29 replies to this topic

[Steppenwolffan21]

Moderators: Please feel free to move this as I'm unsure it belongs in this thread.


Well....
Last Saturday I was out garage sale looking. We probably went to about 6 or 7. The first one was a thrift store in which I found some playstation items. The other ones were duds except the last one. We started looking around, and I asked if they had any video game stuff, and they said "No honey, it's all packed up, because we're moving." I was disapointed and started looking more, then I see a dumpster, the kind that contractors use and I spot a gray box looking object with vertocal cooling louvers; and that could only mean one thing: a computer! So ask I asked the lady if she minds if I can take a look at the dumpster's contents. She said sure. So when I get closer I see that I was right; it was a IBM PC JR. computer, with monitor, printer, and keyboard. I asked her if I could have it and she said " I'm tickled to death that you would be interesyed in that; sure help yourself ." So I did, putting the computer in my mom's ca's trunk. I came back to the dumpster to make sure I wasn't missing out on anything else. Then I spot some software on the oposite side of the dumpster. Sure enough it was, about 100 5" floppies, 2 large 3 ringed binders, and some papers. I take all that, and we left to go home. To make it short, the binders turned out be an IBM developer's binders. One of them was gray and said IBM on the front with a barcode and the bottom. Inside was documents that said " IBM INTERNAL USE ONLY AT THE TOP" followed by floppy disks that matched the name. Here are the names of the floppies.....



peekaboo
peekaboo
picflip
piano
leonardo
leonardo
loadram
dictionary
dictnry
sleeper motor control
grex
prancer
prancer

For each floppy were pages of info about it.

The other binder was blank and white.
The first few pages were about hardware for the PC JR. and the prices for them. The other pages ( about 300 ) were about posts inside the PC JR. forum.

I really would like to learn more about the PC JR., the "prototypes" and the prices of the "prototypes".
The following link has pictures of some of the floppies and the complete PC JR. system.

http://flowery1.phot...BMSTUFF/?page=1

My email is Lowery1500@Bellsouth

Thanks alot for the help and sorry for the long post



EDIT- Oh yeah, there is a floppy disk case labled " DYSAN PRECISION MAGNETIC MEDIA " with 3 floppies inside that have been stamped with a red stamp saying " IBM CONFIDENTIAL. "

Edited by Steppenwolffan21, Tue Jul 12, 2005 9:56 PM.

[sku_u]

I think you will be okay since you are under 18, but embezzling and insider trading are felonies!












































































































































































Just kidding

[Steppenwolffan21]

lol

[Osbo]

very cool find I'd love to find something like that one of these days...

[Tempest]

Interesting. Can you post scans?

Tempest

[Malc74]

I know it probably sounds painfully obvious, but have you actually tried examining the disks to see what's on there, particularly the ones marked 'Confidential'?

It's just that you talk about what's on the disk labels and don't confirm what files are on the disks themselves.

[Steppenwolffan21]

Malc- I'm sorry, and I've been busy lately, so I didn't get to take good pictures and made a vague description. Today I will look at the contents of the discs using the DIR method. Tempest I have a scanner, but no clue on how to post pictures on my website. You could PM me with your email address though, so I can send you the scans. I was wonderong if it would damage or erase the memory if you scan them, or am I being over-cautious?


Again please excuse any spelling or grammar errors in my first post as I was again in a hurry.

Edited by Steppenwolffan21, Wed Jul 13, 2005 10:41 AM.

[sku_u]

Steppenwolffan21, on Wed Jul 13, 2005 12:39 PM, said:

Malc- I'm sorry, and I've been busy lately, so I didn't get to take good pictures and made a vague description. Today I will look at the contents of the discs using the DIR method. Tempest I have a scanner, but no clue on how to post pictures on my website. You could PM me with your email address though, so I can send  you the scans. I was wonderong if it would damage or erase the memory if you scan them, or am I being over-cautious?

You can post images directly to this site if you want to. No, scanning will not ruin them.

[Clint Thompson]

Cool stuff... I think I'm in love with prototypes as a whole and being this is of older PC technology (which wouldn't normally interest me had it been rather recent) this does!

Looking forward to seeing what you find out on the disks....

[Bruce Tomlin]

It would be so cool if those disks had original source code on them.

[Steppenwolffan21]

Whats that mean?

how do i directly post pics to this site?

[sku_u]

After you hit reply, if you scroll down, you should see this:

(click enlarge to see the image better)

Click the browse... button. You should then see a window asking that shows you the files on your computer. When you have found the picture you are looking for, click add this attachment, then click add reply when you are done. Save the file as a jpg, jpeg or gif to avoid any error warnings and feel free to drop me a PM if you're having difficulties.

[Steppenwolffan21]

Thanks alot man.

[Steppenwolffan21]

The files are being saved as PDD/PBD ??? Help?

[Clint Thompson]

You mean from a scanner? If so, that's odd... I would imagine you could just scan (export) into .jpg files from whatever program you are using.

[Steppenwolffan21]

I'm using Adobe photo deluxe home edition 4.0

[sku_u]

Steppenwolffan21, on Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:24 AM, said:

I'm using Adobe photo deluxe home edition 4.0

You should be able to do a save as and save them as an uploadable file.

[Steppenwolffan21]

Hah! Got it!

[Steppenwolffan21]

IBM DICTIONARY

Attached Thumbnails

• 

[Steppenwolffan21]

Did it work??

[sku_u]

Steppenwolffan21, on Thu Jul 14, 2005 2:31 AM, said:

Did it work??

Worked perfectly!

[Steppenwolffan21]

IBM Leonardo and Leonardo doc

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[Steppenwolffan21]

IBM Loadram and IBM Piano

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[Steppenwolffan21]

IBM Prancer 1 and IBM Prancer 2

Attached Thumbnails

• 
• 

[Steppenwolffan21]

Last but not least is IBM Stepper Motor Control. Thanks alot for the help for the picture posting; I really appreciate that! Again please feel free to ask any questions. Also please note the " IBM INTERNAL USE ONLY " note on top of the Leonardo Document. Thanks again.

Ferris

Attached Thumbnails

•