Post Am8hsGJsUIPntg1Z8C by fuzzface@epsilon-ix.masto.host
(DIR) More posts by fuzzface@epsilon-ix.masto.host
(DIR) Post #Am8YxSqmQXiscXoszY by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-18T19:13:00Z
0 likes, 2 repeats
Anyone have the resources to read this half inch 1600 vpi tape from 1987? It's a backup tape of J. M. Hill's (Univ of AZ, Astronomy) FORTH drive, dated 20 sep 1987. Probably nothing earth shattering on the tape. Seven inch reel with 2 cm (thickness) on it, probably one megabyte. Even raw block dumps would would be ok. No idea what hardware it might be from. Probably not hard to figure out.
(DIR) Post #Am8c2FeNERNqzXzVQm by wendynather@infosec.exchange
2024-09-18T19:47:26Z
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@tomjennings @scruss Can … can I just hold it for a minute? Cuddle it? No, I don’t have anything to read it but I miss walking those around.
(DIR) Post #Am8dBSiG8Oo846lRwW by TLisaB@zirk.us
2024-09-18T20:00:20Z
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@tomjennings Ask there, I'd guess they still have machines running to read this.https://www.hnf.de/en/home.html
(DIR) Post #Am8eX8Uq4ygvgqNzIe by liaizon@social.wake.st
2024-09-18T20:15:27Z
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@tomjennings cc @textfiles
(DIR) Post #Am8fGSyQnA10ELqIYC by ppxl@social.tchncs.de
2024-09-18T20:23:39Z
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@tomjennings maybe @foone because it remotely relates to disks? 😅
(DIR) Post #Am8g1dLa2dvE0tA4aO by isonno@mastodon.social
2024-09-18T20:32:11Z
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@tomjennings Check out https://classiccmp.org/ You may need to join the mailing list briefly, but you'll find somebody in that community with hardware to read the tape set up and ready to go. I contacted them for a friend in a similar situation, and he found somebody willing to read it & send the data for a small fee.
(DIR) Post #Am8hsGJsUIPntg1Z8C by fuzzface@epsilon-ix.masto.host
2024-09-18T20:52:53Z
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@tomjennings The commands on the labels do not correspond with tape handling on VAX/VMS or IBM VM/CMS from that era, AFAIK.
(DIR) Post #Am8nNPrXYZtcF3Rbay by johnkapri@mastodon.social
2024-09-18T21:54:32Z
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@tomjennings I think @lethalbit might have the means to read these?
(DIR) Post #Am8pIy8qsbpB18Y5ce by UncivilServant@med-mastodon.com
2024-09-18T22:16:09Z
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@tomjennings I wonder if @NanoRaptor has ever heard the sound of one of these being dropped on a desk followed by "what the bloody hell is this?"
(DIR) Post #Am919emqfcpZphaCtE by neilernst@mastodon.acm.org
2024-09-19T00:28:56Z
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@tomjennings fascinating that it actually seems well documented but 40 years on even those notes aren't too helpful.
(DIR) Post #Am91HjACHYbBiuLuhU by patcanfield@mastodon.social
2024-09-19T00:30:23Z
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@tomjennings Tis a Far, Far Out better thing I do....
(DIR) Post #Am96Oy3XoFFji5VpZY by SpaceLifeForm@infosec.exchange
2024-09-19T01:27:43Z
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@tomjennings This may not matter, but it may help.I suspect it was created on a PDP-11.I do not have a PDP-11 but I know that people have working kit. Good luck.
(DIR) Post #Am97e2s6HuhGwVufj6 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-19T01:41:40Z
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@neilernst I worked on enough minicomputer systems to recognize the jargon but it's very specific to the machine and drive and software. So missing context. I found jw hill, he's still at AZ and I think I better ask him!
(DIR) Post #Am9AJQ1rIHeiXsKjuS by AlgoCompSynth@mastodon.social
2024-09-19T02:11:31Z
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@tomjennings You might try the Silicon Valley FIG Meetup group - I'm guessing someone there will know a hobbyist / ex-IBMer with access to a tape drive.Or maybe Bitsavers??https://www.meetup.com/sv-fig/discussions/?eventOrigin=event_home_page#Forth
(DIR) Post #Am9L5RNAbGxY9dq4kS by piebob@metasocial.com
2024-09-19T04:12:14Z
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@tomjennings i wonder if it's data/parameters from the 90" telescope at Kitt Peak, given that bottom label. i used to be a telescope operator/data analyst at the CCD Transit Instrument there in the early 90s, and in the early part of my time there, the telescope was all run on like 64k of FORTH.
