At 03:50 PM 10/13/97 -0700, you wrote:
>> Disk]['s. Did Apple license Bell & Howell to make these machines? If they
>> did, did they license other companies as well?
>
>Yes and they were all black. I don't think Apple ever licensed the design
>to any other company, and I'm surprised that they even licensed it at all.
My money says that Apple licensed the II to B&H as a way of getting into
schools. B&H made projectors and such for the school market and so buyers
are far more likely to buy a Bell and Howell computer than some machine from
some company nobody ever heard of.
And once the computers were in place, Apple could get in the door by selling
Bell and Howell clones...
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
> > IBM card machine may be
> pre-computer (programmed by plugboards, etc.).
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> WHOAH here !! Just a minute !! Are you trying to say that anything
> without a LSI chip or integrated circuit-board is a "pre-computer" ?
Eeek! What's it got to do with LSI?
Surely that just means that computers started with the Manchester Small Scale
Experimental Machine in 1948?
(For details, see http://www.cs.man.ac.uk/prog98/ )
Personally, I think that the later (Ferranti?) machines with ferrite plug
programming were also computers, but there you are...
Philip.
For those who thought Atari only made proprietary stuff...
Ran across an Atari PC for sale at:
<http://www.haggle.com/cgi/getitem.cgi?item_id=201429746>
Seems to be a ebay-style auction site.
--------------------------------------------------------------------- O-
Uncle Roger "There is pleasure pure in being mad
sinasohn(a)crl.com that none but madmen know."
Roger Louis Sinasohn & Associates
San Francisco, California http://www.crl.com/~sinasohn/
I picked up a copy of this book, as it seems quite handy. It has lots
of info on older, long since discontinued drives.
The local MicroCenter here in Dallas has a giant pile of them for
something like $5 each; it says list $49.99 so this may be a bargain.
If there is any interest, I could pick up a few to send elsewhere.
-Matt Pritchard
Graphics Engine and Optimization Specialist
I'm quitting my job. I'll be saving all my PDP stuff, minus the rack
(Can't haul it, probably losing it.)
Please unsubscribe me from the list.
I'll resub when I get my new mail address.
Good luck to all.
Daniel Seagraves
This weekend, my uncle gave me issues #2 and #3 of PC Magazine, in addition to issue 1 of PC World. Anywa, issues 2 and 3 of PC Mag had a great article on the Altair which carried over from issue 1 and continued forward. Does anyone have copies of the other parts of the article??
Second, on the topic of bit rot, what is the "BRQ" (bit-rot quotient, or time to bit rot) for older 5-1/4" diskettes and EPROMS?
Third, does anyone have a copy of Copy-II-PC?
Thanks again!
Rich Cini/WUGNET
Charter ClubWin! Member
MCP Windows 95/Windows Networking
Due to massive amounts of caffeine & sleep deprivation, Richard A. Cini said:
> Second, on the topic of bit rot, what is the "BRQ" (bit-rot quotient,
or time to bit rot) for older 5-1/4" diskettes and EPROMS?
The whole "BRQ" thing had been discussed shortly after the beginning of the
list, and most of the wonderful suggestions/opinions/facts/data exists in a
FAQ that was created from many of the first discussions...
Unforch, I haven't a URL really handy... Bill Whitson should know of it's
location, tho. Hey-ho Bill--- are you up and around yet???
May have the URL at home, but Wifey wants shelves up tonite... I guess I
won't be dialing in this evening........
HTH, tho it's not much I know,
Roger "Merch" Merchberger
--
Roger Merchberger | Why does Hershey's put nutritional
Programmer, NorthernWay | information on their candy bar wrappers
zmerch(a)northernway.net | when there's no nutritional value within?
> Has anyone else had to deal with the new UPS guidelines? Our shipping
> counter has introduced new guidelines for shipping computers. Any
> computer must be double boxed and packed in 4" of foam. Ok fine. But you
> can't use peanuts. Oh, and if it's a computer that works, it will be
> unpacked, tested, repacked then shipped. If it doesn't work it will be
> returned to you. Good luck.
Ouch! But I've not heard of UPS (apart from as an abbreviation for
Uninterruptible Power Supply). Is this a shipping company, a regulatory
body or something else?
> I see the point if they were checking $500 laptops or more. Most stuff I
> ship is valued at $30 or less. But there are no limits on value for this
> procedure. I figured it was worth the chance of paying a $30 claim for
> them not to go through all that. But all computer products and possibly
> all electronic products will be inspected.
Brilliant! What if I'm not a hacker? My computer breaks down. I ship
it to the manufacturer for repair. Oh dear, it's just been returned to
me - they can't ship it because it failed on test...
> On top of this, all computer parts like keyboards, etc must be packed
> individually and shipped individually. Nothing like 2x, 3x,
> 4x...shipping costs. So much for those lots of extra parts.
Splendid! What about the IBM System/23 that fails diagnostics if the
printer isn't connected (although this can be bypassed)? What if I do
ship the keyboard separately for some obscure machine? How are they
going to test it then? Will they even know which keyboard belongs to
which computer? Not easy to tell at a glance (say) a PS/2 keyboard from
an RS/6000 one (don't ask how I found that out!)
> I think I'll be writing "household goods" or "books" on my shipments
> from now on. Either that or start sending my stuff there for the "$5
> testing special"!
Basically this sounds like some well-meaning bureaucrat making rules
before thinking through the implications. How about "computer parts"
for a shipment description, though? It's accurate for a computer, an
incomplete computer, a broken computer or a box of computers...
Philip.
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Philip Belben <><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
Das Feuer brennt, das Feuer nennt die Luft sein Schwesterelement -
und frisst sie doch (samt dem Ozon)! Das ist die Liebe, lieber Sohn.
Poem by Christian Morgenstern - Message by Philip.Belben(a)powertech.co.uk
