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[#] Tue Apr 29 2014 10:57:48 EDT from fleeb

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Unrelated to the above, I just got a corporate e-mail sent with 'high importance' telling us to avoid using IE, as it contains the vulnerability that all of us are already aware of.

The vulnerability, of course, is that you might be running a Windows operating system.

[#] Tue Apr 29 2014 12:01:51 EDT from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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The vulnerability, of course, is that you might be running a Windows

operating system.



The Ultimate Windows Anti-Virus Innoculation Procedure

A) Open a command-line window
B) Execute the following:

C> format *.*

C) Wait for it to complete.

System is now innoculated in the safest possible way!

Then proceed with the net-install of your favorite linux distro.

[#] Wed Apr 30 2014 08:53:13 EDT from zooer

Subject: Re: Gary Kildall honored by IEEE

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Check out the facebook page also. :)


(look of horror on face) (gasp!)

[#] Wed Apr 30 2014 12:03:12 EDT from mo

Subject: Re: Gary Kildall honored by IEEE

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Shocking i know! I bet all the Digital Research top brass are on there though.

 

Funny lot the IEEE, in their magazine they also published a story about a guy who runs a software forensics company comparing the source of MSDOS to CP/M.  Total rubbish!!!

At least they had the sense to include in the article heading that it is known the author actually is on Microsoft Corp's payroll as an expert advisor/witness. 

The entry on Gary Kildall in the book from the PBS documentary mentioned is quite good though, if you've never seen it before:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/theymadeamerica/whomade/kildall_hi.html

 

Anyone here ever play about with CP/M in recent years? It's ok i won't tell! :)



[#] Wed Apr 30 2014 14:08:16 EDT from fleeb

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I haven't played with CP/M in a very long time. Not since the C-128 days.

[#] Wed Apr 30 2014 14:32:45 EDT from IGnatius T Foobar

Subject: Re: Gary Kildall honored by IEEE

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Plenty of emulators out there, including some which can be tried out through a web browser.

Last time I did it, I just poked around and realized how much of the syntax of the PIP command I'd forgotten. Then I played around with ADVENT and realized that if all I wanted to do was play Colossal Cave, I could do it natively on Linux.

[#] Thu May 01 2014 13:13:13 EDT from mo

Subject: Re: Gary Kildall honored by IEEE

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Has anyone heard of the N8VEM single board computer?

I know, i know; another crazy diy z80 project!  But!

This is the one of the things i came across in 2007 i think when i first got a computer (an old pentium 3  cast out from my works office, loaded with windose Me") and saw these guys build it from scratch and shared their joy on first getting cp/m to boot and watched before that getting all the IC's to play nice with each other, and ...   -- they havn't stopped since: 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N8VEM

Their homepage:

http://n8vem-sbc.pbworks.com/w/page/4200908/FrontPage

One of the guys i would rush home from work to read his latest evenings work together with the first few members of the n8vem team/community (they were all rushing home from work to get stuck into it also :) ).

 

I have a SBC which i need on populate and get cp/m booted on, and thats coming from someone who didn't know how to switch on a computer in 2006 and didn't know an electron from an elephant.  :)



[#] Thu May 01 2014 13:24:34 EDT from mo

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I meant "I have an SBC which i need to populate..." (with IC's) 

 

And the other guy i would run home to watch his evenings work was in Australia and set up a nice little wireless link on his farm to control irrigation.

Also their were guys on there building wireless mesh networks even with these little cp/m SBC's.

http://drvernacula.topcities.com/n8vem.htm   this was near the start of project before they really got into overdrive :)

I think it cool, using old technology with modern tech to solve real world problems. I am sure that you can get a small cp/m setup to solve alot of real world problems that a similar modern, pic etc, system cannot?

There must be a few CP/M systems still running, as i have heard some people still building them for real world industrial applications?

Anyway i voewd to make electronics my hobby now - even if it's something i have to retire to  fully get stuck into- it's kinda fun. :D

 



[#] Thu May 01 2014 17:10:18 EDT from the_mgt

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Thu May 01 2014 13:24:34 EDTfrom mo @ Uncensored

There must be a few CP/M systems still running, as i have heard some people still building them for real world industrial applications?

One of the computer hardware stores I frequently visit told me about a beer brewing system that still runs with a x286 (pc) mainboard. They were in real trouble when it broke down once.

A nearby, small theme park runs an attraction that uses something that looked like win95 or 98 in its guts.

Two years ago, I payed at a gas station with a register the size of a mainframe, it had some tiny lcd display for the price digits. Must have been 30 years old and probably accounts for half of their power bill.

So yes, I am convinced that people do still use CP/M systems somewhere.



[#] Fri May 02 2014 01:10:07 EDT from ax25

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Thu May 01 2014 05:10:18 PM EDT from the_mgt @ Uncensored

 ...

Two years ago, I payed at a gas station with a register the size of a mainframe, it had some tiny lcd display for the price digits. Must have been 30 years old and probably accounts for half of their power bill.

So yes, I am convinced that people do still use CP/M systems somewhere.



