- vcf-midatlantic - lists.vcfed.org

Cromemco JS-1 joysticks color
by Dan Roganti 29 Jun '17

29 Jun '17

anyone ever notice the difference in color of the Hammond clamshell case ? I dug out my JS-1 joysticks, which I picked up over the years, looking them over cause one of them needs a rebuild. I have a 3rd spare in case I needed parts, and the top cover of the clam shell has a different color. The bottom of the clamshell has the same blue color on all of them. One color is beige, and the other is a light gray. But they are original. I just never noticed they went thru a color change. Dan -- _ ____ / \__/ Scotty, We Need More Power !! \_/ _\__ Aye, Cap'n, but we've only got 80 col's !!

2 1

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTB: DECbrouter
by Kenneth Seefried 28 Jun '17

28 Jun '17

From: Dave McGuire <mcguire(a)neurotica.com> > > If you need to route something like a T1 or T3 line, that's pretty > tough to do on anything but a purpose-built router due to support for > those types of hardware interfaces. > That's not really true, except for very exotic or very ancient interfaces. I have at various times had DDS/ISDN, T-1/CT-1, T-3/DS-3, HSSI as well as Ethernet, TR, FDDI and ATM up to OC12 running on x86 platforms under various open source OSes (usually FreeBSD or OpenBSD) in production. Admittedly, FDDI, TR & ATM support have aged poorly in OSS, I haven't tried HSSI in years, and not too many people are provisioning DS-3s or OC-12 these days given the alternatives. What you don't get on the open source platform relative to a Cisco, et. al., is the protocol support. Pretty much only IP and limited higher level serial protocols (SDLC/HDLC/PPP/SLIP). > > Further, for more modern circuits > like OC192s, etc, there really aren't too many general-purpose computers > available that can move data that fast in any predictable or consistent > way, > While I'm unaware of an OC192 card for, say, PCI-e, FreeBSD on modern systems using Intel or Chelsio PCI-e ethernet cards can reliably route between 10G ports at wirespeed. I haven't gotten any of the Chelsio 40G cards yet, but they're supported as well. There are lots of folks doing exactly this to avoid the cost of something like a Cisco 12000 series router. Not just in labs or moms basement; for example the NANOG mailing list regularly has folks talking about this sort of setup running with BGP as core infrastructure. Folks like ServU have built a business around Intel ecosystem + BSD + 1/10/40G routers. What you definitely don't get on OSS is more than rudimentary QoS. Sophisticated bandwidth management pretty much requires dedicated ASICs. > > and nothing anywhere near as reliable or internally redundant as > something like a big Cisco or Juniper machine. They exist with their > six-figure price tags for a reason. > I would agree with this. From: systems_glitch <systems.glitch(a)gmail.com> > > V.35 sync serial. You can *get* V.35 cards for PCs, but I'd imagine it's > not supported in most OSes I'd want to do routing in (namely, OpenBSD). > You'd be surprised. The Lan Media Corp sync serial cards are pretty well supported on OpenBSD. The Sangoma sync cards might be; the T-1 cards are. KJ

2 1

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTB: DECbrouter
by Kenneth Seefried 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

From: Neil Cherry <ncherry(a)linuxha.com> > >How about an AT&T BRouter? I think it's a Cisco CGS (the smaller of >the 3). I think it's running a 9.x code (might be 10, I hope not). > IGS was the small one, no? Fixed 1 port net and 1 port wan? Sorta evolved into the 3000 series. CGS & MGS were in the middle and AGS was the big one. Last IGS I had ran IOS 8.x. Of course, you mention CGS now and it's the Cisco Gateway Switch. KJ

6 21

Semi-OT: microcontollers
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

Let's use the "Semi-OT" subject line prefix for posts about microcontrollers. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

4 4

workshop prize! (speaking of microcontrollers)...
by Evan Koblentz 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

I went to Microcenter today seeking a screen protector for my new phone (they didn't have it) and decided to buy a $10 Pi Zero-W. They have a good supply of the Zero, -W, and Pi 3. Girlfriend was with me and she bought one too. I asked why, and she said it can be a prize to give out at our next workshop. Okay then! Some lucky attendee will get it. ________________________________ Evan Koblentz, director Vintage Computer Federation a 501(c)(3) educational non-profit evan(a)vcfed.org (646) 546-9999 www.vcfed.org facebook.com/vcfederation twitter.com/vcfederation instagram.com/vcfederation

1 0

looking for intel 4040 programs
by Jonathan Gevaryahu 27 Jun '17

27 Jun '17

Does anyone on the list have any Intel 4040 programs, code listings or rom images lying around? So far the only ones I know of are Herb Johnson's stuff at http://www.retrotechnology.com/restore/intel440_roms.html -- Jonathan Gevaryahu jgevaryahu(a)gmail.com jgevaryahu(a)hotmail.com

4 3

Re: [vcf-midatlantic] WTB: DECbrouter
by VAXman＠tmesis.org 25 Jun '17

25 Jun '17

systems_glitch via vcf-midatlantic writes: >Anyone have a DECbrouter they want to sell? This is a DEChub 90 module. >Also looking for a v.35 and/or RS-232 cable for it. I have one but I'm not really looking to part with it unless you want to give me ridiculus money for it.

