Preserve the other stuff as well Was: Re: yo

From: Jeff Hellige <jeffh_at_eleventh.com>
Date: Fri May 9 20:29:38 1997

At 06:57 PM 5/9/97 -0500, you wrote:

>Yes, the incredible rate of obsolesence in computers lets us own
>stuff that only a major company or a small government would've been
>able to buy 10 years ago. For example, list price on the hardware
>in my Personal vaxCluster would've been over half a million dollars
>when new. But I've picked it all up at auctions for a couple hundred
>dollars.

        I remember going into the local Radio Shack and drooling over the
different TRS-80 models nearly constantly in the period between 1982 and
1987, seeing as those were the systems which I had easiest access too. I
wanted a Model 4P quite badly at the time, but I didn't make enough with my
job for them to even think about financing me on it. I entered the military
in 1983 so didn't make too much. Also, the Model III was the first micro of
any type I got to use, since it was what our computer lab in high school
(circa 1981-2) used.

>On microcomputer prices, here's some prices from the back of an
>August 1982 BYTE that I just happen to have on my desk here:
>Morrow designs 5 Mbyte hard disk S-100 subsystem $1975

        If I remember correctly, didn't IBM originally charge close to $5000
for it's hard disk system for the original PC-XT's?

>Tandon TM100-2 5.25" FH DSDD 360K floppy drive $ 325

        The Indus-GT floppy for my Atari 800 was another 5-1/4" drive that
was in the $300-400 price range. Nifty drive though, and I think I have
close to a dozen different DOS's to boot it from.

        Jeff jeffh_at_eleventh.com
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Collector of Classic Computers: Amiga 1000, Amiga 3000, Atari 800, Atari
800XL, Atari MegaST-2, Commodore C-128, Commodore Plus/4, Commodore VIC-20,
Kaypro 2X, Mattel Aquarius, Osbourne Executive, Timex-Sinclair 1000, TRS-80
Color Computer 3, TRS-80 Model IV

Plus Atari SuperPong and Atari 2600VCS game consoles
Received on Fri May 09 1997 - 20:29:38 BST