> It may have been a said on the list in the
> earlier thread that the Sage debuted(sp) in
> "Desk Set" and came back in "Dear Bridgett"
> and then later in "What a Way to Go".
Was "Desk Set" the Tracy-Hepburn film with
him as an efficiency expert, to her girl-from-
small-town-working-in-the-big-city?
I also recall a late 60s/early 70s film, that I
think starred Patrick McGoohan, with him playing
a mathematician/codebreaking expert, who employed
a large number of beautiful women who actually did
the codebusting; but they used a computer to check
the results. I think we saw a shot of the computer,
but I wasn't kind to my memory organ back in those
days... ring any bells?
-dq
Hi:
I retired mine when the Miniscribe 10MB hard drive gave too many errors to be useful.
But otherwise, I have everything complete with manuals and disks.
The only "extras" I ever got were some extra Unix utilities and a Fortran compiler.
The "special terminal" is actually just a low-resolution monochrome monitor connected with an RJ-45 type connector.
(Character based, no graphics)
The keyboard plugs into a similar connector on the front.
Later models had a keyswitch, mine does not.
Fortune made very nice stuff at an acceptable price for their day, but they crippled everything
by making it non-standard to try to control their market.
If you wanted a cheap computer to do Fortran programming, like I did, the only competition
was the original IBM PC, which was brand new back then.
The fact that the Fortune ran Unix made me choose the Fortune.
I have no time for my collection either, but with an economic recession on the way, I might soon
find myself with lots of spare time :-)
In your "parts" machine, you wouldn't happen to have an ethernet card, would you ?
I know that they sold them, but they were too expensive for me back then.
-Rob
-----Original Message-----
From: David Williams [SMTP:dlw@trailingedge.com]
Sent: Thursday, December 14, 2000 4:55 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Anyone else with an interest in Fortune Systems ?
Hi,
I've always been interested in them. I was hired back in the early
80s to pick a multi-user system for a business and that was one of
the boxs we looked at. I have 2 of them and a third in parts along
with some doc but don't have the special terminal to work with it.
Thus I have never been able to bring them up. They seem to need
some special key when trying to access these and I have no idea
what sequence it sends so I could mimic it on another terminal.
One day I plan on scanning the doc but haven't had the time. But
since I've dropped one side job recently maybe now I'll have more
time for my collection.
David
-----
David Williams - Computer Packrat
You can learn to like the life you live
or live the life you like.
dlw(a)trailingedge.com
http://www.trailingedge.com
-----Original Message-----
From: Iggy Drougge [mailto:optimus@canit.se]
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 3:26 PM
To: Mark Price
Subject: RE: First personal computer nostalgia
[snip!]
>I'm sorry, but I feel it's nitpicking time...
>I've never heard of an Atari 1050ST before, nor of a 1 MB hard drive fitted
to
>an ST. OTOH, there is the Atari 1040ST, which had 1 MB of RAM.
You are correct, sir. My 5 should've been a 4. Nit well picked.
==============================
Mark Price, Library Computer Specialist
Washington County Cooperative Library Services
e-mail: markp(a)wccls.lib.or.us
voice: 503-846-3230
fax: 503-846-3220
-----Original Message-----
From: Ernest [mailto:ernestls@home.com]
Sent: Wednesday, December 13, 2000 10:47 PM
To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: RE: Vintage computers in movies
>Televideo TS-802 -Pretty in Pink
>AT&T 6300 -Secret to My Success
>IMSAI -Wargames
>HP-150 -Real Genius
>GE Differential Analyzer (UCLA) -When Worlds Collide
>Thinking Machines CM-5 -Jurrasic Park
>Memotech FDX500 or MTX512 -Weird Science
>Mac Plus -Star Trek IV
>VAX 11/750 with IBM 3290 plasma display panels -some independant film (?)
IBM XT or AT -Stand by Me (1986)
Richard Dreyfuss is the grown-up writer whose coming-of-age story we see
portrayed in the film. At the end, he's sitting there at his XT or AT (I
haven't seen it in a while) and regards with satisfaction the novel he's
just finished writing on his amazing menu-free, rulerless word processor.
