author: Francois Labreque

text:
Walter Roberson wrote:

Yes they will; provided that the vlan exists in the switch.  Depending
on the IOS version, one might need to enter the "vlan database" mode, or
simply config mode to create the vlan.


author: MARK BOTHA

subject: re: Error on Dbengineerror help !!!!

text:
please help !!!!!!

i have a indexed parodox table and a form which allows the user to input
data.
however, when the user has completed the input, i have an event "ONEXIT"
that checks to see that the 'dbedit' field is not blank and next thing i
would like to do
before writing to the table is to check to see if the input in dbedit does
not exist already
in the table. if it does exist i would like to display a message "Record
Already Exists".
Basically i want to trap this error and have looked all over and don't seem
to now how.

In the process of converting from cobol to delphi !

thanks

[email]


author: Eckhard Osenberg

subject: Re: US Robotics is VERY VERY BAD!!!

text:
--------------01A848A70F677D74E0E35374
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Mieszko wrote:

 I can fortunately say, that I had an at least slightly better
experience with US Robotics. I also bought one of the upgradeable modems
with $20 rebate, and recently (after four months waiting) received the
rebate check ! I still haven't heard from them about the upgrade to 56k,
but I am willing to give them another few weeks.

I'd be actually interested to hear from somebody who actually received
the upgrade kit. My personal opinion is that the company has a
reputation to loose, so they will try to fullfill their promise.

Eckhard Osenberg (not quite that upset)

--------------01A848A70F677D74E0E35374
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Mieszko wrote:

On 31 Mar 1997 23:18:58 GMT, "Robin Cheng-Hai Gan
(Home)"

<[email]> wrote:

hehehe The laugh was unintentional,  but I've heard this story TWICE

already. Once from a friend, and once from my neighbour. I just

figured they were goofing around. Who knew?

Mieszko

>Hi, Everyone,

>

>I would like to share with you a very bad experience that I had with
US

>Robotics:

>

>I bought a Sportster 33.6 modem model 840 before their deadline of

>so-called free upgrade to 56Kpbs and $20 rebate.  Now I have two
problems:

>

>The first problem is that the flash hook feature of that modem doesn't
work

>which prevents me from calling into work smoothly.  I contacted
their

>tech-support through Internet email and all I got back was that they
will

>look into it, but nothing further ever since.  Also, the modem
sometimes

>cannot be initialized correctly at the first time after I start my

>computer.  I am not really satisfied with their support effort.

>

>No the second problem is that after I sent in all the free upgrade
and

>rebate paperwork, they now finally responded after six weeks with a
piece

>of cheapy postcard claiming that they did not receive a valid sales

>receipt!  They ask me to resubmit before the deadline of 05/03/97.

>Resubmit what?!  I have given them everything in original and
I don't have

>anything in original to "resubmit".

>

>To me, this is just a scam that US Robotics trying to trick customer
like

>me to buy their junky product that they try to get rid of before the
end of

>the year with fancy packaging and marketing materials such as "free
upgrade

>to 56K", and "$20 rebate", etc.  Now customer like me is the "definitely

>lose" situation because I have given them the original receipt already
and

>I have nothing in my hand to resubmit as "original".  Now I can't
even

>return the product although I didn't get what I paid for which includes

>that so-called rebate and so-called free upgrade.

>

>So for those of you who are thinking about buying a US Robotics modem,

>please think again because you might be the next victim.  I have
heard of

>similar story like this about other companies but I can never believe
that

>US Robotics, a previously very reputable company, would do something
like

>this to a value customer like me because this is the second time that
I

>bought a modem from US Robotics.

>

>US Robotics, you better look out because you are now dealing with a
very

>angry customer and I am going to continue distributing this email to

>everywhere and everyone that I can think of, and let all the people
in the

>world know about what kind of treatment you give to a value customer
like

>me.  Think about how many people are connected to the Internet!
I will

>make you very famous of bad service and bad support!

>

>A very upset customer of US Robotics

>Robin Cheng-Hai Gan

![email]

(NOTE:-  To email me, just remove the ! at the front of the above
address)

 I can fortunately say, that I had an at least slightly better experience
with US Robotics. I also bought one of the upgradeable modems with $20
rebate, and recently (after four months waiting) received the rebate check
! I still haven't heard from them about the upgrade to 56k, but I am willing
to give them another few weeks.

I'd be actually interested to hear from somebody who actually received
the upgrade kit. My personal opinion is that the company has a reputation
to loose, so they will try to fullfill their promise.

Eckhard Osenberg (not quite that upset)

--------------01A848A70F677D74E0E35374--


author: mickey

subject: Re: US Robotics is VERY VERY BAD!!!

text:
The upgrade is already posted at USR's web site, isn't it? Go to:
http://x2.usr.com

Didn't do the upgrade...bought a native 56k external. But it works--I'm
getting consistent 46.6 connects (got a 48 connect on a POP that wasn't a
local call).

mickey


author: Neville Kanathigoda

subject: Re: US Robotics is VERY VERY BAD!!!

text:
Eckhard Osenberg wrote:

I also have a USR sportster Flash 33.6/56k but in the UK, after speaking
to the sales people regarding the flash upgrade they toldd me that the
upgrade wasn't available in the market till the end of this month
(April) soI suppose its worth the wait, but I am wondering after all
since my ISP only supports upto 33.600 is it worth the effort.


author: Alan

subject: Re: Appeals Court Throws Out Injunction Against Microsoft

text:
Jonathan Harker wrote:

Minor point, but I feel that may be misinterpreted by some.  The judges
said MS was right when they said that Judge Jackson couldn't issue a
preliminary injunction without proper notice to MS.

     Microsoft argues that the district court failed to comply
     with Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(a)(1)'s command,
     "No preliminary injunction shall be issued without notice
     to the adverse party."  We agree.  Obviously the
     Department's request for a contempt citation provided no
     such notice, for the governing criteria are completely
     different.

As to the consent decree, they said:

     The interpretation that Microsoft advances most strongly
     suffers mirror-image defects: it lacks much logical sense
     and it fails to fit the decree's setting, the
     disposition of the Novell complaint.

and

     In short, the Department's reading does not permit
     Windows 95, and Microsoft's does not prohibit a bundle
     of Windows 3.11 and MS-DOS.  Neither can be the correct
     interpretation of a provision that was intended to do both.

So they didn't say MS was right in the way the consent decree should be
read, in fact they disagreed with the MS interpretation.  The outcome of
their decision was virtually the same thing though.

     Thus, a simple way to harmonize the parties' desires
     is to read the integration proviso of s IV(E)(i) as
     permitting any genuine technological integration,
     regardless of whether elements of the integrated package
     are marketed separately.

     This reading requires us, of course, to give substantive
     content to the concept of integration.  We think that an
     "integrated product" is most reasonably understood as a
     product that combines functionalities (which may also be
     marketed separately and operated together) in a way that
     offers advantages unavailable if the functionalities are
     bought separately and combined by the purchaser.

By the way, where did they destroy the notion of a special master?  I
didn't see that in the ruling.  They said that the "issue here is
interpretation, not compliance", "the words are in plain English, and if
their meaning is not clear it is not because of some deep technological
issue but because of uncertainties in the purposes of the parties that
drafted the decree" and that "we find no such implied reservation" "of a
power of de novo review of the special master's report".  Basically,
there shouldn't be a special master in this case because one isn't
needed.

     In short, finding the case devoid of anything remotely
     "exceptional" within the meaning of Rule 53(b), we believe the
     reference to a master must be vacated.  We do not, accord-
     ingly, reach Microsoft's claims that the specific referee is
     biased or has conducted the proceedings on referral improp-
     erly.

Never the less, they came up with valid reasons why MS was wrong too.

Demolished?  How so?  They said:

     We find that the district court erred procedurally in
     entering a preliminary injunction without notice to
     Microsoft and substantively in its implicit construction
     of the consent decree on which the preliminary injunction
     rested. We also grant the petition for mandamus and direct
     the district court to revoke or revise its reference.

The preliminary injunction was revoked for a procedural error.  The rest
of the ruling was basically an interpretation of the now-famous clause
in the consent decree.

Could be.  I'm still wondering why there's so little mention of
Caldera's suit.  It was filed in 1996 and, last I heard, should go to
trial this year.

Well, my opinion differs.  I don't think the DOJ will enter into another
decree.  Not willingly anyway.


author: T. Max Devlin

text:
Alan <[email]>, on Wed, 24 Jun 1998 22:25:02 -0500,
   [Actually, it was the appeals court that said...]

Thanks for reposting the text, Alan.  I haven't waded through the
decision yet, but I find this particular section curious.

If I am not mistaken, Microsoft has publicly stated that Win95b is the
same thing you would get if you got Win95+SPx+IE.  According to this
description, this means that Win95b is _not_ an integrated product, as
it offers no advantages unavailable if the functionalities are both
separately and combined by the purchaser.

What am I missing?


author: Ramon J. Hontanon

subject: HELP: TCP/IP Software for an HP9000

text:
Hello All!

I am in charge of an ethernet LAN that includes an HP9000. When it came
time to obtain TCP-IP software for the HP9000, all they could find was
a package called FUSION, from Network Research Corp. It works OK, but
we run PWS 3.1 to accomodate some flow cytometry software that we use,
and Fusion only runs on PWS 3.2.2, so we have to reboot from a Bernoulli
that contains PWS 3.2.2 everytime we wanna use FUSION.

My question is the following:

Does anybody know of any other TCP-IP package for the HP9000 that runs
on the old PWS 3.1? I realize this is doing things backwards, but our
cytometry software only gets upgraded every three hundred years or so.

Both E-mail or posts would be great.

Thanks in advance

Ramon J. Hontanon
[email]
[email]


author: Paul Brooks

subject: Re: HELP: TCP/IP Software for an HP9000

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Ramon J. Hontanon) writes:
|Hello All!
|
|I am in charge of an ethernet LAN that includes an HP9000. When it came
|time to obtain TCP-IP software for the HP9000, all they could find was
|a package called FUSION, from Network Research Corp. It works OK, but
[....]
|Does anybody know of any other TCP-IP package for the HP9000 that runs
|on the old PWS 3.1?

