On Fri, 4 Dec 2020, Jon Elson via cctalk wrote: It was a classic professional supply place. Tell the guy behind the counter what you want, or hand over the list, and he would go back into what resembled library stacks. As opposed to surplus and/or retail self-serve wander the aisles and bring your basket to the register. There was a small browsing area up front, but most stock was behind the counter. SOME surplus stuff, but NOT a "look at what we just got in" that you would expect in a surplus outlet. "I want a DPDT spring return center off toggle switch with about a half inch long toggle" "36 220 Ohm half watt resistors" "got a molex connector like this one for 8" disk drive power?" Extremely well established. Prices were ordinary and acceptable. It was THE fall-back if Radio Shack didn't have what you needed, nor places like Quinn's, Electronics, Etc. More than half a century ago, there was a news mention of somebody under suspicion by HUAC (House Un-American Activities Committee) had been seen leaving a "known communist" organization upstairs at the same address. No idea whether Lasher himself was involved in politics. Will ANY remain? -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

I spent many a happy visit to Al Lasher's when the microcomputing revolution was just turning over its starter in the SF Bay area. The acid in the oil/perspiration from my face is probably still etched in the windows of East Bay buildings that used to house IMSAI, CompuPro, etc. (assuming they're still even standing, which is not a good bet, given the crazy property values these days). I would peer in during stops while driving down to the East Bay on Sundays from the Navy Nuclear Power School at Mare Island Naval Shipyard, to look for the magic that was happening. The answer to Fred's question below about will any remain, is yes, as long as you consider Eastern Europe within commuting distance. You can still get vacuum tubes and core memory for a pittance from there, often with circuit boards having the appropriate sockets and edge connectors that make it a cinch to connect things together. The USAF SAGE (Semi-Automated Ground Environment) systems provided the ability to display, analyze, and share tracking data from the Distant Early Warning (DEW Line) radars in the Northern U.S., Canada, Greenland, Iceland, and the Faroe Islands, as well as shorter-range radars across the U.S., and directly control anti-aircraft missiles and interceptor aircraft via their autopilot. SAGE was in operation until the last station was decommissioned in 1984, but the U.S. had ceased production of vacuum tubes by the mid 1970s. So, through CIA-established front companies in Western Europe, tubes were purchased from commercial manufacturers in Warsaw Pact countries, especially Yugoslavia, Romania, and Bulgaria. EPrey is the usual route to find these suppliers, many of whom are also in Russia. That's hilarious when you consider that the local Communist group in Berkeley met in a rented space above Al's place (he was a WW-II vet), that the FBI monitored closely through the 1970s. As Russian comdeian Yakov Smirnov said, "In United States, you watch television, but in USSR, television watches _you_." Now, Amazon, Google, Apple, etc., provide that service to the highest bidders, at least in terms of where you surf the web, what you search for and buy, and so forth, if not outright "monetize" your Alexa/Echo, Hangouts, FaceTime, and other personal video and audio streams. All the Best, Jim KJ7JHE On Sat, Dec 5, 2020 at 2:47 PM Fred Cisin via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

On Sat, 5 Dec 2020, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: Woz told us (1983?) that Jobs had two obsessions: That Apple survive IBM That USA survive Japan. There were presumably OTHER obsessions, but those two were the relevant ones in the conversation. Japan in those presumably became China. We don't have domestic production, and we don't have repair. . . .and yet, almost all programming languages are still English oriented. Yes, there exist Chinese ports of COBOL compilers, Forth would seem to me to be a good choice for the postfix aspects of Japanese, . . . -- Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin at xenosoft.com

No - say it's not true!! I live in California but occasionally we drive cross country to visit my family in Indiana, and I always stopped there. We were last there in 2019... Bob

Truly sad.... I don't think theres a store anywhere that I've spent more time in. I used to just sit in there for hours bs-ing with the owner. I wonder if "electronics exchange" on the Rock Road is still operational... J

