[NTLK] Off Topic: Macintosh SE/30 - to buy or not to buy?

[William Maloney]

Additional note:

The Classic II came from VCU a few blocks up. The guy I bought it from
wrote the following on an attached note taped the top:

Very slow startup
Printshop, Microsoft Word, Mapmaker
System 7.1, 10MB RAM, 10MB HD

I sincerely doubt a 10 MB HD but we will find out soon.

On Mon, Nov 19, 2012 at 2:13 PM, William Maloney <william.maloney.09 at cnu.edu
> wrote:

> So I bit the bullet on this one and feel I might as well tell the story:
>
> After dropping my wouldbe/current girlfriend off so she could look at VCU
> Art School in Richmond and catch the bus home, I called up this dude and
> found his place. Together with his ladyfriend/wife, they owned this massive
> warehouse filled with stuff. This was hoarders on a new level. To the right
> were stacks of Atari 2600s while speakers, monitors while knick-knacks and
> guitars filled the other side. Had anything fallen on me, no one would have
> ever known I was there. Plus it was cold. No heating meant it was 45
> degrees-ish inside the place.
>
> The title of his online posting was "vintage Macintosh SE - mac in the
> box". In my mind, this suggested the Macintosh had the original box and
> other stuff too. I found out this was dead wrong in person. Talking with
> him over the phone, he also assured me it booted up. The SE was in a stack
> of about 5 other FatMacs and most certainly did not boot up. Instead, the
> HD light came up but the screen only put out a solid white line in the
> middle of the screen. Disappointed, I checked all the others. Only two lit
> up the screen, both with checkerboard problems. While these had supposedly
> worked before, it turned out he had last powered these up during the
> summer. Thinking hard, I recalled seeing a YouTube video of a guy who
> acquired a vintage PC but was unable to boot the machine. After letting the
> machine warm up to room temperature, the hard disk expanded and became
> readable in the warmer environment. Keeping in mind the comments in here
> about caps and such, I took the plunge and acquired a Macintosh Classic, a
> Classic II, two mice, and a single keyboard for $17. If this does not pan
> out, at least they will become the greatest hipster doorstops of all time.
> Thanks for your help guys. Will keep the updates coming on here as these
> guys warm up and I find a torx screw set.
>
> On Wed, Nov 7, 2012 at 3:11 PM, James Fraser <
> wheresthatistanbul-newtontalk at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>> Hello,
>>
>> --- On Wed, 11/7/12, Chris Browder <kcfoxie at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> > This is an example of a cool Mac SE, but one that you will not be able
>> to >use to connect to your Newton:
>>
>> You know, now that you mention it (and since this is NewtonTalk), it
>> might be nice to see an SE/30 and a MessagePad paired up together:
>>
>> http://www.flickr.com/photos/66071596@N00/2789811500/
>>
>> (James Wages' photostream)
>>
>> Of course, he's "cheating" a little bit, because he does have a IIsi ROM
>> installed in the SE/30, but you can't have everything. ;)  Seriously,
>> though, it looks like he put a lot of work into that setup (and it must be
>> nice to run NCU on a machine with a built-in serial port and System 7).
>>
>> Also, he's one of the few people I have heard of who have ever played
>> around with Newton Keyboard Enabler:
>>
>> http://www.sarnau.info/software:newton_keyboard_enabler
>>
>> http://preview.tinyurl.com/acx2gu7
>>
>> ...which is something I keep meaning to try out myself.....RSN. :)
>>
>> Anyway, great stuff.
>>
>>
>> Best,
>>
>> James Fraser
>>
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>>
>
>