pretty much it....
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Any topic is acceptable, and topic drift is permissible.
Re: pretty much it....
It's amazing how much we have come to depend on the Internet, and of course, the WiFi necessary to get there. It's one of those lifestyle changing technologies you don't see sprout up very often. I'm thinking the next disruptive technology will be robotics with artificial intelligence. Won't that be fun when people become obsolete?
Re: pretty much it....
squeaki did her homework, said to the roomful of phone-addled people "i'm going over to nana's." mother said "uhuh." she then went to add something but was cut off by aunt starting to read something off the net.
she left.
Re: pretty much it....
I have no telly, computer or wifi at home..
I like to read, listen to music and the radio....
Ha Vikki!
things have changed since I was a wee laddie...
I like to read, listen to music and the radio....
Ha Vikki!
things have changed since I was a wee laddie...
Re: pretty much it....
I think I started growing up a few years before you. I was late in coming to the computer world, but once I got there I found a wealth of information that could not be had any other way. I do not read nearly as much as I used to. I guess that is the trade off; quantity over quality.
Re: pretty much it....
Re: pretty much it....
Computer technology traveled faster than I could keep up with it.
Nevertheless, I embraced the expensive opportunity to put them to work for me.
I bought one of the first Apple motherboard kits and learned how to program it using Basic.
By the time the Apple II came out, I had written enough programs to handle much of the time consuming work I did at my place of employment. When the Apple II+ came out, I sold my Apple II to our company where I was using it almost exclusively. It was a win win situation, because some of the work which took me a few hours a day to complete, was now done in a matter of minutes. But there was only so much one could do with them in the beginning, and saving data on audio cassette tapes was a pain.
Programmers began writing programs, a few of which I could put to good use.
I bought a pair of floppy drives, and a good printer. It was only a 9-pin dot matrix, but still cost over 1600 bucks.
With this combination now set up, the conversion from manual to computerized was underway.
But to do everything I wanted to do at the time, would require a major expenditure, both in hardware and programs.
By now, technology was getting over my head too, so when we went to the LISA System, the installation and set-up was handled by a computer specialist, which was a good thing, because they had programmers to write the programs we needed for almost everything. Some of the programs were done by professionals, like our Cougar Mountain Accounting software. Got by with this set-up for several years, but it fast became sorely outdated, and not really up to snuff for a company our size.
A new mainframe company opened their offices in our town, just down the street from us, and I got to know a few of their employees. Another win win situation arose when they took a look at our set-up. They could provide us with custom programming for everything, and all of it would be interactive, if we went with one of their mainframes.
In the long run, going with a WANG VS system turned out to be much less than I imagined it would be, but it did take a dedicated room for the computer. Heck, the hard drive cabinet by itself measured 3 feet by 3 feet, and had delicate open platters inside which we had to change each night to run backup.
We ran this system for several years, and as we got ready to wind down the company, Wang once again came to our rescue. We downsized to a Wang OIS system, which technically was more powerful than the VS system, and a whole lot smaller. Plus we sold the VS system to the local branch of a national newspaper for almost what we paid for it.
A few years later I started a small business downtown and went with an affordable MAC system. A MAC plus and two MAC SE's... It sufficed for what I was doing downtown, but back home, I had other clients who had all went with Mickey$oft and they wanted their data in Mickey$oft format.
Switching from MAC to PCs nearly put me out of business. The same programs written for both, could not do the same things on a PC as they did on a MAC. PCs were just not capable of handling much of the work we were doing. They didn't have conversion programs back then either. So, we would do the major work on MACs and then hand enter the results on PCs in order to supply our clients with the data in PC format.
I was still friends with WANG but had no use for a mainframe, however, via a stroke of luck, Wang decided to produce a PC than ran both Wang programs and Mickey$oft programs, and the data could be exchanged between each. Wang had many programs similar to those used on MACs and PCs but much more powerful.
So for the next several years, I was running Wang PCs and almost all programs written for Mickey$oft DOS in those days, worked great on the Wang PCs. Wang was also winding down their operations in our town, so when I replaced my computers, I did so with regular PCs.
