Is it 20 million, like Tito paid? Is it the whatever the market will bear? Is it actual expenses + a 10% profit margin?
The space programs are the culmination of years of research, expenditures, and a few deaths. It trivializes it when Tito, John Glenn, or anybody else who doesn't belong up there gets to go for a ride.
It also pisses me off, because Tito's 20 million ride has been heavily subsidized by the pre-existing space problems of several nations. If Tito needs to get into space that badly, let him fund his own friggin space program.
Should we really be burning off hundreds of thousands of gallons of propellant (with unknown environmental cost) for the sake of tourism? Visiting space is a little different than a field trip to New York City.
The DMCA has a provision to allow a copyright holder to demand the removal of copyrighted work. The copyright holder has to identify the work, and where it is being made available before it can be removed.
The judge can't go beyond this; it's not the law. The RIAA must continue to identify each indivual song.
The recording industry didn't shut Napster down. They are bleeding it to death.
Banning users wasn't going to shut Napster down because a banned user could fix their Windows registry and signon with a new ID. The IDs also required no verification.
Screening the shared files for copyrighted material and automatically not sharing them is a killer though. Nobody is going to bother with rediculous naming schemes to share their content - there are easier things to do. (Like BearShare, or other Gnutella clients.)
My take on it? Gnutella all the way. Now if it were just a bit more usable.;-)
Napster would have been a great service if the quality of the MP3s was limited to 96kbps or 112kbps. Something that is similar to broadcast radio quality, but not CD quality. Then people could have continued to sample and enjoy new music, while having an incentive to go buy the real thing if they wanted a higher quality version. Just like we have today with radio. Too bad the recording industry has cut off their nose to spite their face.
President Bush has a policy initiative to give "faith-based" organizations more ability to receive federal funding for charitable work, which is something they are forbidden to do now. Apparently, the administration believes that a lot of social good can be achieved by these faith-based groups.
In this spirit, I would think that professional programmers volunteering their time to freely available projects would be encouraged by the administration. Under the new policy initiative, you could actually receive federal funding for your good deeds!
I'm sorry... sometimes she's a little insecure.
I checked my logs and 3 different dolts tried to telnet in! Like a firewall is going to have an anonymous account....
Hi, I'm an older but energetic lady looking for a young stud. I'm a 486-66 DX/2 with 20MB of RAM (in 30 pin SIMMs), 256kb cache, VESA local bus SCSI and VESA local bus video! I live in an original IBM AT desktop case (a fixer-up), and I direct traffic for a cable modem and two pentium boxes in a residential neighborhood.
I've got 4GB of storage, but I only have 84 keys on my keyboard - no jokes about hitting F11 or F12 keys, ok? I don't have a monitor either... I channel through other computers on occasion.
Interested? Just finger me! Today I can be found at 204.73.163.16.
Oh please, if you are so sick of the US Patent Office, then go someplace where the Patent Office is more enlightened. A third world country would impress you.
The system generally works. Bad patents are challenged and overturned. See BountyQuest.com if you need proof.
OO stands apart from GUI. OO is useful for implementing GUI systems, but OO is useful for lots of other things too. The athor implies that without the need for better GUI implementation techniques that OO wouldn't be so popular today. I disagree with that - GUIs or not, OO is still popular.
OO is about defining data and operations on that data. If the definition is tight and the operations are well defined, then you have acheived OO'ness. Thus, you can do object oriented programming in BASIC, COBOL, C++, C, Java, etc.
If the guy wants to trash specific OO methodologies, then fine. However, generalizations such as linking GUI to the rise of OO program are hilarious.
A lot of hardware vendors write simulators for their hardware before the hardware is available. This lets them get started on the system software (OS and compilers) while the hardware is being developed and debugged.
It sounds like AMD's software simulator for the 64 bit Sledgehammer was too slow to use.. so they're using Transmeta technology to ship something even better - a chip that behaves like the real thing. A Transmeta chip can simulate a 64 bit Sledgehammer, probably much faster than the software simulator.
