Coco (was: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers (was: OT email response

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Wed Apr 24 22:10:42 2002

Repackaging is a lot of hassle, expensive, and seldom improves the
functionality.

That doesn't mean it NEVER is of benefit, but seldom.

Dick

----- Original Message -----
From: "Fred Cisin (XenoSoft)" <cisin_at_xenosoft.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Wednesday, April 24, 2002 11:17 AM
Subject: Coco (was: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers (was: OT email response


> On Wed, 24 Apr 2002, Christopher Smith wrote:
> > Yeah, I'm certain there was a serial port, but I can't tell you
> > about it. It's been a while.
>
> Yes, it had a serial port. with a 4 pin DIN? It was clearly described in
> their literature as being "RS-232". Unfortunately, that stood for "RADIO
> SHACK 232".
>
> > > expand it to do something useful?
>
> No more or less so than any other computer.
> Like any other computer, you can use it to keep track of notes,
> receipts, appointments, etc. (all of which can usually be done as well,
> or better, by a refrigerator door.) As a terminal or word processor, it
> was badly limited by the screen configuration.
> > Actually, there are applications that do 80x24 in some high-res
> > video mode, for word processing and the like. I ran at least one
> > on my CoCo1 with 64k of RAM.
>
> There were numerous fixes, some good, some bad. (such as 3 x 6 character
> matrix to get more characters on the screen)
>
> > > ... see what I mean? You have to do so much to the thing
> > > that RS sells you
> > > that it takes up a whole tabletop just to get to what's in
> > > the PC's box, and
>
> So?
> Is your "Hi-Fi" ALSO all in one box? Or is it a group of separate
> components?
>
> You're not capable of reboxing a computer?
> A friend, and business associate, used to repackage computers into
> Halliburton attache cases. He made a portable Coco with drives, 5" screen
> (and connection for external), as well as a number of other models.
> His "BMC-80" one piece portable CP/M machine was introduced (at my
> booth) at the West Coast Computer Faire a day before Osborne's
> introduction. That did not stop Adam from calling his "first and
> only" even though he had already spent half an hour admiring ours before
> his was introduced. That's all right. His booth had ~$50K of chrome and
> black plexiglass; WE had cold beer (which repeatedly got us free ink in
> Jerry Pournelle's column).
>
> --
> Grumpy Ol' Fred cisin_at_xenosoft.com
>
>
Received on Wed Apr 24 2002 - 22:10:42 BST