And that is how I went from being an Apple MAC guy to Wang, to using PCs...
Nevertheless, I embraced the expensive opportunity to put them to work for me.
I bought one of the first Apple motherboard kits and learned how to program it using Basic.
By the time the Apple II came out, I had written enough programs to handle much of the time consuming work I did at my place of employment. When the Apple II+ came out, I sold my Apple II to our company where I was using it almost exclusively. It was a win win situation, because some of the work which took me a few hours a day to complete, was now done in a matter of minutes. But there was only so much one could do with them in the beginning, and saving data on audio cassette tapes was a pain.
Programmers began writing programs, a few of which I could put to good use.
I bought a pair of floppy drives, and a good printer. It was only a 9-pin dot matrix, but still cost over 1600 bucks.
With this combination now set up, the conversion from manual to computerized was underway.
But to do everything I wanted to do at the time, would require a major expenditure, both in hardware and programs.
By now, technology was getting over my head too, so when we went to the LISA System, the installation and set-up was handled by a computer specialist, which was a good thing, because they had programmers to write the programs we needed for almost everything. Some of the programs were done by professionals, like our Cougar Mountain Accounting software. Got by with this set-up for several years, but it fast became sorely outdated, and not really up to snuff for a company our size.
A new mainframe company opened their offices in our town, just down the street from us, and I got to know a few of their employees. Another win win situation arose when they took a look at our set-up. They could provide us with custom programming for everything, and all of it would be interactive, if we went with one of their mainframes.
In the long run, going with a WANG VS system turned out to be much less than I imagined it would be, but it did take a dedicated room for the computer. Heck, the hard drive cabinet by itself measured 3 feet by 3 feet, and had delicate open platters inside which we had to change each night to run backup.
We ran this system for several years, and as we got ready to wind down the company, Wang once again came to our rescue. We downsized to a Wang OIS system, which technically was more powerful than the VS system, and a whole lot smaller. Plus we sold the VS system to the local branch of a national newspaper for almost what we paid for it.
A few years later I started a small business downtown and went with an affordable MAC system. A MAC plus and two MAC SE's... It sufficed for what I was doing downtown, but back home, I had other clients who had all went with Mickey$oft and they wanted their data in Mickey$oft format.
Switching from MAC to PCs nearly put me out of business. The same programs written for both, could not do the same things on a PC as they did on a MAC. PCs were just not capable of handling much of the work we were doing. They didn't have conversion programs back then either. So, we would do the major work on MACs and then hand enter the results on PCs in order to supply our clients with the data in PC format.
I was still friends with WANG but had no use for a mainframe, however, via a stroke of luck, Wang decided to produce a PC than ran both Wang programs and Mickey$oft programs, and the data could be exchanged between each. Wang had many programs similar to those used on MACs and PCs but much more powerful.
So for the next several years, I was running Wang PCs and almost all programs written for Mickey$oft DOS in those days, worked great on the Wang PCs. Wang was also winding down their operations in our town, so when I replaced my computers, I did so with regular PCs.
And that is how I went from being an Apple MAC guy to Wang, to using PCs...
Re: pretty much it....
Lovely weather we had today... 
Hi Gary and all...
Hi Gary and all...
Re: pretty much it....
The next wave of disruptive technology will be robots with artificial intelligence. Computers will be hidden and not directly accessible by the ordinary user. Think about it ... verbally tell your robot to post this month's business billings and write out the payroll checks and it will do it for you in a matter of minutes or seconds, all while you are chatting with us here on Brainformation.
Re: pretty much it....
how do you remember all that, gary? my first proper computer was from 1995-6. what kind? PS2. maybe. with DOS and all that... I managed to learn wordperfect, and then it was obsolete....
Re: pretty much it....
I cut my computer teeth on WordStar. That was an amazing program.
PS: Gary is a writer, don't forget. He makes up a lot of his stories.
PS: Gary is a writer, don't forget. He makes up a lot of his stories.