1 Mar
1998
1 Mar
'98
7:58 a.m.
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1 Mar
1 Mar
8:35 a.m.
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10:25 a.m.
Hi, I'm Doug, and I'm a computerholic.
It started innocently enough with an HP65 programmable calculator in high
school (1977 or so). I played Lunar Lander and wrote a few programs, but
this wasn't enough to get me hooked.
For graduation in 1979, I got an Apple ][. I wrote a few programs in
clean crisp integer basic, and that was cool. But then I loaded some demo
program off a tape (by Bill Atkinson, I think). It was fast! I
experimented a little with assembly language. I was hooked.
I went to school at UCSD and brought my Apple with me. Convinced that
computers were cool toys, but unworthy of serious study, I studied
biochemistry, but snuck in a few computer classes out of curiosity. The
first was a FORTRAN course in which I wrote programs on punched cards and
fed them to a Burroughs 7800. I feel no nostalgia for that machine.
The PDP-11's and VAXen at UCSD were OK, but uninspiring compared to having
your own personal machine with a bit-mapped display. I regarded those
with S-100 machines as mad, and those with TRS-80's and Pets with a mix of
distain and pitty. The Apple was the only thing happening until IBM
unleashed the PC with sort of a dull thud.
While running a small computer lab at UCSD, I had my first experience of
computer envy when somebody brought in their GRiD Compass. I finally
resolved that relationship this year when I got my own GRiD Compass, and
then I realized that I had a few other nostalgic itches that needed to be
scratched.
Now that I'm an aging software weenie in Silicon Valley, I'm starting to
forget, for example, what a silly thing was the E&S PS-300 with it's
dataflow language, and I kinda sorta want one.
BTW, here's my theory of why now is an interesting time to be a collector:
the computer is now so mainstream that innovation is occuring only in very
narrow areas. As far as architecure goes, general purpose scalar machines
are the only ones to survive. RIP: writeable control stores, dataflow
architectures, LISP engines, connection machines, object-oriented
architecures, etc. If you don't get your hands on one of these recently
extinct dinosaurs soon, forget it. As far as form factor goes, I can't
think of any reason that everybody won't be using laptops in the next few
years, so now's a good time to collect ancient form factors as well as a
good time to collect early instances of the first of the new generation.
(OK, I guess that was cathartic. Thanks for the invitation.)
-- Doug
11:23 a.m.
It was thus said that the Great Doug Yowza once stated:
Hi, I'm Doug, and I'm a computerholic.
Hi Doug. I'm Sean, and I'm a computerholic as well 8-)
BTW, here's my theory of why now is an interesting
time to be a collector:
the computer is now so mainstream that innovation is occuring only in very
narrow areas. As far as architecure goes, general purpose scalar machines
are the only ones to survive. RIP: writeable control stores, dataflow
architectures, LISP engines, connection machines, object-oriented
architecures, etc. If you don't get your hands on one of these recently
extinct dinosaurs soon, forget it. As far as form factor goes, I can't
think of any reason that everybody won't be using laptops in the next few
years, so now's a good time to collect ancient form factors as well as a
good time to collect early instances of the first of the new generation.
Writable control stores: Don't count these out just yet. The new HP
machines based upon the HP-PA stuff does have a writable control store. My
friend has one of these boxes at home and he's been planning on playing
around with this.
OO-architectues: While interesting, they have the problem of being slower
than their non-OO counterparts (in the same era). The Intel 432 sounds
interesting, but from what I hear, it made for a slow system. But again,
don't count this as being dead as Sun has made CPUs that run Java natively
(or rather, the JVM, which enforces the OO paradigm).
Give some of these things time. They typically don't hit mainstream until
20, 25 years after being first introduced.
-spc (Java is just another variation on UCSD Pascal ... )
12:14 p.m.
On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Captain Napalm wrote:
Writable control stores: Don't count these out
just yet. The new HP
machines based upon the HP-PA stuff does have a writable control store. My
friend has one of these boxes at home and he's been planning on playing
around with this.
I've heard that even Pentiums will let you patch their microcode, but the
idea as a general theme seems to be dead. I don't know the reason for
this except for speed and cost issues.
OO-architectues: While interesting, they have the
problem of being slower
than their non-OO counterparts (in the same era). The Intel 432 sounds
interesting, but from what I hear, it made for a slow system. But again,
don't count this as being dead as Sun has made CPUs that run Java natively
(or rather, the JVM, which enforces the OO paradigm).
True, some people are condemned to repeat history, but I'm willing to bet
that hardware byte-code engines will be pulled back into the tar pit
before they leave the cave at Sun (and other places). I listed to a talk
given by a Sun engineer on why they should build these things, and the
reasons he gave (such as byte-code is more compact than other code) are
really hard to buy. Defintely a solution looking for a problem.
