• Tag Archives technology

  • Digital Archaeology: Floppy Disk #14 – SEP84.DOC

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    A summary for those that haven’t been keeping up with this series:

    I found a number of 5.25″ disks at a thrift store a number of years ago (sometime in the late 1990s to the best of my recollection). I finally got around to acquiring a 5.25″ disk drive and extracting the contents a several years back. Since then, I have been occasionally posting the content here.

    Based on the contents, most or all of these disks were apparently once owned by someone named Connie who used to run the “Close Encounters” Special Interest Group (SIG) on Delphi in the mid 1980s.

    The following description of this SIG was found in a document on one of the disks: “This SIG, known as ‘Close Encounters’, is a forum for the discussion of relationships that develop via computer services like the Source, CompuServe, and Delphi. Our primary emphasis is on the sexual aspects of those relationships.”

    This service was text based and was accessed via a modem and whatever terminal program you had available for your computer to dial in with. Many of these disks have forum messages, e-mails and chat session logs. All of this is pre-internet stuff and I am not aware of any archives in existence today that contain what was on Delphi in the 1980s.

    This post includes the contents of SEP84.DOC. This appears to be a report that gives details on the usage of the SIG (how many hours each user spent in the SIG, etc.). This is in the from of an e-mail from someone named KELLY who was presumably an employee of Delphi. The e-mail is dated October 4th, 1984.

    There are two SIGs (Special Interest Groups) that have been mentioned repeatedly in these files. One is the “Close Encounters” SIG and the other is the “Friendship Circle” SIG though I’m not entirely sure they were different. “Close Encounters” may have evolved from “Friendship Circle”. In any case “Closed Circle” is mentioned in this report but maybe this is an alias or the name changed again at some point. This report has a much larger number of users than the previous one from August.

    One thing to note is how it lists “PRIME” minutes separately from “OFFPRIME” minutes. Off prime minutes would have cheaper than prime minutes or even free (outside of the monthly Delphi subscription fee anyway). These would typically be from some time later in the evening until some time in the morning. Prime minutes would be the busiest time or at least the time when business customers were online. If you were online during prime minutes than you were paying a per minute access fee in addition to your subscription. This is kind of how things worked in the early days of cell phones too.

    This file is dated September 2nd, 1985 and was in a subdirectory titled “SIGUSAGE”.


    =-=
    SEP84.DOC
    =-=


    —

     
From:   KELLY           4-OCT-1984 15:20  
To:     CABUYS
Subj:   Usage Report

Usage report, by time, for Closed Circle Sig
============================================
                                       PRIME     OFFPRIME 
     USERNAME             SESSIONS    Minutes   Minutes 
     --------             --------    -------   --------
     ACE                        31         30        371
     ADAMM                       3          0        143
     AKEITH                      1          0          1
     AMANDA                      4          0         26
     ANNETTE                     1          0         25
     APOLLO                      1          0         33
     ATLAS                      10          0        302
     BEEP739                     1          0          1
     BELISARIUS                  2          0         20
     BIALI1                      1          0         13
     BRH                         2          0         14
     BRIGHT                      2          0         52
     BRODGE                      1          0          9
     BUSSIGMGR                   3          0         12
     BWARMSTRONG                 1         15          0
     BZ                          4          0        129
     CABUYS                    132          0       4139
     CBS                         3          0         81
     CDSVP                       1          0         14
     CHARLESREIS                 1          0          1
     CHRISC                      1          0          5
     CLC                         1          0          4
     CONDOR                      6          0         69
     CREATE                      1          0         14
     DANA                        5          2        130
     DANTOM                      2          0         15
     DAVEWARKER                  1          0         17
     DEOGBURN                    2          0          3
     DMANDELL                    1          0          1
     DMILLER                     1          0         21
     DONELAN                     1          0          1
     DOUGLEVY                    1          0         49
     ELFAN                       6          0         48
     ELT                         2          0         33
     EUGENEROSEN                 2          0         70
     FRIED                      31          0        797
     FURD                        1          0         10
     GENJI                       1          0         45
     GES                         3          0         47
     GFTJR                       1          0          2
     GOODGUY                     1          0         14
     GORKY                       1          0          1
     GRENDEL                     2          0         89
     HANSOLO                    16          0        569
     HAPPYPEPPER                 1          0          7
     HELENH                      5         31         57
     INTER                       2          0         18
     JCG                         3          0        186
     JDCLYDE                     1          0          9
     JERRYP                      1          0          3
     JHERNANDEZ                  1          0          6
     JOHNGALT                    1          0         10
     JOHNMYSELF                 34          0       1269
     JPM                         2          0         28
     JSARAS                      2          0         14
     KAPROTYRO                   4          0        134
     KASSIMALEX00                1          0         16
     LARRYV                      1          0          1
     LBALK                       1          0         38
     LESHY                       1          0          1
     MARLON                      1          0         16
     MAVEN                       1          0         27
     MIDDLETON                   1          0          3
     MIKE                        1          0         38
     MLUKENS                     1          0          1
     MRHAPPY                     3          0         31
     MSG                         2          0         19
     NINJA                       1          0         10
     NYCSHRINK                   4          0        188
     PEACEMAKER                  1          0         36
     PETERBOLSON                 3          0        308
     PG                          1          0         11
     PHILO                       1         10          0
     PLAZA                       1          0         20
     PRINCESS                    2          0         30
     QUICKRODNEY                38          9        700
     RDM                         1          0         35
     RDM001                      1          0         29
     RJMCGRATH                   1          4         27
     SCOHEN                      3         64         30
     SEB7                        2         12         34
     SFAIDSFOUND                 1         18          0
     SHADOW                      3          0         95
     SKOEGLER                    1          0         21
     SMILE                       3          0        176
     SPARKY                     17         40        676
     SUMMER                     17          0        200
     SUZIE                       1          0         27
     TROPICAL                    4          2         73
     UAP0M                       5          1        108
     WALI                        1          0          1
     WOMBLE                      5          0         84
     WTM                         1          0          5
     WULFE                       1         32          0
     YN2514                      1          0         20
     YOSHI                       4          0        264
------------------------------------------------------------
     Totals in minutes         491        270      12580
     Totals in hours                      4.50    209.67

