Back to Homebrew Computer Club.......
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Have you ever been to Homebrew Computer Club before? What's it like? Ever met Gates and Jobs?
Link2006 wrote:
Have you ever been to Homebrew Computer Club before? What's it like?
I used to go to the Commodore PET user group in Palo Alto in the early 70's. Never met Gates or Jobs, but there were some real smart trend setting people there. Doing things like working on the first macro assembler. The first debugger that let you step through assembly code. The first disassembler. Adding bitmapped memory to the PET. Making a simple D-A resistor ladder and playing funky tunes through it. Controlling cool lab equipment through the--then the rage--IEEE bus. Writing games with the neato Fairchild joystick. Writing the first ISAM-based accounting system, all in assembly. And so on. It was easier to write programs that actually worked. I mean, how much trouble could you get into with only 8K of RAM? Marc
Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
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Link2006 wrote:
Have you ever been to Homebrew Computer Club before? What's it like?
I used to go to the Commodore PET user group in Palo Alto in the early 70's. Never met Gates or Jobs, but there were some real smart trend setting people there. Doing things like working on the first macro assembler. The first debugger that let you step through assembly code. The first disassembler. Adding bitmapped memory to the PET. Making a simple D-A resistor ladder and playing funky tunes through it. Controlling cool lab equipment through the--then the rage--IEEE bus. Writing games with the neato Fairchild joystick. Writing the first ISAM-based accounting system, all in assembly. And so on. It was easier to write programs that actually worked. I mean, how much trouble could you get into with only 8K of RAM? Marc
Some people believe what the bible says. Literally. At least [with Wikipedia] you have the chance to correct the wiki -- Jörgen Sigvardsson
People are just notoriously impossible. --DavidCrow
Marc Clifton wrote:
Commodore PET
Yeah, the PETS, 64's and 128's. Those were the good ol' days :)
Marc Clifton wrote:
how much trouble could you get into with only 8K of RAM?
Not much trouble :)
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Marc Clifton wrote:
Commodore PET
Yeah, the PETS, 64's and 128's. Those were the good ol' days :)
Marc Clifton wrote:
how much trouble could you get into with only 8K of RAM?
Not much trouble :)
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So I was thinking, if time travel was possible today, and you could go back to 1975 Homebrew Computer Club where they were showing off the cool new Altair 8800. How would you tell them about the computers 30 years in the future? Here is one possible scenario: Location: Homebrew Computer Club meeting at Stanford. Date: Someday 1975 People: You, Bill Gates, Pual Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and the Presenter. Presenter: Here as you can see the new Altair 8800, the first DIY Minicomputer Kit.... You: Excuse me, I'm from the future, I'm here to tell you computers from the future look nothing like anything you see here today. 30 years from now, you can buy a calculator that is 10 times more powerful than your new Altair 8800 for just under 10 dollars. Presenter: Oh really, is that so? You: Oh my goodness, are you Bill Gates? Bill Gates: Do I know you? You: Of course, everybody knows you in the future. 30 years from now, you will be the richest man on Earth. And the company you and Allen just founded will be the most successful software company in the world. Bill Gates: Allen, how much did you pay this guy? Pual Allen: What? I swear I have nothing to do with it. You: No no no no, I'm serious. 30 years from now, there will be a computer on everyone's desktop. Bill Gates: *turning to Allen, whispering* See! I told you. You: And all the computers will be connected to form a huge giant network called "Internet". With it, you can do almost anything, from talking to someone you never met to watching porns. Oh, and there will be a site called youtube where people make stupid videos of themselve and post them online so everyone can laugh and have a good time. Steve Wozniak: Hey guys, what's up, have you seen my new invention, we are selling it for just $666? You: Hey woz, you mean that circuit board over there? That sucks, what the heck am I supposed to do with it? Why not add a keyboard and a monitor, and sell it as a complete product for $3000. Steve Jobs: Yeah, that's a good idea, let's call it the Apple II. You: Hey Steve, you see that man over there? His name is called Bill Gates. Don't trust him, he is going to rip you off. He is going to copy what you're doing, and call it their own. Steve Jobs: You mean that guy from Microsoft, they are never going to compete with us, they have no culture. Software is for hobbyists. You're never going to make
Link2006 wrote:
You: Hey Steve, you see that man over there? His name is called Bill Gates. Don't trust him, he is going to rip you off. He is going to copy what you're doing, and call it their own.
