Desktop
Anyone ever heard of an Amstrad PLC "portable" computer?
Model PPC-440, secondly does anyone want one?
You pay shipping and I should be able to give it to you.
Wierd looking thing that resembles a hot wheels carry case with a mini TV inside.
by generalist
While a small part of the posting is a Q & A technical type question, the rest is more of a 'personal-sales' question. So posting it here is quite legitimate.
Besides, it is kind of fun hearing about off the wall hardware.
by oz_media
by road-dog
He wasn't asking for a driver or some such thing, he was discussing a computer related curiosity.
I bet if Oz offered you a million bucks, you'd bitch that the serial numbers weren't consecutive.
by oz_media
Nice of you to notice but you gotta look at the reality.
If I was a gazillionaire who made Gates look like a pauper, and had a company that needs-a-raise was the ONLY qualified person to work with, why would I feel compelled to offer needs-a-raise that long awated raise he's always looked for?
Million bucks maybe, not a million dollars.
by tomsal
I'm tired of people dampening discussion groups that otherwise flow nicely.
Its one thing if you have a LEGITIMATE complaint but to just hang around in a group for the sole purpose of annoying people because you are bored...that is like beyond being a loser.
If someone insults you directly and outright, by all means cut into them. Otherwise...life goes on.
by mrafrohead
Do you understand what a "technical qa section" is for? To ask about problems you are having with the computer.
Oz is offering a machine to the person who wants it. He's not saying that he has a machine with a problem.
There's no need to be rude, "mr. know-it-all".
Mrafrohead
by hal 9000
Have you ever noticed that this particualy person only ever attacks OZ?
I've never seen a posting from him that wasn't a direct attack on OZ and perhaps he/she is one of the peers who has been warned and just set up another entry point into the system so they can vent their spleen without the conquences if they did it themselves.
The best people to ask how to abuse a system are the IT guys/galls after all aren't they?
Col
by cactus pete
They don't even make computers anymore:
http://www.amstrad.com/support.html
and I don't see the 440 even listed on their site. Sure it wasn't the 640?
And I think needs-a-raise needs to lighten up.
you think i nee dto lighten up???how about htis post from your little buddy.
2.1.2.2.1.1. Microsnot and american garbage
OzMentalCase
01/27/04
In my eyes he didn't earn his fortune fairly. I think his company produces sub standard products that are gobbled up by the 'blind followers of MS'. These are the people who think Bill Gates created Windows from his own ideas, played fair ball and built an empire on it.
Actually Max, I think you're a complete freak of nature and will no longer discuss your mindless drivel BS anymore, you just piss me off to no end with your crap and that's all I see your ideas as, crap. You sir are a clown.
Go poke you stick at someone else ya loser, I will tell you that your being in Denver is probably a good thing today.
This guy is a freak show and you tell me to lighten up?
by cactus pete
You have a right to say whatever you want, within reason.
I merely suggest that you might not need to pursue Oz. I think you must have read his post above to hastily, as I see no reason why it was improperly put here in the Discussion Forum.
It certainly is fine to ask questions in the course of a discussion, and it seems less correct to offer someone TR points for being willing to take a dinosaur of a computer off of your hands for you...
And I had read his post before, thank you.
Yes, Oz is crass, to say the least - but you aren't helping with the attitude you have displayed. Please try to respond in an appropriate manner for future posts, and perhaps stop trying to find problems with others - especially when most others don't think there is one [in this particular case].
by oz_media
A mistake that needs a raise has made and so many others do to, is that he is using a statement aimed at someone else to solidify his opinion.
Kinda like a sheep.
"My friends say you're a jerk, so I think you're a jerk too?" Isn't that a pretty weak stand ?
