Looking for a DOS program called pianoplayer

[Scott Stevens]

On Thu, 17 Feb 2005 15:52:13 -0800 (PST)
Cameron Kaiser <spectre at floodgap.com> wrote:

> > I had a very long affair with Toby-san, my T1000.  I bought it new, 
> > many moons ago, and it's still here next to me.  I added the RAM 
> > expansion module, and keep my favorite word processor (Borland's 
> > Sprint) on the RAM disk.  I used it to take notes at the last VCF
> > East. I added one of those little battery-powered "Book-lites",
> > which I clip on and use to see the screen in the dark.  It's a great
> > little computer!
> 
> These sound fascinating -- I love ROM based systems. How heavy?
> 
> -- 

The HP Omnibook 300 (not like the later Omnibooks at all- the 300 and
the 450 were produced by the HP Corvalis Division, the group that also
made the HP Caluculators and the HP 95/100/200's) has DOS and Windows
3.1 in ROM.  And not just in a traditional 'rom emulates disk'
configuration, either.  The Omnibook 300 has Windows 3.1, Excel 4, and
Word for Windows 2.0 in a 'run in place' configuration, i.e. it directly
runs the code out of the ROM, unlike any other version of DOS/Windows
that has to load it from storage into RAM.  So you can run Windows 3.1,
Word, and Excel in a machine with only 2 megs of DRAM (the stock
configuration for the 300 unless you add the 2 meg upgrade module).  The
machine will run continuously for a day or more on four AA cells.

The ROM, mind you, is a removable PCMCIA cartridge.  Only HP's Corvalis
group did stuff like this.  If you have a laptop/portable collection,
the Omnibook 300 is a MUST item.


-Scott