Imagine what a developer gets on their desk - a hardware box that looks and feels like a 64 bit Sledgehammer, except the BIOS initializes the CPU a little differently and it's a bit slower than the real thing, which doesn't exist yet. Sure beats the hell out of simulating everything, including the I/O, which is the other alternative.
This is an old trick - it's called going wide, instead of fast. The real life analogy is the throughput of a 10 lane expressway moving slowly, vs. a 4 lane highway moving quickly. Throughput may be the same, but the traffic on the expressway doesn't have to go as fast.
Of course you have to remember that when absolute speed matters, going slowly on the expressway doesn't satisfy.
Big machines usually go wider instead of fast. (A gross generalization.) Which is why a mainframe can push so much data, even though the clock rate of the CPU is probably embarrasingly slow. A Pentium II or III might have a 64 bit path to memory, which is a lot for a 32 bit processor - years ago an RS/6000 workstation could have a 256 bit path to memory.
The problem with wider vs. faster is pin counts and wiring. When CPUs get too many pins, they become difficult to build and unweildy. Wiring on the motherboard becomes more complex too. That's why there is a lot of interest in 'serial' data transfer standards. Going wide is cool, it's just harder to build.
I know it's not sexy, but check out the AS/400 sometime. It uses Power PC processors that are 64 bits, some of which implement what IBM calls Hardware Multithreading. Hardware Multithreading isn't as radical at SMT, but it is a good step.
The CPU has two register files, each of which is called a "thread." All of the architected registers are duplicated, so it is like having two processes/executable units cached on the processor. When one is executing, if it stalls on memory the processor context switches to the other. The context switch is a hard boundary - only one thread can execute at at time.
This isn't as fine grained as SMT, but it is easy to implement and it provides pretty good bang for the buck. It improves throughput, not speed. The throughput improves because the processor can try to do more work on the other thread while the first one is stalled. Some deadlock prevention stuff is thrown in, as well as some operating system tweaks to make it run better.
There is a published paper - it's in the IEEE archives, from 1997 or 1998.
This is relevant because it's been out for a few years (1998), it's commercially available, and thousands of AS/400 customers are using it today. (And it works so well, most don't even know that it is there.)
IBM AS/400 Northstar or Pulsar processor. These are implementations of Power PC. They are also 64 bit processors, as the AS/400 has been a true/full 64 bit machine since 1995.
Northstar processors were first available with OS release V4R3. (1998 maybe?) Pulsar processors have just become available in the last few months.
These are not MPs on a chip - each chip has two hardware threads that context switch on memory stalls. It's not as fine grained as SMT, but the bang for the buck is great.
The AS/400 has several processors available today with what IBM calls Hardware MultiThreading. Each CPU chip has two threads of execution (contexts or threads). When the current thread stalls on memory, a discrete context switch to the other thread occurs and it runs for a bit.
It is important to note that both threads have state resident in the hardware at the same time, but the threads do not execute concurrently. This is different than SMT, where instructions from multiple streams of execution can be in the pipelines concurrently.
This trick is simple, and it works well. I can't tell you the throughput improvements, but it is well worth the silicon that it costs to implement it. Also, some additional operating system tweaks make it run smoother.
SCSI costs 4x more than IDE now because manufactures can charge 4x more. Most SCSI hardware goes to servers, most of which are run by large companies. Large companies will pay 4x for the perceived/real performance difference.
I remember when SCSI and IDE cost about the same too.. the large corporation that I work for had a hard drive on the employee sales program, same price for IDE or SCSI-II. That was in 1995. As you noted, the price differential is 4x now.
What happened in those four years? Macs, Amiga's, and other SCSI only machines faded out, and IDE grabbed the low end. SCSI is usually only shipped on server type boxes, and on big hardware like AS/400 and RS/6000 machines. Those machines require SCSI, and SCSI vendors can charge what the market will bear.
It hurts.. I have several all SCSI systems at home. I finally broke down and purchased an IDE CD-ROM. I feel so dirty.:-(
As a side note, SCSI is falling out of popularity for other devices too. SCSI scanners are more rare, as are Zip drives, tape drives etc. These things are going to USB, which is quite inferior for lots of these applications.