Give some of these things time. They typically
don't hit mainstream until
20, 25 years after being first introduced.
-spc (Java is just another variation on UCSD Pascal ... )
True again. p-Code made more sense then (when there was more than one
dominant architecture) than Java does now, but if Sun ever buys into the
idea of Java compiled to native code, there still may be more hope for
Java than there was for UCSD Pascal.
-- Doug
4:27 p.m.
Oh, yeh... I forgot to mention I, too, and looking for a couple of
things. 1) V-tech's old Kids computer called the Laser 50. Seriously
looking for one... will pay pretty well. 2) looking for a power supply
for My Data General One laptop.
In addition to all my other hobbies, etc., which can be found in post I
sent just a minute ago, I collect autographs and have nearly 7,000
signed items in my collection. Those and my computers have been piling
up for about 10 years now. :-)
CORD
--
___________________________________________________
| Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\
| Deanna S. Wynn : deannasue(a)navix.net | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4395 | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| PO Box 308 - Peru, NE - 68421 - (402) 872- 3272 | |
|___________________________________________________| |
\____________________________________________________\|
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12:47 p.m.
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1 Mar
1 Mar
9:20 a.m.
On Sun, 1 Mar 1998 10:58:04 -0800 (PST), Seth J. Morabito wrote:
I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the
Classic Computer
Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now,
and so forth.
I probably fall into the older half of the list. I'm a physicist, 44,
and have not principally used computers in my work, focusing more on
'paper and pencil' theory (initially high energy physics, then
statistical dynamics of turbulent processes). My first practical
exposure to computing was learning Basic in high school in the late
sixties, then my batchelor's thesis at MIT in 1974-5 where I did some
computational modeling of nucleon-nucleon interactions, and some
fortran programming in graduate school at Columbia in 1976 for
neutrino experiments at Fermilab. On an entirely separate track, I
have recently been working collaboratively with some artists and
scientists exploring connections between the visual arts and
mathematical sciences. The work relies heavily on computational
graphics manipulations (though nothing 'classic' about the hardware
used).
My interest in collecting is recent, only the last couple years, as I
have seen lots of older things thrown out. I have a few interesting
older things (altair, kim, nec pda-80 -- thanks Allison!, northstar
horizon, misc s-100 boxen, etc), with possibly the most unusual being
the guts from two CADR lisp machines from the AI lab at MIT. Lots of
other stuff as well, all architectures. Shameless request: for some
reason I can't seem to find any kind of commodore pet, so if some kind
soul has a spare they'd be willing to part with, please let me know.
FWIW, I'm married to a seismologist who finds my collecting this old
stuff amusing, and have two children who also enjoy all the computing
paraphernalia around the house. Makes for an easily encouraged
collecting experience :-).
Hope this was of interest,
Frank
Frank Peseckis
frank(a)5points.com
http://www.5points.com/
11:10 a.m.
It was thus said that the Great Seth J. Morabito once stated:
I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the Classic Computer
Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now,
and so forth.
I'm a 29 programming living on Lower Sheol (aka South Florida) currerntly
doing consulting work for one company (helping them with their Unix ports)
and partner in another company where I'm the project lead on GeoFind
(http://www.geofind.com/ - a meta search engine for the Internet). I'm not
fond of Unix, but I'm less fond of Windows (so that's why I'm typing this up
on my new Linux box).
My collection just happened as opposed to me actively seeking it out.
My first computer was a Color Computer 2 with 16K and Color BASIC. I
upgraded it to 64K myself (I think I was 15 or 16 at the time, and it did
require a small hardware modification to the motherboard) and was forced by
RatShack to have them upgrade it to Extended Color BASIC. I eventually
ended up with one disk drive and a Tandy Daisy wheel printer for the thing,
and I still them (oh, and the Tech manual as well).
My second computer was an IBM PCjr when IBM was selling off the last of
them in 1987. I got mine from a friend's father who worked at IBM and it
came with 384K RAM, parallel port, joysticks, new keyboard and cable and as
an added bonus, the Technical Reference Manual. It was then that I made the
decision to buy (if possible) the tech manuals for any computer I get (if
possible).
My third computer was my first used computer - another Color Computer. I
don't recall why I bought it, just that I did. I think that was the start
of my collection really. My next computer was an Amiga 500 (new) and that's
the last new computer I've bought. The rest have been used.
