28 Jun
2007
28 Jun
'07
10:20 p.m.
Subject: Re: Billy Pettit real disappointment
From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon at gjcp.net>
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:02:42 +0100
To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at
classiccmp.org>
On Thursday 28 June 2007 13:58:28 Jay West wrote:
Well for on topic and weird Computers or IO...
PDP-8 I've never seen anything else that did IO that way save
for the CMOS version.
TI9900 (and 990) oddball IO but loved the workspace pointer idea.
Minuteman Missle guidence computer. Bizzare transistor serial machine
where the fixed head disk drive served both program storage and as
active registers. I wonder if there are any around and if they are
operational or the mountain of manuals needed to figure it out?
Allison
Billy wrote...
It's never going to be "all things to all men", is it? Everyone has their
own
little sphere of interest, and what may seem hugely off-topic to one person
might be massively relevant to another. For instance, I like the DEC
conversations, but I'm not quite so interested in HP (but I keep an eye on
them just the same). I'm surprised there's not more about the UK
microcomputer scene. I'm incredibly surprised that there's no discussion at
all of early computer-based musical equipment; we all know about EMS and the
Putney Studio I'm sure, but what about the Fairlight CMI and the Synclavier?
I'm surprised the latter wasn't mentioned during the "weird computers"
thread...
And what of the things to keep the big *big* iron running? I'm also
interested in stuff like the power plant and environmental plant around old
kit - but I can easily see how some would see that, and the Fairlight, as
offtopic.
Maybe we need some sort of map showing what we think is on- and off-topic...
Gordon > Come on people: there were computers long
before there were
> microcomputers.
I seem to remember a recent post complaining that this list was nothing but
minicomputer and big-iron talk, no microcomputer discussion. Apparently
that was wrong, as now there is a complaint it's just micro talk? ;)