I used DOS before Windows existed. I also used PC-DOS!
Okay, maybe you just didn't read computer magazines and such at the time like I did. The Symantec and Norton products I mentioned were well-regarded at the time, and the original Norton Utilities featured the original PC defragger and original PC undelete utility.
Although, my experiences with Symantec's THINK compilers were in college when I had to use them for a class I took (oddly enough, in the engineering department and not in the computer science department).
I typed MLX into my Commodore 64 painstakingly line by line, then tried to enter one of those machine language programs from the back of... what was that magazine? I must have mis-entered a line or two or something, or mistyped MLX, because it never worked. SUCH a bummer.
In retrospect, if I could do things over, I probably would've preferred getting an Amiga back then. It was out and cost the same as the POS PC clone I had, but was a far more capable machine.
In January I packed up a load of old diaries and letters and song lyrics and posted them over to Berlin. I included the hard drive from my very first PC, hoping to get some of my oldest documents, text files and music compositions.
The size of this hard drive? 80mb! Whoot! I plugged it into various PCs and adapters, and I managed to make my laptop recognize a hard drive was at the end of the cable, but couldn't get anything off of it. Oh well.
Anyway, while we're on the topic, here's an old forum post from another thread:
I made a post on a forum about my "computer history" and thought I'd share it here on my blog, for the sake of nostalgia.
First computer in the house: Amstrad Word Processor. Also good for Basic, text adventures and chess.
A bit hazy on the order, but: Amstrad 464. Games and more Basic programming. Save your games to cassette tape!
And then I got the next model up! An Amstrad 6128, with a colour monitor and a disk drive. The games loaded sooooo fast!
That one was mine. My brother got a black and white TV, so didn't need a monitor. He got: ZX Spectrum +2
Next up, Amiga 500: This was actually usable as a word processor, for image creation, even making animated movies. Also the sound on this system was way ahead of any other system. Oh yeah... it had a mouse!
And then, Amiga 1200: This motherfucker had a HARD DRIVE! Enough to store something like 20 floppy disks worth of games for super fast loading. And 2MB of RAM. Awesome! I did my first music sequencing with this one.
To be clear, I never bought any of these new. Always second hand, so I was always a bit behind the curve.
Then I bought a 386 PC, with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. I used it to run Cubasis, a very streamlined midi sequencer which could control my keyboard. Yay.
I guess it looked a bit like this (just like every PC tower case).
Next was 486. It was a bit better.
Next was a Pentium computer, which was my first ever brand new computer. Windows 98! It ran the latest games, and had a 20gb Hard Drive. I put in a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live card, with a breakout port in the front slots where a CD drive would go. Now I could do audio recording, and play back multiple tracks in real time without lags and skips. I upgraded a few times, and added a DVD drive.
I then bought an all-new PC system, but only used it for a few months. I bought a Macbook for traveling, intending to use the more powerful PC when at home. It turned out that once I got used to OSX, I could never face going back to Windows XP.
As I bought the Macbook as a travel laptop, it was a bit underpowered right from the start. So a few years later I upgraded to a waaaaay more expensive MacBook Pro. 15 inch high res screen, SSD hard drive, 8 GB RAM. Super fast and works perfectly as a desktop (with an external monitor) and for traveling. I also run Windows 7. Moore's Law kind holds true for me, but I think the price went up each time too.
I just noticed that history is a bit wrong, due to being reminded by taking my first PC apart in January. My first PC wasn't a tower, it was one of those squat boxes, and the monitor stood on top of it. It had a turbo button. My second PC (the 486) was a tower.
1990 would have been the first time I used a computer. My friend Mark had an older sister who had an already dated Mac that we played some really really old single-color games on. Eventually she upgraded to a 386 and then 486. The first computer I had the ability to use unsupervised was a Hewlett Packard 133mhz with 16 megs of ram and a 1.4 gb hard drive. That was my MOO 2/Mechwarrior box. Kept me entertained for a VERY long time. That was at my grandparents though, so I almost never got to use it.
I also played games at my friend Kenny's a lot. He always had a better computer. I bought games just to play on his box... or rather watch him play. It was lame.
The first "my computer" I had was another Hewlett Packard with an 800mhz processor. That was my highschool box. And then to my Pentium 4 HP starter college box. And then to computers I've built.
Basically, I didn't have anywhere near the opportunities some people seem to have had.
Man I hope I get this apartment. My friend/mutual acquaintance is in need of a roommate and I really hope I get to be that roommate. Its way nicer than most of the apartments in the area, and we both have similar interests and mental issues. She said she's thinking things could work out, but that's still not a definite yes.
I have this insane hankering to watch the 2004 television series Century City, about lawyers in the year 2030. It's apparently not very good but I remember seeing like half of one episode and the concepts it brought up stuck in my mind deep enough that I simply have to see it.
It's on Hulu, but I can't get at it because I live in Soviet Canadia. Any recommendations from the forumbrains?
Not sure where to post this, random comments covers everything I guess.
I am so torn about the Chik-fil-a drama going on right now. They have officially declared themselves hateful bigots and supporters of anti-gay organizations, aren't ashamed at all and don't care one bit that they are excluding a whole group of people (by hating them, not literally banning them from the store). Hence the call for boycotting them if you support gay rights. Then again, the food is pretty good. They have the best fast food salads around that are actually low in calories and good for you. And the chik-n-minis are delicious. I really want my chick-n-minis. And now that I'm not supposed to eat there anymore, I REALLY REALLY want those chick-n-minis. Like when its Sunday and you really want waffle fries and a milk shake, drive out to one and realized they're closed. Like that.
