- WLUG - wlug.mailman3.com

Remembering KO
by Ken Jones Feb. 13, 2011

Feb. 13, 2011

I shall reveal my age. I was a working AN/FSQ7 programmer in Group 67 at Lincoln Labs when KO took off on his crazy venture to that mill in Maynard. I did not know Ken at the time as he was in Group 64 if my memory serves me correctly. DEC's first products were 'logic boards'. Those were the days of 'wire wrap' breadboarding. Ken's cards built with itty bitty new fangled transistor things slipped securely into a standard wire wrap board. I do not remember any specific cards, but I know they consisted of multiple individual NAND and NOR gates and probably a couple of FLIP FLOPs. >From that came the PDP-1 which I never saw. My memory focuses on the PDP-8 which was popular - so to speak. To put this in perspective the US had just deployed the SAGE air defense computers all around the country to detect and intercept Russian atomic bomb carrying jet airplanes. The SAGE computers used water cooled vacuum tube technology. I suggest, if you can find a library (remember them?), that is open check out "DEC is Dead, Long LIve DEC" The Lasting Legacy of Digital Equipment Corporation by Edgar Schein. (Is it available on NOOK?). My read of that book was that DEC was fine and healthy so long as it's engineers were producing products the customers did not know they needed, ie DEC was never consumer driven. (This is part of why KO was so beloved.) I was a TCP/IP aware person when I went to work for DEC in 1985. Inside those DEC walls DECnet was not only everything, it was the only thing. Ken Jones

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Off topic: good iPod Touch 4th Gen repairers?
by John Stoffel Feb. 10, 2011

Feb. 10, 2011

Guys, Got a 4th gen iPod Touch with a busted glass cover. Anyone know of a reliable and cost effective place to do the repair? Thanks, John --

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nice remembrances: Ken Olsen, DEC, .....
by Doug Mildram Feb. 9, 2011

Feb. 9, 2011

A nice article from Jon Hall is on top of the blog http://www.linuxpromagazine.com/Online/Blogs/Paw-Prints-Writings-of-the-mad… along with many other replies about PDP-* systems, VMS, etc. My first HIGHtech job (1985) was hanging tapes and keeping dumb terminals alive and connected to four VAX 750/780's running (not VMS but) BSD4 unix (before NFS, before NIS) for a robotics shop in Billerica called Automatix. csh% a.out hello, world !

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WLUG meeting tonight, 7pm
by Chuck Anderson Feb. 9, 2011

Feb. 9, 2011

Hi folks, Our next WLUG meeting is tonight at 7:00 PM at the WPI campus in Worcester, MA USA. The meeting room is in WPI's Morgan Hall (building 'H' on the campus map [1]), down the hallway to the right of the dining hall entrance. [1] http://www.wpi.edu/Images/CMS/WPI/walkingmap.pdf Chuck President, Worcester Linux Users' Group

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Jon "Maddog" Hall speaking at Northeast GNU/Linux fest, Worcester
by Chuck Anderson Feb. 8, 2011

Feb. 8, 2011

Northeast GNU/Linux Fest Details Date: Saturday, April 2, 2011 Time: 10:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. Location: Worcester State University Student Center 486 Chandler St. Worcester MA 01602 ----- Forwarded message from Jonathan Nadeau <northeastlinux(a)gmail.com> ----- From: Jonathan Nadeau <northeastlinux(a)gmail.com> To: cra(a)WPI.EDU Date: Thu, 03 Feb 2011 09:15:08 -0500 Subject: Northeast GNU/Linux fest Greetings, My name is Jonathan Nadeau and I'm coordinator of the Northeast GNU/Linux fest (http://www.northeastlinuxfest.org) which will be held in Worcester, MA on April 2, 2011. I was given your contact info by Jon Maddog Hall (who will be speaking at the event), and I'm writing to you to see if you would be willing to attend, and if you would please announce this to the people in your group. Thanks for your time and help. Jonathan ----- End forwarded message -----

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Linux User Group Survey
by Dafydd Crosby Feb. 7, 2011

Feb. 7, 2011

Hello, I've made a survey for Linux User Group members across North America. I would like to get the pulse of different groups and see what's working so that all LUG's can improve the experience. This data will be published on http://clug.ca (the Calgary Linux User Group website) on August, 2011. The survey is only 12 questions, and shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to complete. http://www.lonesomecosmonaut.com/limesurvey/index.php?sid=94921&newtest=Y&l… Thank you for your participation! -Dafydd President of Calgary Linux User Group

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Computer Recycling - Wlug Digest, Vol 88, Issue 6
by Steven Greenberg Feb. 5, 2011

Feb. 5, 2011

Just before moving from the Portland, Oregon area back to Massachusetts, I did have the proverbial closet of old computer equipment. Portland had a place that you could bring this equipment to for recycling. They charged a small fee to take the equipment off your hands with the commitment that they would refurbish it or otherwise recycle it. Of course Portland had such a strong green ethos that a business like this could flourish there. I figured I did my part for the environment and saved the cost of moving the dead weight across country and storing it in a closet here. /Steve On 2/5/2011 12:00 PM, wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org wrote: > Send Wlug mailing list submissions to > wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > > To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to > wlug-request(a)mail.wlug.org > > You can reach the person managing the list at > wlug-owner(a)mail.wlug.org > > When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific > than "Re: Contents of Wlug digest..." > > > > Today's Topics: > > 1. Re: Business idea (joel d) > 2. Re: Business idea (soup) > > > > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug -- Steven Greenberg Email: steve(a)ssgreenberg.name 251 Holland Rd. Phone: (774)241-0095 Fiskdale, Massachusetts 01518-1231 Web: http://www.ssgreenberg.name Other Email: s.greenberg(a)ieee.org ssg(a)alum.mit.edu

