** Vic <lug@???> [2007-07-13 14:40]:
> >> Jupiter ACE x2
> >
> > One of these would be interesting to play with. I haven't seen one
> > since they first came out. :)
>
> <guilty secret> I've still got one... </guilty secret>
** end quote [Vic]
I have most of one! I picked up one of the last off the line after
Juptier Cantab closed. Of all places it was bought a Beaulieu boat
jumble! It was an event memorable for that reason and the fact that when
I got back to the stall we were running I had just missed John Noakes
haggling over the price of some water containers, presumably just before
heading off the Med.
I spent some time playing around with Forth and liked it alot. Sadly
there's only one company I know of that makes use of Forth in a big way,
so employment using it was limited.
I've been after the rest of the machine ever since. It currently sits in
a case (as in brief case style thing) with the circuit board fixed to
the base of the case (as in the actual computer casing) and the rubber
keyboard mat held on with two elastic bands. It doesn't use the membrane
approach that the ZX81, Spectrum and QL used in spite of its heritige,
but has small round pieces of contuctive material glued under the keys.
These press directly on the circuit board and complete the circuit
between the tracks that are laid out in a keyboard pattern. It all
works, and I have the demo tape, manual, PSU, tape and TV leads, just no
top casing. I also never managed to track down a 16k RAM pack, but I
live in hope still. I may yet modify a ZX81 unit as they are pretty much
the same bar the pinout on the connector.
OK, not so secret anymore, but I don't feel guilty :) If I dare say it
here, although Linux gives modern computing some sanity and interest it
doesn't manage to provide the soul that something like an Amiga, Jupiter
ACE, BBC Micro or one of the many other 80's micro computers had. I
blame that n the Frankenstien's creation that is the x86 hardware it
generally runs on - way too closely linked to the hell that is Windows.
I sometimes think that if all modern computing had to offer was Windows
I wouldn't have a PC. The language that has been coming out of the
dining room today as my wife curses the Windows machine in there for
insisting that the software she has been using for several days, and has
been installed and working for months, needs installing and configuring
because it isn't on there - having cancelled the multiple requests for
the installation CD it gives in and works as it should!
Oh, and before anyone comments, I do have Linux (Ubuntu 7.04) installed
on the machine too, and as of a few days ago and a replacement of the
wireless NIC it has networking. Sadly there is still more work to do to
get it running smoothly though as:
1. when I tried to scan from the scanner that was correctly detected the
application locked up and the machine all but ground to a halt
2. when the wireless connection was lost the mouse and keyboard started
playing up - the mouse became very jerky and slow to respond to
movement, and the keyboard would miss random characters typed in on it
meaning that the only way to get something accurately typed was to hit a
key and wait for it to display before typing the next; as such debugging
was not practical, and I've not got back to it yet.
--
Paul Tansom | Aptanet Ltd. |
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