Have you asked Hewlett Packard?


author: Ryan

subject: How to import ALL named ranges from an Excel file into Matlab?

text:
I'm trying to find a way to import ALL NAMED RANGES from an Excel file into Matlab.  The function below seems to work fine for ONE SINGLE NAMED RANGE.  How can I import ALL NAMED RANGES?

function MATLABValue = GetNamedRangeFromExcel(RangeName, ExcelFile)
%GETNAMEDRANGEFROMEXCEL Retrieve a named range from an Excel workbook
%  This function allow the user to retrieve a named range of cells inside
%  a MATLAB variable
%
%  Inputs:
%       RangeName is the name of the Excel range ("named range") we want to
%       retrieve in teh workbook
%
%       ExcelFile is the name of the worbook
%
%  Outputs:
%       MATLABValue is a matrix containing the content of the named range
%       from excel. If the named range is not found, an empty matrix is
%       returned and a warning is issued. IT si typically a cell array . If
%       one wants a numeric result, you have to call the cell2mat function

% Opening a link to excel

Excel = actxserver( 'excel.application' );
Excel.Visible = 0;

%Open the worbook specified as a function parameter
workbook = Excel.workbooks.Open( 'C:\Program Files\MATLAB\R2012a\Symbols.xls' );

% Retrieve the number of named ranges in teh workbook

NamedRangeCount = Excel.ActiveWorkBook.names.count;

% Loop on each element of the collection

if NamedRangeCount > 0
    for ii=1:NamedRangeCount
        RName=get( Excel.ActiveWorkbook.names.Item( ii ) );
% Is it the variable we are looking for ?
        %if ( strcmp(RName.Name, 'EverythingElse') )
% It is !
           RangeOfNamedCells  = RName.Value;
           RangeOfNamedCells(1) = [];
% Now we look in which sheet is located this variable
           pos = findstr(RangeOfNamedCells,'!');
           SheetName = RangeOfNamedCells(1: pos - 1);
% What is the position of this variable
           NameOfTheRange = RangeOfNamedCells(pos + 1 : end);
% We go on the good sheet
           xlSheet = workbook.get('Sheets',SheetName);
% Get the content of the named range
           eRange = xlSheet.get('Range', NameOfTheRange);
           MATLABValue  = eRange.Value;
           break;
        %end
    end
end

if ( ~exist('MATLABValue','var') )
    % Variable not found, send an empty matrix as result
    warning('The named range has not been found in the specified Workbook.');
    MATLABValue = [];
end;

% Close of the link to Excel

Excel.Quit;
Excel.delete;


author: Phil Goddard

subject: Re: How to import ALL named ranges from an Excel file into Matlab?

text:
"Ryan" wrote in message <k8c4e9$1qk$[email]>...

% Add the following line here
MATLABValue = cell(1,NamedRangeCount);

% Replace above line with
MATLABValue{ii} = eRange.Value;

plus you need to modify the way the inputs to the function work and the warning message if nothing is found.

Phil.


text:
Thanks for the help with this, Phil.  However, it's still not working.  Before I made the changes that you recommended, the could would import the FIRST named range.  Now, with your code recommendations in place, I get only this:
  Columns 1 through 21

    {19x31 cell}    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []    []

  Columns 22 through 27

    []    []    []    []    []    []

Any thoughts on how to handle this???

"Phil Goddard" <[email]> wrote in message <k8cabe$kdh$[email]>...


text:
So you're still only getting the first one.
(Note that the output is now a cell array.
Each named range is being place in a separate element of the cell array.
If you aren't sure how to use cell arrays then look at the examples in the documentation.)

To get the rest of them you also need to comment out the line that says "break", which is stopping the code after the first name range is read.

Phil.


author: JPH

subject: How To Send Faxes?

text:
I have a cable modem.  I am aware that I cannot send a fax from my computer
to a fax machine via the cable connection.  Before I got the cable modem, I
had a standard dial-up service to the internet.  The dial-up telephone
connection was disconnected when the cable modem was installed.   I am
wondering if it would be possible to plug in the telephone connection again,
while the cable modem continues to be active, for the purpose of sending
faxes.
Does anybody do this?  Thanks.

John Hanley


author: Valentín Guillén

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
JPH wrote:

Oftentimes, that happens, but doesn't need to happen.  A POTS modem can
coexist peacefully with the cablemodem, as long as the owner sits them
both down and lays the law down to them.  If they don't behave, cut
their allowances, or put them on restriction.  In severe cases, they CAN
be spanked!

I send faxes out on an infrequent basis, using my third party fax
software. Even long distance.

Good Luck,


author: Dave

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
There's no problem having both or operating them both simultaneously. For
sending faxes or making voice calls (if you have a voice modem and software)
it will work fine. If your cable link goes down, you can use the dial modem
to establish an alternate link to the internet (some isp's offer this as a
fall back). You really can't use both the dial and the cable modem to access
the internet (with any great efficiency that is).

"JPH" <[email]> wrote in message
news:aqhk9v$krh$[email]...
computer
I
again,


author: Lucas Tam

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
"JPH" <[email]> wrote in
news:aqhk9v$krh$[email]:

Just plug it back in!


author: James Knott

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
JPH wrote:

Just use a standard fax program.  Faxing has absolutely nothing to do with
internet access.


author: Ed Wurster

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
You can still fax documents if the fax software is still installed. You
don't mention O/S, so the detail can't be given to you.

Funny thing is, I just noticed that my fax software is gone so I can't give
you more advice!

Ed

"JPH" <[email]> wrote in message
news:aqhk9v$krh$[email]...
computer
I
again,


author: Mister Max

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
Yes you can!  I send faxes from my computer using vipfax.com and receive
faxes using efax.
- Ma


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
Dave wrote:

FWIW, on my computer, I have cable modem access and two, count 'em, 2
telephone modems.  One is used to handle incoming data calls, so I can
access the internet while away from home with my notebook computer.  The
other is used for fax, and logging into the local library to search for and
reserve books etc.,


author: BR

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
On Sat, 09 Nov 2002 03:17:41 +0000, Lucas Tam wrote:

Ummmm...people. Usually when your phone line's disconnected. It's done at
a switch at the CO. Unless you call them up and have it turned back on,
you're not going to be faxing on that line. Besides there's
online-services that will do faxing for you. If it's a one-time,
infrequent thing, there's always Kinkos.


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
Sorry, forgot to state the O/S; it is Windows XP.   Although I have not yet
installed the fax software, the wizard shows up, so I am confident it will
work as folks have suggested here.

John Hanley
-----------------------------------------
"Ed Wurster" <[email]> wrote in message
news:aqj56i$a6h7c$[email]...


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
"BR" <[email]> wrote in
news:[email]:

I don't think someone would disconnect their home phoneline after getting a
cable modem ; )


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
BR wrote:

I believe he was saying the dial up modem was disconnected, not the phone
line.


author: Warren

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
Lucas Tam wrote:
getting a

I disconnected the phone line to the computers when I had cable Internet
service installed. There was no reason to keep paying $34/month to have
a phone line for the computers. The phone line that I used for the
regular phones was not routed near the computers.


author: Jim Orfanakos

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
: I don't think someone would disconnect their home phoneline after getting
a
: cable modem ; )
:

I got rid of my 2nd phone line when I got cable modem service.


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
Yes, the phone line is still operating, it is my regular house phone.
Thanks to all who replied to my question, very helpful, and I will be trying
to use the dialup modem for faxes.  I have the same ISP (Earthlink) for my
cable modem as I had for the dialup I used to have, I think that should
work.
Thanks!
John Hanley
------------------------------------------------
"James Knott" <[email]> wrote in message
news:ln7z9.34213$[email]...


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
"Jim Orfanakos" <[email]> wrote in
news:[email]:

I was talking about his home phone line... not his data line.


author: Basic Bob

subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
"JPH" <[email]> wrote in message
news:aqj3ln$ddr$[email]...
trying

You do not need an ISP to send and receive faxes. If you want to fax from
your computer you will need a modem that supports the fax protocol and
software such as Winfax or PhoneTools. These programs can be set to
automatically pick up the phone when it rings, and of course will dial out
when you want to send a fax. The signal goes right to the local telephone
company like any other phone call.


subject: Re: How To Send Faxes?

text:
Thanks for the tip,  Bob.  Now that you say it, I see the difference.
John Hanley
--------------------------------------------------

"Basic Bob" <[email]> wrote in message
news:elgz9.10172$[email]...


author: Ranseus Jim Knepley

subject: DVSETUP question

text:
I recently got DV 2.4 and noticed immediately that it's slower than
the old 2.31 that I had used.  For a while I just wrote this off as a
new upgrade thing, then I remembered:

  I had made a patch to the 2.31 DVSETUP file that would limit it to
one cycle if the task was polling for input.  The effect was very simmilar
to TAME except it took no memory.  I can't find the patch in my docs so
I figure it was some little undocumented thing that someone came across.

  Does anyone know if this patch still works?  And what is it?

Thanks,
  Jim


author: Dan Bodoh

subject: Re: DVSETUP question

text:
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.desqview
Subject: Re: DVSETUP question
Summary:
Expires:
References: <[email]>
Sender:
Followup-To:
Distribution:
Organization: Center for X-ray Lithography, UW-Madison
Keywords:

In article <[email]> [email] (Ranseus (Jim Knepley)) writes:

This has nothing to do with DVSETUP, but it will speed up your system
by watching the keystroke polling.  And it won't take up any memory either.

Anonymous FTP to wuarchive.wustl.edu, cd to /mirrors/msdos/desqview
and get the file DVPED1_0.ZIP.  DvpEdit is a replacement for Change
A Program.  With it, you can set the number of keystroke polls that DV
will allow before taking the CPU away from the program.

And if you really want to see which programs are slowing your system down,
grab DVSI1_21.ZIP from the same directory.  This is a package of Unix-like
utilities which includes a program called PS.  PS will display
a percentage representing how much each process is hogging the CPU.


author: Doug Dougherty

subject: Re: DVSETUP question

text:
[email] (Dan Bodoh) writes:

Just out of curiosity, is there any downside to setting the pause count?
I have noticed that my BIG DOS window routinely uses most of the CPU
(95% or more) [using Dan's PS].  If I set the pause count in BD-PIF,
would this improve things?


author: Martin Brunner

subject: Games/Sprites you could make with C128-Basic

text:
Earlier this year I tried to make a 4-player Pong for the C128 in basic.
Unfortunately I figured out that the Basic is slow for this. Even when
moving two paddles you have to find some trick, that the speed is fine.
And then, the COLLISSION-Command will react too late so that you have to
change the position of the ball when it hits the paddle.

So I was thinking of trying a top down view race game. This way you have
only one sprite to move and once it collides you are crashed. Then it's
not important if the sprite will be replaced in time.

Still I have some questions - the Commodore Basic 7.0 commands seem to
miss some sprite commands:

- is it possible to rotate the srpite itself?? I can chose the direct
the sprite will move into. But when the sprite is a car for example it
needs to be rotatet as well, so that the hood does face the richt direction.

- how can i figure out the current sprite position?

- is it possible to make animated sprites? how is it possible to make
walking persons?


author: [redacted]

subject: Re: Games/Sprites you could make with C128-Basic

text: For rotations, you define the other 'patterns' and change your sprite to use those patterns. There is no 'rotation' like shape tables for Applesoft.


author: Greg King

text:
On Oct 27, 4:53 am, Martin Brunner <[email]> wrote:

SSHAPE is for the bit-mapped screens.  SPRSAV copies sprite patterns
into/out-of string variables.
A BASIC program would build those strings from DATA statements.


text:
[email] schrieb:

Hmm.. "patterns" are also sprites or are they a part of a sprite?

