I remember when

[Christine]

I remember my family's first computer, Windows 95

Main uses was paint, pinball and sometimes solitaire

[randolph]

Ah, the good old days!
I started my computer experience punching IBM cards and submitting them to the campus IBM 360. What a pain! Then the lab bought a Digital MINC and a mile high stack of manuals that I was supposed to understand. It had two huge floppy disks and fortran and basic. I was supposed to develop a data base program for our lab data and I had no training in computers! Fortran was horrible, I finally resorted to a customized version of Pascal. My home computer was a TRS80 . Then the IBM PC came out with Word and Excell and compiled basic and computer programming became fun. It was so much easier to program in DOS before Windows, you wrote a program and ran it. Windows made things much more complicated. Then the Internet came along and the world changed. Now everybody has their own secret access to loads of PORN!

[transjen]

I rember when i was very young my dad had a computer is was a Comadore 64
Jerseygirl Jen

[sesame]

Do you know that those bulky 486 computers can run Windows 3.1 or an early version of Linux with flair. It can even surf the internet! I know its totally impractical, thats why they end up in trash. But sometimes such an impractical endeavour can be a source of fun. Its just like vintage cars.

[sesame]

Originally Posted by randolph

Then the Internet came along and the world changed. Now everybody has their own secret access to loads of PORN!

Exactly! The majority of home computers are used for entertainment. They run Games, Internet (for email and Porn), play Video CD, DVD and music. I think I have covered all the general uses... Have I not?




Programming, Graphics, Web designing, Video & music editing ... are for boring Pros.

[transjen]

I rember a lot of bozos running around like chicken little screaming Y2K and the end of the world was coming when every computer crashes and massive blackouts and nuclear missles going off. Then midnight on 1/1/00 not a damn thing happend
Jerseygirl Jen

[ila]

Originally Posted by transjen

I rember a lot of bozos running around like chicken little screaming Y2K and the end of the world was coming when every computer crashes and massive blackouts and nuclear missles going off. Then midnight on 1/1/00 not a damn thing happend
Jerseygirl Jen

I remember that. I was heavily involved in emergency planning for a cellular telephone company at that time. It was very thought provoking, to say the least, trying to come up with all possible scenarios. And then the big night and like you said Jen, nothing happened.

[transjen]

A guy who lived a block away in july of 99 actualy bulit a bomb sheltor and for the rest of 99 was stocking it full of canned food guns and ammno, Bet he went DOH when nothing happend
Jerseygirl Jen

[lacey_maxie]

I remember my first PC with windows95 long time ago and literally I was scared to switch it on because I thought I would screw it up.....

[ila]

Originally Posted by transjen

A guy who lived a block away in july of 99 actualy bulit a bomb sheltor and for the rest of 99 was stocking it full of canned food guns and ammno, Bet he went DOH when nothing happend
Jerseygirl Jen

I got a good laugh out of that.

I know people that tore out gas fireplaces and put in woodburning fireplaces because they thought that they wouldn't be able to heat their house otherwise.

[transjen]

Originally Posted by ila

I got a good laugh out of that.

I know people that tore out gas fireplaces and put in woodburning fireplaces because they thought that they wouldn't be able to heat their house otherwise.

A lot of people here in NJ did the same thing, I was still living at home with my parents at the time and i rember my dad saying it's a bunch of BS and besides if it's GOD'S will that everything blows up then it will happen and there's nothing we can do about and bomb shelter or no bomb shelter will make a differnce if it's our time then it's our time, I grew up in a strong Chatlic household
Jerseygirl Jen

[johndowe]

Hi there.

I started with an atari 2600 game console then i got a commodore 64, 286, and xt almost at the same time...

