OVERKILL
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YES!! That was it, LapLink, I know I have it on a 3.5" FDD here somewhere, you could use parallel or serial IIRC, but if you were using serial, you had to use a null modem cable.
Computer nostalgia - Post your relics!
- Thread starter OVERKILL
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The parallel cable had a special wiring arrangement, as I recall it connected 4 of the output data lines to 4 of the input lines and vice-versa and could therefore work with a regular (non bidirectional) parallel port.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
Yes, I think it was called a LapLink cable, correct?
Yes, it was somewhat of a standard, there was other software that supported it's use and I think Linux even had a parallel port networking driver that could use it, much like a PPP connection. It was pretty easy to find the pinout to roll your own cable if you wanted.
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
ATA ZIP100 drive:
OVERKILL
$100 Site Donor 2021
I had an interest in computer from a pretty young age, and growing up my dad always had PCs and I would get his hand-me-downs. My dad did a stint in IT for state government back in the 80s and then again in the early 2000s, and he still talks about the 1gb or so drive they had for their WANG that was the size of a washing machine. As a side note, those WANGs were looking pretty ragged back in the early 2000s and I'm pretty sure had been upgraded to the max, but if I'm remembering correctly they lasted until around 2008 or so when they finally brought a new system online. I can remember riding with him down to Nashville one evening again around 2000 or so to meet someone from the company that serviced their WANG to swap a board(which they would take and rework) and my dad to bring it back to get it going the next day. I quickly learned at school NOT to say that I'd ridden with my dad to have his WANG fixed in Nashville
As a fun little sidenote, here's my dad hard at work back in the 80s with an audience-I like showing this photo as I knew all of the people in this photo(even though it was taken before I was born) and unfortunately two are now gone.
In any case, I mentioned all of that to say that, my dad's WANG work aside, I grew up in a PC house. My dad bought a Tandy 1000 back in the 80s, then upgraded every few years. Almost as soon as I was big enough to know what I was doing, I learned how to boot that Tandy with games(on a 5 1/4 floppy that it would boot off of, not unlike how a lot of Apple II programs worked, although that computer also had a HardCard). I later graduated to his 386, which I do still have around somewhere, and a few others after that. BTW, the Tandy disappeared along the way(long story there, but I was sorry to see it go). A few years ago, pre-pandemic and pre-move for me, I was able to get another 1000a similar in spec but a little newer than my dad's. It had a 30mb HardCard, just like his, but also had a 3 1/2" drive(my dad's was 2x 5 1/4"). Mine actually didn't have a 5 1/4 when I got it, but I had picked up an NOS one along the way. I was able to get my hands on a keyboard for it-one of the first obstacles(or rather the guy who I'd bought it from found the keyboard) but I stalled out on a monitor. I didn't spend a ton of time working on this, but I also didn't have a lot of luck finding an ISA VGA video card that would work in it-not that I tried hard, but really was just going through ones I had stashed back. I hunted a few times for a genuine Tandy monitor, but couldn't find one within driving distance and some other then-recent experience shipping CRTs and getting them with the alignment completely out of whack soured me on it-one of these days hopefully I'll get it going.
To your Mac comments, though:
My first real Mac experience was with the G3s in my high school's computer lab. I think Apple must have pumped those almost for free into school districts everywhere judging by the number of people I talk to whose schools had similar labs. I HATED the things. Not only did I not know how anything worked on them(although I'm sure I could have figured it out given unfettered access-that's how I learned most of OS 9 later on in life) but they were super un-reliable and loved to randomly shut off. It probably didn't help that about half were fanless slot loaders, and the computer lab was usually about 80º. Of course too it was pounded into us to constantly save, and given that I didn't know Macs then, I was constantly having to grab that awful mouse to go up and click save and would have never thought to do command+s as I habitually do on everything now.
My school also had a Molar Mac(G3 All-in-one) in the library that was just a card catalog. I thought it was the weirdest computer I'd ever looked at then, but it was an exciting day back in the 2010s when I was able to buy one. They're interesting computers, and definitely a step up in quality and capability over the iMac(despite being huge).