If I have to rotate a bite (eg. like in BMX Simulator on C64) that means
I'd need 16 different sprites just for one bike. And everytime the thing
turns I have to replace a sprite.

C128 Basic supports 8 Sprites which makes things like this very useless.


text: Sorry, did not know the Commodore called them patterns as well... but basically, you have your sprite 'pattern' data located somewhere in memory, and change the pointer for the sprite to whichever shape you want at the moment.


author: Payton Byrd

text: Pretty sure that with the BASIC 7 that you'd define a different sprite and turn them on and off as I don't believe that BASIC 7 allows you to define what memory location the sprite is located at.


text:
Am 27.10.2011 14:40, schrieb Greg King:

Ah that's great! On C128 you can create sprites with the sprite editor
and them store them into variables by simply

SPRSAV 1,A$

So if during moving a sprite you want to change it you can just copy
some of these variables back into the sprite again like

SPRSAV B$,1

(if B$ already has some sprite information)

So you could create a running man with something like

10 SPRSAV A$,1
20 SPRSAV B$,1
30 SPRSAV C$,1
40 goto 10

(if you had stored sprite information into the variables before)


author: Clocky

text:
Martin Brunner wrote:

You wouldn't use 8 sprites for one bike, you would redefine the same sprite
by calling on the different shapes stored in memory.

Hope that makes sense, I'm not to good at the terminology ;-)


text:
Payton Byrd schrieb:

But there is the possibility to store the sprite information in a
variable with the SSHAPE funktion somehow. Would that make sense to use
it there? The question is, if that can be arranged fast enough so that
it will be useful.

I just wonder how to save and load the sprites then.

And for multicolor sprites I'd need a 2nd sprite?


author: Grant Stockly

subject: 8" disk drive project possibly 3.5" substitution

text:
I posted this message to cctalk, but it hasn't seemed to spark a
conversation.  :(

I know my BEST method is to make a SVD type device to emulate the
FD400 used in the Altair.  I'm interested in the short term in
modifying a disk cabinet to support a 3.5" disk directly.  My main
concern is the lack of some input signals and the lack of actual
physical sectors.  COmments on generating the hard sectors from a
16MHz counter dividing the index pulse are wanted...

Here is the cctalk information:

I'm going to add some to my own topic.  The questions below still
stand, but I've got more info!  : )

I want to use a QUME 842 or SA800 in an altair disk subsystem.

Both seem to have the same interface.

The FD400-5x0-5x1 manual seems to show the drives being quite similar.

The first thing I see is that there are extra signals.

"Trim Erase", "Write Enable", and "Write Data" where the Shugart
interface only has "Write Data" and "Write Gate".  I assume that gate
and enable are the same thing.  The FD Pertec drives also have "IN",
"OUT", and "STEP" instead of "STEP" and "DIRECTION", but that is not a
big deal.  That can be generated in software.

What I don't see is any input to perform the function of head
current.  How does the shugart interface handle this?

Can I ignore the trim erase feature?  How do I generate a write busy
signal?  I'm willing to make some circuits to fake these signals if
required.

More info:

The pinout of an Altair disk drive...of the wires connected.  Omitted
pins are either not connected, power, or ground.  All lettered
connections are ground.

6 - Output - Door Open (IDOP
7 - Head Current Switch (IHCS)
8 - External Trim Erase (Option) (IEEN)
9 - Input - Write Enable (IWEN)
10 - Input - Write Data Input (IWDA)
11 - Input - Step In (ISTI)
15 - Input - Step Out (ISTO)
16 - Input - Head Load (IHLD)
17 - Output - Index (IINXP)
18 - Input - Drive Motor On (IDEN)
19 - Track 0 (ITRK0)
20 - Output - Read Data Output (IRDA)

One thing that interests me slightly more is the possibility of a
regular 3.5" disk connected to the Altair.  I don't care about the
encoding or format being compatible with a standard controller.

It is very similar, but is also a soft sector disk/drive.  How close
is close?  Can I just use a microcontroller with a timer to time from
one index to the next and divide it up into 32 sectors?  Will this be
close enough for the Altair?  Anyone know what kinds of errors I would
get?  A microcontroller running at 16MHz would be able to count
between pulses with 16MHz/1 accuracy.  With the SA800 I would have a
sector hole sensor giving me the correct timing.

There still is the issue of the write trim erase feature, whatever
that is...

Any comments or ideas on the idea?  Is it worth trying?  I've got a
very weird tarbell card that formats and uses 3.5" disks as a 70k mini
floppy.  I guess anything is possible.  : )

2 - Density Select (/REDWC)
8 - Index (/INDEX)
10 - Motor Enable Drive 0 (/MOTEA)
12 - Drive Select 1 (/DRVSA)
14 - Drive Select 0 (/DRVSB)
16 - Motor Enable Drive 1 (/MOTEB)
18 - Direction Select (/DIR)
20 - Head Step (/STEP)
22 - Write Data (/WDATE)
24 - Floppy Write Enable (/WGATE)
26 - Track 00 (/TRK0)
28 - Write Protect (/WPT)
30 - Read Data (/RDATA)
32 - Head Select (/SIDE1)
34 - Disk Change/Ready (/DISKCHG)

I'm not going to sleep a wink tonight.  I hate having ideas at
10PM...  : (

Grant


author: glen herrmannsfeldt

subject: Re: 8" disk drive project possibly 3.5" substitution

text:
Grant Stockly wrote:

(snip)

I posted before about using a PLL to fake hard sector pulses.
The PLL could follow speed variations in the long term, though
it might require keeping the motor on.  That would be usual for
8 inch drives, anyway.

After the data is written another head erases the edge to keep the
track from getting too wide.  This helps if the positioning isn't
exactly the same as the previous track, by erasing what would have
been left over.  It might require a delay in turning off, as the head
is slightly past the write head.  I believe that newer drives do this
automatically.

-- glen


text:
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 19:41:04 -0000, Grant Stockly <[email]>
wrote:

I replied to you but it's hung in the server I guess.   Several others
did too.

head current was also called TG43, not all drives had it.  Some that
have it work just as well with it stuck at one level.

No.  It's really called tunnel erase and still on most drives but
without a seperate control.  For some reason that drive they have it
as a seperate control.  It's usually activated with Write enable.

Write busy is sorta obvious.  It's an echo of the write enable
and maybe used for a Door lock enable.

Back then Floppies was VERY new and still in flux standards wise.

Allison


text:
Can you find that post?  I found this, which was inspirational...

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.os.cpm/browse_thread/thread/9f6628a1efbd006c/d6304b80881ef939?hl=en&lnk=gst&q=fake+hard+sector#d6304b80881ef939

It sounds like my biggest problem is going to be finding a 3.5" drive
that produces index pulses during seek operations and has a properly
operating ready line.

I was looking at a 3.5" drive and I got the dangerous idea of hooking
the microcontroller to the stepper motor or stepper motor controller.
I'll have to hook a logic analyzer to the chips and motor and see what
is comming in and out of it.  I can't find any data sheets for the
parts.

That might be over kill.  Just timing between pulses might be enough.
Hook the head load terminal to the microcontroller so that the uC
starts the motor in the drive, waits for a few index pulses, and then
the uC could tell the Altair through the ready line that everything
was "ready".  The Altair expects the drive to spin all the time...

Grant


text:
But the Altair drives spin the disk even if they are not selected.
Does that sound right?  They spin the disk even if they are not
connected to a computer.  Door shut, disk spin...


text:
But the Altair drives spin even when they are not selected.

How long will a disk last spinning at 300RPM?

Grant


author: Dave Dunfield

text:
This should work - you will need a bit of smarts, not producing indexes
and READY until the drive  is up to speed, adjusting timing on the fly to
account for drive speed variation etc. You want it to be as accurate as
possible.

The biggest problem I see is the speed difference - 8" disks
spin at 360 rpm, while a 3.5" drive spins at 300 rpm.

This means that the 8" disk will see a new sector pulse every 5,2 ms,
while the 3.5" disk would see a new sector pulse every 6.25 ms.
Expressed as frequency, it's 192hz .vs. 160hz.

Fortunately it's longer due to the slower drive, so the sector should
fit - both drives use a 500khz data rate - but I don't know if your
controller and software will accept this, I guess you will have to
try and tweak as needed.

A 5.25" HD drive spins at 360rpm, and is closer to an 8" drive than
a 3.5" drive - if you have trouble with the 3.5", you might have better
luck with a 5.25" HD.

The trick here is that 8" drives have a head-load solinoid
which removes the heads from the media  when it is not
being accessed. The jacket material is low-friction and the
disk will experience very little wear spinning without the
heads loaded.

The 3.5" drive does not have a head-load solinoid and will
cause significant wear on the disk if left in constant operation.
For long term use you should start/stop the drive, however
you will need to allow the drive to come up to speed before
accessing it - which may require mods to your software.


author: MdntTrain

text:
On Nov 6, 5:25 pm, Grant Stockly <[email]> wrote:

Why such extreme complexity?   Just use a CompuPro Disk1 and Mitsumi
D359T3 jumpered for 360rpm like I do.

~ J


text:
On Nov 7, 12:42 pm, [email]
(Dave Dunfield) wrote:

Being a multiple, 250 vs 500, what do you guys think will happen?
Will the drive work without modification to motor speed?  : )

I don't think the Altair controller is quite that smart.  Since the
disk starts spinning as soon as the door shuts I imagine it assumes
that it is up to speed.  I think the documentation talks about the
Ready line in relation to seeks.  The FD400 also used a stepper motor,
so speed shouldn't ever be an issue as long as its ramped up.


author: Herb Johnson

text:
Grant Stockly <[email]> wrote:

Grant, out of curiosity: which MITS/Altair floppy controller are you
using? There were a number of models. Also, it may matter what
software you are using. I don't recall all the details, but some of
those controllers had an on board 8080 and its own code; some may have
only used the S-100 CPU to run code. So, that controller may be
smarter than you think.

You posted earlier that you did not have all the docs. You probably
know to look on my Web pages for MITS and Pertec docs and discussion
of controllers and drives, at this Web link:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/d_altair.html

and for other floppy drive docs at this link:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/s_drives.html

The Shugart SA800 (early 8" floppy drive) docs are very informative in
general. There are some design docs, and the 800/801 had a circuit to
deal with hard sectoring. Early drive manufacturers wrote about some
of these issues, and put it in their docs. And, you'll find timing and
other information about 3.5" drives in docs for those drives. I have a
Web page where I've accumulated some drive technical information:

http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/drive.html

You asked "for a conversation". Myself, I like to let the manuals do
the "talking".

Herb Johnson

Herbert R. Johnson, New Jersey USA
http://www.retrotechnology.com/herbs_stuff/   web site
http://www.retrotechnology.net/herbs_stuff/   domain mirror
my email address: hjohnson AAT retrotechnology DOTT com
if no reply, try in a few days: herbjohnson ATT comcast DOTT net
"Herb's Stuff": old Mac, SGI, 8-inch floppy drives
S-100 IMSAI Altair computers, docs, by "Dr. S-100"


text:
The 88-DCDD set.  The first ones used with Altair Basic and Altair
DOS.