If you friends hates your wife do you divorce her?
by cactus pete
by oz_media
"You've never given me a 'taste of my own medicine'"
You have tried and tried and some may even feel you have but the thing is, you cannot upset me. I just don't get upset, pissed off maybe, but not upset or scathed by someone's remarks.
by guruofdos
The old saying used to be 'If God wanted to give the world an enema, he'd stick the tube in Benidorm'
I heard a wonderful variation on this theme last week. A dispute broke out at work between two of our technicians. They share a workshop (as they both smoke like chimneys) but can't share tools or benchspace without arguing like a couple of poofs in a boutique. Anyways, a minor territorial dispute arose after assorted component wrappers and wire offcuts from one tech threatened to encroach on the others patch while he was trying to eat his lunch, have a coffee and read the paper.
When a particularly badly aimed cigarette butt missed the ashtray and caught a corner of the paper alight, World War Three broke out....and after a few moments, the younger tech exited the workshop stage left to avoid a punch in the mouth.
The one with the singed paper came steaming out after him saying "If God wanted to give this company an enema, he'd stick the tube in you!!!"
I suppose it sounds better than "You arsehole!"
by guruofdos
The best thing EVER to hit the computer industry! They made cheap computers but cut out all the IBM Hype!
Alan Michael Sugar (AMS) Trading (TRAD) started off as one enterprising UK school-boy selling car audio accessories on his father's stall at a weekly street market. From cheap speakers and antennas he then moved on to radios, stereos and televisions and in the early 80's went into computers. Rather than just sell other imported stuff, he built factories and employed designers to manufacture his own. Competing with the likes of Sinclair (Timex in the USA) and Commodore, Amstrads range of 8 bit Z80 based computers beat the living crap out of all the competition by incorporating features as standard which other companies only offered as optional (hardly!) extras.
The CPC464 (Colour Personal Computer) included a 14" colour monitor and a cassette deck. At this time, Commodore would sell you an ugly 'non-standard' cassette deck at 1/2 the price of the computer itself, and the Sinclair Spectrum needed an ordinary cassette recorder, often unreliable because it needed much fine tuning of recording levels on the mic socket and tweaking of the volume for the earphone socket in order to load and save programmes reliably.
When IBM were trying to gain a foothold in the UK market with the highly overpriced and under-specced IBM PC, Amstrad were selling the PC1640 with CGA monitor and dual 5.25" drived for about a quarter of the cost. Running a 7.4Mhz 8088 and DOS with a GUI over the top (GEM) it was adopted by many UK companies as the standard 'office pc'. For those people who just wanted a basic word processor or spreadsheet they then brought out the PCW series machines, with mono monitor built into the base unit, 256Kb or ram, single or dual 3" floppy drives (as later included on the CPC664 home computer to replace the tape drive) and running CP/M and a Wordstar-style word-pro programme called LocoScript. Logo and CP/M basic were also included on the system disks. To really kick IBM in the pants, they included an integrated daisywheel or DMP (depending on the model) so the user had a complete system, out of the box and ready to go for just under US$300, when the IBM PC and clones were still costing in excess of $1000 for basic models.
Of course, 'cheapness' has it's price! Most of the home computers only had a dozen or so chips...he decided that with 'built in' peripherals like drives and printers and monitors, external 'interfaces' were not necessary and so what you bought was what you stayed with, until you replaced it with something else.
I still have a selection of Amstrad CPC464s and CPC664s (I was rebuilding them in the late 80s....I'd collect customer returns or dead machines from retail stores and make two good ones out of three dead ones...the IC's were pretty much standard...6164 ram chips and Z80 processors and one or two other Zilog support IC's....if the custom ASIC was stuffed, you'd had it as this also contained a mask programmed rom!), a dozen PC1640's, several WPC8512, WPC9256 word processors, an Amstrad Stereo or ten and I think an Amstrad TV somewhere!!!
Alan Michael Sugar and Richard Branson (Virgin Atlantic, Virgin Records, etc) are two of Britain's greatest entrepreneurs and have done more to bring cheap technology to the masses than any other person or persons I can think of.
As an aside, Amstrad was branded as Schnieder in the rest of Europe and the USA.
