• (cs) in reply to Jamie
    Jamie:
    TRWTF is "Turbo PCs". A little toggle button to switch from 6MHz to 8MHz, and that's "turbo"???
    If only I could make my PC 33% faster by pushing a button!
  • ChiefCrazyTalk (unregistered) in reply to Jamie
    Jamie:
    TRWTF is "Turbo PCs". A little toggle button to switch from 6MHz to 8MHz, and that's "turbo"???

    I actually had to use that button at one of my first jobs. The company timesheet application would crash in Turbo mode. ( I think it was 32MHz/8MHz or something).

    There was a reason for the turbo switch (in spite of the inaccurate name) - certain software would not run correctly at the higher clock rates, so you had to throttle your computer down. I remember playing games designed for a 4 MHz PC on an 8 or 16 MHz box - the action was so fast they were unusable

  • (cs) in reply to B1FF
    B1FF:
    MY FIRST COMPUTER WAS A VIC-20 AND IT STILL WORKS, IN FACT I AM USING IT NOW WITH MY 300 BAUD VICMODEM AND COMMODORE DATASETTE, IT ROCKS ALTHOUGH 22 COLUMN SCREENS HAVE FALLEN OUT OF FAVOR.
    ME TOO! ALTHOUGH MY VIC SEEMS TO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH ITS POWER SUPPLY AS IT LIKES TO REBOOT SOMET ** CBM BASIC V2 ** 3583 BYTES FREE

    READY.

  • Jamie (unregistered) in reply to ChiefCrazyTalk
    ChiefCrazyTalk:
    Jamie:
    TRWTF is "Turbo PCs". A little toggle button to switch from 6MHz to 8MHz, and that's "turbo"???

    I actually had to use that button at one of my first jobs. The company timesheet application would crash in Turbo mode. ( I think it was 32MHz/8MHz or something).

    There was a reason for the turbo switch (in spite of the inaccurate name) - certain software would not run correctly at the higher clock rates, so you had to throttle your computer down. I remember playing games designed for a 4 MHz PC on an 8 or 16 MHz box - the action was so fast they were unusable

    Ha ha that reminds me of this old game, where you controlled a trampoline; you could put it in three positions relative to a burning apartment building (near, medium, or far). These babies would come flying out the windows and you had to bounce them on the trampoline, and into an ambulance. I think it was called "bouncing babies" or something.

    It was definitely unplayable in turbo mode.

  • dag (unregistered) in reply to turbot
    turbot:
    Anybody remember a Far Side cartoon with the predators eyeing antelopes marked "Turbo"?

    I love that one: "Forget these guys"

    Brill(i)ant, thanks for reminding me. :-D

  • David (unregistered)

    I bought two of those PC Limited machines, one for me and one for my sister. Kept it until I got a 486 box several years later.

    The purpose of the turbo button is to drop the machine down into a known speed, mostly for game playing and copy protection. The common way to implement animation was to include a fixed number of milliseconds of dead time, which was created by doing so many hundred interations of an empty loop. I remember that the DOS version of Ultima IV would not run unless I started the game with the Turbo turned off. You could Turbo once the game got past its copy protection.

  • (cs)

    Even the technology which is still around from then has changed significantly. I remember how in the late 80s and even into the early 90s, the then-new CD-ROM drives (and even some audio CD players) had these aggravating caddies you had to deal with. They were quite irritating.

  • Modo (unregistered)

    Mark

    Using the work Venerable in two articles back to back? Really?

  • girly programmer (unregistered) in reply to operagost
    today's girly programmers.
    You insensitive clod...
  • (cs) in reply to Kazan
    Kazan:
    aah the old turbo switch... and most motherboards used the standard 2-pin plug which you could simply place a jumper close on and permanantly turbo.

    of course.. that was the 486DX2/66 days when i got my first computer.

    So.. am I old or am I young? :P

    You're either young or a late starter.

    My first PC was a 386, with a 387 maths coprocessor and a massive 4MB of RAM. Least that's the earliest one I can still remember the spec for.

  • Dr. Emmett Brown (unregistered)

    First post!

    Ah crap! Damn you, Time Machine II! Where is my DeLorean?

  • (cs)

    Thirty years from today, we'll be laughing at today's technology...

    ... and still be reading about companies who refuse to upgrade out of Windows/XP.

  • Helix (unregistered) in reply to ChiefCrazyTalk
    ChiefCrazyTalk:
    Jamie:
    TRWTF is "Turbo PCs". A little toggle button to switch from 6MHz to 8MHz, and that's "turbo"???

