Spotted a TRS-80 CoCo of some kind in the rehab centre at Loma Linda
University. It apparently was (is?) used for EMG testing to check peripheral
nerve impulses.
Also, from the MCA reissue of Steely Dan's "Gaucho", in the liner notes:
"That's when the business with the computer started. Roger Nichols had this
toy -- we thought of it as a toy -- but one day he came to work and told us
that the toy had become a man ... who, in the absence of a useable track after
a zillion tries with 'real bands' could nicely simulate the most elusive
elements of the basic track that we would need to bring our little song into
the world, i.e., drums and maybe a simple keyboard part of some sort, and
that's all. Because, once we had that -- the toy, the man, the track-- we
could do all the rest with little or no problemo, thank you very much.
Unfortunately, at this primitive stage of the evolution of the computer and
its requisite software, even the most minute event had to be programmed in
the gnarly and unforgiving 8085 assembly language, in which all relevant
parameters had to be described in its baffling hexagesimal [sic -- guess
they were too stoned to count properly ;-)] base system, which ultimately
became the only language Roger Nichols spoke or understood, at least for
a time ... And so was born the era of sampled drums and sequenced music --
'the birth of the cruel' as we now call it. History, read it and weep."
(Don Fagen [lead vocals] and Walter Becker)
--
----------------------------- personal page: http://www.armory.com/~spectre/ --
Cameron Kaiser, Point Loma Nazarene University * ckaiser_at_stockholm.ptloma.edu
-- Work harder! Millions on welfare depend on you! ----------------------------
Received on Sun Sep 23 2001 - 00:19:59 BST