Video card memory lane

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Yes, I think a church I used to attend used Lantastic for networking. Sharing files and printers over the network. I set up things for them using this software back in the early to mid 90's.

Seems there is STILL a version of Lantastic so you can connect legacy systems to current Windows XP machines according to their website.

http://pcmicro.com/lantastic/
 
I worked a project where we had Sun boxes, HP PA-RISC boxes and PC's running Windows for Workgroups.

The mention of IRQ and I/O mappings and extended or expanded memory reminded me of that project.

I spent the first month working out the optimal PC configuration, to maximize memory and get everyone on the network.

There was no DHCP, IP addresses were set in a config file and sometimes users would copy other peoples config files if they lost their own, putting two workstations on the network with the same IP address.

Since WFW had no real file security, there was no way to prevent folks from doing this.

Oh, and we had PC-NFS on the workstations as well, using one of the Sun boxes as an NFS server for our development files and a central repository for the tools being used.
 
I had a compaq with "tabworks" shell over win3.1 it made the desktop look like a binder.

Remember how windows 3.1 would delete the program if you deleted the icon?

Ahh the days of installing software with 8 floppies.

My uncle's TRS-80 was really cool, it had two floppy drives!

How about when word processing programs didn't display your work in the same format as it would print, you had to know hotkeys and cryptic symbols to format and "print preview" was mandatory.
 
13.gif
Oh man... My brain is hurting thinking way back to these days...

Remember MFM & RLL Hard drives? How big and inefficient in today's world they would be? I had a 20mb!!!!!
 
Anybody remember QD2? I believe it stood for QuickDos V.2 - it was basically just a file management frontend, but I remember being amazed at being able to use the arrow keys to select and edit files. I can't imagine having grown up using a GUI as a kid. I think that would have made my life go in a different direction.
 
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
I seriously think that those of us grew up with these manual settings end up being better computer engineers than the younger ones that didn't know what we were talking about.


+1
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour

Seems there is STILL a version of Lantastic so you can connect legacy systems to current Windows XP machines according to their website.

http://pcmicro.com/lantastic/


There's a DOS client for SMB networks (actually several). You can also connect a WFW 3.11 machine to a Windows XP machine. I'm not sure what need that version of Lantastic serves that isn't already served by other software.

I still have a 5-user copy of Novell Netware 3.12 in the original box. I never used the Microdyne network card it came with.
 
Originally Posted By: greenaccord02
Originally Posted By: PandaBear
I seriously think that those of us grew up with these manual settings end up being better computer engineers than the younger ones that didn't know what we were talking about.


+1


+2

Guys with Novell experience most often KNOW how networking works. You don't have to re-train them.
 
Originally Posted By: javacontour
It serves the purpose of having something to sell their existing customers :)


All 100 of them? :)

I haven't seen or heard of anyone using Lantastic for a long time.
 
I miss Telix. And Spitfire BBS's.

OnTopic: My 8088 had CGA until we upgraded to an EGA card on a CGA monitor (presented it's own issues sometimes). The 286 came with lousy onboard Cirrus Logic VGA..upgraded to a Trident SVGA card later.

Penitum came with some sort of a Cirrus Logic card too IIRC. Was a few others along the way. Current is a Asus GeForce 6600GT.
 
A couple years ago, we help my wife's grandparents move out of their house in Ohio so they could become permanent snowbirds in Florida. This ad was in the newspaper they used to wrap some of the "treasures" they kept in the basement.

Computer.jpg
 
The Leading Edge Model "D"...a friend of mine had one that would randomly lock up for no apparent reason.

He never found the cause of the problem.

Most Leading Edge stuff I've looked at...well, it's definitely not a sign of quality when they need to use jumper wires on the circuit board to fix layout screwups.

In fact, every piece of computer hardware I've had with jumper wires and other evidence of PCB rework has failed. Other computer hardware I've had was replaced due to obsolescence before it failed..
 
I have a friend who's motherboard sometime ago had a slight crack in the PCB in the one corner and it would cause the system to freeze. Him not having money to replace it, we fixed it with a Pringles-Chip lid shoved under the corner to keep slight pressure on the PCB section that was cracked and it worked flawlessly like that for the 4 years he had it! I think he sold it to someone with the lid still in there...
grin2.gif
 
Originally Posted By: brianl703
That's OK, I saw a 1983 Jeep CJ7 that had a screw through the PCM connector so it would make good contact!
1983 with a PCM?
 
Yes, one of those computer-controlled electronic feedback carbs. I think it modified spark timing too because the signal from the distributor passed through the PCM on the way to the Duraspark module.
 
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