old computer question
remove
A friend of mine used to own a computer, but he has forgotten the make of
it, but I can remember it quite well.
Black in colour. Full QWERTY keyboard, with grey keys. The keyboard was
on a
slope then it was flat towards the back. It had a telephone modem
inside. It
had a 3.5" 720k floppy drive on the righthand side and used to run on
MS-Dos. It has the usual sockets on the back for video, printer, I/O ports
etc.
At the back it stood about 4" high and front to back at the base would be
something like12" or more.
It wasn't a Spectrum or a QL, or BBC, because they didn't run MS-Dos.
Any ideas please ? I think it was quite advanced for it's time
thanatoid
news:y5GdnXQQrNghq5vW...@bt.com:
> Cast your minds back friends to the 1980's and 1990's
> please.
>
> A friend of mine used to own a computer, but he has
> forgotten the make of it, but I can remember it quite well.
<SNIP>
I assume the question is not "Any ideas please?" (I have lots of
/ideas/) but rather "Can you think of the name and model of that
computer?"
By the next time I log in someone will have probably told you,
even though your description is rather limited and applies to a
LOT of boxes.
If it's that important, you might want to spend a few hours at:
http://www.old-computers.com/museum
or
--
There are only two classifications of disk drives: Broken drives
and those that will break later.
- Chuck Armstrong
remove
> remove <"welsh(remove)wizard29"@hotmail.com> wrote in
> news:y5GdnXQQrNghq5vW...@bt.com:
>
>> Cast your minds back friends to the 1980's and 1990's
>> please.
>>
>> A friend of mine used to own a computer, but he has
>> forgotten the make of it, but I can remember it quite well.
>
> <SNIP>
>
> I assume the question is not "Any ideas please?" (I have lots of
> /ideas/) but rather "Can you think of the name and model of that
> computer?"
>
> By the next time I log in someone will have probably told you,
> even though your description is rather limited and applies to a
> LOT of boxes.
>
> If it's that important, you might want to spend a few hours at:
>
> http://www.old-computers.com/museum
>
> or
>
> http://oldcomputers.net
>
>
Mike Easter
> Black in colour. Full QWERTY keyboard, with grey keys. The keyboard
was
> on a
> slope then it was flat towards the back. It had a telephone modem
> inside. It
> had a 3.5" 720k floppy drive on the righthand side and used to run on
> MS-Dos. It has the usual sockets on the back for video, printer, I/O
> ports etc.
>
> At the back it stood about 4" high and front to back at the base would
> be something like12" or more.
That was the shape and integrated configuration of the Atari ST
520/1040, which however was gray instead of black and had a motorola
68000 instead of an intel such as 8086 and ran Tramiel's TOS instead of
MS-DOS.
I see at the computer museum that there is a Sinclair which is built
like the Atari, the PC 200 which was black or very dark gray and had a
3.5" floppy on the side and a 8086 and ran ms-dos. It was a 1988 model
and not very popular. Sinclair also made a PC 500 it sez.
> It wasn't a Spectrum or a QL, or BBC, because they didn't run MS-Dos.
>
> Any ideas please ? I think it was quite advanced for it's time
There were also some Amstrads shaped like that and black.
^1 http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=85 The case
bore a striking resemblance to the Atari 520 ST case. It had a built-in
3.5" floppy drive on the right and mouse and joystick ports under the
keyboard. And indeed the PC-200 was officially marketed as an Atari
520-ST competitor : same price, same disk drive, same memory (512k) and
same design.
--
Mike Easter
remove
Penn...@derrymaine.gov
Might try www.old-computers.com/ Bill Cosby?
It should have a picture and description.
--
Kurt Greenbaum (of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch) is a pussy
www.flickr.com/photos/kgreenbaum/2557337810/in/set-72157605477652319
http://www.kurtgreenbaumisapussy.com/
Penn...@derrymaine.gov
>Might try www.old-computers.com/ Bill Cosby?
When I posted there were no replies,
We all know of this site tho :)
Whiskers
> Penn...@DerryMaine.Gov wrote:
>
>>Might try www.old-computers.com/ Bill Cosby?
