Greetings from the not-as-frozen-as-you North!
Posted: Mon Mar 10, 2014 11:24 pm
First, I must apologize to Mike: I expressed some urgency trying to get access here. That malicious imp Murphy was watching and resorted my schedule & priorities. Sorry, Mike.
I am (was) a PCjr fan from shortly after their intro into the mid 1990s. Living in Anchorage, Alaska, we got everything at least 2 weeks later than the "Lower 48", had trouble getting IBM to accept our currency & went to great expense wiring our igloos. I had been "into" computers & electronics since tubes & relays, so adding the jr to our stable (MITS, Apple2, 16k PC, Sinclair ZX80/81, Cromemco) was easy - just blame the kids! Got the whole setup (box, monitor, graphics printer, mouse, several programs/games & manuals) with wife's teacher's discount. It was, as you know, cheaper than everything but the Sinclair; even so was still gut-wrenchingly pricey (and not tax deductible). A great machine to experiment with as the Tech Manual was very good. Couldn't make permanent changes as wife insisted that the kids get use it once in a while. IBM gave up (in reality they gave up before the intro-kids don't buy mainframes). The word had gotten out that I could modify, fix or take jrs. I ended up with lots of orphans - some in poor shape, some like new. Modified a couple to work as data loggers (it was really important to have a record of how cold it was every 10 minutes of every day) & a security system monitor. The security system ran 24/7 for over 8 years without problems. Turned it off to switch to an X-10 setup with video, etc. We are looking to move later and must clear out my collection of classic. valuable & useful computer gear, including jr stuff. (She Who Must Be Obeyed has a different term for my stuff). With permission, I will be posting items to give away. I may ask for postage if it exceeds my (secret) limit. It gladdens the heart to know some people still enjoy hacking at stuff. I quit when I couldn't even see the blasted surface mount stuff, let alone unsolder it.
I am (was) a PCjr fan from shortly after their intro into the mid 1990s. Living in Anchorage, Alaska, we got everything at least 2 weeks later than the "Lower 48", had trouble getting IBM to accept our currency & went to great expense wiring our igloos. I had been "into" computers & electronics since tubes & relays, so adding the jr to our stable (MITS, Apple2, 16k PC, Sinclair ZX80/81, Cromemco) was easy - just blame the kids! Got the whole setup (box, monitor, graphics printer, mouse, several programs/games & manuals) with wife's teacher's discount. It was, as you know, cheaper than everything but the Sinclair; even so was still gut-wrenchingly pricey (and not tax deductible). A great machine to experiment with as the Tech Manual was very good. Couldn't make permanent changes as wife insisted that the kids get use it once in a while. IBM gave up (in reality they gave up before the intro-kids don't buy mainframes). The word had gotten out that I could modify, fix or take jrs. I ended up with lots of orphans - some in poor shape, some like new. Modified a couple to work as data loggers (it was really important to have a record of how cold it was every 10 minutes of every day) & a security system monitor. The security system ran 24/7 for over 8 years without problems. Turned it off to switch to an X-10 setup with video, etc. We are looking to move later and must clear out my collection of classic. valuable & useful computer gear, including jr stuff. (She Who Must Be Obeyed has a different term for my stuff). With permission, I will be posting items to give away. I may ask for postage if it exceeds my (secret) limit. It gladdens the heart to know some people still enjoy hacking at stuff. I quit when I couldn't even see the blasted surface mount stuff, let alone unsolder it.