HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: >>>help! checkmap fails
Date: 13 Apr 92 14:20:31 GMT

I hear talk about A5000 crashes when you even *THINK* of discs. What is this
about? I have been using one solidly (and I MEAN solidly) for about 3-4 days
now, and it hasn't crashed yet. Is there any way of avoiding these crashes?
ADFSbuffers was set to zero when the machine arrived.

Nicko van Someren recently said "it seems that the real cost of useing the
file core E format is that there is nobody at Acorn who understands it". I
found this out about a year ago when I asked Oak if there was a defragmanting
program for the archie, and they told me that no-one has written one as no-one
knows how the format works, not even acorn! It seems that when doing anything
low-level they just close their eyes and let the computer get on with it.

Very strange...

Ian


Posted Mon Apr 13 15:20:26 BST 1992

=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+=+ 8< =+=+=+=+=+=+=+
Mr Ian Rawlings, Telephone Reading (0734) 662301
	EMAIL ssurawls@susssys1.rdg.ac.uk

A Dublin lawyer died in poverty and many barristers of the city sub-
scribed to a fund for his funeral. The Lord Chief Justice of Orbury
was asked to donate a shilling. "Only a shilling?" said the man. "Only
a shilling to bury an attorney? Here's a guinea; go and bury 20 of them."
From: kai@nicedel.north.de (Kai Schlichting)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: faulty scsi controllers (was:Re: help! checkmap fails)
Keywords: Harddisks
Date: 5 Apr 92 17:48:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: arc.17URVlj010n
Organization: Archimedes !RUCP Users

steve@acorn.co.uk (Steve "daffy" Hunt) writes:

> banksie@khantazi.welly.gen.nz (Philip R. Banks) writes:
> : errors are is difficult. This is one thing, is the Arc unique for having the
> : only filing system that de-fragments *as* it is being used?
> 
> No, I believe it's common practice.
> -- 
> 
>                               Steve Hunt      steve@acorn.co.uk
Hmm,I don't want to stir up a storm,but I own a SCSI controller from
HCCS/Armstrong LTD. ,and !DiscInfo shows my harddisk COMPLETELY shattered
into fragments...unlike adfs floppies,which always look fine.

As I've always had trouble with this controller (it keeps showing up
a 'Target status unknown' error) , 2 replacement cards/ 1 ROM update didn't
help (after phoning with the *lame* distributor here in Germany and
HCCS in England for an amount of about 40 pounds(!)), I came to the
conclusion that this company has designed a piece of *SHIT* ,and they're
too prone to admit it. I use an A3000/4megs/vidc-enh/100megs Quantum Prodrive.
Anymore reports about this company ,which I accuse of fraudulent
service/productsales behaviour ?
bye,Kai.



--------------------------------------------------------------- 
Tel.:  +49 421 556803 (voice)
E-mail: kai@nicedel.north.de (private UUCP site)
       j08i@dhbrrz41.bitnet (not valid;gets forwarded to rs550)
       j08i@rs550.zfn.uni-bremen.de (University)
---------------------------------------------------------------
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
From: goodwin@edieng.enet.dec.com (Pete Goodwin)
Subject: !ModelPlus, !Rayshade and the Acorn show in Reading
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation
Date: Mon, 6 Apr 1992 07:41:07 GMT


!Rayshade V4.0 is happily working on the desktop, though it needs some more
work on the front end, and a display routine.

!ModelPlus is starting to move - it looks easier than I thought. Having script
files defining everything makes my goal of making !Model output !PVray,
!Rayshade and other ray tracer output more easily reachable.

Anyone else go to the Acorn show in Reading?

Pete Goodwin
goodwin@system.enet.dec.com
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: >Risc Developments A3000 20MB HD
From: jwil1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (TMOTA)
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 05:15:29 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland

ssurawls@susssys1.reading.ac.uk (Mister E) writes:

>All this talk about hard discs going down! Has anyone had any troubles with
>the Oak 16-bit card? I have had it for over 2 years now and have NEVER EVER

Nope. Damn fine card. And Hot! (Excuse the Twin peaks quotes...;-)

>And not a single complaint.

well... some of the software could'a been better... but otherwise, excellent.

