Saw a demo of a neat piece of software yesterday. Two people were about 35
miles apart. One pulled up a document on his computer. Gave access to it
to the other guy who had a mouse and cursor at his end which we could also
see on the screen. He could point to things, as the two people talked.
Control could have been passed to him at any time.
After a bit, the guy on our end decided he wanted to be able to see the
other guy, so he opened a box in the upper left corner of the screen, sized
it, and voila, there was a video image of the other guy. They were able to
talk and see each other, as they worked together on the same document.
Pretty darn cool, if you ask me.
Oh, I kinda lied. I actually only saw a videotape of the demo.
The actual demo had taken place 30 years ago in 1968, and the star of the
demo was Doug Englebart.
Think about your first reaction to what sounds like whiteboarding software
that is starting to become commonplace. Now consider that the demo was
filmed 30 years ago in *black and white*! That's how far ahead Englebart
and his team really were (or, how far we *haven't* come when we should have!)
Go check out http://unrev.stanford.edu/ for yourself.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
roger(a)sinasohn.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.sinasohn.com/
In a message dated 12/13/98 3:05:02 PM Pacific Standard Time, yowza(a)yowza.com
writes:
> Tell us, and let us chuckle now. 8080's are available from any surplus
> electronics shop in quantity. I sold one of my 8008's on ebay a while
> back "the CPU used in the Scelbi and Mark-8, before the Altair!" and got
> $15 for it. The chip collector niche is *much* smaller than even the tiny
> computer collector niche.
>
Did you advertise under the keyword "Gold". I think this is the key to selling
old chips. I agree that the chip collector niche is small. However there are
many more people that collect beautiful Gold objects. This is my target
market.
Scrap value of your 8008 is less than 25 cents. At $15 you did very well. I
plan on starting with my gold 8080s and EPROM's, not the most collectable
stuff. My main interest is in doing better than scrap value. I agree these
chips are available in every scrapyard. These came out of mine. Computer
collectors know this, gold collectors don't. Researching your market
important.
Keywords are everything. I noticed that even you got 'Altair' in the title box
of the 8008.
Paxton
In a message dated 12/13/98 3:21:31 PM Pacific Standard Time,
dastar(a)ncal.verio.com writes:
> With regards specifically to the auction in question, the item was listed
> as a "S100 BUS IMSAI ALTAIR Z80 EMULATOR". This item has nothing to do
> with emulating the S-100 bus. That is deceptive.
>
I agree that the listing is deceptive, poor English also. I doubt any court
would convict on the listings of the title box alone, they would rely on the
description to decide deception.
When I originally searched by category I got 50 pages to wade through. Like
most others I switched to keyword searches. This makes keywords much more
important than the actual description.
Lets take my gold 8080 for example. (It is over 10 years old so it is on
topic). While I would list it under CPUs my title would say something like
"Beautiful Gold Intel 8080 Microprocessor, Rare!
'Gold' and 'Intel' for the search engines. 'Beautiful' to get you to look at
the picture, a nice close-up larger than life size (with size disclaimer). The
quality of the photo is very important. It would be plugged into anti-stat
foam in a clear plastic box. I know some of the list would quibble over the
term 'Rare'. I have no real idea of the rarity. However after working with a
scrapper for years my guess is they 'are' rare.
My intended market, obviously is the jewelry collector or someone interested
in gold items, not a computer collector. Old gold electronics are very
attractive.
Whoever sold the emulator asked themselves who might buy this item and how do
I connect with them. They obviously thought that people searching for S100,
Imsais and Altairs would be interested. You don't have much room in the title
box. In my example above I might not have room for 'microprocessor'. It is
unfortunate that English gets left behind in the process. This also comes from
the poor job that schools today are teaching English.
The unfortunate part of this is that poor English is becoming more acceptable.
The Internet and it's use of keywords only contributes to this.
