Tom, THANKS!!!
While a faster line would be great, in my case that is not an option! I'm on dial-up and about 8 phone line miles from the switching office and about 65 miles from my server. The top speed we can get out here is 21.6kbs (this is due to line problems and old phone equipment). The only alternative is satilite which ain't gonna happen!
So, again thanks for bringing this up!
John T. in the muddy cow pasture
loathar wrote:How about not quoting pictures over and over 10 times too! This gets really annoying on WPF.
claymore1977 wrote: LOL another die hard anti PC person. I am assuming a mac perefence?
LOL another die hard anti PC person. I am assuming a mac perefence?
Sure the Mac OS is pretty and easy to use, but the software makes the bulk of the productivity of the machine!
Try as they might, Apple still just doesn't have the software availability they should have at this point in their company life.
WCfan wrote: SteamFreak wrote: marknewton wrote:Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)Mac Switch Parody by Hunter Cressall OMG. I'm still laughfing after the second time Watching it.
SteamFreak wrote: marknewton wrote:Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)Mac Switch Parody by Hunter Cressall
marknewton wrote:Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)
Do we? I've never seen or heard of these things you describe...Oh, you must be talking about PC users! In that case I offer my condolences. :-)
Mac Switch Parody by Hunter Cressall
OMG. I'm still laughfing after the second time Watching it.
If you liked that one.....
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=w6toaQXwCdU&mode=related&search=
SteamFreak wrote:Mac Switch Parody by Hunter Cressall
marknewton wrote: SteamFreak wrote:Mac Switch Parody by Hunter CressallThe problem with parody is that it relies on you being familiar with the original to appreciate the humour. You're assuming we share a common set of cultural references. We don't - I'm posting from Australia, I've never seen any of these ad campaigns. All the best,Mark.
Give me a break! To be honest, I had completely forgotten about the "Mac Switch" ad campaign when I first viewed it. Hunter Cressall is hysterical, cultural reference points or no cultural reference points, and the parody still makes me snort milk through my nose. All it relies upon is familiarity with Apple computers. Oh, I remember it well...
It's a shame he was never tapped for SNL, but he would have made the show funny. SNL is as unfunny here as it is in Australia.
Nelson
Ex-Southern 385 Being Hoisted
Dr. Frankendiesel aka Scott Running BearSpace Mouse for president!15 year veteran fire fighterCollector of Apple //e'sRunning Bear EnterprisesHistory Channel Club life member.beatus homo qui invenit sapientiam
marknewton wrote: claymore1977 wrote: LOL another die hard anti PC person. I am assuming a mac perefence?No. I'm not a die-hard anti-anything. My preference is simply for a computer that does the job for me with a minimum of fuss and bother. For me that computer's a Mac. My comment was a gentle dig at Selector for assuming that we all use a PC running Windows, nothing more. Sure the Mac OS is pretty and easy to use, but the software makes the bulk of the productivity of the machine!??? I'm not sure what you're saying. Try as they might, Apple still just doesn't have the software availability they should have at this point in their company life.Again, I'm not sure what point you're making. I use Photoshop for images, :Illustrator or Freehand for drawing, :Pagemaker or Quark for typesetting, and Mozilla for browsing. All the software I needed was readily available.Cheers,Mark.
HEY! THIS IS IBM COUNTRY!
In August 1981 my father brought home one the first personal computer PCs avail. IBMer's had a first crack at them. IBM by gov't order had to wait until someone else (Apple) could get into the biz first, to avoid a monopoly.Or else you'd all be on IBM's or authorized clones.IBM had the PC in use at plants and ready at any moment to go into production.
It cost $5,000.00, had 64 byte memory made up of 8 8 bit memory chips, dual 5 1/4 floppy (really floppy...no casing)drives, and a green color only monitor.Drop your floppy, or crush it trying to stick it into the slot too fast, or bend it in your portfolio floppy disc carrier and it and your data was toast. Its sound was limited, though the favorite demonstrated music note tunes was "La Cucuracha" (sp?). When my parents went to pick it and go through the demo, one lady said "'$5,000.00 so it will play La Cucuracha?!?!'" It also played Mary Had A Little Lamb, and others.
It operated on DOS (disc operating system), loaded in off one floppy, then, Word Perfect, for example, (for word processing) was on like 10 floppys, each to be loaded, reloaded, traded, swaped continuously depending on function you wanted to do. Dictionary, (early spell sheck type of thing) for example, was on one floppy alone. Font functions on another.
Soon after, when 128 bytes of memory came out (WOOOW! it doubled), Apple's Steve Jobs questioned WHY anyone would need that much operating memory!Or More!
These computers had never heard of color, dial-up, cable, or high-speed of any kind. LOL- they were high-speed for their day! The yellow (or green) color of the monitor's letters was hard on the eyes. Nor the "net" the "web" or chatting/posting to others in other countries. Many word or visual games were handled through typed out descriptions of what was going on. "webcams" weren't even in the picture. DId not do pictures, very limited graphics (you needed the bigger room sized or warehouse sized computers for that!). Graphics could be made up of the characters available on the keyboard, like some do today for fun, but they could eat up some memory then.
The first dial-up connectors were exteral and were in the 8 bit- 64 byte region. Imaging loading a 100 mega byte pic at 8 bits per second! Go out for ice cream, then come back!
Except apple, and to a lesser degree some HPs, all personal computers (PCs!!!) are clones of IBM's designs, with changes and improvements. That is why they are refered to still as "PCs".
The entire world owes a debt of gratitude to IBM and Apple. without they wouldn't be sitting here today!
Please remember not everyone can even get any kind of high speed connection where they are. Some even pay a long distance charge to call the dial-up number!
AS Robin WIlliams said in Dead Poets Society ' Thank you for this stroll down amnesia lane'.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
Slight error above. The Osborne I was the first popular portable computer, coming out in 1981. "Portable" was a relative term, for it weighed twenty-three and a half pounds and was the size of a large suitcase. It came with a 5 inch monitor and ran the CP/M operating system. It had two 91K 5.25" drives built-in, could run on an optional battery pack, and used the Zilog Z-80A processor with 64K RAM. The screen was too small to show a full 80 columns of text at a time, so it displayed a "window" of the screen. Alas, Adam Osborne's efforts went for naught as his corporation, after a very successful start, collapsed within two years due to superior competition.
As for the first personal computers not being available until 1981, wrong! Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977.
Apple II was the successor to the Apple 1 on which it was based. It was the first commercial success of the Apple Computer Company. Because Steve Wozniak wanted to demonstrate his Breakout game with the new Apple II, he decided to add color, sound and minimum paddle support to the Apple 1's heir. The Apple II came with 4 KB RAM, but it was possible to add 4 KB or 16 KB RAM chips. Thus, the system could have memory in the following sizes: 4K, 8K, 12K,16K, 20K, 24K, 32K, 36K, or a full 48K. This was one of the strong points of the Apple II: from the beginning, it was designed with expansion in mind. The 8 expansion slots were further proof of that - users could expand their system easily, just by plugging cards into the slots. The ROM included the monitor, a 6502 disassembler, 'Sweet 16' a 16-bit CPU emulator and the Integer Basic written by Wozniak in machine language, assembled by hand on paper! Not having to load a language from tape or disk to start programing was also a significant advantage over competitors. Even the innovative plastic case proved to be an important feature to attract customers. Just a few months after the Apple II presentation at the First West Coast Computer Fair in April 1977, Apple received about three hundred orders for the Apple II, over a hundred more than the total number of Apple-1's sold. The Apple II was followed in 1979 by the Apple II+, which brought some enhancements.
The Apple II+ was the successor to the Apple II.It was fully compatible with the Apple II. It, however, had new features: - a new ROM holding the AppleSoft Basic (floating point version written by Microsoft),- a new auto-start (stored in ROM) for easier start-up and screen editing,- 48 KB RAM,- text modes were the same as the Apple II, but the graphics modes were enhanced, they're the same as the Apple 2e : 16 colours at low resolution and 6 colours at high resolutions. In fact this 6-colour mode was also available on the Apple II since revision 1 of the motherboard. The Apple II+ was sold in Europe as the Apple IIeuroplus which could display video in European PAL format, and had ESC sequences for European letters. It was followed by the Apple IIe.
