Rare Apple I computer sells for $216,000 in London

[terryc]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:35:16 +1100
"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:

WordPervert was never gunna survive, it always had a completely fucked
user interface.

Surprising then that it was so popular right up until Windows
became ubiquitous. I quite liked WordPerfect's interface.

Still do. It is the only Win OS app that I ever buy now.

 

[Mr.Magoo]

On 25/11/2010 5:56 AM, Don McKenzie wrote:

Rare Apple I computer sells for $216,000 in London

I mentioned this one coming up for auction, a week or two back:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/rare-apple-i-computer-sells-for-216000-in-london-20101124-1861g.html


yes it sold, and for an interesting price.

I wonder if my piece of art is worth anything?
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/australias-first-pc.html

Cheers Don...

===================

Hmmmm.. wonder what I could get for my Vic20..

--
rgds,

Pete
=====

"Julia finally got something right. Older people don't vote Labor, because they have seen too many incompetent, mismanaging, money-wasting Labor governments"

"If you think utility prices are high now, watch them go through the roof with the Green/ALP carbon tax"

The insane Greens! .. http://tinyurl.com/insane-Greens

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other peoples money"

"Those who tolerate intolerance will cease to exist"

"Truth is the new hate speech"

"Political correctness is a polite form of tryanny"

"Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs need to relax and get used to the idea"

 

[Joe Thompson]

On 2010-11-26, kreed <kenreed1999@gmail.com> wrote:

I think our PBUFF had around 1mb in it. It used computer ram sticks,
of a type you don't see anymore, they had pins on them, like a very
long single sided DIP package, but it was a PCB with RAM IC's on it.
(much like now). SIMM or DIMM (Cant remember).

Sounds like SIMMs (DIMMs are current tech). Somewhere I have a bunch of
smaller (256K) SIMMs from an old Mac. I used one as a keychain till the
ICs fell off; I plan to use the others after getting them coated in
Lucite or something similar. -- Joe

 

[Rod Speed]

Mr.Magoo wrote

Don McKenzie wrote

Rare Apple I computer sells for $216,000 in London

I mentioned this one coming up for auction, a week or two back:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/rare-apple-i-computer-sells-for-216000-in-london-20101124-1861g.html

yes it sold, and for an interesting price.

I wonder if my piece of art is worth anything?
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/australias-first-pc.html

Hmmmm.. wonder what I could get for my Vic20..

Nothing like that, essentially because hordes more of those were made.

 

[Rod Speed]

Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote

Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote

WordPervert was never gunna survive, it always had a completely fucked user interface.

Surprising then that it was so popular right up until Windows became ubiquitous.

Nope, we saw the same thing with the DOS UI.

I quite liked WordPerfect's interface.

The absolute vast bulk of the users didnt, which is why it sank beneath the waves.

 

[Walter Bushell]

In article <icmkj3$o2l$42@news.eternal-september.org>,
Roland Hutchinson <my.spamtrap@verizon.net> wrote:

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 05:37:13 +1100, Rod Speed wrote:

terryc wrote:
Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote:
On Thu, 25 Nov 2010 19:49:38 +1100
"Trevor Wilson" <trevor@rageaudio.com.au> wrote:

Pity IBM lacked the marketing
nouse and printer support (bloody thing wouldn't work with my HP
Laserjet!!) that Microsoft had back then.

I think IBM had (and still have) marketing nounce - it's just that
they concentrate on a rather different market, instead of trying to
get millions of people to spend a few hundred each they prefer to get
thousands of people to spend a few million each.

That is my 2c as well. If IBM had encouraged and supported home users
of OS/2, then there would have been millions of workers telling the
boss that MS Win was absolute crap compared to OS/2.

Wouldnt have done a damned thing about the very fundamental problem,
hardly any of the apps that mattered bothered to support OS/2 properly
and none were stupid enough to ignore Win.

WordPerfect was.

If IBM could have read the writing on the Mall . . . .

