Prototype? Next BW Monitor Shades -Misc.

Hello,
I'm new here to this group:  what brings me to these forums is actually the task of organizing my basement.

I had forgotten that I had a few odds and ends of the NeXT world, including 2 monitor glare shades (have a electrostatic ground) for the original B/W monitors, a color monitor with a bright red "Prototype" sticker on the back (uses the bnc style connectors instead of the NeXT cable) a original NeXT cube with a Dimension board - I believe was used as the company's demo file/mail server, and a regular cube that was likely used as a workstation / tester. Also have a color and b/w printer, manuals, some alpha / beta stuff and odds and ends.  Any NeXT people that could make use of the equipment?  Museum potential?

I'll take it. :)

Well, I supose that could be an option...  but..  :wink:

I'm hoping to find more info on these - I haven't seen many of them around, and while I'm sure the right person could make use of the equipment - I just dread the point of  digging through all the stuff to get to them..

I purchased them from a NeXT company person in the late '90's - I was using one of them as a development box for a project I was working on, and then we moved over to the Intel platform.

I really don't even know what all I have quite yet - some of it was never opened as we didn't have a use for it -  so as the list unfolds..

Have a look around the NeXT file archive.  There's quite a bit of information on NeXT hardware and software.

http://www.nextcomputers.org/NeXTfiles/

if you're getting rid of it, i'd like atleast some of the stuff.

I would be happy too, to get some piece ...  :lol:

The back of the Color Monitor - note the BNC connectors for connection to the Color board - the other half of the cable has the normal NeXT connector.


The ground cable to the glare guard - the guard attaches to the monitor with velcro

I'll place some more photos up later - these were some quick ones taken last night.. and I think I'll make them a little smaller   :wink:

-Jason

Wow!
Look at that serial number!

This calls for photos. Lots and lots of photos. This is getting really interesting.
Where is this? California?

I was afraid of that..  :wink:  allright, I'll dig some more to free the montor and assorted stuff -I'm really not kidding there - I should have them up on Sat.. Have to work on Fri..

Jason

I'm interested too. Everybody would be here :wink:
Especially for alpha / beta stuff.
And of course the NEXTcubes...

Let's wait...

I'm personally more interested in hardware than software

The white marks are light paint..

These are in Colorado - A couple of the engineers decided to work for Hewlett Packard..

Oh wow. That cd is eye candy.

Most of the software is on MO, and there are oodles of them. It'll take a bit, but I'll keep wading through the stuff. I want to take a look at the cubes myself - been a while... I believe I have 3 cubes, at least 2 stations and assorted books and manuals (those are all standard production items) I do remember one other tidbit- I was told the person who had these originally for sale also had a Gray Mac that was running Next Step.. Haven't seen that around yet..

By the way, for those who don't know, Release 3.0 (not 3.1, 3.2, or 3.3) had a copy of Sybase with it. Not sure if it was on the Developer or User disc, though.

Eric

Quote from: "JasonFC"Most of the software is on MO, and there are oodles of them. It'll take a bit, but I'll keep wading through the stuff. I want to take a look at the cubes myself - been a while... I believe I have 3 cubes, at least 2 stations and assorted books and manuals (those are all standard production items) I do remember one other tidbit- I was told the person who had these originally for sale also had a Gray Mac that was running Next Step.. Haven't seen that around yet..

This sounds really interesting, especially the thing about three cubes and MO disks. I'm still looking for my first cube. :roll:
A gray mac? Are you positive it was a mac?

This one was marked in pen "Frame Maker Pre Release ver 2", and had another sticker at one time above it.


Anybody know what Warp 4.3 was?


This is a spare board - the chip seems to be marked differently than norm


That board's serial number

That's about all I can get too for now - serious entropy has prevented further excavation at this time!

-Jason

Quite positive actually - I did actually see the thing running back in the '90's during a visit.  Basicly what appeared to be 040 Mac (with the screen and cpu integrated together) but painted gray - showed the usual NeXT interface goodies. Not shure how well it ran, mind you, as I never had a chance to play with it, but it's probably around somewhere.

--Jason

I am too looking for my first cube...  I would pay for it...

EDIT:

Specifically, I;m interested in the ND cube and the color printer...

