Blog entries tagged with "computer collection"

It is weird to recall that at one point I was actively collecting vintage computers, with one goal to have an example of every Apple computer. Over time my enthusian waned and I downsized the collection, in conjunction with looking to buy a house.

Then for over a decade the remaining items sat untouched at my parent’s (with only the occasional prompt to do something about them) until the middle of 2013 when I brought over of the Apple IIgs related items. This was my childhood computer and my first step in getting it running again was to replace the power supply with something modern. I tinkered with this for a while, getting a GBS-8220 for converting the display output and picking up a CFFA3000 for more convenient drive emulation.

Skip forward to the middle of 2024 and I set myself the goal of sorting through what was left of the collection and having it all gone from my parents house by the end of the year.

That goal has been achieved three months early.

I would have liked to gift items to people that I know would use it (this is what I am doing with one system) but I decided to to see how things would go in eBay, in one sense returning the items back to where I got them from. I started with a few of the smaller items that could be easily posted then progressing to the heaver items. As I was more interested in finding homes that in making money I started almost all the listings at $9.99, some sold for that starting price while others went for quite a lot more.

It was good to see that there were a variety of people bidding, some I could see also had ebay stores so would be buying to flip, while others (mainly those that I spoke to when they collected items in person) were actually interested in collecting and restoring vintage computers.

I am not going to update my computer collection pages, but because I took updated photos for the ebay listings, I have put those photos up in an album on Flickr: Vintage Apple for eBay.

Going through these images one last time did make me feel nostalgic, but only for the act of collecting. Better that they are in the hands of people that wanted them enough to bid for them, instead of just taking up space…

For a long time the remains of my computer collection have sat in my old room at my parents house, with the occasional suggestion that I go over and do something with it all.

Where to start? It has been a long time since I downsized and I am not entirely sure what I still have. Then of those what items are cool and/or have sentimental meaning?

Tackling the sentimental angle first should be easy as that leads directly to the Apple IIGS which was our first family computer (I think in 1988) and our only computer until a 486 (in I think 1994). This GS was nothing special: a ROM01 with 1MB RAM expansion, two 3.5″ drives and a single 5.25″ drive, the AppleColor RGB display and an ImageWriter. This setup and the boxes of floppy disks will definitely be retained. However I do want to have something running that I can play with, so I do have a ROM03 unit and I think that will be the one that I expand with modern technology.

The mistake I want to avoid is to simply plug this old tech in and hope that nothing blows up, so a few weeks ago I ordered a couple of Universal PSU Kit‘s from ReActiveMicro. These arrived last week and over the weekend this was the result:

At the top is the Universal PSU installed in the power supply housing, and at the bottom is the original power supply that will now be discarded.

I don’t yet dare turning on the original CRT display, so for now I have connected it to my TV with a composite cable. I do want to get the CRT running, but I haven’t looked into that yet.

I need to go back over and collect more items (I only grabbed the minimum to test out the upgraded power supplies) and figure out what I have and what I want to do. For example I do have a CFFA card so I can boot from compact flash instead of floppies, but that is from twenty years ago and it is tempting to get a CFFA3000 which would be so much easier to use…

I think I have an ethernet card for Apple II somewhere, as well as an Apple II SCSI Card, though before those I will need to sort out a display, possibly taking the approach of both working out how to safely use the original AppleColor RGB display and also how to get HDMI output (going as far as retrofitting an LCD would be ideal).

Over the weekend I made what I had thought would be some hard decisions, but they turned out to be pretty easy.

The decision was to let go of my Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh and the SGI O2. While I was at it I also let go of two Macintosh Pluses, a Macintosh Classic, some speakers, and some other bits and pieces. I haven’t actualy let go of them, but they are now listed on eBay and I will be selling them, even for a pittance.

I made this an easier decision than I thought it would be by re-reading what I said when I first announced that I would decimate the collection: the only item that I have a real emotional attachment to is the computer I grew up with, the Apple IIgs.

The first Macintosh that I actually used on a regular basis was my 12″ PowerBook. I never used any Macintosh computers, let alone any PowerMacs. I also never used any SGI machines, so why did I need the O2?

However, I will still keep some old computers with the centrepiece being the Apple IIgs, followed by other Apple II computers. This means that the Apple IIc computers will also stay. My cousins had a IIc, and at primary school and the first few years of high school we used Apple IIe computers (but I don’t have any of those, and probably won’t).

None of this is saying I will not have any Macintosh computers. I will keep one or two around in a supporting role for the Apple II computers. In fact I have an Apple IIe Card that puts a IIe inside an LC. I will probably keep an LC 475 or Quadra 605 for that purpose.

I will also be reducing the spare parts and peripherals down to those that can be used with or can support the Apple II computers. I have no need for a peripheral from the Power Macintosh era.

But what about the few remaining non Apple items in the collection?

While the Dauphin DTR-1 is quite unusual (it runs Windows 3.11 for Pen), I think it is time for it to go. The same can be said about the IBM PC Convertible, it is a piece of history, but I need someone else to take on the responsibility. These will all be listed on eBay in the coming weeks.

Lastly I come to the IBM JX. Unlike SGI, the Dauphin or the IBM PC Convertible, this is a computer that I did use. But not much, and that was only at school for word processing type activities. I don’t need it.

That actually sums up a lot of stuff that I have: “I don’t need it”. So coupled with my attempts to find a house…

Default deny is the security stance where anything that is not explicitly permitted, is forbidden. I use it all the time when writing code: extra form fields, ignore them, input doesn’t match, reject it, etc. It also fits in very nicely with defensive programming.

The opposite stance is default permit, number one of the six dumbest ideas in computer security.

In many aspects of my life I have been applying default permit. For example I used to buy up any vintage apple parts that were listed on ebay and I couldn’t walk past a secondhand book sale without buying a big handful of books.

Almost a year ago when I decided to downsize my computer collection I switched from default permit to default deny. I did this by starting to think about which items I wanted to keep, not about which items I could discard. The downsizing has continued in fits and starts, in some areas further than I had intended last year as I no longer have any PowerBooks or Newtons.

My other example above was books. I have a lot of books, specifically paperback novels, a mixture of fantasy, science fiction and action. But I have too many. Specifically too many to fit on the shelves so that they are doubled up.