After having sold more than 750,000 Apple II and II+ systems, making it one of the best-selling brands in the global computing market, Apple released an updated version of the II+, the Apple IIe ('e' standing for enhanced). It also met with very great success and was widely used in schools (still in use nowadays in some places!). While retaining the previous model's capabilities and software library, the enhanced version featured a revised logic board, keyboard and case design. Since its launch back in 1977, the Apple had been revised 13 times, but never so drastically as with this model. The IIe used only 1/4 as many integrated circuits as the II+. Its keyboard featured 4 cursor keys and a lockable lid. It was originally delivered with DOS 3.3 (the Apple II operating system) and later with PRODOS. The Apple IIe borrowed some features from the Apple III, 80-column text and lowercase support. The Apple IIe was replaced with the enhanced Apple IIe in 1985, which had 128k RAM, 32k ROM, improved support for 80-column text and lowercase characters, and was powered by the 65C02 CPU, the same as the Apple IIc one. Finally in 1987, Apple released the Apple IIe Platinum, also called Extended Keyboard IIe, which had a new keyboard and other minor hardware changes.
BTW. I still have my Apple IIe which I bought in 1983. It still works, has 128k RAM and the original software as well 5 disk drives (4 operational and 1 for parts), it supports DOS 3.3, PASCAL, ProDOS, BASIC, LOGO, PILOT, Fortran and CP/M. It contains 2 processors. A Motorola 6502A and a Z80A. The system is nearly complete, lacking only a printer.
While I agree with the speed issue of a dial-up connection, I'm afraid I WON"T be changing my image sizes, which generally float in the 200-300k range. Why? Because Trains.com doesn't allow you to upload pictures to their site! If they did, I'd happily resize my photos to a smaller size, as I do on other forums.
BUT - I link to my own website when I show photos, and I want the full picture quality to display there. If you've ever visited it (link in signature), you know that the thumbnail photos take you to a full-sized photo that just fills a 1280X1024 screen. I'm not willing to degrade the photo quality on my website in order to reduce the file size here.
And photobucket or railimages or a similar hosting sites are not acceptable options, because of the squirrely usage rights some of them claim to anything you post on their sites (probably not an issue for most folks, but it is to me).
When Kalmbach allows uploading of image files to their site (as all other forums to which I belong do - come on, guys, disk drives are cheap, and you can set limits on the size!), I'll post smaller sized images. Until then...
Sorry.
Mark P.
Website: http://www.thecbandqinwyoming.comVideos: https://www.youtube.com/user/mabrunton
jeffrey-wimberly wrote: Slight error above. As for the first personal computers not being available until 1981, wrong! Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977.Apple II was the successor to the Apple 1 on which it was based. It was the first commercial success of the Apple Computer Company.
Slight error above.
Apple II was the successor to the Apple 1 on which it was based. It was the first commercial success of the Apple Computer Company.
Jeffrey, while I won't argue with you, you're too nice of a guy, however I will point out:
You said: "As for the first personal computers not being available until 1981, wrong! Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977".
I said: In August 1981 my father brought home <<one of the first>> personal computer PCs available. I didn't say first computer. (Perhaps I could have said one of first commercially large quantity mass produced)?
I also said: IBM by gov't order had to wait until someone else (Apple) could get into the biz first, to avoid a monopoly. Let me clarify a little bit. The US government Issued a trade embargo against IBM in the 60's preventing them from introducing a personal computer en mass until someone else did...or someone el-ses ...to prevent a monopoly ( we all know how we hate that).....ala APPLE. Yes Apple was out there first. And that allowed the ebargo against IBM to be lifted in 1981. (I was playing on the PC in the late 70's at IBM computer club- but it still could not be released until someone else produced a viable and selling product [Apple comes to mind again lol]). In the 60's IBM worked on (my father included- much overtime nights and days) many computers and systems for the space programs. That allowed them to journey into areas and develop some new...oh, um, er "tinker toys". Hence the government's concern. IBM had been set at anytime to go to production.
Initially, the APPLE did try to offer more to become the leader, but like VHS winning out over Beta, the IBM became the most copied PC. Apple, however, unlike Beta, still exists. Also unlike VHS...almost LOL. What may have been available at anytime may not have been commercially feasible, affordable or available to all.
DOS 3.3??? BASIC, oh my! lol Jeffrey...I can hardly remember what that is...lol
Now there are computers and processors everywhere, including TRAINS!!!! And model trains!!! oh my!