WOW!

That's one basement I wouldn't mind helping to "clean up"...!

I am 100% interested in ALL your MO disks and anything else related to the Magneto optical drive.
I would also be interested in getting a cube as well but it can be a low spec (I'm not good enough to own a dimension board...yet. :wink:)
Also, are my eyes playing tricks or do I also see some Canon MO disks too?

Quote from: "JasonFC"
Anybody know what Warp 4.3 was?

That is a good question.

It couldn't have been a secret 68k port of OS/2 Warp, as that wasn't until 1994ish.

Couldn't have been a codename for a 4.3 release of OpenStep, again because of the date.

Anyone have any clue?

I see some Rhapsody DR disks and such ...   :D

Amazing collection of stuff you have there JasonFC.

With all that stuff. You HAVE to have NeXTSTEP 4.0 Beta somewhere.  Look NOW!!! No just kidding, but seriously, I have been looking for that release FOREVER!

Alright started going through some of the software - there are quite a few 'interesting apps' here. Wondering if anyone from NeXT on the board?

Found one app I'm sure they would remember - from a Halloween party invite. As it starts there are a bunch of line dancing skeletons to a MC Hammer ditty. Then a map pops up with the sketons leading to the location. Pretty cool. I'm guessing early 90's here...

Looks like someone  :wink:  really liked Star Wars there..


-J

Quote from: "pergamon"Anyone have any clue?

I can't imagine NeXT having reached version 4.3 of anything at that date so I suspect it comes from outside.  I'm guessing but the most obvious source would be BSD.

Quote from: "cubist"

Quote from: "pergamon"Anyone have any clue?

I can't imagine NeXT having reached version 4.3 of anything at that date so I suspect it comes from outside.  I'm guessing but the most obvious source would be BSD.

Yeah, now that I think about it, that makes a lot of sense. After all, NeXTstep was based on BSD, and it may have originally been based on 4.2 and then updated to 4.3. Except, what was the "Warp" for? Was it an optimized build?

Eric

I'm a bit late getting into this thread...

Mac running nextstep? I want it if you find it! ;)

seriously :D

Quote from: "JasonFC"Alright started going through some of the software - there are quite a few 'interesting apps' here. Wondering if anyone from NeXT on the board?

Found one app I'm sure they would remember - from a Halloween party invite. As it starts there are a bunch of line dancing skeletons to a MC Hammer ditty. Then a map pops up with the sketons leading to the location. Pretty cool. I'm guessing early 90's here...

Looks like someone  :wink:  really liked Star Wars there..


-J

These scream "Pop me in and read me"  :lol:
It sounds like the NeXT offices were pretty sane. I don't even want to think about what the cubicles were like.

Any new info?

Allright, I haven't fallen off the face of the earth yet, just digged in deeper.. found about 15 more MO's and related items- including a regular prod color station. I need to actually look at the MOs and such to see what's on them. Which in turn means I have to fully unearth a cube, reset the root pw and see what's happening.

I'm hoping to make some posts this weekend...

--J

Cross your fingers and hope the MO drive still works.
You better test it by putting a disk in that does not look important just in case the drive decides to eat a disk.

Are you still there?
We don't want to lose contact with you.
You have some seriously interesting stuff there.

Hello?
We're still interested!
You have stuff we don't want to see lost.

I'm still very interested in purchasing all that software (and all your MO media) from you as well.

Quote from: "pentium"

Quote from: "JasonFC"Alright started going through some of the software - there are quite a few 'interesting apps' here. Wondering if anyone from NeXT on the board?

Found one app I'm sure they would remember - from a Halloween party invite. As it starts there are a bunch of line dancing skeletons to a MC Hammer ditty. Then a map pops up with the sketons leading to the location. Pretty cool. I'm guessing early 90's here...

Looks like someone  :wink:  really liked Star Wars there..


-J

These scream "Pop me in and read me"  :lol:
It sounds like the NeXT offices were pretty sane. I don't even want to think about what the cubicles were like.

Work at NeXT was very plush. Every thing was Hermann Miller Furniture.

Italian Leather couches that are at Apple/PIXAR were at NeXT.