>And now they have reduced the price to about 100 quid. I advise anyone out
>there to forget about all this "peak transfer" rubbish. I personally wouldn't
>buy a hard disc interface that can wipe out my files at the rate of 4 megs per
>second!

Especially as most people don't realise that they'd have to sell their
HOUSE to get a drive that goes that fast anyway!
The other point is that most Archimedes programs are so small that the
difference in load time between 1/10th of a second and 1/20th of a second
is unnoticable... The only big files I've got are sound samples and
graphics, and the latter (loaded by translator) are never loaded in one
go anyway, so basically, I don't often transfer more than about 600k in one
go...More important on the Arc is fast seek time and track buffers so that
the thrashing (run !Run file, that loads !IconSprites, Run !RunImage,
Load Menus, Templates, Messages, Sprites, small modules) when you run
an application is quicker...

Actual transfer rates seem almost meaningless... After about 1MB/s I really
don't believe that many people would notice the difference unless they copy
HUGE files around a lot...

>There seems to be only two interfaces that can compete with oaks veteran,
>proven design. Acorns (very expensive but certainly the best) and, um, another
>one that claims 6 megs per second peak. How long before it trashes you files
>eh!

>Note that I have no links with oak, apart from being a satisfied customer.
Me neither.

>Actually, the only complaint I do have is that it took a while to arrive.
>About one month, which is a mere tick of the watford clock but a long time for
>me!

A month? Luxury! Back when I were a lad, I had my hard drive sitting in a
drawer for 5 weeks before my interface even arrived, and I got the drive
2 weeks after phoning in my order!
-- 
_________________  "I'd like to answer this question in two ways:
  /____ _ _/_ __       First in my normal voice, and then
 // / //_//_ /_/       in a silly, high-pitched whine." (Monty Python)
From: rjb12@unix.brighton.ac.uk (Browning;f110or89;[05306)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: 8 bit stuff...
Date: 10 Apr 92 16:50:56 GMT
Organization: Brighton Polytechnic, UK

Sounds great to me ... if someone can be bothered to moderate the group,
then I certainly can be bothered to support it! :-)

Cheers!
-- 
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
Rich Browning (rjb12@bton.unix)   *   Madness ...
Department of Computer Science    *   ... is merely a state of 
Brighton Polytechnic              *       intellectual independence
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
From: AWaddington@acorn.co.uk (Andy Waddington)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Bygone computers brought up to date
Date: 8 Apr 92 19:53:47 GMT
Distribution: comp
Organization: Acorn Computers Ltd, Cambridge, England

marlow@sys.uea.ac.uk (K. Marlow PG) writes [much trimmed]:

>dreid@acorn.co.uk writes:
>
>>... (Otherwise the next generation...(showing my age here...)
>>will not understand the real workings of a computer... just how to work it.)
>  Humm.. it is no longer the case that the next generation are required to
>learn the internal workings of the machine, even most s/w writers don't really
>know *how* the computer executes the s/w, all they are worried about is that
>it does it in a correct and repeatable manner.  It would be a funny world
>indeed if as part of the driving test you have explain in detail the
>workings of the internal combustion engine...  :-)
>
>    
>   Keith Marlow

I'm sure the world would be a much better place if that was the case. I
personally hate using equipment whose internal workings I don't understand.
If this philosophy was applied by everybody, we would have a better
educated population (eg. either (a) they would be well educated because
they had to read books because they weren't allowed to watch TV because
they don't know how it works or (b) they would at least know how a TV works
and would by that stage be sufficiently interested in how things work that
they wouldn't have time to rot their brain watching TV !). Put this idea
in law (but sell your shares in TV companies first, ESPECIALLY Satellite
TV companies - there's a lot to understand before you're justified in
watching the product of that much technology...).

