> I've often wondered about adding a BCD-DTMF chip and a pulse counter
to
make dial phones do tones for all the robots you ring up and have to
type numbers to communicate with. But where do I put # and *?
Suggestions?
Do what I do, refuse to use robot phone systems, always wait till an
operator comes on line. If a company is too cheap to pay someone to
answer the phone I certainly don't want to do business with them, it's a
clear indication of the level of service I can expect.
Jack Peacock
> While we're on this subject, are stupid lawsuits as common in UK
and other countries as the US?
There was the slander lawsuit in the UK brought by McDonalds against
some food activist pressure group. On the surface it sounded stupid,
took forever, but in the end it proved to be a wise business choice for
McDonalds. IIRC McDonalds won some small victory from it but it was a
brilliant first strike to stop any future pressure groups.
On the other hand even McDonalds loses a few. I think it was the
McDonalds in downtown Shanghai, the Chinese Govt decided they wanted the
property and booted McD out even thought McD had a lease on it. McD
tried to sue in Chinese court, which surely qualifies as a stupid
lawsuit in China.
Jack peacock
Well, I bought a replacement coin battery...it's starting up off the
SMPSU from my Packard Bell. Hmm...the screen on my Mac Portable is a
million times better...how do I get into the CMOS setup in this
thing? Since the settings are reset, I can't get to the hard drive
for any potential setup programs.
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
FWIW: just to give some of you a bit of fun; no futher discussion needed
here as it's kinda off topic.
Found this in comp.sys.ibm.sys3x.misc. Don't know for sure if Mr. Welch
really gave the press rls. Posted on Thu, 16 Jul 1998:
At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry and stated: "If GM had kept up with technology like
the computer industry has, we would all be driving twenty-five dollar
cars that got 1000 miles to the gallon.
In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating (by Mr. Welch himself):
If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving
cars with the following characteristics:
1. For no reason whatsoever your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines on the road you would have
to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason,
and you would just accept this, restart and drive on.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn, would
cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you
would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Only one person at a time could use the car, unless you bought
"Car95" or "CarNT". But then you would have to buy more seats.
6. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun,
reliable, five times as fast, and twice as easy to drive, but would
only run on five per cent of the roads.
7. The oil, water temperature and alternator warning lights would
be replaced by a single "general car default" warning light.
8. New seats would force everyone to have the same size butt.
9. The air bag system would say "Are you sure?" before going off.
10. Occasionally for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you
out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door
handle, turned the key, and grab hold of the radio antenna.
11. GM would require all car buyers to also purchase a deluxe set of
Rand McNally road maps (now a GM subsidiary), even though they neither
need or want them. Attempting to delete this option would immediately
cause the car's performance to diminish by 50% or more. Moreover, GM
would become a target for investigation by the Justice Department.
12. Every time GM introduced a new model car, buyers would have to
learn how to drive all over again because none of the controls would
operate in the same manner as the old car.
13. You'd press the "start" button to shut off the engine.
-- --
Christian Fandt, Electronic/Electrical Historian
Jamestown, NY USA
Member of Antique Wireless Association
URL: http://www.ggw.org/freenet/a/awa/
While I suppose it's technically possible to be electrocuted by anything
plugged into a wall outlet, I really have a hard time buying this story.
There's got to be more to it than that. Can you tell me in what newspaper
it appeared?
"Charles E. Fox" <foxvideo(a)wincom.net> on 07/22/98 09:47:50 AM
Please respond to classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers"
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
cc: (bcc: Bill Sheehan/Corporate/SWEC)
Subject: Re: Compaq//safety issues
Todays paper has an article about a fourteen year old Southern Ontario
boy
who electrocuted himself while using his computer "when the keyboard became
disconnected and he tried to plug it in"!!
This sounds nearly impossible and very hard on all the young people
who
are trying to conn a computer out of their parents.
If I hear any more I will pass it along.
Charlie Fox
>> $460!!!! That CAN'T right! I going to throw away my Altair and start
>> looking for Sinclairs to sell on E-pay!
> But to us british the ZX80 has the same nostalgic value as an Altair. The
> highest price I have seen a ZX80 go for here in the UK was 180 UKP but
> this example was fully boxed, the correct manuals, mint condition and
> known to work.
460 USD ? 180 UKP ?
Wooha!
And I just gave away a ZX80 for free last week (to a
fellow collector - Stefan, did you check it ? Working ?).
Althrugh it is an early ZX80 (see the glossing 'Keyboard' ?
Later modells had a darkened keymat to give a chance for
guessing the keys) I wouldn't pay anything more than
DM 80-100 (~ USD 60, UKP 30) - no way. ZX80 is sill somewhat
common. There are a lot of newer devices that are realy rare.
Shure, the ZX81 is for most people more nostalgic than
any KIM, AIM or Altair, since it was (together with the
ZX81) the first computer for a real lot of people.
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
LOL, i love that disclaimer. time to reedit my .sig file...
perhaps everyone should use it nowadays?
In a message dated 98-07-21 23:57:06 EDT, Don Maslin put forth:
<< Disclaimer:
As a resident of the '90's, I take no responsibility for anything I say or
do.
If any of my actions hurt or offend anyone, it was probably not my fault, and
the result of some childhood trauma which I've probably repressed. >>
At 10:20 PM 7/21/98 -0500, you wrote:
>For your amusement:
> http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=21496167
>
>-- Doug
$460!!!! That CAN'T right! I going to throw away my Altair and start
looking for Sinclairs to sell on E-pay!
(Just kidding!!!!!!!!)
Go look at his other ads. He has a 1 cent paper bill that some fool
has bid $5 for!
