Anybody remember the Sinclair Z80? That was my first computer. A Basic
loop to count 1,2,3.... would go slower than you could say the number out
loud.

--
Roger Long

"Roger Long" wrote in
:

Anybody remember the Sinclair Z80? That was my first computer. A
Basic loop to count 1,2,3.... would go slower than you could say the
number out loud.

--
Roger Long





Z80's good....especially running CP/M OS....(c;

I was an Ohio Scientific microcomputer dealer. OSI had the first hard
drive micro, a 74MB (MB not GB) fixed hard drive stolen out of
minicomputers. It had a 14" platter and was mounted in the Model 3's
standard 18" equipment rack. There were 3 processors you could switch
between very easily. A 6502, Z80 and 6800 (not 68000). OS-65/U was the
companies OS to run on the 6502, a great little processor, and it came
with a very extended BASIC interpreter making software fun to write.

We wrote an accounting system to keep track of a few thousand vending
machines/jukeboxes, etc., for Sumter Music and Amusements in our town.
The system was the 74MB computer under OS-65/U with our BASIC program
running on it. The box used dumb terminals and we had 4 cards in it
with 4 ADDS Regent 24 dumb terminals on various desks in their office.
They were thrilled that such a cheap system could do what it cost, at
that time, hundreds of thousands of dollars to do on an expensive
minicomputer. It ran for years 24/7 off a commercial UPS we installed
for it. Crashing on power glitches wasn't pretty! It usually took out
the database. Backup was in 8" floppies each week and we handled that
for them after hours. Dick or I would go down at night and take the
backup with us in case the building burned we'd still have the whole
database, only updating what had been done between the backup and the
fire, which never happened. The UPS failed once, but we got lucky and
noone was writing to the hard drive when the crash occurred. We went
way, way past the noted MTBF. OSI couldn't believe how long it ran....
(c;

IBM came out with the PC and that was the end of OSI and our little
computer store. My biggest sale was to Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co in
North Carolina. They wanted to break their people into microcomputers
and funded a whole school with 36 OSI desktop computers in the training
room. Those used little NTSC video monitors as output and had two
floppy drives and a keyboard in a pre-Apple 1 small computer that
actually worked. Their IT boss was a fan of OSI and used to send us
some really neat software he wrote on them to play with on ours.

The PC just put everyone out of business....almost Apple, too!

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

The Maemo Linux hackers have written or ported many old small computer
emulators to the tablet's Linux OS. There may be one for the Sinclair.
There's one for the old TI handhelds, I know.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Roger Long" wrote in
:

Anybody remember the Sinclair Z80? That was my first computer. A
Basic loop to count 1,2,3.... would go slower than you could say the
number out loud.

--
Roger Long





Z80's good....especially running CP/M OS....(c;

I was an Ohio Scientific microcomputer dealer. OSI had the first hard
drive micro, a 74MB (MB not GB) fixed hard drive stolen out of
minicomputers. It had a 14" platter and was mounted in the Model 3's
standard 18" equipment rack. There were 3 processors you could switch
between very easily. A 6502, Z80 and 6800 (not 68000). OS-65/U was the
companies OS to run on the 6502, a great little processor, and it came
with a very extended BASIC interpreter making software fun to write.

We wrote an accounting system to keep track of a few thousand vending
machines/jukeboxes, etc., for Sumter Music and Amusements in our town.
The system was the 74MB computer under OS-65/U with our BASIC program
running on it. The box used dumb terminals and we had 4 cards in it
with 4 ADDS Regent 24 dumb terminals on various desks in their office.
They were thrilled that such a cheap system could do what it cost, at
that time, hundreds of thousands of dollars to do on an expensive
minicomputer. It ran for years 24/7 off a commercial UPS we installed
for it. Crashing on power glitches wasn't pretty! It usually took out
the database. Backup was in 8" floppies each week and we handled that
for them after hours. Dick or I would go down at night and take the
backup with us in case the building burned we'd still have the whole
database, only updating what had been done between the backup and the
fire, which never happened. The UPS failed once, but we got lucky and
noone was writing to the hard drive when the crash occurred. We went
way, way past the noted MTBF. OSI couldn't believe how long it ran....
(c;

IBM came out with the PC and that was the end of OSI and our little
computer store. My biggest sale was to Liggett & Myers Tobacco Co in
North Carolina. They wanted to break their people into microcomputers
and funded a whole school with 36 OSI desktop computers in the training
room. Those used little NTSC video monitors as output and had two
floppy drives and a keyboard in a pre-Apple 1 small computer that
actually worked. Their IT boss was a fan of OSI and used to send us
some really neat software he wrote on them to play with on ours.

