3 Oct
1999
3 Oct
'99
5:16 p.m.
I'm confused. I thought they were the same.
What do you mean by Beehive? If this is related to the Beehive section of
the Walnut Creek CDRom, then I see the file \beehive\text\member.txt has an
Australian address in it.
"Australian" Microbees are quite common here (because I'm in Sydney !) but
not in going condition. The consoles are easy but the power supply, disk
drives and software are difficult, probably because many were in schools
where they were networked. All I've seen were CP/M. I've never seen one with
basic but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
Hans
-----Original Message-----
From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, 4 October 1999 8:35
Subject: Re: Wanted: MicroBee computer
On Sun, 3 Oct 1999, Roberto Waltman wrote:
I would like to buy a MicroBee machine,
preferably
one running CP/M, but one of the earlier/smaller
BASIC ROM based models would be considered
also.
Roberto Waltman
rwaltman(a)bellatlantic.net
Don't forget that there are U.S. Microbees (Beehive) and Australian
Microbees. I think (?) they are related in name only.
- don
3 Oct
3 Oct
8:18 p.m.
On Mon, 4 Oct 1999, Olminkhof wrote:
I'm confused. I thought they were the same.
What do you mean by Beehive? If this is related to the Beehive section of
the Walnut Creek CDRom, then I see the file \beehive\text\member.txt has an
Australian address in it.
I have never seen either machine that I can recall. It may be that I
am blinded by the name "Beehive" who built terminals way back when -
one of which was named the Microbee. Also, the fact that MicroSolutions
Uniform lists a Beehive Microbee and also a Microbee and that Sydex 22Disk
lists a Beehive Microbee whose disk definitions do not match the formats
for the Microbee by Applied Technology has lead me to surmise that there
were two separate machines.
My reasoning was that Beehive had added some smarts and disk capability
to their machine, and that the Australian machine was developed
separately.
- don
"Australian" Microbees are quite common here
(because I'm in Sydney !) but
not in going condition. The consoles are easy but the power supply, disk
drives and software are difficult, probably because many were in schools
where they were networked. All I've seen were CP/M. I've never seen one with
basic but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
Hans
-----Original Message-----
From: Don Maslin <donm(a)cts.com>
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
<classiccmp(a)u.washington.edu>
Date: Monday, 4 October 1999 8:35
Subject: Re: Wanted: MicroBee computer
On Sun, 3 Oct 1999, Roberto Waltman wrote:
I would like to buy a MicroBee machine,
preferably
one running CP/M, but one of the earlier/smaller
BASIC ROM based models would be considered
also.
Roberto Waltman
rwaltman(a)bellatlantic.net
Don't forget that there are U.S. Microbees (Beehive) and Australian
Microbees. I think (?) they are related in name only.
- don
4 Oct
4 Oct
10:47 a.m.
New subject: Different diskette formats (was: Wanted: MicroBee computer
I'm in a similar position to Don. As part of my XenoCopy work, I get
hundreds of diskettes from computers that I have never seen. I have to
rely on the names and/or descriptions provided by the people who send the
diskettes.
As such, I have received diskettes, (and implemented the diskette formats)
labelled as being from "Beehive Topper" and from "Microworld
Microbee",
which are different formats.
Occasionally there are fairly obvious mistakes and confusions in the
machine names. For example, I will get people telling me that the
computer is an "ADM3A, but the disk drive box is a Morrow" due to lack of
understanding of even what the conmputer is.
One time I got some hand labelled diskettes and misread the labels. I
ended up briefly having a version of my program that purported to support
Groupil (should have been Goupil) and INW (should have been LNW). The
funny part was when two competitors also came out with Groupil and INW
(either from contact with the same customer, or more likely from copying
formats from my program). They also added in formats for two machines
that were ONE-OFFs that never entered production, where I know the
whereabouts of EVERY diskette, and which I had included in XenoCopy-PC for
the convenience of the owner of the only existing units.
BTW, Allison recently referred to "hundreds" of different formats. Our
estimate is abour 2500! XenoCopy-PC currently supports 400.
--
Fred Cisin cisin(a)xenosoft.com
XenoSoft http://www.xenosoft.com
2210 Sixth St. (510) 644-9366
Berkeley, CA 94710-2219
On Sun, 3 Oct 1999, Don Maslin wrote:
On Mon, 4 Oct 1999, Olminkhof wrote:
I'm confused. I thought they were the same.
What do you mean by Beehive? If this is related to the Beehive section of
the Walnut Creek CDRom, then I see the file \beehive\text\member.txt has an
Australian address in it.
I have never seen either machine that I can recall. It may be that I
am blinded by the name "Beehive" who built terminals way back when -
one of which was named the Microbee. Also, the fact that MicroSolutions
Uniform lists a Beehive Microbee and also a Microbee and that Sydex 22Disk
lists a Beehive Microbee whose disk definitions do not match the formats
for the Microbee by Applied Technology has lead me to surmise that there
were two separate machines.
My reasoning was that Beehive had added some smarts and disk capability
to their machine, and that the Australian machine was developed
separately.
- don
> "Australian" Microbees are quite common here (because I'm in Sydney !)
but
> not in going condition. The consoles are easy but the power supply, disk
> drives and software are difficult, probably because many were in schools
> where they were networked. All I've seen were CP/M. I've never seen one
with
> basic but that doesn't mean they don't exist.
>
> Hans 
11:30 a.m.
New subject: Different diskette formats (was: Wanted: MicroBee computer
BTW, Allison recently referred to "hundreds"
of different formats. Our
estimate is abour 2500! XenoCopy-PC currently supports 400.
No arguement here. I was talking media, drive and physical format. Add
OS and things like sectornumbering and skewing... gee, only 2500? ;)
As a direct result of that there are very few 5.25 formats implmented in
my room and I try to keep it to the bare minimum. I've gone as far as to
modify systems for 3.5" drives and lock in on the more limited numbers of
formats used there. The 5.25" market was both standard and nonportable
at the same time and was a constant source of annoyance.
Now if it's 5.25 it will be VT180, Visual1050, Kaypro 1/II, RX50, RX33 or
I use only of many tools to copy down to native for that machine. Or at
least the common ones in that pack.
Even 8" is a pain as I have RX01 (good old SSSD), RX02 (weird DEC
only), CCS SSDD/DSDD and to add insult compupro SSDD/DSDD which is not
CCS compatable. I'm sure I have an ISIS SSDD (also oddball) around.
Allison
9007
days inactive
9008
days old
3 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
-
allisonp＠world.std.com -
cisin＠xenosoft.com -
donm＠cts.com -
jolminkh＠nsw.bigpond.net.au