21 Jul
2008
21 Jul
'08
9 a.m.
--- On Mon, 7/21/08, C. Sullivan <feedle at feedle.net> wrote:
Perhaps an apology is in order. I felt like the
gentleman
in question
got his question answered, and was just being bitchy
because the
answer required him to do a little work... and that this
person was
just interested in the financial side of the equation
("Hey, maybe I
can eBay this thing I found at a yard sale and make a
buck!") and not
about "the love of collecting" or the history
behind the hardware. If
I misinterpreted his intentions, I apologize.
It did come off quite harshly, really. Reading this thread, I am amazed that people would
get so righteous about such a simple, clear question. I mean, the guy asked a polite
question, and he gets an inbox full of flames about how he should be probing this thing
with a $100 bench supply, and how he needs to buy a multimeter.
If we look at the original question, we see that it was :
"Anyone have specs (voltage, polarity, etc.) for the Radio Shack
270-1551 power pack?"
Now, the reports that this number now matches up to some car cigarette lighter adapter
aren't too useful, because it goes to an old tabletop computer game, probably from the
late 70's. I'm sure that we are all more than well aware of how often Radio Shack
changes or discontinues part numbers, and that the current catalog isn't going to
match up with one from thirty years ago.
Now, I didn't post initially - although I read the first question. I don't know
the answer to this question, so I didn't have anything useful I thought that I could
add. But, someone out there with a thirty year old Radio Shack catalog can probably look
this tidbit of information up rather easily. Yes, we can guess "it's probably
12v", or "should be 9v", but we don't know. Is it AC? DC? Who knows?
These old electronic games had all sorts of different adapters. We can make assumptions
about the suitable quality of wall wart adapters in general, and complain about the fact
that cheap switchable adapters are or aren't suitable. We can argue until the cows
come home. We have in the past.
But none of this helps the original poster, who's asking a polite, simple question, to
a group of intelligent computer collectors. This list has degraded into flame wars more
than once in the past, over various people's feelings and the way these electronics
should be treated, cared for, repaired or powered.
And frankly, things like this make me afraid of asking simple questions myself. Who knows
when I might accidentally ask something that I should have looked up elsewhere, or ask
about something that I shouldn't be trying to do.
C'mon guys. We're all adults here. Relax - this is a hobby. Have fun. And if
anyone has an ancient Radio Shack catalog, could they look up that number and help our
friend Will out?
-Ian