Well.....
----------
> From: Daniel A. Seagraves <DSEAGRAV(a)toad.xkl.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: FW: Dos v2.11 apology
> Date: Thursday, August 13, 1998 2:43 AM
>
> [Uses MSmail?]
>
> I'd rather just get a telnet client and talk straight to the SMTP
interface
> than use Outlook.
> In fact, I normally do.
>
> HELO myhostname
> MAIL FROM: me
> RCPT TO: you
> DATA
> xyzzy
> .
> QUIT
>
> -------
> I'm impressed but try again! I have asolutely no problems in all 4
> corner of any worlds even on 386sx 25 bandaid notebook I have.
> (sloooowwwwly). What is your toshiba laptop?
>
Well, it's a VERY crappy 100MHz Pentium w/ 8 meg of RAM. The HD has blown
4 times already. Half the time the CD-ROM and floppy don't work, and
Resume never worked. The screen shattered about 3 months ago (while I was
using it). The modem may be part of the problem. It's a IBM 14.4 made for
Win 3.1 and OS/2, using software for a totally different modem, because
it's the only driver that works.
> No excess frill programs, extras to foul up your installation
> attempts?
>
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
The hard drive or the computer? If you're talking about the HD, than I
know what you mean. If you mean the computer, just go to the elementary
school that I used to go to -- They had 30 of 'em. The one that I have now
(and my other two 1000's) were given to me by my high school -free...
--
-Jason
(roblwill(a)usaor.net)
ICQ#-1730318
----------
> From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com>
> To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
> Subject: Re: Philips XT with 768K
> Date: Thursday, August 13, 1998 1:22 AM
>
> > I also have a neat XT. It's not a Phillips, but a Tandy 1000. It has
768K
> > RAM, and a 12MHz 286 processor. Only, I still have the problem of not
> > being able to access the upper memory. Being a Tandy, it's even harder
to
> > find a driver. Another setback is it's HD. It's a 20MB Western
digital -
> > and slow as a turtle. Does anyone, by any chance, have a spare
> > XT-compatible IDE HD without a stepper motor driving the heads??
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> That may be very hard to find!
> - don
>
Doug Yowza <yowza(a)yowza.com> wrote:
> An an amateur quasi-historian, I think the misperception about the
> Altair's significance is a shame. There are computers that were produced
> in similar numbers that are much more interesting, and even more fun to
> play with.
Here's what is significant about MITS and the Altair 8800:
It arrived on the scene with a price that firmly fixed in lots of
folks' heads the idea that "I can own a computer." And it was
obviously a useful computer that could be expanded to do real work
just like the real computer in the fishbowl at the office, not
something that could only be appreciated through the lights and
switches on its front panel.
And MITS' hardware was flaky enough that other folks felt encouraged
to build stuff for its bus, and even build other systems using its
bus. That made the Altair bus a de facto standard of its day,
and one that stuck around for the next few days too.
> The Altair and the Apple 1 both started at about the same time, but the
> Apple went on to have a much greater impact on "personal" interactive
> computing in the form of the Apple ][. IBM's PC was a response to the
> Apple ][, and that set the stage for the way things have been ever since.
I'd venture to say that Altair buyers saw the Altair as having the
potential to be this sort of "interactive" machine too. The base
configuration wasn't, but it was clear that you could buy more memory,
a current-loop interface, a Teletype, and run BASIC. And that was the
goal a lot of folks had then. That put you in the big leagues with
the minis that you might be using at work or in school, and put the
user in control of the computer.
That said, I think that if MITS hadn't done it with the Altair,
someone else would have done it soon enough.
-Frank McConnell
>
>I think you're the third person this year I know of that has found the
>sole surviving Altair kit :-)
I think what may have happened, Doug, is that over the
course of the year I have mentioned it in passing to
some of the people who read this list. I am not known
to you folks so I am guessing that the same unassembled
kit was brought to your attention by others. If that is
not the case and other kits have been found I would sincerely
like to hear from
those who may be in possession of them. I have some unanswered
questions about the example I found and would like to
compare it to any others.
>
>But the Altair wasn't the first personal computer, so maybe the Ford
>Model-T would be a better analogy. The Altair's place in history is
>really about Microsoft and the early hobbiest movement, not about
>computers in general. Affordable desktop computers have been around
since
>the 60's (and even the late 50's if you include analog machines like
the
>EC-1 at $199).
I did not
mean to suggest that the Altair was the 1st PC or even the
1st micro. However, the Altair is perceived at this time
to be "the start of it all" and it is the one that is available in
enough numbers to become a collectible. The Mark 8 and Scelbi,
for example, suffer from extreme rarity. They are now virtually
non existent. So will never attract the widespread interest of
the Altair.
numbers
>
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
I'm just forwarding this mail I received.
Please respond directly to them.
>We have a Tandy 1000EX computer that was given to us
>about four years ago and was a great word processor,
>game player, etc. at the time. Since then we have
>upgraded slightly to a Pentium, 64 M of RAM, etc.
>We have no more need for the Tandy, and would like to
>know if there is any one that has a hankering for relics,
>like your museum or just a personal collector. We have
>the printer, complete computer with monitor, and user's
>manuals. We also have some software for it.
> We would certainly appreciate any help you may be able
>to give us in selling the Tandy. We live in El Paso, TX,
>and would respond to any inquiries about it. Thank you.
>James and Michelle Herrick
>jandmherrick(a)prodigy.net
=========================================
Doug Coward dcoward(a)pressstart.com
Senior Software Engineer
Press Start Inc.
Sunnyvale,CA
Curator
Museum of Personal Computing Machinery
http://www.best.com/~dcoward/museum
=========================================
I have bwbasic 2.20, but it leaks memory horribly. This is
Digital UNIX, so I can't use Chipmunk. I found another BASIC for Unixes,
but it only works on m68000 Unixes, PDP-11s, Pyramids, and VAXen.
IS there any other decent BASIC interpreters out there for UNIXes?
-------
Okay, everyone with a spare IMSAI, let's all get together and have a few
"auctions" on e-bay. How about a reserve of $50K, starting bid at $15K,
$1K increments. That's just for a box, cards are extra.
Jack Peacock
Has anyone confirmed with Laura Lemay that she actually paid
or intends to pay $12,000 for an Altair, or could this be a hoax
perpetrated on her? I sent an e-mail asking for a confirmation,
and have heard nothing... This all comes back to my inherent
skepticism about online auctions as a useful method of determining
"street price." Where's a mechanism for confirmation of the
selling price? How can we detect shills?
- John
< For anyone else (Allison??) who is interested in RT-11
Been running RT-11 in various flavors since '78.
< One day I even booted a TU-58 from 1978 with
< a tape cartridge holding files from a 1978 version
I still have two systems with the TU58 and real PDP-11 hardware.
one is a PDT-11/130 and the other a BA11va shoebox with tu58.
< TU-58, it was still quite a thrill to be able to boot
< the 20 year old TU-58 with 20 year old software.
and a 20 year old system!
Allison
