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Important IBM 701 Anniversary
by Bill Degnan 02 Apr '20

02 Apr '20

On this day in history, April 1 1952 The IBM 701 computer successfully calculated with highest precision the universe "atomic core number" is 41.99349992(etc). rounded up to 42. This is the source of the tongue-in-cheek Hitchhiker's Guide book reference.

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OT: Science Fiction: Science Advising on Star Trek
by Jeffrey Brace 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

Science History Institute is doing an online event on April 8: https://www.sciencehistory.org/event/scientific-fiction-science-advising-on… -- ========================================= Jeff Brace Vice President & Board Member, VCF East Showrunner Vintage Computer Federation http://www.vcfed.org/ jeffrey(a)vcfed.org

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OT: a SETI@home system now searching for a cure
by Jeffrey Jonas 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

from the NJ Linux list: 1) folding@home has been updated for the corona virus. maybe some of you can contribute some CPU / GPU resources. 2) I've been running Rosetta@home, which also is working on Covid-19 problem solving. I've found that the BOINC client behaves better under Linux. I got the client from the repos under both Fedora and Ubuntu. Sorry, even a Beowulf cluster of 6502 or Z80s won't help much :-/

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OT: HP 660LX Color Palmtop PC available
by Bob Shuster 01 Apr '20

01 Apr '20

I was going to toss this, but thought someone in the group might be interested in this Windows CE device from 1998. In the box with manuals, two battery packs, stylus, power supply, modem card, a docking station, and an additional circuit board which I did not try to ID (perhaps leftover from a RAM upgrade?) This does power up, but I’m sure the batteries need to be replaced. Any interest? Contact-free front porch pickup in Wyndmoor, PA (near the Fort Washington exit of the PA Turnpike.) Contact me off-list if interested. Btw, I finally powered up the 2006 Dell XPS 700 Jet Black which I had offered before (nobody wanted it.) It had apparently never been powered up as the power cord is proprietary and was never out of the package. Motherboard is bad. :( I pulled the three 500GB HDs and the rest is going to electronics recycling. If anyone wants any bits of this, let me know too! Dual video cards, RAM, dual optical drives, etc., all stuff easily pulled. Look up the specs. - Bob

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] OK seriously, how rare is the real 1541-II drive?
by jaj＠totallyamused.com 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

>From: Bill Degnan via vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> >Date: Mon, March 30, 2020 10:40 pm >To: vcf-midatlantic <vcf-midatlantic(a)lists.vcfed.org> >Cc: Bill Degnan <billdegnan(a)gmail.com> > >Now I wonder, compared with other CBM drives, is there a rarity ranking? > >I am thinking some of the rarest 8-bit CBM drives manufactured by CBM are >(in no particular order and without looking on the internet for the answer) > >8080 (dual 8" IEEE drive) >1540 >1551 >9060 >9090 >1570 (where these actually sold) >The drive that came with the C-65 > >am I missing anything rarer than these? > >Next would be >2040 (IEEE) >4040 (IEEE) >8250 (IEEE) >SFD-1001 I would add 8050 after SFD-1001 You said 8080 -- is that part of the 8060 series? 8060, 8061, 8062, 8280 (I've only seen pictures) Any third party drives make your list? MSD MSD-2 Indus GT

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Rare Variant CBM 1541 II on Ebay
by Bill Degnan 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Commodore-1541-II-Floppy-Disk-Drive/143557971394 Even I don't have this one! As some of you may know the Khizzopistni variant of the CBM-II was packaged in a Polaroid case briefly, before reverting back to the more familiar drive profile. I'd totally get this one, but it will probably shoot up to $4000 or more. Bill

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OK seriously, how rare is the real 1541-II drive?
by Bill Degnan 31 Mar '20

31 Mar '20

Now I wonder, compared with other CBM drives, is there a rarity ranking? I am thinking some of the rarest 8-bit CBM drives manufactured by CBM are (in no particular order and without looking on the internet for the answer) 8080 (dual 8" IEEE drive) 1540 1551 9060 9090 1570 (where these actually sold) The drive that came with the C-65 am I missing anything rarer than these? Next would be 2040 (IEEE) 4040 (IEEE) 8250 (IEEE) SFD-1001 Bill

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Re: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing?
by Michael Thompson 30 Mar '20

30 Mar '20

> > Date: Thu, 26 Mar 2020 23:42:21 -0400 > Subject: [vcf-midatlantic] How's everyone doing? > > Things are rough these days. How's everyone handling it? > > -- > ========================================= > Jeff Brace > I work from home periodically and used to travel more than 50% of the time. With the VPN I can connect to anything that I need on the company network, so it really doesn't matter if I am in the office or not. I spend about 40% of my time on conference calls, and they work fine from home. So for me work is normal. Home life is a little different. We just went shopping during elder hours. There were very few people in the supermarket, so social distancing was easy. The shelves were about 80% full and were being restocked. There were no wipes or hand sanitizer. Canned vegetables were a little thin on the shelves. They did have TP today so maybe people who are hoarding it already have all they can store. Last week there were no Cheerios. This week it was buy two get one free. I think that it will be hit or miss for a while until shoppers get used to this new normal and the demand settles out. We haven't tried one of the delivery grocery services yet, and are using shopping as an excuse to get out of the house. I see lots more delivery trucks in the neighborhood, so others are ordering everything they need online. We walk in our neighborhood during the day. There are probably a lot more walkers than normal, which is a good thing. I connected a battery maintainer to my car because I haven't driven it in two weeks. I can't take advantage of lower fuel prices because the tank is still full. My trip to Germany and Sweden is probably going to get canceled. I was really looking forward to visiting another PDP-9. Maybe we can reschedule for late in the summer or next year. -- Michael Thompson

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OT: Theranos Blood Analyzer
by Dag Spicer 29 Mar '20

29 Mar '20

Hey everyone, The Computer History Museum is always looking for unique computer technology for its permanent collection, as well collecting “the classics!” Right now we’re seeking a Theranos Blood Analyzer. If you have any information, would you mind reaching out to me? dspicer(a)computerhistory.org <mailto:dspicer@computerhistory.org> Thanks everyone! Dag

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How's everyone doing? Correction
by svcatitc＠aol.com 29 Mar '20

29 Mar '20

In checking my own submission, it seems my paste of the link: https://museum.syssrc.com/artifact/251/ does not work right form the Email list, however if you manually copy and paste the link to your crawler, it gets to Roswell's page just fine. Freaky! Bill

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