H-XM-1994

Seasons Greetings 1994

It’s now just passed Thanksgiving -- prior to Christmas music -- a time to visit close friends.

Our best wishes to each of you. You may now share events of our past year, or smile and go on to important things -- there is nothing you must read in what follows.

We went to Oberlin, KS, twice in ‘94; to Mary’s mother Lola’s 90th birthday, and again in Sept when we attended the 19th BG reunion in Wichita. Daughters Monica and Julia were also there for Lola’s birthday.

Lola’s birthday: Lola’s birthday dinner was held at the American Legion, followed by a reception at the church. It was a wonderful gathering of lifetime friends. While at the church I had occasion to look at the WW II plaque showing members of the church who had served in the armed forces. Those names brought back memories -- I could visualize each as they had been when teenagers in that church of my youth. At least 50% are now gone -- and only a fraction of the remaining, are residents of the community.

A slice of Oberlin: Archeologists cut slices of an old site to reveal what it was like. Daughter Monica and I walked a slice of Oberlin west to east across town on Oak street then back east to west on the next street north. As we walked, under a canopy of tall shade trees lining the street, I told Monica of things that happened; who lived in the houses, and how each family fit into the fabric of the town and of how their lives interplayed with those of her parents and grandparents. It was an event that could only take place in a small town; where everyone knows each other. When cars pass, you always wave.

Bicycle to Model-T: Our visit began as we headed east from Cass Ave. Most of the streets in Oberlin were paved in red brick, which has held up remarkably well. I said, “this segment of Oak St used to be gravel, when wet it ozzed mud. Groves were unevenly packed by traffic, it rode rough rattling both car and bike. Right here in fact I did a complete flip on my bike. The front fender was loose and rattled into the tire, abruptly jammed into the fork, stopping the wheel. We had just finished dinner (lunch) & I was headed back to high school. Dad in his car, headed back to work, was immediately behind me. Dad braked to a fast stop, jumped out and asked if I was all right. I was sitting upright on the street, still holding the handle bars, with the aft of the bike ahead of me!” Dad said, “you did a complete flip!” I told Dad I was fine, quickly worked the bent front fender out of the fork, handed it to Dad to put in the car, jumped back on the bike and was soon zipping on ahead to school.

That would have been just before Doc Hughes and I bought our first model-T for $5.00, then another for $7.00 and a third for $2.50 -- thereafter we drove to school. Gasoline was 13 cents per gallon and a good job paid 25 cents per hour.

That walk was quite memorable to Monica, enough so that she plans to take her husband Brian back with her and give him that special tour -- many nice homes are now for sale cheap, people have been and still are moving out. The town is the focal point of a farming community. Fewer and fewer people are needed to run the farms -- young people have to move on to find work.

Oberlin’s boom and taper off: Oberlin came into being about 10 years after the Civil War. Monica’s great-grandparents, from both sides of the family, homesteaded or moved there at the time of the early settlers. My parents grew up as the town grew. The stork dropped me off at a time when the county population peaked -- when live horse power plus human power were the engines for doing work. My youth was a time of muscle work. The country had some 36,000 people at it’s peak compared to some 5,000 today, over half now live “in town”.

Home 2 of 3 Revisited: The afternoon of that day we borrowed the keys to the house I grew up in, it had been converted to a parsonage and was empty at the moment. My parents designed and had the house built at the depths of the depression -- 1932 I believe. I was saddened to find the beautiful special hard pine molding had been painted over. The special wall painting texture, achieved by Axel Erickson -- a house painter with remarkable artistic ability -- had also been painted over. Axel painted the lower part of the bathroom walls as if they were inlaid marble. His technique was studied by each of us, while seated on the stool. I wish we’d thought to take a photo of what and how he did it.

I showed Julia and Monica the place on the back door where the end of sister Phyllis’s finger was cut off -- some one opened the front door -- KS wind blew though the house abruptly slamming the back door.

The Special Window: I showed them the window to my room, where I used to climb in when comming home late at night. Dad stayed up, intent on seeing that I got in on time. I showed them how I’d rigged the window screen so I could poke a wire through and undo the inside screen hook -- then enter through the window.... That worked fine, until one night as I entered my room I was greeted -- face to face -- by Dad at the window.

