Novice prospectors guide

From: Sellam Ismail <dastar_at_ncal.verio.com>
Date: Sat Feb 27 11:56:45 1999

On Fri, 26 Feb 1999, Tony Duell wrote:

> My general method at radio rallies is 'if it looks interesting, then buy
> it' :-). I also have an reasonable memory for what parts fit most of the
> machines that I own, so I can dig through a box of old PCBs and think
> 'hey - that's a DEC paper tape interface card'....

Another suggestion: if you are able to open up the box to look inside,
inspect the date codes on the ICs. If the oldest date code is less than
say 1981, its probably an interesting micro. Mini's are of course always
interesting, and mainframes speak for themself.

Dating the machine by its date codes is not infallible though. The oldest
IC may be one that was replaced much later with a much younger part (so a
machine that was really built in 1976 might have a 1984 dated IC that the
original owner put in when the original IC gave out). Also, you're not
always allowed to go disassembling machines you see for sale. Sometimes
the sellers get real uptight (I had a lady in a thrift store look at me
strangely when I found that IBM PCjr without the internal disk drive and,
wanting to know if this was a model that came from the factory like that,
started opening it up to examine it further...finally she exclaimed "can I
help you!?" and I of course replied "No, thanks" :)

Sellam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Always hasslin' the man.

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Received on Sat Feb 27 1999 - 11:56:45 GMT

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