The entire two buildings were a dream to work in.

The HVAC system cost him around $3-$4 million at the time and one of it's many benefits besides keeping labs pristinely cool and the cubicles just cool enough to keep you from dozing off, was the filtration system was state of the art.

If your co-worker [I had one] thought it was cool to take their socks off you couldn't smell his feet, even just one cubicle removed.

The same for food. You had to be in someone's cubicle to know what the hell they were eating.

On the flipside, at Cupertino you could smell their BO across the room and the steamed eggs from the central cafe when they walked through the door, anywhere in the room.

The entire NeXT experience was 5 star.

Apple Engineers durin the merger were stunned, annoyed and hopeful that the plush amenities in the Kitchen would have similar changes at Apple.

I truly am glad the merger happened yet saddened that it has taken nearly ten years to even get to a point where we might be starting where we wanted Apple to go with NeXT technologies and style.

YES FOLKS: NeXT Style most certainly trumped Apple style.

Quote from: "mdriftmeyer"
YES FOLKS: NeXT Style most certainly trumped Apple style.

The stylish, well-stocked (free) bar didn't hurt either, eh?  I once had the pleasure of a beer and a conversation with Rich Page and some other NeXT folks in that setting.

BTW, if the color display shown is one of the early units, it may be a Sony 16" yes, 16" - not 17") unit.  We saw one of the those units "on tour" with a development ND board (with engineering change-order wires sticking out everywhere) running in an early model cube.

Earth to JasonFC.

I'm still VERY interested in all your NeXT software, MO cartridges and documentation.

I think we lost Jason.  :cry:

All right - All right !- I admit it I've been bad on the list. Shortly after my last post things like work, travel (for work, just got back yesterday) and year end items took precedence. (That's how my basement ended up in this mess in the first place, from last year) Gotta' love entropy.

Anyway, yes I would like to make some room downstairs and yes, I would like to find good homes for the cubes / items to live. Ideally I'd like to find a museum or similar for these, but I know that isn't always possible - and for some of this, probably not even feasible. I'm also trying to find a reasonable value - I need more research in that area - I'm not looking to make a lot off of these- its just the items are very interesting historically - hence the thoughts of someplace where they could be shown or used for that purpose.

I haven't had a whole lot of time since the last post but after a little more looking - I it appears I MAY  have an old hd from one of NeXT's mail servers (very unsure here - old SCSI maxtor drive) and I may have found Steve's (electronic items) presentation from a NeXT Expo. I have found some documentation from procuring (or NeXT's trying to) a (new?) building location, with a building photo..

thank Pentium for sending the email and getting me back here - (and continuing through this) - my additional motivation: I have to get this cleaned up before I find a serious girlfirend!

- Jason

Yeah, sorry about me invading your inbox but I hate it when people show off cool stuff and then just vanish. It's a bit of a pet peeve.
As for a museum and archive, Nitro, me and the other members are always willing to archive any kind of NeXT materials and for the hardware it's the exact same thing but don't forget that you could just set up a display case at your facility of employment  :wink: . I also understand why you don't want to distribute these materials everywhere for rock bottom prices and that is totally fine but it is still highly recommended that anything that you have be backed up as soon as possible.

JasonFC,
I am still looking for my first NeXTcube.  I am planning on eventually donating my stuff to a museum or starting my own (if the funds arrive  :lol: ).  Just know that it would be going to a good home!

No probs on the email - kudos for the effort on finding ;)

Yes -
this stuff should be backed up on something -  when I lost a hard disk drive that had some really good stuff on it back in '97 or so, that was the start of the mothball program  - to stop using before anything else breaks - I then started working with the white hardware..

-ahh memories..  

-- J

@ krfkeith:
Don't forget that you can delete multiple posts. I do it all the time.  :P

@ JasonFC:
Well if you really don't want to ship the stuff to some random corner of the earth, don't forget that Nitro lives in Strasburg and if all this NeXT gear is in Colorado (you hinted to it all being there, right?) he is one of the most local members (that I know of) and he might be able to help you with a backup.
Still, it would be a crime if this stuff was accidentally thrown away and I'm willing to help you out with cleaning your basement.
When it comes to archiving software, I always have room.

