18 Jun
1999
18 Jun
'99
4:29 p.m.
Aye, I had the NeXT Cube and some other workstations on the list, as well a
whole list of proto-PDAs like the Newton MessagePad, Casio Zoomer, NCR 3125
PenPad, AT&T Eo, GridPad, but nuked 'em all since they're too new.
I love the NeXT Cube as much as the next techno freak, but once we start
down that road, suddenly we've got BeBoxes, 20th Anniversary Macintoshes,
Cassiopeia WinCE handhelds, Monorail PCs, the iMac, and pretty soon we're
buying "collectible" stuff new off the shelf at CompUSA.
About the newest thing on the list is the PS/2 80, and I had to think about
that for a while. I left it on, because it represents IBM's fall as the
dominant force in microcomputing.
Kai
-----Original Message-----
From: Zane H. Healy [mailto:healyzh@aracnet.com]
Sent: Friday, June 18, 1999 7:01 PM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: Top 150 Collectible Microcomputers
Hey, this is a great idea. Thanks, Kai!
I'd add the NeXT cube to the list. For sheer sex appeal, little can beat
a black magnesium cube.
YES, I'd not noticed that NeXT Hardware was totally missing from this list.
Although as a Workstation that might be intended. However, I personally
thing that both because of asthetics, and NeXTstep that at a very minimum
the NeXT Cube should be listed! Personally I think the whole line should
have at least a one line mention!
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
19 Jun
19 Jun
1:35 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely designed computers?
Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My
impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the
first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques.
I would offer just a very few for initial consideration:
Epson QX-10
Apricot
Honeywell DPS-6
Olivetti ETV-300
IBM PS/2 towers
I realise the possibilty for some very subjective judgements here, but it
strikes me as an interesting point of view in studying industrial design.
I can think of a number of machines I really like, some I don't, that are
really quite banal.
3:44 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Merle K. Peirce wrote:
Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely
designed computers?
Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My
impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the
first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques.
You're kidding about the iMac, right?
I would offer just a very few for initial
consideration:
Honeywell DPS-6
Huh? What's so interesting about this design?
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 05/25/99]
8:06 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Sellam Ismail wrote:
I could never kid about something as ugly as an iMac. It looks like a
severed head.
The Honeywell's chief strength is the simple elegance of its design. It
is very restrained and the black and cream cabinet is attractive. Too
many computers have been characterless grey boxes or improbable glitzy
designs. There is just enough styling on the Honeywell to confirm its
shape is intentional, not some generic third party box.
On Sat, 19 Jun 1999, Merle K. Peirce wrote:
M. K. Peirce
Rhode Island Computer Museum, Inc.
215 Shady Lea Road,
North Kingstown, RI 02852
"Casta est qui nemo rogavit."
- Ovid
Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely
designed computers?
Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My
impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the
first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques.
You're kidding about the iMac, right?
I would offer just a very few for initial
consideration:
Honeywell DPS-6
Huh? What's so interesting about this design?
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Don't rub the lamp if you don't want the genie to come out.
Coming this October 2-3: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0!
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 05/25/99]
3:59 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely
designed computers?
Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My
impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the
first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques.
I would offer just a very few for initial consideration:
Epson QX-10
Apricot
Honeywell DPS-6
Olivetti ETV-300
IBM PS/2 towers
I realise the possibilty for some very subjective judgements here, but it
strikes me as an interesting point of view in studying industrial design.
I've got to agree with the subjective. I'm only familiar with the DPS-6
and the PS/2's. I about gagged when I saw the DPS-6 on the list.
Besides even the iMac isn't that bad when you compare it to the new tower
G3's (for those that don't know I'm a serious Mac Fanatic, and am typing
this on a souped up 8500).
I still think the NeXT Hardware belongs on any list like this, both the
hardware and the OS were designed with this in mind. Also the PDP-11/70,
PDP-12, PDP-8/e and other PDP's with really cool front panels (the HW, and
OS's on almost any of them are seriously cool, but a good front panel is
the icing on the cake).
Oh, and the DPS-8 is far cooler than the DPS-6. :^) A Four Processor DPS-8
is a seriously interesting system hardware wise. Sorry, I still dislike
GCOS.
