In a message dated 97-06-13 16:35:47 EDT, Ray Stricklin wrote:
> I'm just curious, but what's special about the MX-80?
The MX-80 was the first low cost RELIABLE dot matrix printer and made
printing an affordable reality for we poor early micro users. The Paper Tiger
was (to the best of my memory) the first low cost ($995, again to the best of
my memory) micro dot matrix printer. Unfortunately it was NOT very reliable.
BTW after my post on collecting printers I suddenly realized I have about 12
lying around so I guess I am sort of collecting them - but it's against my
will. :-)
Lou
Opens tomorrow. Should be fun!:
"Boston, MA (May 23) - On June 14, 1997, The Computer Museum re-creates the
dawn of the PC age through a lifesize reconstruction of a 1970s' hacker's
garage and vintage personal computing artifacts. ... The Museum draws on
artifacts from its rich collection, including an Apple I and Altair 8800,
to recall the garages of 1970s' hobbyists who assembled "homebrew"
computers ... Rich in period detail, the "garage" is cluttered with an
oscilloscope, a ham radio, an old TV tube, 1970s' issues of Byte magazine,
a drum set, a guitar and photos of Mick Jagger and the Beatles. The relics
- including two early personal computers and two video games - recall a
pivotal time when computers began to serve as consumer items ..."
for the full article see:
http://www.tcm.org/info/press/wpr-hgarage.html
- glenn
+=========================================================+
| Glenn F. Roberts, Falls Church, VA
| Comments are my own and not the opinion of my employer
| groberts(a)mitre.org
Well, darn it, I tried, but I just can't get the silly thing to work!
Ok... first volunteer who feels like visiting Kent, WA (yes, Bill, that's
a big hint, especially since I CC'd you on this... <g>) can have this
beast. It's an STC/StorageTek 9-track tape drive, model 2921. When working,
it can do 1600 and 6250 (GCR), sits in a standard 19" rack, has a Pertec
interface, and weighs about 100 lbs. or so.
Notice I say 'when working.' I tried to get it to going, but it seems to
have a sick CPU card. I kind of hate to get rid of it, but I need the space
more than I do the drive and a new CPU card was quoted as being around $800
(yikes! My skylight blinds are going to cost that much!)
Come to think of it, if anyone's got a working dual-density drive that
they feel like getting rid of, I would love to know about it. ;-)
Thanks in advance. E-mail or call me at (253) 639-9555 for details.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Bruce Lane, Sysop, The Dragon's Cave BBS (Fidonet 1:343/272)
(Hamateur: WD6EOS) (E-mail: kyrrin(a)wizards.net)
http://www.wizards.net/technoid
"Our science can only describe an object, event, or living thing in our own
human terms. It cannot, in any way, define any of them..."
At 01:56 PM 6/13/97 -0700, you wrote:
>Say someone had a nice, working IMSAI 8080 in decent condition. How
>much, realistically, could one expect to sell this for?
Haddock lists it at 150-225... (Values are for complete systems, with
everything that came with it, but not boxes, and not nec. working.)
>Victor 9000, working...how much?
I paid $100 + tax for mine. Took me a while to find it, too.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
While Isaac Davis wrote:
Wait a minute, it was an Olivetti, but I can't remember the
>> model. The coolest part was turning the lights off when it was printing and
>> watching the sparks fly across the paper as it printed. That's a printer I
>> would like to have again.
At 21:28 12/06/97 -0600, Jeff wrote:
>Y' know, I seems to me that some of these 'sparky' dot matrix
>printers used aluminized "thermal" paper.
No Jeff, this Olivetti "sparkling" system was different and was not using
thermal-conductive (=aluminium) paper (at least the one I know); was a real
DRY INK JET.
The "bullet-shaped" cartridge was containing the DRY INK (a sort of TONER)
and a high-voltage electric field was made between the rubber(but conductive)
roll, and the head. In this way the particles of positive electrically
charged toner is "aimed" to go against the negative charged roll, but in
between there is the paper (common paper), so the electricity pass, but ink
stay.
>I used to have a stack of
>old machine runs on such paper, and I remember certain cheesy
>cash-registers using the same kind of paper tape (about 1981 or so .
also this DRY system was widely used by Olivetti on desktop financial
calculator (I have one working) and cash-registers
I think that the system was good for those applications (fast,quite
silent,working on common paper instead thermal and..yes,cool in the dark)
but the problem was the powder spread all around the printing bay of the
machine, so when bubble jet came out...
Sorry for my instinctive and not-checked english.
Ciao
Riccardo
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
Riccardo Romagnoli,collector of:CLASSIC COMPUTERS,TELETYPE UNITS,PHONE AND
PHONECARDS I-47100 Forli'/Emilia-Romagna/Food Valley/ITALY
Pager:DTMF PHONES=+39/16888(hear msg.and BEEP then 5130274*YOUR TEL. NUMBER*
where*=asterisk key | for help visit http://www.tim.it/tldrin_eg/tlde03.html
TELEX:551132 CHEMIF I
?????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????
> Aha! YUV is something I recognize now. I believe this is what broadcast
> professionals call component video. (Let's see if I'll be right one out of
> two.)