I'd certainly be interested in backing up/buying and MO media. I have a couple of working drives... I've been hammering on one all week and it's still going strong. Also, any older HDDs...

I still need an MO drive and a cube...

Yep- I'm in Fort Collins CO
If Nitro is really up for some / all of this - send me a message offboard and we'll see if we can at least get some of this backed up. Been practicing the tar skills lately? ;)
No worries about this getting thrown out. Have a lot of other things that need to get cleaned / moved before we can reach that stuff....
-J

Quote from: "JasonFC"Yep- I'm in Fort Collins CO
If Nitro is really up for some / all of this - send me a message offboard and we'll see if we can at least get some of this backed up. Been practicing the tar skills lately? ;)
No worries about this getting thrown out. Have a lot of other things that need to get cleaned / moved before we can reach that stuff....
-J

You might have to PM nitro regarding backups then and don't forget that gtnicol and me have also offered to do a backup and a few others (including me) have offered to downright purchase the stuff from you.

Well, as far as buying stuff, I would be interested in the NeXTcube Turbo 040 Motherboard, a NextDimension board, and an 030 cube with MO drive. (you can have an 030 and 040 in the same case right?) Obviously any other stuff like the color printer would be nice (especially that gray mac!).  Plus, I would really like an official next cd-rom (doesn't have to work). Oh, and don't forget the B&w monitor! I also would need peripherals.

Quote from: "krfkeith"Well, as far as buying stuff, I would be interested in the NeXTcube Turbo 040 Motherboard, a NextDimension board, and an 030 cube with MO drive. (you can have an 030 and 040 in the same case right?) Obviously any other stuff like the color printer would be nice (especially that gray mac!).  Plus, I would really like an official next cd-rom (doesn't have to work). Oh, and don't forget the B&w monitor! I also would need peripherals.

I'm not shooting you down but Jason has not yet even said he wanted to sell the stuff and looking on how he seems to have some really odd stuff I figure the cube will also be unique in some way.
I won't speak for him but I have a feeling that if he does want to sell anything he will be selling everything at collector prices (hey, were you not interested in an Octane? :wink: )

This is the first I'm catching this thread... it's like getting really into a movie or show and seeing those dreaded words "To Be Continued...".  I'm on edge to hear what's on some of those MO's.  What an amazing collection and thanks for sharing it with us!  Wow... just so cool man.

Quote from: "dravier"This is the first I'm catching this thread... it's like getting really into a movie or show and seeing those dreaded words "To Be Continued...".  I'm on edge to hear what's on some of those MO's.  What an amazing collection and thanks for sharing it with us!  Wow... just so cool man.

Same. By the sounds of it those disks contain some pretty interesting stuff.

Allright - I admit it I've been pretty bad about keeping every one up to speed on things here - my only defense is that I just have not had the time here. My business has me traveling about 95% of the time and when I get home the last thing I want to do is move computer stuff.
So in looking to make this as easy as possible, I'll put this out there - if anyone is interested, I'll let them have the whole lot for $4500. - I'd prefer a local pickup just because shipping all of this would be no small feat.

What would be included:
1 Color Cube w/proto Mot Chip and w/ proto monitor (w Working MO) and BW monitor
1 Reg Cube / bw monitor
1 Color Printer - SCSI
1 BW Printer
1 NeXT Station W/ Monitor
2 BW NeXT Prototype Glare Guards
1 Color NeXT Station w/Monitor (I believe, need to find it)
Misc Spare Parts / memory, SCSI drives etc
1 CDRom Drive
1 Floppy Drive
1 Spare MO Drive (unknown Condition)
Lots of books
Lots of manuals
Lots of MO's CDs OS's, Dev tools and whatever
Whatever is found relating to the above in the meantime -

Really, the only thing I would like to do is keep a copy of one of the MO's and that's about it.

They are welcome to come over and take a look through the equipment and ensure they feel it matches what they want, and feel this is a good value. If there are specific questions feel free to contact me offline and we'll try to make arrangements. I won't be around this weekend, but will be back on Monday.

I feel bad it has come down to this, but some progress, err room, has to be made here..

Best Regards - Jason

*whistles*
The only thing that could top that is a nitro board.