(I have an 18GB IBM SCSI drive, a 4gb TR-4 SCSI tape backup, a 32x SCSI Plextor, a Yamaha 4416S SCSI CD-RW, a SCSI Zip 100, and a HP4c SCSI scanner - try that on an IDE/parallel port/usb system and see how stable it is.)
I hope that you don't think that SCSI implementations are really as expensive as the manufacturers are charging for them. People/companies will pay more for SCSI than IDE because of the performance difference, whether perceived or not.
Servers generally use SCSI because there is a performance difference. Corporations buy servers. Manufactures will charge what they can get, not what things actually cost.
VM stands for "virtual machine." It gives the impression of running on a real piece of hardware. VM is so good at virtualizing the machine, it was used for OS development. (It really started as an internal OS development tool, not a standalone OS.)
A hacker working on one virtual machine can't trash a different virtual machine, or the root machine (which may also be virtual). It's like process protection, but extended to the entire OS environment.
390 series hardware uptime is measured in years. There is so much error checking and redundancy. They rarely go down for hardware problems. And when I say rare, I mean many years, as in 10 or 20. (Sorry, I don't have the exact number handy, but it is bigger than the age of many/. readers.)
Quality generally takes time. Gen X-ers sitting around drinking expensive coffee whipping out Java code looks cool and exciting, but this is a distortion on the way the world works. Operating systems are rarely built my new college grads. It takes years of plodding and experience to do it right. (Obligatory Linus reference - although young, he stands on the shoulders of giants.)
Take a look at the AS/400. It's not sexy. It's not cutting edge; in fact, it usually lags behind the latest and greatest. But it's scalable, it's been 64 bit for years, and it is highly regarded as rock solid. We have a structured environment for development. We stress quality early. We fix our bugs, not tell people to wait for the next release. Contrast this to the Microsoft way.
A friend of mine wrote me a DOS TSR back in 1989 that captured and recorded every keystroke. The victims were users that I helped adminstrate systems for. I wanted them to tighten up password security.
Just like the hardware device, every keystroke was captured.
It was hilarious to watch the look on the sysadmin's face as I told him the passwords that people were using were too trivial. He said how do I know. I told him his passwords. Then I showed him a list of a few others.
The moral of the story - physical security is still important. PGP gets you nowhere if you've been compromised at the physical level.
I still have my original TS1000, which was my first computer at the age of 12. I picked up another one for parts later on.
The TS1000 was the Timex/American version of the ZX81, a product of "Uncle" Clive Sinclair. It's notable features where:
BASIC in an 8KB ROM.
2KB RAM on board
Expandable to 16KB RAM with a "backpack"
Expandable to 54KB RAM max with some mods.
A 40 key keyboard with multiple shift modes to get all of the characters and BASIC keywords.
Cassette interface for program loading and storing.
A low cost thermal printer.
This was not a serious machine; it had major shortcomings. But the price was right.
The keyboards were very troublesome. The thin ribbon connector often cracked from the heat and aging, disabling the membrane keyboard. With a little experimentation you could still "pick" it with wire ties.;-)
The cassette interface was flakey too. They recommended a mono portable cassette recorder, run from batteries. The volume level had to be "just right."
The memory backpack was troublesome as well - it wiggled too much, breaking the connection to the card edge connector on the back of the machine.
Entering programs on this machine was truly unique - you didn't type the word "PRINT". You pressed "P", and depending on where you were on the line, the BASIC interpreter knew if you were going to enter a keyword ("PRINT"), or if you wanted the letter "P". Sorry, uppercase only.
It was amazing was assembly language programmers could do with this thing. I fondly remember the Flight Simulator, which fit on a 16KB machine. There were programmers toolkits on cassette, and other little applications. Data storage was a serious problem though.
Is there an archive of ZX81 software anywhere, possibly in WAV or MP3 format? I still have my cassettes, but after 16 years of disuse I doubt that they are readable.
