[sdiy] Real cause of DIY death

[Roy J. Tellason]

On Sunday 17 July 2005 08:59 pm, Paul Schreiber wrote:

> a) getting the Digi-Key catalog when it was 1 sheet, folded and mailed

They don't do that any more?

<...>

> d) Xeroxing (back when the paper was sort of slimy) all the Don Lancaster,
> Forrest Mims and PAiA construction articles. I bet I read the "Psych-Tone"
> article 500 times. I suppose in modern times it was like a *real* Harry
> Potter spell book.

Did a quick search on that just now and came up with this url:

http://www.swtpc.com/mholley/PopularElectronics/Feb1971/PE_Feb1971.htm

Seems like they've got images of the whole thing online,  there.

> e) wire-wrapping the Tandy Model 1 prototype, and etching the pc boards and
> getting ferric chloride over everything. I still have mine, serial #00068

Heh.  I remember walking into a local RS store (that isn't there any more) and 
seeing one of those,  and when I touched it,  the dang thing crashed,  thanks 
to static electricity.

Got some tandy-marked ram chips (probably 4kx1 dynamic or something silly like 
that,  maybe some 16kx1 dynamic ones too) if anybody needs some.  :-)

> :) f) staring (afraid to even *touch it*) when Seagate brought in a *9
> platter* 1GB hard drive. We had to sign an 'evaluation' PO (you break it,
> you buy it) for $8000. It took over 16 hours just to format it. When we did
> the DOS Dir and saw over 1GB of storage, there were about 22 people in the
> lab, just *staring*. No one said anything, we just *stared* like it had
> dropped out of a space ship.

Heh.  I have,  somewhere around here,  a couple of 1G SCSI drives,  and those 
suckers are *huge*.  5-1/4" FH form factor,  dunno how many platters in it or 
which of the two is good and which ain't -- I was told one of them still 
works.  Hardly seems worth bothering with these days...

> Today, there is a Dell ad in the paper for a 2GHz PC with 120GB drive and a
> flat screen for like $399. Yawn....ZZzzzzz......Oh look a 5GB 'no-name' MP3
> player at Fry's for $79......Burp..........pass the donuts.
>
> Personally, synth-DIY for me was fuel by *amazement*. What does a 15yr old
> boy find 'amazing' today? Getting to Level 33 on Zelda? Maybe big-ass
> plasma TVs are pretty cool, bet they are a bitch to DIY :)

Yeah they are.

> Paul S.
> I'm gonna go solder me some MOTM-380 LFOs, dammit

Dunno what those are,  but I've spent a bunch of time in the past couple of 
days scrapping parts out of boards that came out of a VCR.  Some amazing 
stuff in there!  Some of it I don't even know what the heck those parts are,  
and some I could figure it out but am not sure what I'm gonna do with them 
(transistors that have resistors built in?!) and there's much to go yet.  I'm 
not likely to worry about them teeny little resistors,  though,  whatever the 
heck they are -- 1/8W?  1/10W?  Got plenty of 1/4W stuff,  more than I can 
use...