IBM certainly had enough power to encourage developers. I mean Apple did
that for the Macintosh at the time the Macintosh was nothing compared to
the IBM empire.

Different market, different mindset.

--
The Chinese pretend their goods are good and we pretend our money
is good, or is it the reverse?

 

[Walter Bushell]

In article <20101126070833.b71ab9f3.steveo@eircom.net>,
Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote:

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 16:35:16 +1100
"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote:

WordPervert was never gunna survive, it always had a completely fucked
user interface.

Surprising then that it was so popular right up until Windows
became ubiquitous. I quite liked WordPerfect's interface.

I have head many laments about WordPerfect's demise.

--
The Chinese pretend their goods are good and we pretend our money
is good, or is it the reverse?

 

[Joe Thompson]

On 2010-11-26, Walter Bushell <proto@panix.com> wrote:

IBM certainly had enough power to encourage developers. I mean Apple did
that for the Macintosh at the time the Macintosh was nothing compared to
the IBM empire.

Different market, different mindset.

More an issue of different market *share*, I think. IBM was used to
calling the shots for the entire market, and so expected (pretty
logically, to be honest) that the market would cater to their dominance.
Apple never had that kind of dominance in the PC market (and still
doesn't), so their relationship with developers was much more hands-on.

But look at how Apple deals with iPhone app developers. They *are* the
big dog in smartphones, they know it, and they act like it. -- Joe

 

[Don McKenzie]

On 27-Nov-10 6:53 AM, robertwessel2@yahoo.com wrote:

On Nov 26, 4:03 am, kreed<kenreed1...@gmail.com> wrote:
I think our PBUFF had around 1mb in it. It used computer ram sticks,
of a type you don't see anymore, they had pins on them, like a very
long single sided DIP package, but it was a PCB with RAM IC's on it.
(much like now). SIMM or DIMM (Cant remember).


A SIPP of some sort. As the Wikipedia article points out, these were
replaced by SIMMs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIPP_memory

At times, we used the same memory as the XT PC of the day, which was 30 pad SIMM Modules:
http://ep.yimg.com/ca/I/memx_2131_284704826

We sometimes soldered pins onto them, so we could insert them into a 30 pin socket:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/simmstick-female-header-pins.html

Or simply plug them straight into a suitable socket:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/sim-sockx2.html

However most users simply plugged DIP version DRAMs straight into the PBUFF board, which was designed to accept them.

The SIMMs were just a later alternative to use old XT DRAMs, and-or to build up the memory capacity of the original
buffer board.

DRAM could be 1, 2, 4, or 8 DIP chips, or 30 pin Simm modules. I think I had 11 memory sizes. So by using a combination
of DIPs and-or SIMMs, you could use your surplus memory chips for somethig useful.

Cheers Don...

=================


--
Don McKenzie

Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
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These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html

 

[Don McKenzie]

On 27-Nov-10 7:44 AM, Don McKenzie wrote:

Just adding to that, these were fairly rarely used, but I found a picture of the SIPP package.

Cheers Don...



--
Don McKenzie

Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
Web Camera Page: http://www.dontronics.com/webcam
No More Damn Spam: http://www.dontronics.com/spam

USB Isolator 1000VDC For Protecting Your PC OR Laptop
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/usb-iso-low-full-speed-usb-isolator.html

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html

 

[Don McKenzie]

On 27-Nov-10 7:44 AM, Don McKenzie wrote:

Just adding to that, these were fairly rarely used, but I found a picture of the SIPP package.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SIPP.jpg

Cheers Don...


--
Don McKenzie

Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
Web Camera Page: http://www.dontronics.com/webcam
No More Damn Spam: http://www.dontronics.com/spam

USB Isolator 1000VDC For Protecting Your PC OR Laptop
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/usb-iso-low-full-speed-usb-isolator.html

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html

 

[robertwessel2@yahoo.com]

On Nov 26, 4:03 am, kreed <kenreed1...@gmail.com> wrote:

I think our PBUFF had around 1mb in it. It used computer ram sticks,
of a type you don't see anymore, they had pins on them, like a very
long single sided DIP package, but it was a PCB with RAM IC's on it.
(much like now). SIMM or DIMM (Cant remember).

