Where to start?

That is the question not just for this blog, but for the project that will be its primary subject.

I have a sizable collection of vintage computers, consisting of 70+ machines from a handful of different manufacturers. My primary interest is Apple. I've been a Mac user since 1993, when my best friend received a Macintosh Quadra 605 for Christmas. One year later, for Christmas, I received my first computer, a used Macintosh IIsi that my mom bought from a co-worker. It had 9 MB RAM, 40 MB HD, and a 20 MHz Motorola 68030 CPU. I purchased my second computer in 1997, a Mac PowerBook Duo 270c. A laptop. The Duo and IIsi were my main computers until my first new computer purchase - The iMac, in 1998.

After that it is all kind of a blur...

How did I come to acquire 70+ computers? Honestly, I'm not quite sure. It just kind of happened. I'm not even sure where they all came from.

The collection is relegated to a corner of my basement, where it resides out of sight, sitting on crude shelving that is long overdue for replacing - and certainly not ideal for displaying these vintage machines.


My goal is to blog my experiences while I catalog, sort, test, repair, mourn those that cannot be repaired, and reminisce about about one of my favorite hobbies, that I have sadly neglected for several years now. For now the blog layout is bland and basic. This should improve eventually. I've been sitting on this blog Idea for 4 years now, so it's time to just get started!

Disclaimer: I am not a writer. I don't play one on television. I wouldn't know where to begin to impersonate one. I punctuate like I've never even heard of the English language. Thank you.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The NeXT Mac

Image
It has been five months since the passing of Steve Jobs. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, I was a bit distracted when Mr. Jobs passed and I wasn't able to give the proper respect that someone would expect to give to the passing of one of their idols. For as long as I live, I will never be able to forget the date Steve died. The next day my wife gave birth to our first children, twin boys, on 10/6/2011. March 2012 marks 15 years since I first learned that Apple acquired NeXT and Steve Jobs would be returning to the company. It's hard to believe that much time has gone by, but I remember it very well. Back in 1997, although I had only been using Mac's for about four years (and only owned one for two years) I was very staunch in my belief that the Mac was the superior platform, and could never see myself as a Windows user. I was a senior in high school at the time, and had carefully woven my way into a position where I was doing all of the technical support for m
Read more

Apple II Serial Terminal

Image
One of my on-again, off-again, side-projects has been getting my Apple //e setup as a dumb terminal for OS X. I've been tinkering with this for about 9-years now, but never really had a setup I was happy with. I occasionally re-visit the project, but could never dedicate the time to get it right. In my ideal setup, I wanted one monitor that handles multiple devices (Atari 7800, G5, Apple //e, etc...). For the most part my Dell 20" LCD has served me well, but o ne source of dissatisfaction with regards to the Apple //e is how it handled the composite video output in 80-column mode. The video would twitch every few seconds which is very annoying and tough to read. About a week ago, the display started to fail. The screen would go black after several minutes of use. I suspect that the inverter is failing, but don't want to just throw $100 at a hunch. For $150, I decided to replace it with a 22" 1080p HDTV instead of a new monitor, primarily because of the variety of
Read more

Fried Apple

Image
I've had this Apple ][ Plus for a couple years now, but never taken the time to do any testing. Well, today I was bored, so I powered it up, tested the keys, and gave the case a good cleaning. Most of the keys weren't responding at first, but through rapid button pressing I was able to get them all going again - though some are still flaky. I might need to dig out the contact cleaner.  Anyway, I was happily typing in some BASIC code for fun when I heard a sizzling noise and smoke started billowing from the back of the power supply. I quickly unplugged the power cord, but now I'm left with yet another project. At some point I'll tear into the Astec branded PSU and replace what is most likely the C7 capacitor. In the meantime, I may borrow a PSU from a IIe to continue playing with the II Plus.
Read more