24 Jun
1999
24 Jun
'99
9:44 a.m.
By the way, I did some research about this site a while back... this guy
Turley is a controversial figure from the old Apple II community. He has a
history of grandiose claims (e.g. "I gave Apple the idea for the iMac
advertising theme") and has been frequently accused of commercial software
piracy & putting his name on code other people have written (e.g.
http://www.cyberstation.fr/~zardini/DrTom/). There is no evidence he
actually owns the Apple 1 pictured, he simply got the photos from a
potential seller.
As for the Apple 1 cases, apparently you could order a hand-made one-off
case from the Apple guys, but most people either just made a case themselves
or bought a case made for an ASCII keyboard and used that (see the BYTE ads
for Shugart floppies ca. 1978, they show a guy with a North Star Horizon
using a keyboard mounted in a case that looks just like the typical sort of
case people put Apple 1's into.
-----Original Message-----
From: Michael Maginnis [mailto:celt@chisp.net]
Sent: Thursday, June 24, 1999 4:43 AM
To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
Subject: Re: 70's sheet metal cases
The case is actually wood, not sheet metal. IIRC, it was one of the
handmade Apples in Wozniak's garage (after the operation moved from
Job's bedroom in his parents' house).
Mike
Bill Sudbrink wrote:
Did anyone else follow the link in the WIRED Apple 1 article?
It goes here:
http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*APPLE.HISTORY/
Does anyone know the origin of this case? The color and
general style of the sheet metal look about right for some
OSI boxes. It also has a SOL-ish quality.
Were there one or two sheet metal shops doing the cases for
most computers in the mid-to-late 70's?
I've sent this question off to the ex-OSI engineer I know, but
he will probably take a couple of weeks to respond.
Bill Sudbrink
1:46 p.m.
Well, I think I'm going to have to disagree with you on that one - the
motherboard itself was mounted on a square of sheet metal which was
screwed into a real wood casing. Extra pieces of sheet metal were added
to the inside of later versions of the Apple 1 to improve durability and
lifespan, but the case itself was wood, not metal. If the Apple 1
featured in those pics has a metal case with contact paper stuck over
it, then it's a replica, not an original.
Mike
Bill Sudbrink wrote:
The case is actually wood, not sheet metal.
The main body of the case (where the keyboard
is mounted) is _SHEET_METAL_ covered with wood
grain contact paper. _NOT_WOOD_. It looks very
much like a SOL case and somewhat like a C4P case. 
2:55 p.m.
Well, I think I'm going to have to disagree with
you on that one - the
motherboard itself was mounted on a square of sheet metal which was
screwed into a real wood casing. Extra pieces of sheet metal were added
to the inside of later versions of the Apple 1 to improve durability and
lifespan, but the case itself was wood, not metal. If the Apple 1
featured in those pics has a metal case with contact paper stuck over
it, then it's a replica, not an original.
I was refering ONLY to the case in the pictures at the URL
in the original message. Here again:
http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*APPLE.HISTORY/
8:32 p.m.
Then I guess I'll just shut my mouth... ;-)
Mike
Bill Sudbrink wrote:
Well, I think I'm going to have to disagree
with you on that one - the
motherboard itself was mounted on a square of sheet metal which was
screwed into a real wood casing. Extra pieces of sheet metal were added
to the inside of later versions of the Apple 1 to improve durability and
lifespan, but the case itself was wood, not metal. If the Apple 1
featured in those pics has a metal case with contact paper stuck over
it, then it's a replica, not an original.
I was refering ONLY to the case in the pictures at the URL
in the original message. Here again:
http://www.grin.net/~cturley/gsezine/GS.WorldView/*APPLE.HISTORY/ 
3 p.m.
On 24 Jun 99 at 7:44, Kai Kaltenbach wrote:
By the way, I did some research about this site a
while back... this guy
Turley is a controversial figure from the old Apple II community. He has a
history of grandiose claims (e.g. "I gave Apple the idea for the iMac
advertising theme") and has been frequently accused of commercial software
piracy & putting his name on code other people have written (e.g.
http://www.cyberstation.fr/~zardini/DrTom/). There is no evidence he
actually owns the Apple 1 pictured, he simply got the photos from a
potential seller.
You also have to take into consideration that most of the allegations came
from Nathan Mates and his Dephi supporters. Nathan was
a programmer who tried
to turn the A2 newsgroup into his private domain. He turned
it into a quite
nasty place by flaming almost anyone who transcended his bounds. He also
maintained the A2 faq. He finally was driven out and the A2 newsgroup is now
bearable. Upon leaving he wiped out the A2 faq. Fortunately there was another
one in existence. Whatever the claims about Charles Turley the reactions
of Nathan and his supporters turned it into something worse. Turley regularly
posts to A2 and his commitment to the platform is quite evident.
The centre-pin of the controversy was really the hatred that some of the A2
programmers had for Asimov, an A2 emulator site that has a large library of no
longer sold or supported A2 software and has a policy of archiving old s-w and
then removing it if the owner objects. If you're a programmer for a rapidly
shrinking platform's s-w market, you have a vested interest in keeping programs
scarce. Which is a problem for a platform like A2 that has been around a long
time.
ciao larry
lwalker(a)interlog.com
Let us know of your upcoming computer events for our Events Page.
t3c(a)xoommail.com
Collectors List and info http://members.xoom.com/T3C
29 Jun
29 Jun
4:21 p.m.
Larry Walker wrote:
The centre-pin of the controversy was really the
hatred that some of the A2
programmers had for Asimov, an A2 emulator site that has a large library of no
longer sold or supported A2 software and has a policy of archiving old s-w and
then removing it if the owner objects. If you're a programmer for a rapidly
shrinking platform's s-w market, you have a vested interest in keeping programs
scarce. Which is a problem for a platform like A2 that has been around a long
time.
And yet I think that Asimov needs MORE software. There are many titles that
exist(ed) for the Apple that AFAIK aren't archived anywhere. A competing
site would also work too. Asimov does have mirror sites, but that doesn't
increase the variety of software.
The Commodore and Atari owners are openly happy about spreading old software
(I don't know how much software was produced for the Commodore vs. the
Apple, or what percentage of Commodore software vs. Apple software is
available).
People did complain about having their newly-created programs spread around.
That's a different issue.
-- Derek
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days inactive
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7 comments
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participants (6)
-
aw288＠osfn.org -
bill＠chipware.com -
celt＠chisp.net -
dpeschel＠u.washington.edu -
kaikal＠MICROSOFT.com -
lwalker＠mail.interlog.com