Comments on: TRSDOS 2.3 Decoded and Other Mysteries http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/ TRS-80.org is a source for information about the Radio Shack TRS-80 line of computers, hardware, and software, with articles, interviews, and more! Sat, 21 Jan 2012 03:40:25 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Mark McDougall http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/comment-page-1/#comment-38645 Mark McDougall Mon, 19 Sep 2011 13:32:30 +0000 http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/#comment-38645 @Bill - A very interesting read - I love reading about the stories behind the companies that, as a kid, I saw advertising in the TRS-80 magazines! I've managed to hold onto three of the 'Other Mysteries' books (not this one unfortunately) and won't be letting them go anytime soon. On a totally unrelated note; my wife and I visited Joshua Tree in 2009 from Australia and loved it (it was actually my 2nd visit). Stayed at the High Desert Motel which no doubt you'd know. Hidden Valley Trail was the highlight for me. We're huge fans of the US national parks! I think you're lucky to live there! @Bill – A very interesting read – I love reading about the stories behind the companies that, as a kid, I saw advertising in the TRS-80 magazines! I’ve managed to hold onto three of the ‘Other Mysteries’ books (not this one unfortunately) and won’t be letting them go anytime soon.

On a totally unrelated note; my wife and I visited Joshua Tree in 2009 from Australia and loved it (it was actually my 2nd visit). Stayed at the High Desert Motel which no doubt you’d know. Hidden Valley Trail was the highlight for me. We’re huge fans of the US national parks! I think you’re lucky to live there!

]]> By: Bill Ford http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/comment-page-1/#comment-38579 Bill Ford Sat, 17 Sep 2011 18:05:39 +0000 http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/#comment-38579 How interesting!! After all these years I stumble onto this web site and see many of the things I was directly involved with... particularly the "TRS-80" and "Other Mysteries" series as I was the advertising and publications director with IJG, Inc., the publisher of the series. We operated out of the entire second floor of the Foothill Independent Bank building in Upland Calif. "IJG" actually stands for International Jewlery Guild as Elton Krug ((owner -ChinoHills CA) was a certified gem appraiser (GIA) and owned the jewlery store named "The Vault" in Upland. Our very first "programming" project was a graphic oriented "diamond appraisal" program that would print out an appraiser's identification and diagram of the stone... producing an official GIA Certified Appraisal document and that program was done on a "TI-59" calculator with printer attached. Harv Pennington (deceased) and I went to a Chino RS "01" store to look at the alleged "whiz-bang" TRS-80 that had all of 4k stuffed in the keyboard enclosure and was "booted up" using RS cassette tape and an RCA b/w monitor. A few days later we purchased the "one" the store had on display -- I cannot remember the actual cost now that my RAM is 74 years old, but it was in the low thousands by the time we collected numerous accessories and "software". Harv spend 28 hours a day delving into how the thing worked and wrote a new diamond appraisal program -- on cassette tape!! Soon after selling several "appraisal systems" to certain jewlery appraisers, Harv discovered this thing called a "disk drive" -- and other mysteries which launched collaberating with Randy Cook and others... the rest is pretty much history. Harv Pennington did all the graphics in the numerous publications, mostly in the form of creative cartoons as he was a former employee as a professional cartoonist for Hana Barbara. Harv was also a private pilot and loved to do aerobatics in a Citabria in which I took a back seat on several "unwind" and sometimes scary flights. The "Wizard", as Harv called it, cartoon became an icon in itself. BASIC decoded. One of the books published actually "decoded" the stuff and was printed in such a manner that the reader could print out the "code" on a dotmatrix, then tear out the book pages which would exactly align the "comments" to the lines of code. That way, we didn't actually "publish" the code, just the comments. When the MX-80 printer came into existance, we thought we were in 7th heaven buying them in bulk and reselling from our Upland location. Harv Pennington discovered how to cleverly rewind the ribbons in such a manner that would use the "upper" half of the ribbon that still contained enough ink for in-house printing needs. We also had a heavy hand in the development of Apparat's NEWDOS, which eventually became another "and other mysteries" book. Elton (Al) Krug and I and a few other former IJG folks and authors still communicate mostly via email. This web site here will be well received by all as it is certain to evoke fond memories from nearly 35 years ago. KUDOS on this historic compilation. Bill Ford Joshua Tree California 40 miles north of Palm Springs in the Mojave Desert. How interesting!!
After all these years I stumble onto this web site and see many of the things I was directly involved with… particularly the “TRS-80″ and “Other Mysteries” series as I was the advertising and publications director with IJG, Inc., the publisher of the series. We operated out of the entire second floor of the Foothill Independent Bank building in Upland Calif. “IJG” actually stands for International Jewlery Guild as Elton Krug ((owner -ChinoHills CA) was a certified gem appraiser (GIA) and owned the jewlery store named “The Vault” in Upland.

Our very first “programming” project was a graphic oriented “diamond appraisal” program that would print out an appraiser’s identification and diagram of the stone… producing an official GIA Certified Appraisal document and that program was done on a “TI-59″ calculator with printer attached. Harv Pennington (deceased) and I went to a Chino RS “01″ store to look at the alleged “whiz-bang” TRS-80 that had all of 4k stuffed in the keyboard enclosure and was “booted up” using RS cassette tape and an RCA b/w monitor. A few days later we purchased the “one” the store had on display — I cannot remember the actual cost now that my RAM is 74 years old, but it was in the low thousands by the time we collected numerous accessories and “software”. Harv spend 28 hours a day delving into how the thing worked and wrote a new diamond appraisal program — on cassette tape!! Soon after selling several “appraisal systems” to certain jewlery appraisers, Harv discovered this thing called a “disk drive” — and other mysteries which launched collaberating with Randy Cook and others… the rest is pretty much history.

Harv Pennington did all the graphics in the numerous publications, mostly in the form of creative cartoons as he was a former employee as a professional cartoonist for Hana Barbara. Harv was also a private pilot and loved to do aerobatics in a Citabria in which I took a back seat on several “unwind” and sometimes scary flights. The “Wizard”, as Harv called it, cartoon became an icon in itself.

BASIC decoded. One of the books published actually “decoded” the stuff and was printed in such a manner that the reader could print out the “code” on a dotmatrix, then tear out the book pages which would exactly align the “comments” to the lines of code. That way, we didn’t actually “publish” the code, just the comments.

When the MX-80 printer came into existance, we thought we were in 7th heaven buying them in bulk and reselling from our Upland location. Harv Pennington discovered how to cleverly rewind the ribbons in such a manner that would use the “upper” half of the ribbon that still contained enough ink for in-house printing needs.

We also had a heavy hand in the development of Apparat’s NEWDOS, which eventually became another “and other mysteries” book.

Elton (Al) Krug and I and a few other former IJG folks and authors still communicate mostly via email. This web site here will be well received by all as it is certain to evoke fond memories from nearly 35 years ago. KUDOS on this historic compilation.

Bill Ford
Joshua Tree California 40 miles north of Palm Springs in the Mojave Desert.

]]> By: David Sutherland http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/comment-page-1/#comment-4965 David Sutherland Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:08:04 +0000 http://www.trs-80.org/trsdos23-decoded/#comment-4965 The "Authorized" comment reminds me of this Bill Gates interview from Dennis Báthory-Kitsz which I've felt hasn't gotten the attention in might have provoked if more widely heard: http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/01/20/1316236&mode=thread the full audio which is really the more interesting way to hear it is now offline. Fortunately because of archive.org you can still get it: http://web.archive.org/web/20051026070341/http://199.34.53.66/geeks/gates.mp3 Download and start listening around 27m15s to hear Gates talk about Harv Pennington's Microsoft Basic Decoded and Other Mysteries book. The “Authorized” comment reminds me of this Bill Gates interview from Dennis Báthory-Kitsz which I’ve felt hasn’t gotten the attention in might have provoked if more widely heard:

http://features.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=00/01/20/1316236&mode=thread

the full audio which is really the more interesting way to hear it is now offline. Fortunately because of archive.org you can still get it:
http://web.archive.org/web/20051026070341/http://199.34.53.66/geeks/gates.mp3

Download and start listening around 27m15s to hear Gates talk about Harv Pennington’s Microsoft Basic Decoded and Other Mysteries book.

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