New at Reason
In a review from reason's August/September issue, Katherine Mangu-Ward pays tribute to the ancient computers of the future.
Comments to "New at Reason":
jimmydageek | August 14, 2007, 8:58am | #
I know I'll probably sound like a kook, but society's reliance on computers, especially networks, is kind of spooky. I went to Blockbuster one day and found out that I could not rent a movie because some satellite somewhere was down. Same thing happens occasionally at gas stations...even if you pay with cash! I know these things are minor inconveniences, but there are so many more things that depend on networks and satellites which could have a severe impact on our lives if they should go down.[/tinfoil hat]
andyinsdca | August 14, 2007, 9:07am | #
jimmydageek:Stuff like...computers at an airport like LAX that handle the no-fly list and cause 20,000 people to be stuck for hours and hours?
If you look at early home computer advertisements, they all mention storing recipes as one of the great applications. Of course, nobody actually did that, but they had to try to think of some reason why a housewife would care about (or at least tolerate) a computer.
Warren | August 14, 2007, 9:15am | #
jimmydageek:Never mind computers, what about electricity? Or fresh water?
Pro Libertate | August 14, 2007, 9:18am | #
I sold home computers back when their actual utility was less than clear (c. 1983). Word processing was an important selling point, but the biggee was spreadsheets like VisiCalc and, not too much later, Lotus 1-2-3.I was in high school at the time, so the utility to me was computer games, primitive as they were back then.
Randolph Carter | August 14, 2007, 9:34am | #
games like Where in the World is Carmen San Diego?jimmydageek | August 14, 2007, 10:17am | #
Carmen San Diego was an awesome game! So was The Oregon Trail! I kicked ass at both :)I think it's kind of sad how much I use google to convert measurements for cooking. I subscribe to Cook's Illustrated online and print out recipes (that way if they get splattered, I just reprint them!) I'm on cooking groups on livejournal. Am I doomed to start my own cooking show on youtube?
Pro Libertate | August 14, 2007, 11:16am | #
Randolph Carter,Nah, that was too advanced for "PCs" in 1983. At that point, some text-based games were still as fun as the graphical ones. I can't remember anything specific on the machines I was selling (Kaypro), but there were some okay games on the new IBM PC, the Apple whatever, and the various other platforms (even Atari sold PCs back then).
megs,
Like this man roasting a chicken?
Cracker's Boy | August 14, 2007, 11:27am | #
Kaypro! Wow! Of course, my first computer was an Osborne (Osbourne?). What a difference a coupla' decades makes...CB
Mike Laursen | August 14, 2007, 11:32am | #
Being a computer geek, I always wonder how all the people who would have been computer geeks, but were born too early, got along. If you were born in the twentieth century, I guess you could play with ham radios and toy train layouts, but what about the poor would-be hacker who was born in feudal Europe.Pro Libertate | August 14, 2007, 11:41am | #
Cracker's Boy,I had a friend who owned an Osborne when I was selling the Kaypro. I thought the latter was better--it had a bigger monitor, and the company kept adding features. The Kaypro II had the power of dual floppy drives, and the Kaypro 10 had--wait for it--a ten megabyte hard drive. All in an entirely portable and self-contained unit. Portable, that is, if lugging twenty pounds around doesn't bother you. Oh, and it used a CP/M operating system with a monstrous 64K of RAM. Zooom!
Shawn Smith | August 14, 2007, 12:13pm | #
Mike Laursen,They probably would have died in childhood. Those who would have made it to adulthood would have been more concerned with growing enough food to avoid starving in the winter.
During the industrial age, they may have been interested in factory machines or railroads. The automatic looms used something close to programs to operate.
Isaac Bartram | August 14, 2007, 1:04pm | #
Wow, ProLib, I had a friend in the eighties who swore that Kaypro was the greatest thing going.We did both laugh about the "portability" though.
He lives in Tampa too. Maybe you sold him his. :)
Pro Libertate | August 14, 2007, 1:15pm | #
Isaac,What's funny is that it WAS a good computer in its heyday. But it took the company too long to accept the MS/IBM standard. Or to crush the standard before it came to life.
My commission was something like $250 per computer sold, which was insane money for a 17-year old. I didn't sell all that many, but I was making loads more than most of my friends.
Mike Laursen | August 14, 2007, 3:20pm | #
Yeah, I suppose someone in the future will be asking what did nerds do before home genetic engineering labs: oh, they had to settle for playing with computers.Regis Carnifex (fka RC) | August 14, 2007, 4:04pm | #
One of the things that I find annoying about the increasing prevalence of advance technology in our everyday lives is that, for good or ill, machines very often become de facto add-ons to our minds and bodies.Like, I used to have a bunch of my friends phone numbers memorized flat. Since I broke down and got a cell phone, I don't know anyone's number, except a few from before. If I lose the phone, I'm screwed.
Regis Carnifex (fka RC) | August 14, 2007, 4:05pm | #
Randolph Carter,Your name really makes me wish there was a video game called "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath." There could even be a secret weapon called Pickman's Axe!
James | August 14, 2007, 5:52pm | #
While the article was mildly amusing, and the comments take me way back (Sinclair or TRS-80, anyone?), it would be nice if reason fact-checked articles, particularly with regard to unfolding history. It's dismaying to see dates and events treated so haphazardly when the fabric of the Internet's history is being unraveled before our eyes due to sloppy reporting."In 1990 ... "Hyperland" ... a couple of years before Web browsers had even been invented."
The World Wide Web was [i]born[/i] in 1990 with the release of the HTML language. However prior to that there were several "browsers" that were quite capable of performing gopher/archie/WAIS searches and rendering documents composed in any number of markup languages. Personally, I was using both Erwise and Viola prior to 1990.
It may seem small, but these types of small mistakes gather steam in our immediate-gratification culture, and tend to pollute future articles. Perhaps Ms. Mangu-Ward is the victim of a previous error?
It would have been a better article if she had focused on the now-bizarre marketing strategy targeting housewives (did/does anyone really have such a large recipe collection that it couldn't be simply managed via index cards?), rather than attempting to lay out a timeline.
Pro Libertate | August 14, 2007, 6:21pm | #
Ah, a TRS-80 using a tape cassette for memory. Oh, yeah.M. Simon | August 18, 2007, 1:05pm | #
I was into computers when you had to know your way around a soldering iron and an oscilliscope AND be able to program in binary.I sold about 500 EPROM eraser kits. It was the fastest cheap eraser on the market for a while.
I also got published in Kilobaud.
That was great fun.
However, I like what we have now better.
I knew Ward Christiansen and Randy Seuss from the CACHE Club in Chicago. Exchanging programs at 2400 baud was state of the art. When that got to 9600 we were really zooming. My cable is up to 10 Mbaud and I could get faster if I wanted to pay more.
Ted Nelson came to a few meetings and gave talks and pushed his books.
The transition from 8" floppies to 5 1/4 was traumatic. The 5 1/4 is now the standard for size even though it is not used any more in new computers. I still have a few of the old 8" discs lying around.