Microsoft RAM license
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Well, John you must be as least as old as me, if not a bit older! My first computer was a Sinclair Spectrum (the "posh" version with 48kB RAM) and a tiny printer which used rolls of aluminium-covered carbonated paper about 2" wide.
It taught me BASIC programming, saving to a cassette recorder (and hoping that the tape didn't chew up when you next needed that program).
From there I graduated to an Acorn, and eventually to an IBM XT with 256kB RAM and DOS 3.3. This meant moving to GW-BASIC and eventually to Visual Basic.
It taught me BASIC programming, saving to a cassette recorder (and hoping that the tape didn't chew up when you next needed that program).
From there I graduated to an Acorn, and eventually to an IBM XT with 256kB RAM and DOS 3.3. This meant moving to GW-BASIC and eventually to Visual Basic.
I know this is old news, but...
Of course it does.
It matters anywhere and everywhere and always.
Yes it does.
Of course it does.
It matters anywhere and everywhere and always.
Those who don't care are the sloppy, the careless, the imprecise, the ignorant, the lazy.
Only to those who DGAS about doing a good job.OK. I'm done. Its all a laugh isnt it?
I suppose that a Spectrum was the first 'commercial' computer I had in my home - I bought one for my very small daughter ~1983. However, I used the Z80 one which I built 'from scratch' around 1980, partially 'to run a business', for about a decade (during which time it acquired a 5.25" floppy drive and a few other 'enhancements'!). I still have it, but it's a very long time since I attempted to make it work!
I 'resisted' IBM and 'IBM compatible' machines for quite a while. I went through two Apricots, which were lovely machines (still have them!) - initially only with (3.5" floppy drives) but I eventually upgraded them first with 5 MB (yes!) hard drives and later 10 MB ones (at ludicrous cost!). I then eventually was 'forced' to 'go-IBM, at about the same level as you describe!
Kind Regards, John
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Thanks, BAS for reminding me of that particular publication. I could well have been the bloke in the foreground, fag in mouth, reading the flamin' manual!
I used to have a copy of that issue
I heard they named their computers personal data processors pdp to avoid using the term computer, to do with not scaring people but I wonder if the CEO had something to do with not wanting to eat his words.
The Commodore PET (probably the first machine which those of subsequent generations would recognise, physically, as 'a personal computer'), which I think also appeared in that '(in)famous' 1977 year, was not called a computer, either - it was called 'PET' (Personal Electronic Transactor').
Kind Regards, John
If you read the Snopes article it does put some context around what he said.
The PDP series (Programmed Data Processor, Personal) was effectively over by 1977 (PDP-1 1959, PDP-11 1970, VAX 11/780 1977)
That might be true in terms of manufacture, but I was certainly working with PDP-8 and PDP-11 based systems in the late 70s, probably beyond.
Kind Regards, John
That is what I meant.
PDP-8, early 70s. Learnt a lot about what an assembler does when I ran out of space for it and had to start converting my code by hand.
From the mid-70s to the end of the 70s (and probably into the 80s), I was associated with a 'brand new' hospital whose patient monitoring system in its Coronary Care Unit was based on a PDP-8 or PDP-11 (can't remember which). Whenever the system crashed (which was quite frequently!), we had to re-boot it using a 'mile' of punched tape (and then re-wind the tape by hand!).
Kind Regards, John
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