Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Greed, Zealotry, and the Commodore 64

Posted by Soulskill on from the and-nostalgia-flavored-candy dept.

jira writes "On the occasion of the Commodore 64's rebirth as an Atom-equipped nettop, the Guardian's Jon Blyth remembers what the original Commodore 64 taught him. Among other things: 'But look at it, all brown, ugly and lovely. It taught me so much. The Commodore 64 taught me about zealotry. After upgrading from the inferior ZX Spectrum, I would try to convince the Sinclair loyalists to follow me. I would invite them to my house, and let them see that with just eight colors and a monophonic sound chip, their lives lacked true depth. My evangelism quickly faded into impatience. So, I can now see why American Baptists get so miffy about atheists — it's horrible dealing with people who don't realize how much better you are.'"

14 of 645 comments (clear)

  1. monophonic sound chip? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    there is no ZX spectrum with a "monophonic sound chip"

    the original 16 and 48k machines have no sound chip, the sound is software driven by toggling an I/O bit.
    the 128k machines use the AY which is 3 channel

    so there! :p

  2. Goes both ways... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 4, Insightful

    So, I can now see why American Baptists get so miffy about atheists -- it's horrible dealing with people who don't realize how much better you are.

    That's funny... that's the same reason I, an atheist, get so miffy about Christians, especially Baptists, especially young-earth Creationists.

    Hopefully this is a whoosh and there's some sarcasm I'm missing or something...

    --
    Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    1. Re:Goes both ways... by SanityInAnarchy · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I'm a medicinal chemist working on a program to cure Alzheimer's disease, and I thank God for my abilities.

      Tell me, what part of your abilities came from God? Did he go through the years of school for you? Perhaps he inspired you with the knowledge of how chemical reactions work?

      Thanking God for your abilities is just pushing it back a step. Instead of me disrespecting a doctor by giving God the credit instead, that's you disrespecting every human teacher you ever had. If you're thanking God for the aptitude alone, thank your parents -- nature or nurture, the part you're crediting God with likely came from them.

      If you're thanking God for every single event that deterministically led to you being where you are now, basically for setting the universe in motion, even if that were true, that seems absurdly far removed from what you're actually doing with medicine -- how do you know you're even doing what the creator of the universe would want?

      I think you presume too much of the Doctor when you deny the existence of miracles.

      What is it I'm supposed to be presuming that isn't possible?

      --
      Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
    2. Re:Goes both ways... by bigstrat2003 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Right. The "whoosh" is that both groups think they're superior to each other, and get frustrated that no one will listen to their superior ways. Just because they think they are superior doesn't mean they are; similarly, just because you think you're superior doesn't mean you are.

      --
      "16MB (fuck off, MiB fascists)" - The Mighty Buzzard
    3. Re:Goes both ways... by geminidomino · · Score: 4, Funny

      Upon interview, God was reportedly commented:

      "What? The guy was a fucking moron!"

    4. Re:Goes both ways... by MichaelSmith · · Score: 5, Informative

      “A lioness went straight for him, knocked him down and severed his carotid artery.”

      ...and thanked God for her lunch?

      --
      http://michaelsmith.id.au
    5. Re:Goes both ways... by Chicken_Kickers · · Score: 4, Insightful

      So what if he wants to thank God for his abilities? What is it to you? Are you offended by this? If God is as useless as you claim to be, then of what harm is his belief? Presumably, he is a competent scientist and would produce the same output regardless whether you agree to his beliefs or not. We who believe in God (I'm a muslim microbiologist) thank God for allowing us the opportunity to become what we are, to achieve what we have set out in life. In Islam, a core belief is the belief of predestination (qada' and qadar) meaning what has happened, is happening and will happen is already written. As humans we are given the gift of "free will", but this free will is limited by events out of our control. A child may inherit genes that confer him the abilities of a mathematical genius for example, but if he was born say in the Gaza Strip, then such potential will probably never be reached. As such, when good things happens to us, we thank God, when bad things happens, we ask for his protection and we say "insyallah" (God Willing) when we plan for the future.

