Sam Ismail wrote:
> This portable computer, while not the
> first notebook, was very popular among
> members of the press.
>
> Tandy Model 100
No. It was the TRS-80 Model 100. The 102 and 200 were
called "Tandy", but all four of my Model 100s are labeled
TRS-80. It was later that year the company got ashamed
of its initials. And the following year that they gave
them up with the ill-remembered (by employees even more
than customers) Tandy 1200HD, the first computer Tandy
had no hand in the design of -- it was a Tandon "100%"
XT-clone, and over half of them had their motherboards
replaced under warrantee -- which was charged to the
manager of the store that was unlucky enough to sell it.
But it _was_ the first machine that was labeled "Tandy",
as though "Radio Shack" didn't exist.
> --
>
> The Sun company name is derived from
> this college acronym.
>
> Stanford University Network
Is this from Bill Joy? Is he trying to make sure that
somebody else can be blaimed? Why would a bunch of guys
who'd been doing too much drugs at Berkley (it's obvious
when you look at NIS) name their company after Stanford?
Hell, even guys from Stanford don't name their companies
after the school -- the closest I can think is Cromemco,
founded by 3? guys who hung out in the Crowder Memorial
building, I think it was a dormitory when they were there.
> -----
>
> LANGUAGES COMPUTERS SPEAK
>
> This language is named after a great
> 16th century philosopher and
> mathematician.
>
> Pascal
17th Century. 1623-1662. By the time he was my age,
he'd been dead four years. This doesn't make me feel
good, he was a bit of an inspiration in school.
-
> Korn, Bourne and C are all versions of
> this.
>
> Unix command shells
Technically, they are all _examples_ of this, not
versions. Especially since there are _versions_ of
each that work under MS-DOS (for instance).
-
>
> This first mass-marketed kit computer
> was named after the planet the crew of
> the starship Enterprise were visiting
> in that week's episode of Star Trek.
>
> Altair 8800
That _week's_ episode? Star Trek was _daily_ in
most markets in that part of the 70s (well, most
markets, far into the 80s as well though after a
while it got cheaper time slots).
-
> Of the Apple ][, the Commdore PET and
> the TRS-80 Model 1, the computer which
> was not exhibited at the first West
> Coast Computer Faire.
>
> TRS-80 Model 1, introduced in August
> of 1977
That's because Tandy didn't announce the product
before they could actually manufacture it -- at
the August 3rd 1977 announcement, there were 5,000
built, based on the idea if they didn't sell, there
were 5,000 stores to use them for _something_.
Apple and Commodore advertised heavily from the
beginning of the year and produced occasional
evaluation and demonstration units.
--
Ward Griffiths <mailto:gram_at_cnct.com> <http://www.cnct.com/home/gram/>
When I was crossing the border into Canada, they asked me if I had any
firearms with me. I said "Well, what do you need?" -- Steven Wright
Received on Sun Oct 04 1998 - 04:01:40 BST