Do I need to post a photograph of my manual typewriter? :grin-square:
Quality of debate on az
- Thread starter pro9dg
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Do I need to post a photograph of my manual typewriter? :grin-square:
During the Cold War my father hand made these for DND from laying the circuit boards to programming them with punch cards and tape. These machines kept watch for a surprise nuclear attack by the USSR. The second photo is what I work on now. I can manage mine from an iPhone, while TXTing and walking into lamp-posts.
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Actually, Bob, yes, I have -- with Intergraph (the "ingr" you saw in the UUCP email address previously mentioned). All the alt.sys.ingr (and intergraph) and later, the comp.sys.ingr (and intergraph) were UUCP-based, and I was an assistant admin for them.
Using HoneyDanBer UUCP, in case you were wondering.
Do you have any other questions?
-Sean
I'm more old than geek I think... just happened to get interested in PC's when they first came outYou and Sean are some old geeks. My first PC was used primarily as a word processor and was 41,943,040 bytes in size. My first Pentium Chip PC costs me $4500.00 (and that was the "low" Internet price). It was a Gateway and one of the first Pentium Chip machines that Gateway ever sold. I forget how many megs it had but it was FAST.
How are the last4ever TIP TOOL sales going? Unfortunately, I have become the broke pool player's favorite go-to-guy for tip shaping, since I sport the Last4Ever Tip tool. It really is one of the best if not the best tip tool on the market. You designed a GREAT tip tool.
JoeyA
The tip tools continue to sell, pretty much all word of mouth since any and all marketing dollars seemed to be a waste.
I have an instructor that uses them as prizes for his students which I think is great. I have shipped them all over the world which is more about AZB's reach than anything else.
Australia, Canada, Croatia, England, Greece, Kuwait, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Singapore, Vietnam & most of the states... pretty amazing when you think about it.
Thanks for your ongoing support. You ought to start charging a beer for a tip tune up...
Joel
Doug:
What I think a lot of this is trying to tell you, is that the "level-headed" bunch is still here, albeit not as participatory / engaging as we used to be.
"Ya just get tired of the crap," if you know what I mean.
-Sean
Bunch of old people talking about computers and derail the thread...Classic :wink:
Fix the rep system, fix the forum.
Fix the rep system, fix the forum.
Start over! Post time!
Does anyone else see the following correlation?
Since the primary posters maxed out points @ 2 years ago, there's been a marked decline in rep being given. There's far fewer "pats on the back" even if some of those old reps were tainted with ulterior motive.
Since max-out, AZ seems a bit rougher.
As messed up as the rep system was when everyone was racing to the top (who got there 1st?), did it nonetheless positively affect our interaction? How @ AZB resets everyone's points to zero?
Does anyone else see the following correlation?
Since the primary posters maxed out points @ 2 years ago, there's been a marked decline in rep being given. There's far fewer "pats on the back" even if some of those old reps were tainted with ulterior motive.
Since max-out, AZ seems a bit rougher.
As messed up as the rep system was when everyone was racing to the top (who got there 1st?
), did it nonetheless positively affect our interaction? How @ AZB resets everyone's points to zero?
Does anyone else see the following correlation?
Since the primary posters maxed out points @ 2 years ago, there's been a marked decline in rep being given. There's far fewer "pats on the back" even if some of those old reps were tainted with ulterior motive.
Since max-out, AZ seems a bit rougher.
As messed up as the rep system was when everyone was racing to the top (who got there 1st?
Boy, that scenario description fits/feeds the impetus behind an "Apocalypse2013" moniker to a "T"...
Boy, that scenario description fits/feeds the impetus behind an "Apocalypse2013" moniker to a "T"...
At this rate of AZB descension, the end of the world may very well be just around the corner! Achocolips just may have a point!
Wait a GD minute! I didn't say reset anyone's points (defenitly not mine!) I said fix the system.
<---going to need a new screen name in 4 months...