Thanks for the offer, but I have enough Amstrads to last me a lifetime :-)
by oz_media
I actually seem to remember you mentioning Amstrad a long time ago, when talking about old boat anchors we all keep around the house.
It actually belongs to a friend who got it in the trunk of a car he bought. I figured someone would know about them and as it has no value to me I thought someone else may find it interesting it was before my IT days though.
Great post, I'll print it and show the guy, he'll probably be as amused as me.
by hal 9000
I was going to ask if it was one of the Z 80 CPU type but you beat me to it and answered the question.
I can remember those things as they where hardly forgetable more like a suitcase when all packed up and weighed about as much as well but they where one of the first "Portable" units ever offered to the mass market and I couldn't help but wonder how the plastic would stand up to the test of time.
Col
by guruofdos
...holds up structurally, but goes very yellow with age...although it MAY have something to do with nicotine staining!
The biggest problem with Amstrad PC1640's was that they were PC-XT to all intents and purposes, rather than PC-AT and so did not have a 'user configurable' BIOS. What they had was the XT system of DIP switches to select COLOUR/MONO, 1 or 2 floppy drives, etc. They DID however have a built in Real-Time Clock (RTC) and this was backed up by using 4 regular AA alkaline batteries.
The problem was this. The PC itself had the power supply built into the monitor! The IEC inlet cable went to the monitor for power, then two cables exited the rear of the monitor. One was a standard CGA 9-pin D type connector, and the other was the DC Power cable to the base unit, with a 9 pin DIN connector. The base of the monitor stand sat in a recess in the top of the base unit, so at a glance it 'looked' like an 'all-in-one' machine. The AA battery holder was in the top of the base unit and you had to unseat the monitor to change the batteries when the clock started losing time.
Of course, many people who bought these second hand, didn't realise this and thought it WAS an 'all-in-'one, lugging the complete system 'in one' from car boot sale to home. After time, naturally, these AA batteries would die, then leak into the base unit with the obvious consequences!
These beasts were still in circulation until fairly recently (I repaired one as late as 2002) and I used to always have a roaring trade in de-fungusing the case and innards when a second hand one had leaked elecrolyte into the guts. This usually involved cutting out the entire battery holder and gluing a sheet of plastic over the orifice remaining. A 5-year lithium 'proper' PC battery usually went in as a replacement!!
Oh, happy days....nostalgia sure ain't what it used to be!!!
by thechas
Oz,
I think that a few people are giving you a hard time just because.
Anyhow, does your PLC 440 look similar to this:
http://www.instruction-manuals.co.uk/category/computer/Zppc.htm
Then, since I am a general purpose collector of nearly anything, how much would shipping be?
By the way, I agree that this is more of a discussion topic than a Q&A topic.
Chas
by oz_media
First off thank you.
Secondly, It looks a LOT like the picture but I don't know if MAYBE a button is different or something.
It is actually in a friend's possesion, he bought a car and it was in the trunk. I assume one day it may even appreciate as did the Atari 2600 (can't believe they are RETRO now) They were HOT when I was a kid, I'll never forget how pumped I was when I got one in California one year.
I don't think my friend really wants it, he asked if I could ID it, but I'm sure he would part with it idf I said someone wanted to have a new boat anchor.
As for shipping I have NO idea, I would have to check weight and get back to you with place of origin (Port Hardy, BC), you can then see how much it would cost to get it there.
I will PM or email you when I have info.
by guruofdos
Ah Chas...a man of ecclectic tastes. These puppies make great paperweights!
I have another beast, very similar but made by Apricot (ACT). The display is full width rather than just the dinky one on the Amstrad, and the floppy drive sits in one end. It runs an Apricot version of DOS2 or CP/M depending on which disk you boot it with. Unlike many other PPC's of it's era, it has a full size 36 pin Centronics interface so that you can hook up any printer you like...the Amstrads had their own dedicated printers. I'll wager the Amstrad uses 3" disks rather than 3.5" but if you decide to obtain the beast from Oz, I can supply you with all the disks: CP/M, LocoScript, Logo and Basic plus as many blanks as you need :-)
The models you posted the link to are somewhat different from the 440, which I think was slightly older!