I was always known as being a bit odd, and after awhile, I just started
accumulating computers. A Data General/1 here (from a previous employer who
no longer needed one), a dead Xerox there (right now making sure the carpet
stays down in the computer room), a uVAX 2000, two Tandy 6000s (and possibly
a third), two HP/Apollos Series 400 (yes, they are 400, I just checked 8-) a
few terminals, a C-64 and I hate to say this, but a stack of PCs and PC
monitors (bleh - forced to take them to get the DEC vt320 terminal).
On the wish list front, I'm not actively seeking out computers (as I have
in fact, run out of space), but I would like to:
Get the Xerox working, which I doubt I will any time soon.
Get a new drive for the uVAX 2000, as I suspect there's a
screw loose inside the drive that's rattling around. It'd be
nice if I could get a copy of VMS (with TCP/IP) with a developent
system (or Unix). Just how special are the drives and/or format
for the DEC systems? I have extra harddrives, but I'm wondering
if I can use them.
Get the OS for the HPs. This I'm working on.
Get the second Tandy 6000 back together and see if it still works.
It worked when I picked it up, but I'm not so sure after I
dropped it off (literally. Those suckers are heavy! If anyone
can send me just a T6k case, just the case, I'd be happy)
Make my own desks to fit the equipment here. I have the design,
it's viable (I talked it over with an architect friend of mine)
but I just need to get the time, money and materials.
So, that's about it for me.
-spc (Help! I'm drowning in silicon)
4:23 p.m.
Hi, my name is Cord Coslor. Many of you may 'know' from the list and
elsewhere, but many probably do not. I also know many of you probably do
not enjoy posts like this (Sam... :-) Sam really is a great guy!!), but
I think once in a blue moon it can be kind of funa dn interesting
reading about people that we only know by their e-mail addresses.
Anyway, I am 22 years old and am a full-time college student majoring in
Sports Management and Broadcast Communications at Peru St. College in
Nebraska. Deanna and I just had a baby girl (Morgan), and I also have
two step children. I am in my fourth year of collegiate baseball (was at
Sterling College in Kansas for 2.5 years) here.... so, between my
family, classic computing, school, and sports, I think I really have a
load for a 22 year old.
Anyway, I got into collecting computers a long time ago. My dad had
a TRS-80 Model 4 that he ran his crop dusting business from. In looking
for games to play on it, I discovered I'd missed the TRS-80 boat by
several years. So, I actually started investigating the old sources of
software for the machines and was able to personally contact some of the
game pioneers such as Scott Adams, and over several years developed a
passion to collect everything related to this series of computers. I was
12 years old at the time. Next, the family got a Commodore 64 computer.
Since this time, I guess I have been on a quest to collect every piece
of hardware and software related to these machines and it has just kind
of taken off from there. I enjoy collecting old 8-bit personal computers
from the 1980s. However, I enjoy reading and learning
from your post
concerning some of the mainframes, etc. Currently in my collection,
I
have about 80 machines total. These consist of, all in duplicate or
triplicate at least (in most cases), TRS-80 Model 1,3,4,4p,4d, Tandy
Color Computer 1,2,3, MC-10,Dragon 64, Tandy 2000, Tandy 1000, Commodore
64, C-64c, Vic-20, Commodore Plus/4, Apple //e, Apple //c, TI 99/4a,
tons of old printers of every type, Atari 130xe, Atari 400, Atari 800,
Atari 800xl, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, V-Tech's Laser 310, Toshiba MSX
(European), Bally Astrocade, APF TV Fun, ColecoVision, Odyssey 2, and
the list goes on and on.
Currently, my only modern machine is a Packard Bell Pentium 75. It
currently has 24 megs of ram, and an 850 meg harddrive. Sound card, CD,
complete multi-media computer. I use this machine mainly to promote my
classics. I use of TRS-80 to check my e-mail at my 2nd e-mail address on
the school's Unix machine, though.
Well, that's about it.... I imagine I've outlived my welcome here!
:-)
Long live the 'classics,'
CORD COSLOR
--
___________________________________________________
| Cord G. Coslor : archive(a)navix.net |\
| Deanna S. Wynn : deannasue(a)navix.net | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Vista/4395 | |
|---------------------------------------------------| |
| PO Box 308 - Peru, NE - 68421 - (402) 872- 3272 | |
|___________________________________________________| |
\____________________________________________________\|
11:58 a.m.
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4:25 p.m.
Hey all,
I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the Classic Computer
Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now,
and so forth.
The quickie:
I'm 24, a computer science student in Southern California, father of 2
boys, and work as a systems admin/programmer for a local company that
copies medical records for insurance companies. Most of my current job is
pushing unix servers around and making them push NT boxes around, but I
get to do some programming (mostly C and Powerbuilder) as well. I have
been going to school for almost 7 years now and have degrees in English
and Music composition, with somewhere between 2 1/2 - 3 years left to get
my B.S.