I had to do a college report on IBM and the whole PC thing once the instructor found out I came from "IBM country". AND after I could get some declassified info about the restrictions and on the process about which IBM went. I was in another state, and really really didn't want to do it, but did. I felt I was being singled out. I was only one of 2 in the writing class that had my own computer. Others had to rely on typewriters OR college computers. She wanted to know I owned my own computer, and I said that my father worked at IBM. SO off and running she declared my next paper was to be on IBM and the bloody thing. I focused primarily on IBM only of course....but briefly had to of course metion some of what you did in your post. This was 1986, and mine cost me $2300 and was an IBM clone. HA! (lol-also far better than my father's, even though he frequently upgraded it...lol)
Perhaps like a television, we should not buy computers either, they haven't perfected them yet!!!
Now, I may have been off on my bits, bytes, kilo-meg-giga-quadrilla bytes, RAMS, ROMS, Romuluses and Remuses....that I could agree. Like the memory in my old computer, my memory is just not what it used to be. Neither are my eyes. Hypoglycemic sugars problems seem to be deteriorating my eyesight faster than I'd like at 40-ish-something.....lol.
Enjoy your day, your layout!
SteamFreak wrote: There is no reason to purchase Photoshop if all you need to do is resize images for this forum. All that's necessary is to reduce the resolution to 800x600 or 640x480, and reduce the file quality for a good compromise between file size and quality when you save. I used to use Irfanview, but switched to FastStone image viewer, which has a ton of features and is totally free. They also have a batch resizer.FastStone
There is no reason to purchase Photoshop if all you need to do is resize images for this forum. All that's necessary is to reduce the resolution to 800x600 or 640x480, and reduce the file quality for a good compromise between file size and quality when you save. I used to use Irfanview, but switched to FastStone image viewer, which has a ton of features and is totally free. They also have a batch resizer.
FastStone
True, but I was really talking about all the other things one can do with a solid editing software. Rightly so, there are tools out there for specific jobs, much like the link you posted. Danke!
marknewton wrote:??? I'm not sure what you're saying....Again, I'm not sure what point you're making.
??? I'm not sure what you're saying....Again, I'm not sure what point you're making.
Well then fugghetaboutit. I get the feeling there is no point in explaining!
Ah yes, I can second the year of 1977. Many great things happened that year. The world's first PC debuts, Starwars Episode 4 hits the screen, and (most importantly) I was born :P
Brunton:
I do believe that the issue is the bandwidth, not storage. I think the OP of this thread was talking about how painful it is to get medium to high res images over dialup. I do not believe that anyone asked to have people perminently downsample the pictures, but rather do what you are already doing and have a thumbnail that is also a link to the high res version of the image. People are just asking to have the thumbnail/link posted versus the full res version, this way, the thread just loads the thumbnails, those with dial up can surf at a reasonable speed, AND they can click to look at the High Res version if they choose.
Dave Loman
My site: The Rusty Spike
"It's a penny for your thoughts, but you have to put your 2 cents in.... hey, someone's making a penny!"
loathar wrote:Jeffrey- Did you forget about the Radio Shack TRS-80? We had those at school in 80 but the Apple II weren't available at our school until 82. Even then it was just an over blown type writer. (not every one can write code). When did anyone make any practicle software for the thing? 86? 87?
galaxy wrote: jeffrey-wimberly wrote: As for the first personal computers not being available until 1981, wrong! Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977.Apple, however, unlike Beta, still exists. Also unlike VHS...almost LOL. What may have been available at anytime may not have been commercially feasible, affordable or available to all.
jeffrey-wimberly wrote: As for the first personal computers not being available until 1981, wrong! Apple introduced the Apple II in 1977.
One can not compare Apple to Beta, one would have to compare Apple to Sony which also still exists. It is not a good analogy. The technology used in the Apple II is much more obsolete than the BetaMax which is still used in professional video.
claymore1977 wrote:Brunton: I do believe that the issue is the bandwidth, not storage. I think the OP of this thread was talking about how painful it is to get medium to high res images over dialup. I do not believe that anyone asked to have people perminently downsample the pictures, but rather do what you are already doing and have a thumbnail that is also a link to the high res version of the image. People are just asking to have the thumbnail/link posted versus the full res version, this way, the thread just loads the thumbnails, those with dial up can surf at a reasonable speed, AND they can click to look at the High Res version if they choose.
