I suppose you could argue that it was BASIC on the C64, but I never really *learned* any of it, just typed in stuff. I made a half-ass effort with Perl. I got taught C++ at Illinois Wesleyan (last class to take C++; the next year, they switched to Java).
>>subsidized higher education is the best investment we can make for ourselves
Just be careful to avoid the situation I see in the Netherlands, where those who are considered "gifted" enough to get into a University program (as opposed to a technical or vocational school) are basically SOL if they don't get a Master's degree. I call it educational inflation: when all of your peers have an MA, you need an MA just to get your foot in the door for a normal job, and an MPhil/PhD to get a really good job.
>>Has anyone tried to resurrect a PC this old before?
I'm currently resurrecting a 1971 DEC PDP-8 minicomputer, and I'm not the first one to do so. This is after years of bringing back old micros from the brink of doom. So yes, unequivocally, you *can* restore a system of this age. Even the same standards are still in use!
I should go complain that nobody wants to pay me to hand-deliver milk in glass bottles door-to-door anymore, and see if I can get them to tax milk and give me the proceeds!
Of course, this is functionally the same as the blank CD/DVD "anti-piracy" levy: government intervening to prop up an outdated, failing business model with tax money, rather than letting it die and allowing evolution to take its natural course.
I've blown more money than I care to imagine on HMDs over the years, including two Virtual-IO i-glasses (one composite-in video rez with clear optics, one VGA-in 800x600 wiht opaque optics) and some offbrand visor thing, composite, plastic lenses, gak, as well. My favorite was the first one, because you could get a nice video image floating in space in front of you as you walked down the sidewalk. Overall tho I think they're disappointing, and moreover heavy, straining on the eyes and neck, and especially the ones that sit on the nose tend to give me that weird sensation like you get when someone puts their finger between your eyes and close to your nose. I say, save your money and buy a nice CAVE and a big stack of (super-cheap now!) SGI Onyx2 IR2 boxes to run it off.
Isn't 10Gb internet access going to further increase the technical requirements for implementing the kinds of surveillance and recording systems the UK government wants? If you think that the associated complexity and costs of their current & proposed systems are extreme already, just imagine if everyone's access were to get 5000x faster!
Maybe they'll have to give it up. I suppose we can only hope!
Going by all the positive press Win7 is getting, and the fact that XP is getting rather long in the tooth, I reckon Microsoft can probably lump whatever crap they want into 7 as long as it has a shiny, snappy UI and decent driver compatibility, and people will buy machines with it installed and love the taste of the Kool-Aid. Welcome to the future: looks like it's gonna suck.
After some initial trepidation caused by the kneejerk prejudicially anti-SP2 sentiments of some of my "technologically-inclined" (actually, just arrogant and self-aggrandising) colleagues, I installed SP2, and have had no problems with it whatsoever. There's nothing wrong with it that wasn't also wrong with SP1 or the original release. 5 stars for pointlessness, but it's not evil.
I once had (still do, actually) an old dual PPro board which I ran in a topless desktop case for added cooling without added fans (it ran *hot*). On one occasion, I came back from a weekend away to a hot, fried smell in my room: apparently, one of the CPU fans had died in the meantime, and the CPU was slowly cooking the motherboard (though still working). Naturally, I immediately powered the thing off and, after locating gloves, removed the CPU and inspected for damage, found none. After it had cooled off a bit, I hunted down another fan in my junkpile, attatched it to the CPU1 heatsink and powered up. Worked marvellously. A few weeks later, I was fiddling with a kernel with a can of Coke set safely on the power supply. Somehow or another, I managed to knock the can of coke over, and it spilled its contents onto the powered-up motherboard. I panicked, and 10 seconds later did a 'shutdown -rn now' because that was the first sync + power-related command that came to mind, and pulled the cord. Removed motherboard and all components, doused completely with alcohol, and allowed to dry for a few hours. Re-assembled, powered up, and it worked, again, marvellously.
That computer served me well as a primary machine for about 4 years, and even lasted through my first year of college. Between the dead fan, coke, and 240MHz overclock (go TD6NF motherboard!), CPU1 finally died in about November of my freshman year, but I only actually replaced the system because *both* my hard drives were acting dodgy, and I was convinced it was the hard drive controller going out. Turns out it was just that both drives failed simultaneously. It's still sitting in my basement, and if I can get my hands on some nice 1MB PPro 200s and a half gig of EDO to populate its 8 glorious RAM slots, I'll probably find some task for it to perform eventually. Its name is 'Xenophon,' by the way, and it is officially my favourite computer of all time.
Slashdot Mirror
Just one of millions.
I suppose you could argue that it was BASIC on the C64, but I never really *learned* any of it, just typed in stuff. I made a half-ass effort with Perl. I got taught C++ at Illinois Wesleyan (last class to take C++; the next year, they switched to Java).
