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Sothius' Home-News-Old news

'Old news'

SUNDAY, 09/18/2005

From hell's heart I stab at thee...
... with another update! Here's the news:Also added some peripherals:I also decided to temporarily remove some machines, until I have the time to rework them (which are CBM 8296-D, Amiga 2000 & 2500). Thanks go out to Elmar Duensser, by the way, who supplied some interesting Sinclair QL information.

SUNDAY, 03/13/2005

Another new year...
...and thus we go for another update (after a little 'creative break', in which I found many creative ways of lying around and waiting for something to happen). First, greetings go out to Wim from the Netherlands, a D&D-player like I used to be. Second, Sothius' Home had its 66.666th visitor sometime on Wednesday, 09/22/04 (to my surprise, it wasn't Daniel666). What's new?
  • new internals of the Amiga 1200
  • new portrait of the CBM 3016
  • complete rework of the CBM 8296 (including internals)
  • new, easier navigation system with links on top and bottom of each page
  • corrected tech specs here and there, and removed some links
Another thing that should be mentioned is an email I received from Andrea Peck. She told me that one of the signatures I declared as "unkown" on the A1000 signatures page belongs to her husband, Rob Peck. I was sorry to hear of Rob's passing in 1990. Additionally, she mentioned Harv Laser, who had worked with him. Here's what Harv wrote:

"Rob Peck was Amiga's Manager of Documentation.

I met him a few times and he was one of the nicest and sincerest gentlemen I have ever had the pleasure to count as a friend in this dog eat dog computer business. I couldn't think of a bad thing to say about him, if I tried. I consulted on and helped edit his book 'The Amiga Companion.' His passing at such a young age, in his 40s, I think, was really a tragedy."

Thanks to Andrea and Harv for that information and the wonderful words.

MONDAY, 05/31/2004

The lazy guy's back... (that's me!) Also wanted to add some Siemens PC-D infos I got from Wolfgang Neumeyer (i.e. about its i8208), but that's got to wait 'til the next update. Thanks anyway, Wolfgang! Also worth mentioning is that Daniel666 is back with his new, reworked homepage. Give it a try!

TUESDAY, 02/24/2004

YAU ('yet another update')
I've spent most of my days sitting around, waiting for death, but managed to go for another little update (which is this one - a bigger one will follow soon, hopefully). So what's new?Hopefully, I'll be back next month (should I get my lazy bones lifted) - there's still lots of maintenance to be done...

SUNDAY, 10/26/2003

Well, finally, here's another update. Took me a while since I'm currently in some sort of 'end-life-crisis' (well, that's at least what I'd like it to be - I'm afraid it's just going to be middle of my awful existance). So this update brings lots of corrections and additions to the technical specifications, to many to mention them in detail here. But there are two crucial updates I'd like to point out:
  • Winfried Falkenhahn sent me some corrections for the CBM 3016's techspecs. If you decided to assemble a PET from my specs you might have noticed that some part numbers (i.e. the ROMs and their adress spaces) were incorrect. Thanks a lot, Winfried!
  • secondly, a guy named SiliconValleyTechie! sent a message concerning the Sun SPARCstation IPX. Lots of people and FAQs say that the cat silkscreened to the machine's board is Bill Watterson's Hobbes (thus the IPX' codename). I always wondered, since from what I knew Hobbes is a tiger. But since I never read Calvin & Hobbes myself, I just believed it. Big mistake! As it turned out (that's what SiliconValleyTechie! told me) the silkscreening was created by a girl who was one of the board layouters, showing her own cat (although probably she named it 'Hobbes' - who knows?). Thanks, SiliconValleyTechie!, whoever you are!

SUNDAY, 05/18/2003

Back for maintenance :-( This time having worked on:Thanks, by the way, to Ken Stein, who figured out some new facts about the IBM PC's floppy disk controller (and who told me that chips with UA-partnumbers are made by National Semiconductor). Thanks, Ken!

