OT: Re: Time to declare State of Massachusetts the ENEMY! He

From: jpero_at_cgocable.net <(jpero_at_cgocable.net)>
Date: Thu Apr 15 12:28:39 1999

Date sent: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 12:49:56 -0400 (EDT)
Send reply to: classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu
From: John Ruschmeyer <jruschme_at_hiway1.exit109.com>
To: "Discussion re-collecting of classic computers" <classiccmp_at_u.washington.edu>
Subject: Re: OT: Re: Time to declare State of Massachusetts the ENEMY! He

Snip!
> The biggest irony, I felt, was when I was a consultant at AT&T Somerset.
> Every where you looked there were big posters for "AT&T Cares" (employee
> volunteerism). One of the items was "Donate computers to a local school
> (486 and above)". I guess that's why they couldn't get rid of the *heaps*
> of 386-class systems in the closets and storerooms.

Remember: 486 33 is double of what 386dx 33 does in
performance. Let say about 8,000 whetstones as mesured by
Checkit 3.0 on cached 386 33. Plus very few 386 boxens are
easily expandable with available parts. 486 stuff is very easily
expandable due to plenty supply of 72pin simms and cdroms,
many support LBA required for greater than 528MB HDs.


> Personally, I tend to draw the line at the 386. In a Windows and GUI
> world, I really don't want the aggravation to trying to teach someone text
> mode apps or of having to listen when they can't find *any* software. This
> is the same reason I will never give another person an Apple II unless
> they already know about and want one.

S/W can be found but often I find some people buy "current" s/w
and find out their computer is not capable of it. Happened to my
friend w/ a 486dx 33, all it do good is surfing and email, word
processing all kinds of business s/w. I told him to move up to
pentium level in fall. That kids game in that regard is Logo, failed
to run properly on it, that is because of puny 486 33 uncached.

> Of course, I'm also a person who's been known to travel with a 386SX-16
> notebook (recently replaced with a 386SLC-25 one).
>
> <<<John>>>

I still have old notebooks. LTE 386s/20 now retired from use due to
number of failures: edgelit lamp giving out, weak 386 even o/c to
25 and a cpu swap, keyboard is flaky. Aero 4/25 is pressed into
use but bit weak yuk compared to 701C. Latest addition is TP
701C that bought in fresh of air into performance-poor area. :-)

Oh, yesterday I saw a 50Z (minor problems) in repair at my
parttime work. IBM stuff says lot about reliablity and long time w/o
anguring into ground. I have no problems getting new parts for my
701C, in fact got them 1 day after order.

Wizard
Received on Thu Apr 15 1999 - 12:28:39 BST