Well, the reason the Atari drives were so much more expensive was that they were "intelligent", which in this case meant you'd issue a few-byte command like "read sector $04A" and you'd get back a 128-byte frame. Whereas on virtually all other floppy systems of the time, you'd write whole routines to move heads and spin the spindle at such-and-such a speed, and see what the head is seeing, and interpret it into sectors, and so on.
The speed issue had more to do with their odd choice to make the drives' data rate 19.2Kbps rather than the SIO bus top speed of 54Kbps (which is most of what third party upgrades like Happy and Supra did, besides "skew-formatting" and such).
Probably dumb penny-pinching as happens all the time in electronics -- all VHS VCRs could have been able read SVHS tapes now (though only at normal VHS resolution), if only manufacturers weren't so cheap they didn't want to spend an extra nickel to give the ability. Probably the same story at Atari back then.
There, now aren't you glad you mentioned it? (Sometimes I scare myself...)
only holding around 90K per disk. Apple II drives held 140K!
We're fricking' SPOILED now, folks.
Damn straight. And that completely-full 90K disk took like 2.5 *minutes* to *read*, too, never mind write-with-verify. And Atari was not even the slowest floppy out there, from what I heard about C64s! 'Course, I had teh s00p3er-l33t 1050 drive, with 126K per side (ALWAYS buy "single-sided"s and notch 'em into flippys, people. Don't be a sap).
Seems the bad-geek stereotype always involves a basement. Good thing our family didn't have a basement. There but for the grace of slab foundations went I, I s'pose. It made me go out and be halfway-normal...
Atari 1200XL, early eighties. Remember to hit F2 to disable video during CPU-intensive operations for improved speed! Oh -- and death to cassette drives.
signed ATARIO fer cryin' out loud
P.S. Key-clicks and I/O noises kick ass; disk-notching tools are for wimps (what'sa matter, you too clumsy for a one-hole paper punch?); a program that just prints "Hi" over and over should never be over two lines long, ya hump.
I swear to %DIETY%, I thought this was written by a girl, till I got to the "the ladies tell me..." part.
Gay. Totally gay. Liberace gay.
Not that there's anything wrong with that!
But now to my real question: when did everyone decide to call cubicles "cubes"? Seems like a gross misapplication/bastardization of geometry to me...plus, they suck. Whatever happened to those dinosaurs that used to be called "offices"?
I swear, if I ever get an actual honest-to-goodness *office*, *all to myself*, I'm gonna keep the door closed and the curtain drawn and anti-noise generator running all the fweakin' time. In the words of Dave, "Everybody could kiss my ass".
What is with that font? Tons of Far-East sources use that same strange font in all English-language printing. I first encountered it as a kid, on the back of some Chinese sandpaper.
Does anyone else notice these things? Or am I nuts?
Maybe some of them are open on purpose? Like Starbuck's and so forth? (Or are those open? I don't even know...)
But if we had more open access points, on purpose, there'd be no need for a wireless internet company. You'd just use whatever nearby WAP was up. Free internet wherever you go.
In other news, they flew into the future -- 2013! (Must have used a Cessna and a Commodore 64.) What are things like ten years from now??
Programming is also unlike crafts. In fact, I think considering programmers craftsmen is unfair. A craftsman is an artisan, like a painter or a woodcarver. No two items he creates are the same.
Methods and apparatus for employing a communications system with actively connects communicating entities to mediate transactions.
So, anything where some device and/or method allows two people to communicate in order to get something accomplished, AT&T gets a say-so. That's not over-broad, is it?
That just leaves pointless communications. I'll be patenting that next. ("You mean you haven't already?", shouts the peanut gallery.)
Computers are more than capable of piloting (takeoff, cruise, and landing) and navigating (planning routes, following tower commands) planes. Have been for a long time. Bring on my flyin' car that says "Destination?", listens to me say "Work" or "Home" or "Las Vegas", goes there at 200 MPH, and wakes me when we land. Hell, for that matter, bring on my regular car that does that (albeit probably not at 200 MPH, but still).