MONDAY, 03/17/2003

Time for another little update...
Lots of changes in detail this time, and minor bug fixes (sounds like a Windoze servicepack - critical errors removed, but no one wants to tell you about it ;-)... Many thanks, in that context, to Michael Wilk, who found an error in the Amiga sound specs! So, what else is new?
  • C64C. New portrait & thumb, new internals
  • C64G. New portrait & thumb, new internals
  • C64 ASSY 250407. New internals
  • C64 ASSY 250425. New internals
  • TIMEX Sinclair 1000. New portrait & thumb, with TS1016 RAM expansion
  • new photos for most of the CBM-peripherals
  • many new browser versions about, so it was time for a new compatibility check! Verified the pages with Opera 7.01, Netscape 7, Mozilla 1.3 and IE6 SP1
Also added a link to Bruce Damer's Digibarn, a very nice museum of vintage computers. Be sure to visit his pigs ;-) and vintage machines!

SUNDAY, 01/26/2003

Still alive!
And a happy new-year, by the way. Well, after lazing around and playing Icewind Dale II for a while, I decided to do something useful. Like museum maintenance.

And so I did a complete redesign of my Sinclair QL pages. And while doing so, I also reworked some company histories and tech specs. And then, coffee and pizza went out, and I couldn't continue (well, to be honest, I just got dull again).

So 'til next time... Sothius

SUNDAY, 12/08/2002

It's me again... This time, for the first time;-), adding some useful information:
  • Added a link to www.digitalmonalisa.com. This is Andy Patros' page, who owns a digital reproduction of da Vinci's Mona Lisa. It was created in 1965 as some kind of 'ASCII art', with a primitive sort of scanner. There are pictures and many links for futher reading - worth a visit!
  • Got a mail from John Shadbolt, who sent additional info for my IBM PC-pages. First of all, my table with settings for DIP SW1 was not entirely correct. Here's what John wrote about it:
    'On the table for the dip switch SW1, note that SW1-1 *is* used on the PC (I had written that it was unused, according to IBM Canada), off means 1 or more floppy drives, SW1-1 ON SW1-7 ON and SW1-8 ON means no floppy drives, which is a valid setting for a diskless PC (the XT SW1-1 is always OFF as there is always at least one floppy)'
    Also, John resolved the 'relay mystery' (remember? There's a relay on the machine's board, and I didn't know what for...). Here's his comment:
    '...I think this is used for the cassette interface to remotely control the tape player on & off. To check, boot the machine (...) in cassette basic. Then try to LOAD a program - you should hear the relay click'
    Thanks, John!

MONDAY, 11/04/2002

Still in the maintenance process... I know it takes time, but I think it's worth it. What keeps me up is looking forward to adding the new machines - and, of course, Coffee and Pizza. So here's what's updated this time:By the way, I've removed the Amiga 3000 since it no longer works - one of the ROM-tower's pins is broken, making the machine totally useless. Remember: only working machines in the museum! Now it's for spares only...

MONDAY, 10/06/2002

Yep, still maintaining the museum section! Hopefully, I'll soon be done with it and get to the new machines... Here's what's updated, this time:
  • Apple Macintosh II (new portrait & thumb, new internals, specs update)
  • Apple Macintosh IIci (new portrait & thumb, new internals, techspecs)
  • Apple Macintosh Plus (new portrait & thumb)
  • Schneider CPC464 (new portrait & thumb, new internals)
  • Sun SPARCstation IPX (new portrait, new internals, techspecs)

SUNDAY, 07/28/2002

Still in the maintenance update process, this time having reworked There's still some work to do before I' going to add my 'new machines' to the museum. Stay tuned!

SUNDAY, 07/21/2002

Still I'm doing maintenance to the pages. This time I reworked the Siemens PC-D (new portrait & thumb, new internal pictures, some new tech specs), and added 'noscript-areas' to the HTML-code. Reason was that if you come here by search engine and you've disabled JavaScript, the framset (which is required for comfortable navigation) won't be reloaded. In this case there's now a message telling the viewer about the missing frameset and offering a link to it.

