New to list...

From: Ethan Dicks <erd_6502_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Thu Jun 5 09:24:00 2003

--- jamesd <jdickens_at_ameritech.net> wrote:
> SUN STATUS....
>
> i emailed the seller to get more info on the items, found out some
> interesting stuff
>
> the Sun has a CPU board and IPI Disk controller only...

That's typical of later VME Sun cages. There's so much you can load
onto the CPU board that unless you have wierd comms needs, there's
not much call for VME peripherals.

> it worked a few years back, but when started it this time it wouldn't
> boot, he had no time to investigate.

Bet it's the NVRAM battery.

> It weghts 500 lbs.

Yes.
 
> the monitor is 19"-20" color hires color

Typical of a Sun box.

> what i thought was a nice "LITTLE HP box" that i was going to turn into a
> scsi disk box, weights 750lbs.

That seemed clear from the pictures on the auction... an *empty* 6' rack
is between 75 and 125lbs, depending on skins, doors, etc.

> so i emailed him and told him i would not be picking up the auction,
> because there would be no way to move it from my ford explorer to my
> basement and the wear and tear of hailing "1200 lbs. was just too great."

The seller should have been kind to bidders and mentioned the physical
scope of it (for the unwary), but many of us on the list have made
road-trips just as you describe: hundreds of miles for hundreds of lbs
of gear.

> I have paid for the auction so I don't think i have to
> worry about ebay's non paying bidding rules.

Probably not. I've won an auction or two that I offered to pay the
bid price and not the shipping and let the seller keep the item and
re-list it. Make most sense when the shipping is several times the
cost of the item (and I've found it locally before the auction closed
for less than the advertised S&H).

> I really would of liked the monitor but a 500 mile road trip for a 20"
> monitor is not really worth it.

It's likely to be a fixed-scan monitor, so if you were planning on
using it for your PC, it's a bad match. I happen to have a Sun 20E20
which _does_ sync up to ordinary machines, but it has a 13W3 connector
(I was able to scrounge the requisite adapter locally) meaning that
unadapted, it won't physically fit on consumer-grade hardware (and some
newer Sun hardware).

I was happy to find that 20E20 at the local Uni surplus depot for $20.
Its 17" little-brother ($15) is on my SPARC5.

The optical-drive SCSI cabinet looked like it would be fun to play with.
We installed one like that at Lucent about 5 years ago. Very expensive.

-ethan
Received on Thu Jun 05 2003 - 09:24:00 BST