Subject: RE: [pafree] OFFER: Two ISA computer boards that make 8 serial ports - Ah, Nostalgia!

From: "The Huie Foundation" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 18 May 2007 04:15:25 -0700

Good morning, David!

Too cool!

were these connected to Mac or PC???

In past 24 hours, a sleeping giant has been awoken in me!   ....oddly, I was
thinking fondly of Roger Chaffee,
our dear colleague from our Apple II computer club days...

In past 48 hours, I had done something that I swore I would never do
....been playing on a Macintosh!!!

Some freecycler had given me an old ibook that was no longer working.  After
ripping into the motherboard,
I discovered the video BGA chip had suffered from cold solder joints.  After
reheating and reflowing the solder (about 5 minutes - 30 minutes total
repair), she booted up and was as good as new!

Had 10.2.1 OS on it, so I updated via download to 10.2.8, then (bought and)
installed 10.3.x and ran updates, then 2 nights ago, I installed the latest
10.4.x and downloaded 164MB and updated that to the latest and greatest
10.4.9.  This machine is roughly a late model P3 equiv. machine.  To my
surprise, installing the latest
Mac OS on it caused things to run FASTER, not slower (aka-Windows latest and
greatest).  I was and continue to be rather amazed (or, more properly -
amused!).

$15 at the last electronic's flea market bought me 512MB SODIMM memory which
maxed out the capacity on this machine.   Another $10 and an evening of
casual hacking provided built-in Wifi from cannibalizing a perfectly good
Lucent Wifi card (making it into the equivalent Apple Airport, an overpriced
- $60-$169 - 802.11b internal card).

So for a handful or parts, I turned a non-working ibook into a perfectly
functioning laptop running the latest Mac OS which is now valued on open
market at roughly $225-$300.    The thrill factor, however, far exceeds any
$$$ value.   I never liked Apple as a company after (1984 when) they started
charging $45 for a special torx screwdriver in order to open up their newly
released Macintosh machine.

Remember how much fun we used to have back in the early 1980's - prying the
cover off the top of our Apple II Plus computers and peering into the guts
of the machine?   I still have that old box of mine sitting in the garage on
a shelf.   I also have the wire wrap boards, and other 8-bit parallel I/O
cards that I had made for
doing early "home control" type projects.

Ah, such memories.  We've come a long way.   I also have an X10 controller
with about 12 devices around the house.  Ah, gone are the days of serial -
today I have X10 to USB. :-)

Thanks for the fine reminiscence!
~Keith...

P.s.- My cell phone, 650-533-6047 was disconnected as of 24 hours ago.  I'm
upgrading my plan to something amazingly cheap and offers unlimited
broadband (yes, while mobile!) that's faster than my ADSL at home.  New
phone should be arriving Mon or Tuesday and I will get my number back in a
few weeks if I choose.  However, due to a number of unsolicited calls, I may
not keep my old number after all.  In any case, my home/office number is
always the best number to reach me "anywhere":  650-364-4559.

-----Original Message-----
From: [email-masked] [mailto:[email-masked]] On Behalf Of
David C. Harris
Sent: Thursday, May 17, 2007 4:56 PM
To: [email-masked]; [email-masked];
[email-masked]; [email-masked];
[email-masked]
Subject: [pafree] OFFER: Two ISA computer boards that make 8 serial ports

(Possibly a second copy of this message:)

Two "serial port" boards for ISA slots, each with 4  connectors that make
for a total of 8 cables with serial ports at the end.  They include
8 of the 16550 UART chips that have a long FIFO buffer for characters.

Made by Kouwell or Kouwei of Taiwan.  Model KW531A.   In 1992 I figured
out how to use them with my Intel 286 based UNIX system and documented the
recipe in notes that will be included.  These are the lowest cost way to use
multiple terminals or other devices with Linux/UNIX kinds of operating
systems.

At one time I wired all 8 serial ports through 4 wire telephone cords to
have terminals out in the back yard, the kitchen, living room, and my
bedroom, and two X-10 home automation boxes, and a laptop that would send in
data.

If you understand the techno-speak above, you could use these.

  - David Harris, south Palo Alto near El Camino Real about 1/2 mile "south"
of Oregon Xpwy/Page Mill intersection

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