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Back in 1982 the Timex Corp. and Sinclair research (of Britain,) teamed up and produced the Timex Sinclair 1000. It was a low-priced introduction to home computers. It sported 2K of onboard RAM, (yes, 2K! 2 kilobytes of memory!) You could also purchase a 16K add-on memory module called a RAM Pack, (lower right in the picture,) which increased the memory to 18K. I believe there was also a 64K RAM Pack available later. The ones sold in Britain were known as the ZX 81. It had no display but you could hook it up to the VHF antenna connections on the back of your television set. It also didn't have any sound. The operating system was a modified version of the BASIC computer language and it gave a lot of people, including me, their first taste of computer programming.
There were a number of programs that you could buy for it. They were all on cassette tapes. What you would do is connect the unit to your TV set, plug your cassette tape player into it and put whatever program you might have into the tape player. You had to turn the volume off on your cassette player because the programming code was just one continual screeching sound. I had a cassette tape that had a few different programs on it. All of the characters in the programs were block-headed type graphics, but they actually would walk across the screen and even jump up and down. Cool stuff back then.
I remember this costing me $29, as the store I bought it at was getting rid of them. I believe the original selling price was $99. I also bought the 16K RAM Pack for $25. I've kept it all these years in good condition thinking that someday it would be worth something, and I was right. They're selling for about 10 bucks on eBay! Win a few, lose a few. Ironically, these things have somewhat of a cult following, and I've even heard of clubs dedicated to the TS-1000!
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timex
sinclair
ts1000
computer
Added: 4th September 2007
Views: 462
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Posted By: jimmyjet |
 
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Paul Williams wrote the soundtrack for a generation. His songs were everywhere in the 1970s -- you could hear them on the radio, television, movies, and The Muppets. The simple honesty of his lyrics still captures attention and spurs the imagination. This song, The Rainbow Connection seems to fit him so well. Happy Birthday Paul Williams, you've given us happy memories!
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paul
williams
musicians
the
rainbow
connection
muppets
Added: 19th September 2007
Views: 383
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Posted By: Naomi |
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Frankie was a typical Sicilian kid, born, Francesco Paolo LoVecchio, in the heart of Chicago's Little Italy on March 30, 1913, where his father worked at one time as the personal barber for gangster Al Capone. His family had several Mafia connections, and when Frankie was young, he was living with his grandfather when the latter was hit by some members of a rival faction. He began as a marathon dancer, but soon realized that he wanted to make singing his life's career. He became one of the most successful American singers of the twentieth century, often billed as America's Number One Song Stylist, his other nicknames included Mr. Rhythm, Old Leather Lungs, and Old Man Jazz. His hits included "That's My Desire", "That Lucky Old Sun," "Mule Train", "Cry of the Wild Goose", "Jezebel," "High Noon", "I Believe", "Hey Joe!", "The Kid's Last Fight", "Cool Water", "Moonlight Gambler", "Love is a Golden Ring", "Rawhide", and "Lord, You Gave Me a Mountain". His career as an entertainer spanned approximately 75 years. Frankie passed away on February 6, of this year, due to heart failure after having survived two bypass surgeries several years earlier.
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frankie
laine
jezebel
italian
singers
Added: 4th October 2007
Views: 455
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Posted By: Sophia |
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Although she did a few films early in her career, Mary Martin was generally passed over for the filmed version of the musical plays in which she starred. She once explained that she didn't enjoy making films, because she did not have the "connection" with an audience that she had in live performances. The closest she ever came to preserving her stage performances were her famous television appearances as Peter Pan (she had starred in a musical version on Broadway in 1954, and this production was subsequently performed on television in 1955, 1956 and 1960). While she didn't enjoy making theatrical films, she did apparently enjoy appearing on television, as she did frequently. She died, aged 76, from colorectal cancer in California on November 3, 1990. Here's a clip of Larry Hagman giving a wonderful speech in honor of, and to, his mother, during the Kennedy Center Honors in 1989.