Andy.

The views expressed are my own (obviously - would anyone else have views
this silly ?) and certainly do not represent those of any government,
political party, trade body, company, society or other body containing any
intelligent members.
From: s047@SAND.SICS.BU.OZ.AU (Jeremy Lee)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Sorry, but this is bullshit
Date: 4 Apr 92 03:25:49 GMT

>	I wasn't indiscriminate though the flame was probably gratuitous.
>Apologies for that. What actually caused me to reply in that manner was
>the "weekend Arm emulator" quote - having spent over a month on one I
>was not pleased by it. I've also made quite a few technical errors in
>postings in my time and been flamed viciously for it - that's how Usenet
>works. People should expect OTT behaviour - it's part of the culture! ;-)
>
>	-Huw
>
>[ H.J.Rogers  INTERNET: rogersh%p4@cs.man.ac.uk                    ]

	Oh. OK, well then to settle that, how about a simple test. 
I will attempt to write a rudimentary ARM emulator. It will be
written in basic, incredibly slow and cumbersome, have a terrible user
interface, and will only barely work at all. And, I have two whole
days in which to do it. Hmm, how will I start.. perhaps an array for
the registers, I'll use the dissasembler for the bit splitting and
recognition stuff, a proceedure for each function. Yeah, shouldn't
be too hard. I'll make the address space one huge array and ignore
memory paging (after all, that's the MEMC's job ;-)

	OF course, it won't be very elegant, or open to change. That's
what you get for writing something like that over a weekend. The point
was that it would take me many times longer to write a 68000 emulator.
The "Weekend arm emulator" was a throwaway quote to put down the
68000, and to praise the elegance of the ARM chip. I didn't expect
it to be taken seriously, and I'm sorry that it did.

***********************************************************************
*    . Jeremy Lee s047@sand.sics.bu.oz.au    Student of Everything    *
*   /|            "Where the naked spotless intelect is without       *
*  /_|              center or circumference. Look to the light,       *
* /  |rchimedes      Leland, look to the light" - Dale Cooper         *
***********************************************************************
From: nicho@VNET.IBM.COM
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: Personal Computer World
Date: 8 Apr 92 08:01:58 GMT
Article-I.D.: mammoth.9204080811.AA21164
Reply-To: nicho@vnet.ibm.com

In <9204080241.AA24224@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU> lithgow@uslp.UUCP writes:
>Whoops, naughty me, I've been forgetting the Subject: line. :-(
>
>[In message "Re: Personal Computer World", sgitokyo!VNET.IBM.COM!nicho writes:]
>> --- my stuff deleted ---
>Your reply points out that Microsoft thought a drastic jump *was*
>necessary. OS/2 is not even slightly DOS-like. When it flopped (because
>the ignorant uses wanted DOS compatability, not just an emulator),
>Microsoft shifted emphasis to Windows. IBM *still* thinks a jump is
>needed. (Note how incompatible PS/2's are with PC AT's.)
  Apologies, I wasn't sufficiently clear. When I say OS/2, I mean
OS/2 2.0. The point I was trying (badly) to make, is that it is not
necessary to be completely incompatible with prior systems in order
to make major improvments.

>Acorn's jump was more impressive, from an 8-bit BBC OS, to a 32-bit,
>different architecture new OS. But they still managed to maintain
>compatibility, with a variety of emulators and data-compatibility.
>Pretty damn impressive.
  Impressive yes, but hardly unique. ACORN are _not_ the only ones
who have made architectural leaps and maintained backwards
compatibility. That a company of that size has done so _is_ pretty
impressive tho'.

