I hate sodding Windows XP and I hate PCs
in [UK Mac]
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From: Rowland McDonnell on 26 May 2010 11:16 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > > > Sounds like the PC1512 > > > > Aha! Now *that* part number rings a bell. > > > > > and PC1640 machines. Quite good machines overall. > > > As I recall, they used the old-style MFM hard drives. > > > > I can't recall the disc capacity, but I think you're right. > > I'm guessing, but I think they were in the 20MB-40MB range. Oh, /hard/ drives! Just noticed. We had floppies (thinking probably MFM) and one 20 MB HDD as a server over /there/. > > >I never found out > > > why, but they always -sounded- lovely - they made quite, melodic > > > chirping noises when in use. > > > > > > <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Amstrad_PC1512.jpg> > > > > Once upon a time, `everything' looked a bit like that. > > > > But the writing along the bottom edge of the PC's case, that rings a > > very loud bell. > > I've got a couple of them here, including the 'portable' version, the > PPC1512. Coo. Dreadful machines in many ways - except that they worked 100% reliably and did exactly what we needed when we needed them to. So they were perfick. Rowland. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
From: Jim on 26 May 2010 11:24 On 2010-05-26, Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > >> Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: >> >> > > Sounds like the PC1512 >> > >> > Aha! Now *that* part number rings a bell. >> > >> > > and PC1640 machines. Quite good machines overall. >> > > As I recall, they used the old-style MFM hard drives. >> > >> > I can't recall the disc capacity, but I think you're right. >> >> I'm guessing, but I think they were in the 20MB-40MB range. > > Oh, /hard/ drives! Just noticed. We had floppies (thinking probably > MFM) and one 20 MB HDD as a server over /there/. I've only ever encountered the term 'MFM' in relation to hard drives, not floppies. Think it stood for 'modified frequency modulation' or something. >> > >I never found out >> > > why, but they always -sounded- lovely - they made quite, melodic >> > > chirping noises when in use. >> > > >> > > <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Amstrad_PC1512.jpg> >> > >> > Once upon a time, `everything' looked a bit like that. >> > >> > But the writing along the bottom edge of the PC's case, that rings a >> > very loud bell. >> >> I've got a couple of them here, including the 'portable' version, the >> PPC1512. > > Coo. Got the name slightly wrong - PPC512 and PPC640. Been a while since I last dug mine out. > Dreadful machines in many ways - except that they worked 100% reliably > and did exactly what we needed when we needed them to. So they were > perfick. Yep. Did a lot to bring PC's to the fore in the UK by dint of being -just- good enough, coupled to being very affordable. Seem to recall the power supply for them was in the monitor. Jim -- Twitter:@GreyAreaUK "RESEARCH showing that men lie more than women is proof they should stop asking them awkward questions in the first place, say scientists." - The Daily Mash
From: Rowland McDonnell on 26 May 2010 12:45 Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > > Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > > > >> Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > >> > >> > > Sounds like the PC1512 > >> > > >> > Aha! Now *that* part number rings a bell. > >> > > >> > > and PC1640 machines. Quite good machines overall. > >> > > As I recall, they used the old-style MFM hard drives. > >> > > >> > I can't recall the disc capacity, but I think you're right. > >> > >> I'm guessing, but I think they were in the 20MB-40MB range. > > > > Oh, /hard/ drives! Just noticed. We had floppies (thinking probably > > MFM) and one 20 MB HDD as a server over /there/. > > I've only ever encountered the term 'MFM' in relation to hard drives, not > floppies. Think it stood for 'modified frequency modulation' It does. >or something. It's all the same set of recording technologies - at least it was, back then. No difference. [snip] > > Dreadful machines in many ways - except that they worked 100% reliably > > and did exactly what we needed when we needed them to. So they were > > perfick. > > Yep. Did a lot to bring PC's to the fore in the UK by dint of being -just- > good enough, coupled to being very affordable. They were not /just/ good enough - they were /plenty/ good enough. All we needed was text editors that could run a spelling checker and slap the words onto disc. A BBC Micro (e.g.) is not /quite/ good enough for that, on account of needing to jump through hoops to work on large files. No, not megabytes, this is the words for magazine articles, just the words. 