Another One Bites the Dust

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Well, it's another Sunday, and that means another 11 hour shift at work. It's -7, and I have a very weak Internet connection that keeps dropping here (it's taking forever, just to upload 2 photos). It's also Superbowl Sunday, so hopefully all the perverts will be at home today, and I won't have to deal with them. If you haven't been following the Amiga Buzz for a while, last week, on E-bay, a stock A4000 desktop was sold for over $1000. Normally, A stock A4000 run about $400 or so dollars, so there was a lot of buzz over this on the boards. The seller is, has a good reputation, so a lot of rumours are floating around as to what is going on. I just about put my non-working A4000 up just to see if it was a one time fluke or what. I had plans with Craig from Amitrix to repair this beast, when Craig had the time (I suspect the CIA chips have given up the ghost). I also removed the Indivision card and installed the Video toaster card, and put it up as "fill" in my On line store, asking $450, thinking it would never sell.
Well, this week it did, and tomorrow (if I have time before work) or Tuesday (my days off) I have to carefully package it up and ship it out. I admit, I hate to see it go, for I fear, I will never get another one it that shape, but I did say that about my Amiga 1000 and I found a better one.

So, (because I don't have a bank account- I hate banksters) I have a nice nest egg sitting in my paypal account. You would expect the first thing I would do is go on a small shopping spree at AmigaKit, getting an ECS indivision for my Amiga 1000. I noticed they DO have the A1000 indivision adapter for an extra $14. I am not sure if they just got these in or if they had them hidden elsewhere on the site, but in any case I have found them now. In a perfect world, I would get 4 ECS indivisions for now, 1 for the 1000, 1 for each of the 2 600's and 1 for the 500, but that just is not going to happen yet. I would love to double these and get 6 more for ALL my ECS Amigas, (the A500's piled in the store room), but no.
The first thing I did was order 4 more heat sink packages to finish off my C128 from China. Then, I ordered the "New" version of "AmigaForver" direct from Cloanto. I like to support them also. Because it was cheaper to order the pair together, I also got the C64 Forever. I will post more about them, when I receive the package from Cloanto. I did get the "download" of C64, but the Amiga was too big for the flaky Internet connection.
I also want to at least get a 1571 disk drive for my C128, so I am waiting to hear back from an Amibay member, before going nuts at Amigakit.
I also want to get an IDE package from Amigakit, so I can finally hook a CD-rom drive to my A1200. I know once this is done, I can finally get "on line" with the A1200, as the Internet "package" (including network card) that I ordered from AmigaKit, came with a CD, and no floppies. Which, to me, doesn't make a whole lot of sense, since probably only a small percent of A1200 owners actually have a CD rom hooked up to the A1200.

In other news, I lucked out, and came across a few boxed Commodore C2N Dattasettes. The funny thing is, that even though the boxes sort of look the same, they are labelled differently, and one box is actually smaller than the other. If you are familiar with the Dattasette, there seems to be a few different models, probably due to different manufactures. One has the "Stripes" by the Commodore name plate, and one does not. I will investigate this further in the next few weeks.
I also came across a (badly) boxed 1311 joystick, these are the original "white" joysticks that are very similar to the Atari joystick.

After Humans..or Yes Virginia there was a Chip Fab here

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It's Sunday. Its only about -12C and its snowing once again. I am working a double shift, and the store is dead, because of the weather. I was reading the posts at Amiga.org, when one of the members posted a link to the following page. I do not know his real name or I certainly would give him credit. the following are recent photos of MOS technologies down in Norristown PA.
I am reminded of the show on History channel "After People" and it's kind of sad that this site is an environmental hazard now from all the toxic chemicals used.
For those that don't know, MOS technologies was the "Birth"place of the 6502 chip and probably all of the other MOS chips that Commodore used. I like to think that EVERY Commodore computer and Amiga ever made, had at least one chip made here. There are probably thousands of stories just centred here to make a book. In the book "on the Edge" Brian states that the cafeteria had blue prints hanging up on the wall. If the paper was yellow or green, that meant ussually some toxic chemicals were in the air and you didn't go in there.
From the front, it looks nice, and I guess at the time they were still trying to sell it.
At least the tulips grew. It's kind of ironic. Tulip is the name of the company that owes or owned the Commodore name now.
Its around back that things are looking bad. Bil had stated that back in the day, you did not park your car next to the trees, as at the end of the day, you would have this gunk coating your car.
Now the chemic pits are starting to be exposed, but they probably had all toxic chemicals removed long ago.
I though this was a cool shot, probably a backup generator housing, the power consumption must have been mind-blowing.
Inside is just a shell now, I would love to see pictures of what it looked like back then.
Lastly, the garbage area. I would have to think twice about routing around for some long forgotten souvenir, as there could still be some toxic Chemicals lurking.
Anyways, I just it was kind of cool to see what has become of some of the Commodore buildings.

An interesting Call

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Well, I still don't have the Internet back up, but luckily a neighbour has moved their unsecured router and I have a ok connection. Yesterday, was a day off, and I was just messing around on my Commodore's. I wasn't really doing anything important, just trying to create a setup I liked for the 128, when my e-mail alarm went off. I wandered over to the Voodoo, and it was an e-mail from Bil Herd. He had been looking over may post, and noticed a bit of wrong information regarding the CP/M Cartridge. He said to call him some time. So Since I had the time, I tried calling, but there was no answer at the number he gave. I also had e-mailed him back to call me when he had a moment, and then the phone rang, and it was indeed Bil.
Over the next 45 or so minutes, I got a quick education in why the CP/M cartridge didn't work and how he fixed it. Needless to say, I got a quick but cool education on the Z80 processor, and the RAM. I also asked some questions that had been bugging me about the 128, and talked in general about computing today. Needless to say, it was a very good conversation, and I hope to talk with him again.... Unfortunately, with me in Alberta and him in New Jersey, our paths won't likely cross anytime soon.

Another Flipping day in paradise.

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Its taken a few months, but my bout of flu in November has finally caught up with me financial wise. If you remember, I was off work for about 3 weeks with very little income, so I have had to "shut down" the high speed cable, and get rid of the cable TV, so as a result, I have been limited to Internet access. I apologize if I haven't got back yet to your emails, for the only unsecured networks around here are just out of range and I am limited to about 1k a sec. If you feel generous, there is a handy "donate" button on the side of the page, and any donations would and are totally appreciated. If just 10% of the visitors to this site, donated a buck or 2, I could live very comfortably indeed, and certainly afford to actually get into more Amiga projects.
On other news, I have been debating to take down posts older than let us say 1 month. Bandwidth is not an issue, but I have visitors that love to "Hotlink" to photos, and that really burns my butt. If I take down the archives, then people are forced to come to the front page and not continually hit one of my past pages and or photos. This wouldn't be an issue, but these people have no desire to actually read my blog, just look and link to the funny photo. I probably will end up removing the "failed" pictures as a result.
Anyways, I better wrap this up as the connection is fading....

