Well, today's hunting turned up some good stuff.
A Tandy 100 with manual for $15.
A compact Monolithic Systems rack-mount computer. It's multi-bus based
with a Z-80 CPU. It came with complete manuals, an extender card, a dual
8" drive unit, and a couple 2716/2764 (or was that 2704/2716?) EPROM
programmer cards. I also got the Teletype ASR-33 that was used with this
system. It had a stand, a current loop to RS-232 converter, and the
complete manual set (including service manuals). The complete setup for
$45.
I then happened upon an AIM 65 authentically mounted to a piece of
plywood. This was an amazing find in that I got the original box with all
the manuals and sales literature (with technical specs). This unit also
came with the optional BASIC ROMs. The manuals included were:
BASIC Language Reference Manual
8K BASIC Reference Card
R6500 Hardware Manual
R6500 Programming Manual
R6500 Users Guide
AUM-65 Summary Card
Also in the box was a fold-out schematic for the AIM-65 and the warranty
card. Much thanks to Frank McConnell & Company for not engaging me in a
bidding war over this as we discovered it at the same time. I got this
for $40.
The same guy also had a very rare Morrow portable I'd been searching out
for a long time. A local surplus shop has one but refuses to sell it to
me because they claim all their original records were stored on it. No
attempt at begging or coercion would get them to sell it to me, so it was
nice to finally find one. Its a portable made by Morrow which runs CP/M.
I think the model is a C3P. It has two 5.25" HH floppies and a
funky-looking wide screen. The guy also threw in a complete run of BAMDUA
(Bay Area Micro Decision User's Group) which was a newsletter for the
Morrow Micro-Decision here in the Bay Area. Also a complete run of
"Morrow Owner's Review", which was a Morrow magazine for users of the
Micro-Decision. Oddly enough the magazine ceased publication as late as
December 1987 (I would've thought it would have ceased well before that).
I also got a photo-copied service manual for the Micro-Decision which is
cool since I have a flaky MD-2 that needs attention. Plus a bunch of
5.25" disks, some books (Best of Micro Vol. II & III, Ciarca's Circuit
Cellar Vol. III) and some Morrow and Kaypro marketing literature. This
was another $39.
I also got the Sept. 83 issue of Byte from which I culled these
interesting tibits:
The editorial on page 4 covered the issue of FAA regulations banning the
use of portables on airline flights. I wonder when this ban was
overturned? Its interesting in that it mirrors the same concern over
cellular phones interfering with air-to-ground communications, all of
which is a bunch of hooey. Page 12 had a letter from a reader concerned
about the proliferation of mice as a pointing device. "I am sorry to see
Apple, Visicorp, and possibly Microsoft jump onto the Xerox bandwagon and
introduce a mouse into their new integrated computing software," he
writes. "The mouse is an inherently bad pointing device for at least
three reasons: it consumes one to two square feet of flat desk space; it
requires users to move their hands one to two feet from the keyboard in
order to point at a screen object; and, because the mouse is not in a
fixed place relative to the keyboard, users must look away from their work
to find the mouse whenever it is to be used." He then goes on to espouse
the virtues of a trackball. Needless to say I'm sure this guy died off
with CP/M :) In an article on portables, an inline quote says, "Any
computer can be transportable if you have a big enough truck." Ladies &
Gentlemen, finally a definition of "portable". Lastly, there's an article
for an S-100 PC, of all things. IBM compatibility in an S-100 bus. The
funny thing is the article promises "with its S100 bus expansion
capability, your system will never be outdated." How ironic :)
A couple other things I got included a Voice Processing module for the
strange Convergent Technologies system I have ($1) and an 8080/8085
emulator (circa 1984) in a hard-shelled carrying case ($20).
I managed to find room in the garage to store the new stuff, but I don't
know how much longer I can hold out. You'd think a 3-car garage would
hold more. I guess the pool table will have to go soon.
Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
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Received on Sun Apr 05 1998 - 20:37:34 BST