Good evening tonight, Dave! Boy! Did THIS thread ever go heywire, or what? I can't believe I'm even talking this technical shit here on this thread... but here goes...
Dave Laird wrote to Ed Fischange... > The XT was the first PC you actually could have 256K worth of memory, > which could be boosted in its second year to a whopping 640k under DOS 2.1 > and later on, even EMS (Extended memory). Then it got really kinky when > people started building add-on memory RAM boards, using the MS Extended > Memory standard that wasn't even standardized, yet. There were various > memory boards making the rounds that extended the 640k barrier as much as > 4-6 Meg of memory, which in those days was pretty outrageous. I ran the > Fidonet BBS in memory for nearly a year, once. What you probably don't know is that THIS message, is being transmitted via DOS 6.22 via Windows 3.1 from a DOS machine! As are all other of my messages are going out tonight, and probably most nights. I probably have one of the best DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1 libraries on the planet, and yes, I had to scronge around a great deal to acquire this stuff these days. I did that because no one else seems to be doing it, and a lot of folks still seem to want this stuff and are looking for it, although Micrsoft doesn't even admit it ever existed at all! This shit still works as originally advertised. As a caveat here however, I do use another machine to do much of the same thing -- and hardly anyone around here notices at all! Kindest regards, Frank > > > Today there are people who believe that IBM *invented* the desktop > > computer. > > Smokey the Bear invented the transistor, didn't he? > > > s>> Remember Rodger from the CDC in Atlanta? What a character! As was > > John s>> King. > > > FR> Yes. And THAT is very interesting. Roger seemed to vanish > > FR> suddenly. Dave later told me he had medical problems. Roger came > > FR> back about a year later to disappear again, and I haven't heard > > FR> from him since.... > > > > Last I remember, Roger was on the verge of retiring, or was asked to > > retire. > > I never knew this other Roger, as far as I recall. I *did* have an > intimate friendship with Roger Erdman, who was a fuel tax auditor in > Spokane, and was murdered two years ago. However, this other Roger, short > of a last name, is an unknown to me. > > > All that JK and I agreed upon was the necessity of rich cigars and fine > > jazz, and that was more than enough for me. His tales of pub-crawling from > > jazz club to jazz club left me green with envy. > > John was also one hell of a good journalist in his prime, something that > naturally bound he and I together inexorably. He was a practicing > Humanist, and a life-long subscriber to The Humanist Magazine, from which > he was often fond of quoting outrageous snippets when it suited him. Oh, > but that used to irritate Frank! As many times as I disagreed with John, I > feel very honored to have walked through life with him, and I stayed close > to his side, right to the very end when he died a protracted and painful > death. He was unquestionably a wonderful student of the universe and a > gentleman. > > > FR> I'll never forget one of my first visits at John's home. He > > FR> introduced me to the 'room where it all happened', the > > FR> conversations in cyber space in those early years. Yes, the same > > FR> XT machine with dual floppy 360 megs of storage space apiece,... > > > > I'm sure you meant 360 kilobytes on those floppies, the big 5 1/4" dudes, > > right? > > Oh, yes. His wife still has that machine in her possession, unquestionably > one of her fondest mementos of John's life. I've never had the nerve to > ask her if she still possesses those floppy disks that contained John's > last book. > > > When my co-op bought its first computer, (a North Star, formerly Kentucky > > Fried Computers) they took my advice to use the CPM operating system and > > sprung for the 5 meg hard drive. That puppy sat inside a case the size of > > a portable typewriter, but it held as much data as 50+ of the old floppies > > that held 90k each. That was high flyin' in them days. > > CP/M is still quite an operating system, even today, for us old die-hards. > When I am feeling bored, I wander downstairs and fire up either an old > Wenden-DOS (anybody remember Wenden-DOS?) machine, my original DOS 6.2 BBS > machine or an antiquated CP/M machine that I have studiously kept running, > because I still have a client who incredibly runs MP/M (a CP/M clone on a > highly-refined 80286 with an 80 MEG hard disk. S'true. He's too cheap to > buy a Windows box so long as I'll support his MP/M machine. 8-) Anyone > need a copy of dBase 1.2 in mint condition? 8-) 8-) > > > If only our bodies improved over time like our toys do..... > > <sigh> We know the end is near when our joy toy turns into a garden hose. > 8-) > > Dave > -- > Dave Laird ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) > The Used Kharma Lot > Web Page: http://www.kharma.net updated 11/24/2004 > Usenet news server : news://news.kharma.net > > Fortune Random Thought For the Minute > The only possible interpretation of any research whatever in the `social > sciences' is: some do, some don't. > -- Ernest Rutherford _______________________________________________ Libnw mailing list Libnw@immosys.com List info and subscriber options: http://immosys.com/mailman/listinfo/libnw Archives: http://immosys.com/mailman//pipermail/libnw
