18 Feb
2002
18 Feb
'02
3:28 a.m.
Ron Hudson <rhudson(a)cnonline.net> wrote:
I live in Silicon Valley, and the places to get
component
type stuff are dwindling. Radio Shack no longer carries much
of the components they used to. I went into Frys for a 100K
pot the other day (for paddles for an apple II (ob ot)) and
there were NO pots... Radio Shack had various values but not
100 K. A small hole in the wall was the same (Schad elec-
tronics on 1st street)
It's not just you. It's cheaper to manufacture stuff elsewhere now
(seen on bottom of iBook: "Designed by Apple in California Assembled
in Taiwan") so there are fewer surplus lots of components for these
folks to buy cheap and sell dear. The wacky commercial real estate
market of the dot-com boom didn't help matters either, it forced some
of these folks out of business.
Take a look at <http://www.kce.com/junk.htm> for starters. Diffs that
I know of: Curtiss Trading Co. is gone. RA Enterprises is gone.
Sharon Industries is somewhere else now. Alltronics is apparently
mostly web-and-mail order these days, for a while they had moved in
with Schad but this appears to have not lasted.
Follow the link at the bottom to Bruce Lane's page:
<http://www.bluefeathertech.com/technoid/calswap.html>, which has a
lot of the same information as on the kce.com page, but you will find
that Opinions Vary. Sometimes you really need to go see for yourself.
-Frank McConnell
17 Feb
17 Feb
8:56 p.m.
On 18 Feb 2002, Frank McConnell wrote:
Take a look at <http://www.kce.com/junk.htm> for
starters. Diffs that
I know of: Curtiss Trading Co. is gone. RA Enterprises is gone.
Sharon Industries is somewhere else now. Alltronics is apparently
mostly web-and-mail order these days, for a while they had moved in
with Schad but this appears to have not lasted.
Alltronics still has a store front as far as I know. Prices are steep,
not too much classic stuff anymore, and if there is the price is even
steeper. I avoid going there.
Sellam Ismail Vintage Computer Festival
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
International Man of Intrigue and Danger http://www.vintage.org
* Old computing resources for business and academia at www.VintageTech.com *
18 Feb
18 Feb
11:57 p.m.
Worst part is that a small town (1500 pop) north of me has just opened a
Radio Shack - they are blatently advertising that people can get parts for
repairs and self-building - an open mis-advertisement to anyone that
actually knows what RS has anymore. It's actually a RS dealer too, not a
company store, so they carry less than the RS Co stores do. I was up there
yesterday and asked the owner why he'd pay money to lie to people about them
having just about anything to do repairs with, his answer was that he does
have (or can order) about anything someone needs. So, my next Q was - where
do you order from? The RS supply point? That point he got stuck on an
finally mumbled that they were outside sources. I asked if these sources
included MCM, Digikey, Mouser, Allied, etc - he was stunned that I was on to
him.
Of course I'm not on his favorite customer list now and I suggested that he
might change the wording of his radio ads soon so that he's not misleading
his prospective client/customer base.
=> -----Original Message-----
=> From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
=> [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Sellam Ismail
=> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 4:57 AM
=> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
=> Subject: Re: From Scratch?... (was: Radio Shack (Was: STAPLES ....))
=>
=>
=> On 18 Feb 2002, Frank McConnell wrote:
=>
=> > Take a look at <http://www.kce.com/junk.htm> for starters. Diffs that
=> > I know of: Curtiss Trading Co. is gone. RA Enterprises is gone.
=> > Sharon Industries is somewhere else now. Alltronics is apparently
=> > mostly web-and-mail order these days, for a while they had moved in
=> > with Schad but this appears to have not lasted.
=>
=> Alltronics still has a store front as far as I know. Prices are steep,
=> not too much classic stuff anymore, and if there is the price is even
=> steeper. I avoid going there.
=>
=> Sellam Ismail Vintage
=> Computer Festival
=> -----------------------------------------------------------------
=> -------------
=> International Man of Intrigue and Danger
=> http://www.vintage.org
=>
=> * Old computing resources for business and academia at
www.VintageTech.com *
19 Feb
19 Feb
12:42 a.m.
To be honest, I'm quite surprised that there are any retail stores left
that sell electronic components to consumers.
Heck, last week I had to show identification to purchase windshield washer
fluid!
It seems that whenever somebody uses something to hurt somebody, then
knee-jerk reaction is to either ban the article outright, or to require
identification to buy it.
Someday, some wacked-out kid will build a bomb from components found at the
local Radio Shack, and the next thing you know - no more component sales.
I remember several years ago when some components used in the manufacture
of nuclear weapons were smuggled to either Iran or Iraq. The news media
started telling everyone what those components were, and some of the
components were special capacitors used for some portion of the weapon.
