Glen's archived blogJan2010

	RS232 port closed.....
January 2009 February 2009 March 2009 April 2009 May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 The "New" Lounge PET VIC TED LAB STORE My Collection ABOUT ME coming soon Disclaimer: All the information presented here, was taken from the following sources: Brain Bagnal's Book On the Edge: The Spectacular Rise and Fall of Commodore. Available at Amazon.ca The new edition had been delayed at Amazon until Feb.2010 Also, a lot of information has come from Video interviews with Bil Herd and Dave Haynie. Dave has a lot of videos on You-Tube. Search them out.. I wish I could post them here, but I don't have permission. Lastly, more sites on the net have information. There are even a few dedicated sites to the C16. Do a Goggle search, because Bing is just a flash in the pan.:) Please help keep the lounge alive and donate Today.Your donation helps keep an Computer from ending up in a Landfill, and keeping the history Alive for future generations!	Sunday, January 31, 2010 After Humans..or Yes Virginia there was a Chip Fab here It's Sunday. Its only about -12C and its snowing once again. I am working a double shift, and the store is dead, because of the weather. I was reading the posts at Amiga.org, when one of the members posted a link to the following page. I do not know his real name or I certainly would give him credit. the following are recent photos of MOS technologies down in Norristown PA. I am reminded of the show on History channel "After People" and it's kind of sad that this site is an environmental hazard now from all the toxic chemicals used. For those that don't know, MOS technologies was the "Birth"place of the 6502 chip and probably all of the other MOS chips that Commodore used. I like to think that EVERY Commodore computer and Amiga ever made, had at least one chip made here. There are probably thousands of stories just centred here to make a book. In the book "on the Edge" Brian states that the cafeteria had blue prints hanging up on the wall. If the paper was yellow or green, that meant usually some toxic chemicals were in the air and you didn't go in there. From the front, it looks nice, and I guess at the time they were still trying to sell it. At least the tulips grew. It's kind of ironic. Tulip is the name of the company that owes or owned the Commodore name now. Its around back that things are looking bad. Bil had stated that back in the day, you did not park your car next to the trees, as at the end of the day, you would have this gunk coating your car. Now the chemic pits are starting to be exposed, but they probably had all toxic chemicals removed long ago. I though this was a cool shot, probably a backup generator housing, the power consumption must have been mind-blowing. Inside is just a shell now, I would love to see pictures of what it looked like back then . Lastly, the garbage area. I would have to think twice about routing around for some long forgotten souvenir, as there could still be some toxic Chemicals lurking. Anyways, I just it was kind of cool to see what has become of some of the Commodore buildings. Thursday, January 28, 2010 An interesting Call Well, I still don't have the Internet back up, but luckily a neighbour has moved their unsecured router and I have a ok connection. Yesterday, was a day off, and I was just messing around on my Commodore's. I wasn't really doing anything important, just trying to create a setup I liked for the 128, when my e-mail alarm went off. I wandered over to the Voodoo, and it was an e-mail from Bil Herd. He had been looking over may post, and noticed a bit of wrong information regarding the CP/M Cartridge. He said to call him some time. So Since I had the time, I tried calling, but there was no answer at the number he gave. I also had e-mailed him back to call me when he had a moment, and then the phone rang, and it was indeed Bil. Over the next 45 or so minutes, I got a quick education in why the CP/M cartridge didn't work and how he fixed it. Needless to say, I got a quick but cool education on the Z80 processor, and the RAM. I also asked some questions that had been bugging me about the 128, and talked in general about computing today. Needless to say, it was a very good conversation, and I hope to talk with him again.... Unfortunately, with me in Alberta and him in New Jersey, our paths won't likely cross anytime soon. Wednesday, January 20, 2010 Another Flipping day in paradise. Its taken a few months, but my bout of flu in November has finally caught up with me financial wise. If you remember, I was off work for about 3 weeks with very little income, so I have had to "shut down" the high speed cable, and get rid of the cable TV, so as a result, I have been limited to Internet access. I apologize if I haven't got back yet to your emails, for the only unsecured networks around here are just out of range and I am limited to about 1k a sec. If you feel generous, there is a handy "donate" button on the side of the page, and any donations would and are totally appreciated. If just 10% of the visitors to this site, donated a buck or 2, I could live very comfortably indeed, and certainly afford to actually get into more Amiga projects. On other news, I have been debating to take down posts older than let us say 1 month. Bandwidth is not an issue, but I have visitors that love to "Hotlink" to photos, and that really burns my butt. If I take down the archives, then people are forced to come to the front page and not continually hit one of my past pages and or photos. This wouldn't be an issue, but these people have no desire to actually read my blog, just look and link to the funny photo. I probably will end up removing the "failed" pictures as a result. Anyways, I better wrap this up as the connection is fading.... Wednesday, January 6, 2010 The Lounge is a year old! Happy new year everyone! The Amiga Lounge is One year old. Just a quick thank you going out to all of you this week. We have had close to 100 thousand hits last year, and its been an adventure. I have had the chance to chat with many of past Commodore and Amiga employees and the wisdom and stories they have past on is truely priceless for myself. What will 2010 bring? Well, I am looking now at a replacement for my ageing Voodoo laptop. Even though it is still a great unit, and I do love it (if you remember my old blog Iboughtavoodoolaptop.com) It never the less, has to be upgraded soon. The problem is that HP has taken over Voodoo and they no longer have the replacement that I desire. The conundrum is that how do I remain a loyal Voodoo owner when Voodoo is no longer even a spot on HP's roadmap? I certainly do not want to be-little HP, but they do not even come close in overing a "High end" laptop. I do not want to go to DELL /Alienware, because I fear that DELL has soiled the quality of Alienware products. I could go with just getting a new Clevo, and building it myself or I can go to Falcon NW. Falcon NW offers the "Fragbook DTR" which is the upgrade to my Voodoo U709. I am not sure at this point what I am going to do,for it probably be late summer before I do anything. Voodoo still after all these years are saying "SOON" (it is their mission statement now) so we will just have to wait and see. I may have to get a new domain name soon and do a blog about the Falcon NW- LOL On the Amiga front. I am still putzing around and toying with some "upgrades" for my Amiga from AmigaKit.com, but the recent bout with the hardware developers from overseas has still left a bad taste in my mouth over the truly greedy and outrageous pricing of some components. That and the fact that AmigaKit still doesn't have an ECS indivision card for the Amiga 1000, have left me pondering what to do about that. If you have been living under a rock lately, Hyperion and A-EON have "announced" the new X1000 motherboard available later this year. Translation a VEEERY expensive "high end" Amiga system, that will not sell and be forgotten by Christmas. Yes, the will make exactly the same mistake and launch this board at and outrageous price and sit back and wonder why nobody is buying it, nor developing for it. Its a shame that greed will kill this machine before it is even available to the public. The SAM has proven that over and over. I expect that this system will cost at least $2,500 USD at launch. I will be quite surprised if it is affordable. On the Commodore 8-bit Front: All I hope to get this year is a nice C128D unit, and a 1901 monitor. A C116 would be nice, and a nice boxed C16, but those can wait. I am running out of room and I need to either get a basement or start that museum I have talked about. Here is looking forward to a good 2010 for everyone. I thank you for stopping by and hopefully I will get more juicy updates on a regular basis.	SPONSORS OF THE LOUNGE ADVERTISE Your Company Here: E-mail the lounge for more information