My first computer was a Vic-20, donated to the cause by my aunt (I was 8
y.o. or so, she won it in a raffle), that I abused until the letters were
worn off the keys. During these years I wanted an Apple IIe like I used at
school in the worst way, but my parents had a hard enough time buying
clothes and food. My best-friend's dad had an Osbourne 1 that I drooled
over (who wouldn't? It had *floppy drives*!) until I moved to California
when I was 12. At this time I got an 800XL and really learned how to
program with it. I was able to work enough little side jobs to end up with
two 1050 floppy drives, a 256k memory upgrade, an 850 interface, and a
2400 baud Codex modem. Welcome to The Black Sabbath BBS, with your sysop
Squid Vicious....
My collection of computers is really varied in content and purpose. I have
a lot of Atari 8-bit stuff because I find it really *relaxing* to program
those reliable little machines after a day of Solaris and Windoze
headaches. There's also the nostalgia thing. I have an Osbourne and an
Apple IIe because I wanted them so much as a kid. And then there are all
the machines that I picked up just because they are so neat with all
kinds of *lights* and yummy mechanical clicks. So far:
Apple IIe systems with stuff
Atari 400,800,600XL,800XL,1200XL,810's,850,1050's,1030,410,1010,1027,Rana
1000, Indus GT, a couple of monitors, etc.
Mac 128,512,Plus,Se,Classic,Se/30,LCII,ImageWriter,ImageWriter
(wide),Stylewriter
Commodore Vic20,C64,128 (with all kinds of peripherals)
IBM XT's,AT's
Kaypro 2's and 4's, TRS-80's, Osbourne 1, etc.
Colecovision and Adam
Sun 3/50,3/60,3/80,4/330,Sparc 1, Sparc 1+, monitors, etc.
VaxStation 3100, MicroVax II (listed but I haven't picked it up yet)
Ah well, enough wasted space.
4:27 p.m.
I'm 51, married, w/kid. I was born in Boston, graduated from college in
1970, wrote and published a novel a couple of years later. I started paid
freelance writing in 1968 but, for various reasons, could never really land
a job -- and, in any case, didn't want to spend the rest of my life in New
England with rampant provincialism and rotten weather. In 1978 my wife and
I moved to San Francisco; within a year I was an account exec at a downtown
public relations agency.
Problem with that job was that whenever I worked from home, which was
mostly, it was a nuisance to get copy to the agency and back. After we
moved to the East Bay in 1981 this got worse. In 1983 I bought my first
computer and modem, convinced the agency to do likewise, and bingo! I
became a real telecommuter. The unforeseen side effect was that people
started asking me for advice on their computer problems -- not as often as
they do now :-) but the problems were more arcane then ;-). After a while
I was a Computer Guy, not perhaps by the standards of some people on this
list, but easily in the eyes of the general public.
In 1986 I became the technical support person for a small vertical-market
software developer in San Francisco that was just getting off the ground; I
had two jobs for a year, quit the PR shop, and worked in (mostly telephone)
tech support till I got fired in 1996. Meanwhile, in 1990, I started to
get interested in computer history for the same reason Tony did -- I was
afraid it was all going to disappear. I knew hazily that the fiftieth
anniversary of "the first computer," by which I meant COLOSSUS because I
didn't know about Zuse, was imminent, and I wanted to write a popular
survey history of computing in time for that. I haven't written it yet,
but it's still on my list!
In 1993 I founded the Computer History Association of California, and three
months later began publishing the ANALYTICAL ENGINE, which is currently
stalled just short of issue 4.2 while we figure out how best to deal with
our hardware collection, which is too big, just like everybody else's.
(There's some other stuff I want to say about the CHAC, and a biography
isn't the place for it, but I'll put up a separate post in a few days.) I
devoted more and more time to the CHAC until, in 1996, I lost my job
basically for inattention; I stayed fired until the summer of '97, when I
had to start writing for bucks again because we were broke.
So, after having been all over the Bay Area in the last almost-twenty
years, we live at the northern end of Silicon Valley in a cute little
condo, which suits us fine because "real" houses are a nuisance to maintain
and clean. I'm the computer history lecturer for Silicon Valley
Elderhostel, and in September I'm starting to teach comp. hist. at Univ. of
California Extension. Fred Davis and I have a publishing contract for _The
Windows 98 Bible_, which should be out late this spring, and after that I'd
really like to write _The Windows NT 5 Bible_ if we can get our publisher
interested. (I've been running NT as my primary OS for the last three
years.) "Even at my advanced age," he said looking around at the rest of
us, "I think I've got the stamina for a career as a computer journalist."
