MobileRead Forums - View Single Post

Greg Anos · 10-11-2011, 06:57 PM

No condescending was intended, if it was perceived, it was due to my inability to articulate my views. My apologies.

However, codng is what I do, I have been commercially codiing for 31 years now. I have done virtually nothing else for living in my lifetime, Not in the PC arena, but coding, none the less. Things like maintaining a system that settled up 25% of the stock trades (in real time) on Wall Street in the early 2000's, or writing life insurance commission systems, or making certain a Fed Funds trading system was up with a 1/2 a trillion dollars hanging fire in the 1980's. They weren't sexy jobs, just necessary ones.

No I didn't have an early Mac. I couldn't afford it. They started out at $1999 for a 128Kb machine, with absolutely no memory expansion capabilities. A $2000 throwaway (in 1984 dollars) good for 2-3 year max, As everybody knew then, Moore's law was still in force. (still is 27 years later. 2 GB memory sticks? you couldn't buy a 2 GB hard drive in 1984, even on an IBM Mainframe (though you could come close)). But the operationg system/human interface was so good...(And it was. Straight from PARC. But how many times do I have to buy it?) Yes, the early Mac was closed froim a hardwarrd sense, couldn't open it without breaking the case, no external standard ports for things like printers. no provisions for things like more memory, color graphic expansion or fast hard drive I/O...

(As an aside, it is an Atari ST. I bought one of those in 1987. It was also closed but half the price of a Mac at the time and all sorts ports, like MIDI. Fleetwood Mac used Atari STs as sequencers on their 1987 tour. It wasn't just used in Europe.

Plus a hardware hacker found that if you added Mac ROMs to a cartridge and did some minor software hacks, you could run the Mac OS on the Atari ST - and it ran 30% faster, Apple responded by cutting off the availability off ROMs to the public.)

I could comment further, but why bother. Steve Job was God, it's time for me to burn the incense, before the mob burns me....

Selah (No, I'm not muttering under my breath.)

10-11-2011, 06:57 PM	#179
Greg Anos Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,531 Karma: 37057604 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Pocketbook	No condescending was intended, if it was perceived, it was due to my inability to articulate my views. My apologies. However, codng is what I do, I have been commercially codiing for 31 years now. I have done virtually nothing else for living in my lifetime, Not in the PC arena, but coding, none the less. Things like maintaining a system that settled up 25% of the stock trades (in real time) on Wall Street in the early 2000's, or writing life insurance commission systems, or making certain a Fed Funds trading system was up with a 1/2 a trillion dollars hanging fire in the 1980's. They weren't sexy jobs, just necessary ones. No I didn't have an early Mac. I couldn't afford it. They started out at $1999 for a 128Kb machine, with absolutely no memory expansion capabilities. A $2000 throwaway (in 1984 dollars) good for 2-3 year max, As everybody knew then, Moore's law was still in force. (still is 27 years later. 2 GB memory sticks? you couldn't buy a 2 GB hard drive in 1984, even on an IBM Mainframe (though you could come close)). But the operationg system/human interface was so good...(And it was. Straight from PARC. But how many times do I have to buy it?) Yes, the early Mac was closed froim a hardwarrd sense, couldn't open it without breaking the case, no external standard ports for things like printers. no provisions for things like more memory, color graphic expansion or fast hard drive I/O... (As an aside, it is an Atari ST. I bought one of those in 1987. It was also closed but half the price of a Mac at the time and all sorts ports, like MIDI. Fleetwood Mac used Atari STs as sequencers on their 1987 tour. It wasn't just used in Europe. Plus a hardware hacker found that if you added Mac ROMs to a cartridge and did some minor software hacks, you could run the Mac OS on the Atari ST - and it ran 30% faster, Apple responded by cutting off the availability off ROMs to the public.) I could comment further, but why bother. Steve Job was God, it's time for me to burn the incense, before the mob burns me.... Selah (No, I'm not muttering under my breath.)