SUNDAY, 06/23/2002

Some people complaining about the pages being to dark. Loading too long.
Now they're darker, and pictures are loading longer! Never complain again... But, to be serious: I did a little redesign, as you'll already have noticed. And I decided to do some maintenance again - there were too many things I didn't like (some bad pictures, missing tech specs etc.). There are still smaller things that I've got to 'clean up', but this update takes the most terrible ones from my mind. So here's a list of pages I touched, and what I did to them: So you see I've been doing something, apart from playing with myself...
Sothius

SUNDAY, 03/31/2002

I am still not dead! (I think)
'When's that lazy guy going to update his museum again?' you might ask yourself. Soon, I promise! But since I've been moving to a new flat recently (with a dry and warm cellar for all my old machines), I'm still trying to control the chaos that's been caused...

There are now 12 machines on the pile, along with some peripherals, and still machines are on their way from ebay-auctions to me, so I'm gonna have a hard time, next time I'll update. So for now, I've just done some 'maintenance' to all the pages, as I do quite often (some new tech specs or corrections here and there, dead link removal etc), and just wanted to let you know: I'm on it!
Sothius

SUNDAY, 01/06/2002

Happy new-year, everyone...
New year, new pain. And new machines. That's what it's always about, right? Well, I've been drinking barrels of coffee and alcohol, and spent lots of money on pizzas (not making me thinner at all) - all for this update, so I hope you'll enjoy it. Here are the new additions to the museum (in age order):
Enjoy 'em. By the way, there are still machines on the pile.... Sothius

MONDAY, 12/24/2001

A merry christmas to you all!
Although I'm no christ, I tolerate their primitive belief and habits. And, after all, most children are born nine months after christmas - think about it, and don't sit at your machine tonight! As for the planned update: I'm on it, I'm on it! But all this love, peace and gingerbread makes me lazy and sick... Also, I enjoy the thick layer of snow that covers Germany at current - wonderful for walking the woods!
I'll have some coffee now and continue with serious relaxation... Sothius

SUNDAY, 12/02/2001

Well, this is more a 'silent update' than anything else. Updated some machine specifications in the museum, as always, but no additions yet. But there'll definetely be a big update for X-mas, since I've gotten some nice and rare new machines in the past few weeks (2 pre-1980 machines, 2 limited editions, and about 10 other machines still 'on the pile').
Be seein' ya.

SUNDAY, 09/23/2001

It's here! A new update!
Well, a man's gotta do what a man's gotta do, doesn't he? He does, and so did I. Enough of that, here are the changes:
  • Updated some of the links, as they were about to expire. Also did some changes to museum technical specs here and there, as I always do from time to time, including some new pics and better company logos
  • Added the following machines to the museum (in age order):
That's it, for now. I'll be back!

THURSDAY, 08/30/2001

Yep, it's another update. Added much detail info on some of the Commodore-machines, some of it as a preparation for the new machines coming next...

I was also able to decipher most of the Amiga 1000 case-signatures, although some are still unknown. Added also a new portrait of my SPARCstation IPX. So look out for the next update...

SATURDAY, 08/25/2001

All new, all new!

Now that I've passed my exams with even good results, and cash flows :-( I got myself a new digital camera. And what can I say, it's f***ing cool! So before adding all the 'new' machines to the museum, I decided to redo some of the existing photos - as it turned out, 'some' wasn't quite enough, so I've updated them all! And, by the way, added lots of new photos, e.g. the ROMs in all CBM-machines, all the Amiga-Developer's signatures from the Amiga 1000-case etc. So just browse though and enjoy the new photos. More than ever, 1280x1024 resolution is recommended, by the way!

I also decided to add a meta-tag to all the pages, that disables the IE6's smart-tag feature. Didn't try it myself, hope it'll work...

MONDAY, 06/18/2001

Although I'm still preparing for my final exam, here are two links that I think could interest you:
  • The first is a relatively new Acorn Archimedes-emulator for Windows, Red Squirrel. In its current state it's even better than Archie, considering speed and sound-output.
  • The second is the Church of Satan, which exists since 1966 and was recently in the news; they used Apple's 'Think different'-slogan with a picture of their founder. A very cool idea, in my opinion! But although many people there are Macintosh-fans, Apple appearently didn't like the idea and made them remove it. I'm no satanist myself (more the atheist), but I do respect most of them because of the many similarities in opinion between us.

