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List:       inet-access
Subject:    Memory Lane (Was: Re: [OT] Adam Osborne died)
From:       Jeff Lasman <jblists () nobaloney ! net>
Date:       2003-03-28 5:41:33
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Tuc wrote:

>         I missed NEWDOS-80 for a good long time. Used to run a BBS on 4
> floppies, Epson MX-80, TRS-80 Model I, and Novation Cat Acoustical. YES,
> ACOUSTICAL.  Friend built something (Relay/Photocell) that when the phone
> rang, the cassette port sensed it, program flipped the relay, and if it lost or
> didn't get carrier, it flipped the carrier back. Then went to a 1200 baud.
> When I got to the 2400, I got a 10M hard drive.

Close <smile>.

TRS-80 Model I with expansion interface, but ProWriter printer (still
have the T-shirt somewhere <smile>), 4 dsqd 5.25" drives, and I think
the Novation Cat Acoustical as well.  I had a box (wooden case) with
relays in it... a suction-cup microphone against the phone; when the
phone rang these little metal fingers allowed the switch hook on the
old-fashioned phone to rise; at the end of the call they pushed it back
down.

Software came from a guy named Richrd something-or-other; he also wrote
some of the forum software from MicroNet/CompuServe and was an Opera
singer with (if I remember correctly) the NY Met.  But we modified the
software (written in TRS-80 disk-basic) to use lset commands and disk
buffers to avoid lockups for memory reorganization.  So we called our
board "The fastest board in the West" at 300 baud <smile>.  It was
located for a while in San Carlos, CA, later moved to Foster City (where
Practical Applications was probably the first small-computer related
business in Foster City).

Our most memorable product was the TRS-80 Light Pen.  Though the photo
of my hand in the magazine ads (showing my hand holding the Light Pen)
showed one made out of marking pen case, we later were able to
miniaturize, and built the pens in a "Bic Click" case <smile>; the wire
came out of the hole in the top where the clicker used to be <smile,
again>.

It did bother me a bit that the Osborne obit didn't say much about his
first software company; his idea (as implemented in "Osborne
Accounting", first for the Wang, later in TRS-80 Disk Basic and in
C-Basic) was to give the software away and sell the manuals.  Out of
that idea came Osborne Publishing, later "Osborne McGraw-Hill".  Bob
Thorpe sold Osborne Accounting for the TRS-80, as did we and a few
others.  We also later sold it for CP/M (the C-Basic and CBC versionl).

Jeff
-- 
Jeff Lasman, nobaloney.net, P. O. Box 52672, Riverside, CA  92517 US
Internet & Unix/Linux/Sun/Cobalt Consulting +1 909 778-9980
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