I recalled always being tired. I was going out for sports after school, delivered papers and working as janitor of the bank before school, and was in a variety of school activities in the evenings. I was climbing into bed about midnight and getting up at 6:00 am to go to work. Six hours sleep was not enough for a busy boy.

Testing the Bow-Gun: While in the basement I showed them where I’d tested my bow gun, shooting an arrow into the bottom of Mom’s wash tub. I managed a patch but found it very difficult if not impossible to solder a galvanized tub bottom. I peened a plug in place till I could get Mom a new tub. Dick Grice the ex cowboy shoe repairman had used his “Men and Arms” book to show me how to make a bow gun. Dick helped make the trigger mechanism out of 1/4“ thick shoe leather. He also made me a cartrage belt for my 22 rifle bullets, a leather covered whisky bottle canteen plus a scabbord for an old bucher knife. Shirtless, wearing an old felt hat to fend off the hot sun, I’d hike out into the country for several miles. Times were austair, all of us made do with what we had or could buy earning 10 cents an hour. We exchanged names for Christmas so everyone received something, the giver took great pride is earning enought to pay for the gift they gave. We were convinced we were the luckiest people in the world -- and we were.

Home 1 before enlarged and made “modern” with indoor toilet, running water and lights.

The back yard of that house was home base. I showed Julia and Monica where Jr Nitch and I had built rabbit pens, where I had a cyotee, a hawk, etc. That back yard was where we worked on our model-T’s, also where I built a fireplace, etc. I was painting word pictures with my hands of how life was before TV.

Mary participated in tales of where she and my sister Marjorie had played when they were little, Mary’s home was only a block away. Mary told of how she and Marjorie would help push the model-T to get it started -- in return for a ride about the block.

Home 1 of 3 Revisited: The following day I took Julia to the house where I was born. The place was on the east side of Buffalo Ave a sparcely graveled dead end then, now US-183. The house had been empty for years, an irreconcilable estate prevented sale, it had deteriorated. On our way back to CA I used to stop and take a photo of the fire hydrant near the curb. It had grown shorter over the years -- dirt built up leaving only the upper ports exposed. This had been the site of my sand pile. I’d used it’s wet sand to build castles and roads. Fantasy and dreams were converted to form and shape... it was marvelous.

To our dismay the house was gone! It had been vantalized & set fire, so the city bull dozed it out. Weeds had grown over, almost nothing was left of where I’d played with neighbor kids. At one time I’d thought of buying the house -- an impractical idea that never quite went away.

Then I remembered the fire hydrant -- that had to still be there. Wrong, someone removed the fire hydrant!! I felt crushed, the index to my life, to my world was gone!! When working on a crash program years later, to deploy multiple warheads from space plus use of the first micro-electronics & digital computers -- I’d sometimes obtain a fresh grip on realities by thinking how those integrated circuits were simply the ingredients of my sand pile, arranged in a special order. Silicon from the sand, Oxygen for the Silicon-Oxide from the air, Aluminum for the metal conductors from the soil. Technology had come a long way and that little boy had been trying to keep up with it.

The curiosity of things mechanical began with the teams of mules and the grader smoothing the street. From watching events at mill-grain elevator in back with all it’s machinery. Of homing in on the sound of the trip-hammer to the black smith shop. Finding the city power plant by going to the source of smoke rings when they started a new deisel engine as the sun went down. From that site, now gone, that little boy had learned so much even before starting to kindergarten.

From when I was born to starting kindergarten the folks had installed a toilet, running water to the kitchen and Dad had wired the house for electic lights and appliances -- that house continued to use the Ice Box and Kerosine Stove. A hand cranked phone hung on the wall and we had a new Atwater Kent Radio, who’s tube numbers were single diget. Wall Steet crashed, only I never heard it.

Vernons, our next door neighbors moved out and Wickhams moved in. Dale and I made mud chocolate birthday cakes with decorations -- then he had to go off to kindergarten while I waited a year. Dale’s older brother Berl, milked the family cow. One night after dark Berl came up to our back door calling out in a whisper to my Dad, “someones swiping gas from your car!” Dad got his 410 shot gun and they cornered a kid under the single alley light -- he’d been trying to siphon gas from Dads company car, a model-T coupe. The cow barn became a garage.

