alt.folklore.nanog (was:Re: Commodore PET, was: Re: legacy /8)
Lamar Owen
lowen at pari.edu
Wed Apr 14 16:49:28 UTC 2010
On Sunday 11 April 2010 06:18:28 am Jeroen van Aart wrote:
> According to the book "On the edge" by Brian Bagnall the first showing
> was in March 1977. In January of 1977 it was announced at the CES. .... It
> was shown to John Roach, then an operations guy of Rat
> Shack. He was interested to have it distributed in their stores but
> because Jack Tramiel also demanded they'd order a lot of Commodore's
> calculators John Roach didn't go through with the deal and decided they
> could make their own... missed opportunities.
While this isn't alt.folklore.computers, I have a minor correction (and a
lead-in to a question about early IP routers):
According to the book 'Priming the Pump: How TRS-80 Enthusiasts Helped Spark
the PC Revolution' the prototype TRS-80 was shown to Charles Tandy on
Groundhog Day, February 2, 1977. One of the great engineering stories of our
time is that of Steve Leininger, who is the person responsible for the design
and construction of the prototype. It was announced to the public on August
3, 1977, and sold a quarter of a million units over its lifetime (talking
about the 'Model I' only). IOW, the TRS-80 was already in design before the
PET was shown to John Roach; that's the minor correction.
Three Steves (Leininger, Wozniak, Jobs.... others?) at the lead-in of the
microcomputer (and thus the Internet) age.
Along those lines (and the primary reason I reply), does anyone here have any
Proteon routers still in operation? I have three with full docs and those
80Mb/s ProNET over fiber links, and am wondering if they are at all useful in
this day and age....if nothing else, the enclosure makes a nice shielded rack
box....Hey, I hate to see gear sit on the shelf unused, regardless of how old
it is!
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