SUNDAY, 06/03/2001

Just an update to let you know: I am not dead (yet - although I wish for it, sometimes)!

Well, currently I'm doing my exams, so don't expect an update too soon! The last one, a project presentation, will be on June 25th; wish me luck or whatever!
By the way, there's been a little progress with sp*ng as well, but I ran into problems programming the computer-opponent's A.I.. I'll see to it in July - and to the next update as well. See you then, folks!

SATURDAY, 03/24/2001

This time an update for the 'news-cookie-feature':
I recently found out that it didn't work with the IE 5.5 (when I updated to AOL 6.0). The problem's that IE 5.5 doesn't accept a string as expiration date for the cookie (IE 4+5 did). Changed it into a GMTString, and - tadaa! - it works again... (let me know if it doesn't work for you)

TUESDAY, 03/20/2001

Updated some of the machines technical specifications; got new infos here and there, added some codenames, you know just gathering information.

I'm also experimenting around with VRML ('virtual reality modeling language') on my sgi - I'm thinking of a 3D-version of Sothius' Home!
But since creating worlds is much more difficult than simple HTML, this could take a while...
Meanwhile, you could visit the Web3D-consortium for more info and many links concerning VRML. But if downloading a browser plug-in, get one with 'VRML 2'-compatiblity (or 'VRML 97' which is the same), because this is most likely to be used when I build my worlds...

TUESDAY, 03/06/2001

Only a small update this time, since I haven't gotten to update the museum yet:

Added a 'Friends'-section to my links, and two new links. They're the Virtual Fight Club and Strauchi's Welt (both german homepages). Be sure to visit them!

TUESDAY, 02/13/2001

Added screenshots of classical and well-known games to the following pages in the museum:

SUNDAY, 02/11/2001

Today, I decided to add a long-planned feature to Sothius' Home - cookies!

One cookie, to be more specific. Every time you read the news now, a cookie will be set on your machine saving the actual date and time. Now the next time you come to Sothius' Home, a JavaScript-function will compare the last time you read the news with their last update - so you know instantly if something has happened (of course you will have to 'activate' the feature by reading the news and letting Sothius' Home set the cookie).
Clever, eh? That's me (at least, if it will work)...

SATURDAY, 02/03/2001

Once again, here we go! This is part one of a multi-machine update!
New this time:
  • an Amiga 3000-16, which has been a developer's machine. Have a look at this interesting machine in the AMIGA-section!
  • an A520 TV-modulator and an A2024 greyscale-monitor for the Commodore AMIGA peripherals
  • a CBM PC 920 5.25" PC-diskdrive (which I once used with my PC10-II and recently found in my cellar - those were the days!) for the Commodore peripherals
  • and last, but really not least - a very cool link! See www.pommescurrywurst.de for everything you ever wanted to know about this german speciality!
  • also several smaller changes like more details on some of the Amigas, and improvements on the look of the pages

FRIDAY, 01/05/2001

I just forgot to tell you...
...that Daniel 'Headbanger' 666 has just updated his homepage, 'The Castle of Horror'! The new version is now online since 12/25/2000 and looks much more professional than the old one.
Worth a visit!

THURSDAY, 01/04/2001

I know it is past new-year, but...

...I couldn't get to the update yet. But I've got some good excuse:
for X-mas, I got myself a Silicon Graphics Inc. Indigo² workstation, and this 'toy' currently takes all my time! Rendering around all day with some cool modellers is pure fun! I also got back to a project which I began on my Sun IPX, called 'SP*NG' - if all goes well you'll see what it is in the next few months...

I did not forget the museum, though - but currently I got no solution for my 'light-problem': because my digital camera has no flash, I need a good light-source for making the machines' photos. I tried different types of lamps, but the results were either to dark or 'yellowish'... I hope to figure it out soon, otherwise I'll have to wait for summer :-(

SATURDAY, 12/09/2000

Yes, I'm still alive!
But since I got addicted to Baldur's Gate II and Zelda - Ocarina of Time recently, I didn't have the time for a new update... But since the new machines are stockpiling here, I'll try to do it as soon as possible (but probably not before new-year). See you then!