32K is enough for a small article, but not a big one. No such constraints with Wordstar 2000 and the `plenty of RAM for this job' in those Amstrad PC-ish-clones. > Seem to recall the power supply for them was in the monitor. Mine sat on my desk, never got moved, never peered behind it. Rowland. -- Remove the animal for email address: rowland.mcdonnell(a)dog.physics.org Sorry - the spam got to me http://www.mag-uk.org http://www.bmf.co.uk UK biker? Join MAG and the BMF and stop the Eurocrats banning biking
From: T i m on 27 May 2010 04:13 On Wed, 26 May 2010 16:24:12 +0100, Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> wrote: > >Seem to recall the power supply for them was in the monitor. > Yup, and (also from memory of installing / supporting half a dozen of them at the time) the CMOS batteries were a couple (4?) AA's in a cavity on the top of the base unit. It was also quite nice to upgrade with add-on cards, the bay being under a slide off cover at the top at the back (easier than most PC's of the time). I think we had one Mono machine, one CGA and the rest were the top_of_the_line, EGA machines. ;-) At about �999 they were also half the price of more std offerings. I upgraded a couple of the 512's to 640M, a nice tube of RAM chips per machine and added a few hard drives (FileCards first then later internally). I also provided the first network in the building with the Amstrad network starter kit. 3 x 8bit Corvus network cards and drop boxes. We bought another and that took it to the limit then went from AmsNOS to real Omninet1. I think we then went to thin Ethernet and D-Links PC-Nos (Lan Manager NetBIOS clone). It was funny when software suppliers came in to demo their network app but were only used to M$ or Novel NOS's. Whilst NetBIOS wasn't flexible it was pretty quick. We also had all sorts of gateway machines connected, FaxServers and even think we ran MSMail over Windows 3.1. Ignoring the many hours I spent after work putting all this together it was nice to see it being used (and relied on) by my co-workers. The FaxServer was particularly popular as people didn't have to worry about paper jams and could have multi-page documents sent overnight to a group list. Our up-time would be the envy of most banks today. ;-) Fun times. Cheers, T i m
From: Jim on 27 May 2010 04:29
On 2010-05-27, T i m <news(a)spaced.me.uk> wrote: > On Wed, 26 May 2010 16:24:12 +0100, Jim <jim(a)magrathea.plus.com> > wrote: > >> >>Seem to recall the power supply for them was in the monitor. >> > Yup, and (also from memory of installing / supporting half a dozen of > them at the time) the CMOS batteries were a couple (4?) AA's in a > cavity on the top of the base unit. That's the one! Yes, it was 4AAs (or so my memory says). > It was also quite nice to upgrade with add-on cards, the bay being > under a slide off cover at the top at the back (easier than most PC's > of the time). Angain, yep. > I think we had one Mono machine, one CGA and the rest were the > top_of_the_line, EGA machines. ;-) > > At about �999 they were also half the price of more std offerings. Are you sure they were that expensive? I've got a figure of about half that in my head, but it's been a long time for me. Maybe they -started- at the 399/499 area. > I upgraded a couple of the 512's to 640M, a nice tube of RAM chips per > machine and added a few hard drives (FileCards first then later > internally). > > I also provided the first network in the building with the Amstrad > network starter kit. 3 x 8bit Corvus network cards and drop boxes. Oh Christ, I used that as well. Wasn't it awful? We then 'upgraded' to a proper Novell server (no complaints there) but stayed with the dreaded coax, so everytime a drop lead went bad (which was far, far too often) the entire network crashed and I had to spend time finding it, then about 2hrs re-indexing dBASE tables that had become corrupt as a result. Jim -- Twitter:@GreyAreaUK "RESEARCH showing that men lie more than women is proof they should stop asking them awkward questions in the first place, say scientists." - The Daily Mash |