Oberlin Museum: Later Mary, Julia, Monica and I went to the Oberlin Museum. More nostalgia, photos and artifacts of my youth are now museum items. I became aware of their need of a better computer and resolved to do something about it, as subsequently described.

In Memory of Lynn Barnet: I made a special trip to Colby, KS, to look up Vernon Barnet, brother of Lynn Barnett, who had been a Flight Engineer on a B-29 in our 28th Sqd. Their B-29 was hit by an artillery shell which ruptured their fuel system and they ditched 60 mi off the Japanese coastline. Lynn died in the crash, he would have been a high school senior when I was a freshman. On our trip back from Wichita, we stopped to see the Barnets again.

Relatives-Classmates-Friends: Both trips to Oberlin we had wonderful visits with relatives, classmates and friends. The remaining friends of youth grow more special -- there are fewer of them.

Back home in CA, life resumed it’s pattern:

Garden Grove Art Guild: Mary was heavily involved in her painting and the Garden Grove Art Guild. Mary does the Art Guilds news letter. My assigned task is to put it on the computer -- Mary’s the Editor, I’m the back office help. For the next year she will be Treasurer. At the recent Golden Brush Awards dinner, she was rewarded and pleased to receive a ribbon for second place in the Juried Show.

Saga of the 19th BG: I continued with what has become a monumental task: A History of the 19th BG. I’m also the membership chairman and as such put out the membership cards and print some 1300 mailing labels. With the help of assications president, chairman, and others the words been out to send material for the history endeavor. I’ve received boxes of information, much is still left to do. For the Sept reunion in Wichita I took 15 volumes of material. The volumes ranged in size from 1/4 to 3/4 inches thick printed both sides. The material is stored on hard disk and consumes some 400 mega bytes. I had been working from 4 to 12 hours per day on the task. In fact I became burned out , so I let myself become side tracked to computer endeavors.

Computer Up-Grades: This has been the year of the MINI-TOWER.

My plan was to upgrade David’s Packard Bell computer, then found it was not upgradable. So I bought the parts and assembled a new one, packaging it in a mini tower. David & Mary now have two computers interconnected with a LapLink software-cable via the serial ports.

What you do for one you should do for the other; so I gave Julia what she would need to upgrade her machine. I gave her the SCSI card and CD-ROM drive from my machine plus sound card and speakers, also a Conners 250 meg backup tape. Julies machine is at the same level as Davids. Julia and JR will be here for Christmas and I expect to hear, “Daddy when do I get a mini-tower so JR and I can have his and her machines?”

Recently I assembled parts into a mini-tower for Monica after I found her motherboard could not be repackaged in a mini-tower. Now Monica and Brian have a his and her computers interconnected.

After the return from the reunion, I completely modified my desk top system -- with thoughts of incorporating all in a Roll-Top Desk. I had left and right computer each with classic horizontal chassis. The arrangement had became a mess so I decided to repackage the computers in mini-towers. The left computer was transfer from horizontal to vertical case -- repackaging. The right, AST Premium computer, I decided to give to the Oberlin Museum, except for certain special cards. So I build an new mini-tower machine to replace it. In one day I went from two working computers to three scattered sets of parts -- none of which worked. In time each problem was solved and I now have three on my desk, & they all work. Those that stay are interlinked with LAN=Local Area Network card and Lap Link software & cable.

The new arrangement consists of:

			Shelves
			Shelves
Copier	InkJet Printer	15” Monitor	Mini-tower	15” Monitor	Mini-tower	Laser Printer
	Scanner	Keyboard		Keyboard
TABLE			DESK			Table

Power Supply	5.25” port	CD-ROM
	5.25” port	Duo-Floppy
4 meg 72 pin SIM	3.5” port	BU-Tape |
	3.5” port	spare |
ISA...........Video	spare	Lts & Sws
ISA...........Modem	540 M Hard Drive#1
ISA...........CD-ROM	486DX2-66
ISA
ISA-VLB.....I/O
ISA-VLB....spare		speaker
ISA-VLB....spare

