In article om,
says...

On 10/6/2011 6:30 AM, X ` Man wrote:
On 10/6/11 1:42 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:43:24 -0400, Wayne B
wrote:

Few people realize it today but the mouse and windowing concepts
originated in a Xerox Corporate R&D operation called the Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC). It was a classic case of not knowing what
they had invented and not knowing what to do with it.

I was a computer guy watching all of those missteps in the early days
of the desk top computer. I never understood why Wang had all of that
computer horsepower under the desk and only used it to type letters.
I was frustrated that my Atari 2600 didn't have a keyboard and a user
accessible program language. It was clear that this thing had as much
power as a late 60s mainframe.

I did have a first day ship PC tho.

I was not as impressed with the cartoon interface as I was supposed to
be. I stuck with DOS until it was pried out of my dead cold hands and
I still have DOS applications I run almost every day now.
I suppose the difference is I was raised in a text based computer
world. Command line does not scare me,
In fact the first computers I worked with did not even have a console
or a keyboard. You either inputted with cards or you manually entered
things with switches and buttons.
Of course a whole payroll system might fit in 4K of core. Programs
were a lot smaller.
My basic school "penny a day" program for a 1401 fit on three 80
column cards


I bought one of the first IBM PCs available at a retail store in McLean,
Virginia, in either 1983 or 1984. It was an 8088 machine, with one
floppy drive. I bought a second floppy drive...it was very expensive.
Looked at a Macintosh about then, too, at a store in Bethesday. I was
not that impressed with it. Much much later, after I had written a few
articles for PC Week, PC Mag and Byte, I started corresponding with
Jerry Pournelle, the sci-fi writer, at Byte, and he arranged for me to
receive an S-100 bus computer similar to what he was using. I messed
with it for about six months and told him I didn't think the S-100 bus
had much of a future in the face of what IBM and Apple and the IBM
imitators were doing. Later I sold the IBM and got an Eagle, with an
8086 CPU and an AST graphics board.

*Hard to believe that was close to 30
years ago.*


Hard to believe, period.

Because of who wrote it!

On 10/6/11 11:29 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:30:58 -0400, X `
wrote:

On 10/6/11 1:42 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:43:24 -0400, Wayne B
wrote:

Few people realize it today but the mouse and windowing concepts
originated in a Xerox Corporate R&D operation called the Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC). It was a classic case of not knowing what
they had invented and not knowing what to do with it.

I was a computer guy watching all of those missteps in the early days
of the desk top computer. I never understood why Wang had all of that
computer horsepower under the desk and only used it to type letters.
I was frustrated that my Atari 2600 didn't have a keyboard and a user
accessible program language. It was clear that this thing had as much
power as a late 60s mainframe.

I did have a first day ship PC tho.

I was not as impressed with the cartoon interface as I was supposed to
be. I stuck with DOS until it was pried out of my dead cold hands and
I still have DOS applications I run almost every day now.
I suppose the difference is I was raised in a text based computer
world. Command line does not scare me,
In fact the first computers I worked with did not even have a console
or a keyboard. You either inputted with cards or you manually entered
things with switches and buttons.
Of course a whole payroll system might fit in 4K of core. Programs
were a lot smaller.
My basic school "penny a day" program for a 1401 fit on three 80
column cards


I bought one of the first IBM PCs available at a retail store in McLean,
Virginia, in either 1983 or 1984. It was an 8088 machine, with one
floppy drive. I bought a second floppy drive...it was very expensive.
Looked at a Macintosh about then, too, at a store in Bethesday. I was
not that impressed with it. Much much later, after I had written a few
articles for PC Week, PC Mag and Byte, I started corresponding with
Jerry Pournelle, the sci-fi writer, at Byte, and he arranged for me to
receive an S-100 bus computer similar to what he was using. I messed
with it for about six months and told him I didn't think the S-100 bus
had much of a future in the face of what IBM and Apple and the IBM
imitators were doing. Later I sold the IBM and got an Eagle, with an
8086 CPU and an AST graphics board. Hard to believe that was close to 30
years ago.