Paxton
How about the Philips P2000 family? I have not seen messages about
those machines on the list. Z80 system, 48K RAM, 16K ROM in a cart
so it was easy to change programs, micro cassette recorder that was
operated by the computer so no fiddling with buttons, floppy drives
optional, video 40x24 color (viewdata/teletext character set) or
80x24 monochrome. Started life as a dedicated word processor, BASIC
cart added later. There was a disk operating system that could work
with the programs originally meant for cassette use only, and CP/M
was available. P2000T was the 40x24 cassette version, P2000M was the
80x24 disk version. There also was a P2000C, which was a 'portable'
machine like the Kaypro's, but it ran CP/M only and was not compatible
with the P2000T/M. AFAIK they were all developed and produced in
the Philips factories in Austria.
Picture of a P2000M at
http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/sroom.html
Picture of a P2000C at
http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/lroom.html
Kees
--
Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - pb0aia(a)iae.nl
Sysadmin and DEC PDP/VAX preservationist - Visit VAXarchive!
http://vaxarchive.ml.org (primary) - http://www.sevensages.org/vax/ (mirror)
See my old computers at http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/cm/
Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Registered
How about the exelvision EXL100? is that a single instance on the list?
I also have the IR joysticks.
Francois
-------------------------------------------------------------
Visit the desperately in need of update
Sanctuary at: http://www.pclink.com/fauradon/
In the 386 issue of PC Magazine, May 30, 1989, there is a two page spread
(p98&99) called "Another Kind of Memory." It is a timeline from 1890 to 1990
of historical milestones on the path to computerdom. Of special interest to
this group they list the Kenbak PC, 1971 as the first personal computer. The
Xerox Alto was the first workstation with a mouse, 1972. Mits Altair featured
on cover of Popular Electronics, July 1975.
They make no claims that the Altair was the first personal computer, only that
it was on the cover of a popular magazine.
Does anyone out there have a KenbaK PC?
Paxton
I have a C1P with a complete set of documentation and presale material
including schematics. i believe i also have a bare disk controller board, but
i dont know for sure. i might need some of my parts identified.
david
In a message dated 12/11/98 11:15:06 AM Pacific Standard Time,
george(a)racsys.rt.rain.com writes:
<< It has been at least 6 months so maybe it is time again.
I'm always looking for OSI hardware. I am specifically looking for C4 and
C8 machines and/or Floppy drives for such critters.
Perhaps we could create an inventory list among us and see if we might be
able to mix/match to build more complete systems.
I'll start:
I have the following:
C2-4p Empty case
C4p Comes up with 256 Bytes of RAM >>
At 06:44 PM 12/13/98 +0000, Tony wrote:
>> for originals or copies is the tricky part. Many tubes(valves) are still
>> available new as NOS or rebuilds or newly made. I even have problems on a new
>> digital scope finding some things from HP.
>
>It never fails to amaze me that I can get spare valves for a unit made 50
>years ago (or more), but can't get a new ASIC for a machine made 5 years
>ago....
>
>Sad but true...
>
Yes.
A few hundred valves/tube types I quess would be plenty for radios, TV's
computers, audio, scopes, etc. Including octal types which go back to the
1930's. Am ignoring the series string types in later tube TV's, such as (In
the US) "38qzy", etc, and CRT's.
I quess one could do the same with ic's with the 74 and 74ls series, even
with a few mos (microprocessors) parts thrown in. Even with transistors - a
2N2222 can go in many places. Not anymore...
-Dave
Looking at the June 83 ad for the Hyperion I noticed that it has 320K drives
instead of 360K. If I remember right the 320K format is 7 sector not 8 sector
drives.
I propose an experiment even though I too, believe it takes a special version
of DOS. Get an old PC and format a DOS disk at the 320K format using ver 2.11.
Transfer the system and see what happens.
Paxton
ok, so its not a classic computer but there was a discussion a while back
about ocilloscopes and i happened upon a model 503 at a thift store for $80.
is it worth getting? presumably it works but i have no idea how one would test
it, much less use it.
david