    I actually had to use that button at one of my first jobs. The company timesheet application would crash in Turbo mode. ( I think it was 32MHz/8MHz or something).

    There was a reason for the turbo switch (in spite of the inaccurate name) - certain software would not run correctly at the higher clock rates, so you had to throttle your computer down. I remember playing games designed for a 4 MHz PC on an 8 or 16 MHz box - the action was so fast they were unusable

    Guys, the reason for that turbo switch was that it was really needed to make games playable and sometimes for poorly designed software to retain timing so it won't crash.

  • (cs) in reply to B1FF
    B1FF:
    MY FIRST COMPUTER WAS A VIC-20 AND IT STILL WORKS, IN FACT I AM USING IT NOW WITH MY 300 BAUD VICMODEM AND COMMODORE DATASETTE, IT ROCKS ALTHOUGH 22 COLUMN SCREENS HAVE FALLEN OUT OF FAVOR.

    I call shenanigans. "COMMODORE DATASETTE, IT" is 23 columns! You're not REALLY typing on a VIC 20, ARE you??????? }:(

  • Americium (unregistered) in reply to vt_mruhlin
    vt_mruhlin:
    I suppose it's only natural that the Time Machine 2 would predate the Time Machine 1. Just wait until archeologists discover the Time Machine 3 in some ancient ruins.

    They're time machines! Just because version 3 is found earlier in time than 1 or 2 doesn't mean it was built first.

  • Peter (unregistered) in reply to robbak
    robbak:
    What's the time? I've got it here, what is written on a piece of paper...

    A great idea until your grandma takes the paper.

  • moz (unregistered) in reply to Helix
    Helix:
    Videodisc player that won't box you in?

    Ask the guys who converted the BBC Doomsday project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_Domesday_Project

    Say what you like about laserdiscs - at least they last longer than web sites.

  • J.R. Blood (unregistered)

    I'm impressed that the Time Machine ][ was actually Y2K compliant. ;D

  • bit0mike (unregistered)

    Huh, I've got a Sony LDP-2000 laserdisc player (in an old arcade game) and I had no idea it had expansion slots inside of it. Gonna have to look that one up now :)

  • (cs) in reply to Jamie

    I remember that!! In fact... I think I had a dream about it a week or so ago, and woke up with an incredible urge to play it...

  • (cs)

    Well, that's the second illustration of a laserdisc I've come across today. The first was while channel-surfing and running across a screening of Back to the Future II where bundles of the things were being thrown out in the trash.

    Ah, the good old days. When "futuristic" meant having newspapers with photos in colour. And I'm still waiting for my hoverboard.

  • (cs) in reply to Watson
    Watson:
    Ah, the good old days. When "futuristic" meant having newspapers with photos in colour. And I'm still waiting for my hoverboard.

    It's kinda funny how in the '80s, movie producers apparently believed that wireframe 3D graphics and flying cars / hoverboards / cold fusion are roughly equivalent in terms of technological challenge...

  • Joe B. (unregistered)

    Really guys... i don't see a wtf here, don't you usually count down when you are getting to something? I bet that Time Machine II was preceded by Time Machine III, which was preceded by Time Machine IV... and so on.

    All hail Apple Foreseers!

  • dom (unregistered) in reply to Joe B.
    My first computer was...

    In a few years time it will be - My first computer had 2GB of ram and a 500GB hard disk. It had Windows Vista and a DVD burner! It was half an inch thick!

    Ah... the good old days

  • (cs) in reply to Joe B.
    Joe B.:
    I bet that Time Machine II was preceded by Time Machine III, which was preceded by Time Machine IV... and so on.

    All hail Apple Foreseers!

    Of course. And the next one will be Time Machine Zero, right?

  • David J. (unregistered) in reply to Pim

    Yes, and then either time machine -1 or time machine BC

    (captcha: commoveo)

  • commoveo (unregistered) in reply to dom
    dom:
    My first computer was...

    In a few years time it will be - My first computer had 2GB of ram and a 500GB hard disk. It had Windows Vista and a DVD burner! It was half an inch thick!

    Ah... the good old days

    I kindof dont miss taking apart my computers and getting lacerations on my hands and ettin blood all over the curcuits. :)

  • MIke (unregistered)

    The PC's Limited power supply was 195 watts. So much power!

  • Xythar (unregistered)

    I know the PC might be limited, but forming a whole company just to claim so in the name? Must be a Mac fan.

    Unless he was referring to some hypothetical "limited" that was owned by the PC in question.

  • (cs)

    The grammar of the Michael Dell ad is interesting: PC's Limited - the apostrophe shows possession not pluralization. So he is saying his line of PC products possess limitations!!

