Banks do close inactive accounts. The process is called "Escheatment" (I think I've got that right), and the laws, which are vary specific, vary by state in the US and by whatever government entity elsewhere. The banks do not get to keep the money, however, it is (usually, anyway, again the laws vary) normally turned over to the state, where it remains available on some basis should it be claimed (which is fairly rare).
I'd really like to get hold of a functioning
(or close) Compucolor or Intecolor from the
early 80s. The ones we used at Georgia Tech
were all in one unit (I think), a big color
monitor console sort of thing, like God's own
ADM3a, in technicolor. (I could be wrong,
but that's what I seem to remember.) I'd
prefer one with a disk drive.
I think this was the coolest thing ever for
learning graphics stuff.
Anyone have one a mere mortal can afford?
-Miles
I think it's a bit niave to think that a KIM-1 is only going to bring
150-250 $ these days on eBay.... My guess would be over 500.
Alas
- Mike: dogas(a)leading.net
I just checked my two KIMs for dates. Here's what I have:
Board#1: Labeled "Rev. A", oldest chip date 5276 (Dec 76); white numbers
on back "2788". The 6502 is a white ceramic DIP with a "3776" date code.
Board#2: Labeled "Rev. B", oldest chip date 4276 (Oct 76); white numbers
on back "5895". The 6502 is a white ceramic DIP with a "3776" date code.
Small tag says that the 6502 has been replaced.
[ Rich Cini/WUGNET
[ ClubWin!/CW7
[ MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
[ Collector of "classic" computers
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/classiccmp/
[ http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/~rcini/pdp11/
<================ reply separator =================>
Philip.Belben(a)PowerTech.co.uk
>AFAIK there is nothing in any contract I take out with a bank that says
>that if I deposit money and leave it there for over 2 years they are
>entitled to it. I come back 10 or 20 years later expecting to retrieve my
>savings. Yes, I did this with my German bank account in 1995 having not
>touched it since (I think) 1985. It was still there and I could still draw
>money out when on holiday in Germany.
When I was about 3 months old my parents opened an account with Barclays in
my name with about ?2 in it. When I turned 12 the bank began to send me
letters saying that, because of the interest gained I now had ?7. When I
turned 16 the bank suddenly lost all information about me, resulting in the
loss of that money. I'm not saying it's a great deal and it's not as if I
spend sleepless nights worrying about it but I'd like to know where my money
went and why did the account disappear. This type of thing does happen and
the blame is usually placed on "computer error." The Y2k problem is just a
convenient way of "accidentally" losing some of the information regarding
many of the accounts that are considered non-active.
--
Gareth Knight
Amiga Interactive Guide | ICQ No. 24185856
http://welcome.to/aig | "Shine on your star"
Hi!
Does anyone have a boot disk for an NEC APC III?
I found that my error when I try to boot is because of the "Stoned" Virus.
One other question: Is there any way to replace the 720k 5.25" (That's what
I was told it had) with either a 360k floppy, or a 720k 3.5" drive?
ThAnX,
--
-Jason Willgruber
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#: 1730318
<http://members.tripod.com/general_1>
<QUESTION - to any of the folks out there who
<put these kits together originally...
<Is this the way you received them from MITS?
<With the front panel and/or the power supply
<pre-wired and assembled?
Altairs were available two ways Assembled and Tested and pure kit.
the pure kit ones ALL the board had to be populated and the FP was one of
the worst with all the leds.
Allison
-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Duell <ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Friday, 8 January 1999 8:43
Subject: Re: Message formats
>Needless to say they didn't know. Nor do they know what license (if any)
>is needed to receive amateur television...
Can't help with the other examples, but IIRC, in days of old, when we had
such things as TV licenses, it was still legal for an amateur (or
non-amateur) to use amateur tv without a broadcast listeners license.
The test was whether the tv transmission was on a normal broadcast channel
and could be received on an unmodified tv. If it needed a separate rx then
you didn't need a license. The PMG had just about lost interest in the
whole concept of receiver licensing by this stage anyway, though they made a
last attempt to get people to comply with a massive (for those times) tv and
radio adverstising campaign which didn't really net too many more licenses.
Shortly thereafter, they dropped the whole system. The only receivers that
require a license these days are certain satellite systems (under some
special circumstances). Otherwise you are free to look/listen to anything
you like. (Except mobile phones - in theory)
Cheers
Geoff Roberts
Computer Room Internet Cafe
Port Pirie
South Australia.
netcafe(a)pirie.mtx.net.au
Don't tell Andrew Davie, but I'm trying to compete with him in the realm
of weird computing machines.
I just took delivery of a Cybernetic Systems Mathiputer.
It's a stupid odd-shaped math toy that quizes you on arithmetic. It looks
like somebody took a steel globe, split it in half, and put the two halves
back together inside out and sideways (hey, Chuck, I need a diagram here).
It had LED's, incadescent lights, and three rotary switches for input.
Weird enough?
It appears to be from around 1974, and it's got several ceramic and gold
Fairchild parts. Some are 3XXXDC series, such as 3807DC. Does this ring
a bell for anybody? Was there a CPU or calc chip in that series?
-- Doug
Philip.Belben(a)pgen.com said...
|
|So don't dismiss it too soon if someone says the computer won't let them do
|it.
Years ago my dad got fed up with the fact that he
had a couple dozen gas, credit and other cards with
our name spelled without an apostrophe. He called,
wrote letters, and generally waged a one man war.
People were calling back begging him to please keep
the cards, the computers did it, there was no way.
Dad eventually cut most of them up and sent them
back. He even had a VP or two call him!
Dad had an ace in the hole. He knew a COBOL programmer,
who explained that it was just basically stupidity,
laziness, or being overly clever that led to these
problems, and reminded him that our bank used computers
and COBOL, and that everything related to us at the
bank had apostrophes in our name.
Dad eventually did manage to talk to MIS people at
a couple of the companies, and after a bit of argument
they agreed that this would be resolved within a year.
Dad was amazed that it would take this long, but when
they talked about budgets and politics he calmed down
(since he was head of a college chemistry department
and acting dean). Eventually they came through.
I've always wondered just how much Dad's private war
had to do with the fact that today, the commercial
computer program that won't take apostrophes in a
name (at least in the USA 8^) is rare. Now if the
programmers would just program searches to try it
with and without the apostrophe when one is entered
(since people still leave them out on occasion...)
-Miles
