Jim Thompson wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 10:12:26 -0500, Dan wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 09:53:42 -0500, Dan wrote:

Jim Thompson wrote:
On Tue, 17 Aug 2010 00:27:03 -0500, flipper wrote:

On Mon, 16 Aug 2010 23:39:48 -0500, Dan wrote:

flipper wrote:
snip
I really liked the PDP-11 and have one of the 'micro' versions.

John


I really liked the HP 2114A. The teletype I could do without now, but
I was used to it from timeshare days. The system we used had a tower
with a desk on the left for the TTY. The tower included and optical tape
reader, optical card reader which used cards one marked with a pencil,
the 2114A and a storage drawer with a hand held rewinder for longer
tapes. I can find pictures of the 2114A, but not the entire system.

I took a tour of Digital's Maynard facility and was impressed with
the PDP-12. Having used the PDP-8S, where the S stood for SLOW,
LOL. Yes, it's 1 bit serial ALU was deadly slow but it was also a lot
cheaper at $10k vs $25k for the 'fast' fellah.

In one of my EE courses we designed some interfaces for the PDP-8,
which was very simple to do so we spend most of the time playing
spacewar on it. hehe

That's the way to play a 'computer game', boy. Down in the bowels of a
computer lab with scopes, racks, and hardware scattered about so it
looks like you're doing something 'technical'.

the
PDP-12 with a CRT seemed wonderful.
A bit quirky, though. I'll take a PDP-11 any day.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired
I typed my MIT Bachelor's Thesis onto paper tape, using the
flexowriter input to a PDP-8. I think I still have the paper tape
around here somewhere... 48 years later ;-)

(Fellow classmate and PDP-8 hacker Alan Kotok (later a significant
digital architect at DEC, deceased May 26, 2006) and I were good
buddies and members of the model railroad club :-)

...Jim Thompson
Computers and model trains? Egad, not live steam, I hope.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired
Electric, HO and (IIRC) TT gauge. Occupied two rooms in MIT's
infamous (but now replaced) all-WWII-wood-construction Building 20.

However, here in AZ, we have a reduced-scale live-steam train at
McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park, Scottsdale.

...Jim Thompson
I'm in the process of building a live steam Pennsylvania switcher in
3/4" scale, 3.5 gauge track.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired

Nice! Will there be an inaugural party?

...Jim Thompson

No, at the rate I am going I will be about 150 years old and not ready
to party I will probably run it on compressed air a few times and
steam it once then donate it to the local library.

Dan, U.S. Air Force, retired