If NO IMAGES will be shown, use www.z80.eu/blog instead of blog.z80.eu

Please note also - THIS BLOG ENDS HERE WITH THE LAST ENTRY FROM NOVEMBER 9th 2021.

I have prepared a new blog with wordpress at https://vintagecomputing.info !!!

Thank you.

I just want to point out that there is a site and blog you must visit:
The 'Computer History Museum'.

The blog is still actualized regularly, and points out many historical facts beside of other more ore less computer related facts but also opinions.

The site itself does NOT only shows vintage computer technology, but covers also infos about 'remarkable' people, and beside this, it has a very interesting corner named "Internet History Program Archiv". It's NOT an archive like www.archive.org, it's moderated and selected.
It lists up also recent and upcoming computer history related events in the U.S..

I like the concept in general also, because you will still find interesting entries even after your 10th visit, very good. It's like a kind of mirror of the "old times", like a time travel.

Full with additional links and infos, more than just a vintage computer museum entry:

http://retrocomputing.altervista.org/m20/m20.html

http://www.retrocomputing.tk/olivettim20.html

To get an impression from what I'm talking - here's an image from an M20 machine,
running CP/M-8000 (click on the picture to zoom):


The machine was selled in 1982 with PCOS (that's an operating system with cryptic commands, even more cryptic than CP/M was)...

There was an additonal 8086 card available to run MS-DOS, but that's another story.
The cpu was - to document it more accurately - a Zilog 8001, the cpu family is named 'Z8000'.

Still one of the most "rich" web pages about the Olivetti M20 can be found at
http://www.z80ne.com/m20/

Many of you may know that there is an offline malware scanner from Microsoft existing, it's a portable app, so you don't need to install it (just extract it from an archive and start it) - the Microsoft Safety Scanner ... also known as MSERT.
I tested this tool a few times, but I found some points really annoying, beside the fact it also helped to find some WM97 Downloader variants not found by Symantec Endpoint Protection for example.

It is very slow, despite of the choice you're taking at the beginning of the scan process. It can take hours to be finished.

Also, it does not only find malware, but also network tools, and other useful tools e.g. found at Nirsoft's page. You can't choose what type of files you want to scan.

It cannot handle less established archive formats. It scans even ISO images, report findings, but let the ISO as is (this can be also an advantage, though).

At the end, it does not ask what to do with the findings. They/it will be moved into quarantine. There is no possibility to make a decision for each file, nor how to deal in general with findings.

You can't restore files from the quarantine (files are encrypted). So may be you need a backup before scanning with MSERT.

I would recommend (for unencrypted drives) to use ESET SysRescue Live instead for scanning "offline" for malware.

Not really bad for 1991, this notebook with a monochrome LCD VGA display has a 130MB hard disk drive and 8 MBytes RAM. The build in video graphics adapter is a Cirrus Logic GD610. It has 2 serial interface ports, 1 parallel port and one external keyboard socket/connector - but no PCMCIA or even USB (this wasn't up-to-date in 1991!). The power supply delivers 20 Volts.
It runs Windows 95, but it has not enough space on hard drive for Windows 98 or newer, and I guess it would be to slow for Windows 98, too.
But for a monochrome display, it's acceptable, there are other more worse displays existing.
It was sold also from the german computer distributor "Vobis" as "Highscreen 486DX Notebook".



Btw. - the often found "one EXE file version" of Johnny Castaway Screensaver (made by someone for Windows XP) is NOT compatible with Windows 95 (but with Windows 2000 and XP).
You need to look for the original setup disk content (e.g. at winworldpc.com) to be able to install it. See also "related link below".



This software "Mephisto Meisterschach" is really a rarely used software, but still very interesting, because it plays very well (compared to the similar old Chessmaster 4000, much better).

To figure out what Terminal (aka what Terminal control sequences) for an less known CP/M system is needed, I wrote a small terminal test program. It's useful because sometimes you have to configure WordStar or other full screen editors for systems without build-in terminal emulation, means if you have such a system like a S-100 bus system, or something like a Micromint SB180, which needs also an external Terminal to show their console (output) via a serial interface.

When started, it looks like this:


Just press a digit key with a (predefined) terminal definition, and you will see if you get a nice or an ugly screen output (depends if you choosed the right terminal or not).

This is the output if everything is ok:


The definitions are stored in a text file named "TESTTERM.COD", for syntax and structure see README.txt within the ZIP...

You can download it via "related link" below.