The Lounge is a year old!

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Happy new year everyone! The Amiga Lounge is One year old.
Just a quick thank you going out to all of you this week. We have had close to 100 thousand hits last year, and its been an adventure. I have had the chance to chat with many of past Commodore and Amiga employees and the wisdom and stories they have past on is truely priceless for myself.
What will 2010 bring? Well, I am looking now at a replacement for my ageing Voodoo laptop. Even though it is still a great unit, and I do love it (if you remember my old blog Iboughtavoodoolaptop.com)
It never the less, has to be upgraded soon. The problem is that HP has taken over Voodoo and they no longer have the replacement that I desire. The conundrum is that how do I remain a loyal Voodoo owner when Voodoo is no longer even a spot on HP's roadmap? I certainly do not want to be-little HP, but they do not even come close in overing a "High end" laptop.
I do not want to go to DELL /Alienware, because I fear that DELL has soiled the quality of Alienware products.
I could go with just getting a new Clevo, and building it myself or I can go to Falcon NW.
Falcon NW offers the "Fragbook DTR" which is the upgrade to my Voodoo U709. I am not sure at this point what I am going to do,for it probably be late summer before I do anything.
Voodoo still after all these years are saying "SOON" (it is their mission statement now) so we will just have to wait and see. I may have to get a new domain name soon and do a blog about the Falcon NW- LOL

On the Amiga front.
I am still putzing around and toying with some "upgrades" for my Amiga from AmigaKit.com, but the recent bout with the hardware developers from overseas has still left a bad taste in my mouth over the truly greedy and outrageous pricing of some components. That and the fact that AmigaKit still doesn't have an ECS indivision card for the Amiga 1000, have left me pondering what to do about that.
If you have been living under a rock lately, Hyperion and A-EON have "announced" the new X1000 motherboard available later this year. Translation a VEEERY expensive "high end" Amiga system, that will not sell and be forgotten by Christmas. Yes, the will make exactly the same mistake and launch this board at and outrageous price and sit back and wonder why nobody is buying it, nor developing for it. Its a shame that greed will kill this machine before it is even available to the public. The SAM has proven that over and over. I expect that this system will cost at least $2,500 USD at launch. I will be quite surprised if it is affordable.

On the Commodore 8-bit Front:
All I hope to get this year is a nice C128D unit, and a 1901 monitor. A C116 would be nice, and a nice boxed C16, but those can wait. I am running out of room and I need to either get a basement or start that museum I have talked about.

Here is looking forward to a good 2010 for everyone. I thank you for stopping by and hopefully I will get more juicy updates on a regular basis.

The END is near!

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I have decided to take a break in the blog from the C128 and just go to a general blog today. The end of 2009 is less than 14 days away and I wanted to share my thoughts on the fast year in tech in general, like I do every ear at this time. I ussually go into my "predictions" for the next year, but the tech world is so screwed up right now, I predict that 2010 will bring more of the crap 2009 brought us. So I leave to you a few "Top 10" lists.

TOP 10 TECH things that I WISH would just die in 2010.
in no particular order.

10: The I-Phone- Come on people, wake up out of your zombie like state. There are much better phones on the market, and with the 'droid phones, no one is locked into Apple's hold of death on the apps.

9: Twitter- face it, no one cares what you are doing "Right now" and if the do, they are more pathetic than you for buying into the crap, than you are for posting it.

8: Facebook- There are so many things wrong with Facebook- active scripting, CIA involvement, every single application whats to take over your whole computer, privacy issues, etc. The next major virus to hit and possibly kill the Internet, will be launched through facebook. Also, do you actually have that much low self-esteem that you need 5000 friends that you would never talk to in the real world?

7: MySpace- Another hudge risk on security and just a very "Bad" Idea.

6: Lime Wire- 99% of all and I mean ALL viruses I deal with on a day to day basis come down through Lime Wire. People, just use a bit torrents.

5: Browser Tool bars- In a lot of software (Nero, Adobe etc) are trying to sucker people into installing a "asK" or "Yahoo" tool bar. It is not enough that firefox or IE has this built in to it. I just cringe ant the amount of flipping tool bars people have installed and wonder why they can't see the Internet, because they have 20 on the screen. Of course they have "No Idea" where it came from, or why their computer has spyware.

4: Laptop Touchpads- Yes, I said it. With all this "technology" we have to have SOMETHING BETTER than a useless touchpad that interferes with typing if you accidentally hit it. Even if manufactures moved it ABOVE the keyboard or to the actual side of the laptop, ANYwhere that its not going to interfear with typing (I myself have been actually working on this and drawing up designs- not that anyone cares mind you). God, just a simple blu-tooth mouse that slides in the laptop when not in use is a no brainer.

3: Useless applications that want to load at start-up:- Ok people, look down by your clock on your task bar. How many icons do you have? If the answer is more than 5, you need to really examine what needs to start up. WinZip, Acrobat reader, live-update, weather bug,nero -quickstart, Apple I tunes, Quick Time, the list goes on and on. How long must we put up with this BORG like mentality?
Half of my service calls are from people with slow boot times and they have all these useless programs running at start up, because they just don't know. If Microsoft asked me to help design the next Windows, I would insist that the Start-up be a "protected" mode and none of these would be able to infest the start up process.

2: "Live- Update" features: _one of my pet peaves is that "Live-update". Not only does it halt everything going on on your system to remind you that the latest and greatest version of the software is avalible, you must stop EVERYTHING you are doing and re-boot after it updates. Java is one of the worst for this. I have had DVD's transcodeing for 6 hours and crash, because Java wanted me to update. The worst part, 2 weeks later it wanted me to update again. WHO THE HELL cares about it, when I want to update, I will go to Java and update it myself. I don't need to be reminded every frickin 5 minutes, when I am trying to work.

1: "Busy" Websites - This is websites with so much stuff on the front page, you can't find what you are looking for. This may be ads, or what the website can do for you, but, if there is too much shit on the front page, it will turn people off. GO-DADDY.com is famous for this. I use Go-daddy for my domain names, and all that shit even leave my head spinning. Go-daddy makes enough money, why not hire a REAL website designer and have even more Business.



There are much more I would love to add to this list, but I cut it off at 10.

My Commodore 128

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Well, this week has gone from extremely busy to dead, work wise. I have had a bunch of new clients, and some really wacky tech calls. I really hate it when people go out and spend a good amount of coin, getting a nice computer system running XP and then find out it only has 128 megs of ram. They get it home and all the windows updates come down and then they can't even start the machine. To me this is straight out fraud and both the sales person and the company that sold that machine should get a minimum of a million dollar fine, if not jail time. It's just criminal how people get away with selling shit to an uniformed public.