Just for the record Apple stole that stuff from Xerox Parc way before so it was 3rd hand theft at best for Bill and Co.
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So I was thinking, if time travel was possible today, and you could go back to 1975 Homebrew Computer Club where they were showing off the cool new Altair 8800. How would you tell them about the computers 30 years in the future? Here is one possible scenario: Location: Homebrew Computer Club meeting at Stanford. Date: Someday 1975 People: You, Bill Gates, Pual Allen, Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak, and the Presenter. Presenter: Here as you can see the new Altair 8800, the first DIY Minicomputer Kit.... You: Excuse me, I'm from the future, I'm here to tell you computers from the future look nothing like anything you see here today. 30 years from now, you can buy a calculator that is 10 times more powerful than your new Altair 8800 for just under 10 dollars. Presenter: Oh really, is that so? You: Oh my goodness, are you Bill Gates? Bill Gates: Do I know you? You: Of course, everybody knows you in the future. 30 years from now, you will be the richest man on Earth. And the company you and Allen just founded will be the most successful software company in the world. Bill Gates: Allen, how much did you pay this guy? Pual Allen: What? I swear I have nothing to do with it. You: No no no no, I'm serious. 30 years from now, there will be a computer on everyone's desktop. Bill Gates: *turning to Allen, whispering* See! I told you. You: And all the computers will be connected to form a huge giant network called "Internet". With it, you can do almost anything, from talking to someone you never met to watching porns. Oh, and there will be a site called youtube where people make stupid videos of themselve and post them online so everyone can laugh and have a good time. Steve Wozniak: Hey guys, what's up, have you seen my new invention, we are selling it for just $666? You: Hey woz, you mean that circuit board over there? That sucks, what the heck am I supposed to do with it? Why not add a keyboard and a monitor, and sell it as a complete product for $3000. Steve Jobs: Yeah, that's a good idea, let's call it the Apple II. You: Hey Steve, you see that man over there? His name is called Bill Gates. Don't trust him, he is going to rip you off. He is going to copy what you're doing, and call it their own. Steve Jobs: You mean that guy from Microsoft, they are never going to compete with us, they have no culture. Software is for hobbyists. You're never going to make
Was that meant to be funny? :confused:
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
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We had SuperPets in highschool, I still think green on black is the most appropriate color scheme for text.
John Cardinal wrote:
I still think green on black is the most appropriate color scheme for text
Oh yes, definately so :)
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Have you ever been to Homebrew Computer Club before? What's it like? Ever met Gates and Jobs?
I attended the Siggraph in 1987 (in Anaheim California)...Pixar introduced a short film called Red's Dream [^] which was a very big hit...Commodore had a booth there showing the Amiga line of computers...one of the attendees, who owned an Amiga, took the Red's Dream Juggling scene and duplicted most of it on the Amiga (overnight) which was then shown at the Commodore booth for the rest of the show...people who saw it were absolutly amazed that something like that could be done on a $1000 computer in so short a time...in my mind, this was the point when the use of personal computers for CGI was brought to mainstream [^]...over the next few years, several 3D ray tracing / animation programs (and supporting hardware like the Video Toaster with what became Lightwave) were created for the Amiga [^]and companies starting using the platform for CGI commercials and TV show effects (like Seaquest DSV and Babylon 5) :cool: Steve
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Was that meant to be funny? :confused:
Ryan
"Punctuality is only a virtue for those who aren't smart enough to think of good excuses for being late" John Nichol "Point Of Impact"
It's a cool stuff for a guy like me who was born in 1983:laugh:. I never knew it is possible to write Accounting software, all in Assembly. That must be a painful task..:omg:
"You have to be in a situation where you see just how fast things fail to make you take it seriously, I guess. " Bruce Eckel
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John Cardinal wrote:
I still think green on black is the most appropriate color scheme for text
Oh yes, definately so :)
Your eyes would not agree. Theoretically, white text on blue background. Because of the distribution and lcoation of color cones in your eyes.
Any sufficiently gross incompetence is nearly indistinguishable from malice.
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Your eyes would not agree. Theoretically, white text on blue background. Because of the distribution and lcoation of color cones in your eyes.
Any sufficiently gross incompetence is nearly indistinguishable from malice.
Well, I use the light green on black with *nix and yes, the cyan/white text on blue that was commonly seen on the old Commodore 64 machines were very nice on the eyes :) -- modified at 18:03 Monday 24th July, 2006 According to your profile, you went to UCR? That's cool. I'm considering going there for PhD :)