A few weeks ago while listing some Apple parts on eBay I found that I was able to list items for free, so I grabbed quite a few books, photographed them and listed them. The books I selected first were mostly action and included a lot of spin-offs that were being mostly written by a secondary author, because of this I couldn’t see myself reading these books for a second time. Example of these include The Dreamers by David Eddings, the Dale Brown Dreamland collaborations, and Tom Clancy’s Net Force,

In hindsight this was default permit. I am going to get rid of a lot more books, but this time I will apply default deny. This means I will start by making a list of the books that I will read multiple times. This is a much smaller selective group that could contain everything by an author (Terry Pratchett is a clear candidate), or selected works from an author (early David Eddings, short story collections from Frederick Forsyth, Jeffrey Archer and Philip K. Dick).

Of course I will attempt to apply default deny to everything, not just computers and books, but I expect it will take time…

Following on from listing all of my PowerBook Duos on eBay, I have listed my Apple Newtons:

• Apple Newton MessagePad (original)
• Apple Newton MessagePad 130
• Apple Newton MessagePad 2000
• Apple Newton Keyboard
• Apple Newton MessagePad Charging Station
• Apple Newton eMate 300

Also interested in a camera?

• Apple QuickTake 100
• Apple QuickTake 200

Back in April I decided to decimate my computer collection, but after the initial flurry of activity, I haven’t done much since.

Tonight that changed and right now all of my PowerBook Duo bits, two PowerBooks and a variety of accessories, are now up on eBay:

• Apple Macintosh PowerBook Duo 210
• Apple Macintosh PowerBook Duo 2300c and DuoDock II
• Apple PowerBook Duo Battery Recharger
• Apple PowerBook Duo Floppy Drive and Adapter
• Apple PowerBook Duo MiniDock
• Apple Portable StyleWriter

I also listed the Macintosh Portable, because I have no interest to get it working, as well as a Lego Technic Hauler.

I may list the Power Macintosh 6100 next, including the Audiovision display.

A week ago I decided to decimate my computer collection. What have I achieved so far?

The Ikea shelves (like GORM, but older) that I have for the collection gives six main spaces, plus the top of the unit. It is in the six main spaces that will contain the focus of the collection.

After reoganisation, the spaces contain:

• Apple IIgs with floppy drives and floppy disks in boxes
• Apple IIc, Apple IIc+ and the rare LCD display
• SGI O2 with its 17″ widescreen LCD
• IBM PC Convertible
• IBM PC JX

Yes, that is only five spaces. I have yet to decide what occupies the sixth space, and then I still have the top of the unit.

One question that has been bouncing around in my mind is whether or not I keep any Macintosh computers. In 1988 the Apple IIgs was our first family computer and I used Apple IIs at school, so there is a connection there. But until I bought a Powerbook in 2004 I didn’t have a Macintosh. The only reason I have so many is because there were so many and at one point my goal was to have one of each type. We know what becase of that goal.

In order to allocate these five spaces, I needed to first remove what had previously been there. At the same time I also made an initial pass at what was on the wall shelves, mostly manuals, old software and peripherals such as external hard drives.

So what happened to what got removed? Some went into the rubbish bin, others went into the paper recycling bin, a few are in a pile downstairs because they are now listed on eBay, while the remainder is in another pile at the top of the stairs.

Items in that last pile include the PowerMac 6100s and the PowerBook Duos. I have yet to decide whether to keep these.

Before I started I took some photos that will be able to be stiched into a panorama. Once I have done some more cleanup I will take another set and post two panoramas for comparision.

Recently the Daily Writing Tips blog had a post about using the word “decimate” appropriately. So while the modern usage no longer means to remove one tenth, it should only be used to mean the removal of a large proportion of something, not use to refer to the total destruction of something.

In the past I have used the words cull and downsize in regard to the future of my computer collection.

They are not strong enough.

It has been years since I begain to cull and six months since I last downsized. So now I am going to decimate the collection in order to make space for lego and camera gear.

By the end of the current long weekend I must make headway. This will include any item that has sat in the cupboard for too long or that I don’t have any emotional attachment to. In reality that second criteria only covers the Apple IIgs, my first computer.

After listing my PowerBook on eBay earlier tonight, I continued on to finally list the two SGI Indys as well.

This comes after a break of almost two months in the downsizing of my computer collection. Now hopefully the Indys will be sold and picked up before Christmas, while I continue to sort through Apples.

The listings:

• SGI Indy R5000 with 17″ display
• SGI Indy R4600

It’s been an afternoon of sorting and then listing items on eBay.

First was a couple of the Lego sets from the bulk lot I picked up a few weeks ago. I am keeping the car chassis and the pneumatic excavator, but I am selling the others as I have no real interest in them.

• LEGO Technic Hovercraft
• LEGO Technic Fire Engine
• LEGO Technic Circuit Shock Racer

I also continued with the downsizing:

• Apple Macintosh Quadra 650 with Power Mac upgrade
• Apple PowerMac 7600/132
• Apple PowerMac 7200/75

I announced a few weeks ago that I was going to downsize my computer collection. Over the past few days I made a start and tonight the first items are on eBay.

I haven’t yet listed the Indys, but I have started with the bulkiest Apple items, each for $0.99:

• Apple Macintosh LC 575
• Apple Macintosh Quadra 950
• Apple OneScanner

I was also going to list the black PowerMac 5500, but that one is completely dead. It might have something to do with the evidence of water damage on the back of the logic board (a buildup of rust…), but I’m not going to bother finding out. This is a definite for the hard rubbish, but I will list the black keyboard and mouse combo.

Speaking of hard rubbish…

This weekend is BarCampMelbourne, so I will be busy. The following weekend is when I have to have the items out for the hard rubbish collection. So the bulk of what I am going to list on eBay will be listed prior to the weekend. If it comes to it I could list items for five days next Tuesday, three days on the Thursday or even one day on the Saturday, but the chance of someone seeing those listings gets lower and lower.

I have been neglecting my computer collection. The last time anything changed was when I acquired the Apple IIc with LCD, and apart from booting it up once and taking a photo it has sat idle for almost 9 months.

Two years ago I handed off my IBM PCs and IBM PS/2s. One year ago I eliminated the Sun items.

This time I am going to be ruthless, and most of the collection must go as the space could be better used for other things. For example camera related gear.

But what few items will I keep? I have thought about this before and from a glance around the shelves here is a list, ranked by likelihood of keeping:

• Apple IIgs
• Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh
• Apple IIc with LCD and external battery
• IBM JX
• IBM PC Convertible
• Apple TechStep
• Apple PowerCD
• Apple Macintosh Portable
• SGI O2 (with widescreen LCD)
• Dauphin DTR-1 (Windows 3.1 based tablet)
• Apple IIc Plus
• Apple Portrait and Two Page displays
• Apple Powerbook Duo and DuoDock II

I have a lot more, both systems and peripherals. My priority will be in downsizing (via ebay) the systems as they take up the most space. First to go will be the SGI Indys and then I will start on the variety of Macintosh and Power Macintosh systems.