Oh and by the way, my Compaq Portable just died! The damp got to it in storage and the entire mobo corroded!! That had a suitcase design with a 9" mono CRT built into the case, and the keyboard clipped on the front as a cover. Two single density (360k?) 5.25" drives and a full size 4 slot ISA bay completed the system and it weighs just 39lb!!! Hardly 'portable' by modern day standards but it will JUST fit as hand luggage on a plane. Batteries? Nope...mains only! The hard disk subsystem I retrofitted from an Amstrad 1640 8088 PC (8 bit PlusCard Controller with 4lbs of 3.5" drive bolted to the card and encased in armour plate!!!) is still working so if you want a 10Mb MFM drive with ISA controller (preloaded with DOS 6.22 and WFWG 3.10), just holler!!
by guruofdos
Nobody should confuse the PLC with the model of the computer!
In the UK, PLC refers to 'Public Limited Company', i.e., a Limited Company who's shares are traded publicly on the London Stock Exchange (hence the Public bit)....A limited (liability)company is the equivalent to LLC in the US, I think?
It is normal to see many UK company names quoted as 'plc' (J. Sainsbury plc., British Telecom plc, etc. usually in lower case) so AMSTRAD PLC is a company name rather than a model number.
Amstrad numbering systems always consist of 2 or 3 letters and 3 or 4 digits, thus:
CPC464 - Colour Personal Computer Model 4, 64kb Ram
PCW9512 - Personal Computer/Wordprocessor Model 9, 512kb Ram
PCW8256 - Personal Computer/Wordprocessor Model 8, 512kb Ram
(The difference between Model 8 and Model 9 are some cosmetic changes as well as a daisywheel rather than dot matrix printer)
PC1640 - Personal Computer Model 1, 640kb Ram
PPC640 - Portable Personal Computer, 640kb Ram
Need I clarify any more?!!!
by guruofdos
PCW8256 - 256kb of Ram, not 512kb!
They also made an 8512 that DID have 512kb.
Sorry for any confusion!
by oz_media
And I was just going to run out and buy one, but only 256 Kb? Nah, 512kb now that's the kinda poweer Pc I'm looking for, thanks for clarifying it Guru, I almost wasted money!
just a laff
:-)
by hal 9000
And if I'm not mistaken wern't Amstrad one of the first to use PS2 conectors for the Keybaord/Mouse?
Unfortantly I remember them well along with the "Boot" disk that always seemed to get lost and constantly needed replacing. I've actually got one here to copy from but as usual I'm not intereested in looking for it as it is by now probably filed in the "Maybe Usefull" section of my software collection.
Once upon a time I used to have thousands of floppies now they are rapidly being replaced by CD's and that section is just getting out of control but as sure as God Made Little Green Apples if I ever dispose of anything I'll need it 2 days latter.
Now wouldn't it be nice if we knew what work was going to come in?
Col
by guruofdos
Amstrad using a standard? No way!! Their mouse was a Commodore/Atari style quadrature mouse with a 9 pin D type, only with pins on the mouse and sockets on the base unit!!!
An Amstrad mouse COULD mate with a serial mouse...the mind boggles!!!
by thechas
So, instead of mouse pads at our computers, we would need to set up mouse subdivisions to care for all the little mice that would be produced from the mating mice.
SIM City on a mouse pad.
Chas
by guruofdos
The missus wanted a new hamster to replace her old one that 'expired'. She got a cute little male, but after a week she decided he wasn't to her liking so we got another, this time a female. One evening the enevitable happened when she let them out to play and 16 days later we had a litter of 11...3 males and 8 females.