__________________________________________
Kip Crosby engine(a)chac.org
http://www.chac.org/index.html
Computer History Association of California
8:47 p.m.
Seth J. Morabito wrote:
I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the
Classic Computer
Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now,
and so forth.
Great idea, and thanks for starting the ball rolling!
I started working with computers in college on the IBM 360 back in 1967 and
found it to be a lot of fun. When I worked for Nabisco, I was sent up to
DEC for classes on the PDP 16 (love to find one for nostalgia purposes), the
PDP 11-05, the PDP 11-45, and some peripherals. After that, I did field
engineering for Gyrex Corporation (a manufacture of equipment used in the
Printed Circuit industry,) started my own printed circuit shop, and did/do
computer consulting. Currently, I work for a friend of mine doing a variety
of things involving mostly troubleshooting of electronic equipment. My
hobbies include Amateur Radio, computers, and playing the piano (classical.)
I started collecting computers more by not getting rid of them than by
design. The collection currently runs about 300 computers (I lost count at
200+ a couple of years ago) mostly between the dates of 1975 and 1984. In
addition, there are several dozen printers, a bunch of terminals, several
thousand pounds of documentation, and a variety of parts, software, and
other associated "stuff". The computer portion includes (in no particular
order) Altairs, Northstar Horizons, Northstar Advantages, Radio Shack Models
I, II, III, 4, 4P, 1000, 3000, 6000, Coco 1, Coco 2, Model 100s, Model 600,
Commodore Pets, CBMs, Vic 20's, Plus/4, 64s, 128B, 128Cs, IMSAI, Vector
Graphic I, 3, MX, IV, Sun 120(?), Dec PDP 8m, PDP 11-05, PDP 11-23,
Rainbows, NEC 8201A, Intel MDS System, Intel ICIS System, unbuilt National
SC/MP demo boards, Cromemco, Processor Technology SOL-20, Heathkit H8, H89,
Zeniths, MOS Kim1, Corona PC400, Corona Desktops, Lobo Drives MAX-80s,
Polymorphics, Atari 400s, 800s, 600XLs, Sinclair/Timex 1000s, IBM PCs, XTs,
AT, PC Jrs, 5100, HP 75D, HP 150s, HP 86, HP 87, CompuPros, Apple II Plus,
IIe, IIc, III, various MACs, Xerox 820-II, Altos, Osbournes, Kaypros,
Compaqs, Epsons, Laser 50, 1000, Toshibas, Televideo's, AT&T 3B1, PC7300,
NCRs, Wangs, NCCs, Morrows, Eagles, Sharps, Leading Edges, and a variety of
others that don't come to mind off hand. A friend of mine has a Culler
Scientific PC that he has said I can have that sounds like a neat machine
(Culler Scientific was here in Santa Barbara, and I believe they
manufactured some type of super computer.) Most of the computers were
working when they were acquired but most are untested (by me!)
My interest in collecting computers is for the historical value. I saw a
lot of computers, and more importantly, the documentation heading to the
dumpsters. I chose to see how much I could save from that fate :). My
actual use of them is very minimal and pretty much limited to turning them
on out of curiosity. One of the projects on the back burner but still
simmering is to start a computer museum here in Santa Barbara. Of the 50 -
100 people I have talked to about it, most support the idea and are even
willing to help!
The most recent addition (yesterday) was a Coco computer that included the
service manual. At $1 each, I will generally pick up any S-100 cards I find
and I picked up two. I saw a friend of mine down in the Los Angeles area
who wants me to clean out his garage of the S-100 stuff (he was a
software/hardware developer) and his wife want to get rid of the DEC Rainbow
with software and docs. Storage is a *real* problem though so I sometimes
picking stuff up unless I really have to.
2 Mar
2 Mar
3:06 a.m.
I'm a fairly recent arrival to this list. I'm 34, a New Zealander, and
I've lived in the UK for almost 4 years.
I think the first 'computer' I programmed seriously was a Canon SX320
calculator, which was a desktop machine with a full keyboard and 40? col
printer. I also did Fortran and Algol-W programming at highschool.
My first computer of my own was an 8080 S-100 system, c.1978. I still
have that system (in NZ) though it hasn't run for 10 or so years. I
also have a twin-integrator differential analyser that I made from a
design in Scientific American.
I started doing various programming work on machines like TRS80 &
clones, Sorcerer, including quite a few BIOSes for CP/M, including one
for the TRS80 (a company in Auckland produced a bank-switching/FDC board
to fit into the System80.)
In 1982, while at uni, I acquired an IBM 360/30 system via the local
micro club. It had sat unused for 10+ years, but I got it going. For
the full saga see http://www.kcbbs.gen.nz/users/nbree/saga.html. Last I
heard it was rescued by Auckland Uni.