I have the manuals for the entire Altair Disk system, Tarbell,
Shugart, etc. I'm not sure which ones I was talking about.

That page was pretty helpful and did point me in the right direction.

Sure.  I've done that, but I still think its worth ironing out all the
details and finding out what other people have tried and found not to
work.  Its also hard to make all of the mental connections being so
new to old disk drive theory.  : )


text:
On Tue, 06 Nov 2007 22:25:30 -0000, Grant Stockly <[email]>
wrote:

Why would you require that?  Though I did check mine and they do
though.

They all do if drive is selected.   When I've encountered the need
for a Ready  a retriggerable oneshot fired off the index line seems
to be enough to keep things happy.

A lot of the Altair contoller signals can be faked or outright ignored
or worse patched out of the code.

Allison


text:
On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:15:16 -0800, Grant Stockly <[email]>
wrote:

That was common for 8" drives, most ran using an AC motor with
no on/off control.  SO even with NO media it spun.

MY SA800/850s do that, MY RX02 (DEC 8" floppy) do that.  The only ones
I have that dont are my SA860s (half height with DC motor) and there
is a jumper option to run the motor all the time.

In all cases you only get sector pulses with media in drive and the
door closed and that drive selected.

Allison


text:
On 7 Nov 2007 01:30:28 -0800, Grant Stockly <[email]> wrote:

If the media is good and the heads clean... Dont know, years?
Certainly many hundreds of hours.  However the bearings and
motor also have finite life.  I've seen both fail.

Allison


text:
On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 12:39:01 GMT,
[email] (Dave Dunfield)
wrote:

The Altair disk was 250khz data rate (signle sided single density)
ignoring the hard sector.

The spin rate is not a real issue as the sector pulses were used like
NS* to locate the sectors on the media.  Slower is if anything easier!

Allison


text:
Grant Stockly wrote:

(snip regarding 3.5in floppy as replacement for 8in.)

It should only matter on formatting.  Most formatting systems start
on an index pulse and stop on the next index pulse.  The result being
that the gap after the last sector is longer than usual.  One could
increase the gap between sectors, though.

Some have a timer that is too close and will notice if the next
index pulse doesn't come soon enough.

-- glen


text:
The data rate is not a problem. As Allison pointed out, for an Altair
drive running single-density the data rate is 250 kbps. I was thinking
Double-Density which has a data rate of 500kbps - the 3.5" drive
should be able to do either one (the actual clock rate is not different,
just the encoding method FM .vs. MFM). The tolerances for MFM are
higher, if a drive can do MFM it should be able to do FM.

I expect you are right - this is all pretty early/primitive stuff, but I
wanted you to be aware of the difference in case it does turn out
to be significant for whatever reason. The drives do turn at
different speeds which to my mind is a fairly major difference.


text:
On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 21:23:56 -0000, Grant Stockly <[email]>
wrote:

Speed is not an issue.  the controler doesn't care.   it's the
presence or absence that is important and when you read,
write and step things are timed off that.    Look at the logic and
read the driver software.  It's comples becuase they thought that was
the way to do it knowing no better thats what they did... the hard
way.

The original two board Altair controller was dumb as a stump. It was
random logic and oneshots no cpu or ram buffers.  The NS* SD
controller was very similar in many ways just much simpler and no
analog oneshots.

Allison


text:
[email] wrote:

(snip)

I remember and RT-11 system from years ago that was kept running
for a year or two.  At one point I looked at the disk, and it was
getting very thin near the hub.  It may have been more than two
years.

-- glen


text:
Yes - I was thinking of drives, and DD data rates, not the Altair
specifically and single-density, however the comment
stands - both 8" and 3.5" HD disks use the same data rate - it's
just the rotational speed thats different.

Unless there's a one-shot tracking the index pulses to determine
when the drive is up to speed - I'm not familier with this particular
controller so it may as you say not be an issue, however it's a
fairly major difference in the drives which has not been mentioned
before.


text:
On Wed, 07 Nov 2007 09:46:47 -0800, glen herrmannsfeldt
<[email]> wrote:

The head load wasn't active for all that time I hope.

Single sided AC motor drives will spin the media all the time
but the head load solinoid is not active so the amount of
pressure on the media and head is small almost barely
touching.  So wear tends to be very low.

The twosided drives have differnt issues as they fall in two forms
head load with door close and those that have a head load solinoid
Wear patterns for those are very different and vary from drive type to
drive type.

Allison


author: snacktime

subject: Creating a DSL in ruby

text:
I'm getting back to a project I've wanted to do for a while now, which
is to create a DSL for recurring payments.  Something like the
following:

Charge $10 on date X then $20 every month for 12 months starting on date Y.

or

Charge $10 prorated to end of this month then charge $10 every month
on the first day starting next month for 5 years.

I'm thinking I'm better off taking the time to learn a real parser and
handle it that way.  I have a feeling it would be easier to debug a
dsl created with a parser then one using regular expressions.

Any suggestions?

Chris


author: Yossef Mendelssohn

subject: Re: Creating a DSL in ruby

text:
If I may, you could look into a fluent interface (http://
www.martinfowler.com/bliki/FluentInterface.html) instead of a DSL.  I
make this distinction because "DSL" seems to have become a term
meaning "something with lots of class methods and blocks" because
that's one simple Ruby implementation.

Michael Hollins suggested something like

   charge 10.dollars do
     on "10 July 2007"
     repeat 12 do
       charge 20.dollars
       every :month
       starting "30 July 2007"
     end
   end

but how about something like

charge(10.dollars).on(date_x).then.charge(20.dollars).every(:month).times(12).starting(date2)

instead?

If that's not enough to turn you on, look at how well it works with
mocking/stubbing in places like RSpec and Mocha (http://
mocha.rubyforge.org/examples/mocha.html).


author: David Chelimsky

subject: Re: Creating a DSL in ruby

text:
On 7/2/07, Yossef Mendelssohn <[email]> wrote:

You can even get more natural language using eval - imagine this expressed as:

charge 10 dollars on 07/02/2007 then charge 20 dollars every month for
12 months starting on 08/01/2007

Check out Jay Fields' writing on Business Natural Languages:

http://bnl.jayfields.com/01_introduction.html


subject: Re: Creating a DSL in ruby

text:
On Jul 2, 11:08 am, "David Chelimsky" <[email]> wrote:

Tricky.  It's like a super-fluent interface hidden behind a parser.
Personally, I have no trouble with all the dots and parens, but I can
definitely appreciate how it would be nicer for domain experts not to
necessarily have to deal with them.


author: Michael Hollins

subject: Re: Creating a DSL in ruby

text:
snacktime wrote:

I spent the last day developing a DSL in ruby, so it's fairly fresh in my mind. Off the top of my
head, you could represent your above statement in ruby as something like:

   charge 10.dollars do
     on "10 July 2007"
     repeat 12 do
       charge 20.dollars
       every :month
       starting "30 July 2007"
     end
   end

or perhaps:

   charge 10.dollars, "10 July 2007"
   charge 20.dollars, "30 July 2007" do
     repeat 12
     every :month
   end

or maybe just:

   charge 10.dollars, "10 July 2007"
   charge 20.dollars, "30 July 2007", :repeat => 12, :every => :month

No need for regular expressions in any of the above.

There are a number of ways you could represent money. I've picked one possible approach above. Be
wary of using floats for money, due to rounding problems. To represent fractional amounts, you could
use "10.32".dollars if you don't consider that to be too ugly.

For manipulating dates you might want to check out the ActiveSupport gem.

As far as choosing between using ruby and using a parser generator I'd say it comes down to
analysing your user base. If your users are all programmers, then the ruby approach is an extremely
productive and powerful way to develop a DSL. In the space of a day or two, you can develop a DSL
which allows people to specify concepts such as you described, but also end up with a DSL that has
all the power of ruby and its libraries.

If your users are not programmers, then I'd imagine that they'd struggle with using the DSL, since
exposure to "all the power of ruby" is likely to cause them pain. For example, if they do something
wrong (e.g. forget a comma), they'll end up with cryptic messages from the ruby interpreter. That's
something a programmer has no problems handling, but I'd imagine your non-programmer users would be
cursing your decision.

cheers,
mick

PS: The DSL I'm developing is to help me with project planning. It includes entities such as
requirements, tasks, groups of entities, dependencies between entities, etc. For example, you can say:

     group "group-key", "Group Description" , :target_version => "1.0" do
       group "sub-group-key", "Sub Group Description" do
         requirement "1", "Summary of Requirement 1"
         requirement "2", "Summary of Requirement 2"
         requirement "3", "Summary of Requirement 3", :target_version => "2.0"
       end
     end

For inspiration I looked at how Markaby (which BTW is very cool) is implemented.


author: Jim Wenzel

subject: Re: US Makes Commercial Software Piracy a Felony 10/12/92

text:
William J. * a facility before  it is initiated. Of  the search warrants
             we followed  up, there were no  prosecutions, an everything
             in the store including  fixtures, cash register, ad nausium
             were confiscated. It would appear,  though we have not been
             able  to verify  this, that  the general  agreement between
             investigators,  prosecutors,  movie  industry,  and alleged
             miscreant, is  that the confiscation of  the contents of an
             entire  store is  sufficient punishment  and the  cost of a
             trial  can be  saved. What  this prevents,  however, is the
             creation of  a criminal record  against miscreants and  the
             judicial overview
                                 = = =

  as well as due process and the right to argue your case. <sigh>
---
 * SM 1.06 A0059 * Not Tonight Dear...  I Have A Modem.


author: William J. Vajk

subject: Time For.... (was US Makes Commercial Software Piracy a Felony)

text:
In article <[email]> Jim Wenzel writes:

I wrote:

What diverges here is the government's opinion of what constitutes
due process and that of the people (generally speaking.) So long
as the government doesn't trample some critical mass of toes, things
are bound to remain as they are.

Seems to me that the spirit which originally helped establish the EFF
was upset with this difference.  Indeed, it was my understanding (or
perhaps my misunderstanding) that the EFF intended to get involved in
the rectification of this problem. The result to date, however, seems
to me to be just another ho-hum organization filling an economic niche
created by the intersection of emerging technology and the Greene
decision.

Something has changed along the way. Heck, the EFF just got done telling
us the other day that a crime which can only be committed using a computer
isn't a computer crime and they're not interested. But they're real
good at suggesting that readers of this newsgroup write their representatives
in the congress without so much as explaining what the bill which they're
pushing along means to users of computer equipment and networks.

It is time for the formation of a real activist organization with some
teeth in it. I'm ready to start supporting an organization which is
responsive to doing those things which are important to most computer
and network users, and to stop flogging the dead horse called the EFF.

Neimoeller said, "First they came for the trade unionists. I said nothing
because I was not a trade unionist......"

