On Jun 6, 2007, at 12:53 AM, Alexandre Souza wrote: I don't know if this will be helpful...but I have seen brand new Newton touch pads on eBay over the past several months. New displays, too. -Dave -- Dave McGuire Port Charlotte, FL

der Mouse wrote: I use a high-end flat-panel at work and a high-end CRT at home and my experience suggests that good ones still aren't quite as fast as the *best* CRTs, and they can't compete with phosphor persistence for smoothness but the difference is very quickly going away. It won't be long before there's effectively none. Any top-end CRT (of which they don't make many anymore -- a shame -- I buy mine used nowadays) will also have easily higher resolution than a flat panel of similar size. But the flat panels use *soo* much less power. Try mine. Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 2040u. Peace... Sridhar

On Wednesday 06 June 2007 09:10, der Mouse wrote: No, I think 99% of most people (well, those that don't completely reject modern technology because it's modern ;) would agree with you. Gaming (speed of display) and color rendition are the only real two niches left for CRTs, and LCDs are quickly approaching CRT quality for those areas... Pat -- Purdue University ITAP/RCAC --- http://www.rcac.purdue.edu The Computer Refuge --- http://computer-refuge.org

der Mouse wrote: I ditched a recently refurbished and tuned 21" SGI (GDM-5011P) for my 20" Dell flat-panel (2007FP). I would say that both displays are close to the top of their class, as far as comparisons go. I don't play games, so I really don't depend on lightning refresh rates. However, color consistency is at least as good on the Dell, white whites and black blacks are closer to true on the Dell, and after 12 or 16 hours of staring at the screen, the eye-strain is notably less. The Dell also has a considerably bigger viewing area. The rated thermal budget for the Dell is 187 BTU/hr typical, as opposed to ~550 BTU/hr for the 5011P. Living in Texas, just the savings on cooling will pay for the flat panel in a couple of years. And my desk no longer sags in the middle. :) Doc

I dug out the old TEC terminal that I had stored away. It is a TEC Model 1440. It indeed uses MOS shift registers for character storage (2xMK1109), and also (6x 8-pin DIP devices which I've not been able to identify) for spinning out each line of dots. It has a custom ROM made by AMI for the character generator. It uses an LSI UART. All of the rest of the digital logic is standard TTL, mostly 7400-Series. It uses a standard Ball Brothers TV-120 video monitor subassembly. It looks like the X/Y drivers are IC-based amplifiers, and are on the main logic board. They have large clip-on heatsinks on them. Can't see the part number, as it apperas to be covered by the heatsinks. The CRT is "clean", with no signs of burn-in or delamination. I tried to power it up, but it blows the fuse immediately (2A slow-blow), so either power supply caps have malformed, or a rectifier/transistor in the power supply circuitry has gone bad. No smoke or any other bad signs. Close inspection of the logic board, and the various other boards (power supply, HV supply, CRT drive) show no signs of any blown or burnt components. Flyback transformer looks good. I was able to get a small spark from the HV supply by using the standard technique to drain off the HV charge. Date codes on the TTL parts range from late 1977 through early 1978. The terminal was manufactured later than I expected, but I believe that the design was probably pretty old, as by early '78, there were lot better ways to make a terminal. The terminal probably had a fairly long production life. The keyboard is clearly set up for standard ASCII character set. It has a "line/local" switch on it to put the terminal into online or local mode. It has a port labeled "I/O", a DB-25 connector, that appears to be usable for connection to some type of peripheral devices, perhaps a printer, or a paper tape punch. It uses fairly standard keyswitch modules. The keycaps show little wear. It has an "ESCAPE" key, along with a "RUBOUT" key, and "CTRL" key, along with the normal keyboard layout. They keyboard plugs into the main unit using a cable with a DB-25 male connector on one end that plugs into a DB-25 female connector on the back panel of the main unit. The main unit has a large power switch on the back panel, and a single knob on the front panel for varying display brightness. It appears that there were a number of options for the terminal. There is an open spot on the circuit board for a switch which is labeled on the circuit board as selection for 80x24 or 40x12. It appears that this terminal as a control sequence that can switch the modes, as when I powered it up last, a number of years ago, I could get it to come up in 80x24 or 40x12 modes on power-up. The main circuit board has nomenclature indicating that it is a "1440/45 TELE-TEC LOGIC BOARD". Anyone out there have an operating manual, service manual, or schematics for this thing? I think it would be fun to try to bring it back to life. Rick Bensene The Old Calculator Web Museum http://oldcalculatormuseum.com