SATURDAY, 11/04/2000

Not so much news this time:
I've added some technical detail information to some of the museum's pages.
Two new machines are also on their way (so you'll probably see another update within the next few days).
Meanwhile, I decided to divide the Commodore peripherals into both Commodore and Commodore AMIGA peripherals, because it was just getting too much!

THURSDAY, 10/12/2000

  • Added a Siemens PC-D to the misc section of the museum
  • Added much more cross-reference links to many of the pages (like here in the news or in the museum)

TUESDAY, 09/19/2000

Added a CBM VC-1541 disk-drive (first, white version designed for the VC-20) to the Commodore peripherals.
Thanks to Wolfgang Richter for it!

SATURDAY, 09/16/2000

This day I was reunited with an old companion, which has become a very rare machine these days:

an Amiga 2500!

Thanks to Andre Neumann for this, it's in a perfect condition!

FRIDAY, 09/15/2000

Today Sothius'Home had visitor # 666! It was - no kidding -

Daniel 'Headbanger' 666, that motherf***ing bastard ;-)

Greetings to you, blonde beauty! How often have you tried...?

THURSDAY, 09/14/2000

This time a small update only!
Just added a SFD 1001 disk-drive to the Commodore peripherals. Thanks go out to Georg Renelt for its marvellous condition!

SATURDAY, 09/09/2000

  • Added an ATARI 7800 PRO System to the ATARI section. Thanx to Bart Kortz!
  • Added an A1011 Amiga external disk-drive to the Commodore peripherals
  • Changed the order of some of the machines: they're not ordered by the production-date of the particular machines anymore but by the year when the model (or series) appeared. Additional info on the production dates of the unique machines are given in MIL 2

SATURDAY, 09/02/2000

  • I was just thinking about my peripherals sections when Dieter Laubisch told me that he's got an old C64 floppy-drive. He brought it along and it was the classic brown CBM 1541 with push-down mechanism, fitting the C64-I.
    That one was still missing - thanks Dieter!
  • Added a Commodore 64G to the Commodore-section of the museum (the 'missing link'!)
  • Also did some cosmectic changes, mostly for non-windows machines, along with this small update

SATURDAY, 08/26/2000

Did a nice little update:
Not enough that you can see all the machines and their special-chips - now there's also a peripherals page for each company, showing all the nice peripherals (drives, monitors, printers...) that I got along with my machines!
Enjoy!

SUNDAY, 08/20/2000

Just added two new machines to the collection:The AMSTRAD is of course only a complementary machine for my AMSTRAD section, and wouldn't normally be much interesting (as an IBM-clone)...

SUNDAY, 08/13/2000

Now that my Socket 7-machine is up again (in fact it's now a Slot-1 machine, a slotmachine ;-)), here's another update:
  • added an ATARI 2600 jr. (last of the VCS 2600-series...) to the collection, thanks to Karsten Trost!

THURSDAY, 07/27/2000

Yesterday my Internet-PC (an older Socket 7 machine) crashed - beepcode says the FlashBIOS has blown away! Nevertheless a smaller update, done from one of my other machines with a 28.8 KBaud-modem (analogue sucks!):
Added a link to Christian Blach (M@CC@M)'s website - see the link section and go there NOW - lots of practical things there...

THURSDAY, 07/20/2000

This time it was a bigger update! Changes include:
  • some new machine pictures (Schneider CPC 464, CBM VC-20, CBM 64 'WG') because the old ones were not detailed enough
  • every machine's page now has its individual logo on top
  • all serial-numbers are also available as pictures now (just click it!)
  • the same for all the board-'inscriptions' and the special chips
  • added a Macintosh Plus 1 Mb to the collection
  • added an Amiga 500 plus to the collection (thanks, Do Ly!)
  • added a F.A.Q. section - if you got questions to ask, just mail
Also added a link to a comrade, Daniel 'Headbanger' 666. See the link section for it!
And by the way: Greetings to Christian Blach !!!

