13 Apr
1999
13 Apr
'99
4:05 p.m.
I'm thinking about attending the upcoming Trenton Computer Festival.
Unfortunately, if I do go, I won't be able to make it until Sunday. Any
opinions on whether or not the second day of the TCF is worth a two and a
half hour drive?
Thanks.
Tom Owad
13 Apr
13 Apr
4:16 p.m.
New subject: Trenton Computer Festivalt
I'm thinking about attending the upcoming Trenton
Computer Festival.
Unfortunately, if I do go, I won't be able to make it until Sunday. Any
opinions on whether or not the second day of the TCF is worth a two and a
half hour drive?
Thanks.
Tom Owad
In the old days it was bargain and dumpster dive day.
TCF was a lot like what the VCF sounds like. (Except with a mix of some of
the classic stuff with some of the newer computers.)
PDP 8's, and PDP11's as well as S100 stuff was common. Now there's some
Sun, Vax, HP Unix stuff, some older S100, H89, H8. Some CP/M (rare)
some Macintosh and Apple II/III... But it's becoming more and more
a Windows and PC kind of show.
I don't know what it'll be like this year with Ken Gordon running the show
on contract (but I fear the worst).
Bill
---
bpechter@shell.monmouth.com|pechter@pechter.dyndns.org
Three things never anger: First, the one who runs your DEC,
The one who does Field Service and the one who signs your check.
4:59 p.m.
New subject: Trenton Computer Festivalt
I'm
thinking about attending the upcoming Trenton Computer Festival.
Unfortunately, if I do go, I won't be able to make it until Sunday. Any
opinions on whether or not the second day of the TCF is worth a two and a
half hour drive?
In the old days it was bargain and dumpster dive day.
TCF was a lot like what the VCF sounds like. (Except with a mix of some of
the classic stuff with some of the newer computers.)
PDP 8's, and PDP11's as well as S100 stuff was common. Now there's some
Sun, Vax, HP Unix stuff, some older S100, H89, H8. Some CP/M (rare)
some Macintosh and Apple II/III... But it's becoming more and more
a Windows and PC kind of show. 
8:48 p.m.
New subject: Trenton Computer Festivalt
Last year's flea market was the year of the cheap
486 (66mhz and below)
and '030 Mac (lots of IIsi and IIci CPUs, often with net cards and
40 or 80mb drives, for $25). You can sort of judge the strata of
"obsolescence" by what is common in a particular year; though you will
see older, it seems to be few and far between.
I suspect that this will be the year of the low-end Pentium (75-100) and
(I hope) the '040 Macintosh. (I'd like to find a cheap Quadra.) There
Please report back on what you find, but it seems to me prices bottomed out
last summer during a massive dumping of 4 to 8 year old machines, and since
then prices have come back up to more like $40 for a low end 486 without
monitor etc. I would not expect to see a Quadra for less than about $75 for
a Q610 or Q700, but the little IIsi is still under priced at $25 for a 5/80
IMHO.
14 Apr
14 Apr
5:05 p.m.
New subject: Trenton Computer Festivalt
I suspect that
this will be the year of the low-end Pentium (75-100) and
(I hope) the '040 Macintosh. (I'd like to find a cheap Quadra.) There
Please report back on what you find, but it seems to me prices bottomed out
last summer during a massive dumping of 4 to 8 year old machines, and since
then prices have come back up to more like $40 for a low end 486 without
monitor etc. I would not expect to see a Quadra for less than about $75 for
a Q610 or Q700, but the little IIsi is still under priced at $25 for a 5/80
IMHO.
15 Apr
15 Apr
1:02 a.m.
New subject: Trenton Computer Festivalt
Out of curiousity, I took a look at ebay to see what
Centris/Quadra 610s
were going for. $75 seemed to be the normal to high end for a Quadra 610-
most of those in the stock 8/230 configuration. Prices seemed
commensurately lower for a Centris 610 with high bids on some stripped
(4/0) configurations going as low as $33.
Okay, so maybe it's the year of the $50 '040. :-)
Prices come from an odd mix of factors, and seemingly small things can have
big impacts on price especially on places like eBay. A Centris in 4/0 trim
is stripped, just motherboard ram, no simms, no hard drive, and that often
means the system was a parts donor and may have lurking problems. I never
take the prices on eBay at face value. I read the whole ad looking for
problems or features, screwup in the listing (ie selling a SCSI drive in
general PC hardware instead as a Mac drive), hot button terms like AS-IS,
or factory warranty, or goofy posting time (ad closes at 4 am killing last
minute bidders), buyer or seller with a bad feedback rating. Cost of ram
these days is a big factor, really not as big as it should be given the
price of buying ram.
I was at GSA surplus sales this morning and the best deal I could get on a
DFI (clone) desktop 486DX50 8/212 running norton over dos in dirty
condition with no mouse or keyboard was $42.50 (which I declined) and that
price was only because I would have bought half a dozen.
14 Apr
14 Apr
4:51 a.m.
New subject: Trenton Computer Festivalt
On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, Bill Pechter wrote:
PDP 8's, and PDP11's as well as S100 stuff was
common. Now there's some
Sun, Vax, HP Unix stuff, some older S100, H89, H8. Some CP/M (rare)
some Macintosh and Apple II/III... But it's becoming more and more
a Windows and PC kind of show.
I don't know what it'll be like this year with Ken Gordon running the show
on contract (but I fear the worst).
The KGP folks are running the indoors vendor stuff and the admission
ticket system. The outdoor swap meet is supposed to be as always.
--
Ward Griffiths
"the timid die just like the daring; and if you don't take the plunge then
you'll just take the fall" Michael Longcor
4:48 a.m.
On Tue, 13 Apr 1999, Tom Owad wrote:
I'm thinking about attending the upcoming Trenton
Computer Festival.
Unfortunately, if I do go, I won't be able to make it until Sunday. Any
opinions on whether or not the second day of the TCF is worth a two and a
half hour drive?
Well, for me the drive has traditionally been an hour and a half, and I
often find things on Sunday that weren't there on Saturday -- often due
to talking with the vendors, admittedly. This year, it's a shorter trip
what with the relocation up to Raritan Center. La Esposa and I are even
thinking of attending the banquet for the first time -- then again,
she's known Eric Raymond a lot longer than I have (turned down a pass
from him at a science fiction convention back when they
were both still
in their teens).
--
Ward Griffiths
"the timid die just like the daring; and if you don't take the plunge then
you'll just take the fall" Michael Longcor
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