On Mon, Dec 7, 2020 at 10:11 AM Jon Elson via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: We've had at least two stores in the Boulder/Longmont area that have evolved from awesome to lame / closed in the last 30 years... I miss the consignment area to browse in. Great test gear from time to time,but they shied away from old computer gear (The CU boneyard / annual auctions were good for that, but lately have been lame). On the other hand, we have grown Sparkfun in Gunbarrel now which I can either pick stuff up in person, or get things shipped to my house. Their internet reach keeps them in business, and the local convenience of same-day pickup (in normal times anyway) is nice. Warner

On 12/7/2020 6:40 AM, jwest at classiccmp.org wrote: I uploaded an obit for Stu Bartfeld the owner who passed.? His daughter Lisa ran it up to its closing. https://imgur.com/a/IryJyrR https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/36561205/stuart-bartfeld https://www.reddit.com/r/StLouis/comments/iyh9e7/gateway_electronics_closin… https://www.facebook.com/gatewayelectronics https://twitter.com/gatewayelex?lang=en?? (lot of very old material) Don't know if the copyright police will grab it and kill the link or ban me, so get it while it's hot (if it is even visible when I send this). I tried to remember the guy who always remembered me (only got there yearly for quite some time), I think it was Doug.? Someone correct me if not. for those in Colorado, their address was (that I found now) was. GATEWAY ELECTRONICS 2525 FEDERAL BLVD , Denver, Colorado For those of you who remember ACP and Tom and Dave Freeman, they were part of a group of guys who traded surplus electonics.? I always called it "schlock" electronics.? That business ran with all of them faxing each other (in later years) then emailing haves and needs and everyone made a buck selling lots. Tom knew Stu and did a lot of business with him.? I still remember visiting with Tom one day and hearing that Stu had passed away. They saw each other quite a lot since Stu had a San Diego operation as well as thru their business dealings. I got Bob Armstrong in touch with Tom to do a buy for one of the rounds of the 6120 boards.? After Stu passed, but Tom was still trading and selling up to a few years ago. Amazing what a small world it is.? I'm guessing since retail slump caused Gateway to close they weren't doing a lot of surplus to sustain thru troughs in the retail biz as they had in the past. Thanks Jim

On 12/7/20 4:10 PM, jwest--- via cctalk wrote: Wasn't there a big place in KC just of I70? At the end they were selling on eBay. I remember going there a couple of times, multi-story building you had to drive down into the river valley to get to.

On 12/07/2020 06:52 PM, jwest--- via cctalk wrote: Shapiro Supply used to have a place in the city of St. Louis on Pennsylvania avenue, in the shadow of the Carter Carburetor superfund site. They mostly dealt in scrap metal, but had a modest pile of test gear and such from McDonnell and Emerson bids. I got a few things from them. After they moved a half mile or so NorthEast, they seemed to get much more into the industrial supply of non-ferrous metal, and the interesting surplus lots seemed to be much sparser. They do still have some bits and pieces in the basement. I haven't been there in a couple of years, I think. Jon

On 12/07/2020 09:32 PM, Chuck Guzis via cctalk wrote: There was also Fair Radio Sales, and Radar Research. Also, C&H in Pasadena. HGR in Cleveland is supposed to be quite fantastic, but mostly industrial and CNC machinery. I went to the Canal street surplus shops in NYC when I was a little kid, so late 1950's early 1960's. A total blast! Want a complete IBM 650 computer? They had it! Jon

On 12/09/2020 07:28 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote: Thanks! I'll try to get out there with my friend Walter, the guy with the flight simulator. If not to buy anything, maybe just to shmooze with the people I've known for so long. Jon

I wanted to see the box and accessories.... But alas no picture of the goods. -Ali

