rogues galleries

Oh, I agree 100%. I am certainly not trying to criticise people who do have Lisas or whatever (actually, I'd love a Lisa and a striaght-8, but I am unlikely to ever find them at a price I can afford. But actually, I have little interest in a ZX80...). I find HP9000/200 machines (things like the HP9816, 9817, etc) to be farily interesting 68000 boxes, if only becasue they were designed in part as instrument controllers (something I tend to use computers for). And so far they don't have much collector interest which means I can actually afford them... A Cat is a machine I would also like, but I am not going to find one at a price I can afford... (That's a Canon Cat, of course. I like the other sort of cat too, the type that wakes you up by purring, but they tend to just turn up for free :-)) Feel free to ask... Not yet. All I have is a Myford Super 7, short bed, changewheel model. With most of the accessories (3 and 4 jaw chucks, verticle slide, dividing head, etc). And yes I do use it for making parts for classic computers. That's how I got a lot of my stuff. When I collected the PDP11s, they were essentially worthless. I was _given_ the 11/45 with all the printsets, etc. There wasn't really an interest in collecting computers then. Amd the thing I like a about the BBC micro is the very well-designed MOS (Machine Operating System), the standard interfaces (things like a user port and an ADC), and so on. I guess it really comes down to what you were exposed to first ;-) Alas he's sold the Citroen BX. He now has a Skoda Fabia (this being essentially a VW golf, at least for the important bits). It's a 1.4l, automatic, 16V. Alas it's not the old-style 16 valve Skoda (you know, 8 in the negine, 1 on each tyre, 4 in the radio), this dern thing has twin overhead camshafts, etc. And there are far too many microcontrollers in it. I forget the complete list, but there's certainly engine mangagement; gearbox, ABS brakes, airbags, air conditioning, instrument cluster, immobiliser, electrical control, power steering. All linked up by a pair of CAN buses. You knwo, I thought the idea of using a CAN bus on a car was to simplifly the wiring look. But this car has the microcontrollers cluseted either side of the bulkhead (firewall to you across the Pond), with a mass of wires going off to sensors, lights, swtiches, etc. Hmmm It also bothers me that the workshop manuals for cars that I like -- Citroen DS for example -- are one book about 4cm thick. This car's manual is 11 volumes, totally 1m thick... -tony