Apple's early 2000s aesthetic really was kind of over the top. I rarely use OS X earlier than Tiger(10.4.11) where they'd toned down the pinstriping a lot. The 10.0-10.2 pinstriping really was over the top IMO, but if you were using it on an iMac G3 or one of the other period Apple displays the pinstriping did kind of blend into the bezels.
I admit to not having a ton of experience with 90s and earlier Apple displays, and tend to use VGA dongles with low-res LCDs when I use them. I know I've had some duds in them, even when the tube itself was relatively high quality. There was a super nice 13" Trinitron(model escapes me) that was often paired with Quadras and IICs, and I do have a few of those.
I think my favorite has to be the 17" ADC CRT. It's such a great match for a computer like the Cube, and is a really high quality tube. It's a true-flat Diamontron, but I honestly think at that point in CRT production, looking at multiple examples side-by-side, that Mitsubishi was making better tubes than Sony. Some would call that heresy, but I stand by it(even though the Trinitron name has the cachet). I also love how minimalist and "clean" using ADC makes a system like that.
I have a 5K iMac as well-it's gorgeous...
My enthusiasm for computers, gadgets, cars and DIY was passed down by my dad as well.
And I'm the opposite, in never having spent my own money to buy a Windows PC. That said, I'm not a zealot, worship the company, or fit a lot of the other tired tropes that are usually bandied about; I just started down that road early, liked what I used, and knew, and that's the path I followed. But I do remember being excited about the prospect, then being disappointed by the IBM PC Jr. when it finally appeared. Didn't know what they were thinking with that chiclet keyboard, from the company that gave us the Selectrics, and regular PC buckling springs. That could have set me on a different path.
Byte Magazine was a regular read; I've mentioned Computer Chronicles already, and I think at one time I did, or still might even have the magazine issues when Steve Jobs first appeared on the covers with the original Mac, including Macworld. I first touched the Mac in '84, when a relative bought one to explore development, and later got an SE for myself (running System 6), after using a friend's SE.
Despite whatever troubles Apple had in the 90s, the platinum Macs, and PowerMacs were still good, solid machines, with a lot of smart engineering and expandability. I still think the IIci is one of their greatest models, and the entire thing could be disassembled by removing a single Phillips screw. Or two, if the one for the top cover was used. My 7500 had two CPU upgrades during the course of its life, from the original 601, to a 604, and finally a G3, plus an add-on USB card. The market may have been small, but there was still a healthy ecosystem devoted to Mac hardware, with quality vendors. The modular design of the Wall Street PowerBooks carried that over, and I still have the accessory kit, and PCMCIA adapter pod for the computer I gave back to the company when I left.
While the NeXTified version of the Finder did bring many enhancements, in some ways, the Finder from classic Mac OS is still superior, in actually having a good, bug-free spatial paradigm. FTFF! Even now, I have to chuckle at how the current Finder will occasionally forget window settings, and just generally treat windows sloppily and in a more fleeting manner than Classic did. The Dock is ok, but I missed the spring-loaded folder tabs that were a cleaner, and more flexible way to launch apps and docs than the Dock, or Launchpad.
Times change, and have changed, and I feel fortunate to have the perspective of seeing all of this develop, as well as the Internet.
But I'm finding it harder to continue to muster enthusiasm for the tech hamster wheel, each new way companies find to ruin the UX, and the innocent, idealistic nature of going online has certainly given way to the horribleness of some people in general, and the greed of companies, their intrusive nickle-and-dime business models, and weaponized ecosystems.
And in some respects, Apple itself has become what its users hated about Microsoft in the old days, throwing its market power around, losing at least part of the former "just works" nature, and releasing poorly tested and buggy software; "1984" with switched roles, in some uncomfortable ways.
While the Hewletts, Packards, and their peers were still businessmen, I can't think of a modern tech titan off the top of my head that can compare, or seek to create a code like they did with the HP Way, and follow through on it. Instead, we have the nutjobs like Musk, frauds like Theranos, and grifters like FTX. Crypto has flamed out, but AI is ready to take its place as the next grift.