Mini-Tower: side view front view

Item	Computer A	Computer B	Computer D (1)	Computer M (1)	Computer J	current costs
Case	mini tower	mini tower	mini tower	mini tower	std case	30
mother board	4 ISA + 2 VLB	4 ISA + 3 VLB	4 ISA + 3 VLB	4 ISA + 3 VLB	7 ISA + SCSI	150
processor	486DX/33	486DX2-66	486DX/33	486DX2-66	486DX/33	229 (DX2-66)
RAM	16meg 30 pin SIM	4 meg 72 pin SIM	4 meg 72 pin SIM	4 meg 72 pin SIM	4 meg 72 pin SIM	170 (4 meg)
floppy drives=meg	duo 3.5 & 5.25 A=1.4, B=1.2	duo 3.5 & 5.25 A=1.4, B=1.2	duo 3.5 & 5.25 A=1.4, B=1.2	duo 3.5 & 5.25 A=1.4, B=1.2	duo 3.5 & 5.25 A=1.4, B=1.2	100
hard drives 1& 2 drive ltrs	1083 & 540 meg C...H=250 meg ea	1083 & 540 meg C...H=250 meg ea	540 & 200 meg C...E=250 meg ea	730 meg C...D=340 meg	540 & 200 meg C...E=250 meg ea	499 (1083 meg) 219 (540 meg)
Input /Output	2 IDE; 2 Ser; 1 Par; 2 Floppy; 1 Backup	2 IDE; 2 Ser; 1 Par; 2 Floppy; 1 Backup	2 IDE; 2 Ser; 1 Par; 2 Floppy; 1 Backup	2 IDE; 2 Ser; 1 Par; 2 Floppy; 1 Backup	2 IDE; 2 Ser; 1 Par; 2 Floppy; 1 Backup	20 (basic) 70 (new long) 140 (prior long)
Floptical	21 meg 3.5”
Scanner	Scanjet II
Backup	250 meg Connors		250 meg Connors	250 meg Connors	250 meg Connors	139
CD-ROM		ISA card	ISA card	ISA card	ISA SCSI card	100
Sound Blaster		ISA card 16 bit	ISA card 16 bit	(pending)	ISA card 16 bit	100
Fax-Modem	14,400 baud		14,400 baud	9600 baud	9600 baud	89
Video	ISA (16 bit)	ISA-VLB (16 bit)	ISA (16 bit)	ISA (16 bit)	ISA (16 bit)	29
Monitor	15” Color	15” Color	14” Color	14” Color	14” Color	414 (15”)
Keyboard						10
Mouse	MS-ergo	MS-ergo	MS-ergo	MS-ergo	MS-ergo	29

(1) Also kept their prior 486DS/33 machines

Prices are aproximate to indicate range and how prices have plummetted.

Connecting devices to computer card ribbon cables can be aggrevating, particularly if the system is already packed and difficult to see or get at.

The following may be of help to know the location of Index’s for power connectors and pin 1 for signal connectors -- and if they connect to the “straight” or “twisted” connectors.

There are no instructions with floppy drives & those for back up tape drives are skimpy. I learned the hard way, by trial and error, which connector end went to which. In this process I ruined test disks without knowing it. Later when the connection was right it tested no good, I was unknowingly using a bad disk. You can avoid such by reference to the following.

Hard Drive and Floppy Drive Connections

Device	Aft View	Remarks
Hard Drv	[ ::::::::::::Signal::::::::::::1] [*Power*] |	3.5” wide
Dual Floppy	[po_wr] [ 1:::::::::::::Signal:::::::::::::::]	5.25” wide, (1), (2)
Single Floppy	[1:::::::::::Signal::::::::::::::] [po_wr] |	3.5” wide, (3)
Back Up Tape	[1:::::::::::Signal::::::::::::::] [*Power*] |	3.5” wide, (1), (2)
Floptical	[1:::::::::::Signal::::::::::::::] [po^wr] |	3.5” wide

(1) May be DI=dual inline connector or ED=edge card connector

(2) Must connect to “straight” conn

(3) Must connect to “twist” conn.

Card

straight Ribbon

DI-Conn

ED-Conn

twisted Ribbon

DI-Conn

ED-Conn

“straight” conn “twist” conn

The number 1 side of the ribbon cable is marked or painted.

Notes:

1. [*Power*] = large power connector with tapered index at * locations

2. [po_wr] = small power connector with index centered under.

