How far we've come

[Space cat]

We use a lot of computers around here. When I first started this job in 1996, most of them were 286, 386 or 486 and they ran DOS. They booted quickly and the programs worked well. Ok, the graphics were chunky by today's standards but they worked.

Now we have gigahertz multiprocessor computers with XP on them. The OS itself takes considerably longer to boot than DOS did on a 286 but that's not the worst of it. Some of the software we use takes FIVE MINUTES to start. If you'd just got here from 1996 and saw that you'd condemn it as a pile of junk.

It seems to me that no matter how fast the hardware gets, it just can't keep up with the profligate software programmers' demands.

 

[CortinaV8]

Software programmers are just lazy these days, where is the incentive to make the most efficient code when todays machines have endless reserves of RAM and disk space, one of my pet hates too.

Thankfully we are still using Windows 2000 machines here and I fully intend to keep it that way until Microsoft make an operating system equal to/better than it!

 

[ricicle]

We had ZX81s at school. Mates dad was a deputy head of another school and used to bring home a BBC micro ('B' I think as there was an 'A' also)
We thought that was the mutt's nuts.

My first home computer was a Commodore VIC20 with a whole 3.5K of RAM ! How I longed for a Commodore 64 !
Then another lad across the road went and got an Amstrad CPC464.

 

[Space cat]

Thankfully we are still using Windows 2000 machines here and I fully intend to keep it that way until Microsoft make an operating system equal to/better than it!

That was my intention for my home computers but Microsoft pulled a fast one. The USB Mass Storage (UMS) protocol is used by almost all USB data storage devices. So what did Microsoft do? They invented a new one! It's called Media Transfer Protocol (MTP). They also persuaded some media player manufacturers to adopt it - and I inadvertently bought one. Why does this matter? Because Windows 2000 doesn't support MTP; you have to buy XP instead!

PS: I think they're pulling a similar dirty trick with Vista. If you put a Vista PC on your home network you'll find that it can't talk to any of your older stuff. That's because Vista won't recognise other OS's on a netwrk. That's not a bug; it's been done on purpose.

 

[gregers]

i too started out with a vic 20.iirc it cost 200 quid,i also had a 16k ram pack that was inserted up its ar5e wooooooohooooo.
also a spectrum 48+
a comadore 1200
and then all my problems started with a e machine

 

[tim west]

BBC micro ('B' I think as there was an 'A' also)
We thought that was the mutt's nuts.

We had a BBC micro at work running the doomsday project on laserdisc circa 1985/6? it had a sort of streetview where you could walk along roads even then which was pretty awesome at the time.

 

[Space cat]

The BBC micro was impressive for its time. I once worked for a small company that made potentiostats. Some were computer controlled and we used the BBC for the purpose.

One potential customer was interested but would only buy some if we used the relatively new IBM PC instead. Our programmer told them "Sorry, the PC isn't fast enough for the job. "

"Bu - bu - but it must be fast enough. It's IBM! "

We didn't sell any that day but we had a good laugh.

 

[Deluks]

I remember my first venture onto the internet, I checked a weather forecast then my mum told me to stop hogging the phone line cos her bill would shoot up.

Yehhhh, likely story! Who checks the weather forecast with the bedroom door locked

 

[yme]

I remember my first venture onto the internet, I checked a weather forecast then my mum told me to stop hogging the phone line cos her bill would shoot up.

Yehhhh, likely story! Who checks the weather forecast with the bedroom door locked

If it's going to be sunny neighbours daughter sunbathing in the buff

 

[fekarrs]

We had ZX81s at school. Mates dad was a deputy head of another school and used to bring home a BBC micro ('B' I think as there was an 'A' also)
We thought that was the mutt's nuts.

My first home computer was a Commodore VIC20 with a whole 3.5K of RAM ! How I longed for a Commodore 64 !
Then another lad across the road went and got an Amstrad CPC464.

In the very early 80s, our school had a ZX81 and a BBC too. Couldn't see what all the fuss was about myself. All the kids that were obsessed with the computers were sad specky swots who used to get bullied mercilessly.

I was too busy either consuming a packet of John Player Blue on the playing field, or trying to work my way into Rachel Harding from form 3B's knickers.

Think I did the right thing by waiting until 2007 to get my first comuter, when all of the problems had been ironed out, and they didn't cost an arm and a leg.

 

[WDIK]

The PC I'm on now, i built myself, cost less than £800 (would be cheaper mass built), has TWO 2.13GHz processors (in effect) (32/64 fold increase), 830GB of HDD space (691 fold increase) (plus 80GB external), and 2GB RAM (125 fold increase). It can also play HD movies, and download a song in 5 seconds.

and what do you do with it?

spout and read drivel on here

oh 1.6 gb dual core 160 gb Hd 3 gb ram inspiron 1520.

and I built the intel 2.8 p4 hyperthreader down stairs and it still goes strong.

I was a mapper.

 

[tim west]

I was a mapper.

Did you lose your way with the job?