Or an IBM 402 from '48:

http://ibm-1401.info/402.html



[#] Fri May 02 2014 07:56:45 EDT from mo

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In the UK we had quite a few computers built, especially when ICL was in their heyday, but also during the war:

http://www.computerconservationsociety.org/wg.htm

 

Thats quite a list:

 

The ICL 1301 is a 2nd generation mainframe and is being brought gback to life by volunteers.

The big ones though, were the computers bulit during and just after the war (in secret - till the 1970's i believe)

http://cs.stanford.edu/people/eroberts/courses/soco/projects/2008-09/colossus/rebuilt.html

which they finished in 2008:

http://www.tnmoc.org/special-projects/colossus-rebuild



[#] Fri May 02 2014 07:58:34 EDT from mo

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ICL never would have bought QDOS ;)

 

Still odd that IBM did?



[#] Fri May 02 2014 15:08:59 EDT from zooer

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Good old ICL, my father worked for them, there U.S. manufacturing and software development were in my home town.
As a child I played space invaders on a cash register.

[#] Fri May 02 2014 19:01:29 EDT from mo

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Man - i havn't lived! :D Awsome!

I discovered i had an old ICL "computer studies" textbook a few years back. It was from my computer studies class at school back in the early 80's - i forgot i even took the subject, for i had no interest back then - not even space invaders or any other games. 2006/7 - over 20 years later and  (nearer 30 now <gulp!> 8S) i googled and read a book from my local library on them (ICL). Great company ! As interesting a history as i bet IBM's is.

 

I was curious to know a little of the machines that were pictured in my old schoolbook. And it was not hard to identify them, as they all had there model numbers as part of the swish ICL logo on each machine. There were infact two lines of mainframe pictured in our books: the ICL1900 series and the later ICL2900 (newrange) series, which was made to be backwards compatible with the 1900's.

And for anybody interested in these there is an emulator of the operating system available:

http://www.icl1900.co.uk/preserve/g3ee.html

and some tips to get it all set up from this guy:

http://perso.calvaedi.com/~john/George3/

 

I had a play with it a few years ago, trying to relive the youth i never had.  We never had access to an ICL mainframe though, (not that i would have remembered) - but i recall  we had a BBC micro and a few other, lynx (?), micros.

 

 



[#] Mon May 05 2014 12:27:58 EDT from mo

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And now back to Microsoft bashing!!

 

I read in a room here, "Ancient computing" i think?, that microsoft lifted the Harvard BASIC implementation and that was the basis of their first product. Gawd Damn!!!!

I heard somehwere that they used the university DEC PDP10 to develop their first commercial offerings, which the Universirr=ty wasn't happy about when they found out, but swpiping the BASIC too. BASIC is /was in the public domain though, i supose--but you still gotta wrtie your own version of it. God Damm!

 

And to top it all, i think it is Paul Allen who runs a DEC PDP10 mainframe as part of his computer collection- now open to the public.

 

So you could say not only Microsofts operating systems are based on the pirated software metaphor, but even their very first product was developed at others expense.

 

 



[#] Mon May 05 2014 12:42:57 EDT from vince-q <vince-q@ns1.netk2ne.net>

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"They" (as in Microsoft, the company) didn't steal Harvard BASIC.
Bill Gates did that - in shoeboxes full of punch-cards (those Hollerith thingees of days gone bye).

The essence of the story - Microsoft stole Harvard BASIC - is true enough. Just that the "perp" did it all by his larcenous self.

[#] Mon May 05 2014 13:15:56 EDT from mo

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Who says crime don't pay? Its hard to find a reference to Gates and Harvard BASIC on the net, he must have paid Harvard a few dollars to make up? I read they wanted  a lot of money from him for the time that was used on their system to develop an emulator for the BASIC to run. So it was just Harvard BASIC ported to the intel 8080? 

 

 



[#] Mon May 05 2014 15:45:12 EDT from roue <roue@bbs.bubbanfriends.org>

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I worked on the harvard campus about a decade ago. Several very large, well appointed buildings bear Gates/Microsoft related names.

I was only there for about 2 years (working IT for the faculty of arts and sciences). It was a great place to pick up old hardware. They had a mailing list which amounted to "I'm leaving xyz workstation, PC, switch, etc" in hall foo, come and get it. I still have a nice switch and a couple of sparc 20s from back then.

[#] Mon May 05 2014 19:04:01 EDT from Ladyhawke

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Mon May 05 2014 12:42:57 PM EDT from vince-q @ Cascade Lodge BBS
"They" (as in Microsoft, the company) didn't steal Harvard BASIC.
Bill Gates did that - in shoeboxes full of punch-cards (those Hollerith thingees of days gone bye).

The essence of the story - Microsoft stole Harvard BASIC - is true enough. Just that the "perp" did it all by his larcenous self.

And actually, the Hollerith cards were an IBM invention.

And in typical Citi-drift fashion, it seems that they were not only used to pirate software, but also to count and exterminate Jews leading up to and during the Holocaust.

http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/



[#] Tue May 06 2014 08:28:26 EDT from the_mgt

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Considering that its inventor, Herman Hollerith, was the son of germans who moved to america, it was bound to end in Auschwitz. According to Horkheimer and Adorno, the idea of rationalism and reason needed to culminate in the 3rd Reich anyway.



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