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Re: Restart of NLS/Augment effort

To: Ken Harrenstien <klh@panix.com>
Cc: "Peter P. Yim" <peter.yim@cim3.com>, "Jonathan Cheyer" <jonathan@cheyer.biz>
From: Philip Gust <gust@NouveauSystems.com>
Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2005 06:01:35 -0800
Message-id: <6.2.0.14.2.20050211053121.03b41cd8@mail.nouveausystems.com>
Ken,    (01)

I'm copying Peter and Jonathan on this because they're going to be
involved in this effort as well.    (02)

Linux would be fine at this point.  What would be an "ideal" machine
for a single user setup?    (03)

My preference would be a 2-step approach.  First, clone an existing
system after expunging any directories that Doug does not want to
get out there.  That will get us something allow us to start learning
the system from the internal documentation and also learn how to
rebuild NLS/Augment (perhaps with some advice from Raylene Pak,
who we met at Doug's party and says that she does it regularly).    (04)

We can worry about learning how to install NLS/Augment on a virgin
TOPS-20 system over time and communicate that as part of the pilot
project.  Perhaps Raylene knows something about that, too. You
could hardly say anything scarier than "become the world's foremost
expert" at doing this.    (05)

So other than getting a Linux machine from the CHM, what are the
set of steps and who do we need to work with to create a sanitized
clone?  How to we go about making a cloned disk?  Do we need
identical hardware to Doug's to make that work? I presume the first
step is to talk with Doug to get his permission and discuss the best
way to clean personal files off the cloned machine.  Could you help
out with the cloning and weeding process over the next couple of
weeks if we can get the hardware lined up?  We'd also want to learn
from you how to clone it ourselves in case we need to do that again.    (06)

I worked on a TOPS-10 system running on a PDP-10 for five years
back in the mid-1970s, but expect that I'm pretty rusty. Our favorite
"game" was TICO roulette: you type in a random word and see what
it does to your favorite file... Unlike Scrabble, you got higher points
for letters corresponding to more dangerous commands.  Life was
simpler back then...    (07)



At 07:12 PM 2/10/2005, you wrote:
> > Hi, Ken.
> >
> > It was great to finally meet you at Doug's birthday party at SRI.
> > Peter Yim, Jonathan Chayer and I are restarting the NLS/Augment
> > preservation test-bed project.  We plan to work primarily through
> > emails, wikis, and the like, and want to find out whether you'd still
> > have an interest in participating at some level. I realize that you're
> > very busy, but if it's something you'd have fun contributing to, we'd
> > love to have you.
> >
> > One of the early milestones is to get a version of NLS/Augment
> > running on machines at the museum.  I'd also like to have copies
> > available for people working on the committee. Could you please
> > let me know whether you'd be willing to allow us to use your
> > emulator for the project, and instruct us on how to use it to set
> > up an Augment system?  I'd like to get this first milestone done
>
>The emulator is trivial, assuming you have a hardware platform that
>runs Linux or FreeBSD.  What were you thinking of using?  The faster
>the better.
>
>The hard part is getting a clean TOPS-20 system up that runs Augment.
>I can clone Doug's current system (or revive an old one) in just the
>time it takes to copy the disk images.  However, those images contain
>lots of possibly personal files; they need to be cleaned out, and I'm
>not entirely sure which accounts are necessary for AUGMENT to remain
>running.  That will take some time and understanding.
>
>Another and philosophically superior method would be to install
>AUGMENT on a virgin TOPS-20 system.  Although I know how to install
>TOPS-20, I've never installed AUGMENT.  You'd have to find someone who
>knows how it was done; I'm not sure whether the Bootstrap people
>remember how to do this, but I'm sure *someone* somewhere knows.
>
>Or you can read the documentation, figure it out, and become the
>world's foremost expert...
>
>--Ken    (08)


Philip Gust
Nouveau Systems, Inc.    (09)

phone: +1 650 961-7992
fax:   +1 508 526-8142    (010)


mailto: gust@NouveauSystems.com     (011)
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