31–40 of 272 posts
Is a fax implicitly an analog transmission? Or is there a digital data stream somewhere beneath the layer sending the photo that could be used like a modem?
In my younger years, I had to pull a dBase 2 database off a CP/M desktop into an MS-DOS portable. I ended up configuring a serial cable, and running PROCOMM on the PC, set 9600/n/8/1 on both ports, then printed from dBase 2 and set PROCOMM to record the session to a file. It would lose characters if I let it run too long without a pause to write to a floppy, so I would ctrl-s/q on the CP/M side. I guess nobody else h…
I think in this particular (macbook) case the problem was lack of proper software. Yet, I recall if there was modem installed, a terminal software had to be present as well.
On the PC side, without PROCOMM, it would be possible to "COPY COM1: FOO.TXT" but I don't know how 9600/n/8/1 could be set in advance (IIRC setting it as a printer to force the baud rate altered the device so it could not be read).
Generally speaking, all of the pre-PC microcomputers implemented serial ports, which is the first choice in pulling data off of them (including binary data with XMODEM and its variants).
Very creative and interesting ie 'use whatever tools/knowledge you have' but: > The internal hard drive uses SCSI with an unusual connector. This is literally never an issue as old connectors are easily obtainable (in particular 'in this day and age'). > Adapting it didn't seem straightforward, and we weren't confident the old file system (HFS) would be easy to read from a modern system. Simple search pulled this up.…
A quick search yielded this result, which does confirm it's absolutely possible to adapt the drive: https://vintagemacmuseum.com/reading-powerbook-2-5-scsi-hard...
(My way might be more fun. Ha.)
Very creative and interesting ie 'use whatever tools/knowledge you have' but: > The internal hard drive uses SCSI with an unusual connector. This is literally never an issue as old connectors are easily obtainable (in particular 'in this day and age'). > Adapting it didn't seem straightforward, and we weren't confident the old file system (HFS) would be easy to read from a modern system. Simple search pulled this up.…
Linux will mount HFS drivers and files like nothing... This setup it's overcomplicated and hackey, but dumb in the end. You can mount old SCSI drivers with modern adaptors just fine, and Linux/BSD will either mount or extract HFS images with unar (I think) or hfsutils/hfstools. Or just spawn ymodem/zmodem compatible software (as he used a Fax setup for modem) and the problem would be solved in minutes.
But, this worked with what he had at the time, so, eh, fun times.
Arn't there a serial (COM) port available on that laptop ? It was kind of ubiquitous at those days. This website [1] says there were two of them. Solving the probem with Zmodem would be trivial. The software (terminal) is already there, it seems. 1. https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_duo/specs/mac_p...
Apple used 8-pin mini DIN connectors for serial. The author might not have had the right cable.
You need just three wires for serial line to work. I would strip the wires and plug them in without any connector. :)
Arn't there a serial (COM) port available on that laptop ? It was kind of ubiquitous at those days. This website [1] says there were two of them. Solving the probem with Zmodem would be trivial. The software (terminal) is already there, it seems. 1. https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_duo/specs/mac_p...
In my younger years, I had to pull a dBase 2 database off a CP/M desktop into an MS-DOS portable. I ended up configuring a serial cable, and running PROCOMM on the PC, set 9600/n/8/1 on both ports, then printed from dBase 2 and set PROCOMM to record the session to a file. It would lose characters if I let it run too long without a pause to write to a floppy, so I would ctrl-s/q on the CP/M side. I guess nobody else h…
I think in this particular (macbook) case the problem was lack of proper software. Yet, I recall if there was modem installed, a terminal software had to be present as well.
> I try a bunch of different OCR programs, but can't find any that can transcribe the document with 100% accuracy. They often confuse certain letters or numbers (like 0 and C, 9 and 4, 0 and D). Sometimes they omit characters, sometimes they introduce new ones. I try different font sizes and different fonts, but it doesn't matter. I decided to OCR a hex dump from an old computer magazine a while back and fixed this p…
Arn't there a serial (COM) port available on that laptop ? It was kind of ubiquitous at those days. This website [1] says there were two of them. Solving the probem with Zmodem would be trivial. The software (terminal) is already there, it seems. 1. https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powerbook_duo/specs/mac_p...
Alternatively, you can use the serial port to 'print' to, and just capture the serial output. It's essentially just unidirectional text transfer but that's enough for what the author intended to do.
On the other hand, faxing and OCR'ing is pretty cool.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think in this particular (macbook) case the problem was lack of proper software. Yet, I recall if there was modem installed, a terminal software had to be present as well.
The CP/M side didn't have any terminal software. Both sides had methods to set 9600/n/8/1 on the printer device. On the PC side, without PROCOMM, it would be possible to "COPY COM1: FOO.TXT" but I don't know how 9600/n/8/1 could be set in advance (IIRC setting it as a printer to force the baud rate altered the device so it could not be read). Generally speaking, all of the pre-PC microcomputers implemented serial por…