Well, the "good old days" are here again! If you were one of the countless BBSers back in the day and want to relive some memories, head on over to Citadel 64 BBS on telnet at:
citadel64.thejlab.com:6400
For the full Commodore color graphics experience, I recommend Novaterm 9.6 if running real Commodore gear, else CGTerm if using Windows.
Running Color64 BBS v8 on a real C64, 1541, 1581, 1702, and a Turbo232 interface cartridge.
Thank you, Jack, for your significant and underappreciated contribution to the computing field. I and many others like me cut our teeth coding for the Commodore 64 and have since made our own valuable contributions. You will be missed.
It is interesting just how many of today's supposedly "new and revolutionary" products and methods of applying technology are rooted in the variety of those early days.
Standardizing on one platform appears on the surface to be more efficient, but may not be beneficial to the trade or the individual developer long term. In fact, blindly doing things the same way time after time can obscure better ways of doing things. I appreciate the fact that by coding for many of the systems the parent mentions, I have gained perspective on different design and architecture decisions. This has proved invaluable when working on a number of software development projects throughout the years.
Variety is good.
I am not so sure that the Old Republic Jedi had this right. Maybe they *thought* that midichlorians imparted Force powers, but it was actually more of a correlative effect than causative. Maybe it was even a way to insure that Anakin (who was most likely created by Sidious' former master) was chosen by the Jedi Council for training. Interesting fictional conspiracy theory...
MOD PARENT UP! I totally agree with the abstraction layer strategy. It has saved my team from "improvements", deprecations, and basic changes in the development environment vendor's flavor of the week. Most of the time with commercial vendors these "improvements" are driven by the vendor's desire to sell more licenses and training.
From my perspective, Rhino's pricing is not a real issue. The artists should be compensated for what they did, and the DVD quality is WAY better than the DAP releases for obvious reasons. Most episodes are better than a theater movie for about the same price due to the great humor and host segments.
However, availability IS a real problem. It is very difficult to get the older box sets as they go out of print fairly quickly. That is my real problem with Rhino. I wonder if they have considered setting up a way to purchase just the DVDs - I don't need the packaging - from all of the box sets released so far so fans can order them later on?
And whoever posts the CT stuff up to bittorrent should be ashamed of themselves - why would you want to steal from a group of people who made huge contributions to many of our lives???
My $0.02...
This totally made my day. MST3K (Joel/Mike eras both included) was my favorite show ever. Bad acting, brilliant riffing, obscure pop culture references, and the bots were such cute little guys. I bought the "Killers From Space" DVD from Mike and Kevin's crew and have to say it was absolutely hilarious. It stands up well when compared to many MST3K episodes. I can't wait to see what Joel/Trace/Josh/Frank come up with. SWEEEEEET!
My understanding is that "unleaded" gasoline is not lead free; rather it has a lower lead content than "leaded" gasoline. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
My Commodore 64 was on layaway at Gemco for over a year while I worked with my dad cleaning carpets to scrape enough money to pay for it (it was $249). Apparently this was the longest anyone had ever put anything on layaway at that particular Gemco store and I remember my mom negotiating with them to continue after about 6 months. Gemco always had a number of Commodore and Atari systems on display and I remember spending hours writing little programs while my mom shopped.
When I finally got my C64 I had to save up more money to buy a disk drive, which was even more than the computer! So for about another 6 months I literally would leave the C64 on for weeks, writing programs and then transcribing them to paper (no printer!) in preparation for the inevitable system freeze or power glitch that would erase everything I had done. I couldn't afford the Programmer's Reference Guide, so I would go into a local book store and sneak in the back to make notes for the various memory locations. I would also compete with the apparently hundreds of other "Commodore kids" in the area for the 5 or so books in the public library with Commodore code.
Fast forward a quarter century: I am a software developer and find that many of the principles I learned from hacking my C64 still ring true. In the domain of my C64, I was in total command with an intimate understanding of HOW THINGS WORKED. Not so easy for people today with all of the layers of abstraction. The core of Linux is closer to that goal, but there isn't any practical analog that I am aware of these days to direct control on the x86 architecture short of assembler.
A friend of mine had an interesting theory related to the basically "immaculate conception" of Anakin by midichlorians. Remember when Sidious/Palpatine was describing his former master, Darth Plagueis, he mentioned that he was able to create life. What if the conception of Anakin was caused by Plagueis or Palpatine's use of this power?
Commodore rocked back in the day. However, about this new company declaring it will "go after" infringers: the only reason anyone still knows about the Commodore brand is because of the dedication of those who could be considered infringers on the name. Great tactic - use the community to keep a brand name from totally dying out, then turn around and unleash the legal dogs on the very ones who kept it viable. Whatever...
And probably another reason why so many products (esp. consumer electronics) come with mail-in rebates that *require* you to submit the UPC, serial number, and your personal information.
Slashdot Mirror
Well, the "good old days" are here again! If you were one of the countless BBSers back in the day and want to relive some memories, head on over to Citadel 64 BBS on telnet at:
citadel64.thejlab.com:6400
For the full Commodore color graphics experience, I recommend Novaterm 9.6 if running real Commodore gear, else CGTerm if using Windows.