The originals cost us ?5 each, but the pet-store eventually bought the offspring at ?3.50 each when they matured, so we made on the deal....or would have if we hadn't had to shell out on two more cages for the offspring to keep the males and females apart. Of couse, once they are 12 days old and weaned from the mother, they then need feeding, toys, accessories and such like, so bang went the profit straight away.
Now, if I buy a couple of computer mice, and leave them in a desk drawer...what kind of ROI can I expect?!!!
by oz_media
Anything sounds better than that Guru. I have done it myself but try to be a little more creative and colorful in my negative comments.
Some dry sarcasm is usually hard to respond to and very effective when used on the right idiot.
Slow, what do you mean slow?......."Oh I get it, no I'm not slow"
by oz_media
You could give the donkey farm on the IOW a run for their money!
The Guru Family Hamster Habitat and Restaurant!
"Daily life production shows"
"drop in for a nibble"
"free admission with toilet roll donation."
by mrafrohead
It was HIM!
hehehahaha
But yeah, I see what you are saying. Those are basically the only posts I've noticed from that person.
As to if it's a clone account, I'll start paying attention to the text and see if it matches any others...
Mrafrohead
by oz_media
Sorry I didn't get back to you, the guy decided to let his son play with it as he is also a collector/fiddler with such junk.
Thank you for the info as well as everyone else for their informative answers, I really enjoyed Guru's detailed info. on the background of the company.
by oz_media
I appreciate your comments as always, I didn't think I was postnig incorrectly and others have assured me I was within the guidelines of the TR site.
With respect to your inward bitterness and dislike toward who you have become, please feel free to ask for help here anytime.
I'm sure deep down inside you will find a nice person struggling to get out, relax and don't be scared of these feelings they are okay.
Remember,
You're good enough
You're smart enough
and Doggone it, people like you.
Don't be so down and depressed, I'm sure your life isn't THAT bad.
by wordworker
by wordworker
by oz_media
Either you are admittnig that YOU are needs-a-raise or ????
I am just experienceing hate and nastiness?
I am not experiencing anything at all, this guys just a goof, I don't care what he thinks, and I think you missed the sarcasm in my last post or something?!?!?
"it is what YOU have become that I hate and am bitter toward"
I didn't know you hated and were bitter toward me, has it upset you and ruined your day? You shouldn't let someone piss you off to the point of upsetting yourself over it.
You see, I don't give a toss what people think, by your getting upset, who loses? You do because it sure as hell isn't me who is stressing.
Before the attacks start, YES I KNOW, I LOST IT ON MAX RECENTLY. I was already pissed off though so nothing was lost.
by wordworker
by oz_media
I do apologize, I seem to have lost my humor due to recent events and simply take everything verbatim now. I will learn once again, I was quite surprised to see your post actually, I read the alias tow or three times to see I was reading it right. I didn't think we'd squabbled in the past.
Sorry bout that.
Forgive my ignorance, I didn't realize you were a TR employee once, what did you do there?
by ozmedia
by oz_media
Duh...slow, no I'm not slow!!
" was the community editor for TechRepublic's Support and Training Republics"
I'll get over it one day, just need more meds!!
by oz_media
What's the deal with that? You've been active here for about a week now and have changed you alias 3 times!
First you were some lawyers IT guy from England?
Then your Nerk or something?
Now apparently you're a Scotsman from Australia?
Consistency does get you ahead here.
by oz_media
That OzMedia is a registered trade name.
There is an Eastern Company that uses OzMedia as a legal Company name.
I have it registered as a DBA trade name.
My brother runs his own corporate law firm.
Your use of the alias would be defamation of character and improperuse of a registered company name.
At that point, TR would be obligated to provide ALL information about you as well as your IP address and ISP. Your ISP will also be under court order to provide all of your registration information, billing name and address etc.
You can have fun, and I know you're just being a loser and trying to get me riled but I would simply resort to legal action without further notice. I don't play games, you may think I'm joking or that it is all hot air but do you really want to call my bluff? I don't joke here too much you know.
This discussion is closed to new replies.
Sort by Trending