Hello everyone, Glad to be here.
Im in Lawrence KS, an NT administrator for the Dept of Labor and have the
following machines.
Timex/Sinclair1500
"" 2050 Modem
Tandy Color/2
Trs80 Model 4, 128k
Trs80 Model 4, 64K
Apple ///
Profile HD
Apple //gs
100meg scsi drive
Apple//e
Apple//c
Apple][+
Apple Macintosh SE
Apple Macintosh Se/30
Atari 400
Atari 800XL
1050 FDD
Atari 1200Xl
1050 FDD
Commodore 64
1541 FDD (2)
IBM PC, [dual floppy}
Anything I can help with please let me know and visit my web page on my
home server. http:\\24.124.36.31
Bill G. Aka. TheDM
I've had a storage unit for years now (PETs take up wayyy too much
room in an apartment, not to mention YEARS of COMPUTE!, Commodore, Ahoy,
RUN, Etc.) The big pain about the storage unit is having to dig through
the layers of goodies to find what you are getting at. Or even worse
knowing you have a tidbit on some subject in you think one of X
magazines, and you would have to dig through issues and issues (not at
home) to find it.
I specialize in my collecting, Commodore 8-bits and just recently
Atari 8-Bits. I would have to move to even think of another brand. :/
Larry Anderson
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I have been shipping computers for a while now with no problem
whatsoever. I follow the guidelines already mentioned with a couple
twists:
Wrap the items in bubble wrap (best) or a plastic bag, anti-static is
best. This protects the surfaces and stops the styrofoam from being in
direct contact with the plastic on the machine. Keeps foam from getting
into the slots, etc. I also notice that the plastic in the cords
especially tend to bond with the foam after a while.
Popcorn in the bottom. Put the system in. Popcorn on sides and on top.
Allow for settling, compress it until it's firm. Seal it up.
If putting items on top of each other I'd put a piece of cardboard in
between along with a few inches of popcorn just in case things move.
This is for shipping. I've shipped lots of stuff packed in a single box
without a single casualty. Moving a short distance shouldn't be as much
of a big deal but if someone drops a box, you'll be glad you did it. I
didn't have any casualties when I moved last year either.
I get packing material from a couple sources. A camera shop here gets
about 5 big bags a month since all their stuff is fragile. A
manufacturer has a big cardboard recycling area where they dump boxes
and bubblewrap. If someone is near Mountain View, CA (near where I used
to live), I have a great source for tons of this stuff. Email me.
Greg
PS: I have an Apple IIc & IIe on Auctionweb that are going cheap so far.
The IIc is only at $3.25! Even cheap compared to you guy's standards.
Shipping is extra though (UPS). Auction ends tomorrow.
Apple IIC Computer (photo)
Current bid: $3.25
Auction ends on: 06/04/97, 22:48:02 PDT
http://www.ebay.com/aw/item.cgi?item=znb774144
Apple IIe Computer, Duo Drive, 64K (photo)
Current bid: $20.50
Auction ends on: 06/04/97, 22:54:32 PDT
http://www.ebay.com/aw/item.cgi?item=cjt6509
Oh yeah, it's at http://www.tardis.ed.ac.uk/~alexios/MACHINE-ROOM
Go there now!
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
I just visited Alexios Chouchoulas' MACHINE ROOM web page and it is
downright cool. There is a lot of good information there, and the
database is pretty complete as far as micro's go. Check it out.
Sam
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
I'm going to be moving my collection a couple hundred miles from Austin,
TX to Tyler, TX. I'm wondering if anyone has any packing or moving
suggestions (packing material, special treatment of media, etc).
The stuff is going to be moved by a moving company (Atlas probably) but
I'm doing much of the packing ahead of time. I'm seriously considering
moving the oddball monitors and magnetic media myself. I don't trust them
with these easily harmed things and if they're damaged, they have little
or no reimbursement value, but are difficult to find again.
Anyone have any magical tips on packing and moving?
chris
Okay, let's see if I can include the file this time. Sheesh. :)
Ok, this isn't exactly a classic computer. It's more the rebirth of a classic
in a slick new case (looks like a laptop, but isn't) with a slick new desktop.
If you don't think it's appropriate here, I won't be upset if you hit delete. :)
I got my Tiger Learning Computer (hereafter TLC) from Pennys today. The
outside box was smashed beyond all recognition, but the inner box, which only
touched the outer one in two spots, was intact, and the computer undamaged.
Inside the inner box was the actual retail box, with the pictures on it, the
"Apple Technology" symbol on it and so on.
It's an eerie feeling opening a brand new computer in retail packaging like
that. I haven't done it since I got my Commodore 64, after weeks of waiting
for it on backorder at LaBells (aka Best, now extinct) we picked one up at
KMart. You C=64 collectors probably experience this all the time, opening
a box to find *a computer* inside, ready to plug into the TV and compute.
For me, it'd been 13 years.
So what does $179 bucks plus shipping (box smashing was, presumably, free) get
in 1997? Well, you get a solid feeling little computer that feels remarkably
like an early power-book in your hands. You get the "wall wart" power supply.
You get 6 cartridges, one of which is your battery-ram "disk", another of which
has appleworks 4.3 on it. The rest each have a switch and two applications.
They plug (upside down) into slots on either side of the machine. But I'm
ahead of myself here.
Hookup.
Pretty much plug and play, although I did get a chuckle when I noticed that
this computer has no RF modulator. Now that everyone owns a VCR with video
IN jacks, it's not necessary anymore. So, white wire to audio in, yellow wire
to video in, power, flip the VCR input to line in, hit the switch. And smile
to myself as it boots up in prodos. Just for a second before the desktop and
sound effects load.
