Old farts reminiscing about computers

[Cottonwood]

Just be careful using Selectric typewriters for your I/O... Learning from the Enemy, the Gunman Project

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An IMSAI is worth about $3,000 as an antique these days. And please, these ARE the crazy years as a boy passes off a clock radio he disassembled as his own invention and gets invited to the White House. Heinlein knew the future well enough!

i put together a Heathkit digital clock in the 70's.

Wonder what folks would think of that today? Will we have to register our soldering irons soon?

 

[wdolson]

An IMSAI is worth about $3,000 as an antique these days. And please, these ARE the crazy years as a boy passes off a clock radio he disassembled as his own invention and gets invited to the White House. Heinlein knew the future well enough!

I know somebody found a Radio Shack clock with the same circuitry, but I think he got a hold of an old Radio Shack build it yourself project that used the same circuit board and display. Soldering together the kit isn't exactly an example of great talent, but of course nothing he did deserved the interrogation he got.

 

[snort]

.....i put together a Heathkit digital clock in the 70's.

Wonder what folks would think of that today? Will we have to register our soldering irons soon?

I built a clock from 7490s and 7 segment displays when I was in high school in the early '70s. my mom wasn't too pleased when I used her glass cake pan to etch the PC board. not knowing better, I washed the used ferric chloride down the storm drain. I guess it must have rained enough over the next few days to dilute it and prevent problems. I don't claim to have invented anything; most of it was right out of the signetics catalog. I had to figure out how to use 60 hz as a timer source.

high school chemistry seems to have become a pretty staid and boring subject these days. I wonder how kids can learn anything if they can't have some pyrotechnic fun.

 

[mspohr]

I know somebody found a Radio Shack clock with the same circuitry, but I think he got a hold of an old Radio Shack build it yourself project that used the same circuit board and display. Soldering together the kit isn't exactly an example of great talent, but of course nothing he did deserved the interrogation he got.

I spent most of my youth taking radios, TVs, record players and miscellaneous surplus junk apart to see how it worked. Occasionally I would put something back together and it would work.
The point is that he had a natural curiosity about the clock. It really doesn't matter if it was a kit or not or if he disassembled/reassembled something. He's not a great inventor or engineer (yet) but he does have the motivation and curiosity which is necessary. Too bad he encountered ignorant teachers who punished him for his curiosity. Good that most of the rest of the world recognizes that this is not the way you treat kids who show curiosity and motivation.

 

[HankLloydRight]

Occasionally I would put something back together and it would work.

Same here! And when I got it all back together and working, there was always one mysterious screw or random part left over.

 

[snort]

I spent most of my youth taking radios, TVs, record players and miscellaneous surplus junk apart to see how it worked. Occasionally I would put something back together and it would work.
The point is that he had a natural curiosity about the clock. It really doesn't matter if it was a kit or not or if he disassembled/reassembled something. He's not a great inventor or engineer (yet) but he does have the motivation and curiosity which is necessary. Too bad he encountered ignorant teachers who punished him for his curiosity. Good that most of the rest of the world recognizes that this is not the way you treat kids who show curiosity and motivation.

Hear hear.
He needs to be encouraged to dig deeper. for a kid that young to be able to take that apart and not destroy it puts him ahead of 99.9%. if he's encouraged he'll get better. I think most STEM avoidance comes from ignorant grownups telling kids that they didn't get it either. very few kids get everything the first time. curiosity comes from the reinforcement you get from sticking with it.

--Snortybartfast

 

[scaesare]

I also was a disassembler. More often than not, rather than attempt to put them back together, (often they were broken items anyway), I'd cull the switches, bulbs/led's and components from them and use them to build something else...

 

[wdolson]

I spent most of my youth taking radios, TVs, record players and miscellaneous surplus junk apart to see how it worked. Occasionally I would put something back together and it would work.
The point is that he had a natural curiosity about the clock. It really doesn't matter if it was a kit or not or if he disassembled/reassembled something. He's not a great inventor or engineer (yet) but he does have the motivation and curiosity which is necessary. Too bad he encountered ignorant teachers who punished him for his curiosity. Good that most of the rest of the world recognizes that this is not the way you treat kids who show curiosity and motivation.

