Mac vx. PC: The Stereotypes May Be True

[calibrated]

Originally Posted by obsessed2

My TRS-80 Level I never got a virus either. Man I wish I would have kept that machine. Makes you long for the good old days.

I learned how to program on a TRS-80 Model I. Fun at the time, but I don't miss it. My phone has more computing power than that thing did.

[Penforhire]

I'm not longing for those old days. I started with a Commodore PET. Loading programs from the tape drive was the definition of insanity, doing the same thing over and over hoping it would load this time. The C64's floppy drive was a miracle by comparison.

[Phogg]

Originally Posted by wizwor

Sure as long as you avoid PDFs, JAVA, JPGs, email, the internet, and any kind of active content.

I've had an Atari 800 for three decades and never had a virus. I use it a lot, but I'm not using it now.

WOW!

All those things only a single operating system can access now.

[obsessed2]

Originally Posted by calibrated

I learned how to program on a TRS-80 Model I. Fun at the time, but I don't miss it. My phone has more computing power than that thing did.

PEEK, POKE, saving to a standard cassette player. What more can you ask for?

[wizwor]

Originally Posted by obsessed2

My TRS-80 Level I never got a virus either. Man I wish I would have kept that machine. Makes you long for the good old days.

Since this thread has gone completely off the track, I'll go with this if anyone wants to play

I bought my Atari 400 at Zayres Department Store around 1982, I think. It was $149.99 and there was a $50 mail in rebate. My first computer and my first rebate. I bought it because it was a better video game. The membrane keyboard made anything else difficult. Nonetheless, my brother and I typed in programs from Antic magazine and before long I was modifying BASIC programs.

A guy I worked with gave me a 300 baud modem in 1986. I used this to access bulletin boards. Back then, troubleshooting hardware with unknown helpers in near real time was magic.

The 400 was replaced by an 800xl then a 130xe. I added disks and printers and managed to get through college with Atariwriter and a 1027 pinnter.

When I started programming, it made sense to get a DOS computer and the Atari was relegated to its intended role of better video console. When my last cx40 (joystick) broke, I packed up the whole mess and put the box in my attic.

Many years later, I learned to adapt a sega genesis controller and broke the Atari out for my kids. They loved it. Eventually, they moved on to a Playstation and the Atari was back in the attic.

Many more years later, the Atari Flash devices come and go and there are LOTS of CX40 sticks on ebay. I buy 50 of these and pull out my box'o'atari. Amazingly, all computers, disks, and diskettes are fully functional after two decades of hot and cold New England attic storage. And it turns out people are hooking these things up to usb devices and burning their own carts and all sorts of cool stuff. Some are even writing new programs for the computer.

In 2012, I have an XEGS with a pair of Wico sticks and an SD Drive plugged into an LCD. It's still fun. I digress...

It turns out there are forums where all of this is discussed and, of course, there is a 31 page thread on the Atari ST vs Amiga and a less proflic comparison of the Atari and Commodire 8-bit computers.

I remember the profiling of users of each in the day (game players and pirates flocked to the Atari while educators and students embraced the C64).

But here's a twist for you. People who swore by the Atari 8-bit computers also swore by the Atari ST and those raised on the C64 flocked to the Amiga. Jay Miner who designed the Amiga was the designer of the Atari 800 and Jack Tramiel, former CEO of Commodore, and engineers he brought from Commodore after he was pushed out developed the Atari ST.

I guess, in the end, we cheer for the laundry.

(pulling the wandering thread back to the original topic deftly)

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by DiapDealer

A Trash-80?! You guys and your Radio "Shackles."

Spoiler:

That was a joke, BTW. Although I was more of Sinclair ZX80 person.

ZX80? Pah. I built an Acorn Atom from the kit. My screen didn't flash with every key press*, and I had a proper keyboard.

*

Spoiler:

For those younger members of the forums: Yes, really. The ZX80 used the processor for everything, including driving the display. When the processor was interrupted by a key press, the display would flash.

[Bilbo1967]

I guess I must be a little younger. I had a ZX-81, probably in the early eighties, probably cost around £50.

I love to see the arguments around 16/32/64 gigabytes being enough. In those days, I had never even heard of a gigabyte

[DiapDealer]

Originally Posted by Bilbo1967

I guess I must be a little younger. I had a ZX-81, probably in the early eighties, probably cost around £50.

I love to see the arguments around 16/32/64 gigabytes being enough. In those days, I had never even heard of a gigabyte

I thought I was hot stuff when I bought the expansion module for the ZX80 that bumped it from 1K of memory to 16K! Woohoo!

The screen still flashed with every keypress, though.

[wodin]

Thanks for the memories wizwor, the one thing you didn't mention was that you could double up the RAM on the ol' 400s by piggy backing new RAM chips on top of the old ones, and soldering all the legs except the address pin which you bend up and use wire wrap wire to connect to the memory controller.

If you did that, many (but not all) of the programmes that were Atari 800 only would run on it.

[wizwor]

I didn't mention a lot of things -- ask my wife

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by elcreative

Funny, never saw a mouse on a Mac laptop... only trackpad... and mice for Macs have been as many buttons as you want for years... and all fully programmable without needing any extra drivers... no difference in using PCs to Macs these days from that point...

Yes, I meant a trackpad, or touchpad. The one I used had a single 'button' which was actually the touchpad itself. I had to click it on the right or left to simulate a left / right button. It was horrible. I think this was on a powermac.

[wannabee]

Originally Posted by MovieBird

Where is this mouse that has extra buttons in the Mac store? When I attempt to configure a Mac (http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MC560LL/A) I get 3 options, Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad, and Apple Mouse.

The magic mouse, although it looks like it has no buttons respond like a two button mouse by pressing either side of the scroll ball. It has side buttons you squeeze for a third option. I don't like it.
My worst designed mouse prize goes to Apple for the very first iMac mouse.

Spoiler:

I didn't build my first computer. Just used it.

Spoiler:

[HappyMartin]

Originally Posted by wannabee

The magic mouse, although it looks like it has no buttons respond like a two button mouse by pressing either side of the scroll ball. It has side buttons you squeeze for a third option. I don't like it.
My worst designed mouse prize goes to Apple for the very first iMac mouse.

Spoiler:

I didn't build my first computer. Just used it.

Spoiler:

That apple turtle mouse was the worst mouse ever. Because it wa round you never knew which way you were holding it.

[VaporPunk]

The Geek Fu is strong in this place!

And I thought I was an old nerd!

Respect to all!

[Prestidigitweeze]

I go as far back as the Atari ST, Cubase, the Voyetra, the George Martin Neve with Flying V Faders and Massenburg automation, the SSL desk that pelted you with British insults whenever the engineer made a mistake, and racks of effects and modules, but that's about it.

The MIDI ports on the back of the ST seemed like an amazing convenience back then.

I remember working on a track called "Psychosexual Surgery" with exactly that setup and using samples from the Jeffrey Dahmer trial. The co-producer/co-composer and I used to try to work when her flatmate wasn't around because he used to look at us wide-eyed and ask, "Will you be making more murder music?" One day, we returned to find him moving his things out in terror.

Roli Mosimann from the Swans, who wouldn't have minded our "murder music," had lived there before him.

So, Ataris and C64s. Fairlights, Synclaviers, Emus and game consoles the size of sewing machines.