What am I missing? The picture shown on RR auctions shows the board with no chips? -----Original Message----- From: cctalk <cctalk-bounces at classiccmp.org> On Behalf Of Adrian Stoness via cctalk Sent: Thursday, December 10, 2020 10:32 PM To: Ali <cctalk at ibm51xx.net>; General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk at classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Apple 1 and memorabilia up for auction in Boston (NOT on Epay) this is up on RR auction https://www.rrauction.com/bidtracker_detail.cfm?IN=6001 On Thu, Dec 10, 2020 at 9:30 PM Ali via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

The last two photos if you scroll down show the board populated in presumably its current condition. But it's an interesting question of why there are all these bare board photos. I suspect "qualified bidders" will want to carefully peruse the report of the restoration that is apparently available to them. And since when are buyer's premiums 25%? Yeesh! But then if you need to ask the price... On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 10:24 AM W2HX via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

Forget the Apple 1 on that auction site... those Apple colored "sunglasses" that Woz had made are pretty funky. Some other Apple things on there as well. - Ethan

On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 3:07 PM Glen Slick via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: It's been estimated by experts that a third to half of the "original artwork", previously valued at a total in the tens of billions in museums and collectors' places, are counterfeits. There have been a number of well-researched news stories, including a full segment on "60 Minutes" a couple of decades ago, where a counterfeiter was interviewed and showed how he executed his craft. One counterfeiter was so good that he sold paintings for tens of millions of dollars that were never even painted by the purported original artist, but were hinted at or described by art historians, based on rumors going back into the mists of time. Caveat emptor ... On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 3:07 PM Glen Slick via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote:

On Fri, Dec 11, 2020 at 10:05 PM Jim Manley via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: 35 years ago I was in Anaheim for DECUS and my work buddy and I met up with his family and we went to the Getty Museum. I had previously spent multiple seasons in Greece doing archeological fieldwork, and my degree is a BA in History with a Classics specialty. We walked into one large chamber and there was this Koros (youth/Apollo statue) from at least the 7th C BC. I looked at it and said aloud that it had to be a fake - it was too good compared to the many I'd seen in museums and at sites around Greece. Several years later it was revealed to be a very expensive, but well executed, forgery. -ethan

On 12/09/2020 07:28 PM, jim stephens via cctalk wrote: Jim, or others, Do you have an email for Doug or Lisa? I went to the Saturday tray sale and bought some stuff, but they were a bit busy and I didn't have a chance to say "goodbye". Thanks, Jon

On 12/7/2020 4:21 PM, Al Kossow via cctalk wrote: That might have be my pile which is in a warehouse "off I 70"? :-) For electronic surplus, there was some stuff at a place called Frank's metal.? They got the stuff from the Olathe and Lenexa places.? Main junk sources there at various times would be Garmin, Sprint, and some of the aircraft places related to Cessna. All the places I went to in KC were gone by about 1980.? Bendix Surplus and a guy in Merriam were the best electronic sources. I bought mainly camera stuff, with C&J Photographic in Overland Park being the best place in KC at the time.? Charlie Capen has been gone since 1990 though, too. I might actually open my warehouse when I get moved there, but fact is there's little manufacturing producing interesting surplus anymore much.? And "Asset Recovery" and Electronics? recycling laws really have fouled the water for much good stuff to be had for any operations like Gateway. There's also a place in Independence which gets most all of the "lost" freight from Yellow Freight system.? It's not really a surplus operation.? Called locally "Cargo Largo". I really looked forward to visiting Gateway and Bruce @ Electronics Surplus Exchange (which among my circle who went every year we called "junky Electronics". thanks Jim

On Mon, Dec 7, 2020, 4:28 PM jim stephens via cctalk <cctalk at classiccmp.org> wrote: Ah yes. Only went there once, much to my shame... wasn't in the best part of town and I was 45 minutes away... nice place otherwise. I usually found what I needed up in Boulder at JB Saunders, though, so I didn't get down to Gateway much. Though JB Saunders has closed too. At least there is sparcfun. No browsing, but has all the parts I need. Warner For those of you who remember ACP and Tom and Dave Freeman, they were