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
8:28 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
I would offer just a very few for initial
consideration:
Most anything Cray (they get better and better - the SV1s continue the
trend), anything Thinking Machines, anything NeXT. SGI made a few good
machines in the first part of the 1990s, but went downhill fast. Convexs
(C3000s, anyway) are good in yellow and black. I have always like Wyse
stuff, too, like their PC+ XT "clone".
Ugly ones? Lots of them, too many to list...
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
9:29 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
Eh? SGI has made some very groovy-looking stuff! Not just the Indys, but
some machine (I don't remember the name or the model number) has a neat
little waterfall going down the front (after it flows over the
processor(s) on the way to the cooler/heat exchanger/whatever they use. I
saw it from about 30 feet away but couldn't get closer).
A very sexy machine!
Kevin
Most anything Cray (they get better and better - the SV1s continue the
trend), anything Thinking Machines, anything NeXT. SGI made a few good
machines in the first part of the 1990s, but went downhill fast. Convexs
(C3000s, anyway) are good in yellow and black. I have always like Wyse
stuff, too, like their PC+ XT "clone".
Ugly ones? Lots of them, too many to list...
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
12:41 p.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
Eh? SGI has made some very groovy-looking stuff! Not
just the Indys, but
some machine (I don't remember the name or the model number) has a neat
little waterfall going down the front (after it flows over the
processor(s) on the way to the cooler/heat exchanger/whatever they use. I
saw it from about 30 feet away but couldn't get closer).
You have fallen prey to the marketing people. Shame on you.
The Cray-2 has the famous "waterfall", but SGI did not get that part of
Cray.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
8:31 a.m.
New subject: Top collectable machines
OK, big machines.
IBM S/360 series
IBM S/3 series
IBM S/370 series
IBM 3000 series (303x, 308x, 309x)
IBM 4300 series
IBM S/1
IBM 650
IBM 700 series
IBM 7000 series
IBM 1103
IBM 1401
IBM 1600
IBM S/32
IBM S/34
IBM S/36
IBM S/38
IBM RS/6000 POWER series
Amdahl 470 series
PDP-1
PDP-4
PDP-5
PDP-6
PDP-7
PDP-8
LINC-8
PDP-8/S
PDP-8/I, 8/L
PDP-8/E, 8/F, 8/M, 8/A
PDP-9, 9/L
PDP-10 (KA10)
PDP-10 (KI10)
PDP-10 (KL10)
PDP-10 (KS10)
PDP-11 series
PDP-12 series
PDP-15
VAX-11 series
Data General Nova
Data General Eclipse S/, C/, M/ series
Data General Eclipse MV/ series
HP 1000
HP 3000
HP 2100 series
Bendix G15
Packard Bell 250
Interdata 2, 3, 4, 14
Interdata 8/32
Honeywell 316
Honeywell 516
Honeywell DPS/6
Honeywell DPS/66
Burroughs B5500
Burroughs B6700
Burroughs B1700
Univac 1100 series
CDC 1600 series
CDC 3000 series
CDC 6000 series
CDC 7000 series
CDC Cyber 170 series
CDC Cyber 180 series
CDC Cyber 200 series
CDC Cyber 2000
Cray-1
Cray X/MP
Cray-2
Cray Y/MP series (2E, 8E, C, T, J)
Cray T3 series
Thinking Machines CM-1, 2
Thinking Machines CM-5
KSR-1
Maspar-1
Meiko Computing Surface-1
ICL DAP
Floating Point FPS series
SGI IRIS 2000, 3000 series
Sun 3/280
Stardent Titan
Apollo DN10000
Convex C1, 2, 3
NEC SX- series
Fujitsu VP- series
Hitachi HDS- series
So there.
William Donzelli
aw288(a)osfn.org
10:07 a.m.
New subject: Top collectable machines
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23 Jul
23 Jul
9:45 a.m.
New subject: Top collectable machines
OK, big machines.
IBM [...]
Well, may I add
SIEMENS 2002
SIEMENS 4004/16
(There's a lot inbetween, but nothing realy exceptional)
SIEMENS 4004/220
SIEMENS 7.7xx (with X4 CPU)
(Maybe also a CoCo (SIEMENS 7.720))
TR 4
TR 440
Zuse Z23
Zuse Z44 (?Or that ever this graphical system was named)
Just for some important Bix Irons
Gruss
H.
