3 ms·

Well, that's ok... thanks for being up to fix it. It's not an actual spinning hard drive, is it?

DonHopkins 4y ago
Probably a 2.5 MB one-platter Diablo hard disk drive cartridge running on a restored Xerox Alto. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto Diablo Systems Incorporated Series 30 Disk Drive Maintenance Manual http://bitsavers.org/pdf/diablo/disk/model_30/81503-02_Series_30_Disk_Drive_Maintenance_Nov75.pdf http://bitsavers.org/pdf/diablo/disk/model_30/81503-02_Serie... Restoring Y Combinator's Xerox Alto, day 4: What's running on the system (righto.com): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12197591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12197591 http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day_31.html http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-... Xerox Alto Restoration Part 16 - our disk goes down, the Alto connects to Google and draws fractals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI Our Diablo disk goes on the fritz, but who needs a disk when you can netboot? Ken demonstrates the Alto network capabilities, connects to Google, and has the Alto calculate and display a Mandlebrot set. Ken's in-depth blog entry including the fractal demo source code is found here: http://www.righto.com/2017/06/one-hour-mandelbrot-creating-fractal-on.html http://www.righto.com/2017/06/one-hour-mandelbrot-creating-f... Xerox Alto Restoration Part 1 - power supply restoration, disk drive surprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPyqQXFC2yw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPyqQXFC2yw We begin our very gentle and progressive power up of the seminal Xerox Alto. No magic smoke, but one power supply is faulty. Opening it up reveals that it had a tough life, having suffered a catastrophic short of some sort, hastily repaired, and some traces almost entirely corroded through. But the source of the malfunction seems to be a somewhat classic case of bad electrolytic capacitors, way too far gone for any hope of reforming. After replacing them and repairing the supply, we turn our attention to the Diablo disc drive and cartridge, and have a bit of a surprise. Many thanks to my CHM restorers colleagues Ron Crane, Ken Shirriff, Carl Claunch and Luca Severini. See previous video introducing this historically significant machine: https://youtu.be/YupOC_6bfMI https://youtu.be/YupOC_6bfMI For much more details and references, see Ken Shirriff's blog entry corresponding to this video here: http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-... A 1970s disk drive that wouldn't seek: getting our Xerox Alto running again http://www.righto.com/2018/03/a-1970s-disk-drive-that-wouldnt-seek.html http://www.righto.com/2018/03/a-1970s-disk-drive-that-wouldn... Identify It Challenge for 7-26-2012 Answer https://reinventingscience.wordpress.com/tag/diablo-systems-series-30/ https://reinventingscience.wordpress.com/tag/diablo-systems-... ARTIFACT DETAILS: Series 30 disk drive https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102666942 https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10266694... Description: "Not working cards missing heads may be bad" is handwritten on black marker on a sticker attached to the top of the machine.
dang 4y ago
There is a good chance that it is (or was!) an actual spinning hard drive. Whatever it is, it lives in one of our boxes at M5 and it's in their hands for the moment.
- curiousgal 4y ago
  > one of our boxes at M5 Read that as MI5 and it gave a chuckle!
  - mikiem 4y ago
    People guess the origin of our name often. Maybe this will give you even more of a chuckle. I was not aware of the name of this computer when I named the company. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer
- mikiem 4y ago
  It was an SSD. A 1.6TB SAS3 SSD. (M5 CEO here)
  - moffkalast 4y ago
    Stop making stuff up guys, I just know that someone at the YCombinator HQ tripped over the power cable of the Raspberry Pi you're hosting this on.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

Probably a 2.5 MB one-platter Diablo hard disk drive cartridge running on a restored Xerox Alto. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xerox_Alto Diablo Systems Incorporated Series 30 Disk Drive Maintenance Manual http://bitsavers.org/pdf/diablo/disk/model_30/81503-02_Series_30_Disk_Drive_Maintenance_Nov75.pdf http://bitsavers.org/pdf/diablo/disk/model_30/81503-02_Serie... Restoring Y Combinator's Xerox Alto, day 4: What's running on the system (righto.com): https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12197591 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12197591 http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day_31.html http://www.righto.com/2016/07/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-... Xerox Alto Restoration Part 16 - our disk goes down, the Alto connects to Google and draws fractals https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI Our Diablo disk goes on the fritz, but who needs a disk when you can netboot? Ken demonstrates the Alto network capabilities, connects to Google, and has the Alto calculate and display a Mandlebrot set. Ken's in-depth blog entry including the fractal demo source code is found here: http://www.righto.com/2017/06/one-hour-mandelbrot-creating-fractal-on.html http://www.righto.com/2017/06/one-hour-mandelbrot-creating-f... Xerox Alto Restoration Part 1 - power supply restoration, disk drive surprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPyqQXFC2yw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPyqQXFC2yw We begin our very gentle and progressive power up of the seminal Xerox Alto. No magic smoke, but one power supply is faulty. Opening it up reveals that it had a tough life, having suffered a catastrophic short of some sort, hastily repaired, and some traces almost entirely corroded through. But the source of the malfunction seems to be a somewhat classic case of bad electrolytic capacitors, way too far gone for any hope of reforming. After replacing them and repairing the supply, we turn our attention to the Diablo disc drive and cartridge, and have a bit of a surprise. Many thanks to my CHM restorers colleagues Ron Crane, Ken Shirriff, Carl Claunch and Luca Severini. See previous video introducing this historically significant machine: https://youtu.be/YupOC_6bfMI https://youtu.be/YupOC_6bfMI For much more details and references, see Ken Shirriff's blog entry corresponding to this video here: http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-alto-day.html http://www.righto.com/2016/06/restoring-y-combinators-xerox-... A 1970s disk drive that wouldn't seek: getting our Xerox Alto running again http://www.righto.com/2018/03/a-1970s-disk-drive-that-wouldnt-seek.html http://www.righto.com/2018/03/a-1970s-disk-drive-that-wouldn... Identify It Challenge for 7-26-2012 Answer https://reinventingscience.wordpress.com/tag/diablo-systems-series-30/ https://reinventingscience.wordpress.com/tag/diablo-systems-... ARTIFACT DETAILS: Series 30 disk drive https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/102666942 https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/10266694... Description: "Not working cards missing heads may be bad" is handwritten on black marker on a sticker attached to the top of the machine.

dang 4y ago

There is a good chance that it is (or was!) an actual spinning hard drive. Whatever it is, it lives in one of our boxes at M5 and it's in their hands for the moment.

curiousgal 4y ago
> one of our boxes at M5 Read that as MI5 and it gave a chuckle!
- mikiem 4y ago
  People guess the origin of our name often. Maybe this will give you even more of a chuckle. I was not aware of the name of this computer when I named the company. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ultimate_Computer
mikiem 4y ago
It was an SSD. A 1.6TB SAS3 SSD. (M5 CEO here)
- moffkalast 4y ago
  Stop making stuff up guys, I just know that someone at the YCombinator HQ tripped over the power cable of the Raspberry Pi you're hosting this on.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]