PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - Where do old Kaypros go to die?

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Quote:

Originally Posted by cscmc1

Hey! We still fly those suckers, old or not!!! :grin: I have the privelege of fixing them, and, occasionally, riding in them. That boom pod is great for sightseeing... I'm going to try to attach a pic I took flying over Greenland. Nifty! It's also a great place to sleep on long flights.

As far as your old machine goes, wish I were nearby. I'd pick it up for a friend of mine who has a musuem of sorts of old machines. He loves them.

Yeah, thinking about those KC135s takes me back. Early 60s it was.

Interesting shot of Greenland. Did you catch that video on, I forget, Discovery, MSNBC, maybe PBS, about the decades long, several group effort that extracted a WW2 fighter plane which had been left out of necessity in 1940 something and swallowed by the ice? I forget how deep in the ice it was but it was 100 to 200 feet I think.

It was the one with the twin fuselages with an engine at the front of each, and the cockpit in the middle. Very cool looking plane -- pretty deadly, too, I hear. They got it flying again -- after years and mega $$.

Who knows? If I don't find anyone who wants the Kaypro, I'll ship it to you. Then again, the craigslist free box sounds more practical.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kerry edwards

Craigslist--Free items.

I can remember when our sociology professor in graduate school got an Osborne. We all sat around it in wonder.
I was the first person at the University of Denver to write his comprehensive exams on a computer. They let me set up my Sanyo in a storeroom where I typed for a couple of days.

Yep -- craigslist sounds like a good 'un.

I learned to use a word processor at Evergreen in '83 and then got the Kaypro while at the U of Wash in '85 cause I couldn't bear to use my old manual typewriter and then have to edit by cutting and pasting (not virtual :mad: ) and photo-copying. The Kaypro, used, was $1300. Jeez, if only I'd spent that on Microsoft stock instead.

As crude as the Kaypro and my dot matrix printer were, oh man, it was the fast lane for this kid.

Quote:

Originally Posted by A264172

I would hold on to it CPM should be making a comeback 'any day now'. :-)

Thanks for the memory though, a Kaypro was my first computer as well. They just dont make em like that anymore (exersize your brain and your biceps).

Yeah, I think CPM never got utilized to its full potential.

Those Kaypros were rugged, all right. The designer must've formerly designed naval vessel control rooms.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MTI

I still grin at the old stories about how the head of Digital Research blew off a meeting with some IBM reps looking for a small computer OS . . . so instead they went north to a small company near Seattle . . .

I worked for a small Seattle contractor in '87, he had a niche gig of rebuilding apt. decks that had rotted away.

For about a week, every morning he'd come in saying something like, "Jeez, my Microsoft stock is up another point and a half!" After a while I'm thinking, "Yeah, yeah, shut the F up..." Only the hottest stock tip of the century and I'm sneering at the guy. Oh, I'm a smart one all right.

Quote:

Originally Posted by cscmc1

And finally, ME in the boom pod. Bring back memories?

Hey! I think I've been in that plane!:D

cmac -- that was a P-38 that they found frozen in the ice. I didn't see the show, but read an article. Cool that it was so well preserved! They have found lots of Lend-Lease Air Cobras that crashed on their was from AK to Russia in WWII. Some of those were frozen and well-preserved, too. I saw a show on a B-29 recovery once... they got it running and were test-taxiing it when a heater or something fell over and burned the airplane up there on the spot. Heartbreaking! I guess she just didn't want to leave.

Yeah, I saw the show about that B-29. What a cool looking plane. IIRC, it was one of the best preserved they'd found anywhere. I believe some major human sacrifice went down on that one, and that was before the burning up on attempted take off.

Oh well. Sometimes people get a fever for something that consumes them. But then, the victories do seem cool. OTOH, some of these guys lost their marriages in bringing such planes back. Who knows...