A SIPP of some sort. As the Wikipedia article points out, these were
replaced by SIMMs:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIPP_memory

 

[SG1]

"Mr.Magoo" <go_away@not_here.biz> wrote in message
news:JyOHo.3429$gM3.592@viwinnwfe01.internal.bigpond.com...

On 25/11/2010 5:56 AM, Don McKenzie wrote:

Rare Apple I computer sells for $216,000 in London

I mentioned this one coming up for auction, a week or two back:
http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/computers/rare-apple-i-computer-sells-for-216000-in-london-20101124-1861g.html

yes it sold, and for an interesting price.

I wonder if my piece of art is worth anything?
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/australias-first-pc.html

Cheers Don...

===================



Hmmmm.. wonder what I could get for my Vic20..

20 years solitary??????

--
rgds,

Pete
=====

"Julia finally got something right. Older people don't vote Labor, because
they have seen too many incompetent, mismanaging, money-wasting Labor
governments"

"If you think utility prices are high now, watch them go through the roof
with the Green/ALP carbon tax"

The insane Greens! .. http://tinyurl.com/insane-Greens

"The problem with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other
peoples money"

"Those who tolerate intolerance will cease to exist"

"Truth is the new hate speech"

"Political correctness is a polite form of tryanny"

"Women and cats will do as they please. Men and dogs need to relax and get
used to the idea"

 

[Rod Speed]

Walter Bushell wrote

Roland Hutchinson <my.spamtrap@verizon.net> wrote
Rod Speed wrote
terryc wrote
Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote
Trevor Wilson <trevor@rageaudio.com.au> wrote

Pity IBM lacked the marketing nouse and printer support (bloody thing
wouldn't work with my HP Laserjet!!) that Microsoft had back then.

I think IBM had (and still have) marketing nounce - it's just that
they concentrate on a rather different market, instead of trying
to get millions of people to spend a few hundred each they prefer
to get thousands of people to spend a few million each.

That is my 2c as well. If IBM had encouraged and supported home
users of OS/2, then there would have been millions of workers
telling the boss that MS Win was absolute crap compared to OS/2.

Wouldnt have done a damned thing about the very fundamental problem,
hardly any of the apps that mattered bothered to support OS/2
properly and none were stupid enough to ignore Win.

WordPerfect was.

If IBM could have read the writing on the Mall . . . .

They wouldnt have pissed all that money against the wall on OS/2 etc.

IBM certainly had enough power to encourage developers.

Nope. The very fundamental problem was always that while ever the absolute
vast bulk of PC came with Win installed, nothing IBM did could ever change that.

I mean Apple did that for the Macintosh at the time the
Macintosh was nothing compared to the IBM empire.

Yes, because it had a much better user interface than DOS PCs hand.

Different market, different mindset.

That wasnt why OS/2 never flew.

The other very fundamental reason OS/2 never took off in the mass
market was because it did a pretty hopeless job of running the older
stuff that so many wanted to continue to use at least for a while.

Hardly anyone was interested in changing all the apps they used.

Thats why Win left it for dead, even tho it was an inferiour product.

 

[Rod Speed]

Walter Bushell wrote

Ahem A Rivet's Shot <steveo@eircom.net> wrote
Rod Speed <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote

WordPervert was never gunna survive, it always
had a completely fucked user interface.

Surprising then that it was so popular right up until Windows
became ubiquitous. I quite liked WordPerfect's interface.

I have head many laments about WordPerfect's demise.

I heard many laments about the demise of punched cards too.

I had to physically remove the last of the card punches to stop the dinosaurs continuing to use them.

