By Gary Fitzgerald
Nutmeg 99ers -- Lima UG -- Long Island 99ers -- Ottawa UG
After driving through Thursday afternoon thunderstonns in New Jersey, crisscrossing the East-West divider on Route 80, riding single file for miles and miles in the Red Devil - a 1993 Ford Festiva with a huge 1300 cc engine - I crossed the Pennsylvania-Ohio border. This was the farthest West I had ever been. Where were all the buffalo?
Didn't matter ‘cause it was dark and I wouldn’t have heard all the thundering hoofs above the din of all those eighteen wheelers. I was pretty beat by this point but I sensed the allure of all those TMS 9900 series microprocessors, so onward I went. Toledo and down? Columbus and over? Nah, not for this intrepid explorer. Me and my Teddy Bear (Wanna make somethin’ of it?) ventured the Blue Highways except they weren’t blue on my map. 1:30 am Friday morning and I was in the Land of Oz. Real exciting. Slept till 1:30 pm Friday afternoon. I regrouped and found my way to OSU Lima Campus. After getting directions from what must have a math professor - There are four buildings and the driveway you're on is tangential to the polygon.... - I found Reed Hall. I walked in and found Dr. Charles Good directing traffic. Seizing the opportunity to be quite witty, I announced myself as the Connecticut Division of the Lima UG, chest foward, feet together, three fingered salute. Well he looked at me as though I was a Commadore in TI clothing. So much for being cute!!! He recognized my name when I sheepishly offered it and was magnanimous in his greeting. He was thinner and taller than I expected. Must be due to the camera angles and such as viewed on my monthly Lima tapes. That hunkered down aspect of his physical appearance I always attributed to the necessity of poking his face into the camera to introduce himself. That's his natural stance, kind of like a coyote on the prowl. Oh yeh, like I’m an expert on coyotes after my sojourn way out west. I immediately picked up a tape dispenser ad some preprinted signs to mark off who got how many tables where.
I finally felt like a for real member of the Lima UG. I met many TIers that I had only spoken to. I started spending money and the MUG conference had not officially opened. That night I met some of the really big players in the Tlcommunity. The “Gang of Four” from Tennesee including Beery Miller and Gary Cox, Don Walden from Cecure, Tim Tesch of SandT Software. That night I was sitting in Beery's room as he further refined MDOS Version 2.0, had Don Walden and James Schroeder demonstrate and explain to me the upgrades available for the Geneve - 384K Expanded Memory for a total of 917K, Programmable Flash Memory, and PFM+. I saw this stuff in action and it was pretty impressive. If you want to operate in 80 columns, have the ability to reprogram your operating systems, have a choice of which files to boot up, and other options I'm too illiterate too explain, get thee to a Geneve and fill ‘er up with all the goodies you can. You still have your trusty 99/4A to play with and, should you have jumped to IBM compatability, a choice of two TI emulators to save your first love in computers from extinction.
The following day’s events are like a blurr, some cosmicly shared experience in another dimension of space and time. My first observation is you can’t tell TIers by looking at them or reading their resume. All shapes, sizes, and backgrounds were represented. Most vendors are avid TIers as well as business people. If you expect to get a good deal on a cartridge you never managed to get aound to buying, you’re idea of a bargain and the dealer's idea of a bargain are probably not in the same ballpark. Oh, there are deals to be had. These transpire in a number of scenarios. Tiers who are trying to get rid of some stuff because their families are about to throw them out of the house will deal. If you have a lot of money and can make bulk purchases you can deal. There were a few people with full systems to sell and would not break them up. You can find someone who wants the parts of the system you don’t want and go in for the kill. Keep Michael Milliken, junk bonds, corporate takeovers, and the whirlwind ‘80s in the back of your mind and you’ll know how to approach your target.