Excellent take on how things have gone, you really captured the "Era" and how greed has darkened the enthusiasm for tech lately. What has been lost was the purity that existed, or maybe we were just more naive about mankind back then. Mankind has always done bad things but seems it's getting worse lately. But with respect to tech, increasing computer power doesn't have to be more complicated..some of the more simple ways back then were better, I agree!
My old computer stuff goes to recycle. I just don't have room, or desire, to keep it. My "new" stuff is already old as it's hand-me-downs from friends or older technology from Epay. Like my cameras, my requirements and operating systems will run on older, and cheaper, technology.
Excellent take on how things have gone, you really captured the "Era" and how greed has darkened the enthusiasm for tech lately. What has been lost was the purity that existed, or maybe we were just more naive about mankind back then. Mankind has always done bad things but seems it's getting worse lately. But with respect to tech, increasing computer power doesn't have to be more complicated..some of the more simple ways back then were better, I agree!
Tech has given mankind the ability to do great things.
But it has also made it very easy to do bad things, and to much greater effect.
The balance between those two things is what has me worried, and I don't think the efforts to combat the latter, even when TPTB deign to make them, are necessarily good, never mind effective.
But, sorry to take a downer tangent, so back to your regularly scheduled program…
For me I don't think it's a downer, just a realistic view of how things have gotten, tech included. Thanks for the viewpoint! Not sure about others but I appreciate it!
Wow, this brings back some early computing memories for sure!
We had a 486SX-powered IBM PS/Valuepoint desktop. It was fine for the most part, but the early/mid-90's is when PC gaming really started to take off and I wanted to play a lot of those titles that needed more power. One of the Valuepoint's features was an OverDrive socket, so of course I had to spend $300 ($600 in 2023 dollars!) on a Pentium OverDrive upgrade CPU running at a whopping 63MHz. Of course, it didn't work out of the box, causing a no-POST error. I contacted IBM's tech support and was given instructions on how to dial in to their FTP site and download the latest BIOS for my computer, create a bootable 3.5" floppy with it, and update the BIOS. Once done, I reinstalled the OverDrive CPU and it worked! I was blown away that software could be pulled down over a phone line to create a tool that would fix a problem like that. That was some of my earliest computer tech troubleshooting, and also the reason why I'm a huge fan of updating BIOS and firmware on anything if it's been made available.
I have an 83mhz Pentium overdrive in a system, I think it's on a crappy PCChips motherboard with fake l2 cache chips, I also have Packard Bell Pentium 60 system.
Such good computing times back in the 90's, getting hooked on tinkering and upgrades. I loved making changes and actually seeing the results, like the first time I installed a sound card (a Thunder Board) and got audio in Wing Commander, or installing a Voodoo 2 in my Aptiva and seeing how incredibly smooth the included Battlezone demo played. I miss those first-time 'Wow!' experiences.
That said, I'm not in the least bit nostalgic for Maxtor hard drive bearing whine, but I do miss being able to discern the audible difference between Maxtors, Seagates, and my favorite Western Digitals.
That said, I'm not in the least bit nostalgic for Maxtor hard drive bearing whine, but I do miss being able to discern the audible difference between Maxtors, Seagates, and my favorite Western Digitals.
Picked this bad boy up from Goodwill for $2.99 yesterday, still trying to troubleshoot why the y axis is so wonky on the trackball , but it does have wonderrfully clicky keyswitches, Chicony KB-5591, trackball is serial, I've used it on some modern machines I have a Targus USB 2.0 dock thing that has serial and ps/2 adapters, luckily the serial chip is prolific and there's a 64-bit driver for that many older serial-to-USB interfaces don't have any 64-bit driver's although Prolific tried to kill support for older chipsets under Windows 11 but if you find older drivers and install them the bridge will work instead of just giving error 10.
Some stuff I guess I’m going to trash shortly.. or take to goodwill not sure.
Never had a DX2, not sure where this come from. Had a 286, 486sx and Cyrix 133.. I think . Haven’t touched a processor in years.
