cctalk
wrote:
And isn't it reassuring to notice that nobody has turned off the gravity
by accident?
On Mon, 27 Jan 2025, Liam Proven via cctal
Because of the simple fact that nobody ever updates the subject line, that
can justr as easily be accomplished by filtering out the specific subject.
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025, cz via cctalk wrote:
Whelp, it's time to mute cctalk for a few weeks. See you all in Feb!
He [Columbus[ did not prove that the earth is round; that would have to
wait for Magellan.
On Sat, 25 Jan 2025, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk wrote:
That was never his intention.
No argument.
I was merely putting in a dig at the education system in USA, where
"Columbus proved the earth was roun
On Fri, 24 Jan 2025, Frank Leonhardt via cctalk wrote:
The theory that the earth is flat is clearly disproven. Aristotle
worked it it was basically spherical, yet crackpots believe it's flat
to this day - often because their scripture said otherwise.
A simple home experiment:
Find two points,
On Tue, 21 Jan 2025, David Wade via cctalk wrote:
My doctor didn't believe me when I said that of course I was heavier when she
weighed me in basement clinic, rather than the first floor(usa)/ground
floor(UK)...
At least take your shoes off to reduce the weight.
But, hold them in your hand, so
An increase in acceleration (third derivative positive) would account for
increased gravity.
:-)
On Tue, 21 Jan 2025, wrco...@wrcooke.net wrote:
Geez! All this pseudo science! All ya gotta do is follow the REAL science!
Of course gravity has increased since there was nothing here! Now we h
One factor, gravity may have been .5 G back then
On 2025-01-21 10:54 a.m., Paul Koning wrote:
Uh, what? How would the earth surface gravity be that much
different? "Citation needed" as Wikipedia would say.
On Tue, 21 Jan 2025, ben via cctalk wrote:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autodynami
s was at a seminar with Lofti
Zadeh ("Fuzzy Logic") After discussing combinatorial Fuzzy Logic, my prof
asked, "Isn't that just probability?"
Zadeh responded, "Probably."
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Sun, 19 Jan 2025, ben via cctalk wrote:
TTL???
Old relays work better!
Thinking of some sort of robot I read about from 1960's book.
Marvin:
And then of course I've got this terrible pain in all the diodes down my
left side.
Arthur Dent:
Really.
Marvin:
Oh, yes. I mean, I've asked for th
tween leaving their deck of cards on the ocunter, and
picking up output hours or day later.
First assignment was "write a program to display YOUR name."
Freeform input would indeed be a lot easier for beginners! Formatting the
input was a struggle for some. (obviously, only at the very beginning)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
rograms in Fortran77.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
t;Shugart Technology"
(1978).
Xerox informed him that their purchase of Shugart Associates included the
name (trademark), and he could not use his name. They renamed the company
"Seagate Technology".
Lesson: do not name your company after yourself! If/when you sell the
77, Fortran 90, or Fortran 2025 (which I have never seen)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On 2024-12-23 19:32, Donald Whittemore via cctalk wrote:
Well, I have proof IBM used the Field Engineer term. See the punch card
used to report an Incident.
https://www.ibmjunkman.com/cards/?Holder=774&Img=1
On Mon, 23 Dec 2024, Paul Berger via cctalk wrote:
It says "Field Engineering Inciden
/webdocs/beginning.pdf
New IBM OS
www.myimagecollection.com/webdocs/newibmos.pdf
Thank you for the info on undocumented instructions.
But, to what extent can we count on second-source and after-market
manufacturers to implement them in compatable forms?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred
track 79, 39, or 34 of
the second side going down.
Some formats fill the first track of the first side, and then have a track
on the second side.
Some formats treat both track of each cylinder as if it were one large
track. Skew can bridge both sides of the cylinder.
Some formats will come up with even weirder approaches.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
They seem to have upgraded the video output!
I found the picture on the front page of this web site humorous. It's a
place that sells old Jeep parts. Note the computer surfing the web.
https://www.kaiserwillys.com/
how long was it before a
spreadsheet program and other word processors were available?
So, Intel went with the "quick fix" rather than the long-term good.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
.