>
> When I posted there were no replies,
> We all know of this site tho :)
I still have an Amstrad PPC 640D (two floppy drives)
<http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=195&st=1>.
Surprisingly well made, but not a lot lighter than an IBM PC system-box
and keyboard. But it ran DOS faster than the IBM PS-2 desktop machines we
had in my office at the time. With a good reading-lamp, the reflective
LCD display was perfectly usable.
--
-- ^^^^^^^^^^
-- Whiskers
-- ~~~~~~~~~~
Penn...@derrymaine.gov
Nice, really; it looks portable. But: the Power Supply 10 x C cell
batteries. Half of that must of been used to hold the batteries.
that's a lot of battery.
The first computer shop opened up in my area and I almost owned an
Osborne http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html - almost as they had a
drawing for one, and I put my name in for it, I was hoping so badly
that my name would be selected! :) - it didn't draw a lot attention so
not that many entry forms.
There was a family there at the time (I was there for the drawing as
were two or three others), they asked the girl from the family to
select a name from the box, they (the family) had no clue what was
going on.
She reached in and pulled out a crumpled form almost a ball, and it
made sense she would select that one as it had more surface area than
a slip of paper.
While I didn't get the Osborne, wasn't going to pay 2,000 for one. It
wasn't until a few years later I got a TRS-80 model III basic, while
it had room and a plastic shield covering the opening that looked like
two floppy drives, I never upgraded and used cassette tapes as
storage.
I lost many hours worth of typing in programs from magazines by
typing in CRUN instead of CSAVE when I was done, deleting everything
in memory, as I was so anxious to see how well I did.
I'd cuss, take a deep breath and start over, this after 8 hours of
typing in the same program to begin with, this happened a lot, I even
made a sign CSAVE, but it didn't do any good.
What I learned from all of that, is when you enter a drawing you crush
your entry into a ball and stick it in the box, I've won two drawings
doing that. Nothing big, an expensive lego submarine model for my
youngest son, and something else unimportant.
My oldest son was standing in line for a phone, there was a kiosk next
to him, and a chance to win a computer. Killing time he filled out the
entry form and a few weeks later won a Dell Latitude 500 laptop.
Damn if he didn't win the same thing I tried so hard (by being lucky)
to win many years earlier, A portable computer.
Ahh memory lane. :) but I do like the style of that Amstrad PPC 640D.
Kadaitcha Man
>>I still have an Amstrad PPC 640D (two floppy drives)
> The first computer shop opened up in my area
"When ah were a lad..."
Kadaitcha Man
> Penn...@DerryMaine.Gov wrote:
>
>>Might try www.old-computers.com/ Bill Cosby?
>
> When I
...were a lad...
Aardvark
> In article <3a57ns....@news.alt.net>, Kadaitcha Man <an...@no.spam>
> 'When' is a factual and takes the indicative mood. It's 'if' that is
> counterfactual and takes the subjunctive.
>
> When I was a lad...
>
> If I were a lad...
>
> A desiderative like 'wish' also takes the subjunctive.
>
> I wish I were a lad...
Never been to Lancashire or Yorkshire, have you? All known grammatical
rules are turned on their heads in those counties.
I also refer you to Monty Python's Flying Circus.
--
Well, of course, this is just the sort of blinkered philistine pig-
ignorance I've come to expect from you non-creative garbage! You sit
there on your loathsome spotty behinds squeezing blackheads, never
caring a tinker's cuss for the struggling artist. You excrement!
Whiskers
> Whiskers <catwh...@operamail.com> wrote:
>
>>On 2009-11-20, Penn...@DerryMaine.Gov <Penn...@DerryMaine.Gov> wrote:
>>> Penn...@DerryMaine.Gov wrote:
>>>
>>>>Might try www.old-computers.com/ Bill Cosby?
>
>>> When I posted there were no replies,
>>> We all know of this site tho :)
>
>>I still have an Amstrad PPC 640D (two floppy drives)
>><http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=195&st=1>.
