In regard to the Freeware CDs for RSX-11 and RT-11
If you are not receiving this paragraph as part of an individual
message, then you are not on my list of individuals who may
wish to receive their own copies of the CDs. In that case,
please reply so that you can be placed on my list when I send
out an e-mail with my address. At that time, unless otherwise
requested, I will send out a single e-mail to all of the individuals
who have expressed an interest - so that you will all know who
each other are and have e-mail addresses with which to
correspond to each other. Currently, there are 9 individuals
on the list in addition to Tim Shoppa.
This individual reply will probably be the last before I send you
my address so you can send the funds for as many of the
3 CDs that you wish to have.
The only thing left is to try and obtain a file which contains the
image of the label on the CD. Some of you have received
these CDs from Tim Shoppa and for accuracy, I would like
to duplicate the actual label that Tim used. If anyone who
already has a copy of any of the 3 CDs could help by providing
a file that can be sent to a laser printer to produce the labels,
that would be appreciated. If I have not received a positive
response within a few weeks, then if someone who already
has the RSX-11 CDs can at least provide me with the words
on both the ".iso" and the "ods1" CDs, that would be second
best. I already have the words to be used with the RT-11 CD.
I have now finished the verification tasks that I feel
are needed to ensure that I am producing correct images.
I will be making some copies of the CD images from:
ftp://ftp.trailing-edge.com/pub/cd-images/
http://www.classiccmp.org/PDP-11/
http://www.classiccmp.org/PDP-11/RT-11/
http://www.classiccmp.org/PDP-11/RSX-11/
that I have downloaded and wish to offload from my hard
disk drive. I have verified each of the 2 RSX-11 and the
1 RT-11 images against the MD5 values in the file MD5SUMS
and they are the same. After I copied the images
on my hard drive to the CD, I verified them against their
respective images in their hard drive files. To do so, I
used RT-11 and BINCOM (with some of my own
modifications which allows me to also verify block 65535
at the end of each RT-11 partition). Since there are a
maximum of 20 RT-11 partitions on each CD and each
BINCOM run takes me less than 30 seconds, the whole
comparison can be done in less than 10 minutes - which
is about the length of time it takes to make the CD copy
in the first place.
Since there might be a number of individuals who can't
download at a reasonable speed (even with DSL it takes
about 3 hours each at about 30 KBytes per second as
compared with about 3 KBytes per second on a dial up line),
I am prepared to make additional copies (Tim Shoppa
no longer seems to have the time to do so) and make
them available at my cost (for media, label, envelope
and shipping carton plus postage to the US) and make
them available at my cost of about $ 5 / $ 8 / $ 10 for
1 / 2 / 3 CDs. If you prefer to have me use Maxell
Black brand CDs which I have been told last about
twice as long, the cost will be $ 1 more per CD. Note
that all the prices are in US dollars for destinations in
the US and postage from Canada. If you are in a
different country, the postage will be different.
I have yet to verify these prices to be sure that they
cover my costs, in particular the postage after the
CD is ready to be mailed, but I am 99% sure they
should be adequate.
Note that the images at Tim's site are ".bz2" files while
the images at classiccmp are ".gz" images. For myself
(Windows 98 and Netscape 4.78) DOES NOT WORK
with the ".gz" images (since the file is automatically
expanded - and the result is incorrect), but Carlos Murillo
sent me a Windows 98 version of wget which does work,
I suppose on any file.
By the way, I tried to hold the SHIFT key down while
I was clicking my way through the download procedures
of the ".gz" files under Netscape and that did not help.
Note that the images at the classiccmp site are ".gz" files,
so they are slightly larger. Since I did my original download
from the full size images, I did not initially have a problem
with expanding. However, after I successfully downloaded
the ".gz" files with wget, I used WinZip under Windows 98.
After I downloaded the ".bz2" files, I used bzip2 to expand
them under Windows 98. Both expanded files were identical
to the full size image, so obviously all three produced the
correct MD5 value.
If you need help and are running Windows 98 or a
compatible OS, I can send you copies of both "bzip2.exe"
and "MD5.exe", but not for others OSs. For other OSs
(and Windows 98) for bzip2 programs, see:
http://sources.redhat.com/bzip2/
and click on either:
PC, Windows 95/98/ME/NT/2000/XP
PC, Windows 95/98/NT/2000.
for bzip2.exe - I was advised to use the second older
version and did - it worked fine under Windows 98.
For MD5 programs, see either:
ftp://ftp.cerias.purdue.edu/pub/tools/unix/crypto/md5/
http://www.fourmilab.ch/md5/
I obtained my MD5 programs at the first site.
By the way, for myself, I would VERY much appreciate
being in touch with all individuals who have a copy of the
RT-11 Freeware CD V2.0 so that we might exchange
information about RT-11. Tim Shoppa felt that he might
be violating privacy concerns if he made the names, of those
who ordered the CD, available. I don't see it that way, so
if you want your name to be known along with the other
individuals (or not as the case may be - i.e. restrict that
you have a copy of the RT-11 CD to ONLY specified
individuals such as possibly just myself) so that you can
receive interesting information about new developments
in RT-11 and the status of the operating system, then
PLEASE contact me so that we can share information.
Also state if you want to be known to the entire group
of just to specified individuals such as myself.
PLUS, as for TSX-PLUS, I am going to try again to knock
at the door of S&H to see what they may consider for
hobby users.
Some of you have already expressed an interest in the CDs.
I hope that I have sent a personal copy of this post. If
I somehow missed you, please send me your request again.
For those users who receive a personal copy of this e-mail,
you are already on my list. I will send you a mailing address
when I am ready to burn the CDs. Please reply if you are
still interested.
Sincerely yours,
Jerome Fine
--
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Received on Sun Jun 23 2002 - 21:06:20 BST