Just after my last blog, I received in my Commodore 128.
For those of you that do not know what the C128 is, it was CBM's last ditch attempt at an 8 bit computer before the Amiga came out. When the project was started, CBM had not acquired the Amiga, so for a brief moment, this was Commodore's most powerful machine.
The story behind the C128 is just as fascinating as any of the Commodore computers. It all realy started at the CES in 1984 when Bil Herd was getting flack over the C264 for no backward compatibility with the C64. So Bill made it his mission to build the next system with 100% backward compatibility with the C64 (no small feat).
Instead of making a C64 with more ram, and minimal upgrades (like the TRS 80 Color Computer 3) , Him and Dave Haynie decide to make it more. They not only wanted a full C64 mode, and an extended 128 mode, the also were looking at CP/M for business. Bill also new that CP/M was on its way out, but the machine was only suppose to be a bridge between the 8 bits and the new 16 Bit computers.

As he was trying to get the CP/M Cartridge to work, he had found out why the original C64 Cartridge did not really work. It was under powered. So he decided to put a Z80 CPU right in the 128 and late one night, he tore open his "doorstop" ( a Sinclar Computer) and by morning he had the SECOND Dual CPU computer ever made. The C128 boots off the Z80.
(update) Jan 27 2010
Bil actually called me and told me it wasn't JUST because of the power. I won't get into the whole story in detail, but it had also to do with the timing and clock signals of the Z-80, coupled with the brand of RAM they were using at the time. All of these issue, and the CP/M cart was a blatant copy of the Apple card, forced Bil to re-evaluate and just fix everything.

Also, Bil set out to "fix" the bugs in the original C64, but as he did, he noticed les and less of the software would work with the "improved" C64, as the programmers often to full advantage of the glitches in the system. He had no choice but to "put the glitches back in" he even had a wire titled as such.
Perhaps the biggest pain was there was a ton of people against him, and he only had a few months to make the computer. At the 1985 CES show, just as he and Dave were coming in to Vegas, they saw a bill board that said "Can be expanded to 512K of ram". He originally made it for 512 k, but his boss told him to take it out. Now, they had to put it back in! Well, he did!


The best thing is that the system sold way more units and for years after it was released (up until 1989), The sad thing is that barely anyone took advantage of the 128 mode that was not backwards compatible with the C64 for mode, and CP/M was really dead by launch.
Bil also designed a C128D (desktop) unit, and shared the same "design" case as the Amiga 1000, with a built in C1570 Floppy drive. Commodore chose not to release the Desktop unit untill years later, and that unit caught on and the public love it. The C128 Desktop unit remains one of the most desirable Commodore computers to this day.
MY UNIT

I have the regular "Flat" or wedge unit.
The box came in not too squished, and the contents were in fair condition.

Since I bought mine, the prices have crashed on Ebay. I probably paid the last high price at $45 for this unit, as better units with Disk drives can be had for around $25-$30 now. My did not come with a Power supply, nor any books or disks. When I bought mine, A nicely boxed unit with Disks and books were going for between $60 and $80, now not even half.

The Auction said this unit also came with a Commodore mouse:
Unfortunately, the mouse is an Amiga mouse, which can not be used with a 128 (you can tell by the plug, for an Amiga mouse has a bigger, longer plug with a metal band around it.

The "bad" thing about the wedge systems, is that they were sold as cheap as possible. The wedge system only came with 16K of video memory, (as apposed to 64K on the desktop) so in order to do any full graphics, you need to get the Video upgrade (about $29, I have one coming).
One cool feature is that Bil designed this with an "open" rom slot, so you can add anything to they sys rem in ROM. I am getting a "double" rom with GEOS and Basic 8 available on a switch.

One last "fun fact" on the system is the keyboard layout. Bil and Dave "borrowed" the layout from the VAX keyboard, which they had used all for development of all CBM computers. Once the C128 was done, they used them with custom software to design other commodore computers and chips.
I have all the Power and disks coming for it.
Next Time:
A look inside.

Sunday and feeling alive

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Well, 3 weeks later and I think my flu has finally cleared up! What really sucks is the lost wages due to me being down, but I did manage to get some actual Amiga time in. Last weekend, I hooked up with Craig- the president of Amicue and we cleaned up 3 A2000's he had in his pile. One was an Awsome, original A2500 with an Amber (flicker fixer) card. We hooked it up to an LCD monitor with no issues. It also had a nice variety of cards, enough to make any Amigan envious. The othe 2 were plain A 2000's. one had a nice A2286, but the battery for the A2286 leaked all over the motherboard. I had thought it beyond repair, but Craig is a wizard at hardware (he has designed his own Amiga hardware) and had it cleaned and fixed in no time. The longest chore was going through the pile of floppy drives to figure out which ones were dead. that and the Scsi drives he had all seemed to be failing or dead too.
This week, nothing has come in, but suspect my C128 will be here any day now. I did source another power supply and system disks for it also. I have yet to get the Video Ram Upgrade, as the C128 "flat" system only shipped with 16K of video Ram, where as the 128 desktop shipped with 64K of Video Ram. I am not sure of why the difference, but the upgraded ram is much needed- probably yet another "Cost prevention" on CBM's part.
I found out that the Commodore "TEST Pilot" system was a bit different in the UK. In North America, it shipped with a 1441 Floppy drive, but in the UK, it shipped with a cassette drive and all the programs on Cassette!
It also did not ship with GEOS. I wonder what the retail price difference was (If any- Commodore was know for charging more in the UK than in North America) It looks like the box was way smaller as a result.
I have also found a nice clear picture of the "Canadian Olympic" Plus/4 logo and I will be updating the TED pages soon with that and the following Color map. You can see the TED chip made more colors than the VIC 2 chip.
Not much more to report this week, hopefully I will have something exciting to speak of soon, Maybe a TOWERING report of 3000 words (or less).