>>Surprisingly well made, but not a lot lighter than an IBM PC system-box
>>and keyboard. But it ran DOS faster than the IBM PS-2 desktop machines we
>>had in my office at the time. With a good reading-lamp, the reflective
>>LCD display was perfectly usable.
>
> Nice, really; it looks portable. But: the Power Supply 10 x C cell
> batteries. Half of that must of been used to hold the batteries.
> that's a lot of battery.
And a huge expense for only about an hour's run-time; I suspect disposable
batteries were chosen to save the considerable cost of built-in
re-chargeable batteries. Amstrad computers were always at the lower end
of the price-range.
Certainly more portable than the Osborne, Kaypro, and so on. The use of
the latest little floppy discs and a flat LCD also put the Amstrad PPC at
the leading edge of technology, briefly.
> The first computer shop opened up in my area and I almost owned an
> Osborne http://oldcomputers.net/osborne.html - almost as they had a
> drawing for one, and I put my name in for it, I was hoping so badly
> that my name would be selected! :) - it didn't draw a lot attention so
> not that many entry forms.
I lusted after one of those too! Too expensive, though.
> There was a family there at the time (I was there for the drawing as
> were two or three others), they asked the girl from the family to
> select a name from the box, they (the family) had no clue what was
> going on.
>
> She reached in and pulled out a crumpled form almost a ball, and it
> made sense she would select that one as it had more surface area than
> a slip of paper.
In the UK I think that would be classed as a raffle, and they would have
to use uniform anonymous 'raffle tickets' for the draw.
> While I didn't get the Osborne, wasn't going to pay 2,000 for one. It
> wasn't until a few years later I got a TRS-80 model III basic, while
> it had room and a plastic shield covering the opening that looked like
> two floppy drives, I never upgraded and used cassette tapes as
> storage.
>
> I lost many hours worth of typing in programs from magazines by
> typing in CRUN instead of CSAVE when I was done, deleting everything
> in memory, as I was so anxious to see how well I did.
>
> I'd cuss, take a deep breath and start over, this after 8 hours of
> typing in the same program to begin with, this happened a lot, I even
> made a sign CSAVE, but it didn't do any good.
I had similar frustrations with my Sinclair ZX81 - but on a smaller scale,
as the machine had less 'power'. I can remember computer magazines
publishing printed 'program listings' for various systems - I even got one
or two of my own published!
> What I learned from all of that, is when you enter a drawing you crush
> your entry into a ball and stick it in the box, I've won two drawings
> doing that. Nothing big, an expensive lego submarine model for my
> youngest son, and something else unimportant.
>
> My oldest son was standing in line for a phone, there was a kiosk next
> to him, and a chance to win a computer. Killing time he filled out the
> entry form and a few weeks later won a Dell Latitude 500 laptop.
>
> Damn if he didn't win the same thing I tried so hard (by being lucky)
> to win many years earlier, A portable computer.
>
> Ahh memory lane. :) but I do like the style of that Amstrad PPC 640D.
It is a good design. Like the Osborne, intended to qualify as 'carry-on'
luggage for air travel. Also like the Osborne, it took a strong arm to
lift it! The PPC came with a soft carry-case with a strong shoulder
strap, and pockets for the mains adaptor and discs and papers; the Osborne
didn't need the protection of a carrying case - but I seem to remember
'third party' suppliers offering a set of wheels for the Osborne.
Kadaitcha Man
> In article <3a57ns....@news.alt.net>, Kadaitcha Man <an...@no.spam>
> wrote:
>
> 'When' is a factual and takes the indicative mood. It's 'if' that is
> counterfactual and takes the subjunctive.
>
> When I was a lad...
>
> If I were a lad...
>
> A desiderative like 'wish' also takes the subjunctive.
>
> I wish I were a lad...
Perhaps this will assist you:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xe1a1wHxTyo
Kadaitcha Man
> In article <3a57ns....@news.alt.net>, Kadaitcha Man <an...@no.spam>
> wrote:
>