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mary
martin
larry
hagman
broadway
performers
south
pacific
peter
pan
annie
get
your
gun
Added: 3rd November 2007
Views: 229
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Posted By: Babs64 |
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Miles Laboratories was founded as the DR. MILES MEDICAL COMPANY in Elkhart, Indiana, in 1884 by Franklin Miles, a specialist in the treatment of eye and ear disorders, with an interest in the connection of the nervous system to overall health. By 1890, the sales success of his patent medicine tonic, DR. MILES' NERVINE, in treating "nervous" ailments (including "nervousness or nervous exhaustion, sleeplessness, hysteria, headache, neuralgia, backache, pain, epilepsy, spasms, fits, and St. Vitus' dance") led him to develop a mail order medicine business. Miles also published Medical News, a thinly disguised marketing vehicle for Nervine. Nervine remained on the market as a "calmative" until the late 1960s...
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vintage
ad
dr.
miles
nervine
nerve
pills
Added: 15th November 2007
Views: 306
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Posted By: Teresa |
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Probably my favorite sports story is the day a midget, Eddie Gaedel, batted in a major league game. The date was August 19, 1951. The lacklustre St. Louis Browns were hosting the Detroit Tigers in a Sunday doubleheader. Browns' owner Bill Veeck promised that anyone who bought a ticket would see a memorable sight. He was right. Gaedel, all 3'7" of him, took part in a brewery promotion between games. Gaedel, clad it a batboy's uniform bearing the number 1/8 and carrying a toy bat, made baseball history in the first inning of the second game when he batted for outfielder Frank Saucier. Jim Cain, the Detroit pitcher, nearly doubled over in laughter at the sight of Gaedel and walked him on four pitches--all of them high. Once Gaedel trotted down to first base he was replaced by pinch runner Jim Delsing. Gaedel's picture appeared in virtually every newspaper in North America the next day. That same day American League president Will Harridge banned midgets from baseball. Most of the players involved in the stunt relished their connection to it. Jim Delsing said, 'A lot of guys have hit 50 home runs in a season, but I'm the only guy who ever ran for a midget.'
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Eddie
Gaedel
baseball
Added: 22nd November 2007
Views: 408
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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Remember the Sprint Guy?
Until September of 2005, he was the spokescharacter for Sprint wireless phones, the guy who solved pesky cellular problems wherever and whenever they arose. He was ubiquitous, appearing in 155 commercials over a period of six years. More than that, he was an icon of the Internet age, the Mr. Whipple, the Joe Isuzu, the Madge or Mikey of his time. One day The Sprint Guy was gone, dropped like a bad connection. He went away quietly, without making a scene, which is just how you'd expect him to go. He was, it seems, a victim of corporate politics. Sprint bought Nextel for $35 billion, and as a result, things changed. Sprint Guy was great when Sprint was selling its services primarily to household customers. But Nextel began focusing on the business market, and so the company decided they needed a new image. Spring Guy was put on 'hiatus' for an indefinite period.
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sprint
cellular
phones
advertisements
Added: 9th January 2008
Views: 256
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Posted By: Sophia |
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Janis Joplin Janis and Jimi always to me a connection The 60's.
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Awesome!
Added: 22nd February 2008
Views: 247
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Posted By: Marty6697 |
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One of the oddest sports stories ever is the disappearance of Bill Barilko of the Toronto Maple Leafs. In the spring of 1951, Barilko became a Leafs hero when he scored the Stanley Cup-winning goal against the Montreal Canadiens. That summer, Barilko and a dentist friend, Dr. Henry Hudson, flew to northern Quebec in the dentist's private plane to do some fishing on the Seal River. For their return home, they loaded the plane's pontoons with 120 pounds of fish they had caught, took off for southern Ontario--and were not seen alive again. The RCMP began a huge search for the missing men. (Some thought the police's interest in the case was far beyond what might be expected.) Nearly eleven years passed before the plane's wreckage was discovered in a densely wooded area of northern Ontario. The skeletal remains of Barilko and Hudson were found in the plane. Oddly enough, the plane was facing the opposite direction one would expect--and the 120 pounds of fish were not found in the pontoons. One persistent and fascinating rumor insists that Barilko, who hailed from a gold-mining community, was using his dentist friend as a mule to move a significant quantity of gold nuggets and dust he had illegally obtained from the mine. (Since dentists need gold for fillings, they have connections with gold suppliers.) The plane's pontoons had mysteriously been sliced open.
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Baiil
Barilko
mystery
Added: 30th May 2008
Views: 150
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Posted By: Lava1964 |
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