Recent content by rlauzon

I remember getting an Osborne Execute with a Drive C: installed. When I did research into it, it was pretty cool for the time. The unit sat in one of the bays that held floppy disks and then plugged into the system bus. You got a 3rd "floppy" drive basically. But I remember it had limitations.

And remember, RAM disk is not an installation procedure. :)

I made one out of a Raspberry Pi 0 and the LaddieAlpha software. But I've since moved to a Backpack.

You need someone to make you a set of boot disks. Or you replace the A: drive with a Gotek and use one of the disk images available on the Internet.

Panasonic made the Tandy 1100FD, and probably 1110HD. But the only real difference between the Tandy and Panasonic (other than the badging) was that the Panasonic had a backlight.

Yes, they do. But looking at the Model 4P Service Manual, I can't tell if yours is a gate array or not. :(

I hooked mine up as a terminal to the Raspberry PI. So I had to get an adapter for the terminal (since it uses a CAT-5-like connector) to DB-25. Then I used a null modem adapter plus a USB-to-Serial adapter to connect it to the Pi. Then I added a agetty entry in the system to get a login...

I used SPF/PC on my PCs for a while. But my day job at the time was programming COBOL and PL/I on IBM mainframes, so the editor didn't have much of a learning curve. Over time, I found that if I spend my days using XXX, I want my non-work time using something similar - just to make things easier.

I built one a year or so ago. It was fun, and fairly easy, to assemble. The challenge for me was to get my DEC VT320 hooked up via a USB-to-Serial adapter.

They are still sold here.

I had looked for a while for some sort of adapter, but I really didn't find anything off the shelf. If it's anything like the 2 that I had, the power supply for the internal monitor will die in a few weeks of use anyway. You'll have to repair it (I'm not comfortable with high voltage stuff, so...

It's a standard XT keyboard with a different connector. When I tore apart my dead Sperry Portables (rebranded version of the Corona PPC), I converted both keyboards to have a standard connector so I could hook them up to my XT systems.

I've had two of these. Both times the power supply for the internal monitor died within a month. Other than that, they are pretty reliable PCs.

Especially when IBM mainframes are, effectively, COBOL machines. Many, many years ago when I did some System/370 assembly language, the assembly mnemonics were VERY close to COBOL. It was the only assembly language that could manipulate packed and character format numbers.

I haven't had any issues with AliExpress yet, but I'll never purchase from Banggood ever again. I ordered some stuff. It never arrived. Tracking shows that it went someplace completely different (like not even in my state). When I let them know that I had not received my order, their reply...