The PC just put everyone out of business....almost Apple, too!

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

The Maemo Linux hackers have written or ported many old small computer
emulators to the tablet's Linux OS. There may be one for the Sinclair.
There's one for the old TI handhelds, I know.



Anyone remember the S100 bus? I worked with Concurrent CPM for a while.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:24:29 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:



Anyone remember the S100 bus? I worked with Concurrent CPM for a while.

Is that the one that used to run down Jackson Street?
Never met Concurrent.

--Vic

"Capt. JG" wrote in
easolutions:

Anyone remember the S100 bus? I worked with Concurrent CPM for a while.



Sure! Kept me poor buying parts to build them for years....(c;

My first was a Southwest Technical Products that had 8 toggle switches for
input and 8 light bulbs for output.....then, some smartass sold me a
TELETYPE interface!

REAL programmers use:

COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE

on DOS machines....(c;

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Capt. JG" wrote in
easolutions:

Anyone remember the S100 bus? I worked with Concurrent CPM for a while.



Sure! Kept me poor buying parts to build them for years....(c;

My first was a Southwest Technical Products that had 8 toggle switches for
input and 8 light bulbs for output.....then, some smartass sold me a
TELETYPE interface!

REAL programmers use:

COPY CON PROGRAM.EXE

on DOS machines....(c;



I worked for Bill Godbout at CompuPro back when....

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

"Capt. JG" wrote in
easolutions:

I worked for Bill Godbout at CompuPro back when....



Wow....That must have been an amazing time.

"Larry" wrote in message
...
"Capt. JG" wrote in
easolutions:

I worked for Bill Godbout at CompuPro back when....



Wow....That must have been an amazing time.



He wasn't a bad guy... very driven to prove his technology, but it was
obvious to me at the time that it wasn't going to go anywhere... but I
needed the work. :-) Some of the people at the company were truly strange.

--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com

On 2008-09-26 13:24:29 -0400, "Capt. JG" said:

Anyone remember the S100 bus? I worked with Concurrent CPM for a while.

I remember it and all the rest mentioned. The first time I saw a
Kaypro, I was in lust: A computer that you could carry as a
self-contained unit!

My dad was an early programmer, starting with "flip the switches" and
ending on an an IBM 360. For my 14th birthday, he took me down to see
his baby, then to the Academy of Music, featuring Dvorak's "New World
Symphony", my absolute favorite piece of music (I played French
horn).... That day is burned indelibly into my brain.

Here it is, 40 years later. Now, the machine I take down to the boat is
more powerful than the fastest supercomputers extant then. Dad's
computer was in a temple of technology; we very nearly had to put on
clean suits to enter the inner sanctum. We toss ours onto a settee
without a thought, slightly worry that it might be dropped a couple of
feet.

The march of tech is scary.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/

"Jere Lull" wrote in message
news:2008092614594875249-jerelull@maccom...
On 2008-09-26 13:24:29 -0400, "Capt. JG" said:

Anyone remember the S100 bus? I worked with Concurrent CPM for a while.

I remember it and all the rest mentioned. The first time I saw a Kaypro, I
was in lust: A computer that you could carry as a self-contained unit!

My dad was an early programmer, starting with "flip the switches" and
ending on an an IBM 360. For my 14th birthday, he took me down to see his
baby, then to the Academy of Music, featuring Dvorak's "New World
Symphony", my absolute favorite piece of music (I played French horn)....
That day is burned indelibly into my brain.

Here it is, 40 years later. Now, the machine I take down to the boat is
more powerful than the fastest supercomputers extant then. Dad's computer
was in a temple of technology; we very nearly had to put on clean suits to
enter the inner sanctum. We toss ours onto a settee without a thought,
slightly worry that it might be dropped a couple of feet.

The march of tech is scary.

--
Jere Lull
Xan-à-Deux -- Tanzer 28 #4 out of Tolchester, MD
Xan's pages: http://web.mac.com/jerelull/iWeb/Xan/
Our BVI trips & tips: http://homepage.mac.com/jerelull/BVI/



I remember almost buying an Osborne... finally bought one of the first
Compaqs... the luggable.


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com