>>   IBM PC's have _never_ been 8086 based ....
>IBM PC clones have, though. The old Olivetti's for instance.
>The original IBM PC was even worse than this, though --
>it was 8088 based!
        ====
  Yes I know this, so were 99% of the clones.I wasn't aware that
Olivetti made an 8086 machine. They are in the minority.
>
>>The average PC spec is now 80386SX with 4MB,a VGA monitor and a 60MB
>>disk. Where have you been the last 3 years ???
>Average where (for the last 3 years, anyway)?
  Read again. I said average _now_.
A number of friends of mine bought IBM PC clones two to three years
>back (the fools) -- none of them even had a '286 in them,
>let alone a '386!
  Perhaps they are cheapskates ... :-)  Seriously, 286 machines
have been around for ages. If we must be pedantic, the 'average'
machine 3 years ago was considered to be an AT with 1MB ram and EGA.

>This may have changed in the last year, though.
  Changed a damn sight earlier than that.

>Change your sentence to 'Where have you been in the last few months?'
  OK .. where have you been in the last few months ???

>>  Nor would it seem, does your average student .... :-)
>Seems to know more than your average IBM employee. ;-)
I'm not an IBM employee, I'm a consultant ... <insert sniff here>
>
 -----------------------------------------------------------------
               ** Of course I don't speak for IBM **
Greg Nicholls ... nicho@vnet.ibm.com or nicho@cix.compulink.co.uk
                  voice/fax: 44-794-516038
         Greg Stewart-Nicholls  (CON0180 @ WINVMC)  1992/04/08 08:54 BST
Newsgroups: comp.sys.acorn
Subject: Re: MIDI sequencer and dealers in North America
From: epoo1@cs.aukuni.ac.nz (Edouard Malachi     Poor           )
Date: Tue, 14 Apr 1992 00:21:59 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Dept. University of Auckland
Keywords: MIDI

In <1992Apr10.171125.24348@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com> lezz@merlin.dev.cdx.mot.com (Lezz Giles) writes:

>A quick question - I live in Boston, Mass. in the USA,
>and I have an Archimedes A310.  I want to buy a MIDI
>sequencer and interface card - is there a dealer in the
>USA or Canada who'd sell me the stuff or do I need to
>get it all shipped in from the UK?  If I need to get
>it shipped from the UK, can anybody recommend a dealer?
>Also can anybody recommend a MIDI sequencer and interface?

Well I can't suggest much, but a musician freind of mine had a look at the
acorn one and pronounced it over priced and under featured... Doesn't
have enough range in most of the commands and is lacking several
reasonably important ones. I would suggest looking around and carefully
inspecting each products specs... The serial port I think make one, but
they are not the most reputable company I know of (no slander intended, just
past experience with them delaying shipments of products for 3 or 4 months
_after_ they deducted the money from the ol' visa card worries me...)

>Also, how much is Elite for the Archimedes and how does
>it compare to the old Elite for the BBC Micro (I actually
>got up to "Elite" class on my old BBC many years ago).

Exactly the same. Well it was from memory, but when we compared it
directly to a BBC, it seems alot better... there are practically
no new feature mind... Its just that its on a much better machine.

Recommended.

Edouard.
From: c1b6898@tamsun.tamu.edu (Carl Brown)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: /etc/gated problem?
Keywords: TCP/IP network ftp
Date: 6 Apr 92 23:43:04 GMT
Organization: Texas A&M University

We have a MIPS machine running RISC/os (UMIPS) 4.3.  It is having the
following problem:

No network traffic larger than a certain (fairly consistent) size can
get out of the machine.  Any time that you try to move a file off the
machine over the network (Thin net TCP/IP), the process hangs after a
certain amount of output.  It happens with sendmail, ftp (from the
local machine or another machine), uucp, rcp, or even if you telnet or
rlogin into it and try to cat a file.  It's like the machine is
sending a certain packet size (or packet group) and waiting for some
signal that never comes.  All traffic attempting to move files into
the machine works perfectly.

I'm running gated with RIP yes and EGP no and HELO no.

The machine was running fine on another subnet with another gateway
and then it got moved to a different building, where it has never
worked correctly. 

Is there anything that I'm missing, or can anyone think of anything
else that I can do to see what's wrong?  Any help would be greatly
appreciated.  This is driving me nuts.