No argument. I took things apart as a kid too and had a drawer of my dresser full of parts. I also agree kids should be encouraged to take things apart that aren't needed and build things. My issues with this story are the people claiming he just took apart a clock radio from Radio Shack when it's probably more likely he built a Radio Shack kit of the same clock they sold as a finished product and the claims on the opposite end of the spectrum that claim he "invented" the clock. I even heard him say that in an interview. It's pretty apparent he didn't build the clock from scratch (design the circuits, etch the board, etc.) He built a kit, which is a good project for a kid and commendable, especially if he hadn't done anything like that before.

 

[Cosmacelf]

My issues with this story are the people claiming he just took apart a clock radio from Radio Shack when it's probably more likely he built a Radio Shack kit of the same clock they sold as a finished product and the claims on the opposite end of the spectrum that claim he "invented" the clock. I even heard him say that in an interview. It's pretty apparent he didn't build the clock from scratch (design the circuits, etch the board, etc.) He built a kit, which is a good project for a kid and commendable, especially if he hadn't done anything like that before.

But Radio Shack never sold that clock in kit form. It is indeed a circa 1985 printed circuit board, and this article shows the clock it came from:

Reverse Engineering Ahmed Mohamed and Ourselves. | Tech Voice

 

[Cosmacelf]

Soldering together the kit isn't exactly an example of great talent, but of course nothing he did deserved the interrogation he got.

And nothing he did deserved an invitation to the White House either. Or put it another way, there are lots of people getting shafted by all levels of police and government, but none of them get the President tweeting about them because there is no political benefit.

And he never soldered that board - anyone here knows that board is a vintage 1980s era circuit board. No one makes boards like that anymore.

 

[wdolson]

And nothing he did deserved an invitation to the White House either. Or put it another way, there are lots of people getting shafted by all levels of police and government, but none of them get the President tweeting about them because there is no political benefit.

And he never soldered that board - anyone here knows that board is a vintage 1980s era circuit board. No one makes boards like that anymore.

There are old unbuilt electronic project kits floating around out there. If you look on EBay for Heathkit, you will find unbuilt kits and I think they quit making kits about 20 years ago, there are also unbuilt Radio Shack kits on Ebay too. Doing a search I think you're right and Radio Shack never made a clock kit, so he probably didn't get out the soldering iron.

I heard yesterday the kid and his family are moving to Qatar, he got a scholarship to some school there.

 

[pete8314]

Same here! And when I got it all back together and working, there was always one mysterious screw or random part left over.

Same here! RIP Big Trak, Speak n Spell.

 

[scottf200]

RENUM
That is all, for now.

I avoided this thread for the longest time then got sucked in and read every post. I used RENUM (z/OS ISPF editor command - pretty powerful editor if you read the manual <grin>) less than 1 year ago before megacorp laid me off when they had a bad financial quarter. turned to once realized I could retire in my late forties. Coded in MVS 370 (aka z/OS) assemble on relational database utility software.

 

[scaesare]

Same here! RIP Big Trak, Speak n Spell.

Oooh... BigTrak!

Did you have the dumping trailer too??

 

[pete8314]

Heck yeah, what use was it without the trailer?

 

[scaesare]

Excellent.

I can still here the "acknowledgement" beep sequence when you successfully entered a route... and the laser PEW! sounds!

Incidentally, 1 forward unit of travel was exactly the length of my forearm at age 11.

 

[SR22pilot]

There are old unbuilt electronic project kits floating around out there. If you look on EBay for Heathkit, you will find unbuilt kits and I think they quit making kits about 20 years ago, there are also unbuilt Radio Shack kits on Ebay too. Doing a search I think you're right and Radio Shack never made a clock kit, so he probably didn't get out the soldering iron.

I heard yesterday the kid and his family are moving to Qatar, he got a scholarship to some school there.

I still have a Heathkit spectrum analyzer that I never started.

 

[Cyclone]

Heck yeah, what use was it without the trailer?

View attachment 98918

After seeing this, my childhood was sorely lacking!

 

[snellenr]

I built a ferrite core memory mockup using cardboard, string, and straws to earn this 1967 Boy Scout merit badge...

Someone else's perspective on the difference between the current merit badge and the "classic" one here

 

[MitchMitch]

As junior high school students, a friend and I used to sneak into a university science library below-ground time share terminal room to play a version Star Trek on these teletype machines. It would take two or three minutes to print out quadrants of the universe complete with the Enterprise, Star Base, and evil Romulan Warbirds. Imagine the noise with 20 of these cranking at once. I still incorporate the password we somehow acquired into those that I use today, and for some reason have a roll of the paper nearly a half-century later. I think the college course I later took covering FORTRAN and BASIC (yes, punch cards!) lead me to a totally unrelated career.