Dear Wendy,
Yes, it is I.
You see, while Cliff and I were still living in the abandoned
bar I found a bunch of software in a Dumpster, including "Beyond
Word Writer." Cliff took the games to a consignment second-hand
software shop. But I squirreled away the word processor—you
know, just in case.
About the same time, in another Dumpster, I found a PC/AT
keyboard, still in its box. I did not know what kind of keyboard it
was and I asked around. I hoped to sell it. Nick Barbaro, the
publisher of the The Austin Chronicle, told me it
was some kind of PC keyboard and that he would have bought it from
me a day or two earlier. They had just got a couple of new
keyboards. He said they went through keyboards fairly quickly and
he would keep me in mind when the next one broke down.
Cliff took it around to the pawn shops but he could not get
anything for it. He ended up leaving it at his brother's. After a
while I forgot about it, or when I thought of it I assumed his
brother had sold it.
Shortly after we moved into this apartment, Cliff found a
Mannesmann Tally 180 printer in an alley, apparently left for the
garbage collectors. I stashed it in our storage closet where it was
always in the way. Thinking it could not possibly be
operational—-and that I could only ever afford a little
dedicated word processor—-I almost threw it out several
times.
Then just before Christmas I found a computer in a Dumpster. The
monitor was loose, just lying on the bottom of the Dumpster. The
keyboard was in a box. There was a rectangular thing wrapped in
brown paper which proved to be the central processor.
And that was all that was in the Dumpster. The Dumpster had been
emptied that morning. Had the stuff been thrown out a little
earlier it would have been on its way to the landfill.
I suspected it worked. After all, I did not think the processor
would be so carefully wrapped in brown paper nor that the keyboard
would have been returned to the box if they had all gone bad at
once. No, I thought, they were packed up for shipping and whoever
had received them had not wanted them. For a similar reason I
discarded the idea that they were stolen. The central processor was
shaped enough like a VCR that a thief would have torn open the
paper to see what it was. And of course a thief would not have
wrapped up his booty if he had to ditch it.
During the floods I had found a video player in about a foot of
water in the bottom of another Dumpster. It was very old and I
guessed it had once been a rental item at a video store. Once it
was dried out it worked for about a day. Then it would no longer
track properly although it would produce crisp still pictures.
Since the video player had a video-out port I tried the monitor
on it. Sure enough, the monitor worked. It is a green monochrome. I
was so encourage that I opened up the video player and found the
internal adjustments on it and got it working.
The central processor had absolutely no markings. I opened the
hood and discovered various brand names on the disk drives and
chips and power supply, but nothing to indicate what the machine as
whole was supposed to be. The disc drives had cardboard inserts in
them and the inserts bore several Chinese characters—-I am
almost sure they were Chinese and not Japanese.
My guess was that the machine was a Taiwanese version of
whatever it was or possibly a pirate edition. My surmise is that it
was sent from Taiwan to a student—the Dumpster I found it in
serves one of several apartments in a Taiwanese student colony. The
student had got a better computer by the time this one arrived from
home, and he or she chucked this one out. Or possibly the student
had started to wrap this computer to ship it home and found the
shipping impractical for some reason. I cannot think of any other
hypothesis that fits the facts.
I could not get power to the central processor because it was
missing its power cord. Cliff called his brother who promised to
come over with everything necessary to make the machine work. But
he did not.
After several days I went to Radio Shack and found the necessary
cord. That was $5.
When the central processor came up it claimed to be an IBM
PC/XT. It prompted me for a disc, but I did not have a system disc.
After a while the disc prompt went away and IBM BASIC came up. I
played with the BASIC long enough to convince myself that it was in
working order. But the keyboard was hopeless. The spacebar did not
work as often as not.
After several more days of pleading, Cliff's brother arrived. He
brought a cord which was just as well; I needed one of the same
kind to put power to the printer.
He had brought some software, but it all seemed to be predicated
on the existence of a hard disc. He hacked around for a while,
hanging the machine up several times and causing me to fear there
was a hardware problem. But at last I had a DOS on floppy disc and
after that there were no more hang-ups.