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Re: [Wlug] Business idea
by joel d Feb. 5, 2011

Feb. 5, 2011

On 2/3/2011 11:30 AM, Keith Wright wrote: >> From: Jason Couture<plaguethenet(a)gmail.com> >> >> I was considering reviving my PC business by selling >> computers with linux preinstalled. Does anyone have >> any distro suggestions aside from Ubuntu and mint? Do >> any of you know anyone who may be interested? > Well, good luck with that (sincerely). > > I had that idea about twelve years ago. > > http://www.free-comp-shop.com/ > > As it worked out, I was fronting thousands > of dollars for parts and working for a day > to put it all together for a profit of a > few dollars. You can't ask much money for > doing a simple thing that the people smart > and knowledgable enough to want can do for > themselves. > > I decided to give it up when one company > that bought about $3000 worth of computer > decided to return it. That was my main > computer for several years, but if I had > designed it myself I would have built > something a bit cheaper. I sure didn't > need another one. > > -- Keith > _______________________________________________ > Wlug mailing list > Wlug(a)mail.wlug.org > http://mail.wlug.org/mailman/listinfo/wlug > I have also been trying out the numbers on such a venture and have come to the same conclusion (as Keith). If you can come up with a special niche market, like a car/boat/RV computer or a DVR/HDTV computer for a particular market that has some kind of Television access problem, then you may find a way to profit. It is very hard to go up against the low-end and sale machines at the stores. If you are a great seller, you may be able to talk your way into some customers. In Florida, there are a couple of small companies doing neighborhood wifi internet access for a great price, but even they depend more on the internet charges and the computer service calls than on system sales. Service and training seems like the most profitable part of the picture to me. Still, I hope you find a way to do this. I hope I don't sound too negative. I'm just a regular guy without any strict training or a business degree, so I'm certainly not the last word on the subject. DaveC -- David P. Connell "Watch where you're going; remember where you've been." Hey, Sorry for not chiming in sooner. I remember while working on my MBA trying to work out how to run a small for profit local PC and support business aimed at home consumers and an occasional small business. The short answer at the time was the advent of the "shiny new $450 PC" made computers toaster-ish (breaks - put in basement/closet - buy another). In the ensuing decade plus since I have confirmed two things IMHO: 1) The price of entry level PCs are going even lower. I haven't looked but I bet there are refurbs out there for $200-ish. This fact makes it harder for a consumer to pay even $25 for someone to work on their (likely 2 to 6 years old on average) PC whether in a shop or in the home. The business person's reasoning is "good money after bad". Not sure why home consumers do this, but they do. 2) Most non-IT geeks have a small closet/basement pile of PCs somewhere in their house if they haven't moved within the decade. Moving of course drives people into momentary sanity with "Why am I keeping / saving / moving all this useless junk?" Geeks of course re-use them as personal firewalls / coffee warmers / Myth boxes / ways to communicate with aliens / ... App won't install... Printer cable won't connect... Adware and viruses got you slugging along... Bad device driver killing your uptime... Your 18 long hair cats packing the case with a fur effigy with expected heat & reboot issues... Consumers answer to all is: "Buy a new PC!" Ask around to non-geek friends/co-workers. You will be amazed. A family friend is on their 4th brand new computer in 3 years. I assure you the scope of work has not changed (web browsing, e-mail, facebook, etc). I am now wondering how do you get these closet PCs for cheap/free then image them to get them useful again. Obvious start is to get referrals from moving companies that quote household moves, then call offering to remove their unused PC's for free. Somewhere there must be a support group for home consumers who have their own Dell rep on speed dial. I am not bashing Dell here, merely using their name in the examples to make a point, Joel

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Business idea
by Jason Couture Feb. 3, 2011

Feb. 3, 2011

I was considering reviving my PC business by selling computers with linux preinstalled. Does anyone have any distro suggestions aside from Ubuntu and mint? Do any of you know anyone who may be interested?

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Kernel Crash dump
by Andy Stewart Feb. 3, 2011

Feb. 3, 2011

HI guys, I finally got some type of crash dump from my system. I have tried Ubuntu variations of the 2.6.35, 2.6.36, and 2.6.37 kernels, all of which have crashed on me. Finally, 2.6.37 gave me a trace on the console screen. I had to copy it down by hand, so don't take it too literally. Here is the data. I intentionally left out all of the hex addresses in the call trace. It seems pretty obvious to me that something is amiss in the hardware. I wonder if my heat syncs are full of dust. That will be the first thing I check. Any helpful advice would be most appreciated. Thanks! Andy ======= Hardware error CPU0 Machine Check Exception: 4 Bank 4 2f00001000010c0f TSC 1ae6ab55d12 Processor 2 f5a time 1296699696 socket 0 apic 0 mc4_status uncorrected error, other errors lost: yes cpu context corrupt: yes Northbridge error, node 0, crc error detected on HT link Transaction GEN (GEN), no timeout, Cache level L3/Gen, Participating processor:OBS Machine check: processor context corrupt Kernel Panic - not syncing: Fatal Machine check on current CPU Pid 0, comm: swapper Tainted: G M 2.6.37-020637-generic Call Trace: #MC panic printk mce_panic do_machine_check machine_check native_safe_halt EOE default_idle cpu_idle rest_init start_kernel early_idt_handler x86_64_start_reservations x86_64_start_kernel panic occurred, switching back to text console ======= -- Andy Stewart (KB1OIQ) Founder: Worcester Linux Users' Group Founder: Chelmsford Linux Meetup Group President: PART of Westford, MA (WB1GOF)

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