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Weird and usual items!

TIML

Experienced Member
Joined
Mar 15, 2004
Messages
52
Location
Silent Hill.
What is/was your most weird and usual items?

I think mine was a plastic and metal ball bearing blue binary computer from the UK Open University.

My godfather gave it me whan I was about 10 or 11 years old.

Obviously showing early talent!!!

It had strange white switches, and the bearings rolled down plastic tracks and changed numbers.

All binary, very unusual.

Wish I still had it now!!!!

Anyone hear of such a thing before? I had a quick Googlize, but didn't find anything on them.


.T.I.M
 
I have a binary clock but I think my wierdest items are a couple of cans of ferrite beads (used to make core memory) new and sealed.

I also have the aluminum nameplate from an IBM System 360.

Erik
 
Re: Binary clox.

Re: Binary clox.

TIML said:
I like the nameplate idea. Have you fixed it up anywhere?

Unfortunately, in my youth, I used it as more of a weapon then a decoration. It's a bit dinged up because of that although it is a very sturdy piece. . .

Erik
 
I bet IBM would love that in an ad nowadays

I bet IBM would love that in an ad nowadays

I bet IBM would love that in an ad nowadays:

'IBM 360 degrees of attack!'

'IBM - Defend your data All Round!'

etc.


Wonder how it came to go missing. Wonder what happened to the 360 itself?


.T.I.M
 
Wierd & unusual: I don't own one, but my friend does. A "slotless clock" chip. I wouldn't mind having one tho. Reason it comes to mind is that I saw one on eBay earlier this week. I don't think I added it to my watch list, but mebbe I cn dig up the url with thier search engine.

--T
 
Re: I bet IBM would love that in an ad nowadays

Re: I bet IBM would love that in an ad nowadays

TIML said:
Wonder how it came to go missing. Wonder what happened to the 360 itself?

Ahh, well that's a long story.

The short version is that my dad's company used their 360 until well after its expected service life. When they called IBM to cancel the lease (and have them collect the system) the IBM folks basically didn't want it back.

So, we decommissioned it for them.

I got the nameplate.

A friend got the front (operator's) panel (eventually - it was in my basement for a number of years) and almost everything else went to the scrapper.
 
Terry Yager said:
A "slotless clock" chip.

I have half a dozen of those somewhere. There are actually several different kinds, mine are DALLAS chips. The eBay listing doesn't mention that you need a program (called from AUTOEXEC.BAT) that gets the time from the chip and sets the system clock. Mine probably have dead batteries since they're quite old by now.
 
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