Running Color64 BBS v8 on a real C64, 1541, 1581, 1702, and a Turbo232 interface cartridge.
Cheers!
Thank you, Jack, for your significant and underappreciated contribution to the computing field. I and many others like me cut our teeth coding for the Commodore 64 and have since made our own valuable contributions. You will be missed.
It is interesting just how many of today's supposedly "new and revolutionary" products and methods of applying technology are rooted in the variety of those early days. Standardizing on one platform appears on the surface to be more efficient, but may not be beneficial to the trade or the individual developer long term. In fact, blindly doing things the same way time after time can obscure better ways of doing things. I appreciate the fact that by coding for many of the systems the parent mentions, I have gained perspective on different design and architecture decisions. This has proved invaluable when working on a number of software development projects throughout the years. Variety is good.
I am not so sure that the Old Republic Jedi had this right. Maybe they *thought* that midichlorians imparted Force powers, but it was actually more of a correlative effect than causative. Maybe it was even a way to insure that Anakin (who was most likely created by Sidious' former master) was chosen by the Jedi Council for training. Interesting fictional conspiracy theory...
Yes, good times! Brings back memories...
MOD PARENT UP! I totally agree with the abstraction layer strategy. It has saved my team from "improvements", deprecations, and basic changes in the development environment vendor's flavor of the week. Most of the time with commercial vendors these "improvements" are driven by the vendor's desire to sell more licenses and training.
From my perspective, Rhino's pricing is not a real issue. The artists should be compensated for what they did, and the DVD quality is WAY better than the DAP releases for obvious reasons. Most episodes are better than a theater movie for about the same price due to the great humor and host segments. However, availability IS a real problem. It is very difficult to get the older box sets as they go out of print fairly quickly. That is my real problem with Rhino. I wonder if they have considered setting up a way to purchase just the DVDs - I don't need the packaging - from all of the box sets released so far so fans can order them later on? And whoever posts the CT stuff up to bittorrent should be ashamed of themselves - why would you want to steal from a group of people who made huge contributions to many of our lives??? My $0.02...
This totally made my day. MST3K (Joel/Mike eras both included) was my favorite show ever. Bad acting, brilliant riffing, obscure pop culture references, and the bots were such cute little guys. I bought the "Killers From Space" DVD from Mike and Kevin's crew and have to say it was absolutely hilarious. It stands up well when compared to many MST3K episodes. I can't wait to see what Joel/Trace/Josh/Frank come up with. SWEEEEEET!
My understanding is that "unleaded" gasoline is not lead free; rather it has a lower lead content than "leaded" gasoline. Can anyone confirm/deny this?
My Commodore 64 was on layaway at Gemco for over a year while I worked with my dad cleaning carpets to scrape enough money to pay for it (it was $249). Apparently this was the longest anyone had ever put anything on layaway at that particular Gemco store and I remember my mom negotiating with them to continue after about 6 months. Gemco always had a number of Commodore and Atari systems on display and I remember spending hours writing little programs while my mom shopped.
When I finally got my C64 I had to save up more money to buy a disk drive, which was even more than the computer! So for about another 6 months I literally would leave the C64 on for weeks, writing programs and then transcribing them to paper (no printer!) in preparation for the inevitable system freeze or power glitch that would erase everything I had done. I couldn't afford the Programmer's Reference Guide, so I would go into a local book store and sneak in the back to make notes for the various memory locations. I would also compete with the apparently hundreds of other "Commodore kids" in the area for the 5 or so books in the public library with Commodore code.
Fast forward a quarter century: I am a software developer and find that many of the principles I learned from hacking my C64 still ring true. In the domain of my C64, I was in total command with an intimate understanding of HOW THINGS WORKED. Not so easy for people today with all of the layers of abstraction. The core of Linux is closer to that goal, but there isn't any practical analog that I am aware of these days to direct control on the x86 architecture short of assembler.
I LOVED THAT MOVIE (in an MST3K kind of way)!
(scene: land based oil drilling rig)
(Suddenly, dark liquid spews forth from the drill)
Man: It's BLOOD!
(crashing trumpet crescendo of terror)
The Commodore 64 scene is alive and well my friend! http://groups.google.com/group/comp.sys.cbm?hl=en
A friend of mine had an interesting theory related to the basically "immaculate conception" of Anakin by midichlorians. Remember when Sidious/Palpatine was describing his former master, Darth Plagueis, he mentioned that he was able to create life. What if the conception of Anakin was caused by Plagueis or Palpatine's use of this power?
Interesting thought...
Commodore rocked back in the day. However, about this new company declaring it will "go after" infringers: the only reason anyone still knows about the Commodore brand is because of the dedication of those who could be considered infringers on the name. Great tactic - use the community to keep a brand name from totally dying out, then turn around and unleash the legal dogs on the very ones who kept it viable. Whatever...
And probably another reason why so many products (esp. consumer electronics) come with mail-in rebates that *require* you to submit the UPC, serial number, and your personal information.