BoatBanter.com - View Single Post

BAR[_2_]

In article , says...

On 1/27/2014 8:22 AM, BAR wrote:
In article , says...

On 1/26/2014 9:39 PM, BAR wrote:
In article , says...

On 1/26/2014 4:42 PM, Wayne.B wrote:
A video clip of Steve Jobs introducing the Macintosh in 1984:

http://venturebeat.com/2014/01/26/check-out-steve-jobs-demo-the-mac-for-the-first-time-in-1984-video/

The Mac was a very cool computer and way ahead of its time. I had the
use of one at the office back around 1985 or so. The graphics and
laser printer were just great.

That was interesting. It also struck me how much Macintosh has evolved
into becoming more like a PC running Windows over the years.

Back when they had 68000 processors we used them to develop software for 68000 based
communicaitons devices.

The first serious 68000 based computer system I became familiar with was
a HP 9836 with extended I/O rack back in the mid 1980s. We used it to
attempt to automate the control of thin film deposition in a vacuum
chamber based on optically monitoring the changes in the index of
refraction of the deposited films. The HP 9836 had to compute a Fourier
transform curve fitting algorithm in real time.

How's that for being "nerdy"? :-)

HP should have stuck with the test tools, test automation and printers. Their computers were
never really good general purpose systems and their attempt to bolster their street cred in
the PC area by buying Compaq, which had bought DEC, did do anything to help their bottome
line.

The HP 9836 was definitely not designed for the consumer market. I
remember that the computer and the I/O that we needed was about $16,000
or more back in 1985. I had a pirated copy of the early, first release
of Flight Simulator (it was on a 5.25" floppy) and used to play around
with it. The "airplane" was simply a off-centered cross.

I've had very good luck with the HP Pavilian series laptops, one Vista,
one Win 7. I suppose now that I said that this one will freeze up and
die. I've had it since 2009 and used it extensively everyday at the
guitar shop until about a year ago when I brought it home. I keep the
Win 7 in reserve and am also getting familiar with the iMac.

Back in the day we were running Convergent Technologies equipment, IWS, AWS, MegaFraame,
nGen. Anyone in the CG or GSA in the early to mid 80's was using this equipment to run all
kinds of things. These were basically PC's that cost from $12,000 to $30,000 with the
MegaFrame running upwards of $80,000. Good solid well engineered systems. The company I
worked for in the mid 80's was using something similar to an TRS-80 to monitor communications
lines coming off of mainframe computers and the AWS and nGen's to do the data crunching.

I wouldn't take an HP PC even if you paid for it and you did all of the setup and
maintenance. The HP 1000's, 2000's and 3000's were great boxes for high school kids to play
with.