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Well, the reason the Atari drives were so much more expensive was that they were "intelligent", which in this case meant you'd issue a few-byte command like "read sector $04A" and you'd get back a 128-byte frame. Whereas on virtually all other floppy systems of the time, you'd write whole routines to move heads and spin the spindle at such-and-such a speed, and see what the head is seeing, and interpret it into sectors, and so on.
The speed issue had more to do with their odd choice to make the drives' data rate 19.2Kbps rather than the SIO bus top speed of 54Kbps (which is most of what third party upgrades like Happy and Supra did, besides "skew-formatting" and such).
Probably dumb penny-pinching as happens all the time in electronics -- all VHS VCRs could have been able read SVHS tapes now (though only at normal VHS resolution), if only manufacturers weren't so cheap they didn't want to spend an extra nickel to give the ability. Probably the same story at Atari back then.
There, now aren't you glad you mentioned it? (Sometimes I scare myself...)
Keep hope alive, my brother.
Seems the bad-geek stereotype always involves a basement. Good thing our family didn't have a basement. There but for the grace of slab foundations went I, I s'pose. It made me go out and be halfway-normal...
Atari 1200XL, early eighties. Remember to hit F2 to disable video during CPU-intensive operations for improved speed! Oh -- and death to cassette drives.
signed
ATARIO
fer cryin' out loud
P.S. Key-clicks and I/O noises kick ass; disk-notching tools are for wimps (what'sa matter, you too clumsy for a one-hole paper punch?); a program that just prints "Hi" over and over should never be over two lines long, ya hump.
I swear to %DIETY%, I thought this was written by a girl, till I got to the "the ladies tell me..." part.
Gay. Totally gay. Liberace gay.
Not that there's anything wrong with that!
But now to my real question: when did everyone decide to call cubicles "cubes"? Seems like a gross misapplication/bastardization of geometry to me...plus, they suck. Whatever happened to those dinosaurs that used to be called "offices"?
I swear, if I ever get an actual honest-to-goodness *office*, *all to myself*, I'm gonna keep the door closed and the curtain drawn and anti-noise generator running all the fweakin' time. In the words of Dave, "Everybody could kiss my ass".
End of rant.
...isn't this story one? Or am I nuts?
Ok, you got me, that's still fantasy.
Is it possible to invest in law firms? 'Cuz it seems like they always profit no matter which way the wind blows...
Here all this time I thought the reverse of a bubble would be a droplet.
What is with that font? Tons of Far-East sources use that same strange font in all English-language printing. I first encountered it as a kid, on the back of some Chinese sandpaper. Does anyone else notice these things? Or am I nuts?
...Huey Lewis wrote a song about it?
...the "dweeb" in their taxonomies.
Please enlighten us all.
...why didn't he just carry a big tank of extra fuel? A few oil-barrels full should do the trick, right?
Maybe some of them are open on purpose? Like Starbuck's and so forth? (Or are those open? I don't even know...)
But if we had more open access points, on purpose, there'd be no need for a wireless internet company. You'd just use whatever nearby WAP was up. Free internet wherever you go.
In other news, they flew into the future -- 2013! (Must have used a Cessna and a Commodore 64.) What are things like ten years from now??
Prodigy? Didn't they go belly-up a long time ago?
Oh wait. Nevermind.
That just leaves pointless communications. I'll be patenting that next. ("You mean you haven't already?", shouts the peanut gallery.)
Well...not to put too fine a point on it, but generally fans of a show are not referred to as "users" of the show, the way they are with software.
Agh! You're right! And I totally, wrongfully, forgot the companion show, "Super Adventure Team". Dysfunctional Thunderbirds are Go!
You refer to the wishes of fans of a show as "user demand".
You'll be ok, just get some coffee in you...er, out of you...
"Lemon Curry" got modded -1 Offtopic in a Monty Python thread. I can't decide if that's right or not. Maybe if there was such a thing as +1 Offtopic?
NI!
Computers are more than capable of piloting (takeoff, cruise, and landing) and navigating (planning routes, following tower commands) planes. Have been for a long time. Bring on my flyin' car that says "Destination?", listens to me say "Work" or "Home" or "Las Vegas", goes there at 200 MPH, and wakes me when we land. Hell, for that matter, bring on my regular car that does that (albeit probably not at 200 MPH, but still).