[HECnet] LSSM group visit today

[Johnny Billquist]

On 2021-11-16 17:40, Dave McGuire wrote:
> On 11/16/21 11:23 AM, Johnny Billquist wrote:
>> Hey, I didn't have any information about FANG::
> 
>    We have many nodes defined here that come up on HECnet when they're 
> up.  FANG:: is 61.5.

Well, I had that much:

.ddb fang
(Using local interface)
Node:     FANG
Address:  61.5
Owner:    Dave McGuire
OS:
CPU:
Created:  30 Apr 2012 21:42:43
Modified: 02 May 2020 19:45:48
Loc:      New Kensington, PA, USA
Coord:    40.568333,-79.758331


>> Should I put it as a real PDP-11/70 then? What OS is it running when 
>> on HECnet?
> 
>    Sure.  It currently only runs RSX-11M-PLUS v4.6, but eventually we'll 
> set up RSTS/E, RT-11, and 2.11BSD system disks for it.  I suppose the 
> only other one that will appear on HECnet is RSTS/E.  The goal for that 
> machine, with its quad pack of RA73s, is to cover most of the OSs that 
> people may want to run.

Similar hardware as Magica then. Magica have four RA73, TU81, RL02, 
DELUA and 3.5M of memory. Oh, and a paper tape punch and reader, and an 
RX02. I think that's it... Might be a DH11 in there as well, but nothing 
hooked up to those lines normally.

>    Another you can add is PIXEL::, at 61.22, which is a PDP-11/83 (real 
> hardware) that runs RSX-11M-PLUS most of the time.  That's at my place, 
> not at the museum.  I usually run it through the winter; I brought it up 
> last week.

Thanks. PIXEL:: I didn't even have in there.

>    I will formalize the others and get you the info as time permits.

Great.

>> (And it's always fun to see people actually use these machine in the 
>> proper way...)
> 
>    Yes. :)  When I was a kid in the early 1980s, it was a huge fantasy 
> of mine to be the admin of a PDP-11 with users on it.  As I grew up that 
> became less and less of a possibility, but I was the admin of a few 
> VAXen running VMS in the late 1980s into the early 1990s.  And then of 
> course UNIX systems with many thousands of users.
> 
>    And of course we run PDP-11s and do group tours at the museum all the 
> time, for six years now.  But yesterday, with a group tour in which 
> everyone was doing pretty much the same thing on the same machine, was 
> very different, and finally fulfilled that old fantasy of mine.
> 
>    The only thing that would've made it better, but only a little, is if 
> those terminals were connected to DH11s.  They're all connected to 
> DECservers and their sessions were via LAT.  We can't really dedicate 
> terminals to machines at LSSM, because there are many more machines than 
> terminals.
> 
>    Not even consoles are dedicated.  All of the consoles (even the 
> PDP-8s) are connected to DECserver ports with local services defined, so 
> people can run any kind of terminal they want on a give machine.

DECservers and LAT is entirely appropriate. :-)

Or use telnet (with RSX or BSD).

   Johnny

-- 
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                   ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt at softjar.se             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol