"Toy" computers (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers)

From: Richard Erlacher <edick_at_idcomm.com>
Date: Thu Apr 25 15:56:18 2002

I guess it depends on what you mean by "straight" serial. Is that as opposed
to "gay" serial?

They are toys, since they didn't have a disk interface in them. They, in
fact, if your description is correct, needed a toy interface to talk to
another toy interface that talked to what was probably a smarter computer that
had a disk interface in it.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Christopher Smith" <csmith_at_amdocs.com>
To: <classiccmp_at_classiccmp.org>
Sent: Thursday, April 25, 2002 8:42 AM
Subject: RE: "Toy" computers (was Re: Micro$oft Biz'droid Lusers)


> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Richard Erlacher [mailto:edick_at_idcomm.com]
>
> > Hey! I did say the mass storage interface had to be internal to the
> > "computer" and not necessarily the mass storage devices.
>
> Sure, but my point was, for instance, the C64 had drives that used
> what basically amounts to a straight serial (or is that parallel?)
> interface, and that is in the computer. But they're "toys," right?
>
> > campus is the enclosure, while if it's a desktop, it's pretty
>
> Is that like "the network is the computer?" :)
>
No ... but if the interface hardware is in a separate box, then the enclosure
in which all these boxes live is the real system enclosure, isn't it.
Networks weren't that common on microcomputers in 1980.
>
> > Besides, though I didn't originally point this out, some of
> > you guys have, as
> > toys, some of those very machines that you're pointing out
> > aren't really toys.
> > Are you guys trying to have it both ways?
>
> Just because they're not toys doesn't make it impossible to play
> with them like toys.
>
> We could just define anything that's not necessary for survival
> to be a toy, and be done with it. :)
>
> Chris
>
>
> Christopher Smith, Perl Developer
> Amdocs - Champaign, IL
>
> /usr/bin/perl -e '
> print((~"\x95\xc4\xe3"^"Just Another Perl Hacker.")."\x08!\n");
> '
>
>
>
Received on Thu Apr 25 2002 - 15:56:18 BST