Computer Talk II

The first computer I ever used was a early 1980's Atari 8 bit type unit. It did not even have a dedicated monitor it used a TV set. the second was a Apple 2! Both were at Florence Grammar School I was among the last class to attend the Depression era three story 12 class room School My grandfather had attended it has part of the first.
I distinctly remember both computers, the Atari was connected by two very short wires with horseshoe shaped metal points these connected to a pair of screws at the back of the TV. the Unit consisted of a all in one Keyboard/Hard drive with 4 inch square vinyl floppy disk. The TV was a ordinary 13" TV of the time. nothing like today's units either it had a screen on the left side and Dials on the right every thing was controlled by five dials. there were two main dials one for UHF the other for VHF, Then there were a combination power/ volume dial, A saturation Dial and finally a dimmer. I remember these things were testy. one fried it's self on me well I was practicing typing.
Then there were the Apple two. tan blocky angular desert sand in color ( at least these units were not sure if that was from age or the conditions of the school.) it was tall and had a dedicated monitor. I remember the Monitor drove me crazy, it gave off a high pitched screech when turned on. It even used Dot matrix printers.

IF you think that was dated, The maps still listed Persia. I was there all of two years before they bused us to the newly renovated Leeds school two miles away.

Well, RSX-11M was an operating system used by DEC on their PDP-11 series computers. RSX-11M was a multi-user, and RSX-11M+ was one that was resident in memory for their PDP-11/70 that was top of the line before the first DEC VAX VMS computer came out around 1980.

I used the RSX-11M and RSX-11M+ at Vought Aeronautics in the 1970s in Grand Prairie, TX on Computer Vision CAD software (US Navy military projects), and then got to work on one of the first DEC VAX VMS computers at Bechtel Power Corporation in Norwalk, CA on Intergraph IGDS CAD software (Nuclear Power projects) in the early 1980s.

I got my first personal Apple II computer in 1979, and upgraded to an Apple IIe in 1984 and finally an Apple IIGS in 1987.

I finally switched over to Windows based personal computers in the 1990s and have been there ever since, though I do use an iPad for internet surfing, eBook reading, videos, pictures, and entertainment (movies, songs, etc.).

Luckily my first computer was already an 386 running Windows 3.11. It had a mono chrome monitor and the HDD was something around 400MB (consider today a flash drive is much larger than that). By that time (mid 90's), 486 had already been around but we didn't have much money, we just bought second-hand computers that we could afford. I still remember that computer boots into DOS environment first and then type "win" to start Windows. Installing OS at that time was a nightmare because the OS didn't auto-detect hardware. You need to know what are inside your computer and install each driver for it.

My "beloved wife" is a Win7 64bit PC built by myself, primary as a gaming rig though I never go crazy to get the top-of-the-line parts, usually happy at mid-high level for her. Then I have my iPad and still loving it (iPad Air now, the last one, iPad2, passed to my mom who has been wanting it from me all this time).

Tablet is very useful when you want to do some light computing in comfort.

IMO, iOS is the most ideal for the "older generation" because of the gentler learning curve.

Hate PCs! Been a Mac guy for a long time. Got an iMac in my office, a Macbook pro laptop, an ipad Air and an iphone 5S.

For me Macs are two expensive. If anyone likes them that's fine with me. To each his/her own!. My wife does have an iPad mini..that cost more than my desktop..my desktop is an HP with 1000TB and 8GB of ram.

Well today I bought an Acer C720chromebook. I just used it for a little while. It is very fast..more than likely because it does not have a hard drive with all sorts of programing.

I'll be using it to quickly get on line and to check my forums in the evening.

bd popeye said:

For me Macs are two expensive. If anyone likes them that's fine with me. To each is/her own!. My wife does have an iPad mini..that cost more than my desktop..my desktop is an HP with 1000TB and 8GB of ram.

Well today I bought an Acer C720chromebook. I just used it for a little while. It is very fast..more than likely because it does not have a hard drive with all sorts of programing.

I'll be using it to quickly get on line and to check my forums in the evening.

Click to expand...

I don't like Mac anyway though in Cambodia it is considered higher class than PC. In fact, I don't like a whole line of Apple's products. Perhaps I'm outdated. While people (in Cambodia) are getting crazy with iPhone and iPad, I just bought an outdated Galaxy S3. I don't chase the newest things, I just bought what can fulfill my needs.

I just bought what can fulfill my needs.

Click to expand...

That is EXACTLY why I bought my Acer Chromebook!

Huawei CMO on why the company doesn't like Windows Phone

Robin Sinha, March 24, 2014



huawei-ascend-w1.jpg

Huawei, in a recent interview, has reasoned out why it wants to prioritise Google's Android OS over Microsoft's Windows Phone for its handsets, listing the perceived problems with the latter platform.

Shao Yang, CMO of Huawei Consumer BG, on being asked about the plans to create a Windows Phone running device, stated "In Windows Phone there is one problem that it has more licensing cost than Android," to WPXbox website.

According to Yang, the high-licensing cost will lead to an increase in the price of the Windows Phone handsets by 10 percent. Moreover, he thinks the Windows Phone ecosystem is closed, leaving no room for innovation for the developers.

"The second block is the ecosystem. The third and major block point is that Windows Phone is not so open as Android which blocks a vendor to make their own innovation."

Furthermore, it has been understood that it would be more difficult for Huawei to "open the API" if both Microsoft and Nokia combine which might make the competition unfair.

He further explains that "The problem is the API and customization are not available equally for all. Initially all phone makers started with Windows Phone but only Nokia had exclusive access to some of the API. Now with Nokia gone into Microsoft, the problem still remains the same."

The reasons mentioned above by Yang partially justify why the Chinese firm last week ditched its plan of creating a dual-boot OS smartphone (Android and Windows Phone).

In a statement last week, Huawei said "Huawei Consumer Business Group adopts an open approach towards mobile operating systems to provide a range of choices for consumers. However, most of our products are based on Android OS, [and] at this stage there are no plans to launch a dual-OS smartphone in the near future."

Asus, much like Huawei, recently scrapped its plans to create a dual-OS high profile device that expected to launch this year, and a Wall Street Journal report had claimed the reason behind the cancellation was pressure from Google and Microsoft to abandon the project.

I know this is a military forum; however, is there also some programming expert here?

I'm doing a software project and having difficulty creating a master-detail report using visual studio 2012 (C#). I've been googling for more than a week and found nothing helpful. So, I can only turn back to our military forum in the hope that there is also some coding experts here. Please help!