I don't as far back as you guys do, but I've been selling them almost as long as they've been considered the PC age (late 80's) and am familiar with stuff from a while earlier.
I clearly remember selling machines that used a cassette recorder to store programming...as well as machines that used 8" floppy diskettes (double sided, though I had single sided media available...)
I remember hearing (and saying, heh) "you can either go with this 20 megabyte hard drive, or the 40 megabyte model. With the 40, you'll NEVER run out of room.".
Funny stuff.
I clearly remember selling machines that used a cassette recorder to store programming...as well as machines that used 8" floppy diskettes (double sided, though I had single sided media available...)
I remember hearing (and saying, heh) "you can either go with this 20 megabyte hard drive, or the 40 megabyte model. With the 40, you'll NEVER run out of room.".
Funny stuff.
Believe it or not, I got my first Pro Bono Beer for fixing up a guy's tip about 4 days ago.
JoeyA
Back on topic.... I i agree with the OP to a point. While I don't like certain peoples posts that I find pointless, (say that after a few beers!) I believe in the right for a person to do so and that's been a hard lesson for me to learn.
The times I have posted here I feel that what I had to say was important, but sometimes I have to realize that maybe it was only important to me.
Perspective is a tricky thing. Take Push&pools posts for example, I have often taken offense to his posts. Mainly because I think he is trolling, but even in the off chance that he is serious I can't stand his nonsense because in my mind no one can be that misinformed. But maybe I'm being unfair, maybe someone sees it differently like Jay Helfert who replied to Push&Pools post recently telling him not to sweat the knockers.
We all have a right to be here and state our opinions no matter how wrong or right they are. We could all use a little more tolerance I guess, me in particular.
The times I have posted here I feel that what I had to say was important, but sometimes I have to realize that maybe it was only important to me.
Perspective is a tricky thing. Take Push&pools posts for example, I have often taken offense to his posts. Mainly because I think he is trolling, but even in the off chance that he is serious I can't stand his nonsense because in my mind no one can be that misinformed. But maybe I'm being unfair, maybe someone sees it differently like Jay Helfert who replied to Push&Pools post recently telling him not to sweat the knockers.
We all have a right to be here and state our opinions no matter how wrong or right they are. We could all use a little more tolerance I guess, me in particular.
I began with the PDP 11 where I learned FORTRAN and Assembler. Seems they ran the whole university on that 16K (?) machine.
In graduate school I knew a fellow who ran one factor analysis (with several rotations) on a Friden (like Bob Jewett showed). Took him a year to do it and he earned a PhD for his efforts. By the time I came along we ran several types of factor analysis with different rotations in a few minutes of IBM 360 cpu time. Course you had to wire the card sorter and sort the deck prior to running an analysis.
Later I had the 14th TRS 80 "model I" that was built. Actually my brother gave it to me and I upgraded it with a $10,000 bank loan. Seems the machine cost about $500.0. I went nuts with the Psych diagnostic possibilities of a PC. I remember telling people at the time that the PC was the wave of the future. At one time I owned every TRS 80 built as well as Apple and IBM machines.
In the late 70s I wrote a three window display updating each window as the user input data for my diagnostic software (using the environment variable) and that was before there was windows. Course I was also a criminal profiler before there were profilers, let alone TV shows.
With that first TRS 80 we quickly learned that you could clip the floppy and double the storage capacity. I think I had four drives and about 160k on line in a 48k machine. It was maxed out for CPU and it had a green screen (remember them). Course you had to flip the floppy to get the extra storage. Really trucking now.
As I remember it cost me nearly $300.00 for a descender chip on my huge Centronics printer. For the new kids that allowed you to place the tail of the g below the line and other fancy stuff.
When people started networking I refused to learn it. Defeated the reason for having a PC. As can be imagined, I get left in the dust.
So much for old guys but we did have fun out on the bleeding edge of technology at the time.
Heck even the spell checker today doesn't know what a descender or a Centronics is.
Sorry for getting off topic, even us old guys have to reminisce now and again.
