>
> Here's an interesting article from Byte magazine:
>
> http://www.byte.com/art/9802/sec5/art1.htm
>
> It talks about how computers are becoming obsolete the day you buy them
> due to all the crazy new technologies being released into the market. My
> observation is that anyone who chases technology and is always upgrading
> to the latest and greatest is always going to have an "obsolete" computer.
> The situation is not as bad as the article makes it out to be, not that
> the article is actually saying the speed of new technology introductions
> is a problem. But if people could be satisfied with what they have on
> their desk, this issue of obsolescense would not be an issue at all.
Well said! With performance issues, properly tuned, quality machine
is faster and more importantly reliable than a feature-riddled do
eveyrthing machine. My 2 years old P5 100, Quantum ST 1.6gb hd
(recent upgrade from old 1GB for performance and size reasons), 24mb
win95 sux zips along not too badly because I only load very few
extras and few sound effects or none. :) Considering to upgrade both
CPU to 166MMX and ram to 64mb if intel cuts prices in mid march to
tide me over next 2 years more as I have no budget for whole new
machine. Oh well. :) The oldest part is toshiba 1.44 I have no idea
how old but I think it was about 5 years old. Hard to find a good
floppy drive that will last that long now. But tell me if there is
one out there that good and costs $40 and I will take it!
> use an old version of Microsoft Works (3.0) for my word processing and
> spread sheeting; some people haven't even heard of Works! They only know
> Word. But Works loads instantly, whereas Word takes it seems forever to
> load which is why I don't use it. Plus its bloated and drags my system
> down.
I would beat you for most classic works version: 2.0 and I use it
when I need to write stuff. But if times forces me, I would use my
Lotus smartsuite 96 for this purpose cuz of M$ cost and bloatware. :)
>
> Which brings me to my point. The computers we collect are still so damn
> useful! And this is not a new argument, but even though these old
> machines don't have SVGA and EDO RAM and Ultra-SCSI and other new-fangled
...Snip...
> first played it, but every other incantation after it (DOOM II, QUAKE,
> DUKE NUKEM, ETC) is the same game with a different "scenario" and
> graphics, and that damn bobbing up and down makes me sick anyway!
I still play everything but never get latest games very often unless
this one is very good one, for example Myst and recently, Riven (beat
it!)
> Give me Choplifter, Rescue Raiders or Dino Eggs any day!
??? I have not played these...
> If you read the article carefully it gives a glimpse of the types of
> machines that may be collectible in ten years or so. The article proposes
> the dawn of the age of the "disposable" computer. This is totally
> ridiculous. I cannot even relate to that mode of thinking. But on the
> positive side, it means disgustingly cheap (and probably FREE) computers
> 10, 5, even 1(!) year(s) from now. More cheap PCs for us to run Linux on!
> (Imagine having your own DLA [Distributed Linux Array] consisting of 16 or
> more 300Mhz Pentium II PC, alls for just a song! You could break
> government encryption with something like that :)
Only problem with disposeable PC if the makers gives us the machines
too non-standard and hard to expand n' upgrade then it will go by the
way of Dodo that PCjr and limited machines already went that way.
So watch how this "Disposeable PC" fad goes for next 2 years. Oh, I
assure everyone, socket 7 is far from dead yet no matter how hard
Intel kills this one! :)
> People these days with their 333Mhz Pentiums with 128MB RAM and 4GB
> harddrives should shut the hell up and be happy.
/In dark mood on
And give us your 2nd generation machines because they did afford to
have the most latest stuff. Then this deal is done and fair. :)
off/
>
> Long live "obsolete" computers.
Great! :)
Jason D.
>
> Sam Alternate e-mail: dastar_at_siconic.com
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Computer Historian, Programmer, Musician, Philosopher, Athlete, Writer, Jackass
>
> Coming Soon...Vintage Computer Festival 2.0
> See http://www.siconic.com/vcf for details!
>
>
>
email: jpero_at_cgo.wave.ca
Pero, Jason D.
Received on Fri Feb 20 1998 - 12:00:44 GMT