>>subsidized higher education is the best investment we can make for ourselves
Just be careful to avoid the situation I see in the Netherlands, where those who are considered "gifted" enough to get into a University program (as opposed to a technical or vocational school) are basically SOL if they don't get a Master's degree. I call it educational inflation: when all of your peers have an MA, you need an MA just to get your foot in the door for a normal job, and an MPhil/PhD to get a really good job.
>>Has anyone tried to resurrect a PC this old before?
I'm currently resurrecting a 1971 DEC PDP-8 minicomputer, and I'm not the first one to do so. This is after years of bringing back old micros from the brink of doom. So yes, unequivocally, you *can* restore a system of this age. Even the same standards are still in use!
I feel I must point out here that my point has been missed rather masterfully.
I should go complain that nobody wants to pay me to hand-deliver milk in glass bottles door-to-door anymore, and see if I can get them to tax milk and give me the proceeds!
Of course, this is functionally the same as the blank CD/DVD "anti-piracy" levy: government intervening to prop up an outdated, failing business model with tax money, rather than letting it die and allowing evolution to take its natural course.
I've blown more money than I care to imagine on HMDs over the years, including two Virtual-IO i-glasses (one composite-in video rez with clear optics, one VGA-in 800x600 wiht opaque optics) and some offbrand visor thing, composite, plastic lenses, gak, as well. My favorite was the first one, because you could get a nice video image floating in space in front of you as you walked down the sidewalk. Overall tho I think they're disappointing, and moreover heavy, straining on the eyes and neck, and especially the ones that sit on the nose tend to give me that weird sensation like you get when someone puts their finger between your eyes and close to your nose. I say, save your money and buy a nice CAVE and a big stack of (super-cheap now!) SGI Onyx2 IR2 boxes to run it off.
Isn't 10Gb internet access going to further increase the technical requirements for implementing the kinds of surveillance and recording systems the UK government wants? If you think that the associated complexity and costs of their current & proposed systems are extreme already, just imagine if everyone's access were to get 5000x faster!
Maybe they'll have to give it up. I suppose we can only hope!
Going by all the positive press Win7 is getting, and the fact that XP is getting rather long in the tooth, I reckon Microsoft can probably lump whatever crap they want into 7 as long as it has a shiny, snappy UI and decent driver compatibility, and people will buy machines with it installed and love the taste of the Kool-Aid. Welcome to the future: looks like it's gonna suck.
A fascinating read sir.. sadly I am confused as to the relation this has to windows 7.
BTw I am going to put your entry on my blog.
Who should a credit?
Charles Krauthammer, in The Washington Post, Feb 6 2009
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/05/AR2009020502766_pf.html
In Soviet Russia, mind is in brain!
After some initial trepidation caused by the kneejerk prejudicially anti-SP2 sentiments of some of my "technologically-inclined" (actually, just arrogant and self-aggrandising) colleagues, I installed SP2, and have had no problems with it whatsoever. There's nothing wrong with it that wasn't also wrong with SP1 or the original release. 5 stars for pointlessness, but it's not evil.
I once had (still do, actually) an old dual PPro board which I ran in a topless desktop case for added cooling without added fans (it ran *hot*). On one occasion, I came back from a weekend away to a hot, fried smell in my room: apparently, one of the CPU fans had died in the meantime, and the CPU was slowly cooking the motherboard (though still working). Naturally, I immediately powered the thing off and, after locating gloves, removed the CPU and inspected for damage, found none. After it had cooled off a bit, I hunted down another fan in my junkpile, attatched it to the CPU1 heatsink and powered up. Worked marvellously. A few weeks later, I was fiddling with a kernel with a can of Coke set safely on the power supply. Somehow or another, I managed to knock the can of coke over, and it spilled its contents onto the powered-up motherboard. I panicked, and 10 seconds later did a 'shutdown -rn now' because that was the first sync + power-related command that came to mind, and pulled the cord. Removed motherboard and all components, doused completely with alcohol, and allowed to dry for a few hours. Re-assembled, powered up, and it worked, again, marvellously. That computer served me well as a primary machine for about 4 years, and even lasted through my first year of college. Between the dead fan, coke, and 240MHz overclock (go TD6NF motherboard!), CPU1 finally died in about November of my freshman year, but I only actually replaced the system because *both* my hard drives were acting dodgy, and I was convinced it was the hard drive controller going out. Turns out it was just that both drives failed simultaneously. It's still sitting in my basement, and if I can get my hands on some nice 1MB PPro 200s and a half gig of EDO to populate its 8 glorious RAM slots, I'll probably find some task for it to perform eventually. Its name is 'Xenophon,' by the way, and it is officially my favourite computer of all time.
Admit it, I mean, wasn't that the hole idea, to start with?