 

[Rod Speed]

Joe Thompson wrote

Walter Bushell <proto@panix.com> wrote

IBM certainly had enough power to encourage developers.
I mean Apple did that for the Macintosh at the time the
Macintosh was nothing compared to the IBM empire.

Different market, different mindset.

More an issue of different market *share*, I think. IBM was used
to calling the shots for the entire market, and so expected (pretty
logically, to be honest) that the market would cater to their
dominance. Apple never had that kind of dominance in the PC market
(and still doesn't), so their relationship with developers was much
more hands-on.

But look at how Apple deals with iPhone app developers. They
*are* the big dog in smartphones, they know it, and they act like it.

And they lose quite a few sales with that approach too.

Its only just got multitasking. Same thing happened with the Mac too.

The iphone is a very interesting commentary on what marketing can do,
but the sales they lose is too.

 

[kreed]

On Nov 27, 6:52 am, Don McKenzie <5...@2.5A> wrote:

On 27-Nov-10 7:44 AM, Don McKenzie wrote:

Just adding to that, these were fairly rarely used, but I found a picture of the SIPP package.

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SIPP.jpg

Cheers Don...

--
Don McKenzie

Site Map:            http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page:http://www.dontronics.com/email
Web Camera Page:    http://www.dontronics.com/webcam
No More Damn Spam:  http://www.dontronics.com/spam

USB Isolator 1000VDC For Protecting Your PC OR Laptophttp://www.dontronics-shop.com/usb-iso-low-full-speed-usb-isolator.html

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html

Might have been that type, as I remember that it plugged into a row of
turned pin headers along the edge of the PBUFF board.

They very likely came from one of those surplus parts distributors
that advertised in electronic magazines at the time - that would have
been the sort of source our budget tended to favour at that point in
time - just coming off of 17% home loan rates

Anyway it worked very well for a few years until WIN95 came along and
wasn't needed anymore.

 

[Joe Pfeiffer]

"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> writes:

Walter Bushell wrote
Roland Hutchinson <my.spamtrap@verizon.net> wrote
Rod Speed wrote
terryc wrote
Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote
Trevor Wilson <trevor@rageaudio.com.au> wrote

Pity IBM lacked the marketing nouse and printer support (bloody thing
wouldn't work with my HP Laserjet!!) that Microsoft had back then.

I think IBM had (and still have) marketing nounce - it's just that
they concentrate on a rather different market, instead of trying
to get millions of people to spend a few hundred each they prefer
to get thousands of people to spend a few million each.

That is my 2c as well. If IBM had encouraged and supported home
users of OS/2, then there would have been millions of workers
telling the boss that MS Win was absolute crap compared to OS/2.

Wouldnt have done a damned thing about the very fundamental problem,
hardly any of the apps that mattered bothered to support OS/2
properly and none were stupid enough to ignore Win.

WordPerfect was.

If IBM could have read the writing on the Mall . . . .

They wouldnt have pissed all that money against the wall on OS/2 etc.

IBM certainly had enough power to encourage developers.

Nope. The very fundamental problem was always that while ever the absolute
vast bulk of PC came with Win installed, nothing IBM did could ever change that.

Sure they could. At the time, they could have provided the same sort of
encouragement to the clone manufacturers to preload OS/2 that MS did for
Windows.

I mean Apple did that for the Macintosh at the time the
Macintosh was nothing compared to the IBM empire.

Yes, because it had a much better user interface than DOS PCs hand.

Different market, different mindset.

That wasnt why OS/2 never flew.

The other very fundamental reason OS/2 never took off in the mass
market was because it did a pretty hopeless job of running the older
stuff that so many wanted to continue to use at least for a while.

I don't remember it that way -- my recollection was that it did as well
on those as Windows did.

Hardly anyone was interested in changing all the apps they used.

Thats why Win left it for dead, even tho it was an inferiour product.

