Photo of Smithsonian microcomputer exhibit

From: Joe <rigdonj_at_intellistar.net>
Date: Wed Feb 25 17:25:44 1998

At 08:45 PM 2/25/98 +0300, you wrote:
>Well, I've had an idea for quite some time, and now's the best time yet to
>pop it up... in many developing contries, resources are streesed out, and
>many attempts to industrialize these contries are going underway. The thing
>is that in some areas, going to school's a new requirement, and that these
>schools arn't up to specs. The idea for them going to schools is so that
>they have better opertunities than their parents did (so that they could say
>do accounting instead of sweeping floors). Now, to me, that means having at
>least a little coputing experience. I want to design (with help!) a
>computer that gives the most power at the lowest price. The shipping
>computers to other contries idea is noble, but we need to go farther, and,

  Tim,

  It's a noble idea but before a country can manufacture their own computer
they sould be able to manufacture the majority of the components for it
otherwise they're nothing more than assembly line workers using imported
parts. When you stop and consider all the stuff that goes into even the
simplest computer (sheet metal, molded plastics, resistors, capacitors,
ICs, transformers, circuit boards, special connectors, floppy drives, hard
drives, etc etc etc) you realize the industrial scale that is needed for
this sort of effort. I used to work in aerospace engineering and some of
our foreign contracts called for a minimum percent of the components to be
built in the country that was buying our systems. We made every effort to
meet that requirement but I can tell you it's very hard to find companies
capable of this level of technology outside of the US, England, Germany and
Japan. For example, we had a contract with Canada and one of the parts we
subcontracted to Canadian manufacturers was flexible circuit boards similar
to those used in the hinge of laptops. NO Canadian manufacturer was able
to make those parts despite their best efforts.

   PS I'm Canadian by birth so I don't want any flames about what Canada
can and can't do.

   Joe


>this can be fun. We could use the same idea, etc. if anyone's interested,
>please contact me privately. I'm really interested in it now, but need lots
>of help.
> Thanks,
>
>Tim D. Hotze
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Charles A. Davis <cad_at_gamewood.net>
>To: Discussion re-collecting of classic computers
><classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
>Date: Wednesday, February 25, 1998 5:49 PM
>Subject: Re: Photo of Smithsonian microcomputer exhibit
>
>
>>Scott Walde wrote:
>>>
>>> > >Thinking out loud:
>>> > >I wonder what the market would be for an Apple I replica?
>>>
>>> Also thinking out loud:
>>> Maybe if we as collectors flood the market with Altair and IMSAI and
>Apple
>>> I replicas it would drive the price of the real things back down.
>>
>>Yeah, but!!!
>>
>>Can you picture the problems trying to document the lenieage of a
>>'genuine' Altair, IMSAI, or Apple.
>>
>>Chuck
>>
>>--
>>-----------------------------------------------------------
>>He, who will not reason, is a bigot; William Drumond,
>>he, who cannot, is a fool; Scottish writer
>>and he, who dares not, is a slave. (1585-1649)
>>While he that does, is a free man! Joseph P. 1955-
>>-----------------------------------------------------------
>> (be sure to correct the return address when using 'reply')
>>Chuck Davis / Sutherlin Industries FAX # (804) 799-0940
>>1973 Reeves Mill Road E-Mail -- cad_at_gamewood.net
>>Sutherlin, Virginia 24594 Voice # (804) 799-5803
>
>
Received on Wed Feb 25 1998 - 17:25:44 GMT