What should I do?? I heard there is some kind of support chik-fil-a day coming up that the christians are doing. If me eating there means I support them, then I shouldn't eat there. But those chik-n-minis are so gud. ;-;
What should I do?? I heard there is some kind of support chik-fil-a day coming up that the christians are doing. If me eating there means I support them, then I shouldn't eat there. But those chik-n-minis are so gud. ;-;
Make your own version of them and do not use MSG in them. Search Youtube for the Chik-fil-gay and you can find the recipe.
If they use their profits to support organizations that lobby against gay rights, then boycotting them is morally correct. If they don't, who cares? Eat chicken.
I love how people JUST realized Chick-fil-a was evil. This has not been a secret. It has been public knowledge that they have been this way for many years. If you were willing to support them then, why not now?
The reason you shouldn't eat there is that no matter how good it tastes, it's poisonous fast food. You shouldn't eat fast food ever unless it's an emergency situation, no matter whether or not the chain is evil or not. Also, all fast food chains have a lot of evil going on, even if its not bigoted religious evil.
I had a friend that worked at Chick-fil-a and he was adamant that it wasn't "fast food," but quick service. The difference being the food, while fried and generally not good for you, was not the chemically engineered evil that most fast food is. And fast food isn't evil, people just eat waaaaaaay too much of it on average. Example, a McD's double cheese burger is 500 calories, by itself.
Comments
Although, my experiences with Symantec's THINK compilers were in college when I had to use them for a class I took (oddly enough, in the engineering department and not in the computer science department).
My mom's exact words when buying it were "Who's ever going to need a gigabyte hard drive?".
The size of this hard drive? 80mb! Whoot! I plugged it into various PCs and adapters, and I managed to make my laptop recognize a hard drive was at the end of the cable, but couldn't get anything off of it. Oh well.
Anyway, while we're on the topic, here's an old forum post from another thread:
I made a post on a forum about my "computer history" and thought I'd share it here on my blog, for the sake of nostalgia.
First computer in the house:
Amstrad Word Processor. Also good for Basic, text adventures and chess.
A bit hazy on the order, but:
Amstrad 464. Games and more Basic programming. Save your games to cassette tape!
And then I got the next model up! An Amstrad 6128, with a colour monitor and a disk drive. The games loaded sooooo fast!
That one was mine. My brother got a black and white TV, so didn't need a monitor. He got:
ZX Spectrum +2
Next up, Amiga 500:
This was actually usable as a word processor, for image creation, even making animated movies. Also the sound on this system was way ahead of any other system. Oh yeah... it had a mouse!
And then, Amiga 1200:
This motherfucker had a HARD DRIVE! Enough to store something like 20 floppy disks worth of games for super fast loading. And 2MB of RAM. Awesome! I did my first music sequencing with this one.
To be clear, I never bought any of these new. Always second hand, so I was always a bit behind the curve.
Then I bought a 386 PC, with Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. I used it to run Cubasis, a very streamlined midi sequencer which could control my keyboard. Yay.
I guess it looked a bit like this (just like every PC tower case).
Next was 486. It was a bit better.
Next was a Pentium computer, which was my first ever brand new computer. Windows 98! It ran the latest games, and had a 20gb Hard Drive. I put in a Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live card, with a breakout port in the front slots where a CD drive would go. Now I could do audio recording, and play back multiple tracks in real time without lags and skips. I upgraded a few times, and added a DVD drive.
I then bought an all-new PC system, but only used it for a few months. I bought a Macbook for traveling, intending to use the more powerful PC when at home. It turned out that once I got used to OSX, I could never face going back to Windows XP.
As I bought the Macbook as a travel laptop, it was a bit underpowered right from the start. So a few years later I upgraded to a waaaaay more expensive MacBook Pro.
15 inch high res screen, SSD hard drive, 8 GB RAM. Super fast and works perfectly as a desktop (with an external monitor) and for traveling. I also run Windows 7. Moore's Law kind holds true for me, but I think the price went up each time too.
I also played games at my friend Kenny's a lot. He always had a better computer. I bought games just to play on his box... or rather watch him play. It was lame.
The first "my computer" I had was another Hewlett Packard with an 800mhz processor. That was my highschool box. And then to my Pentium 4 HP starter college box. And then to computers I've built.
Basically, I didn't have anywhere near the opportunities some people seem to have had.
EDIT: ah yeah, that was in the blog post I copied to this thread again. I didn't write that today.
I look forward to this game.
It's on Hulu, but I can't get at it because I live in Soviet Canadia. Any recommendations from the forumbrains?
I am so torn about the Chik-fil-a drama going on right now. They have officially declared themselves hateful bigots and supporters of anti-gay organizations, aren't ashamed at all and don't care one bit that they are excluding a whole group of people (by hating them, not literally banning them from the store). Hence the call for boycotting them if you support gay rights. Then again, the food is pretty good. They have the best fast food salads around that are actually low in calories and good for you. And the chik-n-minis are delicious. I really want my chick-n-minis. And now that I'm not supposed to eat there anymore, I REALLY REALLY want those chick-n-minis. Like when its Sunday and you really want waffle fries and a milk shake, drive out to one and realized they're closed. Like that.
What should I do?? I heard there is some kind of support chik-fil-a day coming up that the christians are doing. If me eating there means I support them, then I shouldn't eat there. But those chik-n-minis are so gud. ;-;
The reason you shouldn't eat there is that no matter how good it tastes, it's poisonous fast food. You shouldn't eat fast food ever unless it's an emergency situation, no matter whether or not the chain is evil or not. Also, all fast food chains have a lot of evil going on, even if its not bigoted religious evil.
I agree, everybody knew (or should have known) about Chik-Fil-A being homophobic. Been that way for years.