2 1

Museum Report 2017-06-25 June 25, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 25 Jun '17

25 Jun '17

A good day at the museum. About two dozen visitors. They ranged from the "lets zip on through" to the "let's ask lots of questions and be really interested". One guy was here yesterday and was so impressed that he brought his whole family today! I was also able to have a 7 year old boy type in a 5 line BASIC program into the Commodore 64 and help him figure out how it worked. That's always fun to teach kids simple programming. I love teaching hands-on stuff. I was also able to complete the window tint, so the areas that have no blinds are tinted now. It is much better now with sunlight, but not blasting sunlight. Next time I will work on getting newer SIDs for the Commodore 64 demo. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ======================================================== <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

1 0

Intel dropping their IoT platforms (was re: CHIP, WiFi RS-232)
by Jeffrey Jonas 24 Jun '17

24 Jun '17

[this is 'on topic' because these systems are used to retrofit vintage/legacy systems, as well as for emulators such as the PiDP-8] The Raspberry Pi and CHIP seem to be the clear "winners" despite supply/supplier problems. I am disappointed that the BBC MicroBit is not on the top-ten list despite their dedication to education and STEM/STEAM. They're kinda available in the USA. Circuit Cellar has always been full of SBC (single board computers), now SoC (Sytem on Chip) and such. Others mentioned the Omega 2 https://onion.io/omega2/ and VoCore http://vocore.io/#store They're cheap, but how about FREE? Just re-purpose your old routers with dd-wrt, open-wrt and such. A friend and I tried one of the Orange Pi variations and were disappointed. Very little community support, few distros work at all. I'm extremely disappointed with Intel totally dropping their Edison and Joule development systems, particularly with all the nationwide Hack-A-Thons using the Edison hardware. It wasn't just the hardware, but all the "technology evangelists" and support engineers to indoctrinate folks to the Intel/Linux way. I'm concerned about the future of Hack-a-Thons with the loss of Intel as a major underwriter, hardware supplier & technology support. Despite seeing them on the shelf at MicroCenter, I never felt that the Intel Galileo gained enough traction. I spent a week just trying to get a LCD shield running and gave up because the libraries were all AVR-centric, and the Arduino development environment has no concept of using different platforms at the same time (Intel Galileo, Arduino Explora, Arduino nano). Intel first lost the embedded market when they gave up on their X-scale ARM chips, and now they're giving up again? the news from slashdot: Intel Quietly Discontinues Galileo, Joule, and Edison Development Boards https://hardware.slashdot.org/story/17/06/19/1720201/intel-quietly-disconti… Intel is discontinuing its Galileo, Joule, and Edison lineups of development boards. The chip-maker quietly made the announcement last week. >From company's announcement:/Intel Corporation will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Galileo development board. Shipment of all Intel Galileo product skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. [...] Intel will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Joule Compute Modules and Developer Kits (known as Intel 500 Series compute modules in People's Republic of China). Shipment of all Intel Joule products skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. Last time orders (LTO) for any Intel Joule products must be placed with Intel by September 16, 2017. [...] Intel will discontinue manufacturing and selling all skus of the Intel Edison compute modules and developer kits. Shipment of all Intel Edison product skus ordered before the last order date will continue to be available from Intel until December 16, 2017. Last time orders (LTO) for any Intel Edison products must be placed with Intel by September 16, 2017. All orders placed with Intel for Intel Edison products are non-cancelable and non-returnable after September 16, 2017. The company hasn't shared any explanation for why it is discontinuing the aforementioned development boards. -- Jeff Jonas

1 0

Museum Report 2017-06-24 June 24, 2017
by Jeffrey Brace 24 Jun '17

24 Jun '17

About a dozen visitors came today with medium to high interest. One lady was from Maine was in the area visiting her husbands relatives in New Jersey. She had read about our group recently and made a point to visit us today. She wasn't sure exactly where she had read about us. So I guess our media presence is working! She loved our museum! I also started work on putting tint on the museum windows by the workshop PC. The sun gets quite strong and it gets hard to work on the computer in the afternoon with the sunlight blasting down. I should be able to finish tomorrow. -- ======================================================== Jeff Brace ======================================================== <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> Virus-free. www.avast.com <https://www.avast.com/sig-email?utm_medium=email&utm_source=link&utm_campai…> <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2>

2 1