i went to recycling again. i got three more monitors. another 21-inch sgi. this one doesn’t need sync-on-green. and 2 17 inch monitors, an hp with 5 bnc connectors, and an ibm with a regular vga connector. plus i got a mouse (to match the keyboard i got last week) for jeff’s mac plus macquarium. i also got 2 200mb scsi hard drives to go in the ps/2 model 85 server. the hard drive was in there likes to die every time i send a print job (which isn’t a real good thing for a print server). so now it’s got mirrored drives.

ooh, i got all sorts of cool stuff from recycling. i got a microchannel ethernet card for our crazy novell server, a ps/2 85. now the the pay-to-print in middlebrook may finally work. but that’s boring. the fun stuff: a 21 inch sgi monitor. beautiful. but old. it was made in 1991. it needs sync-on-green, so i need an adapter or a card that will do sync-on-green. i also got a 17 inch sgi granite monitor. cool. the corners are warped and discolored. i’d should get one of those magnetic tools to fix it (or so i’ve heard). plus i got a 17 inch ibm monitor, i haven’t tried that one yet. it’s a nice workstation monitor though. plus a badly beat-up sgi personal iris. i also picked up a couple ancient ibm laptops, a thinkpad 360cs (a 486). and an ancient 386 pre-thinkpad: a black/white ps/2 note n51 slc (doesn’t quite roll off the tongue like ‘thinkpad’). unfortunately, the darling’s got a broken screen. it’s a real artifact though. it uses 30-pin simms, it’s got the microchannel bus, a black rubberized case, and is built like (and is as heavy as) a tank. obviously a thinkpad ancestor. much cooler than any of the other ps/2 laptops. (which were huge, white, and more brittle). pictures to follow soon!

i tore my $199 nic (new internet computer) apart today. the motherboard is very cute, all-in-one, no slots or anything. plus it’s a super 7, so i think it can handle 500mhz k6-2’s even. unfortunately, the pads where the rca connector attach apparently don’t carry the tv signal. i went into the bios and turned on the tv out signal, and i soldered in an rca cable. i attached it to the video-in on the tv, but nothing. there must be something else that has to be done to the board. i don’t see anything missing on the board (unlike the mediaGX boards, which were missing an ic.) anyway, i’ve got more photos in the stupid hacks section.

i love old computer stores. really. like raymond commodore-amiga. i just wish i could find more like them. does anybody know of more in the twin cities? i’ve got the U recycling center too, but it just doesn’t have the personality of raymond commodore-amiga.