Sunday, January 31, 2010

After Humans..or Yes Virginia there was a Chip Fab here

It's Sunday. Its only about -12C and its snowing once again. I am working a double shift, and the store is dead, because of the weather. I was reading the posts at Amiga.org, when one of the members posted a link to the following page. I do not know his real name or I certainly would give him credit. the following are recent photos of MOS technologies down in Norristown PA.
I am reminded of the show on History channel "After People" and it's kind of sad that this site is an environmental hazard now from all the toxic chemicals used.

For those that don't know, MOS technologies was the "Birth"place of the 6502 chip and probably all of the other MOS chips that Commodore used. I like to think that EVERY Commodore computer and Amiga ever made, had at least one chip made here. There are probably thousands of stories just centred here to make a book. In the book "on the Edge" Brian states that the cafeteria had blue prints hanging up on the wall. If the paper was yellow or green, that meant usually some toxic chemicals were in the air and you didn't go in
there.

From the front, it looks nice, and I guess at the time they were still trying to sell it.

At least the tulips grew. It's kind of ironic. Tulip is the name of the company that owes or owned the Commodore name now.

Its around back that things are looking bad. Bil had stated that back in the day, you did not park your car next to the trees, as at the end of the day, you would have this gunk coating your car.

Now the chemic pits are starting to be exposed, but they probably had all toxic chemicals removed long ago.

I though this was a cool shot, probably a backup generator housing, the power consumption must have been mind-blowing.

Inside is just a shell now, I would love to see pictures of what it looked like back then
.