Regarding early PCs: My Trash-80 Model I, with 4k RAM and 4k ROM (the BASIC interpreter) was built in November 1977. It is serial number 2525. The TRS-80 came out about six months after the Apple I.
SteamFreak wrote:Didn't anybody own a Vic 20? I got one of them in '82, but pined for a Commodore 64.
Had a 64 with the tape recorder drive. (ever try playing one of those in an audio cassette?)
Upgraded to a Commador 128 with (get this) DUAL FLOPPY DRIVES!
There are some subtleties to image file sizes. You can, with most photo software editors, do these things to affect/change file sizes:
a. Crop your picture, which does not change resolution or sharpness.
b. Change its size without cropping, which reduces resolution if you are making it smaller. If you make it bigger, you will not get better resolution.
c. Change the file type with which you save the image, if it starts out as a BMP or GIF. BMP and GIF store every pixel in your image. BMP is uncompressed, and GIF is compressed with a lossless data compression scheme with respect to the number of pixels. However, the GIF scheme, at least with the software I have, reduces the color palette to 256 colors. JPG, OTOH, is a lossy data compression scheme. That is, when you save an image as a JPG, you usually lose some resolution with respect to pixels, but it can save (about) 16 million colors. Most software enables you to select the level of compression that the JPG scheme uses.
1. Here's where it gets interesting. With JPG you can keep the same picture size and increase the level of compression, which will decrease the file size and decrease the quality of the picture somewhat. Or you can decrease the picture size and keep the same level of compression and get a smaller file size. Or you can do both to get the smallest file size.
2. With a higher level of compression you will get artificial lines and circles around sharp edges and dots in your picture. We call these artifacts.
There are many more image file schemes, but I don't know much about them and I don't want this to get too long. These are just the basics.
Personally, I use GIF for photos that are already small, and for line drawings. I use JPG for larger photos at about 30 percent compression.
Now, comments on old computers:
I was hoping someone would get around to mentioning the Commodore computers. Sometimes they get no mention at all, yet they have a very important position in the history of home computers.
Before the Commodore Vic-20 and the Commodore 64 there were the Commodore PET, plus the KAYPRO portable and the Grid portable. These last two were mainly business machines. Other people have already mentioned HP, Osborne, and the Radio Shack TRS-80. Around that same time (early '80s) Atari sold a home computer and Coleco sold one called Adam.
The Commodore 64, the Apple, and the Atari were somewhat similar. Many people who write about early computers neglect to mention that for many years there were many more Commodore 64s than any other make or type of personal computer. They spread worldwide, even into the Soviet Union. Indeed, I believe Russian programmers first wrote Tetris on a Commodore 64. The IBM PC was catching up very slowly during the early '80s.
Around 1986 IBM started selling hard disks for their PC, and they made the PC boot automatically from the hard disk. No more inserting a floppy to boot up. IMHO, that made IBM PCs more desirable than all the competition.
Commodore came out with the Amiga, which had amazing graphics and music capabilities, which artists used into the late '90s. Apple also persisted and held on to a significant percentage of the market.
Amigas have pretty much fallen by the wayside, but Apple is still with us.
A few people have told me they absolutely love their MACs, and I intend to buy one someday.
jeffrey-wimberly wrote:SNL = Saturday Night Live. It's only beem around for like 4 or 5 decades.
marknewton wrote: jeffrey-wimberly wrote:SNL = Saturday Night Live. It's only beem around for like 4 or 5 decades.It's, like, never been broadcast in Australia*, so the reference is meaningless to me. *Which is surprising, since we seem to get all the other rubbish US television programmes here.Cheers,Mark.
I forgot about the Coleco Adam. Wasn't that supposed to be an add on for their game console?
The first drag race game I played was on the Commodore. (orange mono color sprite graphics)
cordon wrote:I was hoping someone would get around to mentioning the Commodore computers. ... Before the Commodore Vic-20 and the Commodore 64 there were the Commodore PET, plus the KAYPRO portable and the Grid portable. Other people have already mentioned HP, Osborne, and the Radio Shack TRS-80. Around that same time (early '80s) Atari sold a home computer and Coleco sold one called Adam.