Although this has been on my todo list for a while, I only realised today that the Annual Hard Rubbish Collection is just over a month away (for the area I am in). This means I don’t have much time and while I will start with the more signifigant items, if I don’t get organised a number of systems will be thrown out.

Not necessarily the best outcome, but unless I set myself a deadline, nothing will change for another year…

For many many years the first sight when entering my computer room was a frame containing sixteen Wallace and Gromit postcards in a grid. Today I replaced it with two smaller frames:

This is an old Apple poster that I have had for quite some time. As I had two smaller frames that I could reuse and I have two of these posters, I decided to split the poster down the middle.

Why is it now that I finally got around to doing this? Because earlier in the week there was a poster sale on campus.

With the intention of getting some new posters I first had to work out what posters I had, and I found that I had more than I thought, most of them for some time. In the case of the Wallace and Gromit posters that time is more than a decade for some and just under a decade for others.

Despite this I ended up buying some more. I got two from the poster sale (one being for Blue Harvest), ordered two online from the same company that ran the poster sale, and then ordered two more from the UK.

Once they all arrive I will have to work out which ones and where to hang them. This will also included determining if any of my unused frames – some bought new, others saved from being thrown out (if you looked at the back of the frames I used above you would see ballet shoes) – are appropriate.

A big box was waiting for me when I got home tonight. It contained this:

Yes, the latest addition to my collection is another Apple IIc. But this one includes the elusive LCD screen, an external battery and a carry bag for it all.

I keep putting off sorting through my collection and my current plan is to (when I get around to it) focus on specific items. This is one of them.

However, there wasn’t just one box waiting for me. After my dissatisfaction with my tripod at the WCC outing I was looking at eBay for a current model tripod and a 486RC2 head. On impluse I tried the ‘make an offer’ feature on an eBay listing and it (specifically a 190XPROB tripod) was accepted. That is what was in the second box.

Unfortunately I was a bit too enthusiastic as before I made an offer for this tripod and head, I had placed a bid for the same tripod, but just the base. As I expected the price to go above my max I wasn’t concerned. But I ended up winning it, by AU$1. So who wants to buy a tripod? Either an old but as-new 190 or a brand new 190XPROB… there is also the 484RC2 head… (I am confident that I will be able to make my money back by listing them back on eBay)

Today I received my fourth IBM PC Convertible. I got the first one because it looked like something unusual, the second because it included the thermall printer, and the third because of the backlit display and the original IBM carry case.

What does this one have going for it?

Not much, apart from a Targus branded carry case. To be honest I didn’t think that I had bid high enough to get it. It turns out that I was wrong.

I really need to work on sorting through my collection, not adding to it.

It doesn’t seem that long ago that I was using the local council’s hard rubbish collection as a reason to sort through my collection.

That was actually a year ago and, apart from getting rid of the Suns and some minor additions, I have yet to do any major sorting of my collection.

Now that I have a fixed deadline by which I need to have some more sorting done by, I actually need to be working on a talk for perl mongers this coming Wednesday.

As of tonight I no longer have any Sun (or clone) hardware in my computer collection. It was a bit dissapointing that the eBay listings didn’t go beyond their opening price, but it is a lot better that they go to someone instead of being recycled.

Now I need to continue the sorting process…

With all of the Sun hardware leaving the house something did arrive, a Flip Video Ultra Camcorder.

I bought this (from the US through eBay of course) on (sort of) impulse last week with the intention of mounting it to my bike. 60 minutes is more than enough for my commute, but not enough for a longer ride. The next step with this is to work out how to mount it…

As I stated last week, all of my Sun hardware is now listed on eBay. One big listing for all of the actual hardware from Sun and another listing just for the SPARCplug.

I looked back through my eBay emails and worked out a rough total for what I paid to collect all of the items and used that for the buy it now price. So if I am lucky there is someone out there who wants it all right now and I can make my money back, otherwise it would be good for it all to go to someone who can use it.

One side note is that the amount I paid for the SPARCplug is the same as I paid for all the Sun hardware combined…

As for updating the photos for my site? I didn’t get around to that as I was unusually busy this week as there was both a Perl Mongers meeting and a Web Standards Group meeting, both of which I need to sort through the photos from and post about the lenses that I used. Hopefully I get around to that tomorrow which still leaves me the remainder of the week until the listings end to update the photos.

This afternoon I decided to resume uncluttering my computer collection, starting with the systems I have from Sun. The last time I did this was for the IBM PCs and the IBM PS/2s quite some time ago.

So what Sun items do I have?

• Two SPARCstation 5 units
• One SPARCclassic unit
• One SPARCstation IPC unit
• A 17″ display
• An external speaker for a SPARCstation 10
• Four 411 series external cases; two CD-ROMs, one hard drive and one tape drive
• a mix of keyboards and mice

Although it isn’t an actual Sun machine, the SPARCplug is in the same boat and will be culled as I have yet to do anything with it.

By this time next week I should be finished taking any updated photos and it will all be listed on eBay. As a single big listing or over a number of listing is yet to be determined.

When I got home from work today a parcel was waiting for me that contained an Apple TechStep, the handheld diagnostic tool for Apple Macintosh‘s.

I now have two of these as 18 months ago I got one. The massive difference is that the one that arrived today is immaculate and includes additional ROM packs, all cables, manuals and the floppy disks. This was all reflected in the cost which was an order of magnitude higher than the first unit, but it is worth it.

One issue I now have is that this is yet another item on my long list of things to take photos of. I really need to get started on that.

Today my third IBM PC Convertible arrived from the US.

Third? Yes, I picked up a basic unit over a year ago and then six months ago I picked up one with the printer slice.

Although in my quick test I couldn’t get it working, this one includes:

• the later backlit display (confirmed working on one of my other units)
• modem option
• carry case
• manuals

So, even if I can’t get this one working – it was listed as not working – it does give me more of the options.

Also, flicking through the manual is interesting as it gives information on options such as the printer even though the unit may have not included it.

Over the past few weeks I have been slowly, but steadily, sorting through my collection in order to bring it down to a more manageable size. For example I did sort through my pile of Macintosh LC’s to eliminate the ones that weren’t actually complete.

One small thing I have done is to put up some updated photos:

• Apple eMate 300
• Apple microphones
• Apple floppy drives
• AppleCD 300 and 300e Plus

A few days ago I finally got around to doing something about the copyright infringement I discovered many weeks ago: I asked the Commons Help desk and got a helpful response. However, before I uploaded my images to Wikimedia Commons under a Creative Commons license I wanted to actually have this site under the same license.

A few additions (HTML head, blog sidebar, page footer) later and I am now stating that all of the content on this blog and in my computer collection is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

I also jumped over to my flickr account and set the license for all of my existing and future photos.

I think my next step will be to tag the photos in the collection, initially via the "Copyright" Exif metadata tag and then via XMP. Once I figure out what that is.

Scratch that. My immediate next step is to address the copyright infringement…

Although I had itentions to cull my collection, I didn’t get very far. However, last night I did put a couple of items out for the hard rubbish collection.

Around 8PM I put out two old desktops (proprietary HP and Compaq units) that I had scavenged a couple of years ago. An hour or so later when I put out another two systems (the Pentium 233 that used to be Gromit and the Pentium II 266 that ran the network, served the intranet and played MP3s at our LANs) I noticed that the cases of the first two had been opened.

Then when I passed them on way way out this morning I saw that all four of them had been opened: people were checking out what components they had. The the later two they didn’t have much luck as I removed the drives (in case there was any identifying data), the RAM (might be usable in a Macintosh) and the CPUs (a friend collects them) before putting them out.

I am considering a bit of scavenging myself. I spotted a Powermac 7200 series system on my way home. If it is still there tomorrow morning I’ll have a look to see it it has an intact foot thing that is used when unfolding the case…

Last week I picked up an IBM PC Convertible. Although I already had one in better condition, this one included the thermal/ribbon printer.

After refreshing my memory on how to pipe output directly to a printer and getting the thermal paper inserted the right way I was able to test it out. What should I do with a dozen copies of the help for the dir command?

Currently I am using it as a thermal printer that uses special paper. From what I understand, all I need to use it as a thermal transfer printer is to install the correct tape cartridge.

An interesting thing I noted when inspecting the printer is that the expansion slices are not as interchangeable as I thought. The clips are shaped in such a way that forces the printer to be directly connected to the unit with the serial/parallel slice attached to the printer. I suspect this is due to the much higher power requirements of the printer.

There are quite a few options for it but before I consider looking for any of them (except if they pop up on eBay in the meantime) I need to keep culling the collection which includes selling the PC Convertible. Without the printer of course.

On Sunday night the auction for my PS/2s ended and they are due to be picked up tomorrow.

While I still have a couple of items on their way inward, I really need to get a move on in culling the other bulky items in my collection. I need to have them sorted and appropriate items listed on eBay by the end of the coming weekend in order to be able to put them out in the hard rubbish if (for some reason) they do not sell.

Despite spending the day picking up a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh I also got around to listing my IBM PS/2 50z and IBM PS/2 65sx systems and parts on eBay.

Contrary to what I said earlier in the week, I decided that I couldn’t be bothered listing the parts individually. You have to remember that my main goal here is to reduce the number of actual items in my collection down to a manageable level, not to make a profit.

If there are no takers I only have to hold on to these items for two weeks after the end of the auction. That is when my area is up for the Annual Hard Rubbish Collection.

That also means that I have only three weeks to perform the culling of other bulky items. Nothing like a deadline to make things move.

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh I mentioned earlier in the week is now in my possession after I picked it up from Geelong.

Although I took a few photos while unboxing it I need to take a number of them again with better lighting. However, I did put at least one photo up:

Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM)

I do have one issue with it: the box is huge. Even if I rearrange the shelves so it can be featured, the box (which contains a number of smaller boxes) will need to be stored somewhere.

As of this evening, my IBM PC and IBM PC XT are merely a memory (except for the photos and descriptions). Their new owner is building up a collection of early IBM PCs and these are destined to be restored, or be used for parts in the restoration of other systems. Either way, they are going to a good home.

So what’s next? Last weekend I started looking through the IBM PS/2 50z, the IBM PS/2 65sx and the parts I have for those. Over the past few weeks I have seen individual parts pop up on eBay so I think I will sell these in a few lots instead of a single bulk lot:

• two 50z system units (one with CPU upgrade), one monitor and one keyboard (a Model M)
• the 65sx system unit
• the other Model M keyboard
• MCA memory cards
• MCA SCSI card
• other PS/2 bits and pieces

So that’s the goings. What about the comings?

First up is an eBay auction for an IBM PC Convertible that ends in three and a half days. While I already have one of these, this one includes the thermal printer slice. I’m going to keep my eye on it and I may yet place a bid.

Next up is a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh that I was contacted about directly. I need to decide if I want this (a revisit of similar thoughts), and if I do, how much do I want to offer?

The eBay auction for my IBM PC, IBM PC XT and related parts ended last night for AU$200 more than I had even considered.

Even though the auction has only just ended I did move them out of my computer room as part of the listing process. This allowed me (when I finally got around to it) to rearrange a couple of the items in my collection into the vacated space.

My Indys, SPARCstations, the Plus and the Portable have been blocking my access to the shelves and the cupboard for so long that it was a bit surreal with them out of the way. I still have a JX display and an Apple display in the middle of the floor, but that is nothing compared to before.

Now to follow through with the PS/2 items which would free up space so I could start sorting through the Apple items that are in the cupboard…

Two months ago I purchased another set of apple speakers that were identical to a set I already had, except beige instead of black.

Since they were coming from the US, it took until today for them to arrive. However, I wasted no time in putting up some photos along with descriptions of both sets:

While looking for a photo of an Apple CD300 to clarify an eBay auction I ended up at a page on Wikimedia Commons.

The Apple CD150 image caught my eye. First because I thought that it was actually a photo of an Apple CD300e Plus, and then because it was strangely familiar. How many other people take photos of items against an old blue sheet?

Sure enough, it is my image from the page in my collection for the Apple CD300e Plus. But my name isn’t “Marco Mioli” and this site isn’t called “All About Apple”.

Did someone change my name when I wasn’t looking? I hope not…

I did some further digging and found that there are at least five photos of mine that have been put both on the “All About Apple” site and on Wikimedia Commons. Only the misnamed CD300e Plus image is still part of my site following the update I did last week. But that doesn’t excuse the clear copyright violation.

What annoys me about this is the license statement that was specified on Wikipedia Commons. It is blatantly incorrect, and is deliberate.

I do know of a couple of sites that have mirrored sections of my site. In one case they asked first and in the other they didn’t. But in those cases I didn’t mind as they attributed me as the author and included a link to my site.

Right now I need to go to bed, but tomorrow night I will contact the “All About Apple” site AND find out how to report to Wikimedia Commons that the images are being used without permission and with an incorrect licence.

Related to this is that for a while now I have been meaning to apply a Creative Commons license (probably Attribution-ShareAlike) to this site…

I have just finished following through on my resolution to get rid of my IBM PC, IBM PC XT and related parts.

This time next week I will either have someone to take them off my hands (eBay auction) or I will be finding somewhere to store them until the upcoming hard rubbish collection.

Right now I am considering doing the same thing with more of my IBM items; the IBM PS/2 50z and IBM PS/2 65sx.

Last night del.icio.us/popular led me to My War on Clutter on 43 Folders. This in turn led me to Unclutterer and a number of other sites about organising your stuff.

I have been inspired.

Earlier in the year I asked “Why do I collect computers?“, but I have yet to really do anything about thinning out the collection.

Today I made a resolution:

By the end of this weekend (July 7/8 2007) I will have:

1. taken new photos of my IBM PC, IBM PC XT and related parts;
2. added the photos and descriptions to the collection; and
3. listed it all on eBay.

These two items are big and bulky and by getting rid of them I can free up a significant amount of space. Furthermore, I don’t know if these items even work. Since I don’t really have an interest in them I hope someone else does. This isn’t without precedent as I did the same thing with the Personal Iris, DECstation 2100 and DECstation 5000.

Over the past weekend I have been sorting through some of my smaller Apple items with the end result being a number of photos added to the collection:

• Apple Hand Controllers //e and //c
• Apple IIe Card
• Apple IIe Mouse Interface
• Apple II SCSI Card
• Apple II Super Serial Card
• Apple keyboards
• Apple mice
• AppleCD SC Plus
• Apple Hard Disk 20SC
• Apple QuickTake 100

Unfortunately, this is only the tip of the iceberg as there is a lot I still need to sort through.

This afternoon I install the flat panel adapter (that arrived earlier in the week) into my SGI O2 so it can natively run the 1600SW display. It took around ten minutes to install the adapter and then an hour and a half to update Irix to 6.5.2 using the included patch CDs.

Unfortunately the power adapter for the display decided to release its magic smoke when I plugged it in. At least it wasn’t plugged into the display at the time so the damage was constrained.

I was able to test it out using the power adapter for the MultiLink adapter, but as it is rated lower (1A instead of 3A) the display didn’t run properly. Oh well. Time to find a replacement.

Today I added photos of the SGI 1600SW display to the SGI O2 page.

I am now eagerly waiting for the flat panel adapter to arrive so the O2 can drive the display at the correct resolution and without using the multilink adapter.

On Friday the latest acquisition for my collection arrived, a SGI 1600SW display with a MultiLink Adapter that converts an analog or digital signal into the LVDS signal for the display.

Eventually this will become part of my SGI O2 once I get a flat panel adapter. This enables the display to run natively from the O2 without the MultiLink Adapter.

Anyway, this morning I picked up a DVD-D to DVD-D cable and a DVD-A to VGA cable at the swap meet which allowed me to test the multilink adapter and display with both digital and analog video signals. Apart from some small scratches and stickers on the bezel and a small dull spot on the screen itself it works nicely. It was the first time that I have been able to have a 16:9 DVD fill the screen…

Last night I spotted a NeXTstation on eBay. It had a starting bid of AU$150 and a buy it now price of AU$250. As it was only the unit, keyboard and mouse (no display) all I did was add it to my watch list.

Tonight when I got home I was prepared to opt for the buy it now option with the intention of getting it operational at a later point. Unfortunately I was too late as this is what someone else did.

This would have been a nice addition to my collection, especially considering how rare they are in Australia.

I did have a quick look for NeXTstations from international sellers. There are a couple of complete systems but they are way out of my price range, and that is before considering the shipping costs…

Remember the decked out JX that I was musing about last week? This evening I picked it up and the first thing I did (even before booting it up) was to disassemble it to see how the 5.25″ drive and hard drive connected.

It is an interesting design that I will aim to document in photos Real Soon™.

The decked out JX I spotted on eBay ended a few days ago with no bids. Since then I have exchanged a couple of messages with the seller which has prompted me to think about the purpose of my collection.

In the beginning I had an Apple IIgs which had been our family computer. Then I discovered hard rubbish collections which has been the source of around a third of my collection. Apart from unique items such as the Two Page Display none of these items have been particularly special.

Another quarter of the collection have been obtained for free from other sources, mainly through friends or relatives that gave them to me instead of throwing them out, or their work throwing them out. This is how I got the SGI Indys, the SGI O2, the IBM JX and the Dauphins.

The final five twelfths (approximately) of my collection were purchased almost exclusively from eBay with very few of them costing over AU$100, mostly lower than AU$50.

For most of this time my primary goal was to have an example of every computer manufactured by Apple. Unfortunately once I was well on the way to this goal I realised that there isn’t really anything special about a lot of them. For a while I have been thinking about reducing the total number of items and there are a lot of Macintosh models that I don’t really need to keep.

So what is my current goal for the collection?

• Significant Apple computers and peripherals; and
• Non-Apple items that are special, unique or rare.

Originally I didn’t think that I would pay more than a third of the asking price for that JX. Then I am thinking of paying two thirds but now I am considering going even closer the the asking price in order to get such a rare item…

After taking photos this evening I continued on and took photos (no descriptions yet) of my Macintosh Portable that has been sitting around since September last year.

While taking the photos I was able to get it to power up, unfortunately only as far as a sad mac…

When I got home today a IBM PC Convertible was waiting for me.

I believe this may have set the record for getting photos up (surpassing the previous record of one day) as it has been in my possession for just over three hours. Also it is exactly forty-eight hours since the eBay auction ended on Sunday night…

Only two weeks since getting the Apple IIc Plus I have put up some photos with descriptions.

I also sorted out some photos of the ethernet and localtalk components that I have as well as the OneScanner I got a few weeks ago.

Right now there is a IBM JX listed on eBay. Don’t I already have one? Yes, but nowhere near this good.

While my JX features a display, system unit, a pair of keyboards and some boot disks the system listed includes:

• the rare hard disk;
• the as rare 5.25″ drive;
• software and manuals; and
• a swivel stand for the display

The listing has six days to go, with no bids so far, and it is even located in Melbourne which means I could pick it up. However there is one problem, the listing price is almost AU$1000 which is about three times what I would consider spending…

As of today I have a Apple IIc Plus in my collection.

Getting it running was a bit convoluted as this model was only released in the US its power supply is 110V. First I plugged in an Australian to IEC power cable. I then used a travel adapter to change the Australian plug to a US one which in turn plugged into a step-down transformer. As I don’t have any suitable 3.5″ disks for this I plugged in an external 5.25″ drive and proceeded to play some Lode Runner which was harder than it used to be due to the increase in processor speed.

As usual I now need to find some time to take some photos of this and other items I have obtained over the last few months…

The Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh that I spotted on eBay last week finished today. I was the winning bidder for a few seconds and it ended up going for over AU$1000, a few hundred more than I was willing to pay.

On the bright side my order of television DVDs arrived today after a long wait:

• Seasons three and four of Knight Rider
• All four seasons of Farscape
• Season four of Scrubs

This adds up to over a hundred hours of viewing. I hope I get through them by March.

I also bought myself a new SD card for my camera. As well as doubling the capacity the 2GB SanDisk Ultra II Plus card that I got has a built in USB connector. This means that I can easily copy photos off (or other files onto) the card on any computer with a USB port.

Yesterday I spotted a Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh on eBay. It is currently sitting at AU$325 with three and a half days to go. This would be an excellent addition to my collection so I am considering going to twice that price, ie AU$750, or even higher.

Unfortunately there have already been bids from five separate bidders which indicates that there is a lot of interest.

As an aside it was interesting to see that a few days ago eBay stopped showing the names of other bidders, all you now see is ‘Bidder 1’, ‘Bidder 2’, etc. In the past I have found it enlightening to look through the history of the other bidders in order to see what sort of items they have bought or sold. This can give an indication of how much they want the item. Alas, I can no longer do that.

This morning, thanks to eBay, I picked up a Macintosh Portable. Unfortunately it isn’t functional but it may be as simple as a bad battery (it is over fifteen years old) but that may not be simple to recitfy.

Now to find some time to take photos of it…

This morning I picked up another Macintosh Plus for my collection. I did cost be a bit more than I would have wanted but my consolation is that it had been upgraded to 4MB of RAM (up from the standard 1MB) and it came in a carry bag that is in excellent condition.

This afternoon I pick up some photos and descriptions of the Apple TechStep that I obtained earlier in the week.

Last week I was the winning bidder for an Apple TechStep, the diagnostic tool for early Apple Macintosh’s and SCSI hard drives. On Sunday night I noticed that the seller was no longer a registered user of eBay and as I had already paid the grand sum of AU$28 (including postage) I became a bit concerned but everything became well when I found it waiting on the doorstep when I got home tonight.

So what did I get for AU$28 that seems to go for a few hundred US$?

• Apple TechStep unit
• CPU Tests, Vol. 1, v. 1.1.1 ROM
• SCSI HD Tests, v. 1.0 ROM
• Apple TechStep AC Adapter
• Apple SCSI Cable
• Apple TechStep case

Based on the above site, some photos on flickr, and some other sites I believe that it is missing the following items to be totally complete:

• ROM packs for CPU tests Vol. 2, 3 and 4 (could also list the older version of Vol. 1)
• Serial, ADB and audio cables (I may have enough of these already)
• Manuals
• Floppy disks (I am not sure what these are as it seems the techstep can drive the Macintosh over SCSI or ADB…)

One other interesting thing about the TechStep (and would normally remove) is a price tag on the bottom dated 25 November 1994 with an ex tax price of $1167.00. The power supply has a similar sticker except the price of that is $178. This thing cost a fortune and that isn’t even adjusting for the 22% sales tax that was present back in 1994 (these days we have a 10% GST).

If I get my act together I may get some photos up this weekend…

This evening I finally got around to uploading the photos and descriptions of three of the new items that I obtained a few weeks ago. So here they are…

Four of the five items that I mentioned a few days ago are currently taking up floor space. I picked up the three mac’s last night and the Sun was waiting for me on the doorstep when I arrived home.

I am currently uploading some more photos to flickr but my (possibly optimistic) plan is to sort through the items by next weekend…

Over the past two days I have lined up five more items for my computer collection:

A co-worker offered me (for nothing) a SGI Indy with 17″ monitor that has been sitting in their office (logically as physically their office has been in six spaces across three buildings) since it was obtained a few years ago. Earlier in the week I spotted a SUN SPARCclassic on eBay for a starting price of AU$10. I was the winning bidder last night for the grand sun of AU$21.50. The other three items are a Macintosh Classic (with carry bag!), a Macintosh Plus and a Macintosh LCIII that were together in another eBay listing that ended this morning in my favour for AU$41.

Now I need to wait for the SPARCclassic to arrive in the post and to organise pickup of the other items.

This afternoon I finally got around to taking photos of the PowerBook Duo 2300c and Duo Dock II that I picked up two weeks ago. I am disappointed that I was not able to get this done on the same day as the pickup as I managed to do with the SPARCstation IPC back in February.

This afternoon I picked up the latest addition to my collection , a PowerBook Duo 2300C, Duo Dock, Duo MiniDock, keyboard and mouse. Although I didn’t already have one of these PowerBooks in my collection I was more interested in the Duo Dock II for my Duo 210…

After my last update just over a month ago I spent time time tonight adding descriptions to the photos of my Apple IIgs.

A few days ago I decided that a week was long enough to wait for a response since I offered my two DECstations to the ClassicCmp mailing list and I would probably have a better response with eBay. So after lunch today I listed them for the grand total of AU$1 (buy it now) and by the time I got home someone had bought them. I haven’t been in contact with them yet but I expect that by the end of the coming weekend they will be gone…

I have just posted a message to one of the ClassicCmp mailing lists in which I offer the DECstation 5000 and the that I have. For free. Hopefully they will go as quickly as the SGI Personal Iris‘s that I found a home for via the same method a little over eighteen months ago.

Two days ago I posted that the shortest duration between getting a new item and putting up photos of it was just under a week. The shortest duration is now one day as I have just put up photos of the SPARCstation IPC that I got yesterday.

This evening I got around to taking some photos of the MessagePad 2000 that I bought earlier in the month. This must be the shortest period between getting a new item for my collection and putting up photos of it.

A little over a week ago I acquired two new SGI systems and it is only now that I have been able to update the page for the O2 with photos I took this afternoon.

This morning I picked up the two new SGI systems to add to my collection. The O2 is very cool and I will need to take photos of them and then work out what to keep and where to keep it.

