Old Skool Blog

I’ve moved this blog to a new hosting site (Bluehost) and hope to start posting more regularly. Some posts and comments didn’t survive the transfer process for some reason, but it mostly looks okay.

Wow. It’s 25 years since the first virus was released into the wild. While the Elk Cloner wasn’t technically the first virus, it is generally accepted as such because it was the first to spread widely on personal computer which were starting to become popular and widespread.

I’m glad to say that in all the years I have been using computers, I have only ever had one virus attack my systems. I can’t recall which particular virus it was, but it was on the Amiga and managed to infect several of my floppies before I discovered it. At the time it was easiest to just ditch the infected disks, though I think there was some crude “cleansing” tool which supposedly could have fixed them. Apart from that one virus though, I have been able to avoid viruses thanks to common-sense guidelines and using a virus scanners where possible.

I have, however, seen some particularly nasty infections, some of the most persistent being MS Word macro viruses. I was working in IT support in the mid to late 90’s when macro viruses started to appear. One of the early macro viruses was somehow introduced into our network and turned out to be a very difficult thing to eradicate. While we could clean all infected files on the network and on our users’ PCs, if someone had emailed an infected document, the virus could lie dormant for quite some time before reappearing and reinfecting everything again. In those days virus scanners couldn’t scan and clean email attachments until they were opened, so the virus could lie in wait for months at a time until someone opened an old document in their email and there would be another round of scanning/cleaning files.

Over the years virus scanners and viruses have become more and more sophisticated. To think, it all started from a silly prank on an Apple II!

A while back I wrote about the Micro-Comp, a small single-board Z-80 computer I built from a kit many years ago. For those who are interested, Talking Electronics still has copies of the magazine which contains all the instructions and PCB layouts required to build the Micro-Comp. The magazine is called Six BD679 Projects and can be ordered from Talking Electronics’ web site. Unfortunately the Micro-Comp kit is no longer available, so if you’d like to try your hand at building one you’ll have to etch your own board. Talking Electronics do appear to have some Pic-based trainers that mimic the layout/functionality of the original Micro-Comp - I might look at getting one of those to tinker with at some stage…

Bil Herd, one of the key designers of the Commodore 128, popped into the Retrobits forum to explain how and why the Z80 made it into the Commodore 128. So if you ever wondered why the 128 had a CP/M mode, here’s the story straight from the horses mouth.

Damn! I just discovered that Jim Butterfield, one of the leading lights of the Commodore world passed away on June 29, 2007 after losing his battle with cancer. I remember reading countless magazine articles and one or two books written by Jim over the years - he was one of the more prominent computer authors in the 80’s and he will be sorely missed. 8^(

Time to dig out some old magazines and re-read some of his material…

I am often amazed at the price some items go for on eBay. For example, take this Vic 20. It comes complete in its original box, has an 8K RAM expansion cartridge, two reasonably common game cartridges and a couple of books. Now Vic 20’s have been less common recently, with only about one or two units appearing on eBay a month, but still, $227.50 (at the time I posted this the auction still had 6 days to go) is absolutely ridiculous! The seller even states that the box is “very worn”, so it is hardly worth extra just because it is in a box. Obviously this is a case of someone who really wants a Vic 20, but just hasn’t done any research on recent sales. $27.50 would be a reasonable price, maybe even $30-40, but over $200 is just plain silly.

Then there are the sellers who try to rip buyers off. Take this guy for instance: $25 postage on a cassette! The most it would actually cost him is maybe $3-4 including a padded post bag.

Sometimes you just gotta laugh…

Here’s a list of various kits and projects based on classic microcomputers of yesteryear. Some of these are true to the original (down to using original components where possible) while others are re-imaginings of old systems.

• Micro-KIM - A KIM-1 clone that appears to be reasonably true to the original, though with a few modifications and an added serial port
• Replica 1 - A replica of the original Apple, with a couple of “modern” enhancements (such as the option of a USB port)
• COSMAC Elf 2000 - A reproduction of the COSMAC Elf with some modern enhancements
• Roll your own PET 4032 - A PET 4032 clone based on the CS/A65 project
• Kenbak-1 Series 2 - A faithful reproduction of the original Kenbak-1
• Altair 8800 - A faithful reproduction of the original Altair 8800
• IMSAI Series 2 - Based on the computer that appears in War Games
• Sinclair ZX81 - Original Sinclair ZX81 kits - not a clone or a replica, but the real deal!
• Sinclair ZX80 clone - If you want to try building a ZX80 completely from scratch
• Jupiter Ace clone - Similar to the ZX80 clone above

I have a couple of the Sinclair ZX81 kits and will be ordering the Micro-KIM and Replica-1 kits shortly. As for the others, well I’d love to have them all, but can realistically see myself getting the COSMAC Elf and maybe a Kenbak. I’d love the Altair, but just can’t see myself being able to afford the cost.

One of my other hobbies is electronics and it is always a bonus when two or more of my hobbies combine. For example, a couple of years ago I saw a kit for a “Classic TV Pong Game” in my local electronics store so I had to get it. It was a long while before I got around to building the kit, but when I did I was treated to a pretty neat version of Pong. Now I have many different Pong clones stashed away in my collection, but there is something to be said for soldering all the bits and bobs on yourself. I’ve always wanted to try design my own Pong clone out of discrete components - evidently some of the early Pongs were built using discrete components but I have yet to find any schematics.

Anyway, here’s a picture of the kit fully built (I will try to take some images of it in action ASAP):

I think it is time to (temporarily) halt my eBay activities. At least until I get my current collection properly sorted out and catalogued. I’m spending way too much time buying “new” computers/peripherals/software/books when I don’t really know exactly what I have and can barely find the time to play with use what I have.

So the action plan is:

1. Find a suitable shelving solution
2. Sort my current collection
3. Catalogue the collection electronically
4. ???
5. Profit?

Work has eased up a little bit, but things are still pretty full on so I haven’t had much chance to get back to my hobbies. Having said that, I have managed to add to my collection - another Mattel Aquarius complete with mini expander, RAM expansion, tape unit and a couple of cartridges; an Oric Atmos, which joins the Oric-1 I picked up late last year; and a CGL M5, which is a rebadged/renamed Sord M5. I can’t wait until I get some time to power up these systems, hopefully that won’t be too far off…