--
As we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should
be glad of an opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours;
and this we should do freely and generously. (Benjamin Franklin)

 

[Don McKenzie]

On 27-Nov-10 11:38 AM, kreed wrote:

Might have been that type, as I remember that it plugged into a row of
turned pin headers along the edge of the PBUFF board.

I had forgotten my own work. Too many years. Yes the later version boards had a row of 30 pins for the SIMM-SIPP type
DRAM memory modules.

I just checked the schematic at:
http://www.dontronics.com/pdf/pbuff_k.pdf

Quoting from my page at:
http://www.dontronics.com/z80.html

"The current Rev. K board has additional provision to
install an alternative 256K/1Mb/4Mb SIPP/SIMM type MEMORY MODULE. That
means, you can either install standard 16 or 18 pin by 1 bit Drams, or a
MEMORY MODULE. Both 8 byte and 9 byte type MODULES can be used. The software
ignores the ninth byte.

PBUFF Supports a mixture of 64K/256K/1Mb/4Mb DIP/SIMM/SIPP DRAMs in 10
memory sizes up to 4Mb. Supports 64K, 128K, 256K, 320K, 512K, 1024K, 1088K,
1280K, 2048K, and 4096K (4Mb)."

Cheers Don...

===========================

--
Don McKenzie

Site Map: http://www.dontronics.com/sitemap
E-Mail Contact Page: http://www.dontronics.com/email
Web Camera Page: http://www.dontronics.com/webcam
No More Damn Spam: http://www.dontronics.com/spam

USB Isolator 1000VDC For Protecting Your PC OR Laptop
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/usb-iso-low-full-speed-usb-isolator.html

These products will reduce in price by 5% every month:
http://www.dontronics-shop.com/minus-5-every-month.html

 

[Roland Hutchinson]

On Fri, 26 Nov 2010 20:30:56 -0700, Joe Pfeiffer wrote:

"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> writes:

Walter Bushell wrote
Roland Hutchinson <my.spamtrap@verizon.net> wrote
Rod Speed wrote
terryc wrote
Ahem A Rivet's Shot wrote
Trevor Wilson <trevor@rageaudio.com.au> wrote

Pity IBM lacked the marketing nouse and printer support (bloody
thing wouldn't work with my HP Laserjet!!) that Microsoft had
back then.

I think IBM had (and still have) marketing nounce - it's just that
they concentrate on a rather different market, instead of trying
to get millions of people to spend a few hundred each they prefer
to get thousands of people to spend a few million each.

That is my 2c as well. If IBM had encouraged and supported home
users of OS/2, then there would have been millions of workers
telling the boss that MS Win was absolute crap compared to OS/2.

Wouldnt have done a damned thing about the very fundamental problem,
hardly any of the apps that mattered bothered to support OS/2
properly and none were stupid enough to ignore Win.

WordPerfect was.

If IBM could have read the writing on the Mall . . . .

They wouldnt have pissed all that money against the wall on OS/2 etc.

IBM certainly had enough power to encourage developers.

Nope. The very fundamental problem was always that while ever the
absolute vast bulk of PC came with Win installed, nothing IBM did could
ever change that.

Sure they could. At the time, they could have provided the same sort of
encouragement to the clone manufacturers to preload OS/2 that MS did for
Windows.

I mean Apple did that for the Macintosh at the time the Macintosh was
nothing compared to the IBM empire.

Yes, because it had a much better user interface than DOS PCs hand.

Different market, different mindset.

That wasnt why OS/2 never flew.

The other very fundamental reason OS/2 never took off in the mass
market was because it did a pretty hopeless job of running the older
stuff that so many wanted to continue to use at least for a while.

I don't remember it that way -- my recollection was that it did as well
on those as Windows did.

"A better DOS than DOS and a better Windows than Windows"

--
Roland Hutchinson

He calls himself "the Garden State's leading violist da gamba,"
.... comparable to being ruler of an exceptionally small duchy.
--Newark (NJ) Star Ledger ( http://tinyurl.com/RolandIsNJ )