    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • Maximum PC (February 2004)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Maximum PC was my favorite computer magazine. It had a pretty long run starting as ‘boot’ in the late 1990s. The last issue was published just a few years ago. The February 2004 issue includes:

    Regulars

    • In/Out – Letters from readers about hyperthreaded Pentium 4s, batteries in iPods, benchmark scores, and more.
    • Quick Start – An on-hand look at the removeable graphics card in the Alienware Area-51m laptop; Phoenix looks at possible BIOS replacements; and more.
    • Head2Head – A comparison of the benefits of 802.11g wireless networking vs. gigabit ethernet.
    • WatchDog – The latest on a lawsuit regarding the IBM 75GXP hard drive
    • Ask the Doctor – Questions answered about the Temp directory in Windows 98, viewing .dmp files, removing the password in Windows 95, swap file contents, CD burning problems, clock speed discrepancies, Radeon 9800 Pro issues, and more.
    • How To – A guide to installing Linux on your PC. This guide uses Mandrake.
    • Rig of the Month – A custom built PC with a case made with lego.

    Reviews

    • Hy-Tek Panel 300 desktop PC – An all-in-one PC with a 30-inch display featuring a 2.4GHz Pentium 4, 512MB DDR266 RAM, ATI All-in-Wonder 9700 Pro, and more for $6495.
    • Screamworx Hysteria 64-FX desktop PC – A PC featuring an AMD Athlon 64 FX-51 (2.2 GHz) CPU, 2GB Registered DDR400 RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 XT videocard, and more for $3650.
    • Monarch Computer Systems Hornet Pro mini-PC – Features Socket 754 Athlon 64 series CPU support, one 8x AGP slot and three PCI slots, and a 250 watt power supply.
    • AOpen XC Cube mini-PC – Features Socket A Athlon XP CPU support, one 8x AGP slot and one PCI slot, and a 220 watt power supply.
    • FIC Ice Cube IC-VL67 mini-PC – Features Socket 478 Pentium 4 CPU support, one 8x AGP slot and one PCI slot, and a 220 watt power supply. I was never really a fan of the small form factor PC. I deal for LAN parties I suppose but too much heat, wimpy power supply, limited expandability, etc. always made it a poor choice for a primary PC.
    • Fujitsu Lifebook P5020D notebook PC – This laptop features a 1GHZ Pentium M, 512MB DDR266 RAM, and a 10.5-inch 1280×768 display with Intel Extreme Graphics for $2000.
    • Creative Labs Gigaworks S750 7.1 speakers – A decent 7.1 speaker set for your PC for $500.
    • Logitech Z-2200 2.1 speakers – One of the best 2.1 PC speaker sets you could get for $150.
    • Sapphire Radeon 9800 XT videocard – One of the fastest GPUs you could get at the time but it would set you back $500.
    • Western Digital 740GD Raptor hard drive – This 74GB 10,000 RPM drive gets a perfect 10 from Maximum PC and was probably the fastest consumer drive you could get.
    • Steganos Security Suite Generation 6 – Highly rated software for encrypting your hard drive.
    • Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer 4.0 mouse – Maximum PC gives this mouse a perfect 10.
    • Sony DRU-530A 8x dual-format DVD burner – A DVD burner that could burn both DVD+R and DVD-R media.
    • Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic – This classic Star Wars RPG gets a perfect 10 from Maximum PC. I can’t believe it’s been this long since this game was released.
    • Secret Weapons Over Normandy – A mediocre World War II flight simulator.
    • XIII – A relatively obscure and mediocre first person shooter.
    • Deus Ex: Invisible War – Maximum PC calls this open world FPS the best designed PC game of the year.