Mike
PS: Search on google - there are several projects out there for emulators.
Get it? The original meaning of the word hacker is the computer operator. Back when I heard this definition (late '70s), the operator was a pretty technical person. It was a term of respect.
Too many people learned to associate hacking with doing something bad. It's not true.
Kinda like people saying 56k baud on a modem, when they really mean 56k bits per second. There is a big difference...
I just read the description of the Think NIC, and it looks interesting, but it has a few gotchas to it that would keep me from recommending it to neophytes:
- 800x600 max video resolution
- No hardware storage alternatives (ie: floppy, hard disk, etc.) Maybe a Zip will be supported via USB some year. Please.. at least something simple should be available.
- One choice of printer (Epson 740?) at the moment.
- If you don't want the vendor's OS upgrade, it's hard to do one yourself. For example, are you going to be able to create a bootable linux CD with no swap support and the FLASH device drivers that will actually work?
On the plus side, it's going to be hard for a user to screw anything up. And it does have ethernet, which is very forward thinking. There are going to be more and more broadband connections.
They shouldn't call these things computers. They are terminals, in the classical sense. Back 15 or 20 years ago, you could by a VT220, hook it to a modem, and be able to dial PSI Net, your local campus computer, or whatever. You then sent email, worked on your programs (via shell access), or did whatever. 20 years later, we've come back to that. Except now we have graphics.;-)
Go to http://oss.lineo.com/cuecat/ for this and other barcode/CueCat links. The detailed instructions for clipping the serial number are under "Declawing Your CueCat."
No, the CueCat is a little different than a banner ad. The CutCat is a link to the physical world, whereas banner ads come from your internet feed. Now the company can possibly track anything you scan, ranging from your CD collection, your books, etc. And Digital Convergence isn't being exactly forthright about what they plan to do with the data. They call everything intellectual property, remember?
Slashdot Mirror
Is it 20 million, like Tito paid? Is it the whatever the market will bear? Is it actual expenses + a 10% profit margin?
The space programs are the culmination of years of research, expenditures, and a few deaths. It trivializes it when Tito, John Glenn, or anybody else who doesn't belong up there gets to go for a ride.
It also pisses me off, because Tito's 20 million ride has been heavily subsidized by the pre-existing space problems of several nations. If Tito needs to get into space that badly, let him fund his own friggin space program.
Should we really be burning off hundreds of thousands of gallons of propellant (with unknown environmental cost) for the sake of tourism? Visiting space is a little different than a field trip to New York City.
The DMCA has a provision to allow a copyright holder to demand the removal of copyrighted work. The copyright holder has to identify the work, and where it is being made available before it can be removed.
The judge can't go beyond this; it's not the law. The RIAA must continue to identify each indivual song.
This will not go far.
The recording industry didn't shut Napster down. They are bleeding it to death.
;-)
Banning users wasn't going to shut Napster down because a banned user could fix their Windows registry and signon with a new ID. The IDs also required no verification.
Screening the shared files for copyrighted material and automatically not sharing them is a killer though. Nobody is going to bother with rediculous naming schemes to share their content - there are easier things to do. (Like BearShare, or other Gnutella clients.)
My take on it? Gnutella all the way. Now if it were just a bit more usable.
Napster would have been a great service if the quality of the MP3s was limited to 96kbps or 112kbps. Something that is similar to broadcast radio quality, but not CD quality. Then people could have continued to sample and enjoy new music, while having an incentive to go buy the real thing if they wanted a higher quality version. Just like we have today with radio. Too bad the recording industry has cut off their nose to spite their face.
President Bush has a policy initiative to give "faith-based" organizations more ability to receive federal funding for charitable work, which is something they are forbidden to do now. Apparently, the administration believes that a lot of social good can be achieved by these faith-based groups.
In this spirit, I would think that professional programmers volunteering their time to freely available projects would be encouraged by the administration. Under the new policy initiative, you could actually receive federal funding for your good deeds!
OS's are just religions, right?
I'm sorry ... sometimes she's a little insecure.
....
