On or about 02:02 AM 1/31/99 -0500, Doug was caught in a dark alley speaking these words: A free plane ticket to SoCal for the next meet??? Being in Northern Michigan does have it's downfalls. ;-) "Merch" ===== Roger "Merch" Merchberger -- zmerch(a)30below.com SysAdmin - Iceberg Computers ===== Merch's Wild Wisdom of the Moment: ===== Sometimes you know, you just don't know sometimes, you know?

Shure ? there was one at VCF 2.0 - you remember the junk guy that thought the WOZ IIgs was $$$ ? I was very suprised to find one in the US ... I never knew they did export to te US. ANd now there is even a second unit ! Jep, it is, but it's not 'only' a cole, it's _THE_ clone. WIth the BASIS the wole clone thing started off - The company was at the beginning (~1978/9) an Apple distributor and engeneering company in Germany. They stated early 1979 to make an 'better' Apple II - the BASIS (108), with a real case (metal), seperate keyboard, upper/lower case, German Umlauts, build in Z80, seriall and paralell interface build, 80 colume card and 64 (later up to 256) K of mem. Althrugh they asked an _extrem_ high price (some 5000-9000 Mark or ~2-3000 USD at this time), theyy had a big success. The new Apple Germany (~80) of course didn't like this competition and tried to punch them out of bussines via law suits. Eventualy they succeded, but to late: BASIS did order their production of the 108 and 208 at, back than, new and unknown companies in Taiwan. These companies where, after BASIS was send to bankrott by Apple, without their former customers looked for a new markt, and started to produce exact clones of the Apple II (the Basis was a complete reengeneered APPLE II - more like the IIgs or Platinum IIe) and sold them around the world. And, as usual in Taiwan, soon a lot of other small companies poped up around and offered even more clone products (back then there was almost no genuine development at all). in 1983..85, when the PC took off, they already developed a structure to participate ... So, the BASIS is a true part of history, the very reason for Taiwans position ind the clone market (and nowadays, they _are_ innovative). Gruss H. -- Der Kopf ist auch nur ein Auswuchs wie der kleine Zeh. H.Achternbusch

At 07:44 PM 1/30/99 -0800, you wrote: Yes, I enjoyed it and met Doug, Marvin and John. I found 2 boxes of cards most with the (gold) edge connectors cut off. Included were 1) 3 GE flip flop cards with transistors removed, dated 1957, 2)many small cards about 7 by 10cm (single sided with jumpers, extra holes) with up to 8 transistors, made by ? (IBM?), about 1962, 3)a 8 stage shift register with 923 RTL with a delay line (16 caps, 16 toroid inductors), 4) 2 core memory modules(?) for a Motorola bus system, 2x43 pin edge connector, 5/32" contact spacing. 5) 2 blank unknown S-100 cards. 6)Many transistor cards with types like 2N1305 or 2N404, some built on a PC board, some hand wired with staked terminals, some prototypes on punched Vector boards. The only DEC card is part of a M710 "punch control" card from 1972. There was a lot of consumer electronics which I threw away - TV, VCR boards, etc. Am looking at scanners so I can post some of this stuff. -Dave