Jim -
Congratulations! It is a fine website (and one that I wish I wuold have had
the time and energy to have put together). I will be sending you some
material to add to the collection (as soon as I find it!). I do like tha
addition of the NorthStar material since many, many Sols had the affordable
N* drives mated to them rather than the $2,000+ Helios behemouth.
Besides being my own first computer, in a curious (bizarre?) way it was an
inspiration for the design of the Apple II. Besides having a built-in
keyboard, cassette interface, and TV output, its physical characteristics
inspired Jobs design of the Apple case:
"Jobs thought the cigar boxes [housing the home-made computers]
that sat on the ... desk tops during Homebrew meetings were as
elegant as fly traps. The angular, blue and black sheet-metal
case that housed Processor Technology's Sol struck him as clumsy
and industrial ... A plastic case was generally considered a
needless expense compared to the cheaper and more pliable sheet
metal. Hobbyists, so the arguments went, didn't care as much for
appearance as they did for substance. Jobs wanted to model the
case for the Apple after those Hewlett-Packard used for its
calculators. He admired their sleek, fresh lines, their hardy
finish, and the way they looked at home on a table or desk."
Michael Moritz, THE LITTLE KINGDOM, p. 186.
Although I must take umbrage with that statement. I happen to feel that the
Sol's bright blue case and polished walnut sides made it quite attractive
myself. But then again, I suppose that I'm just an "industrial" guy.
Bob Stek
Saver of Lost SOLs
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> [mailto:owner-classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org]On Behalf Of Jim Battle
> Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2000 3:02 AM
> To: classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org
> Subject: New home for Sol web site
>
>
> Sorry for the self-promotion here, but I've made a lot of changes to my
> web site dedicated to the Sol computer. Some of the list members
> may be interested. In no particular order:
>
> *) The list's very own Mike Noel was kind enough to scan two P.T.
> Access newsletters from his collection. I've ocr'd one of them
> and put it on-line. The second one is in progress.
> Check it out at:
> http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/access_v2n1.pdf
>
> *) Paul Schaper had the foresight to archive his collection of
> sol cassettes back when he bought them. He has forwarded
> the binaries to me, which can be had at this location (along
> with the other programs that were already there):
> http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/solpgms.html
>
> *) the Sol web site has a new home. The old location
> was hosted on a banner-ad supported free web site. Due
> to the banner ads and the fact that I was running out of space,
> the Sol pages have found a new home. If you are interested,
> take a look here:
> http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/sol.html
>
> *) if you have been to the site before and want to know what has
> changed, the history of changes are here:
> http://www.thebattles.net/sol20/solnew.html
>
> Any suggestions, corrections, and donations can be sent to me,
> frustum_at_pacbell.net.
>
> Thanks.
>
>
> -----
> Jim Battle == frustum_at_pacbell.net
>
Received on Thu May 04 2000 - 06:18:45 BST