22 Dec
1998
22 Dec
'98
6:13 p.m.
Welcome back tim
Have you been looking around for computers in Guyana? Anything interesting?
Francois
-----Original Message-----
From: tim(a)thereviewguide.com <tim(a)thereviewguide.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Tuesday, December 22, 1998 3:33 PM
Subject: Back on the List
Hi. For those who remember, and for those who care, I'm back.
After coming back from my vacation to my new home in Guyana...
(yes, I swore off Kool Aid) and found that it had numerous
problems. After sorting most of them out, getting back on-track,
and then spending lots of time thinking about but not doing, I got
back on the list.
Ciao,
Tim D. Hotze
23 Dec
23 Dec
1:24 a.m.
Welcome back tim
Have you been looking around for computers in Guyana? Anything interesting?
Looking? Yeah... all over... but in a country where a XT's a status
item... I haven't been very successful. I was able to get a complete
XT system with tons of unopened software, manuals, etc. (As well
as a brand-new IBM ProPrinter I) from the person right below the
Ambadassor at the Embassy here. Of course, the XT's no biggie,
but the naunals, etc. are. I'm trying to work up the will to get ELKS
or something on the XT.
Francois
Tim
2:37 a.m.
> Welcome back tim
> Have you been looking around for computers in Guyana? Anything interesting?
Looking? Yeah... all over... but in a country where a
XT's a status
item... I haven't been very successful. I was able to get a complete
XT system with tons of unopened software, manuals, etc. (As well
as a brand-new IBM ProPrinter I) from the person right below the
Ambadassor at the Embassy here. Of course, the XT's no biggie,
but the naunals, etc. are.
No Homecomputers or obscure pre PC stuff ?
Gruss
hans
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
1:51 a.m.
No Homecomputers or obscure pre PC stuff ?
Nope... see, I think that the people that could afford computers (the
very rich in Guyana) thought they were a over-technical fad until the
days of the PC. Unlike other places, very few of even the rich
people are even fairly educated (IE any college), so it wasn't until
the days of the PC that people got computers. From what I can
tell, the average is a Pentium 133 running Windows 3.1 with 16MB
RAM... makes me feel powerful.
Gruss
hans
Tim
6:09 p.m.
On Wed, 23 Dec 1998, Hans Franke wrote:
Not to be a presumptuously snobbish American or anything but in Guyana?
Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always being hassled by the man.
Coming in 1999: Vintage Computer Festival 3.0
See http://www.vintage.org/vcf for details!
[Last web site update: 12/07/98]
> Welcome
back tim
> Have you been looking around for computers in Guyana? Anything interesting?
Looking? Yeah... all over... but in a country
where a XT's a status
item... I haven't been very successful. I was able to get a complete
XT system with tons of unopened software, manuals, etc. (As well
as a brand-new IBM ProPrinter I) from the person right below the
Ambadassor at the Embassy here. Of course, the XT's no biggie,
but the naunals, etc. are.
No Homecomputers or obscure pre PC stuff ?
24 Dec
24 Dec
2:38 a.m.
Not to be a presumptuously snobbish American or
anything but in Guyana?
Yeah... it's kind of strange. It looks like it used to be a pretty nice
place, say around 1950 or so, when it was British owned. Beautiful
streets lined with canals, very spacious. It was like a town, very
well-laid out. Beautiful wooden buildings, and of course, a full
British infrastructure. Now... as you probably can guess, under a
communist leader who didn't allow flour to be imported for 17 years,
it's started to crumble. And you know what happens to beautiful
wooden buildings when you're in a country with hundreds of trillions
of termintes...
To be back on topic (well, sort of) there's no real computers here.
Just a whole bunch of PC's... and all the ones paritally classic,
(mostly old PC's, usually 16-bit era), are still being used and
viciously guarded.
The power here's also amazingly strange: 110v (which is good,
after spending 4 years in a 220v country with all 110v equipment),
but 50hz. Sure, I've heard of 110v 60hz, and 220v 50hz... but not a
mixture.
I can get my Apple IIc to boot fine with local power (or when we're
running off of 110v 60hz generator power), but my II+ isn't as lucky.
Any reason why this wouldn't work?
Tim
3:34 a.m.
> > > Welcome back tim
> > > Have you been looking around for computers in Guyana? Anything
interesting?
> > Looking? Yeah... all over... but in a country where a XT's a status
> > item... I haven't been very successful. I was able to get a complete
> > XT system with tons of unopened software, manuals, etc. (As well
> > as a brand-new IBM ProPrinter I) from the person right below the
> > Ambadassor at the Embassy here. Of course, the XT's no biggie,
> > but the naunals, etc. are.
> No Homecomputers or obscure pre PC stuff ?
Not to be a presumptuously snobbish American or
anything but in Guyana?
:) Shure, exactly in Guyana. I found that the percentage of
unusual computers rise linear with the 'unusuality' of the
place you are looking. Of course, the total number of computers
available is falling rapidly, but if there is one, the chance
of not beeing a 08/15 type computer is quite high. I made up
three possible reasons. First if somone in such a place buyes
a computer he is a) weathy and b) educated - already unusual.
Such people tend to go for rather individual choises. Second
to buy a computer in this environment isn't a decision made
between two hot dogs - they are collecting facts to buy the
right one (like most of us did in the 70s) - ok, this attitude
is fading like it did in the US and Europe during the 80s, but
only recently - maybe also forced due the missing of low to
mid class alternatives to the Wintel PC. Third the lifetime /
time of use is a lot longer due missing replacement. Computer
sales in this countries are still rising the numbers of installes
systems, while we (Euro and US) have already reached a level
where replacement is part of the market. If a computer is to
be replaced lets say in India or Romania, the old one will be
used again, istead of beeing scraped - for shure!
I don't know about the far east, arab or south american
situation, but in the east the PC took only over _very_
recently (1995/96...). In Russia, a C64 or an Amiga or
Atari XL ist still a valuable home computer - shure, they
won't get the price like a few years aga, since the Taiwan
PCs give an upper limit, but people are still looking to
get them. And in Africa it's almost the same (You still
can find French and Britisch homecomputers).
Gruss
H.
--
Ich denke, also bin ich, also gut
HRK
9348
days inactive
9350
days old
6 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
dastar＠ncal.verio.com -
fauradon＠pclink.com -
Hans.Franke＠mch20.sbs.de -
tim＠thereviewguide.com