Lastly, the garbage area. I would have to think twice about routing around for some long forgotten souvenir, as there could still be some toxic Chemicals lurking.
Anyways, I just it was kind of cool to see what has become of some of the Commodore buildings.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

An interesting Call

Well, I still don't have the Internet back up, but luckily a neighbour has moved their unsecured router and I have a ok connection. Yesterday, was a day off, and I was just messing around on my Commodore's. I wasn't really doing anything important, just trying to create a setup I liked for the 128, when my e-mail alarm went off. I wandered over to the Voodoo, and it was an e-mail from Bil Herd. He had been looking over may post, and noticed a bit of wrong information regarding the CP/M Cartridge. He said to call him some time. So Since I had the time, I tried calling, but there was no answer at the number he gave. I also had e-mailed him back to call me when he had a moment, and then the phone rang, and it was indeed Bil.
Over the next 45 or so minutes, I got a quick education in why the CP/M cartridge didn't work and how he fixed it. Needless to say, I got a quick but cool education on the Z80 processor, and the RAM. I also asked some questions that had been bugging me about the 128, and talked in general about computing today. Needless to say, it was a very good conversation, and I hope to talk with him again.... Unfortunately, with me in Alberta and him in New Jersey, our paths won't likely cross anytime soon.

Wednesday, January 20, 2010

Another Flipping day in paradise.

Its taken a few months, but my bout of flu in November has finally caught up with me financial wise. If you remember, I was off work for about 3 weeks with very little income, so I have had to "shut down" the high speed cable, and get rid of the cable TV, so as a result, I have been limited to Internet access. I apologize if I haven't got back yet to your emails, for the only unsecured networks around here are just out of range and I am limited to about 1k a sec. If you feel generous, there is a handy "donate" button on the side of the page, and any donations would and are totally appreciated. If just 10% of the visitors to this site, donated a buck or 2, I could live very comfortably indeed, and certainly afford to actually get into more Amiga projects.
On other news, I have been debating to take down posts older than let us say 1 month. Bandwidth is not an issue, but I have visitors that love to "Hotlink" to photos, and that really burns my butt. If I take down the archives, then people are forced to come to the front page and not continually hit one of my past pages and or photos. This wouldn't be an issue, but these people have no desire to actually read my blog, just look and link to the funny photo. I probably will end up removing the "failed" pictures as a result.
Anyways, I better wrap this up as the connection is fading....

Wednesday, January 6, 2010

The Lounge is a year old!

Happy new year everyone! The Amiga Lounge is One year old.
Just a quick thank you going out to all of you this week. We have had close to 100 thousand hits last year, and its been an adventure. I have had the chance to chat with many of past Commodore and Amiga employees and the wisdom and stories they have past on is truely priceless for myself.
What will 2010 bring? Well, I am looking now at a replacement for my ageing Voodoo laptop. Even though it is still a great unit, and I do love it (if you remember my old blog Iboughtavoodoolaptop.com)
It never the less, has to be upgraded soon. The problem is that HP has taken over Voodoo and they no longer have the replacement that I desire. The conundrum is that how do I remain a loyal Voodoo owner when Voodoo is no longer even a spot on HP's roadmap? I certainly do not want to be-little HP, but they do not even come close in overing a "High end" laptop.
I do not want to go to DELL /Alienware, because I fear that DELL has soiled the quality of Alienware products.
I could go with just getting a new Clevo, and building it myself or I can go to Falcon NW.
Falcon NW offers the "Fragbook DTR" which is the upgrade to my Voodoo U709. I am not sure at this point what I am going to do,for it probably be late summer before I do anything.
Voodoo still after all these years are saying "SOON" (it is their mission statement now) so we will just have to wait and see. I may have to get a new domain name soon and do a blog about the Falcon NW- LOL

On the Amiga front.
I am still putzing around and toying with some "upgrades" for my Amiga from AmigaKit.com, but the recent bout with the hardware developers from overseas has still left a bad taste in my mouth over the truly greedy and outrageous pricing of some components. That and the fact that AmigaKit still doesn't have an ECS indivision card for the Amiga 1000, have left me pondering what to do about that.
If you have been living under a rock lately, Hyperion and A-EON have "announced" the new X1000 motherboard available later this year. Translation a VEEERY expensive "high end" Amiga system, that will not sell and be forgotten by Christmas. Yes, the will make exactly the same mistake and launch this board at and outrageous price and sit back and wonder why nobody is buying it, nor developing for it. Its a shame that greed will kill this machine before it is even available to the public. The SAM has proven that over and over. I expect that this system will cost at least $2,500 USD at launch. I will be quite surprised if it is affordable.

On the Commodore 8-bit Front:
All I hope to get this year is a nice C128D unit, and a 1901 monitor. A C116 would be nice, and a nice boxed C16, but those can wait. I am running out of room and I need to either get a basement or start that museum I have talked about.

Here is looking forward to a good 2010 for everyone. I thank you for stopping by and hopefully I will get more juicy updates on a regular basis.