I checked my logs and 3 different dolts tried to telnet in! Like a firewall is going to have an anonymous account
Hi, I'm an older but energetic lady looking for a young stud. I'm a 486-66 DX/2 with 20MB of RAM (in 30 pin SIMMs), 256kb cache, VESA local bus SCSI and VESA local bus video! I live in an original IBM AT desktop case (a fixer-up), and I direct traffic for a cable modem and two pentium boxes in a residential neighborhood.
... I channel through other computers on occasion.
I've got 4GB of storage, but I only have 84 keys on my keyboard - no jokes about hitting F11 or F12 keys, ok? I don't have a monitor either
Interested? Just finger me! Today I can be found at 204.73.163.16.
Oh please, if you are so sick of the US Patent Office, then go someplace where the Patent Office is more enlightened. A third world country would impress you.
The system generally works. Bad patents are challenged and overturned. See BountyQuest.com if you need proof.
I should have proofed it better ...
;-)
OO stands apart from GUI. OO is useful for implementing GUI systems, but OO is useful for lots of other things too. The athor implies that without the need for better GUI implementation techniques that OO wouldn't be so popular today. I disagree with that - GUIs or not, OO is still popular.
A lot of people confuse these concepts:
- object oriented
- encapsulation
- code reuse
- inheritance/polymorphism
I'm not about to sit down and write a crisp definition - that's for the textbooks. Apparently the author hasn't read any recently.
OO is about defining data and operations on that data. If the definition is tight and the operations are well defined, then you have acheived OO'ness. Thus, you can do object oriented programming in BASIC, COBOL, C++, C, Java, etc.
If the guy wants to trash specific OO methodologies, then fine. However, generalizations such as linking GUI to the rise of OO program are hilarious.
A lot of hardware vendors write simulators for their hardware before the hardware is available. This lets them get started on the system software (OS and compilers) while the hardware is being developed and debugged.
.. so they're using Transmeta technology to ship something even better - a chip that behaves like the real thing. A Transmeta chip can simulate a 64 bit Sledgehammer, probably much faster than the software simulator.
It sounds like AMD's software simulator for the 64 bit Sledgehammer was too slow to use
Imagine what a developer gets on their desk - a hardware box that looks and feels like a 64 bit Sledgehammer, except the BIOS initializes the CPU a little differently and it's a bit slower than the real thing, which doesn't exist yet. Sure beats the hell out of simulating everything, including the I/O, which is the other alternative.
This is an old trick - it's called going wide, instead of fast. The real life analogy is the throughput of a 10 lane expressway moving slowly, vs. a 4 lane highway moving quickly. Throughput may be the same, but the traffic on the expressway doesn't have to go as fast.
Of course you have to remember that when absolute speed matters, going slowly on the expressway doesn't satisfy.
Big machines usually go wider instead of fast. (A gross generalization.) Which is why a mainframe can push so much data, even though the clock rate of the CPU is probably embarrasingly slow. A Pentium II or III might have a 64 bit path to memory, which is a lot for a 32 bit processor - years ago an RS/6000 workstation could have a 256 bit path to memory.
The problem with wider vs. faster is pin counts and wiring. When CPUs get too many pins, they become difficult to build and unweildy. Wiring on the motherboard becomes more complex too. That's why there is a lot of interest in 'serial' data transfer standards. Going wide is cool, it's just harder to build.
I know it's not sexy, but check out the AS/400 sometime. It uses Power PC processors that are 64 bits, some of which implement what IBM calls Hardware Multithreading. Hardware Multithreading isn't as radical at SMT, but it is a good step.
The CPU has two register files, each of which is called a "thread." All of the architected registers are duplicated, so it is like having two processes/executable units cached on the processor. When one is executing, if it stalls on memory the processor context switches to the other. The context switch is a hard boundary - only one thread can execute at at time.
This isn't as fine grained as SMT, but it is easy to implement and it provides pretty good bang for the buck. It improves throughput, not speed. The throughput improves because the processor can try to do more work on the other thread while the first one is stalled. Some deadlock prevention stuff is thrown in, as well as some operating system tweaks to make it run better.
