(no subject)
I just came from YouTube. Just for kicks, I thought I'd see what I'd pull up if I searched using the keyword, "ZDTV". Now, for you youngins who don't know what that is, it was a satelite/cable station whose programming was dedicated to computer and Internet-related topics. You might know it as TechTV, which later mutated to G4-TechTV. Anyway, I wanted to see if any video survived. I was delighted to see a number of station promos and other sundry bits. A big thanks to all those who found them and uploaded them to YouTube! I'm only sorry that complete shows aren't available. I'd love to add them to my library
While I was watching these little bits of tech history, I became nostalgic for the early days of personal computers. Not "PCs" but "personal computers" as they were originally called ("microcomputer" was another common term). Before IBM's PC hit town, the microcomputer landscape was quite different. You had a slew of companies with their own micros, each having their own distinct look, in both hardware and OS. Back then, there wasn't such a thing as a GUI or even DOS...or at least MS- or PC-DOS. For me, it was this uniqueness that made computers such a fascinating interest. I've had the pleasure of fiddling around with computers that most people never got to see. They weren't prototypes or anything like that, they just never made it big in the marketplace. Some were clunky and others really cool, but they just couldn't stand up against companies like Apple, Atari, Commodore and Tandy/Radio Shack. There were a few lesser successes, like TI and Timex/Sinclair, but even they couldn't stand up to the big guns.
I first learned about personal computing when I walked into a Radio Shi--er Shack store and saw the TRS-80. I was instantly hooked. Wow! A computer that sat on your table. Whoda thunk. I started hanging out at a couple RS's in my area, learning all I could from the manual. Then one day, while I was at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, I came upon an issue of Byte magazine in one of the shops. Cool! There's even magazines about computers. I could FEEL the geekness flowing through me. They also had a couple others called Microcomputer and S-100. These were very hardware-oriented and quite over my head, but I didn't care, I wanted to read everything I could. But nothing up to then compared to when I attended my first computer show. I was in computer heaven. Everything I had read about--and stuff I hadn't-- was now at my fingertips. I don't think there was a booth I DIDN'T visit at least once. I found new magazines to buy, software to try out, micros to explore and more important, people I could talk to. I learned so much that day.
One of the coolest was that there was a computer store I could get to by bus...well, two buses, to be exact, and it would take about two hours, but it was worth it. And what was really great was the people who worked there didn't mind me hanging around for four or five hours...several days a week. They were impressed I would make such a long journey just to be there. They even included me when they got in their first hard drive...a whopping 10 megabytes, on platters the size of LPs. Man, were they on the cutting edge!
I also fell in love for the first time there. She was a real PET. A Commodore PET, to be precise. To me, it was the coolest micro there. Sure, it had the "calculator-style" keyboard, but that just added to it's cool factor. Hey, if it's good enough to be used in a Star Trek movie (ST II), it must be cool. It was the most unique of the bunch. Plus, it had all those ready-made graphic characters accessible directly from the keyboard, a feature I really miss in todays PC's. And since the tape unit was hardwired into the computer, you didn't have to fiddle with the volume like you did with the Trash-80 or Apple ][. The killer blow was that everything was self-contained in one case. No separate boxes and cables lying all over. Mac used to brag about it's all-in-one form factor, but the PET had it first. Unfortunately, there was no way I could buy any of this cool stuff as I didn't have a job yet.
However, I did end up owning my share of classic computers. The first was a Timex/Sinclair 1000, followed by a VIC-20, then a C=64 (all had graphic keyboards, so I didn't mind not having a PET), then an Amiga 1000 (my first GUI) and finally I entered the PC clone world. I was a little bummed when this happened. I'd been used to color, sound and Amiga's GUI. Now, I was back to monochrome text and simple BEEPs and BOOPs. And......no more graphics on the keyboard. :(
In fairness, I've had a lot of fun with PC's. Better games, better graphics and sound, more flexible architecture and lots more software variety. But there still times when I wouldn't mind the simple pleasure of drawing on the screen with just the keyboard.
While I was watching these little bits of tech history, I became nostalgic for the early days of personal computers. Not "PCs" but "personal computers" as they were originally called ("microcomputer" was another common term). Before IBM's PC hit town, the microcomputer landscape was quite different. You had a slew of companies with their own micros, each having their own distinct look, in both hardware and OS. Back then, there wasn't such a thing as a GUI or even DOS...or at least MS- or PC-DOS. For me, it was this uniqueness that made computers such a fascinating interest. I've had the pleasure of fiddling around with computers that most people never got to see. They weren't prototypes or anything like that, they just never made it big in the marketplace. Some were clunky and others really cool, but they just couldn't stand up against companies like Apple, Atari, Commodore and Tandy/Radio Shack. There were a few lesser successes, like TI and Timex/Sinclair, but even they couldn't stand up to the big guns.
I first learned about personal computing when I walked into a Radio Shi--er Shack store and saw the TRS-80. I was instantly hooked. Wow! A computer that sat on your table. Whoda thunk. I started hanging out at a couple RS's in my area, learning all I could from the manual. Then one day, while I was at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, I came upon an issue of Byte magazine in one of the shops. Cool! There's even magazines about computers. I could FEEL the geekness flowing through me. They also had a couple others called Microcomputer and S-100. These were very hardware-oriented and quite over my head, but I didn't care, I wanted to read everything I could. But nothing up to then compared to when I attended my first computer show. I was in computer heaven. Everything I had read about--and stuff I hadn't-- was now at my fingertips. I don't think there was a booth I DIDN'T visit at least once. I found new magazines to buy, software to try out, micros to explore and more important, people I could talk to. I learned so much that day.
One of the coolest was that there was a computer store I could get to by bus...well, two buses, to be exact, and it would take about two hours, but it was worth it. And what was really great was the people who worked there didn't mind me hanging around for four or five hours...several days a week. They were impressed I would make such a long journey just to be there. They even included me when they got in their first hard drive...a whopping 10 megabytes, on platters the size of LPs. Man, were they on the cutting edge!
I also fell in love for the first time there. She was a real PET. A Commodore PET, to be precise. To me, it was the coolest micro there. Sure, it had the "calculator-style" keyboard, but that just added to it's cool factor. Hey, if it's good enough to be used in a Star Trek movie (ST II), it must be cool. It was the most unique of the bunch. Plus, it had all those ready-made graphic characters accessible directly from the keyboard, a feature I really miss in todays PC's. And since the tape unit was hardwired into the computer, you didn't have to fiddle with the volume like you did with the Trash-80 or Apple ][. The killer blow was that everything was self-contained in one case. No separate boxes and cables lying all over. Mac used to brag about it's all-in-one form factor, but the PET had it first. Unfortunately, there was no way I could buy any of this cool stuff as I didn't have a job yet.
However, I did end up owning my share of classic computers. The first was a Timex/Sinclair 1000, followed by a VIC-20, then a C=64 (all had graphic keyboards, so I didn't mind not having a PET), then an Amiga 1000 (my first GUI) and finally I entered the PC clone world. I was a little bummed when this happened. I'd been used to color, sound and Amiga's GUI. Now, I was back to monochrome text and simple BEEPs and BOOPs. And......no more graphics on the keyboard. :(
In fairness, I've had a lot of fun with PC's. Better games, better graphics and sound, more flexible architecture and lots more software variety. But there still times when I wouldn't mind the simple pleasure of drawing on the screen with just the keyboard.