If it was really 1983 you should have been able to get an XT with a 10
or 20 meg hard drive.
That was also the upgraded 5150 with hard drive BIOS if it was 1983
and it probably had a 256k floppy, 64k on the system board etc.
My PC-1 was 16k on the system board, 128k drives and no hard drive
BIOS.
I put a hard drive in mine after I got to Florida about 84-85 and that
required the upgrade system board. Fortunately I was in a place where
that stuff was around ;-)
I did get a drive, controller and the "6 pack" card from an outside
source, not IBM.
We used that machine in my wife's business and ended up selling it
when the business sold as an included asset. By then I was into a
PS/2..

The box had one 256K floppy. I bought another separately from a mail
order supplier. I don't recall a standard hard drive being available.
The dealer gave me a copy of WordStar to use as a word processor. I
almost returned the damned computer two days later...WordStar in those
days was a very complex, difficult program in those days. But the dealer
had a backup...he gave me a copy of Volkswriter, a word processor
suitable for the computer moron I was at that time.

A year or so after I got it, I got the Eagle...which had the 8086 chip,
a floppy drive and a hard drive.



--
I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.

In article ,
says...
.WordStar in those
days was a very complex, difficult program in those days


WTF?? Professional writer my ass!!!

On 10/6/2011 11:29 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:30:58 -0400, X `
wrote:

On 10/6/11 1:42 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:43:24 -0400, Wayne B
wrote:

Few people realize it today but the mouse and windowing concepts
originated in a Xerox Corporate R&D operation called the Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC). It was a classic case of not knowing what
they had invented and not knowing what to do with it.

I was a computer guy watching all of those missteps in the early days
of the desk top computer. I never understood why Wang had all of that
computer horsepower under the desk and only used it to type letters.
I was frustrated that my Atari 2600 didn't have a keyboard and a user
accessible program language. It was clear that this thing had as much
power as a late 60s mainframe.

I did have a first day ship PC tho.

I was not as impressed with the cartoon interface as I was supposed to
be. I stuck with DOS until it was pried out of my dead cold hands and
I still have DOS applications I run almost every day now.
I suppose the difference is I was raised in a text based computer
world. Command line does not scare me,
In fact the first computers I worked with did not even have a console
or a keyboard. You either inputted with cards or you manually entered
things with switches and buttons.
Of course a whole payroll system might fit in 4K of core. Programs
were a lot smaller.
My basic school "penny a day" program for a 1401 fit on three 80
column cards


I bought one of the first IBM PCs available at a retail store in McLean,
Virginia, in either 1983 or 1984. It was an 8088 machine, with one
floppy drive. I bought a second floppy drive...it was very expensive.
Looked at a Macintosh about then, too, at a store in Bethesday. I was
not that impressed with it. Much much later, after I had written a few
articles for PC Week, PC Mag and Byte, I started corresponding with
Jerry Pournelle, the sci-fi writer, at Byte, and he arranged for me to
receive an S-100 bus computer similar to what he was using. I messed
with it for about six months and told him I didn't think the S-100 bus
had much of a future in the face of what IBM and Apple and the IBM
imitators were doing. Later I sold the IBM and got an Eagle, with an
8086 CPU and an AST graphics board. Hard to believe that was close to 30
years ago.


If it was really 1983 you should have been able to get an XT with a 10
or 20 meg hard drive.
That was also the upgraded 5150 with hard drive BIOS if it was 1983
and it probably had a 256k floppy, 64k on the system board etc.
My PC-1 was 16k on the system board, 128k drives and no hard drive
BIOS.
I put a hard drive in mine after I got to Florida about 84-85 and that
required the upgrade system board. Fortunately I was in a place where
that stuff was around ;-)
I did get a drive, controller and the "6 pack" card from an outside
source, not IBM.
We used that machine in my wife's business and ended up selling it
when the business sold as an included asset. By then I was into a
PS/2..

You know he was lying, right??

On 10/6/11 6:55 PM, JustWait wrote:
On 10/6/2011 11:29 AM, wrote:
On Thu, 06 Oct 2011 06:30:58 -0400, X `
wrote:

On 10/6/11 1:42 AM, wrote:
On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 21:43:24 -0400, Wayne B
wrote:

Few people realize it today but the mouse and windowing concepts
originated in a Xerox Corporate R&D operation called the Palo Alto
Research Center (PARC). It was a classic case of not knowing what
they had invented and not knowing what to do with it.

