Hi, ya'll- I'm overwhelmed and elated to have found this listserve.
Overwhelmed by the depth of knowledge displayed here, and by your
willingness to share it. Elated because I have been watching, and even
participating, for years in the loss by destruction for recycling these old
machines, without being able to do much about it, personally. This very
active listserve gives me hope that the history of computing will not be
lost!
My entry into computing is very short compared to many on this list. I've
been hacking on these things for only about 6-7 years, and I am
self-taught. My first machine was a Sanyo MBC-1000 given to me by a friend.
I graduated from that to a Mac 512KE, and have worked my way up through
most of the Macs (including some backward steps). I will probably be mostly
a lurker, although I do see now that I possess some little knowledge that I
can share with the list, primarily about restoring old Macs, in the
practical hardware sense. I don't know much about programming, except for
the "higher" GUI, user-level stuff. The Macs that I have and use every day
(that I calll modern) consist in a Mac SE-30 (that I'm setting up as a
local router), a Quadra 610, and a Quadra 950; I had to suppress a chuckle
(at myself), on visiting one of the links I found here (the Classic
Computer show on the West Coast?) and seeing that the Q950 was included
amongst the line of obsolete Macs. Oh, I know that it's obsolete, but it
does my work quite well, for now, and I can't at the moment afford to
upgrade to a PPC. (I paid big money for it, too.) The Q610 has a "classic"
Apple 601 Upgrade card in it, which converts it into a 40Mhz PPC, and I've
discovered works very well under OS 8.1, despite being disclaimed by Apple
for support. I also have an Intel 100Mhz Pentium, on which I'm hacking on
learning Windows NT 4.
In spite of my preoccupation with the old stuff, my most ardent desire is
for machines and software that really work well, for users in the present
and future. Liken this to the auto industry: the first automobiles that
came out had to have a physically strong person with a fair amount of
knowledge of their auto's workings, in order to deal with the problems that
arose while driving them. Automobiles have "progressed" to a stage where
everyone can now own one, without much of a clue as to how they work, and
can rely on them to get them to their destination. Computers are
progressing along this path, at what I consider a much faster rate, than
the automobile. Although I place myself in the first class of users to some
extent, I DON'T WANT to have to go back and learn all the basics, that many
on this list display intimate knowledge of. I'm too old (54), started too
late in computing, and have too many other interests to take care of, to do
that.
Due to circumstances, I am in a place where there is a lot of old machines
to find, and I do have a small collection. Also due to circumstances, I am
needing to divest myself of my collection, and am actively doing so, on
eBay. I was somewhat surprised at the interest displayed on two of my
auctions, and didn't discover the reason for this, until I delivered one of
the Sanyo MBC-1000s to a buyer in Austin, George Currie. He told me about
this list, and said that someone had posted my auctions to this list, and
the mystery was solved.
There has been some recent talk on this list about old Mac restorations.
I've been running an auction on 10 MacPlus analog pullouts, for two weeks,
and have dropped the starting price from $3_at_ to $1@, in a Dutch auction.
They have finally gotten bids, and if any on this list has any interest in
them, this is their last chance at 'em. The auction ends today at 23:05:36.
Had I known of this list, I would have offered them here, first. I think I
paid $5_at_ for them, when I bought them, years ago.
MacPlus Analog parts boards:
http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=28864145
"Recycleable" is the new politically-correct word for "Garbage"
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mailto:heavy_at_ctesc.net * Jim Weiler *
http://pages.tstar.net/~heavy
http://home.talkcity.com/MigrationPath/blackbeardtcc/index.html
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Received on Fri Sep 11 1998 - 12:39:34 BST