[HECnet] VMS/RSX Guest accounts

[Dave McGuire]

On 4/23/20 6:15 PM, Thomas DeBellis wrote:
> Sir, I stand *corrected* and do humbly admit my errors.  I didn't see
> anything Orange on the mac.io website, so I just assumed...  I didn't go
> to the Facebook site because I won't have a thing to do with their
> policies, stated or covert.

  I don't blame you about Facebook.

  The website covers a tiny fraction of the hardware at the museum.  We
don't want to to be all-inclusive because of the risk of it essentially
replacing in-person visits.  The idea is to whet the appetite, get you
drooling, and get you on a plane.

  It has worked well so far.

> A memory surfaced and I realized that I was also completely wrong about
> the 2020's networking capabilities, too.  In 1979, DEC's Federal Systems
> group had a 2020 on the ARPAnet and I used it to send email to some of
> my pals at MIT LCS when I working 2nd and 3rd shift.  So the hardware
> existed to communicate with an IMP and MIT used it implement TCP/IP on
> ITS.  This is simulated by the KLH10 2020 implementation and that's how
> ITS communicates today.

  There's a  very interesting Symbolics board in the Unibus of one of
our KSs.  It used to be ML.AI.MIT.EDU.  It's not quite operational, but
it's close.

  Speaking of whetting appetites. B-)

> Federal Systems was a real hike from manufacturing in Marlboro where I
> used to hang out; three buildings away.  It was also notable for having
> mil-spec VT100's.  Instead of plastic, they were made out of very thick
> metal, I think maybe machined aluminum.  The cables where sheathed in
> metal and the connectors were substantially enlarged and strengthened. 
> The display glass also had a dense metal screen in front of it.  They
> really looked like they could withstand a hand grenade and weighed a
> ton...  Well that's what I thought at the time, another alternative that
> didn't occur to me until decades later was that all this just could have
> been RF shielding.

  Ahh nice, sounds like Tempest-100s or RT100s.  Don't drop that on your
foot.

> The solution for 4.1 was one of the finest hacks I have ever heard of;
> while the 2020 doesn't support extended addressing, it does support
> multiple address spaces, so what they did was move all the symbols into
> a separate address space.  This was called 'hiding' symbols and I
> thought it was great because it made them harder to smash.  However, all
> of that went out the window with 5.0, which fully supported extended
> addressing.

  Nice!

  One of our 2020s is in the brown color scheme.  You know what that
means: ADP, and one more address bit.

> You know, I have been out to Pittsburgh a few times.  In the 1980's,
> Columbia flew me out there so that I could learn about CMU's
> modifications to LPTSPL to support the nearly entirely awesome Xerox
> 9700.  I was out there again about a year ago for a conference.  Still,
> that's a real hike...  My relatives live in near Elizabethtown, not
> quite spitting distance from three mile island (!!), so that's another
> four hours to New Kensington after they're done with me.  Ouch...  Oh
> well, never say 'never'...

  Not quite four hours (unless you drive like Grandpa) and we're right
off of the PA turnpike, the Allegheny Valley exit.

> That's some pretty good swag you have by the way; minor suggestion, in
> addition to the anti-VAXer T-shirt, you might want to have another one
> that says the somewhat subtle, "If it doesn't have 36 Bits, it isn't a
> Digital computer".  I did know some people who were so anti-VAX that
> they positively would froth at the mouth.  I could understand the
> frothing, given what happened, but still, one prefers not wear one's
> froth on their sleeve.  It would have been a lot better for everybody
> had there been more and better communication and less NIH.

  Thanks!  That quote (well, similar) is sometimes attributed to my
friend and former long-time boss Doug Humphrey, thought I don't know if
it was originally his.  Maybe Peter will remember.

  I only wear the froth of others on my sleeve.

  I'll have that quote added to the swag list very soon, and will let
you know.

            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA