Vintage Computers

LOM said:
Yoh... you'll have me waxing lyrical about CDDI and FDDI soon. Haven't heard these terms for yonks.
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Was a huge FDDI fan, built some cool networks with it. And the way the protocol did the 4/5-bit lookup was quite interesting. :)

But always like how Token Ring worked on the wire. So much more elegant than Ethernet.
 
Anyone remeber Lantastic? Used to work well over coaxial, until someone forgot the terminal resistor! Also fun when someone shared their drive with write-access, instead of read-only.

Those were much more innocent and less security conscious years...
 
Gordon_R said:
Anyone remeber Lantastic? Used to work well over coaxial, until someone forgot the terminal resistor! Also fun when someone shared their drive with write-access, instead of read-only.

Those were much more innocent and less security conscious years...
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Got a few boxes of Lantastic, still want to set it up at some point :)
 

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LOM said:
Thanks @jannievanzyl that looks promising. It seems I may have a PSU fault - I tested with nothing connected last night and was getting between 2.5 and 3.5v for the 5v rail and around 5-7 for the 12v rails. I'm in two minds about getting another PSU just to get it booting or repairing this PSU. I'd like to have the original PSU in the box so I may just go with the long game at this stage and sort out the PSU first. I'm hearing a feint ticking sound coming from the PSU when powered.
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Yeah, best to repair where you can and keep it original.

Did you remove / replace the Rifas? They tend to go up in smoke shortly after turning these old PSUs on.

PS. I'm assuming the Executive has filter caps, the Osborne 1 definitely has and they make lots of magic smoke.

Where are you based?
 
LOM said:
Talk about not security conscious. As recent as 2006 I was at a hotel that will remain unnamed.... at the most boring conference ever. I climbed on the public wifi and did a quick scan to see what was out there and what I saw made my day. What I would estimate was the entire hotel LAN including backoffice... and some Windows 98 machines.

All the office machines were running VNC for remote support and some poep had C: drive on just one of the 98 machines open for read. I took a look around for the Windows registry file, made a copy of that and loaded it using the hive load feature of regedit to see what I could see. I grabbed the encrypted VNC password - which was encrypted using 3DES and a static key which had been reverse engineered at that stage. I quickly decrypted it with a free tool off the web and got to work seeing just how many machines shared the same password... and would you believe it, it was the only password they used :laugh:

Of course, not being a malicious guy, I decided to lend a hand and hopped onto what looked to be a manager of sort's PC while he was in the middle of putting together a word document and released the contents of my clipboard with Ctrl-V over and over. "I WILL SECURE MY WIRELESS NETWORK, I WILL SECURE MY WIRELESS NETWORK!!!!". I just wish I could have seen his face....
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Yea I agree, back in the day it was just 'nicer'. Personally working in IT and stuff is nice but I prefer the older days when you got what you paid for and could trust it.

Setting up networks was actually fun to see everything work. If that last terminator was out or unplugged it was also like innocent.

I'm getting old.:cautious:

That's why I enjoy restoring and keeping vintage tech.
 
jannievanzyl said:
People tend to gravitate towards systems that are around the time they got their first real crush on a system. I fell in love with computing in the late 70's, you probably in the 90's. Both are perfectly acceptable.

I always smile at all the arguments on what is the definition of "vintage". Realty is that your "vintage" or "retro" is equally valid to mine. :)
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Fully agree with this, I started on the Acorn Electron, BBC Model B and (at home) the Atari 800XL. Would really love to get my hands on any one of them, just for the nostalgia. Emulators and modern versions (think Arm and Micro Bit) just aren't the same
 
Stuey74 said:
Fully agree with this, I started on the Acorn Electron, BBC Model B and (at home) the Atari 800XL. Would really love to get my hands on any one of them, just for the nostalgia. Emulators and modern versions (think Arm and Micro Bit) just aren't the same
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My first machine was also the Acorn Electron. I learned to program on it since the tapes all eventually destructed and there was no community back at the time (circa ‘83 IIRC). Still have it somewhere, but going to be hard to find since I’m not in the country.
 
Programming in BASIC connected to a TV as a kid was the awesome stuff memories are made of in the early '80s
I'm glad that my TANDY TRS-80 is finally going to have a good resting place this Wednesday at @jannievanzyl home.
I've had her since 1983 and it is time to let her go. Wow, that's 38 years ago. My ex is younger than that :laugh:

Also throwing in my Toshiba Libretto 50CT mini laptop with docking stations that I bought brand new when I was living in the UK in the late '90s working at IBM. I loved that laptop as I could put it inside my duffel coat inner pocket inside. It is the exact same size as the VHS cassette and was considered the smallest laptop in the world back then over 20 years ago. It still even has the original Toshiba Windows 95 stiffies sealed with the manual. And the PCMCIA external stiffy drive is there as well.
 
Pineapple Smurf said:
Programming in BASIC connected to a TV as a kid was the awesome stuff memories are made of in the early '80s
I'm glad that my TANDY TRS-80 is finally going to have a good resting place this Wednesday at @jannievanzyl home.
I've had her since 1983 and it is time to let her go. Wow, that's 38 years ago. My ex is younger than that :laugh:

Also throwing in my Toshiba Libretto 50CT mini laptop with docking stations that I bought brand new when I was living in the UK in the late '90s working at IBM. I loved that laptop as I could put it inside my duffel coat inner pocket inside. It is the exact same size as the VHS cassette and was considered the smallest laptop in the world back then over 20 years ago. It still even has the original Toshiba Windows 95 stiffies sealed with the manual. And the PCMCIA external stiffy drive is there as well.
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Great times. Saving work in progress to tape, with only an 80% chance of being able to reload it. Remembering the offsets on the tape recorder so you knew where your progress were. :-)
 
cguy said:
Great times. Saving work in progress to tape, with only an 80% chance of being able to reload it. Remembering the offsets on the tape recorder so you knew where your progress were. :)
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Yup

My younger brother got the ZX Spectrum 48k a few years later and I totally fell in love with that computer.
I stopped using my TRS-80 immediately and only used his computer daily when he wasn't using it.
That keyboard membrane was boiling hot burning our fingertips LOL

I miss those computers and would give my left nut for one now

Green Beret Loading Screen ZX Spectrum | Retro gaming, Animal crossing qr, Green beret
 
is that the first mouse?
it had a bloody long name back in the day
the x and y way navigator tool thingy
 
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