[HECnet] VMS/RSX Guest accounts

[Steve Davidson]

Tom,

I can set you up with an account on SGC:: if you wish. 

SGC:: has many tool sets and languages if you need them. 

-Steve Davidson

SF:iP1

> On Apr 22, 2020, at 23:43, Thomas DeBellis <tommytimesharing at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Oh, I'm in Looooong Island, South Shore.
> 
> I actually have relatives not far from you in PA, but I hadn't gotten around to noodging you yet for the distinct lack of 20's in your collection.  I mean, you have a 4341 yet no 20?  Tisk, tisk...
> 
> Well, I'm pulling your leg a bit; a 20 is a seriously heavy lift.  A KL has three purposes in life: 1) Generate Heat, 2) Suck Power, 3) Run winning code.  A 2020 uses far less power, but doesn't have extended addressing, so it is stuck at Tops-20 4.1, which leaves out a lot of DECnet (and ARPAnet) stuff.  Apparently, you can squeeze 5.0 in; MRC did this, but that was MRC.  Tops-20 is at version 7.0 now.
> 
> And both of them are seriously cranky beasts that needed care and feeding from trained service personnel; wire wrap and all that (yech).  Remember, it's not a mainframe unless you can't fit it in your house and have to take out a second mortgage to pay for the electricity and tons (60 for a 20) of air conditioning.
> 
> So Paul Allen had a KL based 20, which is now in the the Living Computer museum.  But that cost was apparently less than a rounding error compared to what he was worth.  A mere monetary blip, as it were.
> 
>> On 4/22/20 11:28 PM, Dave McGuire wrote:
>> 
>>   Hey, I'm 5hrs from DC, where are you based Tom?
>> 
>>              -Dave
>> 
>>> On 4/22/20 11:25 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
>>> For VMS, for the moment I've gone with one of Bob's machines as that is
>>> on the 'local' DECnet area.  Perhaps I'll get better performance
>>> although Supratim is closer, milage-wise.  D.C. is about a 5 hour drive
>>> from here, while Bob's neck of the woods is a serious hike (Atlantic to
>>> Pacific).
>>> 
>>> On 4/22/20 11:14 PM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>>>> Well, the more the better, so get that VMS account. If you want to, I
>>>> can create an account for you on MIM as well. (But it will be
>>>> tomorrow, I need to go to bed...)
>>>> 
>>>>   Johnny
>>>> 
>>>> On 2020-04-23 05:12, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
>>>>> Yes, but the MIM guest account is shared; I'm going to need to store
>>>>> a few files (captures, control files, Etc.)
>>>>> 
>>>>> Wow, you've kept a real VAX running from 1993?  Good for you! I'll
>>>>> contact you off-list.
>>>>> 
>>>>> On 4/22/20 11:07 PM, Supratim Sanyal wrote:
>>>>>> Thomas - MIM already has a guest account ... I have had fun sending
>>>>>> Johnny smtp emails to that account.
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> I can give you an account on MARIAH (a real VAX) if you wish, shoot
>>>>>> me a note offline if you decide to follow up ...
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Regards
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> Supratim
>>>>>> 
>>>>>> On 4/22/20 10:49 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
>>>>>>> I've had my fill of FAL and DAP for the moment and have turned to
>>>>>>> some other things as sort of a 'break'.  The Tops-10 NFT client
>>>>>>> breaks on certain file names that the 20 sends it, so there is
>>>>>>> going to be some debugging to track that down.  Fortunately, a very
>>>>>>> patient person gave me PPN on one of their 10's.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Right now, I'm working on bringing the Tops-20 mail system a bit
>>>>>>> more up to date with respect to DECnet communications. These were
>>>>>>> largely put aside when full Internet connectivity happened. Still,
>>>>>>> the PANDA distribution has some bit rot because I know that certain
>>>>>>> Columbia changes for DECnet (to support CCnet) are not there.  I
>>>>>>> can't imagine that we didn't send them to MRC; that would have been
>>>>>>> unthinkable.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Fortunately, I was able to remember enough to put some of them back
>>>>>>> so that I got SMTP over DECnet working well, again.  It had been
>>>>>>> suffering from about two minute timing delays and now it's
>>>>>>> instantaneous between 20's, like I remember.   Oddly enough, I
>>>>>>> don't remember what else ran SMTP over DECnet; I'm certain that RSX
>>>>>>> and VMS could have done it.  I think some VMS site might have.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> However, most non-SMTP DECnet hosts on CCnet were running Mail-11,
>>>>>>> which the 20 also groks.  In fact, it can convert Mail-11 addresses
>>>>>>> to SMTP and route over other transports such as PUP, Chaos and
>>>>>>> TCP/IP as well as DECnet.  We did a lot of mail routing for CCnet
>>>>>>> to the Internet on CU20B, back in the day.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>>> Unfortunately, there is some bit rot in some of the Tops-20 Mail-11
>>>>>>> code, so I've got some tinkering to do.  Does anyone have a VMS or
>>>>>>> RSX system that they'd care to give me a guest account on?  It
>>>>>>> doesn't need any special capabilities; I'm just going to be sending
>>>>>>> mail and looking a few raw headers over.
>>>>>>> 
>>>>>> -- 
>>>>>> Supratim Sanyal, W1XMT
>>>>>> 39.19151 N, 77.23432 W
>>>>>> QCOCAL::SANYAL via HECnet
>>>> 
>>