Lost Treasures (was: Cray-1)

From: Ward Donald Griffiths III <gram_at_cnct.com>
Date: Thu Apr 30 22:42:51 1998

Tony Duell wrote:
>
> > > Hmm, a list of computers that look good enough to display as art? Here's
> > > mine (most are laptops):
> > >
> > > IMSAI 8080
> > > GRiD Compass
> > > Ampere WS1
> > > MINDSET PC (good enough for MOMA, anyway)
> > > NeXT Cube
> > > eMate 300
> >
> > Of course you guys have heard of converting a Mac into a fish tnak?
>
> Who else remembers those adverts in Byte for some kind of terminal
> emulation software which showed what to do with your 'obsolete' VT100
> after you used said software? I recall a fishtank, gerbil/hamster/mouse
> cage, dolls house, and I think there were more.

Actually, I think it was a series of cartoons in Kilobaud(or maybe even
80-Micro).
>
> Actually, the VT100 does have a rather nice look to it. If you insist
> that only computers go on the above list, I'll list it as a VT103.
>
> Also, although I've only seen pictures of it (I would like one...) the
> AT&T 3B1 is IMHO quite a nice looking machine.

The 3B1 is a bit lumpy, due to the squarish hump in the case to fit
the full-height hard disk. The 7300 was the beauty -- especially if
you can find the late-model keyboard. While I have to use my PC
keyboard as the X input to my main Linux box, the 7300 (well, one of
them) is the true console in VT-100 emulation with all system
messages recorded to disk instead of going where forgotten electrons
go. A trick I developed at the San Jose Unisys plant when I was
doing SQA for the U-6000 servers in the building where the 7300/3B1
were designed, though I didn't go to work there until almost four
years after the darling was discoed. But there were quite a few
laying around -- I had three in my cube.
-- 
Ward Griffiths
They say that politics makes strange bedfellows.
Of course, the main reason they cuddle up is to screw somebody else.
				Michael Flynn, _Rogue Star_
Received on Thu Apr 30 1998 - 22:42:51 BST

This archive was generated by hypermail 2.3.0 : Fri Oct 10 2014 - 23:30:42 BST