(DIR) Post #Am9YeBBS55wXU7FkO0 by UpLateGeek@bitbang.social
2024-09-19T06:44:12Z
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@tomjennings there’s a user on Shelby’s Tech Tangents discord who occasionally posts about repairing her Kennedy 9610 drive, screen/user name Nicole/lavenderfox, usually posts in the tech channel. She might have already fixed it. Don’t have a direct link right now.
(DIR) Post #Am9de7QmX815cIDK88 by fishidwardrobe@mastodon.me.uk
2024-09-19T07:40:12Z
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@tomjennings A megabyte of Forth is _quite_ a lot of Forth…
(DIR) Post #Am9ryz8rwf5NLfgBOa by strangequark@dice.camp
2024-09-19T10:20:51Z
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@tomjennings Hi Tom, I'm responsible for the long-term tape archive of CERN's physics data in Geneva, Switzerland.We do have a very old (but functional) tape drive in our storage room which could probably read that, but the problem would be the connector to the server. Our modern servers only speak fibre channel/ethernet.I would second the proposal to contact the computer museum in Mountain View. Though one issue you may have is data loss from degradation of the tape media after 40 years.
(DIR) Post #Am9sbWYg9WEVzX81nk by Dianora@ottawa.place
2024-09-19T10:27:49Z
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@tomjennings I may know someone. P.S. I did a lot of FORTH here and still have a few 9t tapes as well I cannot read that I am about to toss.
(DIR) Post #AmAo3qaOyh8RbOa360 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-19T21:11:39Z
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@wendynather Lol! I miss the physicality of that era of computing, though in practical terms it's all awful...
(DIR) Post #AmAo6FX1CbxhY38x0a by scruss@xoxo.zone
2024-09-18T19:54:19Z
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@wendynather @tomjennings if you miss tape boxes, the big 3M ones live on as the Jack Richeson Lock Box Palette for artists ...
(DIR) Post #AmAo6GH6RGpDqyhkq8 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-19T21:12:05Z
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@scruss very nice!
(DIR) Post #AmAoQd7XD0ckV2wRm4 by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-19T21:15:46Z
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@isonno Oh $diety save me, I will never go near classiccmp or especially its mailing lists again. So many damaged men... I got credible death threats once for a perceived insult of someones LSI 11... I learned my lesson...
(DIR) Post #AmAoVNSGsdtvMUu9ui by glent@aus.social
2024-09-19T04:05:14Z
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@fuzzface @tomjennings They are for FORTH to read the tape. It's likely to be "pages" of text in 1KB pages, each being 16 lines of 64 ASCII characters, space padded. So if you can get the bytes off the tape (and the BPI is low enough for any tape drive to do that) then reconstructing the dumped data into a modern format won't be too hard.Source: ported figFORTH to the BBC Micro when I was 15yo.
(DIR) Post #AmAoVOFtu7bFqQ7nGq by tomjennings@tldr.nettime.org
2024-09-19T21:16:37Z
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@glent right, good point, are these FORTH tapes? Or tapes of FORTH eg a DEC or RDOS dump etc... sheesh.
(DIR) Post #AmArnvqu1x1h7Nxu0e by randylea@mastodon.social
2024-09-19T21:53:34Z
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@tomjennings In the very early 1980s, I programmed a 24-bit computer that used 4 chars per word (6-bits). The computer was custom designed for test equipment. There was no hard drive or floppy, just the mag tape. The computer booted on the mag tape, which also stored date. The OS was called TOS, Tape Operating System. The language was very similar to compiled BASIC. I carried mag taped around all the time.
(DIR) Post #AmBWl4zdgVNoihoHTM by glent@aus.social
2024-09-20T05:32:22Z
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@tomjennings Hi Tom. I read it as written by that FORTH program, but obviously on some hardware. Looks like the first thing the read does is jump over the vendor tape label.
(DIR) Post #AmBZiHwXNdDlsSihA8 by isonno@mastodon.social
2024-09-20T06:05:35Z
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@tomjennings Understood.I went back through my email archives, and found this reference to a service that reads old media: https://www.sydex.com/I referred them ten years ago, but the web site is still alive, so the service may still be available.