There is a published paper - it's in the IEEE archives, from 1997 or 1998.
This is relevant because it's been out for a few years (1998), it's commercially available, and thousands of AS/400 customers are using it today. (And it works so well, most don't even know that it is there.)
IBM AS/400 Northstar or Pulsar processor. These are implementations of Power PC. They are also 64 bit processors, as the AS/400 has been a true/full 64 bit machine since 1995.
Northstar processors were first available with OS release V4R3. (1998 maybe?) Pulsar processors have just become available in the last few months.
These are not MPs on a chip - each chip has two hardware threads that context switch on memory stalls. It's not as fine grained as SMT, but the bang for the buck is great.
Yes, this is true.
The AS/400 has several processors available today with what IBM calls Hardware MultiThreading. Each CPU chip has two threads of execution (contexts or threads). When the current thread stalls on memory, a discrete context switch to the other thread occurs and it runs for a bit.
It is important to note that both threads have state resident in the hardware at the same time, but the threads do not execute concurrently. This is different than SMT, where instructions from multiple streams of execution can be in the pipelines concurrently.
This trick is simple, and it works well. I can't tell you the throughput improvements, but it is well worth the silicon that it costs to implement it. Also, some additional operating system tweaks make it run smoother.
SCSI costs 4x more than IDE now because manufactures can charge 4x more. Most SCSI hardware goes to servers, most of which are run by large companies. Large companies will pay 4x for the perceived/real performance difference.
.. the large corporation that I work for had a hard drive on the employee sales program, same price for IDE or SCSI-II. That was in 1995. As you noted, the price differential is 4x now.
.. I have several all SCSI systems at home. I finally broke down and purchased an IDE CD-ROM. I feel so dirty. :-(
I remember when SCSI and IDE cost about the same too
What happened in those four years? Macs, Amiga's, and other SCSI only machines faded out, and IDE grabbed the low end. SCSI is usually only shipped on server type boxes, and on big hardware like AS/400 and RS/6000 machines. Those machines require SCSI, and SCSI vendors can charge what the market will bear.
It hurts
As a side note, SCSI is falling out of popularity for other devices too. SCSI scanners are more rare, as are Zip drives, tape drives etc. These things are going to USB, which is quite inferior for lots of these applications.
(I have an 18GB IBM SCSI drive, a 4gb TR-4 SCSI tape backup, a 32x SCSI Plextor, a Yamaha 4416S SCSI CD-RW, a SCSI Zip 100, and a HP4c SCSI scanner - try that on an IDE/parallel port/usb system and see how stable it is.)
I hope that you don't think that SCSI implementations are really as expensive as the manufacturers are charging for them. People/companies will pay more for SCSI than IDE because of the performance difference, whether perceived or not.
Servers generally use SCSI because there is a performance difference. Corporations buy servers. Manufactures will charge what they can get, not what things actually cost.
Methinks you are not aware of VM.
/. readers.)
VM stands for "virtual machine." It gives the impression of running on a real piece of hardware. VM is so good at virtualizing the machine, it was used for OS development. (It really started as an internal OS development tool, not a standalone OS.)
A hacker working on one virtual machine can't trash a different virtual machine, or the root machine (which may also be virtual). It's like process protection, but extended to the entire OS environment.
390 series hardware uptime is measured in years. There is so much error checking and redundancy. They rarely go down for hardware problems. And when I say rare, I mean many years, as in 10 or 20. (Sorry, I don't have the exact number handy, but it is bigger than the age of many
Quality generally takes time. Gen X-ers sitting around drinking expensive coffee whipping out Java code looks cool and exciting, but this is a distortion on the way the world works. Operating systems are rarely built my new college grads. It takes years of plodding and experience to do it right. (Obligatory Linus reference - although young, he stands on the shoulders of giants.)
Take a look at the AS/400. It's not sexy. It's not cutting edge; in fact, it usually lags behind the latest and greatest. But it's scalable, it's been 64 bit for years, and it is highly regarded as rock solid. We have a structured environment for development. We stress quality early. We fix our bugs, not tell people to wait for the next release. Contrast this to the Microsoft way.
