{"id":377,"date":"2007-12-08T23:35:00","date_gmt":"2007-12-09T04:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/wordpress\/poetponders\/?p=377"},"modified":"2023-11-26T12:57:32","modified_gmt":"2023-11-26T18:57:32","slug":"box-o-hopes-and-dreams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/2007\/12\/08\/box-o-hopes-and-dreams\/","title":{"rendered":"Box o’ Hopes and Dreams"},"content":{"rendered":"

If I have to think of what things have changed my life, the answer is simple: computers. I have owned quite a few. If I had kept them, I would have an interesting museum of old technologies.<\/p>\n

Commodore VIC-20<\/a><\/h3>\n

My first computer at home was a Commodore VIC-20. It was an odd computer, soon replaced by Commodore with the C64 \u2014 the best-selling computer model of all time. (More than 3 million of the original C64 were sold!) I have a real fondness for the early years of the home computer: Atari, Commodore, Apple, Tandy, Texas Instruments, and many others were competing to get technology into the home. They were all more interesting than the modern Apple Mac and IBM PC to me.<\/p>\n

Magazines like BYTE, PC World, PC Magazine, Compute, InCider, A+, and dozens of others included program code. You could enter BASIC, machine code, Pascal, or C programs and then change them to see how things worked. Today? The complexity of software no longer makes it possible to include code in a book. Games take dozens of programmers.<\/p>\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>Commodore VIC-20<\/div>\n

Released: January 1981
\nPrice: US $299
\nCPU: MOS 6502, 1MHz
\nRAM: 5K (3.5K for the user)
\nDisplay: 22 X 23 text
\n176 X 184, 16 colors max<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I wanted to write using my computer and its noisy dot-matrix printer. Writing by hand has always been a challenge. As a result, I wrote several text editors for various computer platforms. I coded TextRite for the VIC-20, a simple editor that allowed me to write a page or so of text \u2014 about the point the computer would run out of memory!<\/p>\n

Timex Sinclair 1000<\/a><\/h3>\n

In addition to the VIC-20, my father purchased a Timex-Sinclair<\/a> “DIY” computer. This was the ultimate in “small” computers. About the size of a book, the TS-1000 was fascinating. The membrane keyboard was a pain, and the computer was stuck in only black and white. The VIC-20 was an amazing machine by comparison!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Timex Sinclair 1000<\/div>\n

Introduced: July 1982
\nPrice: US $99.95
\nWeight: 12 ounces
\nCPU: Zilog Z80A, 3.25MHz
\nRAM: 2K, 64K max
\nDisplay: 22 X 32 text<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Atari 800<\/h3>\n

My junior high had Atari 800 computers. These were way, way ahead of the VIC-20 and the Timex-Sinclair. These were fascinating machines. There were floppy drives, cartridges, and the best games around were on the Atari. I did have “Apple Envy” though, because Apple computer seemed to be in most other schools. I only used one Apple IIe<\/a> before college. The Atari and Apple computers even looked similar.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Atari 800<\/div>\n

Released: November 1979
\nPrice : US $999.95
\nCPU: MOS 6502,1.8MHz
\nRAM: 8K base, 48K max
\nDisplay: 24 X 40 text
\n320 x 192 monochrome
\n160 x 96 with 128 colors
\nExpansion: 4 internal expansion slots
\nRGB video output
\nTV video output
\nStorage: external 90K floppy drive
\nOS: Atari OS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Tandy 1000<\/a><\/h3>\n

After using the VIC-20 into high school, my father purchased the computer that truly changed\u00a0my life: a Tandy 1000. The Tandy 1000 ran Microsoft DOS 1.1 \u2014 the newest and most exciting operating system. Over the years, I would upgrade to DOS 2.x and 3.x before upgrading to another “IBM clone<\/a>” computer during my second year of college (an Epson PC-AT with a 10MB hard drive).<\/p>\n

Using the Tandy, I learned QuickBASIC<\/a>, TurboPascal<\/a>, COBOL, and experimented with a dozen or more computer languages. By college, I was also working as a programmer for the university, using REXX, C, FORTRAN, and more. I definitely found my place, surrounded by technology.<\/p>\n

\n
\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Tandy 1000<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

CPU: Intel 8088
\nRAM: 256K (Expandable to 640K)
\nPorts: Edge Card Tandy Printer, DB9 Serial, Tandy Joystick x2 & Light Pen
\nDisplay: TCGA 16 Colors & CGA 4 Colors
\nStorage: One or Two 5.25″ 360K Floppies
\nOperating System: MS-DOS<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Using the Tandy 1000, I write a fairly complete word processing system, which I used for several years. I expanded the features and copies were used on IBM computers at my high school. My skills came in handy when I helped set up a computer lab for the school newspaper and yearbook.<\/p>\n

Apple Mac IIci<\/h3>\n

After college, I would go on to build PCs, while developing a passion for Apple’s Macintosh line. The first Mac I owned, not counting the Macs on my desk as a university employee, was a wonderful IIci. This was a great machine… much, much better than any PC.<\/p>\n

The Mac was not a programmer’s dream, unlike the PCs I owned, but it was light years ahead of the PC when it came to graphics. I got a copy of Aldus PageMaker, Microsoft Word, and was in heaven. These were amazing applications. WordPerfect on DOS and Lotus 1-2-3 were not nearly as exciting as MacPaint, PageMaker, or even Word.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
Apple Mac IIci<\/div>\n

Introduced: September 1989 $6,700 ($8,800 with 40 MB hard drive)
\nDiscontinued: 1993
\nCPU: 25 MHz 68030
\nFPU: 25 MHz 68882
\nROM: 512 KB
\nOS: Apple System 6.0.4 to 7.6.1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What I Use Today…<\/h3>\n

At the moment, my wife and I have a Mac mini, a G4 “Lampshade” model, a MacBook Pro, and a PowerBook G4. We gave away our last two PCs during the summer of 2007. Since my MacBook Pro runs Windows and DOS, there was little reason to keep so many computers around the house… especially for just two people.<\/p>\n

Why This Matters to Writing<\/h4>\n

I write about technology for a magazine publisher in California. I’ve written for a couple of newspapers, as well. Answering questions and helping other people is always interesting, leading to new ideas.<\/p>\n

If I were to write about all the ways in which computers affected my life, I’d be writing a book. Instead, I simply wanted to reflect on how far computers have come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If I have to think of what things have changed my life, the answer is simple: computers. I have owned quite a few. If I…<\/p>\n

Continue readingBox o’ Hopes and Dreams<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"iawp_total_views":9,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5,8,10],"tags":[17,43,56,108,114,254,436,491,525],"class_list":["post-377","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-csw","category-technology","category-writing","tag-8-bit-computers","tag-apple","tag-atari","tag-commodore","tag-computers","tag-hardware","tag-programming","tag-sinclair","tag-tandy","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2023\/12\/FB_Banner_Pen_Mac.png?fit=1200%2C630&ssl=1","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfiw78-65","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=377"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1790,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/377\/revisions\/1790"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1875"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tameri.com\/csw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}