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Musings: You know you're into vintage computing when...

ef1j95

ef1j95

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145
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Philly, Yo
...any four digit number starting with a "7" catches your eye.

...you have a collection of burned up RIFA caps.

...one of the unexpected and sublime benefits of the internet becomes having access to all of the microcomputer books and publications you couldn't find / afford / understand in the 1970's and 1980's.

...the last smoke you inhaled was magic and blue.

...you start finding TAB books compelling.
 
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You know you're into vintage computing when...

...you've run out of space for the many systems you want to actively run

...your shelves are filled with so many vintage software books that you need a dedicated library in your house

...you have more vintage software in your possession than any retail store had on hand in the 70's and 80's

...you set up storage schemes for all of your circuit cards, cables, and other vintage parts organized by category

...You make passwords that contain strings like 'IRQ' and other strings known only to vintage fans

...when you tell people about the vintage systems you have, you are constantly having to answer their inevitable question - Why?

:)
 
... you consider moving one into a different building to save on the cost of heat in that one.
 
Well, generally from the vintage PC/XT/AT/386/486 side.....

- When your default places to go in any new town you visit are thrift shops, the recycling center, and PC Surplus stores
- When you see the term PS2 and rather than thinking "PlayStation 2" you are thinking "IBM Personal System /2"
- When you find yourself considering starting a company making retro-computer hardware because you're pissed about scarcity of certain items that cost too much yet are considered "junk" by the masses
- When you are motivated to take up metalworking because you can't find any inexpensive PC/XT/AT cases anymore
- When you take up electronics to repair power supplies and old monitors
- if one room of your house looks like a 1986 era TV repair shop
- If the local Electronics shop knows you on a first name basis
- I've you've ever been pissed because you can't find 128Kx8 in 32 pin DIP format for your old FIC 486 motherboard
- If you were born after 1990 yet you know what a floppy diskette is and own more than a handful, and they are used for something that is NOT just a novelty conversation piece
- When you purchase Retro City Rampage DX on Steam just so you can get Retro City Rampage 486........to run on your old 486
- If you've ever made a room in your house look like a Microsoft Lab used for testing Windows 3.0
- I've you've ever fared the horrors of a local dumpster for vintage hardware
- If you work in I.T. and people have ever looked at you funny for humorously referencing how your old _____ could do the job faster than that Core I7 running bloatware
- If you subbed to Lazy Game Reviews and are just as hopeful Clint finds another vintage PC during a LGR Thrifts episode as you are hopeful you find one at your local thrift, even if you don't need it
- If your biggest problem with a computer older than 3 years old is deciding what purpose to use it for because it's bases are already covered by four or five even older systems
- If spring is your favorite time of year because you're hopeful that friends, family, the local thrifts, and recycling center will beget some real treasures during spring cleaning
- If you own a truck for the sole purpose of carrying stacks of CPU and Jabba-the-Hut sized piles of cables (I've been there before, made my Explorer look like the Back to the Future DeLorean inside)
- If you bought a Dremel for the purpose of cutting open a Dallas Clock Chip so your BIOS settings would stay
- If you're the reason the local computer shop with a recycling service stopped letting people peruse the recycle pile, because they were "losing money" because you kept taking everything good home
 
I think I get a little too involved with vintage computing when I am evaluating a new TV based on whether it has composite and VGA connectors and proper scaling.
 
- If a friend takes one look at your living room and threatens to paint "NCC-1701" on the side of your house.
 
.. when you don't bother with installing a heater in the basement, just put a minicomputer there.
 
.. when your airfare, hotel, car, and gas budget travelling to all the VCFestivals annually is the largest line in your annual budget!
 
...when you take the trash to the dump, you purposely bring something metal so you can have an excuse to look in the metal bin.
 
- When you go to after hours Hospital Emergency Department with blood running from a hastily applied bandage, covering most of the index finger of your right hand; and try to explain to the Triage Nurse, that you have a crush-gash injury, caused while moving a hard drive, from one of your many Vintage Computers.

And after the Doctor unwraps the bandage and sees the bone at the bottom of the 2 inch long cut and most of the nail gone, exclaims " That must be some damn big hard drive !!" .

To which you reply "its only 20meg per platter, and there are 4 platters, so at 80meg is not large at all; however it weights 56.7kg and is 17" wide, 30" deep and 10" high, and was originally tested 15th Sept 1981." Your like a father with a new born, you know all the specs off by heart.

And OF course you have a photo on your smart phone of the 'beast'.to show.

3tnWJd5.jpg
 
- you ask every person you met about having old computers to get rid of, sell or trade.
- you have a collection of software for all computers on your disk. And the second disk. And external one. And CDs.
- you don't let strangers to your room because only you know how to maneuver among all types of devices and not hit anything.
- the first thing you do when visiting other city is looking for surplus shops, electronic stores, sometimes e-waste plants.
- when walking in some block of flats estates you quickly look at junk sheds.
- if you give electronics to recycling, it contains mainboard desoldered of all components which can be useful in later repairs. Sometimes it is literally clean and has only these bad parts.

Dallas with Dremel?
Personally I use normal metal saw for it. Works perfectly, it's only needed to remember that shell should be partially removed first. And these RTCs from Sun computers can be opened with one careful cut and 2 drilled holes.
 
inotarobot said:
Your like a father with a new born, you know all the specs off by heart.
Click to expand...

I must be a lousy father. The only thing I can ever remember about any of them was that my daughter was 99th percentile in every category.

But I can tell you how to start a Fidia F1 (PDP-11 based), 173001g. I learnt that several decades before my children were born. And the address of every meaningful memory location on the C64, and most of them on the Apple ][. And most of the Hayes command set.
 
You know you're into vintage computing when ...
1) you kick your kids out so you have two bedrooms converted to retro gear man caves.
2) you start chiseling on Dallas chips

Here is my Dallas hack on a Biostar 486 motherboard. + to + on coin battery, - to ground
biostar_batt.jpg
 
When your friends come over and ask if you have any alcohol, and you bring out bottles of 93%and 99% isopropyl, and they say thanks... got any q-tips?
 
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