NOS Bare Boards: What to do? - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

7 Apr 1998

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  -----Original Message-----
 From: J. Maynard Gelinas [mailto:maynard@jmg.com]
 Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 1998 2:06 PM
 To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
 Subject: Re: NOS Bare Boards: What to do?
 
        BTW: anyone remember a BYTE article on the SwTPC sometime in
 '78 regarding a very eary voice recognition and voice synth system
 connected to house controls?  I seem to remember that the upshot of it
 was that it didn't work well and the poor author wound up showing off
 his undershorts because the system misrecognized a command and opened
 up the garage door at an inopportune time.... Maybe it was a Kilobaud
 issue????  I'm pretty hazy on this, but I remember it made a big
 impression on me as a kid. 
Yes I remember the article (it was humor) because a friend asked if I
could build the same thing for him.  I think it was Popular Electronics,
there were no tech details so I'm sure it wasn't BYTE or KILOBAUD.
Anyway, I was skeptical that it was real so I told my friend to contact
the author before I took any of his money.  My friend contacted the
author for details.  The author admitted he had embellished the
capabilities and the article was more fiction than fact, although
theoretically possible to do at the time.
	Jack Peacock