>
> > The signals are transmitted this way in broadcast TV to ensure
> > compatibility between colour and BW tellies. They are also the signals
> > that would normally be sent to a TV (UHF or VHF) modulator from the
> > computer, hence their presence on the video connector.
>
> Hmmm... any modulator I've ever worked on had a composite input. Is this
> maybe more common in European systems?
Hmm. I'm getting out of my depth at this point. I've not dealt in
detail with many colour modulators but I recall the Sinclair Spectrum
had YUV as opposed to RGB on its expansion port.
The computer obviously uses RGB internally (although I don't see why one
couldn't design a machine to do YUV instead!) and it has to be converted
to YUV at some stage in the modulation process. My guess (no evidence
to back this up) is that the more expensive modulators - the ones one is
likely to be able to buy for one's own projects - accept composite, but
many mass-producing manufacturers got away with a cheaper modulator by
putting the conversion in the (custom) chip in the video circuitry.
Philip.
Found this in comp.os.cpm. It is on the wrong side of the country
for me.
--pec
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Saved From The Dumpster Collection: http://www.crl.com/~pcoad/machines.html
Reply-To: Stephen Griswold <stephen.griswold(a)CIRCUITCELLAR.COM>
Sender: CPM-L Mailing List <CPM-L(a)VM.ITS.RPI.EDU>
From: Stephen Griswold <stephen.griswold(a)CIRCUITCELLAR.COM>
Organization: Micromint/Circuit Cellar, Inc.
Subject: fwd: Kaypro 2 For sale
Lines: 28
Xref: nnrp1.crl.com comp.os.cpm:15835
* Originally By: Calvin Krusen (Local BBS)
* Originally To: All
* Originally Re: Kaypro 2 For sale
* Original Area: General Interest
While cleaning the basement of the company I work for, I found a
Kaypro 2 "portable" PC. Its blue with an integrated 5" green
monitor and two 5-1/4" disk drives. On power up, it tries to boot
>from one of the drives and displays a message on the display to
insert system disk.
I'm not looking for any money for it, just a good home.
It weighs about 27 lbs, so you would have to pick up the shipping
>from Warrington, PA (just outside Philadelphia).
I'll give one week for responses then it goes in the trash.
Email me direct at ckrusen(a)erols.com or call me at my place of work\
215/343-6600 x122.
Calvin Krusen
+++++++++++++++++++++++
Director of Engineering
MEECO Inc.
Warrington, PA 18976
215/343-6600 x122
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-End forward-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
___ Blue Wave/QWK v2.12
-- end of forwarded message --
At 07:47 PM 6/12/97 -0700, you wrote:
>I noticed their web page and it looks like a pretty good collection!
>One thing I didn't see there was information about how it got started,
>who was involved, what kind of a group it is, etc. Can you help out and
>fill in the blanks? Thanks!
Okay, let me put in a disclaimer that a) I have a horrible memory and b) I'm
not super involved in the day-to-day stuff (I've spent the last 2 years
dealing with the passing of my mother and taking care of my father among
other disasters -- the best thing in the last two years has been having to
have my entire sewer system replaced because of tree roots completely
clogging it.) (Oh, and a general disclaimer that I really don't know as
much as people seem to think I do.)
Anyway, what happened is Kip Crosby realized that much of our history was
disappearing as companies tossed their old, non-pc systems in favor of
Gateway 2000's et al. I think this came about because he replaced Brenda
(his older, multi-user micro (IMS? something like that)) with PC's. Being a
realist, however, he decided to concentrate on California computers only (A
daunting task in and of itself). I think he hoped to see other orgs
covering other areas in the future.
I knew Kip from eons ago (early 80's) when we were on a couple of Fido
BBS's. He rang me and a couple others up and we got together, tossed around
the ideas. He got going on it, and I signed on as Secretary. I must admit,
though, that I kinda left most of it in his capable hands. (I trust him to
do it right.)
The focus (from what I see) right now is research and the Analytical Engine
(the magazine). Also, collecting/cataloging classic computers. Right now,
the collection (which I'm pretty sure is not fully represented on the web
pages) exists in a bunch of containers in San Jose. There are plans for a
museum at some point, as well as exhibits.
The coup d'grace (is that the right word?) for CHAC was saving the SDS 930
>from Colorado. This is a Mainframe built in (IIRC) 1963 here in California.
It was then sent to Colorado for NASA? to use, and ended up doing something
with Weather. It was in use up to a few years ago, and was going to be
scrapped, but Kip worked his tail off to save it and bring it out here where
it will become the centerpiece of the assn's displays.
Hmmm... Perhaps I should pass this on to Kip himself before I pass on too
much misinformation... 8^)
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Kai Kaltenbach said:
> | And if we caught anybody throwing anything out we'd jump out
>of the back
> | of the van and beat them senseless (and then pick their stuff
>out of the
> | trash)
> | LeS
>
>No need for violence... we'll just go to their house and throw out their
>Pentium :)
>Kai
No... you've got that wrong... we'll go to their house and *steal* their
Pentium, so that we can sell it on the black market for money to buy more
classic computers with!!!! ;^>
"Merch"
--
Roger Merchberger | If at first you don't succeed,
Programmer, NorthernWay | nuclear warhead disarmament should
zmerch(a)northernway.net | *not* be your first career choice.
