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Topic starter
2021-10-05 3:34 pm
Hi all. This is fun, I started a long time ago as guitar and bassplayer in several bands, great fun but no career. Then i became eventually IT manager for a large corporation managing the operations of some 3000 PCs, several hundred Unix workstations servers, 150 VAXes (Digital eqt).
In 1974 i was shiftleader for in a large message switching system and during the night we highjacked one of the big computers and started playing around with it, some time in direct machine language and lateron using assembler. That system had a large number of hardware interrupts (believe 128) and we did some great things on that.
Retired early 2000's and then went back to my guitar roots, but being a bit old for bands i started building guitars from old parts (called partscasters) and wrote a few books about that. Still do that.
My other roots , computers and all that, i took up as well. Still have Apple ii, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, and various others.
My latest field of interest is Robotics and AI, to be precise the combination of those two in order to create independent operating , somewhat clever devices using neural networks and other methods.
As a lot of this happens on Arduinos, Raspis and the like using Python, C++ , this forum is of great interest to me. I just received the Pixy2 and the OTTO DIY kit. See what happens with those.
Bill is a talented teacher, so i decided to join this forum.. Oh forgot, i am Dutch.
2021-10-05 4:59 pm
@Bert 44
Welcome to the forum!!
I too have an Apple II (one of my first computers), which I used while attending college for various CS projects. I have moved on (i.e. added about 50 years) and am now playing with RPi’s and computer vision using Python.
Bill and the forum have been a great help with several of my seemingly endless projects. I’m sure you’ll have the same experience as I’ve had on here. Again, Welcome!
Best Regards from the USA,
Lee G.
bert44 reacted
2021-10-05 7:13 pm
Still have Apple ii, Atari ST, Apple Macintosh, and various others.
Welcome to the forum. I still consider the Apple II to be the best computer ever, I had both a genuine Apple one and a clone. The clone was actually better, as it could do both upper and lower case, while the original Apple II only did uppercase.
What I loved about the (genuine) Apple II is that the manual had both a full schematic and all the BIOS code. It was the best learning experience ever, and it probably was why I do the stuff I do now. Before the days of dedicated microcontrollers I built a few things, like a Diablo daisy wheel printer controller and a model railway, using a 6502 and programming in assembly language, with an Apple II EPROM burner.
I wish modern computers would come with a manual like the Apple II had. My new Mac Mini M1 had no manual at all!
Also owned the Commodore 64, a Commodore Vic 20, a Texas Instruments TI-99, Radio Shack TRS-80 and a Sinclair ZX-81. All were great, but the Apple II was the best.
😎
Bill
"Never trust a computer you can’t throw out a window." — Steve Wozniak
2021-10-05 7:51 pm
Never owned an Apple. I would argue with a friend who was an Apple and Mac fan with regards to what was the best computer. I was TRS80 and then C64 fan at the time, The reason being the support available for teaching how to interface the computer to hardware and use assembler. Those who owned apples belonged to the yuppie set. Yuppie definition is - a young college-educated adult who is employed in a well-paying profession and who lives and works in or near a large city.
Not having a formal education in electronics these computers were a hobbyist dream back then. I feel a bit out in the cold with all you smart college educated folk no doubt on good incomes.
I don't have the c64 books anymore but still have my first book for the TRS80.
Topic starter
2021-10-06 9:22 am
Apple II was and still is an amazing machine. Documentation, i remember i got the machine in (1984?) just before going on holiday. Apart from scubadiving i spent the rest of the time reading the famous Red book.
There is one with better documentation and that is the KIM1 single board computer (6502), i still have it and it still works. But the 2 kilograms of books that came with it was amazing. That was machine language programming at its best.
Topic starter
2021-10-06 9:25 am
@lee-g Much the same here. Am 77 now and aiming to build a robot with AI capabilities.
So , us oldies are still moving forward. Great fun!
Topic starter
2021-10-06 9:32 am
@robotbuilder Ah well, i was more of a hippie than a yuppie. Never completed university which was architecture, totally nothing to do with elektronics. I picked up everything on the fly as needed.
Appleii here in europe wasnt particularly a yuppie thing. I still have the first Tandy notebook (trs 100 or something) and it still works.
The Atari ST1040 is another favourite, it had inbuilt MIDI which for me as a musician at the time was a huge bonus. Also i played the first 3d dungeon master game on it, which was a real experience at the time.
It still sits on my desk.
2021-10-06 10:56 am
Perhaps it was all about what country you lived in. I have never heard of the "famous Red book".
The c64 was everywhere in Australia and I probably had the most fun out of that machine. Then there was the Amiga with its wonderful graphic and sound chips and video compatibility. Although the Amiga had a multitasking OS you could turn it off and program the computer hardware directly in 68000 machine code.
2021-10-07 11:09 am
@robotbuilder, @bert44, @lee-g
You guys have a lot of catching up to do! That said by the guy that built and Altair as a kit, SN:744 It had a whooping 1K of static RAM and that's it. I/O was front panel switches and LEDs! 😎
SteveG
2021-10-07 3:14 pm
Ah yes, Altair’s I (vaguely) remember them. I was overseas at the time with the Navy, spending all my money on Heathkits!
Remember those?? Built a SB1000 Power Amplifier and a bunch of test equipment for my ham station (WB5DTU). When got back to states was when I got the Apple. Once I had the Apple, I was hooked.
Regards,
Lee
2021-10-07 5:14 pm
I was over seas 69-70 with the the USAF. Still have the Altair and an Imsai too!
SteveG