Sick Days Pt.2

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Today, its Friday and I am starting to feel human again. This week has been very on and off though, besides the flu.
I think Canada Post is starting to speed things up before Christmas, as most of my Ebay Auctions have come in this week. The first thing to arrive was my Commodore 64C "Test Pilot" package. I had been hunting for a while now, to find a nice 64C package and this one came up. I Paid only $33 bucks for it, so I was quite happy.
This box is huge! 20 inches tall, by 28 inches long. Inside were 2 close to mint boxes, one for the 64C, and one for the 1541-11 Floppy drive. The joystick was not included. I was also disappointed that the GEOS disk was missing and most of the games listed on the front. In fact only 2 games showed up, ATF and Crazy Cars.
After carefully cleaning the outside of the 64 (it was mostly clean, just a small amount of dirt), I hooked everything up and ran the test/demo disk for the 1541. Needless to say, it worked flawless.
Yesterday, I got in my C16.
No Box or nothing with this auction, just the Power supply and "tutorial" cartridge. I paid $7 for this auction, and it stunk like mold. I scrubbed the ouside down with my "Mr Clean Magic Errasers" and hooked it all up. I watched as the TED chip died, as the boarder came up on the white screen, then the screen filled with garbage then just like my plus/4 , 3 collums of vertical lines. Needless to say, I was not impressed. I seem to be having no luck with my TED machines.
About an hour ago, I got my last package in: another Plus/4. Needless to say, it's filthy! I paid another $7 for this. I hooked it all up and IT WORKS!!!!!!. I may need to clean or replace the keyboard, as it doesn't seem quite responsive, but hey! IT WORKS.
Now if you will excuse me, I am off to nap a bit (flu Remember) and then hook everything up to it.

Sick Days

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Well, it's official, I am down with the Flu. Everyone auto-maticly jumps to the asumption that I have the H1N1 swine flu, and just shuns me like a leaper, but no one thinks it could be just a case of a regular cold? No, I have not been to a doctor. What is the doctor going to say? "yep, you are sick..." congratulations. I just waisted his time, when he could be helping someone who really needs his help.

What sucks, is I was suppose to start a new contract job today, rolling out new computers for a multi-national company. I will try to make it tomorrow, as I have been sleeping and popping Vitamin C tablets like Candy.
This week, not much has happened. I caught the flu sometime Thursday, so I have been trying to recoup as much as possible, but I did get in an NOS boxed 1531 Dattasette for the Plus /4. I am just waiting for 3 items now: A nice boxed Commodore 64C "Test Pilot" Pack with games and a 1451-11 Disk drive, A C16 and another Plus/4. The 64 C and the C16 should be here by the end of the week. I also am trying out Google wave, but so far I have no clue what I am looking at. For now, back to bed......

Plus /4 No go's

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This week has been almost a total failure on the plus/4 front. Both of my machines do not work. My "new" Plus/4 had no power and the Canadian Plus/4 had a messed up display. I took both units apart, thinking the fuse needed to replaced on the "new" unit. What I found was that the RF shield obviously had been removed and because the solder points are right beside the power plug, and the Video plug, both were melted from repair. I know - I COULD replace the plugs, but with the price of these units, I can just get another one. I then swapped all the chips on the Canadian unit, and still an no go.
But, all is not lost. I plan to mount these 2 units on a back board and hang them on the wall.

I also got in more stuff from E-bay:
First, was my 99 cents Commodore C2N Dattasette. This will work with the VIC 20 and C64/128. You can not have the true retro experience without using the Dattasette.
I know what you are thinking: It's true, the C2N WILL NOT work with the Plus /4. You need a 1531 Datasette. (That is on its way).

Next, I received in 10, that's right 10 cassette games for the C16-Plus /4. These were only $9 bucks Canadian from the UK. They Might be PAL games and no work on my unit, but I thought I would try.
The last thing I got was a T-1341 Boxed joystick for the Plus/4. I paid about 18 bucks for this, which was a bit above my budget, but no TED collection is complete.

Well that was all this week. Sorry no RANDOM Photo today. More next week.

Happy Turkey Day Canada

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So, I have been rather lax on the blog lately, but their is not much to say yet. I am still waiting on Various parts for the Amiga, and the Plus/4 , so those are put aside until they come in. Also, work has been throwing me around between stores like a Yo-Yo, and I am working both Day and night Shifts. I suspect they are trying to make me quit, but so far I am too tired to make that decision. Even today, the holiday, I am working. Yesterday was a double shift, tonight, I work until 11pm and tomorrow I am on the bus at 7 am to make it to work on time. So no real chance of sitting down to work on anything. This week (for those that are interested) I got in my $5 Vic 20 system. Yea, I know a Vic, but it was boxed and only 5 bucks. But like usual, it looked like it had been buried in a pit for 20 years. One of my endless peeves with people, is they can't take 5 minutes to clean the stuff they are selling on Ebay. The pictures don't show the grime layer or the amount of dirt in the box. I swear they would get more money if they just took 5 minutes to clean the darn thing, even just wipe a damp cloth over it. So , as usual, I spent a few hours cleaning that up. For those few Vic 20 collectors out there, here are some Specs on my unit. First its a Canadian unit (made in Canada) and, I suspect it its a "Mid-run" unit. It has the "rainbow" label The power supply

Part No. 251053-02 (early version)
(Rectangular black plastic case with few ridges. Sticky label on top.)
110V, 60Hz for N. American / Japanese market
Openable: NO
Replaceable fuse: NO
Input: 117V, 50/60Hz
Output: 5V DC-8.5W, 9VAC-9.0VA
Made in Singapore

The label on my power supply is curling off, and is dated 10-83.

The RF-modulator is also an early one, pictured below.

The box is not in that great of shape, and has a hole in the middle of the lid. Also it is an early model, because the Styrofoam inserts is top and bottom encasing all the contents, not just on each side. The top half is missing.
What is interesting, is the box is totally in English and so is the manual, so I suspect either this unit was exported just to English only Canada or it infact was made in Canada and sold to the US. Even the manual is the later "US" manual. Incidentally this unit was bought from within Canada, as Canadian Ebay auctions generally go for MUCH cheaper then a similar unit it the US. For example, a similar VIC 20 unit would fetch $35 -$40 on the US Ebay. I did spend a few hours, taking it apart and cleaning and scrubbing the case of of all the filth. Before you ask, no, I did not have to take apart the keyboard, as it look relatively clean, compared to the rest of the unit.




Next, I got in a 1541 floppy disk drive. I can use it on the Plus/4 and the Vic, and later on the C64/128. I have yet to receive the Serial Cable which is really needed to hook the unit up. Again, I paid $10 for this. It did not come with a box or manual, but again from here in Canada. This unit was actually Clean.
The above photo is just a stock unit, what is interesting on my unit, is that the drive is beige, not black like 99% of units I have seen. It falls in like with the later units shown bellow:
Which leads me to suspect that my unit may have been repaired at one time and the actual drive been replaced.
Last, I got in my RCA cables that I need for the Plus/4. Now I can ditch the emulator and actually use the real thing. God, how I despise emulation. The cool thing is this cable will work on all the Commodore computers, so I don't have to screw around when switching from unit to unit.

And now for today's RANDOM Photo(S) (yes you get 2 today for me being lazy):
Yes Captain Kirk loved the VIC.

