I’m scanning in old pics and here is a photo taken at a very old Comdex perhaps 15 years ago. It’s the Singer (as in sewing machine) laptop. This is one of the many oddball machines that came out over the years. My all-time fav is the John Deere desktop computer that was actually quite jazzy for its time (mid 1980’s).
But try to find any reference whatsoever about these machines such as the specifications. There is a new phenomenons I call search interference and search noise. This refers to lots of posts that incorporate the words you’d normally use. “Singer” is a magnet for this. If you don’t get references to actual singers it’s complicated by Michael Singer at C-Net as well as a slew of other writers and people named Singer.
The challenge I present to you is to find the history of this machine and the specifications. No prizes, but a lot of acclaim. I actually doubt anyone can do it. If you manage to do it, you have to also disclose the search techniques you used – hopefully it’s not “I searched Singer Laptop and on page 203 I found it!”
When you are done try to find pics of the John Deere machine.
How about This query
The worst part is if you search for “Singer Laptop” in quotes, you still don’t get the exact phrase. You get a lot of results for Singer’s Laptop, though. I guess Google knows what you want better than you do. But yeah, it’s so rare I doubt the specs are online anywhere.
Some things are essentially immunized from google, like me. I share a name with an exceptionally well-known politician, which makes it virtually impossible to find any reference to me on the internet, just due to the sheer volume of material out there with my/his name on it.
And it raised some serious issues too — if I wrote into any chat group or blog comment log with my real name, people assumed I was him and generally unloaded on me! For this reason I invented a pen name and go by it now.
Some things are virtually unsearchable due to the sheer volume of material that is nestled up close to them.
Sag.
John, I was shocked too when I discovered some of the other stuff Singer makes. Ironically, did you know that Toyota makes a great sewing machine?
Try this – it’s the STM (which went on to buy Singer) laptop with all the specs
A german computer archive has this entry. It doesn’t seem to have much to do with the laptop though.
It’s the best I can do at the moment. The Deere computer is harder to find though on Ebay someone is selling a set of slides that feature the JD Computer Trak Monitors though I’m not sure what that is (no pictures except of slides.)
Sorry – broke the STM link. It’s here
3. I remember trying to find out (when i was young and foolish– and, yes, jealous) about someone that my girlfriend was chatting with online (he was a phony; he made up an identity so he could elicit romance from her). Just by using his AOL handle, I was able to find out who he was, where he worked, his pager voicemail which I was able to break in by guessing his password, his address and age. Needless to say that when I reached him, his cover was blown. He turned out to be a middle-aged man with a huge pot belly with no attraction but gravity.
Out of curiousity I googled “0013addiv” and Google came up with only ONE hit: Dvorak Uncensored.
Sometimes being unique can have it consequences.
Singer has made many products over the years. Among other things, Singer was one of many companies that manufactured 1911A1 .45ACP pistols for the Army in WWII. It was a very short run and as such A Singer 1911 is quite scarce and highly prized by collectors.
A Singer 1911 is quite scarce and highly prized by collectors.
I sold mine, along with an additional match-grade Colt Mustang slide and barrel, for about $200 about 25 years ago when my second daughter was born. (Needed the cash.) I had a Remington 1911 too, but it had been modified into uncollectability. (Parkerized, accurized, match barrel, alloy frame, etc.)
I Asdogooglehooed this 80 different ways and found nothing, but I did buy a sewing machine and tractor off eBay, met a nice female vocalist from the Ukraine and found a place that does lap dances in Singer Island FL in the process.
#8
Also M2 Carbines
I used to work on the John Deere machine… it’s killing me that I can’t remember the name (it will come to me). I may still have one somewhere (I used to throw my ‘old’ machines’ in my friends garage, I’ll have to ask).
It was quite snazzy for the day. One thing I remember is the keyboard, which had keypads on BOTH sides of they keyboard! Otherwise, it was your basic generic CP/M machine… (ah, the PIP command!), with lots of the then typical bell’s and whistles built
memories….
singer vintage computer history -sewing
singer system-10
I don’t know about this machine, but it resembles a Toshiba T1000, maybe it’s a derivative? This kind of laptops is more of the kind available in the late 80′s, early 90′s…
BTW, there’s a HUGE number of ‘obsolete’ computer museums around the net – hundreds, maybe. I’m myself a computer collector, although with a small collection (My latest aquisitions were an Epson HX-20 and an HP-41C calculator – and man, were they beautiful machines!). I think there’s even a ‘computer ring’ dedicated to this hobby. How about making a list with links to all this great stuff?
Ok, googled “vintage computer singer PC” without the quotes. Selected the first result … http://www.vintage.org/links.php did an internal search for singer and found this link.. http://members.iinet.net.au/~daveb/Sys-10.html Which has a nice page full of tech details including such items as a byte = 6 bits for the system. So unless there were multiple Singer computers there you go…
EDP??
WOW, I used to program one of those…
There is also precious little info on the net about old (pre-1990?) stereo equipment (e.g., amplifiers). Unless they are top of the line, “classics”.
I see on ebay that the Datavue Spark (a similar looking computer) in the basement has a value of up to $20. Could still be OK for word processing (er, text editing), especially if one could retro-fit a modern storage medium into the second diskette bay. But alas, I don’t think so. How much am I offered?
Douglass, that query does not bring up the information about the specific machine I show. Caderus. This entry is about some late 1960′s computer by Singer which has no relation to any portable LCD-machine since these displays were not even available back then and a laptop was unknown. Geez.
Lou — get pics of the John Deere!!!
Otherwise nobody is winning this contest so far — as predicted.
This isn’t a Singer portable, but looks like it might be the portable re-badged as a Singer.
Zenith Data Systems Co. ZFL-181-93 8161090602 notebook Classic notebook computer, with 2″ disk drive, no hard drive. 1″ thick. 393-399
http://www.mynewoffice.com/pcmuseum/Zenith394.jpg
Most of the Zenith units hinged on both sides verses the mostly centered hinges on Toshiba units.
Singer had several forays in computer design systems for their sewing machines. They even used a gameboy interface to drive custom embroidery software in their machines. This was probably a re-badged unit that came with design software and connected to the sewing machine via serial interface.