His kids are calling him, so he reaches up and--oh, no--shuts off the
computer?? Aacckk!! YOU DIDN'T SAVE YOUR WORK, RICHARD!
But maybe he was just shutting off the monitor to avoid screen-burn. Yeah,
that's it. (I squirm every time I see that scene.)
And does this one count? In This Island Earth (1954), made great fun of in
Mystery Science Theater 3000: The Movie (1996), Dr. Jeff Meachum gets a
computer kit from the planet Metaluna. Like most computer kits, this one
takes him and his PhD. buddy utilizing an entire university physics lab just
to get it put together, BUT they end up with an "Interocetor," I believe it
was called, a very cool mini that ran on a single glass bead and was
controlled by a single colorful plastic wheel. It featured a large
triangular monitor and--a heat ray! (Much more effective than a
screen-saver at keeping gawkers from looking at your work.) Apparently, not
many Interocetor kits were sold in the U.S. because for one thing Metaluna
was soon destroyed in an interstellar war before they could open any plants
in Mexico, and for another, there's nobody bumming Interocetor documentation
on this list. Too bad, the monitor heat ray could be very handy. I have a
flickering Vivitron at home that feels like it fries my retina, but it's
just not the same...
==============================
Mark Price, Library Computer Specialist
Washington County Cooperative Library Services
e-mail: markp(a)wccls.lib.or.us
voice: 503-846-3230
fax: 503-846-3220
VAX running VMS.
-----Original Message-----
From: Vintage Computer Festival <vcf(a)siconic.com>
To: Classic Computers Mailing List <classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org>
Date: Thursday, December 14, 2000 2:28 PM
Subject: Question about Delphi
>
>Does anyone know what mainframes the online service Delphi ran on?
>
>Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer
Festival
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
------
>International Man of Intrigue and Danger
http://www.vintage.org
>
>
On 2000-12-14 classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org said to kees.stravers(a)iae.nl
>> Looking through the manual for my ATI ALL-IN-WONDER PRO,
>>it gives the impression that it works on both NTSC and Pal.
>Sorry, I found the box the ATI board came in and it is labeled TV
>input NTSC only.
The Matrox Marvel G400-TV can record and playback in both PAL and NTSC.
Kees.
--
Kees Stravers - Geldrop, The Netherlands - kees.stravers(a)iae.nl
http://www.iae.nl/users/pb0aia/ My home page (old computers,music,photography)
http://www.vaxarchive.org/ Info on old DEC VAX computers
Net-Tamer V 1.08.1 - Registered
Hi all:
I have an old "Fortune Systems 32:16", circa 1983.
This was a great little 68000 based unix box which I used to rent out to a skeptical
former employer who was wasting ridiculous amounts of money on mainframe time.
(It paid itself back several times)
Anyone else out there have an interest in these ?
Despite the fact that unix is never really out of date, there are three things that make
this box a dinosaur:
(1) It lacks any sort of networking beyond its serial port
(2) It requires specially formatted 800K, 5-1/4 floppies
(3) The bus looks like the original IBM PC bus, but it is not.
I wish I had some specs on it.
Rob Kapteyn
kapteynr(a)cboe.com
On December 14, Rob Kapteyn wrote:
> I have an old "Fortune Systems 32:16", circa 1983.
Wow, I seem to remember ads in BYTE Magazine for those machines.
I've never actually seen one in person. If they were more common I'd
love to get my hands on one.
-Dave McGuire
On December 14, Neil Cherry wrote:
> Most VAX are mini's (at least in my Opinion). I'm not sure exactly what
> decides that a machine is a Main frame, a mini and a micro (yes I know
> most desktops are micro's).
I don't know what the specific popular definitions or dividing lines
are, but by DEC's own opinions, all VAXen are minis except the
VAX9000, which they called a mainframe.
-Dave McGuire
> How about the pieces of the SAGE in 'Time Tunnel' (A US TV
> Show from the mid-sixties.)
>
> I know we had a thread on this some time back.
>
> Or was it a big Burroughs system?
Ah, yes... I think Irwin Allen used that system on Time Tunnel
as well as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea, Lost in Space, and
Land of the Giants.
Wonder what became of it?
-dq