				Thanks,
					Carl Brown


---
Carl Brown | c1b6898@tamsun | carlb@tamu.edu | CSC Graphics Lab | 845-1365
"The only thing that is impossible to do in Unix is to figure out how to do
certain things."  -me (I think)

Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
From: rlove@den.mmc.com (Robert B. Love 7-1842)
Subject: GNUplot
Keywords: make, gnu, plot
Organization: Martin Marietta Astronautics, Denver
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 15:07:39 GMT

Has anyone built GNU Plot for the MIPS/CDC 4680?  What target is
used in the make operation?  That is, what do you type for:

  make <machine>

where mips is not an element of the list of supported machines?

I tried sgi, but the make failed.  Thanx for all advice.




-- 

/s/  R.B. Love
MMAG, Launch Vehicle Software
(303)977-1842
From: haidl@mercury.cs.uregina.ca (Mark Haidl)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: Query - rarpd for MIPS Risc/os 4.52
Date: 7 Apr 92 18:34:03 GMT
Reply-To: haidl@mercury.cs.uregina.ca (Mark Haidl)
Organization: University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan
Originator: haidl@mercury.cs.uregina.ca

It appears that rarpd is not included with RISCos 4.52. Is it available
to customers with service contracts? Alternatively is there a public domain
version available(my archie query did not seem to so show anything generic)
-- 
Mark Haidl, Systems Manager, Dept of Computer Science, U of Regina, Canada
haidl@cs.uregina.ca,  regina!mercury!haidl
Phone: (306)585-4977, Fax: 586-9862
From: k2@bl.physik.tu-muenchen.de (Klaus Steinberger)
Subject: Re: GNUplot
Keywords: make, gnu, plot
Organization: Technische Universitaet Muenchen, Germany
Date: Tue, 7 Apr 1992 21:51:53 GMT

rlove@den.mmc.com (Robert B. Love 7-1842) writes:

>Has anyone built GNU Plot for the MIPS/CDC 4680?  What target is
>used in the make operation?  That is, what do you type for:

>  make <machine>

>where mips is not an element of the list of supported machines?

With some little editing in the Makefile its works with "make X11",
but I did made complete Rules for the RISCos/EPIX.  I could send
the changed Makefile by mail, or I could put it into my FTP archive.

Sincerely,
Klaus Steinberger

--
Klaus Steinberger               Beschleunigerlabor der TU und LMU Muenchen
Phone: (+49 89)3209 4287        Hochschulgelaende
FAX:   (+49 89)3209 4280        D-8046 Garching, Germany
Internet: Klaus.Steinberger@bl.physik.uni-muenchen.de
From: ejm@NOC.Vitalink.COM (Erik Murrey)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: Re: /etc/gated problem?
Keywords: TCP/IP network ftp
Date: 7 Apr 92 15:50:52 GMT
Organization: Vitalink Communications Corporation, US

In article <11929@tamsun.tamu.edu>, c1b6898@tamsun.tamu.edu (Carl Brown) writes:
|> We have a MIPS machine running RISC/os (UMIPS) 4.3.  It is having the
|> following problem:
|> 

It sounds like you may even be experiencing a problem with the physical,
connection itself, not the TCP/IP stack.  Large packets can cause false
collision indications on ethernet, especially thin-net which isn't terminated
properly.

Hope this helps!

... Erik
---
Erik J. Murrey
Vitalink Communications NOC
ejm@NOC.Vitalink.COM	...!uunet!NOC.Vitalink.COM!ejm
Xref: sparky comp.sys.mips:577 misc.forsale.computers:17495
From: mbaker@ucs.adelaide.edu.au (Matthew Baker)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mips
Subject: GAS port - need to contact
Date: 9 Apr 92 14:13:24 GMT
Organization: Information Technology Division, The University of Adelaide, AUSTRALIA


hi,

	I little while ago I posted a message asking for comments on
either PD or commercial assembers for the R3000 range.  I had a message
from a person at the OSF who had done a port of GAS for this processor.
I since tried to send a message to him, but unfortunatly this message
doesn't seem to have reached him. Also, I have lost his mailing address.
Can this person please send me some mail, so I can contact him again?