However I an envious of this acquisition of sun hardware, the sorting of which is being tracked.

I am currently on leave from work for two weeks and this morning I remembered that I needed to send an email with some information that would keep a project moving while I wasn’t there. In the process of doing this I noticed an email sent a scant four minutes earlier in which four SGI Indy systems and a single SGI O2 system were offered. For free! I quickly responded asking if the O2 and R5000 Indy were available… they are now mine, once I can organise some time to collect them…

Following on from my update earlier today I have also put up some meaningful descriptions of the photos of the PS/2 50z.

On the first day of my two week break from work I didn’t really do much. I did continue to discard unwanted items from my collection but mostly I relaxed and while I was doing that I realised I needed to move toward a more template based system to make the editing of each item’s page easier which led to the update of the IBM JX page.

Tonight was the first Melbourne Perl Mongers meeting of the year. Normally the meeting is on the second Wednesday of all months except for January. As the December meeting was overshadowed by OSDC 2005 and the February meeting will actually be a OSDClub meeting it was felt that a casual meeting with a few lightning talks would be appropriate.

Back in December while on the train to the third day of the conference I had an idea for a lightning talk: use photos to tell the story of why I scrape eBay into an iCal file that is then sync to my phone so I automatically get reminders about auctions I am watching or bidding on. Around about 95% of the talk would be gratuitous photos of my computer collection.

Now I actually spent about fifteen minutes on Tuesday night taking semi-random photos of my collection with the intention of taking the remaining photos (such as a screen showing the end of an eBay auction) sometime today. That did not happen. However when I saw that there were only three people prepared to do talks this evening I for some unknown reason (suspicion is placed with the two pints of pre-meeting beer) stuck my hand up with the intention of winging the actual perl related parts of the talk.

So after a minute or so flipping through the photos I had taken on Tuesday I ended up just browsing through this site to bring up the detailed photos of the interesting items in the collection. I have no idea how well the talk went but it did spur a couple of conversations about old hardware over dinner at the pub and I may end up getting a few new items…

Since my decision last week to start being ruthless with what I keep in my computer collection I have been constantly dumbfounded by what I thought was worth keeping. Just some of the items that ended up on the discard pile were:

• An entire box (around 20) of old ISA I/O cards that ranged from 8-bit cards that provided two parallel and two serial ports, to16-bit cards with parallel, serial and IDE.
• Another box packed full with the connectors mounted on backplates for the aforementioned I/O cards.
• Yet another box of video card. These were more varied than the I/O cards but in this case I did keep the more unusual ones (eg an 8-bit VGA card) and one or two others. It is highly likely that the ones I did keep will also end up with the rest…

On the last day of my break before I return to work I decided that I should get started on sorting out my computer collection. The first step was to at least move the empty boxes and other junk that had accumulated on the floor … which didn’t get completed…

However it was a productive afternoon as I now have four piles in the area outside my room:

Read the rest of this entry…

A while ago I realised that a signifigant proportion of items in my computer collection are not actually computers. They are actually peripherals, in particular Apple peripherals. To reflect this I have removed the old Apple accessories page that I had and created a new section under Apple entitled peripherals.

The items that currently have more than a single photo are:

• Apple PowerCD
• AppleDesign Powered Speakers
• AppleDesign Powered Speakers II
• Apple External Hard Drive
• Apple Adjustable Keyboard
• Apple ethernet components
• Apple Portable StyleWriter

Two photos of the Disk IIc external floppy drive that I obtained recently are now up on my Apple IIc page.

Photos and descriptions of my PowerBook Duo 210, one of my recent additions, are now up…

Instead of sorting through the photos of my recent additions I spend some time this afternoon adding descriptions to the photos of my Power Macintosh 6360.

In the past twenty four hours I have added four more items to my collection:

• A Powerbook Duo 210 which included a MiniDock, external floppy drive and a Portable StyleWriter;
• A set of AppleDesign Powered Speakers (possibly faulty);
• A set of AppleDesign Powered Speakers II (dark grey) that will go nicely with my PowerCD;
• and another Apple IIc system that includes the fairly rare Disk IIc external floppy drive.

I am still waiting for one more package to arrive and this one contains an Apple IIc+ system…

After taking some photos a few weeks ago I have finally uploaded the ones for my Sun SPARCstation 5.

As the hard rubbish collection for my area starts tomorrow I spent the afternoon sorting through my collection to find anything that I could part with.

I only ended up parting with a couple of items, all of which were not unique in my collection and were also missing a signifigant component such as a power supply or drive cage. I also pulled out any cards or memory as they are much easier to store…

Following on my SGI Personal Iris update earlier today I have also added photo descriptions to Apple IIc and made some minor adjustments to Apple Macintosh Colour Classic

Just a quick note to say that I have extended the information regarding the SGI Personal Iris in my computer collection beyond a simple collection of photos.

As I no longer have an example of this system in my collection there will not be any more updates in the future…

Last week I found an item on eBay that I was really interested in, a brand new set of Apple Design Powered Speakers which are pretty hard to find. So I placed a bid but as I was shortly outbid I decided to return just prior to the end of the listing like I normally do.

For some reason I thought it ended on the midnight that is on Monday night, not the midnight that is at the start of Monday, ie Sunday night.

A quick search that includes items by international sellers brings up a similar but different set for a very low price. Unfortunately the stated shipping cost from the UK is huge.

Due to Good Friday, Easter Monday and Easter Tuesday all being university holidays I am now facing a five day weekend. Although I will end up sleeping or watching movies for most of it I might as well entertain the delusion that I might get something constructive done.

These things may be:

• Actually visit a number of bike shops in order to find a replacement as my current bike is getting very worn out.
• Move a signifigant number of items from my computer collection in order to be able to paint the room they currently occupy.
• Finish creating a WordPress template that mimics the look of this blog so I can migrate to it.
• Something else…

One of my recent eBay purchases arrived today, a number of Apple Macintosh laptop parts. The outcome of this is that, using one of the power adapters from this collections of parts, the PowerBook 5300cs that I have had for a while can now turn on.

However it appears that the battery in the PowerBook is also dead so it cannot run without the power adapter…

The second Apple PowerCD that I have obtained via eBay in the last month arrived today. Apart from this unit having the video cable and not having a proper power supply there is one very important difference. It can actually read audio and data CD’s.

The first unit that I got appeared fine when plugged in but it just refused to spin up when the door was closed with a cd inserted. So I will shorty be posting it back for a refund…

Over the past few weeks I’ve been slowly sorting through my computers in an attempt to clear up some space.

