Ever notice that on modern keyboards, the letters on the keys are not
in the middle of the key? They are off to the left. This is something
that has always kind of annoyed me. I like the way the older keyboards
were made, like on the VT100 terminal. Not only did they have real
switches and a great feel, but the letters were right there in the
middle of the key, where they should be. Not only that, but the labels
on these old keyboards actually went all the way through the key - it
was made of two different colors of plastic. This way, the letters
wouldn't wear off. It's obvious why they changed the key switches - to
make the keyboard cheaper. That and some people are weird and don't
like the wonderful sounds that the older keyboards made. (I hate quiet
keyboards...) But why were the letters moved? Was this cheaper or
easier? Or did Apple suddenly do it and then everyone else followed
suit? <grin> Does anyone know what computer started using this style
of keycap labeling?
Just curious.
Ian Primus
ian_primus(a)yahoo.com
Well, my Pentium II motherboard bit the dust the other day (Thank You
American Electric Power!), so I went to the local computer parts store
in search of a new one. Being somewhat of a vacuum tube fan, I settled
on the AOpen AX4B-533TUBE board. Yes, this one has a vacuum tube. It
uses a dual triode (Sovtek 6922) as the audio amplifier. The board also
sports a 1.5Ghz Pentium 4 and DDR SDRAM, along with the usual bells and
whistles such as LAN, Serial, Parallel, etc.
The audio out of the board sounds great, as long as you make sure you
have the right impedance speakers/headphones plugged in. My normal 8
ohm headphones were badly overdriven, but plugging the computer into my
guitar amp (sounds weird, don't it?) delivered that nice, wide vacuum
tube tonality that normal sound cards just can't deliver.
I really gotta hand it to the guys at AOpen for delivering a wonderful
mix of new and old tech.
I do, however, really need to install a window in my case so I can bask
in the warm glow of the vacuum tube.
--
Christopher L McNabb
Operating Systems Analyst Email: cmcnabb(a)4mcnabb.net
Virginia Tech ICBM: 37.1356N 80.4272N
GMRS: WPSR255 ARS: N2UX Grid Sq: EM97SD
Nice. Virtually identical to the Sharp PC 3100, but the Sharp had
proprietory 10pin RS232, 20pin Parallel, and fdd sockets. It ran an
80C88 at 10mhz as opposed to the Poquets' 16mhz. Only type 1 PCcard
slots as opposed to the Poquets' type I/II. Uses 4 x1.5v cells. Based on
the specs I think the Poquet wins out. But a later machine.
These guys have the PC 3000. About the same price.
http://www.notebooksplus.com/pc3000.htm
This guy has done some amazing things with the 2MB PC3100.
http://www.geocities.com/SouthBeach/Strand/3387/pc3story.html
Lawrence
> Back in the mid-90's I kept a Poqet PC in my bag or desk to use as an
> ad hoc console terminal for data center gear. Wasn't as convenient as
> the then current HP palmtops, but a heck of a lot cheaper and an
> easier keyboard if the HPs were a tad small for you. MS-DOS in ROM
> supported Kermit nicely for ANSI terminal emulation.
>
> California Digital (not the newbies that bought VA Linux' hardware
> operation) still has them, though perhaps a bit (ahem) overpriced:
>
> http://www.cadigital.com/poqetpc.htm
>
> --S.
>
lgwalker(a)mts.net
bigwalk_ca(a)yahoo.com
lgwalker(a)mts.net
bigwalk_ca(a)yahoo.com
On Wed, 27 Nov 2002, Marvin Johnston wrote:
> Thanks, turning on Javascript did it! But it is still not what I am
> looking for. I've seen lists in the past that have only the computer and
> the (sometimes approximate) date they were introduced. So far, I've
> still been unable to find such a list.
Here's the link you may be remembering:
http://members.fortunecity.com/pcmuseum/complist.html
I like this one because it gives references to where much of the information
came from.
Thanks,
DaveB
Volunteer, Computer History Museum
I've got a few PPT readers (SCM & Burroughs, parallel I/F) if anybody wants
to
play around with one; also some punches and parts. Contact me off-list if
interested.
mike
---------------------------------------------
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I've muddied the waters a bit... The link I included was for the
later Fujitsu Poqet PC Plus. Fujitsi bought out the original
company before or while the second generation product was being
offered. CA Digital is giving specs for the Plus model, which is
what I believe they're selling. Gee, I wonder if this is covered
on one of the timelines people have been discussing...
The original Poqet PC has _no_ backlight, uses 2 std AA cells, and
MS-DOS 3.3 in ROM. Not sure how much memory is in there, ISTR at
least 512K and maybe more. There's a small ramdisk on D: for
AUTOEXEC/CONFIG.SYS, and the DOS ROM is C:. The two PCMCIA slots
at A:/B: are nice, especially with the 2MB SRAM cards - however I
appear to have forgotten to refresh the lithium backup batteries
in mine :^}
Fred's right, the original Poqet brings pretty much the whole XT
bus out to a connector on the back. I like the idea of hooking
this up to a backplane... B^P
Somewhere I have the docs from when I bought the thing, but it
may be years before they surface again.
--S.
While at the Goodwill I picked up a black case and inside was a Bridge
Challenger III with power supply and manual. It's missing thirteen dealer
cards. These cards are read my a built in scanner. This unit was built by
Fidelity Electronics LTD.
Hello, I wonder if anyone can help me.
I have an early 1980s Hewlett Packard HP150A which I am trying to find a
home for in a museum. The system is working but I can't find the MSDOS
(or application) disks for it which were on 3.5" floppy.
Does anyone know a source of such things? I think I may have a museum
interested but I would rather donate it as a fully working system.
Thanks in anticipation
Kim Harris
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No, it is a Hornet chip, but it has an 80C186 in it. Running MSD.exe will
show this information. See http://www.daniel-hertrich.de/200lx/block.pdf for
a block diagram of the chip, with the 80C186 clearly indicated. There are
also a lot of references to the '186 in programming information for the
LX's.
-----Original Message-----
From: Philip Pemberton [mailto:philpem@dsl.pipex.com]
Sent: Wednesday, November 27, 2002 4:02 PM
To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
Subject: Re: Modern replica/implementation of a dumb terminal?
<snip>
I though the 200LX used an 8086, more specifically an Intel HORNET embedded
CPU?
<snip>
The winning (only) bidder was vcf! so I guess that means it went to a good
home and now I won't regret bidding on it.
> >>From: "Bill Sudbrink" <wh.sudbrink(a)verizon.net>
> >>Reply-To: cctalk(a)classiccmp.org
> >>To: <cctalk(a)classiccmp.org>
> >>Subject: HP 2784B Paper Tape Reader on ebay
> >>Date: Tue, 26 Nov 2002 10:53:02 -0500
> >>
> >>Sorry if this screws up someone's snipe plans... but it was
> >>offered a couple of weeks ago and closed with no bids. It
> >>currently (10:50 am EST) has no bids with 11 hours to go. I
> >>can't imagine that nobody one the list would want this:
> >>
> >>http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=1789314629
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