Steven.D.Ligett@mac.dartmouth.edu (12/14/90)
Volume 2, Number 2 Oops, that reply that went out to the mailing list about not getting interest in parts kits was meant to go to the originator, sorry. However, I have been getting more interest since that went out! That's great! Memory Prices Last summer, when I started doing the earlier kits, everyone seemed happy with Toshiba memory. So, I didn't look for "cheap" memory this time. However, several people have written asking for less expensive memory, and pointing out the low prices on 3rd-party SIMMs. So, I went back to my most reasonable Toshiba distributor, and asked if prices had improved (since November) on 1 meg by 9, 70 or 80 ns SIMMs. Yesterday, they told me "no". Today, however, they called back, and said "yes"! So, kit #16, memory, is now 4 pieces of a Toshiba THM91000as-80, at $240 for the 4. (Note that this is 80 ns versus the 70 ns SIMMs I previously quoted.) If you've already sent me more for this, I will refund the extra, unless you want the 70 ns parts. There is cheaper memory available. In fact, until I got this quote, I was going to go to one of the memory suppliers that I use for Macintosh memory, and have them give me a quote for 1 meg by 9 SIMMs made with 70 ns Micron Technology parts, with gold plated pads, etc. If you are going to get this "cheap" kind of SIMM, from the back of PCWeek or MacWeek, get the 70 ns parts. What's a ds1216e? It's not in the parts list. It's a time-of-day clock made by Dallas Semiconductor, that goes between the eprom socket and the eprom. Bruce C. has posted some code that uses it, I recall, but I don't think it's required, even for Minix. Half a kit? Since some of this batch of pc532er's seems to be interested in saving money, I'll offer "half-kits" for kits 6, 7, and 14 for half price. This will give you only four serial ports instead of 8. Yikes! I've been getting express mail and overnight letters! You don't have to do that! If you want parts, please send me motification by December 19th (a two day extension), but I don't have to have the money in hand then. Just email the list of what you want, and send the money so it'll be here by, say, the 26th of December. Thanks I want to thank the first group of parts kit buyers. They were very patient and forgiving of my mistakes, which I'll try not to repaeat.
Steven.D.Ligett@mac.dartmouth.edu (02/28/91)
Volume 2, Nunber 4 (right?) The Final Snafu. I have previously mentioned the antepenultimate snafu, which was getting the dp8490s. That one was embarrassingly simple to solve. I had been looking for the dp8490n, not the dp8490v. Luckily, the dp8490v, which is the RIGHT part for the board, is available. The penultimate snafu was an error in my inventory spreadsheet, where I put the quantity on hand of 74as258s in the 74as174s row. Therefore, I had ordered no 174s (and too many 258s). I discovered this when kitting all the ttl together, which was the last kit to kit, as it was the hardest one. That led to The Final Snafu: I quickly called up Marshall, ordered the 174s (and some als6311s to bring the total to $50), and sat waiting for UPS. UPS never showed up. I called up, and they said "Oops, the order was entered, but it didn't take. I'll reenter it." That was a new excuse to me. I waited another week. I called again. "Oh, that didn't go in because you're on credit hold." So, I talked to Rose, the credit person. "No, you're not on credit hold, they should have talked to me." Back to the salesperson (salesdroid, do you say, Dave?). "Ah ha ha, I was having a bad day. I had put in the wrong account number for you. It was another account that was on credit hold. Sorry." If the 174s don't arrive by Thursday, Feb 28th, I'll have them delivered via overnight. The kits are all sitting on my office floor, with everything else in them, with address labels on them, waiting for the 174s. They will ship out on Saturday, March 2, for USA and Canada orders, and on Monday for others. really. AFTER the kits ship out, I'll start working on my pc532. That's my incentive to get them out... Memory. Those who ordered memory will get 70 ns Toshiba SIMMs, not 80 ns. At $245 for the 4 megs. Memory prices are crazy these days. If there is anyone else who'd like to order some Toshiba memory at this price, drop me a line. I believe I can still get more at this price. THM91000AS-70s. Disk Drives. How big a disk drive is needed for all this Minix stuff? The Quantum 105 meg drive is going for about $350 these days, since they are obsoleting it. Does anyone want to get together on a disk drive buy? Write. (Why do I do things like this??) Sydney. Did anyone write to Sydney? Well, yes, I know that someone did, because she was in a huff that I went to hawaii without telling her. :-) She's getting better, but it'll be a couple more months before she hes her strength back. You can still write -- Sydney Long 262c High Bridge Road Lyme, NH 03768 USA thanks.
Steven.D.Ligett@mac.dartmouth.edu (03/04/91)
Volume 2, Number 5. Fourteen packages went out this morning (Monday, 4 March) via Priority Mail - that's all the USA and Canada orders. Orders to Sweden and Australia will go out tomorrow via UPS. Please check your box to see if any parts are missing! Please let me know quickly, because I want to advertise and get rid of any left over inventory as soon as possible. Steve