Tf we bid on that DC Zipdrive, would it do any good.

Anyways, over at the DCEmu fourms there's alot of talk about the prototype ZipDrive. Many believe that its purchase could "better" the homebrew scene for DC if the right people got there hands to this.

Any merit to this claim?

Would it be worth taking a stab at a community bid for this thing?

I'm not saying this should be a 0th bit thing. But, perhaps a thing to suggest to the DCEmu fourms.

 

Make a homebrew zip drive?

 

My opinion is that a community bid for a hardware item is quite silly.

 

Yeah, I'd agree. And I think the person that obtains it will surprised by how useless it turns out to be.

I'm for buying the BuyAtari's DC protos next (Worms Pinball and the other one).

 

Well, unless we set up a company in which we are all share-holders. Thus we will all have an equitable interest in everything acquired.

The Company as a legal entity will "own" anything bought through us, the share-holders. The "directors" will hold the items on trust for everyone to benefit from the equitable title. However, on resale at a higher price for example, everyone will be entitled to a proportional share to that which he invested.

On the other hand, I m not sure most users would appreciate the corporate structure of owning property - besides, we would need a legitimate common cause with a view to making profit if a company is to be set-up


Alternatively, we could set up a "club". This , legally speaking, resembles a company, has shareholders, but does not aim at making a profit. Relations between members are also more ammicable and dealings are more open - plus , no need to disclose much information to the governing authorities.

 

Yes, just get 1000 people to donate a tenner and we can all have custody of the Zip drive once a week every 20 years.

 

no one said anything about time-sharing buddy :110: I said equitable benefit, ie any use of it (even admiration!) flows towards you, the shareholder, practically allowing you to brag as such:

"well, I own the DC Zip drive" (along with a few hundred others, but why mention that? )

Excuse my legal sense of humour

 

The point is... is that would this hardware do anything.

I mean everyone keeps going on about this as some homebrewers dream and obviously this will lead to talk of trying to get it in the hands of the right person.

But, is there a right person. Could anyone speculate on why this device is so important other then for simply being a collectors item.

If it won't do anything for the homebrew scene then obviously there's no point.

 

In my view the device is not a homebrewer's dream - in the sense of playing backups at least.

With a proper boot-disk however (to mount the drive), the serial interface could be used as a local saving space for Linux for example, or seen as a drive to launch applications from, including emulators.

Nevertheless, they guy is selling just an electrically functional device ( I guess, the wording isn't very clear)- no mention of any working PCB inside or any logical parts.


I think someone should ask him a question on this subject before the item is sold.

In the case that the device does enclose functional hardware capable to communicate subject to the proper software, then I think it would be worth a look.

However, the issue remains:

It's a single prototype unit. Even if it was able to function I doubt that it could be replicated (all circuitry considered), hence it would be useless to all but the owner of the drive.

 

So it'll be a bit like those boiler shares, that you can buy and own part of a company but you can't sell them (unless the company lets you and there er won't) and ultimately is worthless. Be better to spend the money on a bottle of decent wine, you might get some tangible benefit from it. A piece of hardware where nothing exists on it and it's probably unlikely that anything will make use of it, is pretty pointless. One person owning it or people buying it to put in a museum would be more use but neither are likely to happen.

 

Well , if you theoretically had a beneficial interest in the Zip drive , and it was displayed in some museum, you d be entitled to the financial benefit that flows from the sold museum tickets to the proportion of your input :thumbsup:

PS: realistically, this (a museum) is not currently possible, due to the legality issues concerning unreleased hardware and software in relation to their original copyright holders.

 

The value of your investment may go down as well as being near non existant to make no odds.

I still think that buying a bottle of wine is better.

 

it would be cheaper for you to buy cannabis than a bottle of wine, considering the cost/intoxication ratio, Sir. :icon_bigg

 

Cannabis and Wine are like masterbation and sex. One is a quick fix, makes your breath funny and makes you want to eat sugary foods where the other is a long process where you enjoy it, savouring the taste with a good meal and women before retiring to bed.

 

Firstly, masturbation can often end up being more fun than many sexual encounters.

That aside, alcohol really bothers my stomach, and I hate the taste - it also takes large amounts for me to get "in the zone". Following your example, wine is like masturbating with sand paper. Painful, slow and not worth the outcome.

Finally, you can fully function, do business and have great sex while "high". I ve seen stock brokers, users of medical cannabis in the US (provided by the government) that perform well even under the influence. It is quite hard, if not impossible to be reserved and fully logical while drunk however.

anyway, back to the zip topic!

 

I think that the price of a Veyron exceeds all our collections put together, in monetary terms :lol:

 

Wouldn't the insurance premiums be more then most peoples collections put together. You should think smaller like a Toyota MR2 or a Mitsubishi Lancer.

 

Lol yes... But on another note... Lol Ain't being high and sex a key point in Annie Hall. Lol it was only good when they were high :110: God I love that movie. Woody Allen at his best.

And as for the Zip Drive. I'm quite against any donation unless it could be proven that it might benefit everyone, by someone getting his hands on it.

Sorta like how some people donated funds to coreycorey2000 for his Blue DIsk investigation

 

$10,000 would buy quite a few Katana dev kits. Or a helluva lot of coders cables and BBAs.

The Dreamcast is about as open as it gets. The only other thing would be using GDs, but how many homebrew projects need that knid of space?

Yep, the seller could have two or three of these things.