Sure enough, our government received what are extraordinary powers (given
the general understanding of the constitution) to fight organized crime,
then drug lords, and they've now been hitting on all sorts of others who
have little voice and less money to defend their property against what is
becoming increasingly Big Brother. That little bit of extra power has
grown in true chaotic fashion to corrupt the very basis of our belief
systems in general innocence.

Bill Vajk


author: Louis Giliberto

subject: Re: Time For.... (was US Makes Commercial Software Piracy a Felony)

text:
William J. Vajk ([email]) wrote:
: What diverges here is the government's opinion of what constitutes
: due process and that of the people (generally speaking.) So long
: as the government doesn't trample some critical mass of toes, things
: are bound to remain as they are.

Er, isn't that democracy?  The opinion of the majority rules?  Until the
"majority" (i.e., the masses) gets burned wholesale they won't have an opinion
in the matter, and silence = consent.

: Seems to me that the spirit which originally helped establish the EFF
: was upset with this difference.  Indeed, it was my understanding (or
: perhaps my misunderstanding) that the EFF intended to get involved in
: the rectification of this problem. The result to date, however, seems
: to me to be just another ho-hum organization filling an economic niche
: created by the intersection of emerging technology and the Greene
: decision.

I agree to a point which I will clarify later.

: It is time for the formation of a real activist organization with some
: teeth in it. I'm ready to start supporting an organization which is
: responsive to doing those things which are important to most computer
: and network users, and to stop flogging the dead horse called the EFF.

Okay, here's where I want to make my point.

There are a couple of things that should be remembered:

1) The EFF has how many members at $30 a pop?  Even with other contributions,
   you are talking a major budgeting problem.  There is a problem with
   funding, to be sure.  However, all the awards and conference dinner money
   might be better spent making up literature and taking out ads methinks.
   As Mr. Vajk stated above, and I commented on, things will never change
   in a democratic society unless the public is either 1) informed, or, 2)
   directly affected.  Conferences and awards are fine, but they cater
   to the minority rather than the majority.  You see the same people
   there over and over and over again.  Fine, I like cocktail parties, too,
   but a room full of philsophers with five forks and a plate of spaghetti
   between them doesn't solve all the semaphore problems ever invented.
   (If you don't understand, don't worry -- our awarded friends should).

2) Activism may always seem like a good thing in the present, but in
   retrospect it is usually a mistake.  By activism I mean specifically
   the radical variety must be handled carefully.  So when you ask
   for something with "some teeth in it" just make sure the teeth won't
   bite you back.  Abbie Hoffman is no longer loved, and neither is Hanoi
   Jane.  And if you think Clinton is a good example of someone who
   was (slightly) radically active and can survive in politics, wait
   five years til my generation's amount of voters catches up with
   the children of the 60's and you'll see the non-existence of
   liberalism in the highest order.  Government bashing is frowned
   upon in general somewhere down the line, no matter how much good it does.
   Do more people identify with radical activism that supports their
   government (e.g., the Boston Tea Party), or goes against it (e.g.,
   Kent State)?  The general populus is getting fed up with "special
   interest" groups and it will become very apparent (if not violent)
   in the next ten years.  If it can't be shown that the issue affects
   the majority of the population, without regard to "special interest"
   (i.e., it affects people without regard to sex, religion, race,
   handicap, etc.), it's a lost issue or will become the target of
   some nasty confrontations as these other issues will.

   Whatever.  The point is that it is generally better to be patient and
   to try and work from within the system than jump outside of it.  Even
   if "The Weathermen" are your heroes, ya hafta admit that if it can be
   done quietly within the system with majority approval it is more
   effective in the long run than bullhorns and tear gas.  This way needs
   to be give a fair shot before the flag burning or whatever they did
   before I was born starts.

: Sure enough, our government received what are extraordinary powers (given
: the general understanding of the constitution) to fight organized crime,
: then drug lords, and they've now been hitting on all sorts of others who
: have little voice and less money to defend their property against what is
: becoming increasingly Big Brother. That little bit of extra power has
: grown in true chaotic fashion to corrupt the very basis of our belief
: systems in general innocence.

Is it our government or a few people who can wield some power that screw
things up?  There is a big difference.  If you stop the policy of a few
the whole can be retained.  The lawsuit the EFF has going re: SJG is
a perfect example.  If they nail those who thought they were going to
get big promotions by civil suits, you can be sure that
next time some guy in a suit and dark glasses gets an idea on how to
make himself look good he'll think twice.  (Or woman, don't want to
be sexist now...can't forget about Gail).  The abuse is stemming from
individuals, and not the system.  I agree that the system should be
honed to prevent abuse, but by calling it "Big Brother" you are implying
a guilt of the government as a whole rather than the individual.

I see federal law enforcement as tuna fishing.  They cast out their nets,
and sure they catch tuna, but what about the dolphins?  They just chuck them
on the side to die.  A few dolphins will always get caught up in the nets
with the tuna, such is life, but the individuals aren't even aiming for
tuna.  They're blindly fishing amongst trout and snapper hoping to catch
the "Big Tuna" and they end up with Charlie instead.

It's a problem with the fishermen and not the tuna industry, capice?

Anyhow, with regards to the EFF specifically, I have this to say:

They have catered to the professors and the professionals and the
other people who are in their social circles, but have not handled the
masses.  It will not be an issue on Capitol Hill until it is an issue
at the breakfast table.  Talking privacy over cocktails is fine, but
what about in our schools?  (I think this is the "niche" that Mr. Vajk
is talking about -- the cocktail clubs).

I helped organize my school's chapter of ACM this year.  I sent 2 e-mail
letters to Mitch Kapor inviting him or anyone else from the EFF to come
speak.  About a year or however long ago when comp.org.eff.talk first
started, I had suggested starting chapters at colleges like ACM does.
In both instances I was completely ignored.  I could've written to
a secretary at EFF and gotten some polite reply, but I didn't so I
could specifically see where the EFF priorities were.  My school is in
Chicago where Foley and the other yahoos are, so I'm sure someone
from the EFF could've taken half a day to come speak on their way to
federal court or something.

So I took the "activism" into my own hands.  Speaking at my school will be
several people who are high profile in these issues, yet still take the
time to answer e-mail from nobodies like me.  So my beef with the EFF
is not with what they're doing, but who they are addressing.  I think the
action they are taking is fine, but they are not informing the public.
Press releases usually end up in garbage cans unless it's something
the station can make some $$$'s off of.  You know --- smut topics.

I think the EFF would better serve its cause if it moved away from
the "Politically Correct Computer Cocktail Circuit" into the realms of academia
at the student level and to the public in general.

My $.02

-Louis


author: Jonathan Magid

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Louis Giliberto) writes:

I think Mr. Giliberto is missing his own point here;  losers are not loved after
the fact: the winners get to write the history.  The "activists"
of the boston tea party were revolutionaries; they were not supporting
their government, they were making the beginning steps to overthrow it.

Their government was not that of the United States (which did not exist yet
and not for many years) but that of Mother England, which could and
eventually did see their actions as treason.

Abbie Hoffman often wrote and spoke of revolution. His revolution lost: if
the Yippies had won, then he would be a "Father of his country" (strange
and scarey thought actually). Instead he is just a "radical activist"
who failed.

Radical action when it wins is revolution and starting something new and
different, when it loses it is treason.


author: Mike Godwin

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Louis Giliberto) writes:

This criticism is somewhat inconsistent with another criticism Louis
makes. See below.

Apparently, Louis believes EFF should spend money on literature on ads,
except when it comes to flying to speak at his meeting in Chicago. Louis
is mistaken to suppose that EFF board members or employees flew to Chicago
because "Foley and the other yahoos" are there. Foley and some other
Chicago people were deposed by lawyers hired by EFF, of course, but those
lawyers were neither EFF board members nor EFF employees.

I'm sorry we were unable to send someone to attend his ACM formation
meeting, but Louis's inference that we simply chose not to support him is
mistaken.

--Mike


text:
Mike Godwin ([email]) wrote:
: In article <[email]> [email] (Louis Giliberto) writes:

[I had said that EFF funds would be better spent on ads and literature than
 on conferences and awards dinners.]

: This criticism is somewhat inconsistent with another criticism Louis
: makes. See below.
[Here I had talked about the EFF sending someone to speak at an ACM function
 at my school -- read the thread if you're interested]
:
: Apparently, Louis believes EFF should spend money on literature on ads,
: except when it comes to flying to speak at his meeting in Chicago. Louis
: is mistaken to suppose that EFF board members or employees flew to Chicago
: because "Foley and the other yahoos" are there. Foley and some other
: Chicago people were deposed by lawyers hired by EFF, of course, but those
: lawyers were neither EFF board members nor EFF employees.

Let me clear up a few things.

1) I never asked the EFF to *pay* for anything.  I said if they had
   someone in the area could they shoot them over.  I said this in my
   post, and in my original letters (yes, plural) to the EFF.

   I will gladly provide a copy of my original letter (minus personal
   info like phone numbers) to anyone asking me in e-mail if they
   need proof of this.

2) "Louis is mistaken ... neither EFF board members nor EFF employees."
   No, Mr. Godwin, I think you are mistaken.  I know for a fact that
   the EFF had people in Chicago on and off investigating sundevil, including
   Mitch Kapor himself.  I know that a member of the staff (maybe he is no
   longer a member, but he is still active in the campaign) was in Chicago
   a few weeks ago.  If you are trying to tell me that no one who can
   represent the EFF to the officers' satisfaction has even been in Chicago
   except lawyers deposing Foley et al., then you must think I live under
   a rock.  Do you even know where the warrants were discovered for
   a particular seizure in Sundevil?  The names "Full Disclosure" and
   Chicago come to mind.  I'm sure the EFF legal staff is accepting
   facsimilies instead of federal documents now.  Why would you think
   someone would believe this?  I hope it's an honest mistake on your
   part.
:
: I'm sorry we were unable to send someone to attend his ACM formation
: meeting, but Louis's inference that we simply chose not to support him is
: mistaken.

That was not my inference, and certainly the smallest portion of my post.
If that is the only point you got out of it, I suggest you re-read it.
The point was the EFF does not do enough to inform the general public,
and should divert funds and energy from other activities to this one.

I used my experience as an example of the negligence of the EFF when it
came to dealing with someone other than a member of Congress, et al.

I have privately sent a fuller description of my concerns to your
associate editor (not secretary!), and I won't go into them here.  But,
I suggest you reread the posting and see 1) Where I defended the EFF
against someone who does take "grass roots" (gack - I hate that -- reminds
me of hippies) efforts to inform the public and even was instrumental
in "breaking" at least part of Sundevil, and 2) what the whole point
of everything was.  I was not bashing the EFF for not bowing to me, I was
bashing them for ignoring an important aspect of any movement for reform:
backing from the majority of the population in a democratic society.

