Tech that refuses to die

[Guest willies leg]

On 3/6/2021 at 1:30 PM, whm1974 said:

How many of those did Radio Shack sold anyway? The Motorola 68000 wasn't a low cost CPU at the time. So I don't expect all that many Model 16 system in comparison the standard TRS-80.

 

Yeah, it's pretty rare. I remember there was a newer model about a year later, and then the model 6000, that was the one that was actually good at running Xenix.

BTW Xenix was Unix from AT&T licensed and ported by none other than Microsoft.

 

[mwagen]

5 hours ago, Mitko_DSV said:

Wait 3G is obsolete? Where is that? I'm in Bulgaria and here there is everything from 2G up to 5G and it works. There are regions where the best connection you can get is 2G, some places you get 3G, most places have 4G and I have no idea about 5G since I have nothing supporting it, but it does exist.

I'm in Michigan in the United States, Verizon network.

[Rhyn]

2011 macbook pro still kicking.  It's battery is pretty much shot but it came in clutch when it was the only computer that would run Avid's media software for my friend's final project.  Also have a 2010 that sees daily use and works just fine, actually just upgraded it to 8gb of ram.  Aside from those two have a bunch of older game consoles that work perfectly.

[whm1974]

On 3/8/2021 at 9:42 AM, willies leg said:

 

Yeah, it's pretty rare. I remember there was a newer model about a year later, and then the model 6000, that was the one that was actually good at running Xenix.

BTW Xenix was Unix from AT&T licensed and ported by none other than Microsoft.

 

Wasn't the TRS-80 Model 6000 during it's Time a popular UNIX Workstation?

[small guy64]

Not quite tech, but the tires on my car are about 8 years old now. About 10k miles a year on average, lots or tread life left. I don't get it, they were rated at 40k miles and have about 75k on them and they are snow tires that are ran year round. Granted its all rural highway driving.

[Guest willies leg]

2 hours ago, whm1974 said:

Wasn't the TRS-80 Model 6000 during it's Time a popular UNIX Workstation?

Popular is relative, I don't think too many were sold. it ran Xenix, which was Microsoft's port of AT&T Unix, licensed by Microsoft.

If you wanted to run Unix (no Linux back then, it hadn't been invented yet), you got an AT&T 3B machine, or an HP machine, those were popular...then probably Foxbase and Uniplex for your database and office suite, those were the ones I remember. If you were doing engineering, you probably had a Sun SPARC station or if you were doing visual stuff, an SGI (Silicon Graphics) those were neat! It was such a great time, there was so much software and hardware getting designed to solve real problems. Now we've got so much horsepower you really don't think much about it.

[whm1974]

1 hour ago, willies leg said:

Popular is relative, I don't think too many were sold. it ran Xenix, which was Microsoft's port of AT&T Unix, licensed by Microsoft.

If you wanted to run Unix (no Linux back then, it hadn't been invented yet), you got an AT&T 3B machine, or an HP machine, those were popular...then probably Foxbase and Uniplex for your database and office suite, those were the ones I remember. If you were doing engineering, you probably had a Sun SPARC station or if you were doing visual stuff, an SGI (Silicon Graphics) those were neat! It was such a great time, there was so much software and hardware getting designed to solve real problems. Now we've got so much horsepower you really don't think much about it.

Well they were a great deal lower cost then say Sun and SGI Workstations.

[LloydLynx]

My Hallicrafters SX-110 shortwave radio. It was made in the early 1960's and receives incredibly well, especially with all the fine adjustments that newer radios don't have.

[Overtaxed]

I've got a Commodore 64 that, last time I tried it, still "boots" (there entire OS is in ROM, the boot process is like turning on a light switch).  

 

I have a bunch of funny/strange accessories for it.  A HDD that connects with a DIN cable (10MB, IIRC).  Tape drive (we all had one of these though).  And the coup the grace; a 4mhz "SUPER Accelerator".  Which was, for the time, unreal.  It was a 4X increase in speed, basically across the board.  No CPU upgrade since (and likely never) will come close to the perceived speed increase of that "Super CPU" that probably has about 1/10,000 the power my 10 year old WRT54 router has.  ;)

[icase81]

My Apple IIc is from 1984 and still works perfectly. I had to clean the floppy drive head once or twice, but it works great. My DMG GameBoy is from Christmas 1989 and also still works. I replaced the shell once cuz it was all banged up, though.

[8tg]

my main computer

its been used to actually beat someone with, and still works

this machine has never failed me once

[Ankh Tech]

12 minutes ago, 8tg said:

my main computer

its been used to actually beat someone with, and still works

this machine has never failed me once

hey I have the same cpu! except querter the ram, and it's a dell inspiron from 2012 I think, and the internet card is broken

[Warin]

My oldest computer tech that still works is an early 2011 Macbook Pro. Well, mostly works. Occasionally the keyboard decides the E key shouldn't work unless I press it really hard a few times, then it works again for awhile.  Oldest tech item that I own that is still working would be a Yashicamat 124g TLR camera. It was made in the early to mid 70's.  It takes perfect photos to this day, though the shutter release is a little sticky, so I think I need to lubricate it.  I had a Rollei 35S that I gave to a buddy, of the same vintage.  I am likely coming into a collection of much older cameras within the next few weeks.  I am hoping there will be one or two that will be more than just decoration.