Elephant's marketing was colorful, at a time when all others were very
staid.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
ained about a problem
writing floppies under UCSD Pascal on a Terak and their answer was to
buy Terak Brand Floppies.
Sometimes, it is worth having one, just so that you can tell their
"support" that their own brand doesn't work either.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
ve!
Probably bulk erase, with a degausser, then do it again, then do it with a
different degausser?
If they still won't work (after eliminating drive as problem), then staple
them.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
t 350 RPM
(at 360 RPM, unless the data transfer rate is switched to 300K bps, each
track will be too long to fit in a single revolution)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Sun, 3 Nov 2024, Steve Lewis via cctalk wrote:
Non-descript 5.25 DS/DD (they don't format as 1.2M disk using a 1.2 5.25"
drive, so I'm pretty sure they are actual 360KB disks). That said, I
haven't really fully confirmed if it's a 1.2M drive. TEAC FD-55GFR
142-U, because I haven't actuall
with
some bad sectors marked when using FORMAT.COM (whereas on other systems,
the same disk would format fine with no bad sectors).
Teac FD-55GFR is a 1.2M drive that can also be used as a 720K 5.25" drive.
(FD-55G is 1.2M; FD-55F is 720K)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
The IBM monochrome monitor could be damaged by putting it into an
unsupported mode.
The idea of a command that would brick the system is popular.
It may be possible, but it's very difficult to track down the details from
FOAFs.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Tue, 29 Oct 2024, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
The location of track 0 is radically different in the 96 tpi and 100 tpi
conventions--there's about a 6 track offset. 100 tpi drives were also
spec-ed as being 77 track (like their 8" relatives).
Are the tracks offset from one side of a disk t
cylinder drives. I use a bulk-erased disk, format and write on the
80 cylinder drive then copy it to a fresh 40 cylinder disk on the
target machine. Never had any problems doing that.
Shouldn't ever have problems with it. But, if the disk is damaged,
would the wider track be able to survive a little more damage?
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
fferent drives from different manufacturers I don't know.
Because one couldn't supply drives with an asterisk?
or because they didn't want to use the crappy Qume 142 drives on anything
else?
The Qume 142 was so slow stepping, that that was one of the reasons for
introducing PC-DOS 2.10, to have a slower step time.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Converting drive:
SOME 96tpi drives had a jumper to make them always double step
SOME 2 speed drives had a jumper to force one speed.
SO, it couldbe jumpered into a 360K, other than the heads being too narrow
means FM/single-density to
everybody else))
If you do tackle the Herculean task of converting a 1.2M drive into a 360K
drive, be aware that that will have abnormally narrower heads!
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Mon, 28 Oct 2024, Fred Cisin via cctalk wrote:
Converting drive: (NOT PEACTICAL!)
1) Disk controllers intended for 360K generally run 250K bits per second
(125K for single density), and do NOT support the 300K bps and 500K bps
that are needed.
Weltec sold some drives with a VERY bizarre
clamping cone.
In contrast, 720K/400K/800K 3.5 inch disks are 600 Oersted;
1.4M 3.5" disks are about 750 Oersted
Which is close enough that a high quality 720K disk could be used as a low
quality 1.4M, . . .
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
ees, so that it's the full
jacket, not just the cookie between the heads. (For a Twiggy disk turn it
90 degrees)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
, and uses 250K data transfer
rate.
But, a 1.2M drive spins at 360 RPM, so you have to either change the drive
to 300 RPM at 250k, OR use the 360RPM at 300K
(some drives are dual speed; the FDC has a 300bps rate to compensatefor
those that are not.)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
position at Cal State
Hayward, and, with six hours notice, I began teaching Fortran. But, by
that time, the college was using IBM Microsoft Fortran for the PC (which
had its own problems)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
heard it from this list,
I did the first post about it on this list
I heard about it on another list,
the person who posted about it on that list doesn't remember source
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
More than once it was "hand the tapes to someone meeting you at the gate
and catch the next return flight".
On Thu, 24 Oct 2024, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote:
How did you know you were handing it to the right guy and not a Russian spy?
He said, "Julius sent me", and had a piece of a Jell-
's Minix used. Tannenbaum and Torvalds argued about that:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanenbaum%E2%80%93Torvalds_debate
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Thu, 24 Oct 2024, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote:
How about Tymshare/Tymnet/SBCetc.
