Quote: Tim Walker @ July 10 2009, 10:46 PM BSTSemantics.
Not really...
I was using the Internet a lot, long before T B-L invented WWW.
Named and shamed? Page 8
Quote: Tim Walker @ July 11 2009, 1:52 AM BSTJeez! It must have had at least 48K RAM for that money!
64k, if I remember correctly. We later added a card that bumped it up to 128k and allowed for an 80-character display. We added a second 5.25" floppy, too!
I remember spending an entire $200 paycheck to buy 2MB of RAM to bump my 486 up to the minimum 4MB required to run Photoshop.
I have TWO Apple ][e up in my attic.
Given to me a few years ago, I've not run them yet.
I thought the 'e' was for european edition??? Where were you?
& for the record I started using computers back in 1962. And was a systems programmer of the London Atlas 1964-68 and so on.
One of my many Namesakes:
Quote: billwill @ July 11 2009, 2:07 AM BSTI thought the 'e' was for european edition??? Where were you?
No, it stood for "enhanced."
I played some sort of lunar landing game on my father's friend's programmable calculator circa 1972. I think that was my first computer experience.
This is me standing next to a Ferranti Pegasus Computer at the Science Museum, which was very very similar (same console etc etc) to the more powerful model the Mercury Computer.
The first computer I used was such a Mercury and at that time it was the ONLY computer owned by the whole of the University of London.
I can remember being in a technology class (the school's poor try at making shop sound less redneckish) and we had to program a robot to pick up a box. After typing 950 lines of directions, the damned thing would pick up the box and drop it half way up.
Oh, here's my feeble attempt at getting back on task. I was named Andrea after the Andrea Doria, the cruise ship that sank. And if that wasn't enough of a bad omen, the Andrea Gail was the name of the boat that disappeared in the Atlantic and was the basis for "The Perfect Storm." Very frustrating.
Did you ever stick some blu-tack up and pretend that was a pair of tits in front of you?
EDIT
About Bill's last post. Ahem.
Quote: billwill @ July 11 2009, 2:17 AM BSTThis is me standing next to a Ferranti Pegasus Computer at the Science Museum
Great photo!
I operated a state-of-the-art jam-resistant spread spectrum satellite system while I was in the Army in the 1980s. It had 128k of RAM, loaded via cassettes (that were shipped in secret government courier pouches) and used an orange plasma display that had a discrete IC chip for each pixel on the display. The guts of it was basically a Commodore 64.
Quote: Badge @ July 11 2009, 2:22 AM BSTDid you ever stick some blu-tack up and pretend that was a pair of tits in front of you?
EDIT
About Bill's last post. Ahem.
Not on that one, those tubes were oscilloscopes, but later the CDC 6600 had a console with two HUGE round vector screens. (about 19" across) and one of the systems-programmer joke programs doing the rounds, used to take over the console and amuse/startle the operator with each screen having a (crude) image of a nipple which jiggled.
What was displayed on the o-scopes?
Quote: DaButt @ July 11 2009, 2:38 AM BSTWhat was displayed on the o-scopes?
You had a switch to chose, but basically as Ferranti Mercury was a serial bit machine using mercury delay lines as registers, you could display the contents of the accumulator, B-registers or the program counter.
Clock was 1 microsecond (I think), words were 60 bit so most operations took at least 60 microseconds.
Quote: billwill @ July 11 2009, 2:45 AM BSTYou had a switch to chose, but basically as Ferranti Mercury was a serial bit machine using mercury delay lines as registers, you could display the contents of the accumulator, B-registers or the program counter.
So actual characters and not squiggles?
Quote: AndreaLynne @ July 11 2009, 2:21 AM BSTI can remember being in a technology class (the school's poor try at making shop sound less redneckish) and we had to program a robot to pick up a box. After typing 950 lines of directions, the damned thing would pick up the box and drop it half way up.
Oh, here's my feeble attempt at getting back on task. I was named Andrea after the Andrea Doria, the cruise ship that sank. And if that wasn't enough of a bad omen, the Andrea Gail was the name of the boat that disappeared in the Atlantic and was the basis for "The Perfect Storm." Very frustrating.
the name Andrea Doria rings a bell.. Do you recall WHERE it sank? I may have done a dive on it.
But I was a poor dive-log-keeper, so I can't be sure.
Quote: billwill @ July 11 2009, 2:52 AM BSTthe name Andrea Doria rings a bell.. Do you recall WHERE it sank? I may have done a dive on it.
Off the coast of Massachusetts, I think. It is/was a fairly infamous wreck.
Quote: DaButt @ July 11 2009, 2:49 AM BSTSo actual characters and not squiggles?
OH no,... genuine voltage traces of pulses in the delay lines.
You have a single key which can pause/resume the entire CPU so that the trace shows a single value.
Character generators didn't exist back then. Far too much hardware (vacuum tubes of course) to be economical.
Quote: DaButt @ July 11 2009, 2:55 AM BSTOff the coast of Massachusetts, I think. It is/was a fairly infamous wreck.
Ah, not me then. I must have read of other peoples dives on it.