Computer nostalgia

Mrbinky

Mrbinky

Well-Known Member
HoustonGuide said:
I saw a report that said Apple has two sources for the Haptic units that cause the watch to vibrate and that one of them has been producing faulty units, forcing Apple to rely on only one of them. There's also some worry that defective units may have already been used - again, according to the article.

Seems like even mighty Apple is not immune to these kinds of problems.
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Yeah, my original Apple II had problems. My power supply shorted out and turned black a couple of days after I got it. The technician at the store where I bought it thought that was pretty funny, for some reason...

People were a lot more forgiving back then. After all, it was obviously a huge step up from my first computer, which required me to solder the parts in a PCB, and had a hex keypad for entering programs...

The computer industry coined the phrase "vaporware" which is, ironically, kinda what Grasshopper is...potentially in more ways than one. :brow:

But...here's the thing. People know that Apple will eventually get it right. They've got a track record, and they have the finances to back it up. And a 1 year warranty from them actually means something (I've had to use it myself, and they certainly took care of me.) Plus, there are actual Apple shops where you can go to bitch and moan, and it is much harder to avoid or ignore you. I could go on...

But, let's just say that there are a whole lot of reasons why it makes very little sense to compare Apple to Grasshopper at this point, or for the foreseeable future.
 
t-dub

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
Mrbinky said:
my first computer, which required me to solder the parts in a PCB, and had a hex keypad for entering programs...
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Wow, and I thought I was old . . . first computer I used was a "trash" 80 from Radio Shack and it looked something like this . . . 1980 was a fine year . . . lol

Edit: The box it came in was not so great either . . . ;)

trs80m1a.jpg
 
HoustonGuide

HoustonGuide

Active Member
P
t-dub said:
Wow, and I thought I was old . . . first computer I used was a "trash" 80 from Radio Shack and it looked something like this . . . 1980 was a fine year . . . lol

Edit: The box it came in was not so great either . . . ;)

trs80m1a.jpg
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A fellow geezer! Mine was a Commodore 64! 8 bits of pure computing power!

When I started using computers professionally we had 64K (kilobytes, kids, look it up) of core memory to play with!
 
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syrupy

syrupy

Authorized Buyer
Kalessin said:
I hope that there aren't many people considering cancelling, doesn't bode well..
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When waiting in a long line and people ahead start bailing and my turn comes up quicker, is kind of the definition of boding well. I hope nobody goes and sees SW:EP7 for the same reason.

Edit: is this the part where we compare how crappy our first personal computers are? If so, let's just skip to the end where @lwien shares his stories of punch card computing... :myday:
 
HoustonGuide

HoustonGuide

Active Member
syrupy said:
When waiting in a long line and people ahead start bailing and my turn comes up quicker, is kind of the definition of boding well. I hope nobody goes and sees SW:EP7 for the same reason.

Edit: is this the part where we compare how crappy our first personal computers are? If so, let's just skip to the end where @lwien shares his stories of punch card computing... :myday:
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Hey, I used to be able to read Hollerith Code by eye! No one out-geezers me, dagnabbit!
 
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t-dub

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
HoustonGuide said:
A fellow geezer! Mine was a Commodore 64! 8 bits of pure computing power!
Click to expand...
I had one of those to play games on. It had cartridges that fit in the back . . . anyways, I should mention that the trash80 was NOT mine it was part of the computer lab at my boarding school that I helped set up and maintain. I have a soft spot for that machine because I learned BASIC, FORTRAN, COBOL, and machine language on it. The tape recorder actually let us load programs from cassette tape . . . it was cool at the time but seems so primitive now.
 
syrupy

syrupy

Authorized Buyer
t-dub said:
The tape recorder actually let us load programs from cassette tape . . . it was cool at the time but seems so primitive now.
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I had one of those attached to a VIC-20. I can still remember getting the tapes mixed up and trying to LOAD a Kenny Loggins tape by accident.!