    6. Re:Goes both ways... by WillKemp · · Score: 4, Insightful

      In Islam, a core belief is the belief of predestination (qada' and qadar) meaning what has happened, is happening and will happen is already written. As humans we are given the gift of "free will" [......]

      You're a scientist and you can't see that those two things are mutually exclusive?

  3. Speaking of greed... by fuzzyfuzzyfungus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Isn't this the third or fourth vaporware company to claim that it somewhere scooped up the rights to flay Commodore's carcass and smear the mutilated skin of the brand onto some boring x86 whitebox?

    In these days of emulators and cheap FPGAs, it just seems tasteless to throw a plastic skin around the winning architecture and call it a C64(even more tasteless to claim to do that, then not follow through, of course...) If you want to bring the past into the present, take advantage of the fact that modern tech should be able to reproduce old gear for considerably less, even in small quantities. If you want to hearken back to the days of the architecture wars, when numerous competing systems existed, featuring a variety of exotic design choices, perhaps one of the hobby projects in creating something exotic, for its own sake, is a more appropriate homage...

  4. Re:The best C64 programs were 1 line long. by commodore64_love · · Score: 4, Informative

    The best C64 programs were zero lines long. They tossed the Commodore ROM in the trash, thereby freeing-up all 64 k of memory, and loaded directly from the 1541 (or 71) disk drive.

    "64k should be enough for anybody." With GEOS you can turn your 64k machine into a clone of the original Mac (with WYSIWYG word processing, a trashcan, and everything). My church pastor did all his newsletters on the Commodore=64. And it doesn't cost $4000. More like $400. With music and color! ;-)

    --
    "I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
  5. Re:Yeah can't figure the appeal of the Sinclair by 0123456 · · Score: 4, Informative

    If I didn't have a Commodore, I would sooner have an 8-bit Atari or Apple instead, not a Sinclair.

    I'm sure most Spectrum owners would too, considering that those machines were, AFAIR, around three times the price.

    The Spectrum was the cheapest computer that could play half-decent games, and its popularity became self-supporting as it lead more game developers to make games for it.

  6. Primary Programming. by headkase · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's easy to develop mental blind-spots when you are receiving your primary programming. Try teaching belief systems to someone who has been raised without myths and given reason and critical thinking skills. In that fully formed individual, they usually tear the mythos to shreds and do not accept it. When you are a child you do not have the thinking skills to reject fantastical ideas. Those basic thinking patterns are then used to "hang" your later learning off of. I'd be ashamed to handicap my children with such outmoded ideas. Religion fulfills a societal function only which is diminishing rapidly, at least in first-world nations.

    --
    Shh.
    1. Re:Primary Programming. by Cruciform · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ideology being the key.

      Atheism is not an ideology any more than not believing in Tarot cards is one.

      Stalin and Mao changed the figure of authority from an unquestionable man in the sky to one in a mansion. They made a religion of themselves and their politics.

      The dogmatic faith of their ideologies was the danger, not the fact that they didn't believe in gods.

      That is what make any religious or political ideology dangerous, dogma and the belief in it.

  7. That's not a Commodore 64 by Announcer · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Good grief. Sure, it's outdated, but the Commie 64 was more than just another computer. It was a hobby. It was a pastime. It was a learning tool. It was an EXPERIENCE. If you had the ability and knowledge, you could add new features and functionality to the machine by cutting traces and soldering wires to the leads on chips, to your extension circuitry. I added all kinds of extras to mine, including a BASIC extension, MicroMon Assembler, a cartridge "bypass" switch, etc. Can't do those kinds of things with modern PC's.

    My first word processor was "Speedscript". I typed it in from COMPUTE! Magazine over several days. That program did, in six kilobytes, what WORD was doing in hundreds, back in the early 90's! I used it more than any other software on that Ol' 64!

    Now, want to talk about emulators? How about this one:

    http://www.mymorninglight.org.nyud.net/C64/J64.htm

    Now THAT is a COOL C= 64 emulator, if I do say so myself! :)

    --
    Willie...