After uni I did embedded work, mainly Z80, until the '87 crash meant
that most of the companies I worked for scaled things down. My partner
and I went into office PCs, LANs etc. which went really well, and we
moved into accounting systems and other such stuff. Unfortunately for
me, despite being lucrative, this was getting rather boring, so I packed
it in and came over here for a change of scene.
My first job here was embedded work for racing car dataloggers and
instruments. My last project for that company was the dashboard for the
Lotus Elise (68HC11 running Forth) and I went on to look after the
datalogging on the BTCC Ford Mondeo Touring Cars (FYI the Bosch engine
management system in the '96 BTCC Mondeo had 17 processors in it, 12 8b
+ 5 16b and cost GBP16k.) This sounds like a glamour job (hey, you get
on TV) but after a while it's just tedious long hours. So now I do test
rig programming work for a company that makes gearboxes for the likes of
Indycars, F1, GT and Touring Cars. It's quite exciting watching a
differential rig simulating Damon Hill lapping at Monaco. Well, it is
for me anyway.
Apart from the 486 OS/2 system I'm using now, and my PalmPilot, I don't
have any computers here, vintage or otherwise. I do have an interest in
the history of computers, like Babbage's designs, the differential
analysers, Colossus ...
The one computer I would love to get is an Educ-8, which I think the
Australians may know of. It is a TTL 8-bit machine, designed by Jameson
(Jim) Rowe. When its design was published in EA (c.1975) I read all the
articles, but I was too young and poor to afford to make one. I did
play with one may years later, and I have written an emulator in
Smalltalk, but I would still like to get my hands on one.
Other hobbies include Volvo cars (I have a '65 P1800 in NZ) and
listening to IndiePop music, especially that on glittery 7"s, hence the
'GirlFrendo' homepage.
--
Lawrence Wilkinson ljw(a)formula1.demon.co.uk
The GirlFrendo homepage: http://www.formula1.demon.co.uk/girlfrendo/
"You've got the brains, or so you say, maybe you see things another
way"-bis
3 Mar
3 Mar
9:16 p.m.
On Mon, 2 Mar 1998, Lawrence Wilkinson wrote:
I'm a fairly recent arrival to this list. I'm
34, a New Zealander, and
I've lived in the UK for almost 4 years.
<...>
I started doing various programming work on machines like TRS80 &
clones, Sorcerer, including quite a few BIOSes for CP/M, including one
^^^^^^^^
It seems that a lot of you blokes down under have Sorcerers. Were they
marketed a lot more "down there" than they were in the US? They are not
very common over here.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar(a)siconic.com
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
4 Mar
4 Mar
3:08 p.m.
At 12:16 AM 04-03-98 -0800, Sam Ismail wrote:
^^^^^^^^
It seems that a lot of you blokes down under have
Sorcerers. Were they
marketed a lot more "down there" than they were in the US? They are not
very common over here.
They were marketed very strongly in Australia as office computer systems.
My fading memory seems to recall that they were sold by Dick Smith (the
Australian version of Tandy/Radio Shack). I convinced my father to purchase
one to act as a word processor in the mid to late 70s (I think). Neat
system for the time although for me it wasn't a real computer as it didn't
have a front panel (admits to DECsystem-10 fetishes
here :-)
Huw Davies | e-mail: Huw.Davies(a)latrobe.edu.au
Information Technology Services | Phone: +61 3 9479 1550 Fax: +61 3 9479
1999
La Trobe University | "My Alfa keeps me poor in a monetary
Melbourne Australia 3083 | sense, but rich in so many other ways"
5 Mar
5 Mar
3:53 p.m.
I'm kind of curious as to the demography of the
Classic Computer
Mailing List. What are people's backgrounds, what are they doing now,
and so forth.
Oh boy! Another chance to brag about my collection! :-)
I'm 17, I live in Portland, Oregon, I don't have a job(that should be fixed
soon, I need more computers but I don't have any money...), I might get a
'70 VW Beetle for my birthday, and I have around 25-30 computers, and most
of the time I can't remember them all. So here is a list:
- IBM Series/1 minicomputer. 4956-K00 CPU, two 4959 expansion boxes, four
4967 hard drives, a 4963 hard drive, a 4964 8" floppy drive, a 4968 tape
drive and 4969 tape drive, three 4997 racks, two 4978 terminals, a box of
8" floppies and a huge pile of manuals. I'm in the middle of converting the
CPU to 110V, everything else is still wired for 220v. I plugged it into the
dryer outlet before taking it apart and it seemed to work, but I couldn't
get it to IPL.