As it turned out, he had not disposed of the keyboard I had
found. It worked just fine.
He left. I installed Beyond Word Writer and, of course, it
worked, at least as well as it was supposed to, I think.
I cannot get all of it into the machine at once since I lack a
hard disc. But what I can get into the machine is thrilling.
From the software I found in the Dumpster I had supply of odd
game discs. Once I satisfied myself that they were otherwise
useless I formatted them. I began working with the ones that had no
bad tracks.
Cliff's brother gave me DOS late Friday night. By Sunday morning
I was sufficiently confident of the word processor that I bought a
couple of boxes of discs at the drugstore. Total cash investment so
far: $24.
Monday and Tuesday I got two month's work done. That is I had
keyed on discs what would have taken me two months to type. But
without the printer I was not sure that I was really accomplishing
anything. The printer took power well enough and seemed to advance
the paper properly when I pushed the line-feed and the form-feed
buttons. For some reason nothing happened when I pressed the test
button.
I did not have the cable to attach the printer to the PC. I knew
that even if the printer did work it might not be feasible to
interface it with the PC.
I called one computer shop. I told them the model number of the
printer. They said it would be necessary to have a cable custom
built. The parts would not cost much but the labor would run into
some money. I suppose I seemed fairly gullible because I did not
quite know what to call the parallel port on the PC.
Cliff called the consignment software shop where he had sold the
games. They sell some used hardware too. He was told they had some
nice printers for under $80.
I gave up on the idea of making the Mannesmann printer work. I
decided to go to the shop and buy one of their used printers. I was
somewhat disappointed. By that time I was thinking, in light of my
now being a recognized authority on Dumpster diving, that it would
be neat to have a whole system garnered from Dumpsters as nearly as
possible.
When I got to the software shop I was told that they did not in
fact have any printers for sale. They had a couple that were still
being evaluated. These would be put up for sale in a day or two if
they proved to work. I was very disappointed.
But I looked around the shop. I found they had for sale a new
printer cable. The package said simply: parallel printer cable. The
connections looked as if they would fit my machines. I had been
told I needed a custom cable, but the cable off the shelf was only
$13. I got a used software package called "Learn to use DOS," too.
Total investment so far: $51.
I went to the University Co-op, a bookstore, to buy some
computer paper. Among the books on the remaindered table was one on
peripheral devices for the PC. Everything on the table was supposed
to be $1.99, but this volume alone did not have the sale tag on it.
Rather than hassle at the check-out counter I looked up the
Mannesmann printer as I stood there. Sure enough, the manual said
nothing about custom cables. It said most users can just plug in
and go.
I was encouraged enough to buy 200 sheets of computer paper for
$5, but not so encouraged as to buy 1000 sheets for $13. They had
surge protectors on sale for $13. I believe I have read that surge
protectors are not all they claim to be, but I was running short of
electric outlets at my desk so I sprang for it.
Total spent thus far: $69.
Needless to say, the printer worked. Its ribbon was beyond help.
After calling around I found a shop that carried the ribbons. They
only had two in stock and they were so out of the way that I bought
both of the ribbons.
Altogether: $98.
Now I suppose I will have to buy another printer.
The word processor says it is sending near-letter-quality to the
printer, but what you see is what comes out. Also I have not yet
managed to get the printer to underscore and I think this is not
the fault of the word processor.
What do you think?
I am also enclosing a disc copy of this letter. Please let me
know if you can read it and if so whether it is properly
prepared.
My check cashing service decided not cash my checks any more. No
change of policy, they said. They denied having ever cashed any
checks for me before. So I have not yet cashed the check for the
phlebitis piece. Hope this does not screw up your accounting
system.
They way things have worked out with the computer has made it
very difficult for me to be quite so skeptical of Providence as I
would like to be.
Warm regards,
01-09-92
PS: Fly in the ointment: the word processor seems to insert page
breaks willy-nilly in a document of any length. This could prove
troublesome. And the date and time seem to go crazy when called
upon to advance themselves past midnight. That seems not so
bad.
