[SunRescue] "Hooking up" at TCF this weekend...

[Ken Hansen]

Field Report, Day One:

Weather was pretty reaonable - started out in the low 70's, then got
overcast arounf luchtime (1:00), with a bit of rain/drizzle for an hour or
two, followed by Freakin' heat. Typical schitzophrenic weather for TCF.

The Sun-centric report - The lowest-cost Sun system I saw was a $15 Classic.
I tunred it down, but my esteemed listmate picked it up - it had a HD & all
the RAMslots were filled. I just couldn't bring myself to by a machine that
slow, glad a friend picked up on the bargain.

There were a few (4 or 5) vendors hawking any serious level of Sun equipment
(meaning they had more than a few 411 cases or an IPC), and most prices were
*stupid*. An SS/10 w/o RAM, 1 Gig HD, GX framebuffer and SM40 CPU for $55
was about the only "deal" - an SS/20 w/96 Meg RAM, 9 Gig HD, TGX framebuffer
was $575 (they got to take that system home tonight).

The most interesting thing I saw: Two kids got a space, brought a Teletype
KSR-33 (w/o pedestal), and hooked it up to a car battery through a power
inverter. They drove this "beast" with an HP 200LX, connected over the
serial port, and they sold paper tapes with words spelled out in the
punchtape (like 'banner' on Unix, only the holes in the paper tape spell out
the message. Don't know what they charged, but I actually saw someone buy
some tapes...

Other interesting things I saw (and bought):

    - A "Complete Linux System," a Compaq Presario 800 PPro system w/ a PPro
200/256K cache chip, 4 Gig U/W SCSI HD, 128 Meg RAM, nic, Soundblaster 64
AWE sound card, and Mandrake Linux installed. This "package" included a
keyboard and mouse, as well as a Sun 20E20 monitor. $200. I was trying hard
to fight the temptation to buy one, but when the case was opened and I saw
that the system was dual-CPU capable, that pushed me over the top. I think I
got the last one, they sold about 20 of these packages...

    - An Intel Cardbus 10/100 PCMCIA network adapter with a "realport"
connector, new, in the shrinkwrap box for $50 (a decent deal, IMHO).

    - 4x Monitor power cords (Male-Female power cables, to power the monitor
from the socket on the power supply. $.50/each (a reasonable deal, IMHO).

    - 4x USB mice for the I-Openers my parents and I have (they are I-Opener
labeled mice!), as well as one each for my wife's and mine Portege 30X0ct
thin/light notebooks (they only have built-in USB ports, no PS/2/serial
ports) - $5/each (reasonable deal, IMHO).

    - Pentium Pro 200/256K CPU, for the above linux box - I will go back and
get the VRM (there was a guy with a whole bunch of them for sale, but he
left by the time I got my Linux System). $18 (another reasonable deal,
IMHO).

    - A replacement PCI video card for the above linux system, the built-in
video only has 1 meg RAM, AFAIK, so I went for a 4 Meg card (#9 Imagine 128)
for $12 (a good deal, assuming Linux support is reasonable).

    - ATX case w/integrated non-hot swap SCA drive cage (incl. 5 trays) and
a 300 Watt power supply for $55/each. (A good deal, this will let me use my
surplus SCA drives from my SS/5 and SS/20 systems).

Summary: TCF is getting worse each year (from a peak about 10 years ago,
when it went from sub-culture event to mass-market "show"), but my
experience was not too bad. I willgo back again next year, but I don't think
I return after that...

One deal I tried to take advantage of was a DEC Alpha 4/233 system w/64 Meg
Ram, 2 Gig HD, CD-ROM and nic for $95 (asking). I was curious, but felt no
remorse when someone else got it (since I have 2x Multias and an
Ebay-special 4/200 desktop case Alpha sitting in my basement *virtually*
untouched since I bought them...

Oh, and there were 2x 19" racks that I missed out on, but it is just as
well, as I couldn't fit them in my truck anyway... ;^(

As for next year, parking spaces (that is *exactly* what they are, no
bigger) cost about $40-50, and include one pass ($10 value). Tne real value
of a vendor spot is the early access to the things *others* are selling.
There were some SGI Indigos for sale (I hear), but I got to the flea market
at 9:00 am, and there were none to be found for sale. I did see one or two
waiting in the parcel pick-up area this morning (they were scarfed up
quickly, as I understand it). And there was at least one Indy 2, with "XZ"
graphics (IIRC),a 17" monitor & keyboard (no mention of RAM, HD - but it did
include the floptical drive) for $900. That one got to go home with the
seller tonight as well. There were also some good deals on larger HP
printers (HP 4M+ printers for $250, incl. network adapter, postscript), and
lots of $20-25/Pentium systems destined (I am sure) for deployment as Linux
Routers (based on the semi-professional appearance of the buyers).

Oh, and there were three Sinclair ZX81s, and a couple 16 Kilobyte expansion
cards and one printer for sale, but I did not get the prices - they all
appeared to be in like-new condition, in the original, clean boxes...

Enjoy,

Ken
(Have to fire up the Compaq/Linux box and see what I got!)

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill Bradford" <mrbill at mrbill.net>
To: <rescue at sunhelp.org>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2001 4:56 PM
Subject: Re: [SunRescue] "Hooking up" at TCF this weekend...


> On Sat, May 05, 2001 at 04:49:39PM -0400, Brian Hechinger wrote:
> > so why don't we do this right next year?  what's a space cost?  if we
all
> > tossed some money in a pot we could easily afford a spot i would think.
i'll
> > get a truck and we can load all our goodies into the truck, then find a
spot
> > somewhere to gather and transfer stuff to each person's car.
>
> Truck?  With the people on this list I think you'd need
> McGuire's MOG. 8-)
>
> Bill
>
> --
> Bill Bradford
> mrbill at mrbill.net
> Austin, TX
> _______________________________________________
> rescue maillist  -  rescue at sunhelp.org
> http://www.sunhelp.org/mailman/listinfo/rescue