3. [po^wr] = small power connector with index centered above.

4. The last drive on the floppy cable is to have a pull up resistor. The 3.5” drive is by convention the last item. On a dual floppy the 3.5” is internally connected.

5. When adding Connor Backup’s it’s necessary to connect both the dual floppy and Backup to the first connector (straight wire) -- this may require moving one of the “straight” connectors to reach, or fit the kind of connector. There is no problem if a Connors backup is used in conjunction with a single floppy.

6. Colorado backup tape drives insert their own cable ahead of the floppy cable and use an edge connector on their drive. Edge connectors are going out of favor as they add to the length of the device.

So what’s new in I/O (Input/Output) card? The standard IBM compatible card has:

I/O type	motherboard	prior std	new option	remarks
Serial	ISA	9,600 baud	fast, 14,400 baud	for external modems
Parallel	ISA		fast, two way	for printers & backups
Floppy	ISA	see above		2 floppies, 1 backup
IDE IDE EIDE	ISA (1) ISA+VLB (2) ISA & VLB (3) (CD-ROM)	2 hard drives	1-4 hard drives 1-2 hard drives 1-2 hard drives	special software, cache memory Special software, speed setable ISA & VLB are independent

ISA= standard 16 bit bus. VLB= extra 16 bit local bus. 16+16=32 bit operation.

(1) Cost $15 to $25, ISA interface for (2) serial + (1) par + (1) game + (2) floppy + (2) IDE

(2) Cost $135, plus cost of cache RAM, cache memory stores write data via ISA (16 bits) and VLB (16 bits) for 32bit mode operation. Works fine, costs too much.

(3) Enhanced IDE; cost $70, no cache required. Operates 16 bit ISA and VLB bus independently to 16 bit drives, data rate adjustable to max of drive. The new EIDE port will accommodate CD-ROM in lieu of one of the hard drives, but must use a software driver provided by CD-ROM supplier.

DOS, and IBM compatible BIOS, only permitted 2 hard drives. The above EIDE cards come with software to by-pass DOS & BIOS so the system will operate up to four hard drives, or three plus a CD-ROM. The Western Digital 1,083 meg hard drive is currently the best buy, and come with its own software for “enhanced IDE” interface and 32 bit operation.

Hard drives are down in price, down in envelope size, up in megabyte size with increased speed. Photo’s and multi-media requires more memory.

Pentiums and the PCI bus: The new Pentium chip mother boards use PCI (32 bit) cards, however few PCI cards are presently on the market. There is motherboard our for a 486DX2-100 CPU equipped with PCI, ISA & VLB bus’s. The price for CPU’s makes a jump from $229 for a 486DX2-66 to $550 for a Pentium or 486DX2-100. I decided to wait till the price comes down.

So what’s in the Future: Intel and Motorola are each investing over 2 billion dollars in new semiconductor plants:

The semiconductor industry is going to a new 12” silicon wafers standard vs the present 8” standard. 12” wafers have 2 1/4 more useable area than 8” wafers -- both batch process, so the gain potential is great. However there are problems, 12” wafer stacks become quite heavy; too heavy for present automated handling, these are stacks of glass.

The industry is also moving to ever closer densities, they are moving to .25 micron. A micron is one millionth 1/1,000,000 of a meter. Or 1/1,0000 of a centimeter or 2.54/10000 of an inch. Thus .25 microns is (.25*2.54)/10000= .0000635 inches. As I recall the diameter of a human hair is about .002 inches; so this is indeed spliting hairs. Not too long ago they were at 2 micorn, then 1, then .5. How small is dependant on how accurately they can step photo immages from digital data. About 200 million was spent on the prior stepping equipment improvement. Not every company can commit that kind of money to develope a new machine. It’s estimated to require 120,000 16” wafers just to check out the machines. The industry is shooting for over 10 million transistors per chip in the next iteration. This is a very large jump and will have a huge impact on future computers and which companies survive.

Such capacity on a chip will permit companies like Intel and Motorola to incorporate more and more peripheral functions into the processor chip, which up till now has been on the mother board or on cards.

Things that do not change are the beauty; of sounds, sights and togetherness of Christmas. Friends only grow more beautiful with time.

Merry Christmas to All

Darrell & Mary Landau