You get what you pay for.
A friend of mine wrote me a DOS TSR back in 1989 that captured and recorded every keystroke. The victims were users that I helped adminstrate systems for. I wanted them to tighten up password security.
Just like the hardware device, every keystroke was captured.
It was hilarious to watch the look on the sysadmin's face as I told him the passwords that people were using were too trivial. He said how do I know. I told him his passwords. Then I showed him a list of a few others.
The moral of the story - physical security is still important. PGP gets you nowhere if you've been compromised at the physical level.
Damn, my Titanium VISA from First USA is worthless compared to the cheesy gold card I carry .. and I thought I was impressing the chicks at Denny's.
- BASIC in an 8KB ROM.
- 2KB RAM on board
- Expandable to 16KB RAM with a "backpack"
- Expandable to 54KB RAM max with some mods.
- A 40 key keyboard with multiple shift modes to get all of the characters and BASIC keywords.
- Cassette interface for program loading and storing.
- A low cost thermal printer.
This was not a serious machine; it had major shortcomings. But the price was right.The keyboards were very troublesome. The thin ribbon connector often cracked from the heat and aging, disabling the membrane keyboard. With a little experimentation you could still "pick" it with wire ties. ;-)
The cassette interface was flakey too. They recommended a mono portable cassette recorder, run from batteries. The volume level had to be "just right."
The memory backpack was troublesome as well - it wiggled too much, breaking the connection to the card edge connector on the back of the machine.
Entering programs on this machine was truly unique - you didn't type the word "PRINT". You pressed "P", and depending on where you were on the line, the BASIC interpreter knew if you were going to enter a keyword ("PRINT"), or if you wanted the letter "P". Sorry, uppercase only.
It was amazing was assembly language programmers could do with this thing. I fondly remember the Flight Simulator, which fit on a 16KB machine. There were programmers toolkits on cassette, and other little applications. Data storage was a serious problem though.
Is there an archive of ZX81 software anywhere, possibly in WAV or MP3 format? I still have my cassettes, but after 16 years of disuse I doubt that they are readable.
Mike
PS: Search on google - there are several projects out there for emulators.
Get it? The original meaning of the word hacker is the computer operator. Back when I heard this definition (late '70s), the operator was a pretty technical person. It was a term of respect.
...
Too many people learned to associate hacking with doing something bad. It's not true.
Kinda like people saying 56k baud on a modem, when they really mean 56k bits per second. There is a big difference
I just read the description of the Think NIC, and it looks interesting, but it has a few gotchas to it that would keep me from recommending it to neophytes:
.. at least something simple should be available.
;-)
- 800x600 max video resolution
- No hardware storage alternatives (ie: floppy, hard disk, etc.) Maybe a Zip will be supported via USB some year. Please
- One choice of printer (Epson 740?) at the moment.
- If you don't want the vendor's OS upgrade, it's hard to do one yourself. For example, are you going to be able to create a bootable linux CD with no swap support and the FLASH device drivers that will actually work?
On the plus side, it's going to be hard for a user to screw anything up. And it does have ethernet, which is very forward thinking. There are going to be more and more broadband connections.
They shouldn't call these things computers. They are terminals, in the classical sense. Back 15 or 20 years ago, you could by a VT220, hook it to a modem, and be able to dial PSI Net, your local campus computer, or whatever. You then sent email, worked on your programs (via shell access), or did whatever. 20 years later, we've come back to that. Except now we have graphics.
Go to http://oss.lineo.com/cuecat/ for this and other barcode/CueCat links. The detailed instructions for clipping the serial number are under "Declawing Your CueCat."
No, the CueCat is a little different than a banner ad. The CutCat is a link to the physical world, whereas banner ads come from your internet feed. Now the company can possibly track anything you scan, ranging from your CD collection, your books, etc. And Digital Convergence isn't being exactly forthright about what they plan to do with the data. They call everything intellectual property, remember?