(Still reading old Mail :)
--
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Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
12:52 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Hi all,
I'm looking for information a bout what I call keychorder, it's a single
handed keyboard type of thingy.
If anyone can point me to a good online reference or just plai take the time
to educate me I'll be very gratefull.
Thank you
Francois
PS: usual net searches on kerchorder did not bring anything. Any alternative
for a name?
12:52 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Hi all,
I'm looking for information a bout what I call keychorder, it's a single
handed keyboard type of thingy.
If anyone can point me to a good online reference or just plai take the time
to educate me I'll be very gratefull.
Thank you
Francois
PS: usual net searches on kerchorder did not bring anything. Any alternative
for a name?
No info, but it sounds familiar, and if it is what I think it is, it dates
back to about 1989 timeframe. I remember seeing something about it in a
computer magazine in either the late 80's or early 90's (after '87 and
prior to '94).
How is that for vague and useless info? :^)
Zane
| Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Adminstrator |
| healyzh(a)aracnet.com (primary) | Linux Enthusiast |
| healyzh(a)holonet.net (alternate) | Classic Computer Collector |
+----------------------------------+----------------------------+
| Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, |
| and Zane's Computer Museum. |
| http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |
1:25 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
>I'm looking for information a bout what I call
keychorder, it's a single
>handed keyboard type of thingy.
>PS: usual net searches on kerchorder did not bring anything. Any alternative
>for a name?
There was one called "Right hander" written up (cover picture and all) in
Interface Age in '79. Hooked one up to a TRS-80 in '82, but customer did
NOT like raw ASCII.
3:18 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Hi,
Do you remember the kind of interface the had serial or parallel.
Did anyone ever achieve a level of confort high enough for everyday use?
How about the learning curve?
Francois
There was one called "Right hander" written
up (cover picture and all) in
Interface Age in '79. Hooked one up to a TRS-80 in '82, but customer did
NOT like raw ASCII.
3:58 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Steve Roberts used something similar to type while riding his cross country
bicycle. He is/was quite profecient with it.
--Chuck
At 10:18 PM 7/23/99 -0500, you wrote:
Hi,
Do you remember the kind of interface the had serial or parallel.
Did anyone ever achieve a level of confort high enough for everyday use?
How about the learning curve?
Francois
There was one called "Right hander"
written up (cover picture and all) in
Interface Age in '79. Hooked one up to a TRS-80 in '82, but customer did
NOT like raw ASCII.
24 Jul
24 Jul
6:51 a.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Hi,
Thanks for the answers the search for chord keyboard brought a bunch of
information.
Basically it's an interesting idea with no practical utility:)
Thanks
Francois
23 Jul
23 Jul
1:25 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Look for "Chord Keyboard", the first one I saw was demonstrated by Doug
Englebart on an Alto at Xerox PARC.
--Chuck
At 07:52 PM 7/23/99 -0500, you wrote:
Hi all,
I'm looking for information a bout what I call keychorder, it's a single
handed keyboard type of thingy.
If anyone can point me to a good online reference or just plai take the time
to educate me I'll be very gratefull.
Thank you
Francois
PS: usual net searches on kerchorder did not bring anything. Any alternative
for a name?
24 Jul
24 Jul
6:20 a.m.
New subject: Keychorder
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25 Jul
25 Jul
5:12 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
there is a company that makes an interesting one-handed keyboard/mouse. they call
it the "Twiddler"
here's the link to their site: Handykey Corporation (www.handykey.com) it
costs $199.00 excluding shipping. good luck
robert
11:12 p.m.
New subject: Keychorder
On Sat, 24 Jul 1999 19:20:56 +0100 (BST) Tony Duell
<ard(a)p850ug1.demon.co.uk> wrote:
Other keywords to look for would be 'chording
keyboard' or 'Microwriter'.
The latter is the trade name of a machine sold in the UK
...
I got a Microwriter Agenda (a later model) at a radio
rally, and have
played with a it a bit. One thing that becomes very obvious is that the
choice of chords depends on what you are doing - the Microwriter was
designed for typing text, and common programming characters, like '{' are
painful to type.