Did Call Computer in Mountain View employ a file transfer protocol for
use by subscribers?
Impressive claims were made about station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the
highway.
dialog (1966), Compuserve (1069), The Source (1979, so a tie), and
Community Memory (1973, but not dialup), and probably a few lesser ones
preceded CBBS.
On Thu, 24 Oct 2024, Sellam Abraham via cctalk wrote:
Come on, Fred. You're old but you're not that old, and I don't t
arted.
So, CBBS was extremely important, but not "THE FIRST" bulletin board system.
(and, of course, XMODEM was not "THE FIRST" file transfer protocol)
(thank you, to our newspaper people, for clarifying why XMODEM was barely
mentioned)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
the 80286 was "brain dead". (possibly due to the
difficulty of switching back and forth to "protected mode")
The 80386, and even the 80386SX, was a very welcome step.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
[from home], rather than
dedicated publicly available terminals.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
so maybe that would be
unrealistic.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Wed, 23 Oct 2024, Wayne S wrote:
One last thing…
Most news organizations have a death file for famous people.
Their obits have already been written.
Sent from my iPhone
On Oct 23, 2024, at 14:23, Wayne
charcoal, and then only two mentions, in passing, of making
cars. :-)
Yes, I admit that is an exaggerated analogy.
CBBS WAS extremely important and significant.
But, I think that XMODEM had even more long-term impact.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
n CBBS:
"In 1977, he developed a protocol, called XMODEM, for sending computer
files across phone lines; it was later used on C.B.B.S."
. . .
"For decades, his license plate read, XMODEM."
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
isters
and see what it shows in AX
(running that in CMD of my Windows 7 gives 0005 (5.00)!)
One of the early homework assignments when I taught PC Assembly was to go
into DEBUG and patch LINK.EXE and EXE2BIN.EXE to eliminate DOD version
checking.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
2.11 FORMAT run under DOS 2.00
Be aware that 2.11 is an OEM version, and is sometimes heavily customized
for specific hardware. Ideally, you will want the MODE.COM that is
specific toyour hardware.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
MAKE SPARE COPIES OF FORMAT.COM, BEFORE YOU STEP ON IT!
th unless
you do the same patch. 'course how do you run DEBUG to patch DEBUG if it
won't run until sfter you patch it? :-)
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
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 case.
On Tu
Here is a little more information:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/10/ward-christensen-bbs-inventor-and-architect-of-our-online-age-dies-at-age-78/
still no cause of death ("probably natural causes"), memorial services,
relatives/loved ones left behind, etc.
George Morrow said,
"I believe in standards. Everyone should have one."
About 45 years ago, he and Howard Fullmer tried to standardize the
S100 bus.
There seemed to have been as little written about Howard's death as the
void around Ward christensen's death.
On Tue, 15 Oct 2024, Sellam Abrah
On Tue, 15 Oct 2024, Paul Koning via cctalk wrote:
"The nice thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from" -
Andrew Tanenbaum.
George Morrow said,
"I believe in standards. Everyone should have one."
About 45 years ago, he and Howard Fullmer tried to standardize the
S100
On Mon, 14 Oct 2024, Mike Katz wrote:
Does anyone have any information about visitation or a wake or funeral?
I was unable to find any information using Google. Nothing about cause of
death, memorial services, etc.
If you find any information, please share.
ed "Do you want FAME?"
I replied, "Well, someday, I'd like to be recognized a little, and
maybe even listed along with Ward Christensen."
The very next year, the attendee roster of a conference I went to listed:
...
Christensen, Ward
Cisin, Fred
Cisler, Steve
...
That is m
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
Your book should probably have a chapter on the age of BBS's
With thorough mention of Ward Christensen
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
On Sun, 13 Oct 2024, Murray McCullough via cctalk wrote:
I'm afraid time abides no one! It seems that the greats were of
ater, there was some competition from Kermit, but, other than being "FROM A
UNIVERSITY!", it wasn't nearly as good.
Not only are all of the greats dying off, but soon there won't be anybody
around who even knew about them.
--
Grumpy Ol' Fred ci...@xenosoft.com
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