Vintage hardware is big

I started moving some of the computers that are basically ready to go up into my office, since there’s little point in having them all tucked away in the downstairs lab space. But, the thing is, old computers are big. I am clearly going to face a challenge trying to […]

Press reaction to the QX-10

Here are some scans I just did of a couple of reviews from Microcomputing magazine in 1983 on the Epson QX-10. “The quintessential computer? Epson’s QX-10 hits the high-end micro market.” Jim Hansen, Microcomputing, April 1983. “Vive la difference! Valdocs: While the Epson QX-10 offers impressive features, it’s the software—particularly […]

I a e r t r P i t n

A small batch of color ImageWriter ribbons arrived, which were indeed still wrapped in their plastic, just as the auction had indicated. However, the plastic had holes in various places. So these were not after all the still-sealed ribbons I’d thought they’d be. I picked one and opened it, and […]

Rambling about modern usefulness of vintage machines

So, I’ve been collecting a bunch of vintage machines, mostly because of the nostalgia value, but practically speaking, what good are they? What realistically might ever lead me to turn one of them on? Some of these are just visually appealing (the G3 and G4 iMacs, the G4 Cube), or […]

Polishing the lamps

Things that come from computer recyclers tend to be a little on the grimy side. So, I spent a little while cleaning up all five of the iMac G4s and checking to see if they worked. A couple of them appear not to have hard drives in them. Really, none […]

I should audit that terrarium ][+

Having just learned a little more about how to identify old pieces (from parts of Tony Diaz’s retr0blasting talk from KFest 2010), I’m now seeing that in the pictures I have of the terrarium ][+, it is actually pretty old. I didn’t think the serial number looked that old. True, […]

The Apple ][+ takes a shower

Frustrated with the extent of the goop on the motherboard of the Apple ][+, I started pulling out the chips, with the idea that I would just take the motherboard home and stick it in the dishwasher. There are a lot of chips. Eventually I got them out, with no […]

ImageWriter II

The next up in the line of things that I have re-bought after having had, then dopily disposed of, is an ImageWriter II. It arrived today, and I wasn’t sure what to expect, really, given the description in the auction. But, I expect the description helped it be at least […]

You are the goop beneath my chips

I got a chip puller, and pulled up a couple of chips that were sitting in the goopy area of the old ][+. There is some that has gotten under the bigger socket, as I’d feared. I’m starting to wonder if I need to really just plain wash/soak this board, […]

BBooting the QX-10

I popped open the QX-10 again today and swapped the A and B drives. When I had them out, I observed that the B drive (the then Right drive, second picture) has a chip that the A drive (the then Left drive, first picture) lacked. “Hmm,” I thought, “maybe that’s […]