I have pictures of the AgendA and Microwriter in the
Organisers section of my Old Sad Things page at:
http://www.gifford.co.uk/~coredump/org.htm
As I understand it, the innovative part of the Microwriter
design was the system of mnemonics to help you learn the
chording patterns.
If anyone has any documentation on the Microwriter, please
let me know!
--
John Honniball
Email: John.Honniball(a)uwe.ac.uk
University of the West of England
26 Jul
26 Jul
6:39 a.m.
New subject: Keychorder
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8:36 a.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Other keywords
to look for would be 'chording keyboard' or 'Microwriter'.
The latter is the trade name of a machine sold in the UK
...
> I got a Microwriter Agenda (a later model) at a radio rally, and have
> played with a it a bit. One thing that becomes very obvious is that the
> choice of chords depends on what you are doing - the Microwriter was
> designed for typing text, and common programming characters, like '{' are
> painful to type. As I understand it, the innovative part of the
Microwriter
design was the system of mnemonics to help you learn the
chording patterns.
Well, the idea isn't dead at all, there have been several
atempts over the past 150 years to create single hand
input devices (or typewriters in the pre computer time).
Starting from hegehog like thingys, over to typewriters
for special scripts onty stuff like Microwriter or Twiddler.
And there will be always new attemts, either using existing
hardware, for example like the cutkey
http://www.misawa.co.jp/CUTKEY/
or, very notable, the T9 stuff (but again _very_ disputable)
http://www.tegic.com/
I have even seen a blind woman usin a 7 button keypad
for direct ASCII input - no joke, she just typed the bits,
using one hand for reading, and the other for writing.
(To be exact, she even extended the coding - for some
abreviation like Hr. or Fr. (Mr/Ms) she used 'unused'
codes - in her mind unused, like the square braces,
controll codes or 'unused' codes between x'21' and x'40' :)
She asked me to help her with an system upgrade to a
PC, but after seeing how she acomplished her work, I
just added some import/export filters to her dBase app,
to get the data in and out from her S100 system :)
Gruss
H.
--
Stimm gegen SPAM: http://www.politik-digital.de/spam/de/
Vote against SPAM: http://www.politik-digital.de/spam/en/
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Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
7:58 a.m.
New subject: Keychorder
Hi
I thought I'd mention that Chuck Moore ( inventor of
the Forth language ) once used a 5 button keyboard.
He said that when he was programming with it, he was
quite fast but when he wanted to write documents it
was vary tedious. He thought that there was something
different about learning sequences for words in a
program that were different than words in general
sentences. He has since gone off to play with other
things like color and fill from left of screen.
Dwight
21 Jun
21 Jun
1:25 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
I've always thought that the Commodore (CBM) B500 and 700 series were good
looking computers. Didn't I read that Ferdinand Porsche's design company was
involved with these? The detachable keyboard that didn't look detachable
while it was attached, and the rounded looks were well ahead of the norm of
the day, and far better looking than the standard square-cut PET.
Phil
----- Original Message -----
From: Merle K. Peirce <at258(a)osfn.org>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Sent: Saturday, 19 June 1999 23:35
Subject: RE: Aesthetics
Has anyone ever put together a list of handsomely designed computers?
Not great runners, not powerful, but just aesthetically pleasing? My
impression is that there probably are not all that many, and that the
first machines to exclude from such a list are the iMac grotesques.
I would offer just a very few for initial consideration:
Epson QX-10
Apricot
Honeywell DPS-6
Olivetti ETV-300
IBM PS/2 towers
I realise the possibilty for some very subjective judgements here, but it
strikes me as an interesting point of view in studying industrial design.
I can think of a number of machines I really like, some I don't, that are
really quite banal.
2:11 a.m.
New subject: Aesthetics
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9047
days inactive
9085
days old
26 comments
16 participants
participants (16)
-
a2k＠one.net -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
at258＠osfn.org -
aw288＠osfn.org -
bluoval＠mindspring.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
ckaiser＠oa.ptloma.edu -
cmcmanis＠mcmanis.com -
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
elvey＠hal.com -
fauradon＠mn.mediaone.net -
guerney＠uq.net.au -
Hans.Franke＠mch20.sbs.de -
healyzh＠aracnet.com -
John.Honniball＠uwe.ac.uk -
kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com