- Apple IIe with Color Monitor IIe(nice!), DuoDisk drive, and some Apple
joystick. Came in the original box with around 60 disks and a bunch of
manuals. Got it for free! In almost perfeect condition. Looks like it's
been sitting in a closet for a LONG time.
- Apple IIgs ROM 03, AppleColor RGB monitor(but no cord), I haven't gone
to pick up the disk drive yet(I should, I got the computer in earyl
January), I got it for free at the PMUG swap meet.
- Laser 128(Apple IIc cone, there was a thread a while back on this list
about the computer), I picked it up at a hamfest a few weeks ago for $5,
which included a VTech and IIc power supply, a zenith monitor, and a Apple
Monitor III. Only thing I don't like is the keyboard.
- Apple Mac 512K, I have on I bought for $15, and one that I don't
remember where it's from.
- Apple Mac SE, got it for $1 with 4/40, the hard drive died soon after,
and now has an 80MB drive that doesn't always spin up. A little bit of
burn-in, but not very noticeable. Screen brightness control doesn't work.
- Apple Mac IIvx 12/80/CD, got it new just before Apple stopped making it
at the Computer City grand opening sale. Also got a 14" Apple monitor and
StyleWriter II printer.
- Apple Mac LC II, got it in trade for a 19" rack and a 486, came with
4/40, now upgraded to 8/40(found some SIMM's I thought were 256K and they
ended up to be 2MB!!!), has a dead backup battery.
- Apple PowerMac 6500/250 WOW! FAST! 250MHz PPC 603e chip, 48MB RAM, 3.7GB
hard drive, built-in Zip drive... $2500 brand new, got an Apple 15AV
monitor and MacOS 8 together for $8!!!!
- Apple PowerBook Duo 270c 16/270 Nice little PowerBook. Has some wierd
problem that made the speaker go dead... Works fine when in a DuoDock.
- Shugart 801 8" floppy drive with nothing to do... Got it for $6 with a
bunch of CP/M disks for an H/Z-89.
- DEC VT-220 terminal, $2 at a hamfest, turned out to be a dead keyboard.
Jumpered past a dead fuse and it works fine now...
- MicroTerm Ergo 301 Funny little terminal, seems to have a power supply
problem and maybe something else. VT-100 compatible, but I can't do
anythign until it gets fixed. $5 at a surplus store.
- IBM 3191 3270-type terminal. Kinda useless without a mainframe... Got it
for free.
- two leased-line 9600bps modems, virtually identical but from different
companies. Got them for free.
- IBM 5150 An original PC! I like the cassette port. Has a 360k floppy and
25MB hard drive, 640K RAM. Also found a 5151 monitor later. Both were free.
- IBM 5160 A PC-XT! 640k/25. More slots, but no cassette port :-(. Got it
free.
- Leading Edge DC-2010E, another free 8088 640k/30. Even got an LE monitor
and keyboard! Did I mention all three of these 8088's came from the same
place?
- Leading Technology XI, 386 computer I got free with a dead power supply.
Jumpered past a burnt off component and it worked fine. Various
configurations depending on what I wanted to do with it, I think it's water
damaged now so I guess I'll dry it out eventually and get it running again.
- Compaq Deskpro 386S, 5/40 came with an IBM Token Ring card and all the
software. Guess where it was before it got to where I got it from!? The
Trailblazers basketball team! Yikes... I hate basketball!
- Alcatel Terminatel. Hmm... Some wierd French data terminal I picked up
at a surplus store, I think for $10. Built in modem, cute little flip-down
AZERTY keyboard... Kinda useless, but it's fun to stare at...
- Epson PX-8 CP/M laptop. Fun little thing, I got it for free. Has CP/M
and Wordstar in ROM. Kinda hard to use, and the battery doesn't seem to
hold a charge too well.
- Zenith SupersPort 286 laptop. 640k/20. Heavy laptop! Weighs about 15lbs
with the battery. Turquoise backlight...
- Apple LaserWriter Plus, upgraded from LaserWriter, got it for free, the
toner is almost gone. Works fine otherwise, even with a part or two broken
or missing...
- IBM PS/2 Model 30-286 1/20, ISA bus. Got it free with a nice IBM
keyboard and monitor.
- IBM PS/2 Model 50Z 2/60, MCA bus, got it free(and two more with no RAM
or disks)
- IBM PS/2 Model 55sx 2/60, MCA bus, yet another free PS/2...
- IBM PS/2 Model 80 2/70, MCA bus. I paid for this one, $50 with two
ethernet cards. Huge tower, and a full-height 5.25" ESDI hard drive.
