Billy Pettit real disappointment

[Allison]

>
>Subject: Re: Billy Pettit real disappointment
>   From: Gordon JC Pearce <gordon at gjcp.net>
>   Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2007 15:02:42 +0100
>     To: "General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts" <cctalk at classiccmp.org>
>
>On Thursday 28 June 2007 13:58:28 Jay West wrote:
>> Billy wrote...
>>
>> >> Come on people: there were computers long before there were
>> >> microcomputers.
>>
>> I seem to remember a recent post complaining that this list was nothing but
>> minicomputer and big-iron talk, no microcomputer discussion. Apparently
>> that was wrong, as now there is a complaint it's just micro talk? ;)
>
>It's never going to be "all things to all men", is it?  Everyone has their own 
>little sphere of interest, and what may seem hugely off-topic to one person 
>might be massively relevant to another.  For instance, I like the DEC 
>conversations, but I'm not quite so interested in HP (but I keep an eye on 
>them just the same).  I'm surprised there's not more about the UK 
>microcomputer scene.  I'm incredibly surprised that there's no discussion at 
>all of early computer-based musical equipment; we all know about EMS and the 
>Putney Studio I'm sure, but what about the Fairlight CMI and the Synclavier?  
>I'm surprised the latter wasn't mentioned during the "weird computers" 
>thread...
>
>And what of the things to keep the big *big* iron running?  I'm also 
>interested in stuff like the power plant and environmental plant around old 
>kit - but I can easily see how some would see that, and the Fairlight, as 
>offtopic.
>
>Maybe we need some sort of map showing what we think is on- and off-topic...
>
>Gordon


Well for on topic and weird Computers or IO...

PDP-8 I've never seen anything else that did IO that way save 
for the CMOS version.

TI9900 (and 990) oddball IO but loved the workspace pointer idea.

Minuteman Missle guidence computer.  Bizzare transistor serial machine 
where the fixed head disk drive served both program storage and as 
active registers.  I wonder if there are any around and if they are 
operational or the mountain of manuals needed to figure it out?


Allison