First annoying thing: The voice that says "Please select an activity" every
time you boot. I'm finding I boot a lot. I can tell this is going to irritate
me in the long term.
I'm not enough of an Apple 2 wizard to know what video mode it came up in. It
looks like about 16 colors, and about the resolution of CGA. Not as fine as
my old '64 was capable of, but much faster.
Using the thing.
Ok, I've owned it for about 4 hours now and I have a horrible crick in my neck
>from lying on the living room floor looking up at the TV, so I haven't
even tried all the apps yet. If anyone's interested, let me know, I'll follow
up.
Loading programs is almost exactly like running them off a floppy, except that
you can never boot from the program disk. You have to go to the disk icon
on the desktop and tell the tiger to run the program. Not very intuitive, but
I'm sure kids will figure it out as fast or faster than I did. Especially if
they read the instructions. :) I just expected them to load automatically.
My bet is in the next ROM version of the tiger they will.
Appleworks 4.3 looks remarkably like it did on my friend's 2E all those years
ago, except of course that it's not as sharp on my TV as it was on his apple
monitor. I suspect a newer TV directly connected instead of through the VCR
would perform better. That failing an old Commodore 1782 monitor should be
something to see. Wish I hadn't given mine away.
My nostalgia for Apple2 is limited here, like I said, I was a commodore 64
geek. WE didn't have to have disks to boot. (In fact, for the first 3
months I had my 64, I had no storage device at all, so my first programs
were short, enjoyed to the point of boredom, and then utterly lost when the
computer was powered off.) On the other hand, the odds of the '64 making a
comeback like this are slim and none. They never had the educational following.
So all in all, it's been a weird experience for me with this little computer.
Objectively, it's not a bad little machine at all. The keyboard bites -
although it may get better as it gets used/my hands adapt back from Microsoft
wave keyboard. The sound is first class - even better than my '64s old SID
chip. Graphics are about as good as can be expected on an 8 bit apple 2,
except in color. Software is still a little weird - nothing beyond what it
came with. Of course, if I can get my hands on a copy of "Kermit, a file
transfer protocol" and type in the 83 line basic Kermit so I can communicate
with the rest of my systems, I hopefully will be able to run all kinds of a2
software on it.
The weird part isn't objective though. Part of me is rejoicing at the idea of
this little throwback to the early 80s. I got a little piece of the excitement
I had unpacking my 64 the first time unpacking the Tiger. And seeing it abuse
my TV into pretending to be a computer monitor, even though it is a little
fuzzy, made me smile. This, for me is how computing was. Part of me sits and
scoffs at the tiger - and my '64 for that matter - when in the next room I have
a lan full of reasonably modern PCs with orders of magnitude more power. Even
my quasi-classic GS is head and shoulders above the tiger as a computer. But
the tiger has something none of my other machines do. I'm not sure what, to
be honest, maybe just nostalgia, maybe not.
Anyway, I'm keeping it. Even if I do keep expecting the flip top to have a
screen in it. (at least it comes off. :)
-Jim
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)calico.litterbox.com
--
"...It tells me that goose stepping morons like yourself should try reading
books instead of burning them."
-Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)calico.litterbox.com
--
"...It tells me that goose stepping morons like yourself should try reading
books instead of burning them."
-Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
--
Jim Strickland
jim(a)calico.litterbox.com
--
"...It tells me that goose stepping morons like yourself should try reading
books instead of burning them."
-Dr. Henry Jones Sr.
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
In a message dated 97-06-02 13:26:32 EDT, kaikal(a)MICROSOFT.com (Kai
Kaltenbach) writes:
> First off, I got two Apple ///+ machines in a thrift store! Anyone have
> a copy of SOS for these suckers?
If no one has a copy try http://www.allelec.com. They have it with II
emulation for $7.95. However their minimum order is $25.00. Lots of Apple and
mac stuff available though.
Lou
At 12:10 AM 6/3/97 -0400, Mr. Self Destruct wrote:
> OK, lately, I have been placed in a sort of dilemna... I have literally
> been deluged with e-mails/posts from people asking for MY MANUALS ...
> I will grudgingly go to my nearest copying center and make
> copies ..
perhaps it is time for this group to stand up and begin to truly capture
the history and documentation of classic computing - and to do it on line.
for starters this means capturing manuals which are all too often lost
first. next (and more challenging legally) is software. we could use some
solid legal advice on what can and can't be posted but i find it hard to
believe that anyone could object to putting scanned-in versions of most
older manuals on the internet since: 1) many of these companies are no
longer in the business, and 2) even if they were they would probably
themselves make such a service available or welcome a third party to do it.
i think all we really would have to do is make sure the original copyright
notification was preserved in the on-line version. i realize system
software is a tougher issue but perhaps we could start with the manuals.
so we would need a home location (Bill Whitson: how about the "Archives"
section of the classic computer web page you've set up?
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~bcw/ccl.html) and some folks with scanners
who can get things into HTML format (and others? .doc? .pdf?) and upload.
comments on this proposal? are there already similar archives out there? -
(i know of some Commodore ones), if so we should point to them. I'm not
aware of any one location to go to find classic computer documentation, and
judging from the traffic on this list it's sorely needed.
- glenn
+=========================================================+
| Glenn F. Roberts, Falls Church, VA
| Comments are my own and not the opinion of my employer
| groberts(a)mitre.org
