14 Jul
1999
14 Jul
'99
9:23 a.m.
well, for anyone interested:
i came across a nice web-site with a bunch of old computers. The owner, John Davin
(anyone know this guy?) is selling all of his stuff. He, too, has a
grey(off-white?) Tek31 on there. Also on his list are a big blue Intel computer
(no name on site) some old Heathkit items and many others (about 85 total). his
site is here: http://205.217.140.132:80/pcmuseum/
Its a pretty interesting site, not too much information about the computers but
nice pictures.
rob
Hans Franke wrote:
[thread in
regard to Joe's Esco 31, aka TEK 31]
>>Joe:
>>Whatta score, guy! Those are pretty rare,
> You're telling me! That was the find of the summer! :-)
>I don't think I've
>>ever actually seen on of these . . .
> Me either. AFIK only Rick Bensene and one other guy have one. AFIK
>they're EXTREMELY rare.
I'm that 'other guy' :)
It seems that you are 'the other guy' on a lot of realy
nice stuff (BTW: Servus Christian).
The speculation that these are
'extremely' rare
could be right on the money but until we beat the bushes enough to know for
sure I defer use of that modifier 'EXTREMELY' to the background. My sense
is that this type of tool was not used by the 'normal' high end scientific
calculator user, except maybe occasionally in a university math/science
department, but rather by folks who needed a machine/test station
controller with fancy calculating ability. Other high end electronic
calculators typically from HP, Olivetti, Friden, Wang, etc. were more
popular it seems. I would imagine not a whole heap of TEK 31's were sold
(cost vs. utility?) and those that were may have been scrapped with the
equipment they were built into or otherwise attached to. Or else something
broke on them (tape drive my first guess.)
Sounds reasonable, as always, rare is relative - I assume,
for most devices, only those who have been manufactured only
within less than 500 pcs are realy rare - or a find with any
old stuff originaly packed :)
I have only one tape which came with the unit.
Anyway, I would be interested in getting one
or more extra tapes for my unit as the one I've got looks rather 'well used'.
As Sellam already said - if there are duplicates within
our box, or empty tapes, they are available for trade.
In fact I have no idea whats on (it looks like some kind
of audio analysis stuff), but I just don't want to loose
any one of the programms.
And for the ride to VCF, why don't you east coast guys
join and buy some kind of group ticket for plane or
Amtrak ? Or jut rent a Van ? 3 days driving (lets make
this 5 days, including some dumpsters to dive :), great
talks _and_ enough space for the 'small' findings at VCF...
Servus
Hans
BTW: Sallam, did you pick up the other EQ ?
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Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
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