But how 'bout them Hopper boxes?! Thing of beauty...
 
Mrbinky

Mrbinky

Well-Known Member
caphector said:
Man, all this old computer stuff reminds me that my granddad was one of the engineers that built the VAX.
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:myday: Yeah, I used to be able to guess which programs were on a tape just by the sound.

I wonder what stage we are at in the evolution of vaporizers?

What would you guys compare a Grasshopper to (assuming it ever ships?) An Apple II? C64?
 
J.D.420

J.D.420

420th Dragoons
Mrbinky said:
:myday: Yeah, I used to be able to guess which programs were on a tape just by the sound.

I wonder what stage we are at in the evolution of vaporizers?

What would you guys compare a Grasshopper to (assuming it ever ships?) An Apple II? C64?
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npq902.jpg


The Cardiff Electric Giant, in that they are both fictional :lol: (I kid... still believe the grasshopper team will deliver...someday)
 
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Chill Dude

Well-Known Member
I remember when I was like 22 years old I bought the Apple 11 computer.. Worst decision of my life. Those things were way too complicated for anyone except full on computer geeks! All that DOS bullshit.. I threw it in the trash after about 3 months of endless frustration HAHAHA...
 
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syrupy

syrupy

Authorized Buyer
t-dub said:
THANK YOU for reminding me, I did NOT have a Commodore 64 it was a VIC-20. It was like this one . . . Goddam I'm getting old . . .

vic20.jpg
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Yup. 3.5K RAM meant you were going to be learning assembly language to get anything meaningful done. Things do come back around. Last programming I did was for an Arduino at 32K RAM and 512 bytes (yes BYTES) of flash memory.

In terms of the GH/computer analogy, I say the GH is the netbook stage of development. Trying to make it small and sleek at the sacrifice of the power of the desktop (e.g., Da Buddha).
 
t-dub

t-dub

Vapor Sloth
Mrbinky said:
Yeah, but...different DOS...
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I remember DOS and also working on an Apple IIe so they were different. After 1980, Apple DOS entered into a state of stagnation, along with all other Apple II products, as Apple concentrated its efforts on the ill-fated Apple III computer and its SOS operating system. After the Apple III had been abandoned by the company, two more versions of Apple DOS, both still called DOS 3.3 but with some bug fixes and better support for the new Apple IIe model, were released in early and mid-1983.
 
t-dub,
BuzzDanklin

BuzzDanklin

Well-Known Member
syrupy said:
Yup. 3.5K RAM meant you were going to be learning assembly language to get anything meaningful done. Things do come back around. Last programming I did was for an Arduino at 32K RAM and 512 bytes (yes BYTES) of flash memory.

In terms of the GH/computer analogy, I say the GH is the netbook stage of development. Trying to make it small and sleek at the sacrifice of the power of the desktop (e.g., Da Buddha).
Click to expand...

I would compare the GH to a shuttle case gaming computer. Its got a lot of power for a small size, but its missing some frills/features, and it gets hot after heavy use :)
 
TeeJay1952

TeeJay1952

Well-Known Member
For me the biggest thrill was when I put a game save file into hex reader, made a change, loaded and had 100000000000 dollars! (in the game) Went back and had 200000 lives. Showed what data manipulation can do.


But when I heard my first MP3 was when I knew everyone else would soon be on board.
 
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h3rbalist

h3rbalist

I used to do drugs. I still do, but I used to, too
ZXSpectrum48k_zpsi1v4lrej.jpg~original



My first computer was a Spectrum ZX with a massive 16k memory. :)

Got it for Christmas 1985 (off the back of a lorry) It was to be the greatest gift of my life.

I was 8 and used to code games and pictures in basic. I had the kemston joystick and the Stephen Hawkin voice box thing so It could actually talk to me!!!!

Hungry Horrace and The Hobbit were the games I used to play a lot. Man those days were golden.

'Game Over: You have completed 0.2% of this game.'
 
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