[geeks] Microsoft Surface...

[Lionel Peterson]

>From: "Geoffrey S. Mendelson" <gsm at mendelson.com>
>Date: 2007/06/06 Wed AM 11:54:43 CDT
>To: The Geeks List <geeks at sunhelp.org>
>Subject: Re: [geeks] Microsoft Surface...

>On Wed, Jun 06, 2007 at 11:42:39AM -0500, Lionel Peterson wrote:
>> TRS-80 Model I and Model II each had COBOL and FORTRAN compilers too.
>
>Wait a minute, TRS-80 model I and II (and I think there was a IV)
>were 8080 type computers (I think they actually had Z80's).

Yep, Z-80 CPUs in the Model I, II, III, and IV. [0]

>The Model II ran Xenix. It was an entirely different animal.

Xenix ran on the Z-80 CPU, and was sold by... Microsoft!

>Now, for the strangest use for a Model II. I had a coworker around 1980
>who had been in the U.S. Army as a clerk/typist during the Vietnam war.
>
>When he got out he started a home business. He advertised as a woman in
>several "men's magazines" and if you sent him money, "she" would respond
>with a personal erotic letter. He did it originaly with a set of 10
>letters, a typewriter and a 3x5 card file so that he never sent the
>same letter twice. Being a fast and accurate typist, he would type an
>original personalized letter each time from his prepared originals.
>
>When the Model II came out, he bought one with a Daisy Wheel printer
>and computerized the business.

Uhm, no comment...

Lionel

[0] http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?c=243