Prices to pay for old computers...

From: Ward Donald Griffiths III <gram_at_cnct.com>
Date: Sun May 24 06:38:53 1998

Frank McConnell wrote:
>
> I wrote:
> > Except...on a peculiar ISA dual-port serial card that HP made
> > for the early HP Vectras. One D?-9S like a PC/AT serial
> > port, one DB-25S. To be fair, HP put a plastic tag out one side
> > of the slot to remind you that this was a serial port.
>
> Doggone it, I screwed up. The 9-pin connector is male, the 25-pin
> connector is female. So what you had sticking through the back
> plate was a 9-pin connector on top, a 25-pin connector on bottom,
> and a little plastic tag with orange print to one side of the
> 25-pin connector reminding you that this was a serial port.
>
> Thinking about it this morning I think I also remember an HP
> serial/parallel card with male 9-pin serial connector on top and
> 25-pin female connector on bottom...and a little plastic tag with
> black print to one side of the 25-pin connector reminding you that
> this was a parallel port.
>
> Good thing we didn't have many of those latter ones around in my
> shop, I was (still am, actually) in the habit of feeling out connectors
> with my fingertips to work out where the plug is supposed to go.
>
> How did things get this way? Well, HP was in the habit of putting
> female connectors on everything except cables and making their
> minis look sort of like modems. I once heard this referred to as
> "DTE in DCE drag" w/r/t the HP3000.

I've always preferred to use setups where the hardware had female
connectors and the cables were male, mostly because it's cheaper
and easier to repair or replace a cable when a pin breaks than a
CPU or other bit of capital equipment. But that's probably just
me -- I'm lazy, clumsy and cheap (and proud of two of those).
-- 
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
				Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Sun May 24 1998 - 06:38:53 BST

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