Learned basic on a Dec PDP11 - 45 RSTS/E, later tought myself to program my 64 in assembler basic was way too slow, learned pascal, didn't like it, too easy to make errors with all those begins and ends DON'T BUG ME ABOUT THAT, you like Pascal fine, lets agree to disagree ok. liked dos i would combine small ASM programs in batch files and make my old pc's do what i wanted, the only thing that i find stupid is microsoft, an operating system should take as little system resources as possible, within reason, and that excludes every programming language but ASSEMBLER, windows would be much smaller, faster, and more stable were it programmed in ASM instead of C. C and all it variants should be used for custom programming to keep developement times and costs down, everything else SHOULD be programmed in ASM, but i know i'm preaching to a deaf audience on that one, because everything today is qiock, quick, quick, and assembler is only quick, quick, quick, when running, not while in developpeng, and you need discipline and resolve to program in ASM effectively, most companies are too "something" to even try something like that, they'd have to invest time, energy and money creating and mantaining (DEBUGED) code libraries, even though it would make their products much better in so many way.

Got carried away there.

JohnDowe.

[sesame]

Johndowe,
I liked your post and understand your point. Windows and even Linux have to incorporate scores of programmes for supporting entertainment to suit the needs of most customers. And look at windows Vista now, it eats up 10-15 Gigabytes of diskspace! And think of the RAM capacity we will be needing in future to support that kind of memory overload!

If the whole nine yards are done in Assembly, the GUI will become cripled and the debugging will kill a few programmers. Put VC++ and Asm side by side. What do you see?

Furthermore, ASM is(or, should I say, was) for geeks, not laymen. But most peole can handle Visual Basic. And then there is the question of being just structural (as in C programming) and Object Oriented Programming as in C++ onwards. VC++, Java and .Net are object oriented through and through. Could ASM ever have handled that?

But one string that Microsoft is pulling is really evil. They are getting tie-ups with Intel and other major players. And these harware giants are producing machines that can only run in the most recent version of windows. So, if we upgrade hardware, we are being forced to buy Vista and "more to come" and pay Microsoft. And some of my favourite softwares wont even run in XP-sp2 or Vista!

I remember when i just paid for my internet and didn't have to think about data ???

i miss you dial up

[tslove4life]

I remember when, we used to get free DirecTV, back in the late 90's.

[sesame]

I remember my first orgasm. My body shook and shook and shook with convulsions. I was totally surprised and thought, "What is happening to me?"

[transjen]

I rember when i was a kid the songs on the radio kicked a$$ and the hair bands ruled DEF LEPARD,POISION, WHITESNAKE,IRON MAIDEN,LITA FORD,GUNS AND ROSES
Jerseygirl Jen

[Jenae LaTorque]

Originally Posted by sesame

Exactly! The majority of home computers are used for entertainment. They run Games, Internet (for email and Porn), play Video CD, DVD and music. I think I have covered all the general uses... Have I not?

Programming, Graphics, Web designing, Video & music editing ... are for boring Pros.

__________________________________________________ _______________

Nope, you forgot eBaying. Almost everyone I know with a computer uses it to shop and/or sell on eBay. And quite a few use if for other shopping as well. But that may just be because we all live out here in the boondocks of Wyoming.

[johndowe]

Hi there.

Sesame, there is nothing that canot be done with ASM that can be done with other languages, but some things,fvery few things are better the way they are programmed now, like web pages with HTML, XML, Perl, Java, JavaScript, and laymen do not program operating systems, games, or any applications, programmers do, and they are geeks, personally i am a cpu tech and we too are geeks, and object programing is the problem with programming today, everybody is too lazy to put in the effort so they take the easy path of object programing, which is required to symplify web page design, but not to program games or any application that runs directly from the o.s. (like games, text editors, ETC.).

Assembler which is assembled (similar to compiled) to machine language which is the native tongue of the processor, no interpretors or code libraries are required to run it, almost, it does need the o.s. and all the drivers etc. and it is so much more versatile than any other language the only limits of ASM are the limits of the computer it is designed to run on, contrarily to other "evolved" languages, that supports ALMOST everything programmers need, or more precicely what the programers of the language tought the users of their language would need, but what if you want to include something that the designers of the language you are using didn't program any support for? What do you do? You wait for the next version of the language? You could, but in "C" you can program in ASM to make your missing routines, ASM who knew?

ASM is the ultimate programming language, but it is not for the faint of heart, the lazy or second rate programmers, it is for true programers that are willing to put in the effort, who know their computers, who understand how their computer works and how to make it sing instead of making it stutter like microsoft, and most softwre company today, LAZY, LAZY, LAZY.

Got carried away again.

JohnDowe.

[sesame]

Originally Posted by johndowe

Assembler which is assembled (similar to compiled) to machine language which is the native tongue of the processor, no interpretors or code libraries are required to run it, almost, it does need the o.s. and all the drivers etc. and it is so much more versatile than any other language the only limits of ASM are the limits of the computer it is designed to run on, contrarily to other "evolved" languages, that supports ALMOST everything programmers need, or more precicely what the programers of the language tought the users of their language would need, but what if you want to include something that the designers of the language you are using didn't program any support for? What do you do? You wait for the next version of the language? You could, but in "C" you can program in ASM to make your missing routines, ASM who knew?

ASM is the ultimate programming language, but it is not for the faint of heart, the lazy or second rate programmers, it is for true programers that are willing to put in the effort, who know their computers, who understand how their computer works and how to make it sing instead of making it stutter like microsoft, and most softwre company todayJohnDowe.

That was a very good answer.

But then, only a handful of geeks will have the privilege to work with computers, if they used only ASM. And even lesser will be the number of programmers willing to deal with ASM as the only language.

Consider the hazzard of bug fixing in ASM. And what Operating sys are you talking about? Obviously its not Windows or Linux? You must be thinking of DOS! And whats wrong with OOPs (object oriented prog)? Its such a versatile and dynamic concept created to deal with so many situations! Why dont you like it? You are paying too much attention to structure and stability.

[johndowe]

Hi there.

Have you ever programmed in assembler?

There is no more hazzard in debuging in ASM than any other language, if anything it is easyer because of the 1:1 relationship from the source code to the program file, and there are ML (machine language) Monitors that are used to debug the code, and even program in ASM, a good example is "DEBUG" which is a ML Monitor, which IS still avaliable in my version of win xp sp2 upgraded to sp3+ unfortunately there are no assemblers for win xp & P4's+.

I do not hate object programing, as i said it is great in web page design, but in more involved programing it does make things easyer but it makes the gap between the programer and the processor that much grater which is not a good thing.

When i was in colege a long time ago in a galaxy far far away, or so it seems, i took a course in the basic language on a DEC PDP11 with DECWriter (printing) terminals, i programmed a little game i called "x-wing.bas", it was based on the final battle in Star Wars where Luke and the others go to destroy the Death Star, first there you had to destroy 20 tie fighters and then the Death Star, i programmed it not for everybody to see the listing and immidiately see how the program worked, i programmed it for the computer to "underatand" the program, most would call it spaghetti code, but it worked well and it did fit in the 8k of memory we had avaliable at the time, if i would have programmed like my teacher tought me, i never would have been able to fot it in the memory that i had, my point is i understood how the computer worked and i used it to my advantage and i did something that i shouldn't have been able to do with what i had, i used my brain and i did not rely on the language to do the work for me, i did the work and it paid off, so much so that i gave copies to some of my freinds, and later i saw it and two modifications, one was with Human against the Cylons and the other was about cops and robers, but the listing confirmed that it was my logics they only changed the text, they even left the 1 bug that i hadn't corrected when i gave them the copy of the game, i felt flattered that programing students would find my work worth keeping and worth the effort of modifying the text, while keeping MY logic intact.

If you know how to program in assembler, you can program in any other language all you need to know is the instructions and the syntax of the language and you're good to go, but it is a one way thing, if you can program in basic or pascal, you'll have to learn how to program in assembler, your knoledge of the other languages will help a but but no where near as much as assembler will help for other languages.

It is a sad thing that they have stopped teaching assembler to new programming students it would give them a much better understanding of the computers they are programming, and make them better programmers.

Structure and stability:

Stability is VERY important, do you like it when your computer crashes? While you were working on your report that was due in only a few hours? I don't think so.

In assembler there is no pre-established structure, you program it as you want, if you program well, you will reward yourself with easy to debug code, if you don't well good luck with the debugging, and mantaining of the code for future updates.

Also, if you made a sub routine in asm which you use frequently in that program and then later in the program you would only need the end part of that sub routine, in asm you just jump to that part of the subroutine and that's it, you don't have to make major modifications to the program or the subroutine, it is that simple.

If you want a code example ask me & i will specify 8086 or 6502 code.

JohnDowe.

[sesame]

Johndowe,
That was a nice speech on the goodness of ASM.
I did some programming in my childhood... during my Diploma.
That was quite some time ago. I started reading this ebook on extensive programming in ASM... then lost interest and gave up. Thats because nobody cared about an ASM programmer anymore. I did some sool stuff with Basic in those ancient times though.:D Then I Jumped to C and VB... Javascript, Actionscript... so on.

Reading your thoughts, I think I will give it another try; since you say that ASM is so fundamental for programming. The book is called:
The Art of Assembly.

I still remember small fragments of programming...
PUSH CS
MOV DX,80H
INT 10H
JZ GETHDB
JB BOOTUP and such like :D

[johndowe]

Hi there.

It is easyer to understand more complex concepts if you know the fundamentals.

And good luck with it.

You also can use DEBUG to do some thinkering in asm.

If you should find an assembler for pentium 4+ that works with XP+ let me know.

JohnDowe.

[sesame]

The DOS we use nowadays in Windows XP is not the same as it used to be. Its more like a servant of Windows. It's capabilities have been reduced, some commands have been excluded. But why do you think they have still kept DEBUG?

Can ASM cooperate with other softwares?

[johndowe]

Hi there.

Sesane, you seem to know a bit about ASM but you still have alot of mis-conceptions about it, all programs that are in .exe .dll and several others are in machine language for the processor to execute, the BIG difference between "C" and all its variants or Pascal and all its variants and ASM is that asm will ALWAYS be better programmed, so will an asm program "play nice" with other programs, the ansewer is yes, it will only not "play nice" with other programs if it is programmed to do so.

What i mean about asm is that it is very hard to program asm like an idiot, if you unassemble a program written in an "evolved" language you would see jumps that jump to the very next instruction in other words totally useless, the same for branches that branch to the very next instruction so it would go to the next instruction weather the branc is taken or not, also totally useless, and the program would be filled with such useless instructions. which take up both memory space and processor time, so what? 3-4 bytes here 8-10 clock cycles there who cares? Well if it was only once or twice a program, it wouldn't matter much, but it's not once or twice per program it's more like once every 10-20 bytes, it really adds up.

As an example i wrote a small (DOS/ASM) program that displayed the key codes from the keyboard, it displayed the ascii code, & the key code in hexadecimal and decimal, the program was also self explanatory if you typed it with a "/?", the whole program was about 1200 bytes, not that big is it? And i did all the hex and dec routines myself, then i borrowed a "c++" programing book, on the cd there was a keyboard scaner, like i the one i wrote, his didn't self explain it just wrote the letter and the scan code in decimal, mine was much more complete and functionnal, his was 33K's long programmed in "C++", mine was more functionnal gave more info, and was about 28 times smaller, and was MUCH faster, but since the program was waiting on keypresses the speed advantage was not visible, but it would have been at least 50 times faster, the same would be true for most programs, except for some of the more intricate graphics, size wize only, the speed might actually be even faster, because the graphic routines would be way more effective.

So a program is a program wheather(excuse my french) it is programmed in asm c or any other programing language, the thing is the one programmed in asm will be more much more compact will execute much faster, and wouldn't require "run time libraries" like many programs today.

But there a few dis-advantages to asm, 1'st it is as i first said, not for the faint of heart, second rate programmers can easily be weded out though, 2 it is easier to reverse engineer the code is usually quite clean, even if the programmer has a "spaghetti code" programing style, and 3, because of the symplicity and similarity of the instructions it can be easy to make logical errors that can be hard to find, but when you find them you feel like kicking yourself.

But i think the smaller program size and BLAZING speed greatly outweigh the dis-advantages, more so for operating systems and other computing intencive tasks.

JohnDowe.

[TracyCoxx]

I remember when my dad brought home a friend from work to show us the calculator he had

And quite a bit before that... I remember sitting in the back seat of the car, looking out the back window at the sun, and then looking out the side window and again seeing the sun, and wondering if there were two suns?

[Talvenada]

Originally Posted by TracyCoxx

I remember when my dad brought home a friend from work to show us the calculator he had

And quite a bit before that... I remember sitting in the back seat of the car, looking out the back window at the sun, and then looking out the side window and again seeing the sun, and wondering if there were two suns?

I remember when Tracy Coxx didn't have a cock





in his avatar.

i remember when kfc was kentcky fried chicked , i cant recall when it became KFC ?

I remember opening a twitter account and about 5 minutes later thinking why bother ?

[johndowe]

Hi there.

I remember having my first internet and downloading at a whopping 7K per second.

And from 97 to 2003 it was free.

JohnDowe.

I remember when i started this thread ...... i was so young

[DSL]

I remembered i should have stayed away from that last drink.

[johndowe]

Hi there.

I remember that this was the start up screen of my cpu.




JohnDowe.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by ila

I remember that. I was heavily involved in emergency planning for a cellular telephone company at that time. It was very thought provoking, to say the least, trying to come up with all possible scenarios. And then the big night and like you said Jen, nothing happened.

Well, at least we can all relive those moments once 2012 gets closer. There are a lot of people that really believe that the end of the world will happen then!

Myself, I think I will just enjoy the movie with the same name(2012). Life is too short to worry about something that no one has any control over anyhow.

My first computer was a Commodore "VIC-20." It used a "cassette" recorder for data storage and hooked up to a TV. I would have been like 9 or 10. Wish I still had it just for fun!

The first "real" PC I had was an IBM "AT." This was based on the Intel "286" CPU and ran DOS 3.3. I later added a "287" math co-processor, an Intel "Above Board" memory card, and an "EGA" (not VGA) video adapter. Anyone remember any of this stuff? This is the computer I used through high school. It now sits in pieces on a shelf in my office.

Somewhere, in Junior High or early High School, I built a Radio Shack "kit" that could be programmed in Assembly language.

In college (Purdue), the first language I learned was Fortran. I already knew Basic and Pascal from messing around on my own. I also used "punched cards" for a simulation we did in a Probability and Decision Theory class. I picked up "C" on my own and by working with one of my professors. I used to have a copy of Kernigan & Ritchie somewhere.

The first programming class I taught was C++. Most of the classes I teach now involve "applications." For example, my Operations class uses Excel heavily. Mostly for things like inventory management and statistical quality control. I also teach Data Analysis which uses Oracle and Project Management which uses a variety of software packages.

Anyway, this post is probably getting boring, I should stop...

Andrew

Thought I'd share this ad for the "Vic." It features none other than Captain Kirk!

[randolph]

I remember when we WON wars!

[johndowe]

Originally Posted by aw9725

My first computer was a Commodore "VIC-20." It used a "cassette" recorder for data storage and hooked up to a TV. I would have been like 9 or 10. Wish I still had it just for fun!

The first "real" PC I had was an IBM "AT." This was based on the Intel "286" CPU and ran DOS 3.3. I later added a "287" math co-processor, an Intel "Above Board" memory card, and an "EGA" (not VGA) video adapter. Anyone remember any of this stuff? This is the computer I used through high school. It now sits in pieces on a shelf in my office.

Somewhere, in Junior High or early High School, I built a Radio Shack "kit" that could be programmed in Assembly language.

In college (Purdue), the first language I learned was Fortran. I already knew Basic and Pascal from messing around on my own. I also used "punched cards" for a simulation we did in a Probability and Decision Theory class. I picked up "C" on my own and by working with one of my professors. I used to have a copy of Kernigan & Ritchie somewhere.

The first programming class I taught was C++. Most of the classes I teach now involve "applications." For example, my Operations class uses Excel heavily. Mostly for things like inventory management and statistical quality control. I also teach Data Analysis which uses Oracle and Project Management which uses a variety of software packages.

Anyway, this post is probably getting boring, I should stop...

Andrew

Hi there.

I remember, and i STILL have my C64, somewhere...