SATURDAY, 07/08/2000

  • Added a '3D-effect' to all the pics, making them look much better (and bigger, but most of the people having ISDN, that's no problem I think)
  • Added an ATARI XE GAMESYSTEM to my collection - thanks go out to Jens Kloepfel for that rather rare machine!
  • Several smaller changes in the museum (some screenshots, MC68008-closeup etc) - see for yourself!

SATURDAY, 07/01/2000

Added a Macintosh IIci to the Apple-section, thanks to Martin Kämper; nice machine.

FRIDAY, 06/30/2000

  • Added an Apple //c to my collection (thanks a lot to Andreas Hamann)
  • Added some additional info to the Macintosh II-page
  • Added a row 'Codename(s)' to some of the machines' descriptions

SATURDAY, 06/24/2000

Wasted the whole morning with fixing bugs when using the Netscape-Communicator. This must be the only browser where you have to explicitly tell to take up underlined text after links!
The person who wrote it must be have been a real amateur. But it's done now - 'til the next Netscape-release 'blesses' us with thousands of new bugs!

THURSDAY, 06/22/2000

A new classic for my museum's CBM section - a Commodore VC-20!
Many thanks go out to Peter Walter for its excellent condition.

SATURDAY, 06/17/2000

Today I got myself a cheap digital camera - its pics are far from perfect, but better than those of the Polaroid! Anyway, I'm no photo artist - so don't expect too much! Here are the news:
  • added some detail pics to the old machines (e.g the cat on the Sun IPX's motherboard, updated technical data etc.)
  • New machines:

MONDAY, 06/05/2000

Added a Macintosh II to the Apple-section of the museum.

FRIDAY, 06/02/2000

New in the CBM section of the museum:
  • a Commodore 16, which is in *perfect* shape !!! Thanks to Rainer Benda for it!
  • Added some referential links between the machines

SUNDAY, 05/14/2000

Just added:
  • a Commodore 64C, donated by Björn Wienciers (have a look at it in the CBM section of the museum)
  • anchors for better navigation in the links section
  • 'Older News' - so that the news-section isn't so overloaded

MONDAY, 05/01/2000

Did some 'patchwork' today.
Some anchors didn't work because of a bad syntax!
Also had to remove the 'width' from some pics inside of text, because obviously the Netscape Navigator didn't like that (and so decided not to display them at all...)
I can foresee where this will lead to: One day my homepage can only be displayed on my own machine correctly....

SATURDAY, 04/29/2000

Added a 'Nintendo'-section to the museum, mainly because of their interesting history; I also didn't want the 'misc'-section to become too large...

WEDNESDAY, 04/26/2000

Just got myself a Polaroid (R). So I was finally able to add the missing photos to the museum.
Unfortunately, the camera can only focus correctly at a minimum distance of 60 cm - so getting small details (like on the ZX81) is very difficult.
I'll try my best!

SATURDAY, 04/22/2000

Did several changes in the last few days. Here are them in short:
  • Museum-section rebuilt. Now the museum is divided into companies (with a brief history), so that not all the pics are loaded at the same time (for slow modem users). The result is that some sections (e.g. Apple) are empty, 'cause I haven't got machines for them yet...
  • Links now open in new windows. I encountered some JavaScript-Errors on the pages I linked to when they were inside my frameset
  • Some little improvements, here and there... Also added some links.

WEDNESDAY, 04/12/2000

FINALLY ONLINE!
Just got the pics of most of my machines; however, there are still pics missing as you will notice - they're coming soon!

SATURDAY, 03/25/2000

Still under construction.
Added some additional pictures to the museum just for additional info. Still no pics of my machines...
Experimented around with other designs (navi-bar at bottom, navigation with a centered pentagram), but it all looked awful. Got finally back to the 'classic' design.

MONDAY, 03/20/2000

Still under construction.
Removed 'history back'-function for museum-pages (so that you don't have to scroll down again), 'cause it didn't work everywhere (that's JavaScript-compatibility...). Replaced it with anchors; however, some browsers can't refer to anchors inside tables - use your browser's buttons instead!
Also I'm still waiting for the photos to complete the museum - seems that I need a digital camera as soon as possible to avoid this in the future...


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