Towards this goal this afternoon I listed my second SGI Indy on eBay. Hopefully I can get a better price than two systems that have been listed recently…

Last week, after getting only a single response from a person in Adelaide, I listed two 19″ monitors (DIGITAL and SUN branded Sony displays) on eBay for the sole purpose of addressing a wider audience.

I have just finished sorting through all the photos I took yesterday of the new additions to my collection and they are uploading as I type.

The items in question are:

• Apple Macintosh Quadra 950
• Apple Power Macintosh 4400
• Apple Power Macintosh 7600
• Apple Power Macintosh 8100
• Apple Power Macintosh 8500
• Apple Newton MessagePad

I still need to add content such as descriptions of the photos…

This morning I detoured via Surrey Hills on my way to work (a long detour) in order to pick up a Macintosh Quadra 950, another PowerMac 8100 and an external Pioneer six CD stacker (there will be photos at some stage…). These are some of the items that I mentioned I was watching in my post last friday.

There are currently seven items in my eBay watch list so it is highly likely that I will be adding even more items to my collection. I really should get around to listing the items that I have but don’t need like a second complete SGI Indy and and some 19″ monitors (one is SUN branded and the other is DIGITAL branded)…

Over the break I wrote a simple script to login to eBay and grab the details of the items in my watch list. I then format this information in iCalendar format and place it in a file on my local webserver. On my Powerbook I then have iCal subscribed to this which means that I get alerted shortly before the items end both on the Powerbook and on my phone (thanks to iSync). I’m considering releasing the eBay functionality as a perl module through the CPAN…

For the past few weeks and hopefully for quite a few more there have been a number of interesting Apple items listed on eBay. Thanks to this I picked up a PowerMac 8100/100AV and a PowerMac 8500/180 during lunch today. I am also waiting for a PowerCD to arrive from Newcastle.

There is even a couple more items that end in the next few days that I have my eye on. A Quadra 950, a pair of Macintosh Classics, and another Newton…

Today saw the addition of a new item to my computer collection, a Apple Newton MessagePad. This unit is a H1000 model which is commonly referred to as a ‘Original Message Pad’.

I have had a quick play with it and for something that is over ten years old (released in 1993) the handwriting recognition is pretty impressive. Once I can get my hands on a digital camera again I will be able to take some photos…

In preperation for taking photos of my new PowerMac 9600 this weekend I stripped it down to give it a thorough cleaning. Unfortunately while the case design makes it trivial to get to the PCI cards, memory and drives it is very frustrating once you need to remove something like the logic board or the outer plastic skin…

My method of cleaning is to break it down into components as much as possible and brush the dust off with an old paintbrush. In a wet area, ie the bathroom, a combination of Spray n Wipe, an old toothbrush and water is very effective at cleaning the slightly textured plastic…

Today I took possession of the Powermac 9600 and Powermac 7600 that I mentioned just over a week ago. Now to find some time to clean them up and take photos…

Yet again thanks to eBay I will be shortly getting two new PowerMac’s for my collection, the 9600 that I mentioned in a previous entry and a 7600 as well from the same seller. Now to arrange pickup…

This morning I picked up the first Apple for my collection that is in a tower configuration instead of a desktop. It is a Power Macintosh 6400 and photos are already up.

What is ironic is that there is currently another PowerMac model that I have been wanting for a while up on ebay, a Power Macintosh 9600/200 that ends in a little over 2 days…

This morning I picked up the first new item for my collection in almost two months and the first new Apple for quite a while, a Power Macintosh G3. While I was taking photos I took the opportunity to install the PC Compatability Card that I got a while ago for my Power Macintosh 7200.

A long while ago I decided that maintaining the details of my computer collection would be easiest if I generalised each page into a set number of fields which I could store in the database and modify through a web interface. I pretty quickly wrote up some PHP to read the information from the database and present it. However I soon lost interest while creating the interface to modify the information which meant that it has sat half done for at least eighteen months now.

Tonight I decided that if I was ever get around to entering all the information that I have sitting around in various text files I will go back to basics and make each page essentially static. I’ll keep a few functions to handle such things as presenting the image thumnail in a nice way but these will be called manually from the index files in each directory. It will also mean that the canonical source for the information will be in the CVS repository on gromit. Not in a database that resides on a server in America with only version control that I implement, ie none…

Today I jumped at the chance to get my hands on a complete SGI Indy system that was being disposed of at work. It is identical to the system that I already have (collected from various sources) except for one small difference, it has the remote control for adjusting the settings on the display…

At work today someone mentioned that they had a hard rubbish collection in their area and since I knew that they also lived in the City of Monash it explained why I had seen that a number of people had put stuff out.

This year I’m not going to go out scrounging and since my area is up next week it means I’ll have to do some sorting of my computers this week. Ideally there is nothing to dispose of but I know I’m never going to do anything with things like a non functional Pentium 90…

If I hadn’t given away those two SGI Personal Iris’s back in June they would be going out now…

On Wednesday night I posted a message to the ClassicCmp list saying that I had two SGI Personal Iris systems available for free. These systems were part of a bulk lot I obtained late last year, but since I hadn’t done anything with them and didn’t forsee any progress in the near (or even distant) future I decided that I no longer had a reason to keep them. Plus they took up a lot of space…

Anyway, a scant fourteen minutes after I posted my message I had a response from a guy who wanted to know when he could pick them up. He came by this morning and the systems will now be part of his collection of SGI systems that until now had not included even one Personal Iris, and now he has two.

Although I gave the systems away for free he brought along his Irix 6.5 installation cd’s and I grabbed a copy of them after we loaded up his car. So after lunch I extracted my Indy from the computer pile, set it up, and began installing Irix…

As I type it is almost complete…

This weekend I was able to find some time to play around with my CompactFlash / IDE Interface card for Apple II computers that arrived before christmas. I only used a 32MB compact flash card, heaps of space compared to two 800k floppy disks, and installed System 6.01 and AppleWorks GS on it.

Since I have three GS system units I think I will sacrifice one in order to make a Mark Twain‘esque box by mounting a floppy drive to the underslide of the cover. Disks will be inserted through the front and it will prevent the use of any slots except for slot 7 which will contain the Compact Flash interface card. I don’t actually have any other cards so it isn’t that much of a big deal. However a ZipGS or TranswarpGS would be nice if I could actually fine one…

The CompactFlash / IDE Interface card for Apple II computers that I ordered last week for my Apple IIgs arrived today. It is very professionally done with a good reference manual.

I want to play with it now but I have Christmas stuff to do…