In graduate school I knew a fellow who ran one factor analysis (with several rotations) on a Friden (like Bob Jewett showed). Took him a year to do it and he earned a PhD for his efforts. By the time I came along we ran several types of factor analysis with different rotations in a few minutes of IBM 360 cpu time. Course you had to wire the card sorter and sort the deck prior to running an analysis.
Later I had the 14th TRS 80 "model I" that was built. Actually my brother gave it to me and I upgraded it with a $10,000 bank loan. Seems the machine cost about $500.0. I went nuts with the Psych diagnostic possibilities of a PC. I remember telling people at the time that the PC was the wave of the future. At one time I owned every TRS 80 built as well as Apple and IBM machines.
In the late 70s I wrote a three window display updating each window as the user input data for my diagnostic software (using the environment variable) and that was before there was windows. Course I was also a criminal profiler before there were profilers, let alone TV shows.
With that first TRS 80 we quickly learned that you could clip the floppy and double the storage capacity. I think I had four drives and about 160k on line in a 48k machine. It was maxed out for CPU and it had a green screen (remember them). Course you had to flip the floppy to get the extra storage. Really trucking now.
As I remember it cost me nearly $300.00 for a descender chip on my huge Centronics printer. For the new kids that allowed you to place the tail of the g below the line and other fancy stuff.
When people started networking I refused to learn it. Defeated the reason for having a PC. As can be imagined, I get left in the dust.
So much for old guys but we did have fun out on the bleeding edge of technology at the time.
Heck even the spell checker today doesn't know what a descender or a Centronics is.
Sorry for getting off topic, even us old guys have to reminisce now and again.
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I don't mind all the junk, even good technical manuals are 90% junk. You just have to learn to wade through it.
Its the trolls and flame wars where people are down right mean to each other. That stuff bugs me and I simply try to skip over it. Doesn't always happen and I am usually less than pleased with myself when I let myself get sucked in. Just have to learn (again and again) to keep my mouth shut.
Its the trolls and flame wars where people are down right mean to each other. That stuff bugs me and I simply try to skip over it. Doesn't always happen and I am usually less than pleased with myself when I let myself get sucked in. Just have to learn (again and again) to keep my mouth shut.
Does anyone else see the following correlation?
Since the primary posters maxed out points @ 2 years ago, there's been a marked decline in rep being given. There's far fewer "pats on the back" even if some of those old reps were tainted with ulterior motive.
Since max-out, AZ seems a bit rougher.
As messed up as the rep system was when everyone was racing to the top (who got there 1st?
There is also far less of a "conversation" going on. People post their thoughts (or what passes for a thought in some cases) but interact far less with other members of the community in a give and take. I mean, it still happens, just far less than it used to. Everyone is in their silo now.
Lou Figueroa
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Banks
Banned
I don't as far back as you guys do, but I've been selling them almost as long as they've been considered the PC age (late 80's) and am familiar with stuff from a while earlier.
I clearly remember selling machines that used a cassette recorder to store programming...as well as machines that used 8" floppy diskettes (double sided, though I had single sided media available...)
I remember hearing (and saying, heh) "you can either go with this 20 megabyte hard drive, or the 40 megabyte model. With the 40, you'll NEVER run out of room.".
Funny stuff.
Damn near bought a 20mb drive for my c64 when the price dropped to $300. The good old days when it took about 20-30 minutes to load up my color dialup program - it gave me time to go to the store, take a shower, etc. If I was in a rush, I'd just load up the b/w program in 5 minutes. I thought it was the coolest thing to be able to call another computer in Florida, then it was even cooler to use Tymenet/Telnet to call that same computer for free. Think that was around '90. Qlink was the thing then, right before AOL started. I'm sure I've got some discs still lying around somewhere.
I found this article today and it really reminded me of the dichotomy that is AZbilliards today.
http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201308/top-5-reasons-youre-not-seeing-result-gym
http://www.thepostgame.com/blog/training-day/201308/top-5-reasons-youre-not-seeing-result-gym