-Louis


text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Louis Giliberto) writes:

Mitch Kapor did not come to Chicago to investigate Operation Sundevil.
He did a stopover once at Midway airport to meet with a defendant who
was asking for EFF help. The meeting lasted for a few hours, after
which Kapor had to continue on his scheduled flight. Are you complaining
that Kapor did not schedule an appearance at an ACM meeting at that time?

I'm not sure which "member of the staff" or which "campaign" you are
referring to here. I was in Chicago myself on Labor Day weekend in 1991,
but I wasn't asked to speak to ACM. It appears from some of the statements
you make here that you are relying on some second- and third-hand
information. If you can be more specific, I can determine whether an EFF
representative was in Chicago at a given time, and whether that person
could possibly have spoken to your ACM meeting.

Whom do you have in mind? I have no idea which EFF representative you are
talking about here. Again, it seems likely that you are misinformed or
working on too little data.

Yes.

FULL DISCLOSURE and its editors were very valuable in the RIPCO case and
in the Len Rose case.

I'm not sure what you're trying to say here with your reference to fax.
We do have a fax number, though.

Which activity would you like us to take funds from?

I don't believe we are deliberately ignoring anybody. Again, I'm sorry
we were unable to send someone to your ACM meeting.

--Mike


author: Brad

subject: epson 785exp vs canon 88 vs hp ps 1115

text:
I just can't decide!

 I can get the Epson for $100 after rebate but I worry about the print head
clogging like my old stylus color 500. Had to toss that after only a year of
use. Also, that thing sucked ink like crazy!

I can get the HP Photosmart 1115 for $200 but the cartridges are more costly
and it uses 4 different inks instead of 6. Are the photo prints a nice?

The Canon 800 is $300. I know it's faster and I like the idea of the
replaceable print head and individual ink tanks but at $12 each times 6
colors am I saving anything considering the extra cost for the printer also?

I have a laser I use for text so I only need this to replace my original HP
Photosmart which is getting harder to find ink for. HP also says they're not
going to write an XP driver so I'm kind of out of luck. I print photos or
other color pages about once or twice per week.

If anyone here has used these let me know your opinions. Thanks.


author: David Chien

subject: Re: epson 785exp vs canon 88 vs hp ps 1115

text:
Epson $100 after rebate.  Same quality as the Canon S800, but $200 cheaper, so
you can spend the difference on another printer in a year if the Epson dies
after the full 1 year warranty that it has.  Better prints from the Epson and
Canon vs. the HP, so there you go at that.

Figure if luck and reliability reviews from PC Magazine and Computer Reseller
News puts both HP and Epson at the same level, both higher than the rest of the
printer makers out there.  There's a lot of happy HP and Epson users out there,
and figure the $200 difference is worth trying another Epson.  Figure you can go
a year w/o worry with the warranty, then if you must, spend the $200 difference
on another replacement.

d =)


author: Gene S

text:
Been there, done that - yesterday :-)

I purchased a cheap $149 Canon S600 yesterday at
Fry's & "REALLY" love it.  I only use it for photos,
the HP4 does the b&w stuff.  It makes 35mm quality
(at least nobody around here can tell the difference)
photos on the cheap GQ Photo Quality Paper from
Fry's.  That works out to ~ $0.25 an 8.5x11" photo!

I can't find anything to complain about. It's on
a USB port.  (It also has a parallel port as well.)

The only thing left for me to do is get a new (larger)
digital camera > 4mp & find a bulk supply of the
four inks.  I have a 1/2" hammer drill, all I have to do
is drill a hole into each cartridge & fill em'up :-)

Good luck, hope the above 2 cents worth helps ...

Gene


author: Rodan the Barbarian

text:
I also used the original photosmart and loved it.  It was in my opinion
superior to the current Photosmarts because it was a 6 color printer.  Since
mine died I have switched to a Canon S800 and am very happy with it.  I also
know the quality of the Epsons are good but I've always been concerned with
clogging.  If you can hold out a little longer the Canon S800 is going to be
replaced with the S820D, which means you will probably be able to get an 800
cheaper.  The 820 D will be a little faster have a built in control panel
and be able to print directly from the new generation of Canon digital
cameras.  It will also have a slot that can, with an adapter accept compact
flash, smart media, memory stick or microdrive. (you will need a sperate
adapter for each one, they cost extra.)  It comes with one for compact flash
or smart media I'm not sure which.

Good luck
"Brad" <[email]> wrote in message
news:uMeP7.3837$[email]...
head
of
costly
also?
HP
not


author: Paul Rubin

text:
"Brad" <[email]> writes:

I have the Photosmart 1100 and am not that happy with it:

- It is dog slow, maybe fixed in newer models.  Limitations of the
print mechanism are one thing but it spends at least half its time
sitting there "thinking" instead of printing.  It needs a faster cpu
or better software.

- It had lots of paper jams when it was new.  A friend of mine used it
for a while and either she fixed it somehow or they cleared up by
themselves--I've printed 15 or so pages since then with no jams.

- Photos were ok at first but now they look like crap--the darker
areas have a mottled texture like leather.  I haven't printed nearly
enough to be out of ink, so I think this may just be a result of the
ink cartridge getting old and maybe partly drying.  It's about 1 year
old now.  I don't think it's a head clog though I'll try wiping the
head before making another print.

I haven't used the printer much because of the jams etc., and I've
been too lazy to send it back.  I better do something about it before
the warranty runs out, if it hasn't already.

I do like the feature of printing photos direct from memory cards.
That's the only way I print photos, in fact.


author: Victor Healey

subject: Re: Lots of GPF's Lately

text:
In article <4q5cm4$[email]>, [email] says...
GP faults in 95 are caused 99% of the time by memory chips.
I would be willing to bet money that you have corroded connections where
your chips fit into the MB. There is a small possiblity they are bad
themselves. Also incorrect wait states etc in cmos setting can affect
stability of 95.

But back to the biggest bugaboo. With time it appers that under certain
conditions the memory chips develope a film of corrosion that affects
their ability to past data properly at high speed. Solution, pop each
simm out and reseat it a couple of times. This will probably cut through
the corrosion and allow you system to operate properly.

Disk errors and other problems can be traced to the simms. It can be a
subtle problem because a person has a perfectly good machine that
suddenly starts having strange difficulties. (Virus programs can also
cause strange actions. Check that also.) I believe humidty in the air,
the change of seasons, polution etc all have a bearing on the development
of corrosion in some machines. It doesn't take much!

Why does 95 seem to be more prone to problems? It is a 32 bit os that
uses the full memory map for code that may execute. Old dos windows uses
only a small part of the first 4MB for executing code and stores data in
the rest of memory map. A chnage of a bit in high memory will in most
cases go unnoticed by the average person since it is data.


author: Dave Hughes

subject: DB2, vim, and dbext

text:
Anyone else out there a regular DB2 and vim user? A while back, Lennart
pointed me in the direction of an interesting database extension plugin
for vim (dbext.vim [1]). I took it for a spin, but couldn't get it
working properly under Linux (it looked as though it would /probably/
work under Windows with vim though).

I recently decided to revisit it and dig deeper into the plugin code to
see if I could figure out what was going on. The DB2 specific chunks of
code were in need of quite a bit of work (the Linux/UNIX bits were just
broken, and there were quite a few references in the metadata retrieval
routines to deprecated views like SYSCAT.PROCEDURES which should point
to SYSCAT.ROUTINES since DB2 v8).

To cut a long story short, I've now got it working. Before submitting a
(rather large) patch to the author, I'd like to give it a good test
run. Anyone interested? If so, drop me a mail and I'll send along a
copy (I can either provide the patch and/or the repackaged plugin with
the patch already applied).

I'd be particularly interested if someone could test it with vim on
Windows (I wound up ripping out and replacing all the DB2 launching
code for both Windows and non-Windows platforms, but haven't had the
chance to test it on Windows yet).

[1] http://www.vim.org/scripts/script.php?script_id=356

Cheers,

Dave.


author: Zbikow

subject: Re: DB2, vim, and dbext

text:
Can you send me "repackaged plugin" then onto: [email]. I'd like to try it.

Cheers & Thanx
Zbikow


author: Ian

subject: Re: DB2, vim, and dbext

text:
Dave Hughes wrote:

Real Men use Emacs (and, therefore, sql-db2).

I can prove this using the fact that DB2 still comes with elisp packages
in sqllib/bin.

:-)  No flame wars, please.  I use vi(m) all of the time, too.


subject: Re: DB2, vim, and dbext

text:
On 11 Cze, 05:26, "Dave Hughes" <[email]> wrote:

Dave,
Is it LUW specific or it also works for z/OS?
I remember trying the plugin once but gave up.
I wrote my own python script which executes query via ODBC and put it
on my VIM menu. Works more or less fine.
I can test the plugin on Windows provided it can connect to mainframe
(via DB2 connect i suppose).

regards
Zbikow


subject: Re: DB2, vim, and dbext

text:
Zbikow wrote:

Yup, it works with a z/OS target - just tried it from my Linux box and
it worked fine.

Cheers,

Dave.


subject: Re: DB2, vim, and dbext

text:
Dave Hughes wrote:

That is awesome.  Best response to Emacs/VI flame bait ever.  Thanks
for starting my Friday nicely.  :-)


author: H. Matthews

subject: 8-bit to 24-bit upgrade?

text:
Hi Mac fiends:

    With all this talk on the IIfx upgrades, has anybody heard any talk
about upgrades like the current 8-bit video to 24-bit a la the 4-bit to
8-bit upgrade?  I'm SURE it is not as easy as adding chips (the way I think
do the 4 -> 8 upgrade), so it is probably pricey $$$$.  Any rumors, news?

-H. Scott Matthews
[email]
[email]


author: Pandelis Tiritas

subject: Re: 8-bit to 24-bit upgrade?

text:
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: 8-bit to 24-bit upgrade?
References: <[email]>
Reply-To: [email] (#JHfjd t&$#)
Distribution: usa
Organization: University of California at Berkeley
Keywords:

Does anybody know about the upgrade path from the new 8.24
graphics card to the 8.24GC (the faster one). Will this
ever be possible?

How does the 8.24 compare with the RasterOps 264?
How does the 8.24GC compare with the supermac series 3 card?

One more question:
Can I use a two-page display card on a 13-inch color or gray-scale
monitor  from apple.

Thanks


author: Ken Hancock

subject: Re: 8-bit to 24-bit upgrade?

text:
There's currently no upgrade path.  If there will ever be one,
Apple certainly isn't going to say.  (It would have been really
nice if there was...Apple would steal the market...  24 bit today,
acceleration when I get the money...)

There's a comparison in this month's MacWorld.  The 8.24GC
blows the SuperMac away...


author: Dan Pop

subject: Re: Debate: PowerMac "trounces" Pentium....???

text:
In <4jp2i8$[email]> [email] (Gregory L Hansen) writes:

Didn't the 'R' in RISC stand for "reduced"?  Now you want a RISC chip
with full-blown CISC features :-)

It's not at all obtuse to leave out transcendentals, because only a
rather insignificant percentage of the cpu time spent in a "typical"
number crunching application is used for computing transcendentals.
Of course, exceptions do exist, but the designer tries to optimise for
the mainstream (read SPECmarks :-)

A _good_ math library can implement them in software very efficiently,
but this can be done only by people who have done some serious research
(or, at least, reading) in this field.  The quick and dirty Taylor/Mac
Laurin series approach is catastrophic, performance-wise.

