<From CLASSICCMP-owner(a)u.washington.edu Wed Feb 11 17:59:22 1998
<People try, but the age of hacking is gone. Right now, there is just
<nothing exciting in the computing industry. Wait till holographic
<memory, and so on. As for people who think that they are "hackers" and
You got to be kidding. Just look around the edges at things like
autonomus robots and navagation to suggest a few. Theres plenty to be
done.
Allison
>Organization: The University of Huddersfield HEC
>Date: Wed, 11 Feb 1998 17:08:31 +0100
>Subject: Past Computer Manufacturers
>From: "P.ATKINSON" <sdespa(a)pegasus.hud.ac.uk>
>
>I am currently working on a paper looking at the development of the
>designed form of the office computer, and to that end am trying to
>find out if certain computer manufacturers still exist or if not, what
>happened to them. If anyone has any idea I would be grateful, as I
>have to try to contact them in order to obtain copyright clearance.
>
>The companies concerned are:
>
>Muldivo
>Sanders
>Lear Siegler (Data Dynamics)
>Kienzle
>Mael
>Torch
>
>Hope someone can help
[and if anybody can, we can.... ;-) -- kc]
>Paul Atkinson
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
>I always thought it was a desire to _attain_ knowledge and apply it.
> ^^^^^^
>
Technology = applied knowledge, therefore a desire to attain knowledge
and use technology.
Now, unfortunately, people know that there is no reason to make a good
product because
a) Noone makes good products
b) They won't be proud of it anyway because the product won't be
noticed in the face of estabilished stuff.
People try, but the age of hacking is gone. Right now, there is just
nothing exciting in the computing industry. Wait till holographic
memory, and so on. As for people who think that they are "hackers" and
all they can do is use a Wardialer, I think they just need to feel proud
of something they do. These are mainly people who have no other way of
supporting themselves morally/emotionally. As the Unabomber would say,
"They have a disruption in their power process". What really doesn't
help is the "Hackers Manifesto", which pretends to imply that the
hackers are "fighting for a cause" of "freedom of information". If you
ask me, these "modern", "new age" ideas of freedom and community will
invariably lead to either something like the USSR or the USA. The USSR
is unquestionably a disaster in so many ways, and the USA is, in my
opinion, getting there.
Ok, kiddies, back on topic now... :)
______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
This is not the origin of the term "bug". My source sez that it was in use
at least as far back as Edison's time.
> Can anyone confirm this is the origin of the term "bug"?
When you do a dir C: can you read what was originally on the hdd prior
to the upgrade attempt? If so, try booting with a DOS 5.0 boot
diskette which contains sys.com in A:, then copy command.com to C:
and do a SYS C: from A: as well. This might get this system bootable
again. On the other hand, if you can access your original data, now
would be a good time to back it up. Good Luck.
Marty Mintzell
We just gave a teacher a Magnavox Headstart 486SX PC. It has a large
yellow sticker on the back that reads "DO NOT FORMAT THE HARDDISK". So
what do you think he did? :-) Tried upgrading DOS. (5.0 > 6.2)
Dos says, "Wanna format the harddisk?" User says "OK, Whatever..."
Now we have a dead PC. It will boot off the floppy, it will do dir C:, but
it refuses to boot from the harddisk. I'm thinking they hid something
proprietary in the bootsector. Anyone else know anything? We have no docs
for it, but there's another PC like it in the building somewhere, I have to
go find it... Would it fix my problem if I were to get the partition
table off the other (good) machine and write it to this one, would that fix it?
We already laplinked it to another Magnavox Headstart and tried transferring
everything back, that finished OK but still won't boot. I'm getting ready to
hand the guy a bootdisk and say "Here, you have to boot from that..."
-------
Sam Ismail <dastar(a)wco.com> wrote:
> The Grappler was without RAM buffer. The Grappler+ had the 64K RAM. I
> should know...Power Demon I (my souped-up //e with 3.3Mhz accelerator, 1MB
> RAM, 20MB HD...) had one.
The Grappler/Grappler+ thing came to mind, but I came across a
Grappler+ a couple of months ago, had the presence of mind to note it
as such in my inventory, and don't remember there being any obvious
RAM on it. That probably says more about my memory than about any on
the card though, and I can't remember whether the Grappler I had in my
old ][+ was a + or not, just that it didn't have RAM. Whatever it is,
it's a parallel printer interface.
> > > > CableTV kludge to a "SUP 'R' MOD CH.33 TV Interface Unit ??
> But there was a necessity for Apple to ship one with every Apple ][ as
> Kip's message alluded to. Right around the time was when the FCC started
> laying down the law with regards to computer emissions. I'll have to
> look-up the specific why's but I know that's the basic gist of it.
Huh? The necessity was that there be some way to hook a ][ up to a TV
set, because not having to buy a monitor kept the overall cost of the
][ down for the many people who were willing to do that. But
designing an RF modulator in meant more work, time, money (and hence a
later, more expensive product) to get the sort of FCC certification
required for devices that are expected to produce RF.
Read what Kip wrote again:
K>The Sup'r Mod was the RF demodulator that one of the Steves talked Marty
K>Spergel into making as a third-party product, because then the Apple II
K>could be marketed under a much less stringent FCC restriction. As you might
K>imagine, Marty got passably rich.
What Apple did was to get someone else to make and sell the RF
modulator. They didn't make it, they didn't sell it, and the ][
worked fine without it (using a monitor with composite video input) so
when they went for FCC type acceptance they didn't have to include it.
Of course, something needed to happen to make sure that all those
prospective ][ buyers knew what they needed to get to hook the ][ up
to the TV, and that it was readily available to them. Kip? Care to
shed any light on how this was accomplished?
Anyway, I installed a brand-new Sup'R'Mod in my then brand-new ][+
before I turned it on for the first time, and I expect I wasn't the
only one who did, so you can't take the presence of a Sup'R'Mod as an
indication that what's in front of you is a ][ as opposed to a ][+.
-Frank McConnell
I am in search of BYTE Magazine from Issue #1 until December 1977.
Does anyone know where I might find these for sale and what a
reasonable price would be to pay?
Thanks-
Marty Mintzell
email: marty(a)itgonline.com
I just got a CMS SCSI card for my Apple // computer, but it came without a
manual. Does anyone have info on the jumper settings?
TIA!
-------------------------------------------------
Rich Cini/WUGNET
<nospam_rcini(a)msn.com> (remove nospam_ to use)
- ClubWin Charter Member (6)
- MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
