Re: [TCLUG:13828] cheap networking hardware

[Colin Kilbane <colin@tyr.med.umn.edu>]

Wanna talk about old school.  In my chem lab back in kansas we had a nova
300 from data general.  4k of memory, a 16bit processor built of seperate
chips on a 16 by 16 inch board.  I think it had a 32kb removable disk and
with a 1 meg fixed disk. Data entry was done through a thermal tape
typewriter or by flipping a series of switches on the front.  O yea you
had to boot from fiber tape, essentially punch cards on a roll.  The thing
had died, the hd crashed a couple of years earlier.  We wanted to get rid
of it but modifications to the building made it impossible to move out of
the lab.  We learned that the hard way, we got it stuck in the door way
for a week. I was essentially fired by the old coot that ran the lab
because I couldn't fix it. Never move a computer larger than all your
major appliences combined!

Colin Kilbane

On Tue, 22 Feb 2000, Perry Hoekstra wrote:

> Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:
> > 
> > >>$5 laptop anyone? :) 8088s are great for nostalgia value... :)
> > >    ^^^^^^
> > >
> > >I like this:
> > >Length      Width        Height             Ship Wt
> > > 16.0"       19.0"         9.0"              35.0 lb
> >         I believe that includes the box they ship it in.
> >         probably $20 or more for shipping. ;>
> > 
> > >True computing power is measured in raw girth
> >         bragging rights certainly seem to run that way. I know someone who
> > has an old TI mainframe that he uses for a nightstand. ;>
> >         (he has all the parts for it... except for the fiber-optic connector
> > which sends information to the monitor/keyboard/mouse... since he got the
> > whole thing for free, he's a bit unwilling to invest much money in it.)
> 
> That's like the picture I once saw where a DEC employee took an old VAX
> and made it into a bar.  They showed him and his bar when it was on
> display at a DEC User Group Conferance.  
> 
> -- 
> Perry Hoekstra
> Talent Software Services
> dutchman@mn.uswest.net
> 
> A person who smiles in the face of adversity... probably has a scapegoat
> 
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