10 Jan
2017
10 Jan
'17
11:31 p.m.
I just gave away my pride and joy: an AT&T 3B2 1000 in perfect
condition with just about every accessory you could want and fully
configured. It was a dual processor system, and fully maxed out with
RAM and ports. It had an ethernet card and SCSI,
I collected boards and documentation for many years and had a complete
set of original docs, and many, many spares.
I was downsizing and ended up giving it away to another denizen of the
list along with a couple Sparc 20's and a bunch of other stuff. It
completely filled up a rental SUV and traveled from Virginia to a
state way out west. Many hundreds of pounds of stuff.
It's happily running now.
I miss it, but hopefully it's getting more use than I was giving it.
On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 5:09 PM, Andy Cloud <r3trohub at gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Everyone!
I thought this would be an interesting question to ask around - What's the
rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?
For me, personally, I have a Altair 8800!
Looking forward to hearing your answers
>_Andy
11 Jan
11 Jan
12:26 a.m.
I'd have to say my VAX 6000-600. It has six processors, and therefore is
alternatively known as the VAX 6660 - the Devil's VAX. :-) I've not been
able to boot it because I don't have three-phase power to my house.
However, I've been informed that the H405 can be rewired to run correctly
off dryer power, which I do have. That's one of the (many) projects on my
post-dissertation list.
With six processors and a half-gigabyte of RAM, I've been told this is
probably the most built-out VAX 6600 remaining. -- Ian
--
Ian S. King, MSIS, MSCS, Ph.D. Candidate
The Information School <http://ischool.uw.edu>
Dissertation: "Why the Conversation Mattered: Constructing a Sociotechnical
Narrative Through a Design Lens
Archivist, Voices From the Rwanda Tribunal <http://tribunalvoices.org>
Value Sensitive Design Research Lab <http://vsdesign.org>
University of Washington
There is an old Vulcan saying: "Only Nixon could go to China."
12:29 a.m.
It would have to be the Polycorp Ploy 1, I obtained recently.
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2016-10-9-poly-acquisition.htm
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2017-01-08-second-poly1-fix.htm
This is a New Zealand designed and manufactured computer, and although I
know of a museum display, and a couple of collectors that have one each in
storage, There is one person in another city (Dunedin) who runs the Poly
Archive site. I'm assuming he has a working one (or two). I suspect his
(if it is working) and mine might be the only verified working ones in New
Zealand, and possibly the world (some were sold to Australia and China).
This Panasonic might not be common..
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2013-11-22-playing-with-a-panasoni…
..or this Telecom computerphone
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/collection/computerphone.htm
Regarding the unusual there is this:..the Lang Commander.
http://www.classic-computers.org.nz/blog/2011-12-11-1802-trainer.htm
A kit made by a community college teacher. He ran night classes on
computing and got students to build their own trainers.
Terry (Tez)
12:44 a.m.
Wow, that must have taken a lot of will power to give that up. If I had it, I'm
not sure I could have done that.
It's none of my business, but......fingers crossed.....that your 3b2 stuff made
it to Seth Morabito, the gentleman who is working on the 3b2 emulator project
and is in need of hardware and documentation to continue.
Jerry
On 01/10/17 04:31 PM, Tom Manos wrote:
I just gave away my pride and joy: an AT&T 3B2
1000 in perfect
condition with just about every accessory you could want and fully
configured. It was a dual processor system, and fully maxed out with
RAM and ports. It had an ethernet card and SCSI,
I collected boards and documentation for many years and had a complete
set of original docs, and many, many spares.
I was downsizing and ended up giving it away to another denizen of the
list along with a couple Sparc 20's and a bunch of other stuff. It
completely filled up a rental SUV and traveled from Virginia to a
state way out west. Many hundreds of pounds of stuff.
It's happily running now.
I miss it, but hopefully it's getting more use than I was giving it.
On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 5:09 PM, Andy Cloud <r3trohub at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Everyone!
>
> I thought this would be an interesting question to ask around - What's the
> rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?
>
> For me, personally, I have a Altair 8800!
>
> Looking forward to hearing your answers
>
>> _Andy
3:53 p.m.
On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 6:44 PM, Jerry Kemp <other at oryx.us> wrote:
Wow, that must have taken a lot of will power to give
that up. If I had it,
I'm not sure I could have done that.
It was a bit of a challenge :)
It's probably the best example of such a system still in existence,
though I don't really know that for sure. It had enough spares to keep
it running forever, and they were built like tanks to run forever
anyway. I had a spare PS and spare RAM boards. I had it running on
standard SCSI2 drives so you didn't have to use the original AT&T
drives, though I had several of those too.
I'd forgotten that I also gave away a 3B2 400 in working condition
with lots of spares as well.
Over the years I had collected a ton of original AT&T software and
docs to go with it, most of which I'd gotten running.
This was the development platform for SVR4 and I had (still have,
actually) a copy of the SVR4 sources to go with. I never did try to
get that working.
Sp anyway, I was going to sell it all, but kept feeling guilty for it.
I didn't want it to end up in a museum, but wanted someone who was a
fanatic about the technology to enjoy using it on a daily basis, and
those kind of folk don't generally have that kind of cash lying
around.
I worried about it for a couple of years before I found someone who
really wanted it and I thought would take good care of it, and USE it.
I've never been happier with a decision.
Unfortunately, I did not know about Seth, and it did not go to him :(
I kept lots of digital docs for the system and wonder if that would
help him. I bet I have the assembler docs squirreled away and the
hardware references.
Tom
It's none of my business, but......fingers crossed.....that your 3b2 stuff
made it to Seth Morabito, the gentleman who is working on the 3b2 emulator
project and is in need of hardware and documentation to continue.
Jerry
On 01/10/17 04:31 PM, Tom Manos wrote:
>
> I just gave away my pride and joy: an AT&T 3B2 1000 in perfect
> condition with just about every accessory you could want and fully
> configured. It was a dual processor system, and fully maxed out with
> RAM and ports. It had an ethernet card and SCSI,
>
> I collected boards and documentation for many years and had a complete
> set of original docs, and many, many spares.
>
> I was downsizing and ended up giving it away to another denizen of the
> list along with a couple Sparc 20's and a bunch of other stuff. It
> completely filled up a rental SUV and traveled from Virginia to a
> state way out west. Many hundreds of pounds of stuff.
>
> It's happily running now.
>
> I miss it, but hopefully it's getting more use than I was giving it.
>
>
> On Tue, Jan 10, 2017 at 5:09 PM, Andy Cloud <r3trohub at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi Everyone!
>>
>> I thought this would be an interesting question to ask around - What's
>> the
>> rarest or most unusual computer-related item do you own?
>>
>> For me, personally, I have a Altair 8800!
>>
>> Looking forward to hearing your answers
>>
>>> _Andy
3022
days inactive
3023
days old
4 comments
4 participants
participants (4)
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isking＠uw.edu -
other＠oryx.us -
terry＠webweavers.co.nz -
tmanos＠concursive.com