Dan


author: Fred Atkinson

subject: Date of Last table update

text:
Is there a way to query a particular table in a database and
return the date that the database was last updated?

	Regards,

					Fred


author: Gordon Burditt

subject: Re: Date of Last table update

text:
There is a way to query a particular table in a database and return
the date/time that the *TABLE* was last updated.

Query:  SHOW TABLE STATUS LIKE 'tablename';
Look at the Update_time field returned.

To get the database last update time, for reasonable definitions
of what that means, I suppose you could get the update time of all
the tables and take the latest one.  Unless, of course, someone
deleted a table recently, which this test wouldn't show.
Also it wouldn't show modified views, triggers, etc.

Another approach is:

	SELECT max(UPDATE_TIME) from INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES
	WHERE INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLE_SCHEMA = '$databasename';

Which has the same weakness regarding deleted tables and things that
aren't tables.


author: Peter H. Coffin

subject: Re: Date of Last table update

text:
On Sun, 24 Feb 2008 18:21:00 -0500, Fred Atkinson wrote:

Kind of... Under most circumstances, MySQL can auto-update the first
timestamp in a table as a "last changed" on the row, so you have all of
those sorted DESCending and LIMIT 1 out of it. I don't know of an
automagic function to do that across a whole database, though.


author: Tim McElyea

subject: Help with memory add on A3000

text:
Help!  I just got my new A3000 and wanted to add 8 meg of ram (static column zips.)  I put the memory in and got this "error: unable to get memory" message.
Here's what I did.  I put my 8 dips from fast ram over in chip ram.  I put my zips in starting at the U850 and moved up both columns.  I then changed the jumper.  I put it all back together and powered it up and was greeted by the message above.

I yanked the zips out and put it back to "as it came" condition and it still works
so maybe I didn't hose the puppy up.  Any help will be greatly appriciated.

humbly posting
Tim McElyea


author: Dave Haynie

subject: Re: Help with memory add on A3000

text:
In article <[email]>
tmc@tim_mc.Berkeley.EDU (Tim McElyea) writes:

As always, things to check:

	- Part orientation!  Make sure the memories are installed in the
	  correct direction.  Make doubly and triply sure, before the power
	  goes on if you can help it.  Then check it again.

	- Correct sockets!  The A3000's memory array is laid out for layout
	  efficiency, not user friendliness.  So you have to look around for
	  the right sockets to fill, unless you're filling up the whole 4MB
	  or 16MB (depending on part size).  In an 8MB system, the 16 chips
	  are not contiguous, they're spread out.  Believe what the manual
	  tells you.

	- Correct sizing jumper!  Make sure that, if you set J852 to use 4MB
	  parts, that you really have 4MB parts.  All of them.  One 1MB part
	  will cause problems.

	- All pins in their holes!  Even with these supposedly ZIP-friendly
	  sockets, it's still possible to get pins that miss the hole, bend
	  under, or bend up.  One missing pin in the wrong place can be enough
	  to drag down the whole system.  Check these REAL carefully before
	  applying power.

It's real hard to damage the A3000 by mis-installing DRAM, though you can harm
the DRAMs themselves if you plug them in backwards.  Sounds to me like you had
the two banks populated contiguously from the front to the halfway point.  That
would be wrong; you would end up with 8MB in the system, true, but in four
16-bit banks rather than two 32-bit banks.  That's not going to get you
anywhere.

Sounds like maybe SIMMs wouldn't be such a bad idea.  They're certainly
easier to install than raw chips.  Anyone willing to sign up for a 20% speed
penalty in exchange for standard SIMMs?  Or a non-standard SIMM you can't
get anywhere?  Maybe not...


author: Mike Powell

subject: Re: Help with memory add on A3000

text:
The socket locations for the ZIP's are NOT physically next to
	eachother!  You must put the ZIP's in the sockets in
	NUMERICAL order.  Examine the PC board closely... and be sure
	that the pin-1 notch is at the right end... (nearest the small
	capacitors off the end of the socket.)

	hope this solves the problem...

	-Mike-


author: Hannu H Kari

subject: HPFS tools

text:
Tools for OS/2's HPFS:

	Does anyone know a tool to debug OS/2's HPFS data structures?
	The OS/2 version is 1.21 (Microsoft).

	I'm looking for a tool that can tell me (for example)
	what is the file that occupies sector number 123456 in the
	disk or where is the file C:\FOO\ABC.XYZ is located in the
	disk (what sectors are used).

	So, it should have quite the same features as most of the
	disk doctor tools (e.g. PCTOOLS) have in DOS, except that
	you can't write anything in OS/2 because HPFS doesn't allow
	to do so.

	I'd prefer a tool that can be used online but offline tools
	could be usefull also.

HHK


author: Peter Forsberg

subject: HPFS tools

text:
In <[email]> Hannu H Kari writes:

If you really want to debug (?) the HPFS structures on your hardfile,
you can boot DOS and use any DOS disk inspector (Norton?) which is
capable of going down to sector level to fiddle around with the bits
(at your own risk). Of course you'd need some info about the HPFS
structures (a great article on this by Ray Duncan has been published
in MS Systems Journal and in IBM Technical Solutions).

If you want to do RECOVERY of HPFS disks, the CHKDSK program should
do the job quite well (btw it's recommended that you run CHKDSK /F
once in a while to keep your HPFS partitions in a good condition).

Peter


subject: Re: HPFS tools

text:
In article <[email]> [email] writes:

	Debug might have been wrong word, maybe "browse" would have been
	better. I'm not so keen on messing with HPFS data structures
	by patching them by hand. I'd just like to know, what are
	those two files that are accessed continuously (over 15%
	of accesses are at two sectorsof 300 MB disk, full of data).

	My diagnostic driver collects information on disk I/O at sector
	level, so I can't tell what are the actual files.

	The files are of OS/2, LAN Manager or the application, but
	the main point is to find out those files because they
	are at the opposite ends of the disk (what cause
	quite a performance degradation as the head is
	bouncing back and forth all the time).

HHK


subject: Re: HPFS tools

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Hannu H Kari) writes:
   In article <[email]> [email] writes:

	   Debug might have been wrong word, maybe "browse" would have been
	   better. I'm not so keen on messing with HPFS data structures
	   by patching them by hand. I'd just like to know, what are
	   those two files that are accessed continuously (over 15%
	   of accesses are at two sectorsof 300 MB disk, full of data).

	   My diagnostic driver collects information on disk I/O at sector
	   level, so I can't tell what are the actual files.

	   The files are of OS/2, LAN Manager or the application, but
	   the main point is to find out those files because they
	   are at the opposite ends of the disk (what cause
	   quite a performance degradation as the head is
	   bouncing back and forth all the time).

   HHK

Hannu,
to me this sounds as the job for a "live" performance analyzer.
IBM has a product called System Performance Monitor/2 (SPM/2).
If I don't remember completely wrong, this tool contains a disk
monitor/analyzer which uses some hooks into the disk device driver
to analyze disk activity. I am no expert on this tool, I have merely
tried it a couple of times. If you're interested in it's capabilities,
contact your local IBM dealer, and ask for info about this product.
It's available for OS/2 1.3 (at least).

Peter Forsberg  (same one as the last post, but on a different account)


subject: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
Can anyone in the Boston area give me any information about Unitech ?
I am considering investing in a PC Compatible and they have what
appear to be some pretty good deals. Has anyone out there ever had any
dealings with Unitech hardware wise ? Any problems ? Lemons ? Suggestions ?

Also, what about Tandy computers? Are they any good? Are they really
'compatible'?
thanks in advance,

=====================================================================
|                                                                   |
| Keith Hedger :  {...!}uunet!inmet!hedger   [email] |
|                                                                   |
=====================================================================


author: [redacted]

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
You didn't leave a mail path so,....

It is interesting you mentioned hardware incompatibilities.  I know
of none.  For instance, SCO's standard Xenix product runs fine on the
4000 and it really depends on the hardware to be in the right place.

I have used Autocad and haven't had any problems with it and I believe
a magazine published some performance figures based on Autocad and
the 4000.

The memory stuff you mentioned is done the same way in several other
makers of AT boxes.  The memory between 640 and 1MB is shadow ram.
That area of memory is defined in the AT standard as a place
for BIOS's and video.  It is not supposed to be used by a program
except for those uses I have stated.  If a program is attempting
to use that area of memory for real memory, then the program is
at fault.  The 4000 does not remap that area above 1MB so it is
not available to any program.  The DOS functions for determining
the memory in a system all return the correct values.  They do not
reflect the 384K that is mapped between 640 and 1MB.  If you would
E-mail me some more details, I will be happy to find out what is
going on.

					Roy Neese
					Tandy Computer Product Engineering
				UUCP@	{killer,texbell,merch}!cpe!neese


subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
Any incompatibilities in the 1000 line are not reflected in the 3000,
4000, 5000 line of products.

					Roy Neese
					Tandy Computer Product Engineering
				UUCP@	{killer,merch,texbell}!cpe!neese


author: Jim Paradis

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
I've done business with Unitech on several occasions; I find they're a
pleasure to do business with.  Their prices are quite reasonable (maybe,
oh, 5-15% higher than mail-order, but you pay for the convenience of
shopping in a store), their salespeople are courteous and knowledgeable,
and they give no hassles about returns.  They're a real down-to-earth
operation, which I find infinitely easier to deal with than the
slick-and-sleazy "business" computer stores.

They also have a cute gimmick for getting customers into the store;
they have a row of PCs set up in a corner of the store, with huge
PD/shareware libraries on them, and customers are welcome to sit
down, pop in a floppy, and copy what they want (I'm sure they also
sell a LOT of floppies this way 8-)  ).

Ack!  Phphpht!
Actually, I think that more recent Tandy computers are much more
compatible than their earlier MS-DOS offerings.  Tandy just leaves
a bad taste in my mouth because I foolishly bought a Tandy 2000
back when they first came out.  Except for the fact that it ran
MS-DOS, that machine was completely proprietary!  And Tandy tried
to take advantage of that position by lowballing the price of the
base machine and making up for it by gouging you on the peripherals
and support (and even software -- so much MS-DOS software is
ill-behaved that you had to buy Tandy versions of most popular
applications like Lotus and Dbase).

Even the Tandy 1000, which was supposed to be a direct competitor
for the PC-XT, had a few bus glitches which made it a crap shoot
as to whether or not Brand X PC peripheral would work in it or
not.

I hear that some of the more recent Tandy offerings (the 3000,
the 4000, and a couple of the 1000 models) are 100% PC-compatible,
but I wouldn't stake the farm on it.