Keep some of your stash until the end of the day and watch lie prices plununet. Call Joseph Cohen and hel trade for something you don’t want anymore. If you find something you wanl by the old dollar down and a dollar a week approach. It worked for me. What was purely amazing to me was the gadgets that are still available such as the CorComp Micro Expansion System, a neat little package especially if your pressed for space. I saw a Craig Miller Original GRAM Kracker. The individual, not a vendor, wanted $100.00, maybe $125.00 for it. I don’t know what it actually went for. There were Super Sketches and Mice and Joysticks and Diskettes all reasonably priced. If you collect word processors, there were 6 or 7 different variations available. There were cartridges by Romox, Milton Bradley, Funware, Spinnaker, Imagic, just about all the original manufacturers were represented. There were direct parallel printer interfaces that didn’t require the RS232 cards or PEB’s. Plenty of original TI Program Recorders. Many books relating to TIng and computing in general. My advice is to make up a wish list for next year, start saving, and come to Lima next year. Plenty of motels to stay at. Plenty of people to shuttle you back and forth. And don’t forget the seminars. Plenty of knowledgable TIers to answer all those questions you were afraid to ask.
Just to meet Barry Traver and chat for a bit was worth the ride. He approaches the TI with a perspective that is subtlely unique thoroughly modern. If you think your TI is behind the times, talk to Barry for a while. If a computer were built today that was user friendly and desirably unique, it would have many of the qualities of the 99/4A and would be named the Barry Traver Very Special Edition.
The seminars overlap by a half an hour, so you'll never see and hear all that's going on. But you can get tapes of the MUG from Charlie for fifteen dollars or cheaper if you supply your own tapes. Send to LIMA UG, P0 Box 647, Venodocia, OH 45894. Be forewarned that these are not broadcast quality tapes. There is likely to be a lot of background noise. After last year's experiment with remote microphones, it was decided to go back to the mikes at the cameras as much sound was lost on the ‘93 tapes. Too many buttons to push and switches to switch. I have received these tapes for the past three years and there is always many hours of instruction, explanation, and demonstration.
Now let's turn to what was NOT at the Conference. I must preface the following with a short editorial. That anyone even attempts to manufacture hardware or write software for our ten year old orphans is beyond my expectations. If some products are delayed or some goals never achieved, it was not for lack of trying and the community should respect those who have tried. Bud Mills and WHT don’t have all the bugs out of their SCSI project. Bud has certainly not made a lot of money on TI related stuff and has generously helped those who own a product of his, even if it was not bought from him. Sometimes he has taken what some would consider a long time to return a product for repair. I once waited three months for my return. I was glad when I got it. If I had the money I would send Bud a deposit on a SCSI device.
He apologized for the lack of a working model and offered to return his customers’ money. Don’t sound so shabby to me. Anytime I want to get angry I can call the manufacturer of my 486SX33 and get the runaround for weeks on end. Having said that, there seems to be some people to avoid when making a TI purchase. There is a gentleman in Canada who builds an 80 column device for the TI . I have heard him receive fire and brimstone for the way he conducts his business. I have also heard support and praise for his attempts at his projects. Bottom line is I wouldn’t buy anything from him because he can’t get his stuff together. I'm sorry for this failure and for those outside North America who are way past due a refund or a product. I don’t care who’s fault it is. It is now intolerable. If you want 80 columns, get a used AVPC, a Geneve, a used TIM, or wait and see what WHT comes up with. I would also appreciate straight talk from those involved in Asgard Peripherals. If you have left the TI market, just say it. I appreciate you having made the AMS design and schematics available to the public domain. 20 were made. There will be no more unless someone starts making them or the individual hobbyists builds one himself. If I have this wrong, let me know. Good-bye Asgard Peiipherals.
It is hard on me mentally and physically. Many of the TIers at the Conference made it worth the effort. It was a pleasure to meet all these wonderful people. To meet them is as much a reason to go as to get my hands on all those little goodies. One of the”Gang of Four” helped me make copies of the Lima library disks. Thank You.. .If only I could remember your name. Harry Hoffman and his wife made my stay at the Motel 6 quite relaxing and very homey. Everyone there seemed to enjoy themselves and... I'm running on too much. I held back this aiticlc to see if there were any comments on Delphi. There were none. You’d think that Lima MUG never happened. It did and I hope there is another MUG next year. You ought to go. You’ll never know what your missing.