Cleaning the PLUS/4

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So I got in today, my "NEW" NOS Boxed Plus /4. The only difference between to two units is the label. The US Plus/4 has a metal label, that the words "Commodore" and Plus /4" are raised and sharp. you could probably cut yourself on it, in contrast to the Cheap Vinyl sticker on the Canadian plus /4. Otherwise, on the outside they are exactly the same.
I have not Cracked open the new one yet, as I was up at 6 am today working on the TED site. Its almost complete, all the models have their own page now.
Here are some pictures of the inside I took while cleaning it.

What is note worthy from a bazaar point of view is that every old computer I have ever cracked open from Commodore has finger prints corroded into the top metal cover of the RF modulator box. I am not sure if the assembler had a grease on their hands or if the metal composite of the lid part, after 30 years just corrodes the natural oils on the hands, but it is crazy.
You will also notice the top of the CPU cover is also a make-shift heat sink. After 30 years the thermal paste is still moist.
I don't think this CPU is a 7501, but a later 8501, because without cleaning the thermal paste off, I could see an "85" on the CPU.
I then started on the keyboard, again removing all the keys and meticulously cleaning and scrubbing everything. It must be my lot in life to get filthy keyboards.
I just though the arrow keys were cool so I took a pick.

Now, for today's RANDOM Photo:
I know, I posted it before, but its such a cool picture. And to think the Plus /4 has a million times more power than that Rand. I want the wheels for my system.

Opening the Plus /4

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Today I received my Canadian Plus /4 in.
Again, people who sell stuff on E-bay should take 5 minutes and clean the items they are selling. It's only common curtsy,but no one wants to clean the stuff they are selling. Needless to say, this Plus /4 was filthy. It also had seen better days and obviously it had been repaired at one time. It also apears to have had it's keyboard replaced with a UK keyboard. I could be wrong though. Maybe, unlike the Amiga, they just had one keyboard and the "£" key is present on all the keyboards. I have some work set out in front of me. I will take it to work and clean it there.
The label is falling off. Unlike the earlier Commodore labels like on the VIC -20 and C64, this label is not metal, but just a vinyl sticker. As a result of age and cheap glue, it is bulging, and is letting go on one side.
You can see from the very bad photo above that the Amiga 600 is actually a few inches bigger all around. I did not get a power supply, or cables with this Auction, but I did pick up a brand new Plus/4 in another Auction and a spare power supply, so within the next week I can test this baby to see if it actually works. Hopefully by then, I will have my good camera back.

Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

BUSY Weekend

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I have had a full plate this weekend. Not only have I been down sick with a stomach flu, Saturday, I still went out to the Amicue meeting, and then put in my 8 hours at work. Got home, did some work on the TED site, and then slept and wend back to work for my normal 12 Sunday shift. So between the website, Work, and Amicue, I also watched the complete 24 episodes of the Witchblade Amime'.
I was expecting A bit of Ghost in the Shell/ Appleseed Action mixed in with a bit of T&A, but what I got was very unexpected. I won't spoil the show, but I don't think an American writing team could put out that story. I can't really describe how I fell about it, but I must be getting a bit sentimental and soft in my old age, because the ending did move me. I can best describe it as Ghost in the Shell, meets and mixes with "Spirited Away". I will now have to go out and Buy the unrated DVD's. I really kind of hate how some Anime' can suck you in on that emotional level, and we just have to wait an see if they will continue it with a new series or just leave you like that. Then again, maybe it was because I was sick and mentally exhausted.

Now for today's RANDOM Photo:
YEEEHAWWWWW!

TED Domain is up

I have been busy making a down and dirty SUBDOMAIN for the TED computers. You can Click here or go to ted.amigalounge.com be warned its not finnished yet.

Let's Talk about TED,Baby......or those wacky Canucks

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Today, I am going to take a break from Amiga and talk about TED. I don't have to remind you that Dave Haynie worked on TED with Bil Herd before Amiga and the 128.
You all know, I have been looking somewhat for a TED. The stuff I collect, Usually finds me, I really don't fight for all that much on e-bay, because I don't believe in snipping programs.
Last night, I was looking at some Commodore Auctions, when I came across the following +4.
Instantly, I knew something was different about this machine. The seller had no clue, for he couldn't power it up for it had no power supply with it, but it was only $20 BIN, so I knew I had to get it.
What is different you may ask? At first glance it looks like any other +4 machine, but if you look closer this one is different.
Look at the label. EVERY plus 4 I have ever seen has on the label the words "plus/4" like the picture above. Except this one. I did a google search, and sure enough, every one, all over the world had the same logo.
I then e-mailed Bil about it. I didn't expect any reply, but he got back to me almost immediately. He said he wasn't sure, but to check the Serial numbers, it could be from another country.
After about an hour of searching, I came across a couple of sites dedicated to the plus/4. It seems like there are people out there like us Amiga users and have documented as much as possible on the TED computers. I must say, I was hoping this was not a plus 4 but rather a 264 (like right).
On a site called "plus 4 world", There was the answer:
These are actually Canadian Plus 4's. Canada was the ONLY country to change the labels and they also sponsored the '85 Olympic team. I am not sure if the label re-design was just for the Olympics, but it looks cool.
You can just make out on the bottom of the box, the Olympic sponsorship.
Bellow is the US Version (and more familiar) Box:
Now, you may also be surprised that there are a ton of games for the plus 4 (I was shocked) and some of them actually have very good graphics for an 8 bit machine

And now for Today's RANDOM Photo:

39

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It's September 11 , 2009. I have to face the facts, I am 39 today. I have been officially out of school longer now than I was in School. It took forever to get through school, and it seems like just yesterday I finished grade 12, and now the last 21 years have just flew by, but I was there! I remember the PET! I remember Commodore, and the "I adore my 64!" song. My cousins had a C64, We had a CoCo!
Now a days, kids just don't know even what a C64 is, never mind the Amiga. Lost is the VIC -20. In my mind was a horrible home computer. My Intellivision had better graphics.
Then the C64- at first,it looked exactly like a VIC, so not many kids like me paid attention to it. In the PET days, I saw the future, I had imagined the graphics that we are just doing now with computers. I remember trying for hours to make graphics look great (and failed).
It wasn't until way later, that the C64C looked great.
Then the Ted series came out and I turned my back on Commodore and only this year looked back, for the TED was worse than the VIC (or so we thought)
So, Why no computer history courses? Why are people ashamed of the pioneers that Commodore was?
I am not sure, but it seems like the more it dies, the more excited I become of them. 2 years ago I would not even look at a TED, now I can see the hard work put into them, and I am looking into getting a nice mint Plus/4.
So, tonight I will have a drink and get drunk. Because of my stomach, I have NO alcohol Torrence, so one drink will put me out. I am not sure what the future Will hold, but I got another Boxed A500 last night and a ton of games, so today I will go through all of that.
Anyways, enough rambling from a crazy old man.
Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

It's A DESK!

