I love this computer-generated series of graphics, apparently growing out of only 4kb of coding (via BoingBoing):
Hartverdrahtet – Akronyme Analogiker
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Category Archives: computers
Tape loading error
This little site will seem all too familiar to those of us who had the old Sinclair ZX Spectrum, with its rubber keyboard and mighty 48K of RAM (yes, a whole 48K!!! Wow, what a jump up from my 16K on my TI99-4/A) as you can now relive the fun and games that was waiting ages for a huge 48K programme to load from the tape deck with that awful Sinclair screech only to get the ‘tape loading error’ message instead of launching into Manic Miner with its demonic lavatory pans with teeth chasing you (seriously).
Funny, I was thinking about changes in home tech recently – somehow over Xmas at home we were talking about old games and my dad said how much he liked the Western shootout game we used to play (on an old Phillips cartridge console, something like the G7000 I think it was called) despite the blocky graphics because it was a fun game for two players. Then someone mentioned the video tennis, Pong-type game we had before that. We went from that to the Phillips system with keyboard and cartridges, then I had my TI (my first proper home computer back in 1981 or thereabouts), Spectrum then much later my Atari ST – wow, this thing had a floppy drive!! No more tape deck for me! Cutting edge!! First PC to use at college in the 90s with a gargantuan 65 meg hard drive. A hard disc??? Wow!!! Of course, now my latest camera has more than a dozen times this memory than that whole computer and the flash drive I carry about, which is the size of a lip salve tube, is also far bigger. Based on this procession, does this mean I can look forward to a semi-intelligent computer able to control a holodeck for me in the next ten years or so? Please?
new toy
On a good news front however, I picked up my shiny new toy today – a Toshiba laptop. It will take me ages to transfer over files accumulated on my ancient pentium desktop, but at least I have my existing email etc set up on the shiny little new machine. Very sexy and I’m very pleased with it – except Windows Xp seems deigned to stop people like me who know how to fiddle with things fiddling with things… I’m sure I’ll figure it all out eventually – unless is succumb to playing a nice new state-of-the art game, the type I couldn’t play on my old machine. Yes, I’m just waiting for Alex to supply me with new games distractions so I get bugger all work done on the new machine.
One drawback to the new computer – it is a nice thin plasma screen. This means no hot monitor for my cats to sleep on, they are most distressed. Still, I will take this opportunity to start training them up on anti-terrorism measures. The big puss, Pandora, is the tactical cat, designed to clobber the enemy by… well sitting on their laps and purring. Cassandra (Cassie) is the smaller cat and to be used for swift, surgical strikes. Ha, no Al-Queda plague infested rats being unleashed near me! Back to the new toy oh how my poor bank balance screams for mercy. But the old machine was not only from the Triassic era it was now making sounds like the last Huey out of Saigon in 1975, so it aint long for this world. That’s my justification and I am sticking to it!