I was a computer guy watching all of those missteps in the early days
of the desk top computer. I never understood why Wang had all of that
computer horsepower under the desk and only used it to type letters.
I was frustrated that my Atari 2600 didn't have a keyboard and a user
accessible program language. It was clear that this thing had as much
power as a late 60s mainframe.

I did have a first day ship PC tho.

I was not as impressed with the cartoon interface as I was supposed to
be. I stuck with DOS until it was pried out of my dead cold hands and
I still have DOS applications I run almost every day now.
I suppose the difference is I was raised in a text based computer
world. Command line does not scare me,
In fact the first computers I worked with did not even have a console
or a keyboard. You either inputted with cards or you manually entered
things with switches and buttons.
Of course a whole payroll system might fit in 4K of core. Programs
were a lot smaller.
My basic school "penny a day" program for a 1401 fit on three 80
column cards


I bought one of the first IBM PCs available at a retail store in McLean,
Virginia, in either 1983 or 1984. It was an 8088 machine, with one
floppy drive. I bought a second floppy drive...it was very expensive.
Looked at a Macintosh about then, too, at a store in Bethesday. I was
not that impressed with it. Much much later, after I had written a few
articles for PC Week, PC Mag and Byte, I started corresponding with
Jerry Pournelle, the sci-fi writer, at Byte, and he arranged for me to
receive an S-100 bus computer similar to what he was using. I messed
with it for about six months and told him I didn't think the S-100 bus
had much of a future in the face of what IBM and Apple and the IBM
imitators were doing. Later I sold the IBM and got an Eagle, with an
8086 CPU and an AST graphics board. Hard to believe that was close to 30
years ago.


If it was really 1983 you should have been able to get an XT with a 10
or 20 meg hard drive.
That was also the upgraded 5150 with hard drive BIOS if it was 1983
and it probably had a 256k floppy, 64k on the system board etc.
My PC-1 was 16k on the system board, 128k drives and no hard drive
BIOS.
I put a hard drive in mine after I got to Florida about 84-85 and that
required the upgrade system board. Fortunately I was in a place where
that stuff was around ;-)
I did get a drive, controller and the "6 pack" card from an outside
source, not IBM.
We used that machine in my wife's business and ended up selling it
when the business sold as an included asset. By then I was into a
PS/2..

You know he was lying, right??

Paid those real estate taxes yet?

--
I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one.

On Wed, 5 Oct 2011 19:57:20 -0400, "Eisboch" wrote:



"X ` Man" wrote in message
om...

It's too bad we lose people like Steve Jobs when trash like Dick Cheney
is still alive.


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nat...,7292186.story


A shame. He brought much to this world that many of us often take for
granted. Smart guy.

Eisboch

He was a big thinker and a micro manager. Had an incredible sense for
product development and what would appeal to consumers.

I was privy to a conversation between he and Bill Gates at a
conference in San Jose more than 20 years ago. This was when Jobs was
trying to get Next off the ground and selling chiefly to higher ed.
Our team was presenting in the same session as both he and Gates and I
happened to be in a small circle of people as they were catching each
other up on the latest at each company. Gates was already filthy rich
and Jobs was starting over after having gotten the boot from Apple. It
was an interesting period in time. No one knew at the time that Jobs
would invest in Pixar and then return to Apple to run it again.

I've made most of my living off of Gate's platform but it was Jobs who
altered my life course in 1984 and set me on the path that I'm on
today.

On Wed, 05 Oct 2011 19:50:21 -0400, X ` Man
wrote:

It's too bad we lose people like Steve Jobs when trash like Dick Cheney
is still alive.


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nat...,7292186.story

The evil do have a tendency to stick around longer than the good.

In any case, I disagree. Cheney's been dead for years. That's a
zombie traveling the talk show circuit with his demented daughter.

In article ,
says...

It's too bad we lose people like Steve Jobs when trash like Dick Cheney
is still alive.


http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nat...,7292186.story

Saved......