17 Dec
2001
17 Dec
'01
3:23 p.m.
On Sun, 16 Dec 2001, William Donzelli wrote:
Was that me? I have/had three, but they are promised
to go out West.
One of those deals that seems to be taking a very long time, mostly
due to me trying to unearth it all and boxing the stuff up.
No, I didn't know you had any (or maybe I did but have since forgotten).
I forgot the guy's name. He was in New Jersey.
Anyway, Sphere aparently was one of the early bad
guys. The computers
they sold (many as kits, I think) basically did not work. Unlike
Altair, Sphere was trying to break into the business sector, so there
really was not much of an excuse for the crapiness. They all needed a
huge number of hacks to get them to function (my favorite is a a
few-mH coil made of telephone wire kludged onto one of the
oscillators, in order to keep the thing going. Basically, wrap some
wire around a pencil, and tack solder it into place, and adjust
accordingly).
I've read many stories about how poor Sphere's were, which is why they
didn't last very long. Stan Veit's book has a good account of their
kludgy nature and vapory marketing.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
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