And i still hsve a 386, 486, P2, & Celeron CPU's of course i built most of them myself as a CPU tech, also had an XT and a 286 but they were left behind when i moved out of my ex wifes (our) apt.


JohnDowe.

[jodarling]

Originally Posted by randolph

I remember when we WON wars!

I remember when you used to call em "Policing Actions" when you didn't win em.

[randolph]

Originally Posted by johndowe

Hi there.

I remember, and i STILL have my C64, somewhere...

And i still hsve a 386, 487, P2, & Celeron CPU's of course i built most of them myself as a CPU tech, also had an XT and a 286 but they were left behind when i moved out of my ex wifes (our) apt.


JohnDowe.

My first was a Radio Shack "color" computer. With a couple of friends we modified it to run two floppies and read an Eprom. We built battery powered data loggers for field use that recorded temperature data on the Eproms which then could be read by the computer. I prepared a series of little programs to analyze the data to provide the grower with information on high and low temperatures and day degree accumulations. We actually sold some of the units to citrus growers in the San Joaquin Valley in California. We eventually gave up because of the poor quality of the chips we had to buy from hobby suppliers since our needs for chips were such low volume. It was a fun project while it lasted, however.

[johndowe]

Hi there.

Was that a coco, or a coco2?

But good job on the mods, i also moded my C64, floppy drive and Joy sticks, but i didn't make any money with it.


JohnDowe.

[randolph]

Originally Posted by johndowe

Hi there.

Was that a coco, or a coco2?

But good job on the mods, i also moded my C64, floppy drive and Joy sticks, but i didn't make any money with it.


JohnDowe.

I don't remember the model. It was like a large keyboard with this large cartridge like interface slot on the right side. It had built in basic which was quite versatile. For a while many venders were making applications for it in the early 1980s. I think it had the same Motorola processor as the Apple.

[DSL]

Remember those old atari game back then i think the first game that came out was pong! i still play that and space invaders, missile command,
also remember the games called war games i think it was on the C64.

[shadows]

Originally Posted by DSL

Remember those old atari game back then i think the first game that came out was pong! i still play that and space invaders, missile command,
also remember the games called war games i think it was on the C64.

I remember the game 'E.T.' for the 2600.

There was a game called 'Quest' or something like that that I had no frickin' idea what to do. One of the most confusing 2600(or any other system) games I have ever played. Needless to say I never completed it.

Pitfall 2, however, was one of my favourite 2600 games. I completed it a couple of times, just to see if there were any secret areas I had missed. Miles ahead of Pitfall 1 to be sure.

[johndowe]

Originally Posted by randolph

I don't remember the model. It was like a large keyboard with this large cartridge like interface slot on the right side. It had built in basic which was quite versatile. For a while many venders were making applications for it in the early 1980s. I think it had the same Motorola processor as the Apple.

Hi there.

The apple series (pre mac & ;lisa) were based on the 6502 and later on the 65c02, while the coco, was based on the motorola 6800 series and the last one used the 6809, which at the time was one if not the best 8bit cpu.

PS the LISA was upgraded to become the (old) mac.


JohnDowe.

[The Conquistador]

Originally Posted by transjen

I rember when i was a kid the songs on the radio kicked a$$ and the hair bands ruled DEF LEPARD,POISION, WHITESNAKE,IRON MAIDEN,LITA FORD,GUNS AND ROSES
Jerseygirl Jen

Yes!!! I liked this music alot better than the Third Eye Blind and Tal Bachman that I heard in school.

[The Conquistador]

I remember my first gaming system was Atari and soon after we upgraded to CollecoVision. Qbert was the shit!!!

[shadows]

Originally Posted by TheAngryPostman

I remember my first gaming system was Atari and soon after we upgraded to CollecoVision. Qbert was the shit!!!

I remember playing The Smurfs on CollecoVision.:D

[tslust]

I remember when there wasn't snow on the ground, green grass, blue skies; wait, no I can't.

[moonvisage]

I remember when the Banana Splits was first shown on tv.The arabian knights was brilliant,an so many kids use to do the '' Size of an elephant! '',reference to their cocks,with their pants still on of course.