    Features

    • Windows Tips – A detailed guide for improving the performance and usability of Windows XP.
    • PC Rights – Your rights as they relate to the Digital Millenia Copyright Act (DMCA).
    • Games of the Year – Maximum PC’s first gaming awards. There are awards in a variety of categories including Game of the Year (Planetside), Single-Player Game of the Year (Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic), Technical Excellence (Deus Ex: Invisible War), and more.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged

  • Byte (July 1984)

    Posted on by Azrael Comment

    Throughout much of the 1980s, Byte was really the magazine to have if you were into computers. It covered pretty much everything and was an excellent resource, especially before the PC dominated everything. The July 1984 issue includes:

    Features

    • Symphony: A Full-Orchestra Version of Lotus 1-2-3 – A preview of the new integrated software package from Lotus centered around the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet application.
    • Ciarcia’s Circuit Cellar: A Musical Telephone Bell – A guide to customizing the ring of your telephone…it wasn’t as easy as just changing your ringtone.
    • The West Coast Faire – A report from the West Coast Computer Faire including a Modula-2 panel, Turbo Pascal, and more.
    • The Ada Language Primer, Part 2: Tool Building in Ada – The second in a two-part series on Ada. I used Ada a little in my very first job.
    • Kermit: A File Transfer Protocol for Universities, Part 2: States and Transitions, Heuristic Rules and Examples – The second part of a technical look at the Kermit protocol. I remember that this file transfer protocol was also frequently available on BBSes but XMODEM and ZMODEM were more commonly used.

    Theme: Video

    • Electronic Encyclopedias – Today when you hear “electronic encyclopedia” you probably think of Wikipedia. However, in the early 1980s, the idea was to combine computers with “interactive video” – think laserdiscs.
    • Televisions as Monitors – It was already common to use a TV as a monitor for some computers such as the Atari and Commodore 64. This article talks about current technologies as well as future technologies such as LCD.
    • Computer Control of a Video Recorder – A project for controlling VCRs with varactor tuners with a TRS-80 (or any sound-generating computer).
    • Controlling Videodiscs with Micros – A look at current videodisc formats, ways to interface with computers, and potential use cases.

    Reviews

    • The Sage II and Sage IV Computers – A series of computers that included up to 1 MB of RAM, 40 megabyte hard drive and floppy drive, based on the Motorola MC68000 chip.
    • The Compaq Plus – A follow-up to the original Compaq portable that was basically identical except for the inclusion of a 10 MB hard drive.
    • Xenix for the IBM PC XT – An add-on card for the IBM PC XT that includes an 68000 processor and an additional 256K of RAM for running Microsoft’s Xenix OS.
    • Turbo Pascal – A review of Borland’s original Pascal compiler. I used a later version in high school.
    • LISP for the IBM Personal Computer – A look at two implementations of the Lisp programming language for the PC including IQLISP and muLISP. LISP was one of the original AI languages.
    • The Smith-Corona L-1000 Printer – A 12cps daisy wheel printer for $549 (tractor feed optional).

    Kernal

    • Computing at Chaos Manor: The AT&T Computers – A discussion of various products including the AT&T 382/300 Computer, CompuPro 8/16 System, Disk Maker I, Enchanter and Sorcerer from Infocom, the Macintosh, RAM Disks for the Z400 and Z-100, the Sage II and Sage IV computers, and more.
    • BYTE West Coast Trends in Telecommunications – A look at online search software (software designed to search online databases) such as In-Search and Dialog and new, faster modems up to 9600bps such as the Gamma Technology FAXT-96 for $1995.
    • BYTE Japan Start-Up – A look at Seiko’s wrist computer, Tokyo’s Akihabara district, and more.
    • Mathematical Recreations: Invariance – Card tricks with numbers.
    • Editorial: Patronizing the Naive User – How computer companies mistrust their users.
    • Microbytes – New battery powered portable from Morrow called Pivot, new laser and color printers, new 3.5″ disk drives, new 20 megabyte hard drives and 10 megabyte half-height drives, new Apricot computers from ACT, Digital Research introduces Concurrent PC-DOS, new speech recognition hardware for the PC, and more.
    • What’s New – A brief look at new products including the NEC Advanced Personal Computer III, Omni-Reader, Otrona 200I portable computer, Gibson Light Pen, StarLink multi-user system for the IBM PC, 512K memory expansion for the PCjr, and more.
    • Ask BYTE – Questions answered about power-line pollution, bank switching, infrared links, MS-DOS vs. PC-DOS, and more.
    • Book Reviews – Reviews of Algorithms by Robert Sedgewick, Forth Fundamentals Volume I by C. Kevin McCabe, The Unix Operating System by Kaare Christian, and Artificial Intelligence Applications for Business by Walter Reitman.

    …and more!


    📂This entry was posted in Computer Arcana 📎and tagged