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Just a fast update today. I am on my way to the Amiga/Commodore user group meeting, then off to work tonight, but I did manage to get a few pictures of the beast with my Camera Phone.
I went to the thrift store yesterday in the pouring rain and the unit wasn't sold, so I bought it and picked it up this morning. I have to clean it, it sticks and looks like the previous owner had a fish tank in it, but when I got the keys, and oppened it, it turned out to be a desk!
The bottom drawer is a flie drawer though (the whole reason I wanted it). Here, you can pick up cheap 2 drawer file cabnets for $50 al the local Wal-mart. I paid $40 and it went to charity!.
For those that want specs: it's 48 inches high, 29 inches long and 18 inches wide. I think I will put my A600 in here. I will post better pictures later.


Now for today's RANDOM photo:

THE AFTERMATH

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So, I promised yesterday that I wouldn't comment any more about the past "bomb" I sent through the Amiga Community and I really won't, BUT I did get over a hundred e-mails about it this morning- ranging from calling me every name in the book and "how dare I past judgement on prices" etc.But, surprisingly, there was a lot of supportive e-mails and at least 60% share my view, but are not willing to voice their opinion on Amiga.org, because of all the assholes that hang out there.
The funnest thing is that a few people have nick-named the card ,"The Indivision ECS LISA " in LOVING memory of the Apple Lisa (AGAIN $10,000 computer). LOL. I do nether support this or condone it, but it sure is and would be hilarious if it caught on. It kind of reminds me how the Commodore guys called the 600 "junior" during the development phase. (if you don't know, it was a sarcastic plug to the manager, who also developed the IBM PC Junior, and we all know how that turned out).

On my way to work last night, I quickly jumped in the Thrift shop down the block. They had a Commodore wall unit for sale for only $4o. For those of you that don't know, Commodore, besides selling Typewriters, Calculators, watches and computers, Here in Canada, Sold Office furniture. Filling Cabinets and wall units. This is why the CBM Pet Computer had a metal case, because Jack didn't want to spend the money on a plastic case when he had a perfectly good steel manufacturing plant in Canada to produce the cases and save MONEY (oh no here we go again!) , this is a nice big one with a hanging file system, six drawers and a place for stacked items, all of it lockable with keys. I get paid on Friday, so if it is still there (I doubt it), I will grab it. Funny thing is there are lots of pictures of Commodore File cabinets on the net, but no wall units.

Now for today's RANDOM photo:
If I had posted this before sorry, it was so darn funny I had to post it again:

No wonder the enconomy is in the tank

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Its Tuesday morning and boy am I tired. I had to work double shifts all weekend and now I am even getting a new asshole ripped by Jens, the creator of the Indivision.
So, this will be the very last blog on the subject.
No wonder the Economy is all screwed up. Everyone wants immediate short term profit NOW, and who the hell cares if a product is selling six months down the line. No one looks at long term sales now. No wonder the economy is in the tank.
It's kind of sad. 6 month ago GM went bankrupt and both the Canadian government and US spent Billions of tax payers money to bail them out. Here in Edmonton, the paper shows at least 2 new cars for sale for every one living in Edmonton. Yet - NOTHING has changed. The cars still are outrageously priced and the prices have not dropped. The car companies and dealers have not changed anything and still are trying to flog the cars the same way that they did before the bail out. WHY?
Because they want the profit now. They would rather sell only 2 cars a month and have thousands sitting then sell a thousand and have 2 sitting.
People's biggest argument is that the numbers are just not there to produce Amiga hardware in any sort of quantity. Did they ever stop to think that maybe, just maybe, the numbers ARE there, but when the prices are so high that nobody will by them?
Makes me think of Apple creating the LISA computer -oh yes! people WILL pay $10,000 for an Apple computer. I think not.
But hey what the fuck do I know? I am not rich, so I might as well shut the fuck up on the whole thing.
BTW I am quoting my last blog AGAIN here
"Now, it may have looked like I was bashing AmigaKit yesterday solely on the pricing. For that I apologize. AmigaKit is just a retailer, and their prices are dictated by the manufacturer's cost. I still say that the price is outrageous, but this is not AmigaKit's fault, they have to make money also.
"
I had thought that Red's was selling them for 15 cheaper, but It was just a mistake in the currency display. Red sells them for a buck more than AmigaKit. I apoligise again to Amigakit.


Now for today's RANDOM photo

The COST of doing business

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Its early in the morning on Friday and boy am I getting a ton of Flack over yesterday's blog. I first want to say: I do know the difference between the development cost of a product and the actual manufacturing cost. While Jens and the whole Indivision team should be commended on the fine work with their products, the final product is just to expensive at $140 to justify itself.
This is an item which should go in every Amiga. Period.
The Commodore CRT's won't last forever and this is a perfect replacement product.
People are flamming me about my stand on the price and are wondering why I am saying such things. I really never have commented before on AmigaKits pricing, and up to a few weeks ago, I didn't really care all that much about the price as long as it worked.
NOW, I have the ear of a true Amiga Hardware manufacture and I am hearing what the production cost of Items are. I am also sitting down and designing hardware with them to bring to the on-line store at an affordable price where everyone is happy. Because we have so many Items "on Deck" right now, to bring an ECS Flicker -Fixer in, would just not be feasible now, but in a year, yes. Once we know what the component costs are, we can bring it to the public at an affordable price (I am aiming at a $80 retail price range).
Now, just remember Commodore's Philosophy: Computers for the masses, not the Classes. This has been lost over the years.
With products like the SAM board, where you need to mortgage you house to get one, to the mini-mig, the only product you can get where the "REAL" Amigas it emulates are 4 times cheaper than the board itself (Talk about a useless and way overpriced item). One can sit back and see that hardware prices are getting way out of the price range of a weekend Amigain.
Yet, if we want the Amiga to become "Mainstream" again, we must take the prices down to earth. No wonder past products like the Beos, Pegagsis 1, Amiga one etc failed to catch on in the market place. The greed of the pricing made them undesirable to the average consumer.
Lets take the SAM for example. Current pricing is so out to lunch on JUST the motherboard, that only a handful will ever be sold. This is probably a good thing, as it looks like only a handful are produced and in a year from now, it will be an item of history and a good seller on e-bay. Simple math shows that if they really wanted for the SAM to make a foothold and become a viable Amiga product, they would drop the price of the motherboard to a price comparable to a high end ASUS board and they would sell a ton more. Like I said on the boards "would you rather sell 30 boards at a profit of $50/unit or 1000 boards at a profit of $10/unit"
Simple economics (and math) dictates the lower the cost, the higher the unit sales.

