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Does anyone on here actually use a Lisa?

F

Floppies_only

Veteran Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2008
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Washington, United States of America
Gang,

Title says most of it. I came across my "Guide to selling Lisa" last night and wondered. No, I'll never have a Lisa of my own, but I was hoping someone could tell me what it's like to use one of them. They seem neat.

Sean
 
Vint said:
Well, here's one of the newer members of this forum, classiccomputing, that posted a video all about the Lisa, if you'd care to watch.
It's here > http://www.classiccomputing.com/CC/Blog/Entries/2010/4/13_The_Classic_Computing_Show_1.html

Hey, wanna' buy one? Here ya' go - one's up on eBay with this # 320528778387. Only a little time left though ;)
Click to expand...

Twelve fifty seems like a good deal for what he's offering.

I really enjoyed the video, too. I kicked some money over to classiccompinting.com.

Thanks,
Sean
 
Price wise I think that's too high but at least it works. It's only a good deal since the other two (last time I looked) were even more ridiculously priced. But yeah, that's the first thing that came to my mind also was David's show. I'm sure there have to be a few others around here with one who use it or at least play with it on some common basis. For me I'd like a Lisa 1 and most of the time you end up seeing Lisa 2's but that's all behind the lack of money clause.
 
Stupid ebay tricks

Stupid ebay tricks

barythrin said:
Price wise I think that's too high but at least it works.
Click to expand...

I think the thing that is special about that one is that it comes with the office suite (which has to match the serial number of the computer it's used on). I don't know of many applications for Lisa and if I had the space and a business to run I'd think that would be the best bet for having a chance to use it as it was intended. Just for a while, to have the experience. Then I would sell it to someone else. I think that as ebay sellers go, the one that is selling 320528778387 looks to be a class act.

I'm so tired of the same old stuff: "I haven't got a power cable so it is sold untested. However guaranteed to work because it was working last time I used it [twenty years ago - but it was really my cousin Bob, not me using it]. Of course as with all electronics it's sold as is. The winner must contact the seller withing 2 seconds of auctions end, providing in triplicate [long list of unneccesary information]." Blah, blah, blah!

Sean
 
Floppies_only said:
. . . .
I'm so tired of the same old stuff: "I haven't got a power cable so it is sold untested. However guaranteed to work because it was working last time I used it [twenty years ago - but it was really my cousin Bob, not me using it]. Of course as with all electronics it's sold as is. The winner must contact the seller withing 2 seconds of auctions end, providing in triplicate [long list of unneccesary information]." Blah, blah, blah!

Sean
Click to expand...

I'm with you on that score, Floppies!
I can't understand how a very important item 'always' seems to be missing. Doesn't it seem odd that the box survived 25 years, and everything else that came with it, 'except' the power supply. I've probably read a thousand auctions, where "It can't be tested", cause I'm missing the power supply".
 
Yeah, it's either their way to cop out on the known non-working item (although I do understand and I wouldn't want to guarantee it arrives working after people I don't know throwing it around). Then they go and sell the PS separately which is some circumstances is worth more than the item at hand. That's one thing I avoid now a days (and a good way to cut back on my bad spending habit) is not to buy a system that doesn't have the power.. it'll end up costing just as much to get or you'll have to buy another full system to power it :-/

Um.. back to topic.. is there that few folks here that own a Lisa or are there a lot here who collect instead of use? I don't have a Lisa but if I did I could see it probably not getting used and more just getting run once and a while and maintained for historic sake.
 
barythrin said:
Um.. back to topic.. is there that few folks here that own a Lisa or are there a lot here who collect instead of use? I don't have a Lisa but if I did I could see it probably not getting used and more just getting run once and a while and maintained for historic sake.
Click to expand...

I hope that everybody who has a Lisa, working or not, is powering it up at least once a year to keep the capacitors from deforming and leaking.

Sean
 
Floppies_only said:
I hope that everybody who has a Lisa, working or not, is powering it up at least once a year to keep the capacitors from deforming and leaking.
Click to expand...

Ack! I have not done this. I was unaware it would help. *snaps fingers* Such a _tragedy_, I’ll be _forced_ to power up my Lisa II... Don’t know how I’ll ever cope! :¬)

Is this true of old electronics in general? I do recall seeing advice to the effect that the best way to keep old stuff in working order was to (a) have a good clean power supply to it (b) keep it well ventilated for cooling and (c) leave it on all the time. That was in a Commodore forum IIRC, so I’m guessing it probably doesn’t apply to stuff with rotating hard disk platters and other frequently moving parts. How do you folks vote on that one?
 
gsteemso said:
Ack! I have not done this. I was unaware it would help. *snaps fingers* Such a _tragedy_, I’ll be _forced_ to power up my Lisa II... Don’t know how I’ll ever cope! :¬)

Is this true of old electronics in general? I do recall seeing advice to the effect that the best way to keep old stuff in working order was to (a) have a good clean power supply to it (b) keep it well ventilated for cooling and (c) leave it on all the time. That was in a Commodore forum IIRC, so I’m guessing it probably doesn’t apply to stuff with rotating hard disk platters and other frequently moving parts. How do you folks vote on that one?
Click to expand...

I've gathered the impression from reading here that leaving a monitor on all the time would wear out the flyback transformer. You could get screen burn too, if you didn't turn the intensity down all the way. I wouldn't leave a hard drive on all the time - I would think that starting one up weekly would be good for keeping one from freezing up. As far as digital electronics is concerned, even if you had a perfectly clean power source, the parts would eventually fail. It's common folk "wisdom" that a person's chances of being struck by lighting are very low, but the chances are actually one in three hundred over the average person's lifetime. And if lightning strikes a powerline it will produce a voltage spike that most surge suppressors can't filter over a wide area. I'm a big fan of regularly powering up vintage electronics but also keeping them unplugged the rest of the time.

Sean
 
I know for a fact that the Lisa is not the only box out there that suffers from leaky batteries. Iff the top of my head I can also think of the Amiga 3000 systems as well. I got three of the darn things and none of them are useable because the battery ate up the surrounding traces...
 
Exercising old computers

Exercising old computers

I've been exercising mine in a systematic way since January this year. Thankfully, I've got a limited number. I try to have at least one powered on for at least 6 hours continuously at least once a week (usually over the weekend). Sometimes I squeeze two in.

I keep a log of which ones have been exercised and when, and make sure I cycle through them all. I'm part way through the second cycle at the moment. At the time of typing, my IBM 5150 is currently on the bench and has been running a BASIC screen saver for about 3 hours now.

I don't use a Lisa, but I would love one!

Tez
 
I don't know about "exercising" computers, but I do use mine regularly, which is my way of rationalising and justifying having old computers. If I just left them in a nice case I would feel very bad about owning it and having spent the money for something that has no use for me. I find the prevailing notion of preservation to be slightly baffling- a few historians and curators, sure, but I keep the old beasts of burden around because they run good. I keep the ones that have a good track record for reliability and I tend to run them hard. I use my IIgs on a daily basis, and since I just recapped everything it should continue to work well for a long time. Same with my Tandy 102. I don't think I could justify having a Lisa for more than novelty's sake, because they aren't generally robust enough for my taste.
 
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