Thanks,
Matthew Baker
mbaker@ucs.adelaide.edu.au
Xref: sparky comp.sys.unisys:319 comp.sys.3b1:1947
From: mute@wpi.WPI.EDU (Madman Omar)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.unisys,comp.sys.3b1
Subject: SLIP on the Miniframe
Date: 9 Apr 92 23:37:46 GMT
Article-I.D.: wpi.1992Apr9.233746.17495
Organization: Worcester Polytechnic Institute


Has anyone implemented SLIP (Serial Line Internet Protocol) on the
Convergent MiniFrame? I would be interested in getting my hands on 
a copy of the sources, if you have, and would be generous enough
to allow me to have them.

Thanks in advance,
Josh Brandt
-- 
          ...said it was heaven just to breathe your air...   Severed Heads
                                         - mute@wpi.wpi.edu   Joshua Brandt -
From: toad@cellar.org (Tony Shepps)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.unisys
Subject: Re: Unisys 6000/65 + SVR4
Date: 13 Apr 92 23:11:46 GMT
Organization: The Cellar BBS and public access system

> Looking for someone who is diddling with the new 65 boxes.  I've
> heard that there aren't many outside K-Mart.  Anyone familiar
> with these interesting machines?

I supported them for a while.  IMO, they're a good way to extend power of
an Intel-based system through the use of brute force.

Because you can have up to 5 CPUs, they're pretty good at cruching CPU-bound
jobs.  I/O-bound jobs don't see as much of a gain, because only the first
CPU (the "master" CPU) can talk to the I/O processor.  This unlike the
Sequent solution, where all CPUs can do I/O.

The SVR4 OS seems pretty reliable -- not many problems reported with it.
Most support issues were more or less related to everyone getting used to
release 4 -- so much has changed!  Basically, you have to re-learn Unix.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
- Tony Shepps      toad@cellar.org      (...{tredysvr|uunet}!cellar!toad)  -
- The Cellar BBS  +1 215 654 9184   Reliable hardware, responsible sysops, -
- and lion noise is never a problem.  ( *GROWL!* )  (eeep!)  NO CARRIER
Newsgroups: comp.sys.unisys
From: jon@unislc.uucp (Jon Bork)
Subject: Re: Speed of 2200 Mainframes range
Organization: unisys
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 92 21:12:49 GMT

From article <1992Apr7.181227.6981@taloa.unice.fr>, by laborell@mimosa.unice.fr (Louis Laborelli):
> I would like to have an idea of the speed of a 2200/1100 mainframe, 
> for OLTP  (TPC...) 

For the TPC/A benchmark:

2200/421	 57.57 tpsA 
2200/442	104.59 tpsA
2200/462	133.16 tpsA
-- 

Jon Bork
Phone: (801) 594-5508	Fax: (801) 594-6708	OFIS:	JEB1/CORP
internet: jon@unislc.slc.unisys.com  -or- unislc!jon
From: schimala@esqserver2.esq.tandem.com (Sashi Chimala)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.unisys
Subject: HELP! Need info on UNISYS (Fujitsu) Catridge Library Unit (CLU)
Keywords: CLU FUJITSU UNISYS
Date: 8 Apr 92 02:06:57 GMT
Article-I.D.: tandem.1992Apr8.020657.514
Reply-To: chimala_sashi @ tandem.com
Distribution: usa
Organization: Tandem Computers, Inc.

Friends,

We need info on UNISYS CT0879 Catridge Library Unit. I beleive its made by  
Fujitsu. We are working at a site that has both UNISYS and TANDEM hardware and  
are trying to integrate our clients CLU with Tandem. Any info about the CLU or  
help in integrating the unit is appreciated.

Thanks.

SASHI CHIMALA
ESQ BUSINESS SERVICES, INC.
(408) 366-7405
(408) 366-7410 Fax