HN Theater @HNTheaterMonth

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

Diablo Systems Incorporated Series 30 Disk Drive Maintenance Manual

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

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

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-f...

Xerox Alto Restoration Part 1 - power supply restoration, disk drive surprise

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

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-...

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-wouldn...

Identify It Challenge for 7-26-2012 Answer

https://reinventingscience.wordpress.com/tag/diablo-systems-...

ARTIFACT DETAILS: Series 30 disk drive

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.

https://youtu.be/xRwfJpNvWI0?t=1247

Bad idea to eat cereal while watching his videos... That was hilarious.

I love that he leaves in all the little mistakes. Most videos are polished and presented. Tutorials are nice, but you get so much more raw data from watching this. Plus it feels like having a conversation.

Looks like Ken has some videos like this too: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI

⬐ heywire

> I love that he leaves in all the little mistakes

In fact, in the video I mentioned, someone who was watching his livestream pointed out that he installed a polarized capacitor backwards...

Just when the Xerox restoration is done, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=adEr2aRwHnI&index=17&list=PL...