  • (cs)

    8MHz 286? Pfff... what a loser, mine went up to 12MHz.

  • (cs) in reply to Code Dependent
    Code Dependent:
    Wow, a real-time clock and calendar... burned on an eprom! The possibilities were endless.

    Eight AM on the dot. Fistula!

    I think you seem to have missed the point. The firmware is in an EPROM, like it says... the actual RTC is probably an MC14618.

    ContraCorners:
    jmroth:
    I still have disks like those! Does that make me old? Unfortunately the player is wasted... Not sure if those discs will sell well on Ebay
    Only one way to find out...
    http://xkcd.com/576/
  • iToad (unregistered)

    I still have a Sony LDP-2000. It still works.

  • (cs) in reply to hikari
    hikari:
    Kazan:
    aah the old turbo switch... and most motherboards used the standard 2-pin plug which you could simply place a jumper close on and permanantly turbo.

    of course.. that was the 486DX2/66 days when i got my first computer.

    So.. am I old or am I young? :P

    You're either young or a late starter.

    My first PC was a 386, with a 387 maths coprocessor and a massive 4MB of RAM. Least that's the earliest one I can still remember the spec for.

    MY first PC was an original IBM PC in late 1982 or 1983. 320K of main memory, I think. I bought it with 16K of memory, populated the rest of the 64K on the main board, and the rest was on an add-in card. TWO quad-density 5.25" floppy drives (third-party). Amber CRT screen. Cost about $3200 total.

  • Anonymous (unregistered) in reply to Amen-Hotep
    Amen-Hotep:
    MrsPost:
    TRS-80 Model 1 with the memory upgraded to 32K.
    avflinsch:
    I had a Ohio Scientific C1P as my first computer
    Bah. My first computer was an abacus.

    Oh, we used to dream of calculating with an abacus. Would have been a luxury to us. We used to use dirt and sticks. And we were lucky to have sticks.

  • Jay (unregistered)

    Hey, remember all those science fiction stories from the fifties that talked about some amazing super-computer from the future that had millions of tubes and filled a planet? That's not exactly the direction technology took ...

  • Anonymous Coward (unregistered) in reply to Amen-Hotep
    Amen-Hotep:
    MrsPost:
    TRS-80 Model 1 with the memory upgraded to 32K.
    avflinsch:
    I had a Ohio Scientific C1P as my first computer
    Bah. My first computer was an abacus.
    Finally, a peer. My first computer was a Jacquard loom.
  • (cs) in reply to Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward:
    Amen-Hotep:
    MrsPost:
    TRS-80 Model 1 with the memory upgraded to 32K.
    avflinsch:
    I had a Ohio Scientific C1P as my first computer
    Bah. My first computer was an abacus.
    Finally, a peer. My first computer was a Jacquard loom.
    The spreadsheets could double as bedsheets.
  • Drak (unregistered)

    Well at least they were about as good at spell-checking as some people are today. Or maybe 'compatable' is a future spelling already known by the makers of 'Time Machine II'!

  • bramster (unregistered) in reply to DWalker59
    DWalker59:
    hikari:
    Kazan:
    aah the old turbo switch... and most motherboards used the standard 2-pin plug which you could simply place a jumper close on and permanantly turbo.

    of course.. that was the 486DX2/66 days when i got my first computer.

    So.. am I old or am I young? :P

    You're either young or a late starter.

    My first PC was a 386, with a 387 maths coprocessor and a massive 4MB of RAM. Least that's the earliest one I can still remember the spec for.

    MY first PC was an original IBM PC in late 1982 or 1983. 320K of main memory, I think. I bought it with 16K of memory, populated the rest of the 64K on the main board, and the rest was on an add-in card. TWO quad-density 5.25" floppy drives (third-party). Amber CRT screen. Cost about $3200 total.

    I got my PC in August, 1981. 16 k Ram. NO floppies -- programmed in ROM Basic through the Cassette port.

    I bought chips to bring it to 64K ram, bought two Single-sided Floppy disk drives, added a 256K memory board, acquired a 10-megabyte external hard-drive, although booting was still from the floppy. Hey, it was a start.

    While doing some diagnosis a few years later with a voltmeter, I shorted something out, and the magic smoke escaped from the motherboard. Replaced motherboard with XT board, which meant bodywork on the back of the case so that the 8 vs 5 card slots would be accessible.

    And I almost forgot the 286 accelerator card, that had a cable connection to the XT motherboard. . .

    Now I get nervous about taking the screws out of the back of the case.

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