- Apollo DN3500, got it and a spare CPU in trade for a Z88, he got the
Apollo/HP stuff in trade for a huge PDP-11 system. Also got an IBM 8228
Token Ring MAU(I guess to go with the DomainRing network card)
- TI-99/4A Funny little computer that's been around forever, my parents
got it when I was a baby and I sat around all day long pounding on the
keyboard :-) It's been exchanged for refurbished units probably a
half-dozen times. I could always set it up in maybe 5-10 minutes, and my
parents refused to even try saying it was too hard... What's so hard about
plugging in a power supply and hooking it up to an RF modulator hanging
from the back of a twenty year(back then it was only
10yo) old TV?
- TI-83 calcualtor. OK, it's not exactly a computer. But it's
close...
Similair in power to my Epson laptop. I've even heard talk of putting CP/M
on a TI calc. And I have seen at least one OS for it, and tons of games.
Well, that's all I can remember(or see on the taop layers of all the piles ;-).
-JR http://members.tripod.com/~jrollins/index.html - Computers
http://www.geocities.com/Area51/Lair/1681/ - Star Trek
6 Mar
6 Mar
10:05 a.m.
John Rollins wrote:
- Alcatel Terminatel. Hmm... Some wierd French data
terminal I picked up
at a surplus store, I think for $10. Built in modem, cute little flip-down
AZERTY keyboard... Kinda useless, but it's fun to stare at...
Yes, that would not be much use in the States. This is a French minitel
terminal. Many years ago, the story I heard was that the French
telephone service decided that it would stop printing telephone
directories and use the savings to set up an online directory enquiry
system. They basically gave every telephone subscriber a free terminal.
They also set it up so that other companies could provide information to
subscribers using that terminal, with charges being added to the
customer's phone bill, rather like your 900 numbers.
This resulted in an explosion of services and gave FRance the first
public data access system - sort of like the WWW, though much slower.
France still uses the minitel system, more so that the internet because
of the inertia of the existing services.
They are still printing telephone directories though ;-)
--
Hans B. Pufal : <mailto:hansp@digiweb.com>
Comprehensive Computer Catalogue : <http://www.digiweb.com/~hansp/ccc/>
_-_-__-___--_-____-_--_-_-____--_---_-_---_--__--_--_--____---_--_--__--_
9 Mar
9 Mar
4:19 a.m.
Well, everybody else has been tossing bio's in here, so what the
hell.
I'm pushing 43, recently married for the third time (second time
from the government's POV), my wife and I have
about 50 computers
kicking around (not sure about the status of some of Lisa's
little
handhelds that she keeps buying because they're "cute").
I didn't start out planning to collect obsolete computers, but I
have this problem about throwing things away. I got involved with
the TRS-80 not long after I got out of the USAF in 1978. Wound up
working for Tandy from 80-86 is training/tech support at the retail
level. Accumulated a few systems during those years. Hooked on
Unix from the first (pre)release of Xenix for the Model 16, so
these days I'm a sysadmin (AIX usually) presently between contracts.
Coco 1/2/3, 4p, Mod 2, 6000HD, Mod 100 (3)+DVI, 1000TL/2 are what I
have now -- have owned two Mod Ones, two Mod 16s and a Tandy 2000 in
the past, but as Ben Franklin said, three moves equals one fire and
I've moved more than three times. Have three AT&T Unix PCs, two work
and the other is parts. A Sun 4/360 with Solaris 2.4 that I'm trying
to get Linux working on. Atari 68k boxes, a 520 ST and a 1040 ST.
Several TI 99/4A machines, one still shrink-wrapped -- my wife credits
a cassette-based algebra tutorial for that machine with getting her
through the math requirement so she could get her nursing degree.
Miscellaneous Intel boxen that I mostly run Linux on, though there are
a couple that are mostly lab rats for whatever I feel like doing to
them OS-wise. Who knows what I'll come back from the TCF with this
year? I've without doubt left a few off this list, as they aren't all
where I can see them from here.
--
Ward Griffiths
Dylan: How many years must some people exist,
before they're allowed to be free?
WDG3rd: If they "must" exist until they're "allowed",
they'll never be free.
9634
days inactive
9642
days old
21 comments
17 participants
participants (17)
-
aaron＠prinsol.com -
archive＠navix.net -
ard＠p850ug1.demon.co.uk -
dastar＠wco.com -
engine＠chac.org -
frank＠5points.com -
gram＠cnct.com -
H.Davies＠latrobe.edu.au -
hansp＠columbia.digiweb.com -
ljw＠formula1.demon.co.uk -
marvin＠rain.org -
rexstout＠ptld.uswest.net -
sethm＠loomcom.com -
shoppa＠alph02.triumf.ca -
spc＠armigeron.com -
william＠ans.net -
yowza＠yowza.com