Some idiot at the local podunk newspaper found out that you could buy
capacitors at the Radio Shack downtown and wrote an article about just how
"easy" it could be to manufacture a nuclear device from stuff obtained
downtown. That dummy conveniently left out the difficulty for farmer John
in obtaining uranium suitable for the device.
I was always amazed that Radio Shack was selling components to complete
morons - and not getting sued. When I was an employee at Radio Shack, I was
very careful to size up the customer to the scope of the attempted project.
I didn't want to get dragged into court and have to defend myself against
some angry family members when their stupid son (or daughter) decided to
make a high-voltage power supply and succeeded in burning the house down.....
- Matt
At 07:57 AM 2/19/2002 -0600, you wrote:
Worst part is that a small town (1500 pop) north of me
has just opened a
Radio Shack - they are blatently advertising that people can get parts for
repairs and self-building - an open mis-advertisement to anyone that
actually knows what RS has anymore. It's actually a RS dealer too, not a
company store, so they carry less than the RS Co stores do. I was up there
yesterday and asked the owner why he'd pay money to lie to people about them
having just about anything to do repairs with, his answer was that he does
have (or can order) about anything someone needs. So, my next Q was - where
do you order from? The RS supply point? That point he got stuck on an
finally mumbled that they were outside sources. I asked if these sources
included MCM, Digikey, Mouser, Allied, etc - he was stunned that I was on to
him.
Of course I'm not on his favorite customer list now and I suggested that he
might change the wording of his radio ads soon so that he's not misleading
his prospective client/customer base.
=> -----Original Message-----
=> From: owner-classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
=> [mailto:owner-classiccmp@classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Sellam Ismail
=> Sent: Monday, February 18, 2002 4:57 AM
=> To: classiccmp(a)classiccmp.org
=> Subject: Re: From Scratch?... (was: Radio Shack (Was: STAPLES ....))
=>
=>
=> On 18 Feb 2002, Frank McConnell wrote:
=>
=> > Take a look at <http://www.kce.com/junk.htm> for starters. Diffs that
=> > I know of: Curtiss Trading Co. is gone. RA Enterprises is gone.
=> > Sharon Industries is somewhere else now. Alltronics is apparently
=> > mostly web-and-mail order these days, for a while they had moved in
=> > with Schad but this appears to have not lasted.
=>
=> Alltronics still has a store front as far as I know. Prices are steep,
=> not too much classic stuff anymore, and if there is the price is even
=> steeper. I avoid going there.
=>
=> Sellam Ismail Vintage
=> Computer Festival
=> -----------------------------------------------------------------
=> -------------
=> International Man of Intrigue and Danger
=> http://www.vintage.org
=>
=> * Old computing resources for business and academia at
www.VintageTech.com *
Matthew Sell
Programmer
On Time Support, Inc.
www.ontimesupport.com
(281) 296-6066
Join the Metrology Software discussion group METLIST!
http://www.ontimesupport.com/cgi-bin/mojo/mojo.cgi
"One World, One Web, One Program" - Microsoft Promotional Ad
"Ein Volk, Ein Reich, Ein Fuhrer" - Adolf Hitler
Many thanks for this tagline to a fellow RGVAC'er...
6:52 a.m.
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8:22 a.m.
On Tue, 19 Feb 2002, Tony Duell wrote:
*sigh* People who write labels should buy a dictionary.
Peace... Sridhar
Heck, last
week I had to show identification to purchase windshield washer
fluid!
Belive it or not, both my parents (with Ph.D.s in chemisty) and myself
have been prevented from buying dilute hydrochloric acid 'becuase it's
toxic'..... 
18 Feb
18 Feb
11:44 a.m.
New subject: NYT MS bashing.
Just read a nice article in the New York Times 17-Feb.
about planned obsolescence. . . . excerpt:
"In a way, this could be Microsoft's real crime. While the
software giant was convicted of violating antitrust laws,
the company may actually be more guilty of locking its
customers into an endless series of software upgrades
that demand increasingly powerful machines.
While so far there is little evidence of a large-scale backlash,
some consumers are beginning to grumble about being
forced to continually buy and relearn new equipment just
to keep up to speed. "The machines are supposed to be
easier to use with each generation," said Douglas Rushkoff,
a novelist who often writes about the Internet. But now, he
said, "Microsoft has to sell me software that comes packaged
with a built- in wizard to help me figure things out.""
Andy Grove gets his word in too. The URL:
http://www.nytimes.com/2002/02/17/weekinreview/17MARK.html
The more prominent the critic, in this case the NYT,
the more prople will notice.
John A.
and the photo is of a PC in the Dumpster
8344
days inactive
8345
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