alt.folklore.nanog (was:Re: Commodore PET, was: Re: legacy /8)

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!