Comment On What the Ad?

Careful, these things can be ad-dictive.

Fist!

I actually have two of those C Itoh terminals, both CIT-101s, that came with my PDP-11. At some point along the line the folder with all the receipts for the PDP-11 and peripherals got lost, but I remember seeing it about ten years ago when the machine was decommissioned - the terminals were nearly £1400 each in 1985!

They have a very funky alternate font that resembles MICR characters. I'll need to try and dig out a picture.

I like how linked wikipedia article about howard only contains information given here

I still have that TI calculator in my desk. It survived Y2K, DST changes and six moves over the years. It still works just fine.

They just don't build 'em like that any more.

Is that TI-59 to scale?

All of the article's images are in subdirectory called ads. It took me few seconds to understand AdBlock was blocking them... so if you don't see any images, turn off AdBlock.

OMG, my mother has that Texas Instruments calculator!

Wow, I'm not the only one who remembers MathNet.

I loved that show so much.

It has been far too long since I've had my hands on a VT-100.

Those were the days.

Why does $1995 seem to be a popular price for computers/terminals?

It all seems to be variations on 1, 9 and 5 otherwise.

Sadly, I wouldn't mind getting my hands on either one of those C.Itoh terminals or a real VT-100/220/320....

awesome

Fail.

I scanned a bunch of old magazines a while ago. There's a review of MS Word 1.0 for DOS as well as the first version of Windows, and some amusing adverts:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/7173831@N06/

I still have boxes of Rainbow magizine from the tandy days :-)

I still have boxes of Rainbow magizine from the tandy days :-)

Putting the images in you /ads/ folder eh? I see what you did there. Nice try.

I wouldn't call any of the ads a WTF, so it might be jumping the shark a little bit, but they are still interesting and entertaining to read.

Bill Cosby looked decrepid even then. How the hell is that man still alive and, worse, still on our televisions?

CoCoIII:

I still have boxes of Rainbow magizine from the tandy days :-)

Oh, man, those were the days. Rainbow and Hot CoCo. 6809 Assembly Language. Along about 1984 there are a couple of items by me in there. Not articles, but contributions to discussion articles. Remember the RAID debugger that utilized the extra, unused 32K of RAM?

Code Dependent:

CoCoIII:

I still have boxes of Rainbow magizine from the tandy days :-)

Oh, man, those were the days. Rainbow, Hot CoCo, Color Computer Magazine. 6809 Assembly Language. Along about 1984 there are a couple of items by me in there. Not articles, but contributions to discussion articles. Remember the RAID debugger that utilized the extra, unused 32K of RAM?

The forum software seems to be confused about what I mean by both "Edit" and "Delete".

As part of the contract with Mr. Cosby, to actually get the TI-59 Programmable you have to cut out the order form, calculator AND Bill. And don't even think about leaving any white space when you cut it out or your order will be sent back to you with an upper AND lowercase "No".

My adblocker is blocking the images...

Phantom Watson:

Is that TI-59 to scale?

Yes, it is. But remember, Dr. Cosby is only sixteen inches tall.

-Harrow.

Actually, I think I'll just not read the article, rather than support that sort of evil nonsense.

Harrow:

Phantom Watson:

Is that TI-59 to scale?

Yes, it is. But remember, Dr. Cosby is only sixteen inches tall.

-Harrow.

I like how the tassel is draped over the calculator but Dr. Cosby is under the calculator.

I have a ti-59 !
the solid state was so cool.

Wow, a Photoshop Disaster without the Photoshop.

JakeyC:

Upper AND lower case letters as standard?

I'll take two!

CAN I HAVE ONE? PEOPLE ALWAYS THINK I'M A TROLL.

The story you're about to see is a fib, but it's short. The names are made up but the problems are real.

I remember the extra card required for lower case on the Apple II.
And don't get me started on lower-case descenders...

How much does it cost to add lower case to the Apple II? :D What character set were they using?

mjk340:

Things were so much simpler before the Commodore. Now we have to write code like:

if input == "no" || input == "No || input == "nO" || input == "NO"
{
//do stuff
}

or you could always use if (tolower(input) == "no"){}

(Ignore this is my internet sarcasm filter is broken)

Nick:

Why does $1995 seem to be a popular price for computers/terminals?

It all seems to be variations on 1, 9 and 5 otherwise.

Simple, most computers at the time only had 1, 9 and 5 buttons. But the Commodore had a separate numeric keypad! That was why it was the clear choice. Trust Bill Shatner!

Wow! Apple's were overpriced even back then!

mjk340:

Things were so much simpler before the Commodore. Now we have to write code like:

if input == "no" || input == "No || input == "nO" || input == "NO"
{
//do stuff
}

More like

IF UCASE$(INPUT = "NO") THEN
... do stuff
END IF
if its BASIC, toupper if its C, etc.

I knew a DIY kind of guy in Virginia. When I went to his house for the first time, it took me about three minutes to ask - with great concern for his sanity - WTF he was doing with C64 disk drives hooked to his television, stereo, coffee pot, dishwasher, the list went on.

He explained that the C64 1541-II disk drive peripheral actually has a surprisingly powerful subcomputer in it, so he started snapping them up cheap when the drive motors and head assemblies were dead. He didn't care; he just wanted a convenient embedded processor that could run his various home projects. The disk drives attached to everything in his house were part of his home automation project, where he could sit on the couch and use his universal remote to make coffee.

Which involved the dishwasher. Honestly, you don't want to know.

Archon:

CAN I HAVE ONE? PEOPLE ALWAYS THINK I'M A TROLL.

DID YOU MANAGE TO BUILD GCC AND COMPILE W3M ON YOUR APPLE II, TOO? I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE.

More please! :)

We still have a couple of VT-100s. They still work.

The ads don't show up in firefox.

Me:

I wouldn't call any of the ads a WTF, so it might be jumping the shark a little bit, but they are still interesting and entertaining to read.

Then you must have missed the specs on the Apple II, setting their standard of overpriced but less useful machines early on. Besides, this is in the "Featured Articles" category.

How is it that TI could trade-mark "Solid State Software?" Isn't that kind of like trade-marking something like "milk chocolate?"

Robert Hanson:

The ads don't show up in firefox.

Turn off AdBlock.

Editors please use some URLs not containing the substring "/ads/"? :)

Bob:

More like

IF UCASE$(INPUT = "NO") THEN
... do stuff
END IF
if its BASIC, toupper if its C, etc.

You FAIL at sarcasm.