Not to mention that most Radio Shlock salesmen don't seem to
have two neurons to rub together.....

I tend to stay away from Radio Shlock except MAYBE to buy
christmas toys...

Jim Paradis ([email]) 508-460-0500
Devout Secular Humanist and Worshipper of Bacchus in Vintage Years


author: Joe Applegate

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
In article <3200003@cpe>, [email] writes:

Strange it was a Tandy Computer Store Salesman that told me the 1000A was
a new version redesigned to be 100% IBM compatible...

Fool me once shame on you!

Fool me twice shame on me!

Actually when evaluating the 4000 for our school I found several major
hardware design flaws and lots of software incompatibilities, primarily
as a result of Tandy using a non-standard memory utilization that caused
programs like AutoCad, Personal Consultant Plus, and Minix to think there
was memory between 640K and 1 Meg. but it couldn't find the memory...

Typical Tandy...

"Tandy, there are so many better values"

			   - Joe Applegate -

    ======================STANDARD DISCLAIMER============================
     All views and opinions are my own and do not represent the views or
     opinions of the Colorado School of Mines, whatever they might be.
    =====================================================================


author: Gregg Thompson

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
I for one also do not like the fact that most Radio Shack stores (if
not all) know nothing about computers; however, don't be stupid!  Go to the
Tandy Computer Centers!!  Most of the time you will find at least 1 person
who knows what he is talking about.
	As for IBM compatability DON'T SAY ANYTHING IF YOU HAVEN'T TRIED IT
YOURSELF!  Granted the 2000 isn't IBM compatible but everyone knew that!
As for a Tandy 1000 (old or new we have both here at home, infact we have
one of the first Tandy 1000's, on of the later Tandy 1000's, and a
Tandy 1000TL) I have YET to find ANY IBM-PC program that will not run on a
Tandy!  Infact I have some great games (Sierra, FSIII, etc...) that run better
on my Tandy 1000 with a basic system than a IBM-PC compatible for the same
price (monitor and computer) running CGA, because of the higher resolution
and 16 colors.  Most of the popular games support the Tandy 1000/PCjr graphics
which is better than the el cheapo CGA (no special monitor for the tandy just
a regular RGB from qubie').  I was even running a standard hard disk on my
tandy 1000A (the old Tandy 1000's) even when people on the net was saying it
was impossible to do that.  I had no problems, I was even running PC-DOS 2.1
at the time!

	So before anyone opens their mouth about compatability problems better
find out the facts first!

	Granted I would love to have a "better" machine but hey for the price
you can't beat it.  I would not buy the Tandy 1000 from Tandy because they
price them soo high, so mail order is a LOT better (Fort Worth Computers
was selling tandy's for a while, don't know if they still exist haven't
seen their ads other than in 80 Micro)

	So if you have the money to burn get something else, if you hardly
have any money and you want the higher res and color for a cheaper price...
well tandy does well.


author: Mark Davis

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Jim Paradis) writes:

First, some of the Tandy line does still have compatibility problems.
To my knowledge, all of the 1000 line requires specialized disk
controllers (normally only a few dollars ($20) extra).  I have had no
compatibility trouble with the 1200HD (with mail order 1200 baud modem,
30 Meg disk, 1.44 Meg 3.5" floppy, and Hercules graphics card) that I
bought 4 years ago or the 3000 (something) that my brother bought a
year ago.  They claim that the 5000MC is an accurate MCA clone and the
4000 is a compatible as any 386 in an AT box.

Secondly, salesmen are salesman.  In 8 years of window shopping in all
different kinds of stores, I have only found one that knew more than I
did.  (This is not quite as bad as it sounds.  Since I design them and
they sell them, you would hope I know a little more about computers.)  I
have found two really knowledgeble people in two different Tandy stores
in my area, but if you talk to the wrong guy, you are out of luck.

Radio Shack has the advantage that if it breaks you can take it to any
Radio Shack in the land and it will get fixed.  (May take a week, but
they will get it fixed.)

Their prices for peripherals are much higher than mail order.

If you do not feel comfortable mail ordering the system you want, you
may want to try Tandy because they build fairly reliable boxes (these
days) and you can get them fixed.  I recommend checking with several
Tandy Computer Stores in your area until you find somebody you can
talk to.

I have no direct affiliation with Tandy/Radio Shack.  I am a happy
owner of a couple and I frequently recommend them.  (However, my last
recommendation was "Mail order a Premier 1000").

Hope this helps - Mark ([email] or uunet!mcnc!davis)


author: Dave Fetrow

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Jim Paradis) writes:

 Tandys' quality has often been all over the place but the recent machines we've bought
(in quantity): the 3000's and 4000's have been very good indeed both in repair and
in compatability. We even get reasonably priced upgrades (the original 4000 [like
the original Compaq 386] didn't have an 80387 socket).

 As with most computer places you NEED to find the knowledgeable people in the
store (in the case of Tandy you may need to look at a lot of stores) and deal
exclusively with that person. The Computer Store version of Radio Shack is a
good place to start. Ask questions you know the answer to in order to find out
what they know.

 If you can find such a person(s) then Tandy can be a really satisfying company
to deal with. As usual, it's best to stay away from the stuff with small serial
numbers.....from anybody.

 As for us, we have a very good guy here in Seattle and the fellow before him was
also very good and we've had very nice experiences. They knew enough and were good
enough to steer us away from stuff that is iffy, suggested what peripherals were
best bought from someone else as well as giving good service. That's why they have
our repeat business.

BITNET:   dfetrow@uwarita                            -- david d. fetrow --
UUCP:     uw-beaver!hilbert!fetrow
INTERNET: [email]
(cond ((lovep you (quote LISP)) (honk)) (t nil))


author: Dale Frye

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
Awhile back we used to use the P-System for our freshman courses. The
P-system was notorious for it's dislike of clones.  All of our machines
are true Blue. Mostly PC-1s but a few PC-2s. A student bought an
IBM machine to insure compatability with the P-system. Unfortunatly
the P-system  did not like the latest change that IBM made to the BIOS.
The P-system just locked up the machine. What really made this student
mad was when another student with a Tandy 1000 said that the P-system
ran fine on his machine.

Even IBM is not "compatible" with itself.

Dale Frye @ Washington University in St. Louis


author: Greg Kemnitz

subject: Re: Questions on Unitech and Tandy

text:
In article <[email]> [email] (Gregg Thompson) writes:

I did try one...  I foolishly bought a Tandy 1000 (original) thinking
that it was going to be able to run standard software.  BIG mistake.

The first one I found that did not run CORRECTLY was an obscure program
called Lotus 123 release 1a.  It was possible to run it by bypassing
the main menu (ie, run 123 instead of lotus), but IT DID NOT OPERATE
CORRECTLY.  The folks at Radio Shack had a solution, of course... buy
THEIR version of Lotus 123.  They said it had a special driver
necessary for correct operation on the 1000 display, and code to
re-map the keyboard (to deal with the non-standard key layout).

I encountered enough similar problems with other packages that I decided to
abandon the machine and try something a bit more standard.

Fact:  The Tandy 1000 (original) display is not fully PC compatible.
       SOME standard programs WILL NOT operate correctly with this system.

Fact:  The Tandy 1000 (original) requires a NON-STANDARD disk controller
       configuration for hard disk operation.

Fact:  The Tandy 1000 (many models if not all) uses a NON-STANDARD
       joystick pinout, preventing use of STANDARD PC-type joysticks.

Fact:  The Tandy 1000 (original) does not include the DMA controller
       which is standard with IBM PCs and clones.  It can be added by
       purchasing a Tandy-specific memory expansion card which includes it,
       at a significant price, of course....

Agreed, each of the compatability problems can be dealt with by
visiting your local Radio Shack store or computer center.  For a
price, they have proprietary versions of the standard products which
will operate correctly.

I understand that later models of the Tandy 1000 have been more
compatable than the early ones, however several intentional
incompatabilities still exist.  If you are a buyer who likes to deal
with a supplier who tries to lock you into their products for future
expansion, by all means go to Radio Shack.  Their machines are
generally quite reliable, and service is available across the country.
Just do not be lured in by the relative low cost of the initial
acquisition.

Greg Kemnitz / K and K Systems / PO Box 41804 / Plymouth, MN 55441-0804
Domain:  [email]  /  UUCP:  ...!rutgers!bungia!kksys!gk
Voice:   (612)475-1527    /  Fax:   (612)475-1979


author: Winston Smith

subject: Trusted Users & X-Authentication-Warning

text:
Does anyone know why sendmail is ignoring my 'trusted-users' file???

I have the following config options:

    FEATURE(`use_ct_file')
    define(`confCT_FILE', `/etc/mail/trusted-users')

This is confirmed by:

    $ echo '$=t' | sendmail -bt

    ADDRESS TEST MODE (ruleset 3 NOT automatically invoked)
    Enter <ruleset> <address>
    masonr
    root
    uucp
    mimedefang
    $

I still get the following header in my outbound mail:

    X-Authentication-Warning: server.bsdbox: masonr set sender to
[email] using -f

What gives????


author: Neil W Rickert

subject: Re: Trusted Users & X-Authentication-Warning

text:
"Winston Smith" <[email]> writes:

Try adding "FEATURE(`use_ct_file')" to your "submit.mc".


text:
"Neil W Rickert" <[email]> wrote in message
news:be26gi$pcs$[email]...

Thanks - now working...


author: Jochem Steman

subject: sun ultra5 & 40 gigs

text:
Hi,

I've a question... can someone tell me if it's possible to use a 40 GB IDE
disk
in combination with a Sun Ultra5 ?

This because i think there're problems with big discs and the SUN Ultra
Sparc 5.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
 --Jochem


author: edwaf

subject: Re: sun ultra5 & 40 gigs

text:
sun ultra 5/10 will only support up to 20gb, at least thats what there tech
support says.
"Jochem Steman" <[email]> wrote in message
news:9d6eu8$2oju$[email]...


author: Alberto da Silva

subject: Re: sun ultra5 & 40 gigs

text:
I have one with 72G (IBM Drive).
Using Solaris 8.

"edwaf" <[email]> wrote in message
news:9d6gqq$97n$[email]...
tech
IDE


subject: Re: sun ultra5 & 40 gigs

text:
Alberto da Silva <[email]> schreef in berichtnieuws
3af6f80c$0$[email]...
Ultra

Ok, i've to use Solaris 2.6 or 2.7 !


author: C. Newport

subject: Re: sun ultra5 & 40 gigs

text:
Jochem Steman wrote:

Either upgrade to Solaris 8 or expect to be limited to 8Gb.
Solaris 7 *might* be lucky, but I doubt it.


author: Russell Poffenberger

subject: Re: sun ultra5 & 40 gigs

text:
"C. Newport" <[email]> wrote in message > > > "edwaf" > > >
Either upgrade to Solaris 8 or expect to be limited to 8Gb.

I know of a patch that will allow Solaris 2.5.1 or 2.6 to access large IDE
drives.

Email me separately if you want the location.