Now, it may have looked like I was bashing AmigaKit yesterday solely on the pricing. For that I apologize. AmigaKit is just a retailer, and their prices are dictated by the manufacturer's cost. I still say that the price is outrageous, but this is not AmigaKit's fault, they have to make money also.

Now for today's RANDOM photo:
(which ties into my rant)

Windows 7- The begining of the end for Microsoft, and more on the Indivision ECS

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So today was a much needed day off. I spent it in Coffee meetings with a bunch of IT guys. We have all come to the same Conclusion. Windows 7 is Windows ME ver.3.0 or Vista re-loaded. In other words, the death Kneel of Microsoft.
I was surprised that they all came to the same conclusion, and it will shock you! We all are promoting it heavily to new computer users!
Why? Its because we REFUSE to support it or VISTA, so instead of idiots calling us for help at all hours, they have to spend big $$$ getting the geek squad out or they have to take it in to Best Buy or such. Now why would we turn down paying customers for tech support you may ask. Simple, the "Average" computer user is becoming dumber and much more stupid over the last few years. They know not to go to certain sites, they know not to load certain programs, but they keep getting more and more viruses and root kits. Their answer is load up more anti-virus programs, double and triple "Internet security" programs and such, and when they can't get on Facebook or Twiter, they call us. Not just once but average of 3-6 times a day. It wouldn't be bad if these people PAID us for our time, but they want it all for free.
I have 3 clients that phone at least 6 time a day for me to hold their hand. The final straw was last Saturday at 3 am one of these guys called because his "F8" key was not working and he refused to do what I was telling him.
Sooo... Get VISTA, Get the upgrade and pay some young guy big $$$ for support. Or better yet just buy a new notebook (dirt cheap these days- less then $250 at Wal-mart) and give the old one to me. Heck, I will even pay up to $50 for your virus infected laptop or net book, but your "problem" with your computer, I could not give a rat's ass about, unless I get that 900 telephone number.
I give Microsoft 5 years. It will take then 2 more years to realise that Windows 7 is yet another gigantic turd, although the turd runs now on much more hardware. When the big companies are still running XP and demanding it in 2 years, Microsoft maybe then will scramble and "update" XP, but for now, they just will keep their heads in the sand about the whole thing.
Yesterday, I brought you news of the new Indivision ECS card. Now Amigakit is taking pre orders for October. I was planning to get at least 6, but AmigaKit's price is $140 each. In my mind this is just hi-way Robbery and I would expect this from some sleazy dealer on Ebay, NOT AmigaKit. This card should be no more than $99. Tops. I would have priced these at $69 and sold a ton of them. At $140 they will sell, but not very many people will buy 2 cards to get dual monitors. They are shooting themselves in the head at this price. I probably will buy just one for my A1000 now, but I just shake my head at such retarded pricing.

Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

NEWS:Indivision ECS update

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Well, My quest for the A1000 Xetec drive has not been going anywhere. I have been working on it though. I also got Mikes A600 done, but the 4x EIDE'99 Buffered interface I ordered from Amiga kit seems to be dead. I am not sure if I need to install the drivers for it, but the CF drive Will boot without it, and with it, the A600 can't see the Drive at all. It is acting like a wall at this point. Its a shame I spent over $50 on it and it is useless (again!) on an A600. This is no big shock, as MOST of the stuff is made for an A1200, and it is sold as "working" on an A600, when infact they are 2 different beasts. It is so frustrating to see this. IF the instruction sheet says "A1200" the dealers should sell it as A1200 ONLY.
Too be fair Amigakit is NOT the only one who does this, I had a "Dealer" on Ebay from the UK send be 3 packages so far with possible A600 floppy drive mounting brackets, and each time he keeps sending me A1200 ones, and I keep sending them back. If it wasn't for Amigakit picking up the ball on that one, I still wouldn't have them mounted.
A few hours ago, more information was released about the upcoming Indivision ECS Flicker fixer card. Apparently, you can piggy back them and run 2 separate monitors, with different screens! Sort of like SLI for the Amiga. They are working on a program to extend the workbench screen to both monitors. Also, it looks like the A1000 will need an adapter, the A3000 will need the battery removed, and a slight soldering mod will be needed on an A2000 with a revision 4 motherboard.
Also, to separate the cards, there is just one jumper stating card 1 or 2.

This is wicked news and hopefully they will be ready for sale soon:
Now for today's Random Photo:

Day Off!

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So today is my day off. I am going to be working on my A600's and hopefully wrap them up and then see what more I can do with the XETEC hard drive system. I was spelling it Zetec in my last blogs, so hopefully that clears up come confusion.
Yesterday, and this morning I had an interesting e-mail with THEE Bil Herd. Bil actually answered my e-mail, and stopped by the blog. If you don't know who Bil Herd is, Shame on you and get the book "On the Edge" By Brian Bagnal. Bil was one of the key hardware guys at Commodore and has worked on the TED, C128 and others (I hate to use the word responsible for- but he did some amazing shite!- all under enormous pressure, deadlines, and lets face it -unrealistic goals ) Someday, I want to interview him for the Magazine, but that will have to wait for a while, both his an my schedules are booked for a bit, so unless i can get him on skype and record the conversation and then later transcribe it into print, it will have to wait.
Funny aside to this is I have study the book in depth and read it over a dozen times. In the book, Bil looks like a young Tommy Chong (hopefully that won't offend him). Below is him with Dave Diorio.
Now, seeing picture of Dave Haynie and most of the rest of the Commodore crew, you would think that he looks the same, just a bit older and maybe shorter hair.
But no, today he looks like a fireman or a paramedic (which he is/was) and If I didn't see a new picture of him, I wouldn't have recongnized him at all. As oposed to Dave Haynie which seems to never age :)
Here he is on the left with Bob Russell and Brian Bagnal displaying the book "On the Edge".
Anyways, he should have "modern" pictures of him in the book, just incase we would ever run into each other.
I also got a call from IBM yesterday, it looks like I have another 8 week contract to do roll outs for the Alberta Gov't again, maby starting September first, so that and my regualr job, I will be working 16 hours a day for 2 months. JOY, but I can't turn down that kind of pay.


Now for Today's Random Photo:

Disk Checking

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Today, I was trying again to get the Hard drive system to work, but no go. So I then unplugged the drive, and started to go through some game disks and see if they actually booted and worked. Rampage works fine and so does the Tintin, and Bubble Bobble. I then dug out my Golden Axe and waisted a hour on that one. The EPYX 500JX joystick sucks with golden axe, I have to dig out another one.
More, When I have more time.

Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

A1000 unpacking

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Today, I got up early and unpacked everything. I was a bit disappointed that the books and manuals were missing from the boxes except the Fast Track documentation and a manual for "Flight Simulator".
I also have 2 different Dongles with it. I suspect one is for Word Perfect, but I will have to contact the ex -owners as to find out what they are for. I also have the original box for the 1050 Ram expansion Module, No big deal, but a box in nice shape is hard to find. The 1010 External Floppy drive had an original Price of $399! Man this set up must have cost a small fortune back in 1987.Notice, no yellowing!
After clearing off the bench, the First thing I did was hook up the Genlock unit.
Yes crappy photo's today, the good camera was being borrowed.
I then connected all the back cables, and external drive and even hooked up a second monitor through the genlock unit. The picture through the RCA cable isn't as crisp on the other Amiga monitor, but for now it will do just fine, as it is for testing only.
I then turned it all around. You can just make it out, but the hard drive has a touch of yellowing. I then hooked up the side Scsi attachment. I took the cover off and it does indeed have the extra Ram card, with 2 simms. I am not sure how much extra ram though. The CD-Rom is not hooked up.
Looks great. Now to turn it on, but as my luck always goes, nothing happened! I powered up the SCSI drive first, and then the Amiga. -Nothing but a grey screen. I then shut everything down and unplugged the Fast Track from the side and it booted up no problems. I watched the EA Kaleidoscope demo disk, then proceeded to try again. Sometimes it goes to a kickstart screen then nothing but a grey screen, I suspect the drive itself has given up the ghost over the years and needs to be replaced. I will take the books with me tonight at work and try to troubleshoot the issue. More tommorow.

Now for Today's RANDOM Photo:

Boxed A1000

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It is 12:30 am and I just got home from work, so please forgive the bad photos. Not much has bee happening with my Amiga's this week. I have been busy with clients, and nothing really has come in from China yet, just some CD-rom Adaptors.
Today, Just before the Amicue meeting and work, I got in a BOXED Amiga A1000. the box is a bit warn , and written on, but EVERYTHING was boxed.
I just opened the A1000 box and only the keyboard seems to have a bit of yellowing on it. It also came with the correct, original mouse.
I also got a 1080 monitor:
And an A1010 External Floppy drive:
There is another plain white box that has a Zetec 10-000 Hard drive. Yes a hard drive. The BBOH doesn't have pictures of it , so when I get a chance to set it up Monday morning, I will take better photos of it. Probably am MFM drive, but the box is almost as big as the A1000 box itself. I also got a few other boxes with software. More Monday as I work a double shift tomorrow, and I won't be able to get at it properly.

UPDATE:
Sunday morning:
I opened the Zetec Box. I don't have all that much time for pictures, but the closest I found was under the Zetec Fast Card contoller on the BBOAH.
Yes, take away the A500 and put a small Metal U-shape bracket on the bottom of the Fast Track controller (to raise it up to the hight of an A1000) and you have the 10-000. The photo shows 2 Hard drive units. You can put a CD -rom into the housing also (I would suspect) so this obvoiusly holds potential.


Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

Introducing the New Kickstart Magazine /newsletter

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Click here for the first issue of the magazine

Its no secret. I have been working on the sidelines to put a Amiga based magazine /newsletter out, that I would want to read. Well, I can't quite say it's perfect yet, far from it. But with a week turn around time from pitch to a paper copy, I have been working hard.
This is a magazine for the Amiga public, BY the Amiga public, not just me. So I invite, and if I have to DARE you all to take 5 minutes ad write down an article. It can be anything Amiga related. Tips for the new bee's, the latest Iphone/Amiga game converstions, Step- by -step walk Thu guides, Comic strips or even just pictures sent in of your rig. Remember, this is YOUR magazine also.
The Magazine will be published once a month, no matter how big it is, and you can get a PDF copy Here. (In Fact HERE is the first issue) Mind you it is just a rough "first issue".
I planed to use Amiga's own Pagestream software, but the "Demo" kept crashing in Windows, so I guess I will have to dig up my old copy of Quark Express to do it properly for 4 color seps., for if it goes well, I plan to have it printed up on high quality magazine stock, -if the magazine hits 50 pages or more. Remember this is a totally Free publication, for now, there will be no subscriptions, heck we don't even have a sponsor, so you will have to hit this site around the first of the month to get it.
I welcome questions, comments and such, you can e-mail me at the website's usual address (amiga(AT)amigalounge.com.


Now for today's RANDOM Photo:

China Syndrome

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Not really much has been going on Physically this week on my on-going Amiga projects, Other than replacing a floppy cable and a mount on my spare A600. I am one step closer in getting the A1000 collection from a local guy, who may turn out to be a distant cousin on my Mom's side of the family (small world). What I am really excited about though is there is a SMALL (but never the less) possibility I might be getting SOME CDTV SCSI -TV cards in for the CDTV. For those that don't know what that is: SCSI-TV, a SCSI controller for the Commodore CDTV and A570 CD-ROM drive for the Amiga 500. This versatile interface allows the CDTV to connect to virtually any SCSI device. IF I can swing it, these will be NOS and be for sale in my on-line store. I will find out more tomorrow on it. I have been ordering small little odds and ends from China. If these pan out and do what I want, I will get a bunch more in for the store, as they are very inexpensive. First, I ordered in more (and different CF adapters). The ones with NO second power cable needed.That way you are not hunting for a Y-cable, and it keeps everything free from a rat's nest inside your Amiga, and you can CLOSE the case. The second thing I ordered was 2 of these Converters: These will allow you to take a thin laptop CD-Rom (or DVD) drive and convert it to an IDE connection. This is perfect, if you have a dead or old laptop, and want to use the drive in a A1200 or (gasp) A600. I am looking also into the following drive for my A4000. It's called a DOM or Disk on modal. It's a 40 pin connector for 3.5 drives, but with its female end, I can eliminate cables, or have an external mount cable connector. Right now, I have a (physically) huge 1 gig IDE drive and 4 Gigs should be just fine for the A4000 for now. I am also debating to put an SD card reader or CD reader into the second floppy drive bay of the A4000. With the prices of Compact flash compared with SD, it really makes sense. They have drive bay Kits: Although they do have the mount kits for the bay slots for the back of the computer, I want mine up front, as I hate reaching around the back for anything. If I could get away with it, even the CD rom would pop out the front of the A1200, but sadly that can't happen unless I make the base of the shell bigger. The point of this though, is if you open your mind to the possibilities of Flash drives on your miggy, there is an endless amount of options. Flash drives will quite you machine (we all had those noisy hard drives), they run with virtually no heat, and you can clean up the cable mess, with some options. The only thing I truly recommend, if you are thinking of going with a flash drive is getting an IDE "4 device" Fast IDE card. Amigakit sells these, but I am looking for a specific one for the A4000, not one that takes up a Zorro Slot, but uses the original IDE port on the 4000. They have one, but it's not buffered.

Now for today's RANDOM photo: