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jonathanwrotethis · 8 months

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Computers and the Internet

Thankfully, several years ago I took part in NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), and wrote a huge chunk of an autobiography - with several chapters covering the arrival of computers and the internet in my life.

Here's a taster:

486

One day, late in the autumn of 1989, my Dad floated the idea with me of selling the Atari ST, and buying a PC to replace it. We hadn't been using the Atari for it's original purpose - music production - for years, and it was obvious from the various magazines we occasionally bought where the future was headed. The Atari ST, and it's long-time rival, the Commodore Amiga, were fast becoming obsolete.

The weeks that followed saw us purchase magazine after magazine - learning an entirely new lexicon of words. EGA, VGA, Ethernet, PCMCIA, and so on. We learned the difference between the 386 and 486 processors, and what a 486DX had that a 486SX did not. We didn't know what difference it would make to us personally, but we could probably bore somebody really well if they asked us.

I even returned to my old lecturer at college, finding him in his office. I had never visited his office before, and caught him half-way through eating a cheese sandwich. He scooted his chair to one side, and invited me to sit down. I layed a copy of Personal Computer World on his desk, open at a vast list of specifications for computers available from one of the major manufacturers. Over the course of the next half an hour he explained what a maths co-processor actually does, what difference cache memory makes, and why having 4 megabytes of RAM was a pretty good idea - all the while shaking his head that computers were now being sold with that much memory on-board.

Before saying goodbye, he rose out of his chair, smiled, and said "follow me - I want to show you something".

We wandered back to the computer science classroom where I had spent so many hours over the last two years, but instead of heading to the classroom area, opened a door, and walked into the small server room next door. Among a mass of cables on one of the desks sat a new beige PC case, with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse attached. He wiggled the mouse, and the screen burst into life - showing a patterned background, and a prettier version of the interface we had known on the Atari ST.

It was Windows 3.0.

Sure, I had read about Microsoft Windows, and everybody knew it was coming - but actually seeing it running on a computer was a bit of a moment. After a few clicks of the mouse, "Word for Windows" opened, and he began typing letters in a smooth, serif font. I was blown away.

"That's not the best bit - watch this."

He leaned across the desk and retrieved a strange t-shaped device with light pouring from it's under-side, and a cable hanging from it's rear. After a quick look around the desk, he grabbed a coke can, and dragged the device around it's edge. The outside of the coke can slowly appeared on the screen - it was a hand-held scanner. Again, I had read about them, but never seen one - and again, I was blown away.

"Good luck with buying your PC", he said, as we parted ways. I must have had a smile like a coat-hanger.

The next weekend I went with my Dad to Evesham - to visit the very same computer store we had visited years before to buy the Atari ST. By now Evesham Micros had evolved into a well known maker of PCs with huge full colour adverts in all the well known computer magazines. They had also moved premises - to an industrial unit outside the town. I remember walking into their showroom, and seeing a number of huge computers, quietly humming at desks for people to look at.

When I say "huge", I really do mean "huge". The "tower" computer cases you tend to see tucked under desks in offices are only really "half-tower" cases - back in 1989 the first 486DX 50s were typically sold in full-tower cases - they would only just fit underneath a standard height desk. I imagine the room inside was designed to accommodate multiple hard drives, multiple floppy drives, and multiple optical drives - CDROMs had arrived too.

We waited in reception while the computer we ordered - that had been built for us - was brought through from the store room. It was one notch down from the fastest computer available at the time - a 486DX 33. The 33 reflected it's internal clock speed in megahertz - the rate at which it could get stuff done. To give some perspective, within five years the first Pentium chips had hit 1 Gigahertz - thirty times faster.

The computer we bought cost an eye watering PS3000. The same price as a low-end family car at the time. It was a non-descript beige box, with a couple of slots on the front, and came with a monitor, keyboard, and mouse. While looking around the showroom in the shop, I spent the little money I had on a copy of the video game "The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy", and a copy of "Flight Simulator 4" - the direct successor to the same game I had spent so many hours playing on the Atari ST.

When we got home, I had a considerable mountain to climb in terms of knowledge. Unlike todays PCs that come pre-installed and pre-configured, in the early days they did not. To run Windows 3.1, you needed to already be have DOS installed, and if you wanted to play games, a world of hurt lay ahead of you.

You might say I was the right kind of person, in the right place, at the right time. The software that came with the computer - MS-DOS 5, and Windows 3.1 - came with sizable books. The DOS book ran to hundreds of pages, and looked quite impressive on the shelf. I read both of them, and over the course of perhaps a week or two, learned all about hard drives, partitioning, memory management, drivers, interrupts, address space, and lots of other things. In order to play games, I learned about expanded memory, extended memory, high memory, and the various tricks required to use them efficiently. When you switch on a Windows PC or Mac these days, you have no idea how much has been done for you by the operating system - it wasn't always that way.

For several years I became a version of my old school friend. I was the guy that could turn up at somebody's house and solve their computer woes. I could get games to work. People would sit in awe as I wrote configuration files for their computers by hand. When they asked where on earth I had learned how to do it all, I always replied with the same answer - I read the books that came with the computer. They were actually REALLY good books.

Once upon a time, Microsoft Press were famous for the quality of their books. I remember seeing the set of printed books for the Windows Software Development Kit for sale at the Computer Shopper show that year - our second visit. The stack of books was two feet long, and could be bought in shrink-wrapped bulk. It was a bit like buying a set of encyclopedias.

Our computer came with a free copy of "Microsoft Bookshelf" - a compact disk that ran within Windows 3.1. It contained an encyclopedia, a dictionary, a thesaurus, and a book of quotes. It seemed magic - being able to search for pretty much any subject, and find articles to read, pictures to peruse, and sound clips to listen to at a moment's notice. Some entries - such as the Apollo project - let you listen to speeches, and watch video clips of the event. This was quite a time before the internet became widely used, remember. The World Wide Web was still an idea Tim Berners Lee was toying with, and connecting computers to the internet at all was still perhaps two or three years away.

Each component inside the computer had an impressive sounding name - a "Diamond Stealth" graphics card, a "Soundblaster" sound card, and "American Megatrends" BIOS. It's perhaps worth remembering that PCs started out very much as kits of components - not sealed units bought and sold as consumable items. A PC would be bought with the intention of upgrading it over time - replacing elements of it's innards to tailor it for specific tasks - or just to make it go faster.

Although I could never warrant the cost of office software for the PC in those early days, I didn't have to. One or other of the magazines available in the high street newsagents had CDs on the cover, which invariably had free copies of Microsoft Office competitors on the cover. For years I used "Lotus Smartsuite", purely because it was free. I also reasoned with myself that it was somehow better than Microsoft Office - and back then it probably was. As has always been the way, Microsoft slowly but surely improved their own software and swept all before them. When was the last time you saw a copy of Lotus Smartsuite, or Wordperfect Office in the wild?

The funny thing? Lotus Smartsuite really was better than Microsoft Office back in the early 1990s. And Borland Delphi was so much better than Microsoft Visual Basic that it wasn't funny. Neither Borland, or Lotus exist any more.

The 486 served the family (ok, me) for about five years. It was upgraded over time - doubling it's memory, and DOS 5 became DOS 6 - but really, it was kind of stunning that it did so well. Looking back, I suppose there was a subtle shift in the early 1990s - away from what your computer could do, towards what other computers could do.

The internet had arrived.

The Internet

When I say that the internet had "arrived", that's obviously not entirely true. The Internet had been in development since the 1960s - first through Arpanet (the Advanced Research Projects Network) used by the US military, and then through the work of Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn at BBN to improve it.

You see - the first version of what we now call "The Internet" was designed rather badly. Each computer had to be wired directly to each other computer on the network. Also, each computer ran different software, and interfaced with other computers in different ways - so to get two computers to talk to each other, you had to develop bespoke software to translate in either direction. Add to that the idiocy of adding more computers to the network, along with wires to all the other computers, and methods of communication between them all, and you can see the problem.

Vint Cerf and Bob Kahn invented "TCP/IP", and "Packet Switching". They are still used today, and describe a standard way through which any number of computers wired to the same network can communicate with each other - picking and choosing which information being sent across the network is for them, and sending that information as lots of tiny bits (packets), which can be re-compiled at the destination.

The beauty of packet switching came in the idea that computers in the middle of the spiders-web of interconnected machines could be knocked out, and the network would still work - finding new routes for packets around the problem areas. You can see straight away why this might have been developed - the threat of nuclear war - and you can also see that once you build the network, you can't really switch it off - because it will survive your attempts.

Except you could. And it happened. By accident.

In the early days of the internet, before the World Wide Web had really taken off, it became obvious that it should be easier to identify computers on the network than by their "address" on the network - a group of integers split by periods (you've probably seen these numbers - IP addresses - the internet still works the same way). The idea of "domain names" was thought up - names that represented the numbers - such as "harvard.edu", or "yahoo.com". The list of names correlating to addresses obviously needed to be copied to each server - so when a request was made of a given computer system by it's name, the system would know that a given name meant a given IP address. Rather than have a single computer giving out the addresses, it was thought best that each of the big computer systems on the network should have their own copy, and replicate changes from the master database. The fault in this system? The master database.

The computer at the centre of the domain name system died one day, and over the next few hours the internet stopped working for the millions of people using it around the world. Needless to say it was eventually fixed - but yeah - proves even the geniuses that built the internet were fallible.

Sorry for the history lesson.

So - the internet had been around for a while, in educational institutions, and government facilities, but had not really happened outside of that.

What had happened was a madcap priesthood of crazy people running their own systems via the telephone network. They were called Bulletin Boards - and you needed a modem to access them.

Guess who bought a modem.

I was at PC World with my Dad buying printer ink and paper. PC World had opened a few months earlier, and was something of a novelty - a one-stop-shop where you could buy anything from a box of paper, to a mouse, or even a desktop computer.

In the months previously I had been reading computer magazines, and had seen numerous adverts for an online service called "Compuserve" that promised to connect you with the world. The advert showed a distant house in the middle of nowhere, with one light on, and some blurb about never being alone, no matter how remote you might be. I was sold.

We bought a V32bis modem - the meaning of the code is now lost in the sands of time - I think it means the modem would communicate on the V-Modem protocol with other computers, at a rate of 32,000 bits a second. The various protocols bestowed different error correction, and compression powers on the modem - the likelihood that data would be transmitted correctly.

The modem sat between the computer, and the telephone line in your house, using a splitter cable. While you were connected to the internet, you were essentially making a call to the "Internet Service Provider", who would then connect you to the internet. These days the modem in your house essentially acts as both the modem, AND the gateway - back then, the ISP was the gateway. Well - except if you connected to a Bulletin Board system.

Bulletin Board systems were perhaps the earliest form of internet community for the masses - you could connect to a server, and browse conversations on any number of subjects, and pitch into them yourselves. While some bulletin boards were self contained, others acted as a bridge between you, and a far bigger community message board system called Usenet. We now know usenet as "newsgroups" - I'm not really sure why.

I fell in love with usenet immediately. I had read no end of conspiracy theory books during my teenage years, and knew that all the best information (or misinformation, it turns out) was being published to usenet - to groups such as alt.ufo. After watching endless episodes of The X-Files, and forming an unexplainable attraction to Gillian Anderson, I discovered hoards of people were using Usenet to share anything they thought they knew, and even found ways of transferring photos through plain text. It was called UUEncoding, and proved that porn will ALWAYS find a way.

The one problem with bulletin board systems is that you had to be connected to them in order to read, write, and reply to messages. Sure, there were fancy software applications called "Off Line Readers" that made that process more efficient, but it was still a largely disconnected, overtly technical, and user unfriendly world.

The general public would never have taken to the online world in the numbers they did without the help of two companies - Compuserve, and America Online. They each created their own bulletin board system, but polished it to within an inch of it's life, and dumbed everything down. The systems aped bulletin boards, and introduced private messaging (email with the wider internet was still not a thing - if you were connected to Compuserve, you could only message fellow users of Compuserve, for example).

I had accounts at both Compuserve, and America Online over the next year or so. As has often happened through history, the massively inferior product won out - America Online, or AOL as it came to be known flooded the world with CDs containing the software installer for their system. Every magazine had an AOL CD on the cover, and they were even sent through the post. Millions upon millions of them.

If you look around in gardens you still see AOL CDs from time to time - made into bird scarers, hanging from pieces of string.

I miss Compuserve. I still remember my ID number (you had an ID number - not a username) - mine was 100333,3457. I've often wondered if there was a structure to the user ID numbers - if the various parts of the number meant anything at all. Of all of the various interest groups and clubs available at Compuserve, the Writers Forum still stands out in my memory. I made my first real online friendships with strangers there, and took part in numerous writing exercises.

The Compuserve advert was actually true - no matter who you were, or where you were, you could connect and find your tribe.

I can remember the day a new icon appeared in both the Compuserve, and AOL interfaces. It looked like a picture of a globe, and launched a second piece of software called "NCSA Mosaic". Mosaic opened to a blank screen, with a text box above, that you could enter an "addresses" into.

It was 1993, and it was the World Wide Web.

A guy called Tim Berners Lee at the CERN project in Switzerland had become frustrated that even though the various computer systems were connected to each other through the "internet", there was still no easy way of publishing notes and research for others to see - so he set about inventing it.

It's easy to say now that the world wide web changed everything - but when it first appeared it was slow, buggy, and the software tended to crash a lot. Magazines wrote at length about it's importance, and it's growing popularity - emphasising its open, decentralised nature. Where Compuserve forums could only be visited by Compuserve members, and AOL forums could only be visited by AOL members, the World Wide Web could be used by everybody.

It came as no surprise, decades later, when Tim Berners Lee appeared at the opening of the London Olympic Games, that he sat in the middle of the Olympic stadium and keyed into a NeXT workstation "This is for everybody".

#Life

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nerdclips · 4 years

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What are SX & DX Processors? (386SX,486SX) [Byte Size] | Nostalgia Nerd

https://nerdclips.com/what-are-sx-dx-processors-386sx486sx-byte-size-nostalgia-nerd/

What are SX & DX Processors? (386SX,486SX) [Byte Size] | Nostalgia Nerd

#Nostalgia Nerd

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babyawacs · 2 years

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iiiiiiii ! wrote intel 486sx on my computer. in #german. to have cheaper sssexxx with it. ifyoucouldpleaseimminently notifyeveryone?..... @wired @wireduk @cnet @pcwelt @PCMag @debian @xfceofficial @RadioShack @techpowerup @tomshardware

iiiiiiii ! wrote intel 486sx on my computer. in #german. to have cheaper sssexxx with it. ifyoucouldpleaseimminentlynotifyeveryone?….. @wired @wireduk @cnet @pcwelt @PCMag @debian @xfceofficial @RadioShack @techpowerup @tomshardware I am Christian KISS BabyAWACS – Raw Independent Sophistication #THINKTANK + #INTEL #HELLHOLE #BLOG https://www.BabyAWACS.com/ Inquiry PHONE / FAX +493212 611 34…

View On WordPress

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yodaprod · 5 years

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IBM (1991)

#ibm #pink panther #486sx #intel #computer #retro #technology #90's #90s #1990s #1991

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commodorez · 8 years

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Copying files via serial at 19200 baud from Vega to the Satellite T1910CS.

The T1910CS has been exceptionally finicky, even after the motherboard was replaced. Somehow, Windows 95A is booting now but I’m not sure what exactly changed that facilitated it being functional. I still need to hop into the BIOS and switch the port to bidirectional operation to make the external Backpack parallel port floppy drive work correctly.

This is the first time in forever that I’ve actually used Windows 95 on a 486 (the 486SX variant to be specific), and holy Ballmer’s cuball is it fucktastically slow.

Meanwhile, the Satellite P25 plays a theme song for this event.

#windows 95 #486sx #t1910cs #toshiba satellite #vega

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mendelpalace · 3 years

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youtube

In 1994 i didn't have a game console. But some classmates already owned popular NES clones, and i was very impressed with the aesthetics of 8-bit games of the time. All those pixels, colorful sprites, chip music! I didn't really want to play them, but i definitely wanted to be somehow involved, maybe create my own games.

So i started cutting out small pieces of cardboard and painting game levels on them. It was like a paper ROM cartridge. The game console is also a cardboard box with a transparent window and a dot or triangle (the main character) in the center. Some of these games were even playable :) Most, of course, were more concepts than finished games. The process of creating such games from scratch - that was the most important and interesting in this case!

A competing company was represented by my friend Kirill :) Together we created a huge amount of cartridges, then exchanged it, discussed it, came up with something new. For a couple of years, we have improved the technology and started creating games in the form of an interactive film on a sheet of paper. In 1995 i got a PC (486SX) at home. But even after that, up to a certain point, we spent more time with paper games than with real computers :)

Music: NightRadio - Endless Fantasy Worlds

#Alexander Zolotov #Video Games #Game Making #NightRadio #Music #Video

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classictechnology · 3 years

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New Post has been published on https://classic.technology/olivetti-echos/

Olivetti Echos

https://classic.technology/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/olivettiechos.jpg

#486SX #echos #olivetti #Olivetti

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cardandpixel · 4 years

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9 Board Game YouTubers I Follow & Why (plus a few others)

In the literal dim and distant past when I started boardgaming (honestly, the biggest threat was tallow wax on your board), the internet was still accessed by whatever IP address you could remember off the top of your head (there’s no place like 127.0.0.1 as they sayI) - and the only TikTok was the clock ticking, waiting for half of Louise Nurding’s left leg to download only to realise it was Anne Widdecombe and you’d hit the wrong link on a BB. Boardgames had some quiet and shady corners of the internet, in those same Bulletin Boards, there was one for HeroQuest and Space Crusade when they came out. But sadly, if you wanted to see a boardgame being played or learn the rules, you either had to go round to your friend Tim’s house where he had a new chits-for-days wargame going, or sit down and actually read the rulebook yourself. As a result, I bought some interesting games in my time, including a game called Operation Overlord - a mighty chit-tastic WW2 N African campaign monster that I bought in desperation from the Games Workshop in Manchester on the first morning that it opened in 1979 (?) as we were so far back in the queue that there wasn’t a space marine to be had for miles. But now, we have a plethora of kindly folk available on our blistering shiny Windows NT 486sx machines to inform and delight us in full 8-bit glory. Everything from reviews, buying guides, rules tutorials and even painting & crafting guides, we can be bathing in just about whatever aspect of board or wargaming we so desire in an effort to stave off the clattering realisation that it’s been over 3 months since we spent any quality time with another breathing soul outside our houses. The question gets frequently asked on boardgame FaceAche forums “What YouTube channels are worth my time and why?” so in an effort to throw my own towel into that controversial ring, here’s my pick of probably 9ish, maybe more by the end, but let’s start with 9 in no particular order..... 1) 3 MINUTE BOARDGAMES

One of the first board games ‘er across the table (TM) and I bought together was a copy of Gloom from a little games and comic shop halfway round the world in Hamilton NZ, Mark 1 Comics. As we were achingly close to moving to NZ a few years ago, we’ve kept up with many aspects of what might have been our life over there, so it was a delight to discover Jarrod (and now Stephanie) on YouTube, a friendly and familiar accent reviewing board games. But it’s not just the NZ vibe that I love, Jarrod does a great job of cutting thru the hyperbole and bloat often associated with trying to keep YouTube vids ‘long for the algorithm’ (ugh) and just gives very pragmatic reasons for a game either joining or leaving his collection. He has a great approach, and it’s nice to see him finally on camera instead of the disembodied voice. Great reviewer, and Stephanie is utterly hilarious. 2) THE BROTHERS MURPH

Mike & Nick are two of the most engaging brothers on YouTube let alone just in the boardgaming community. Their series on thrift shop finds has dredged up some hilarious and often tragic specimens from the grand days of Palitoy, MB and Parker Games. They are also masters at ‘speed reviewing’ often piling reviews of 50 or 60 games into the same number of minutes. I think I favour the ‘don’t outstay your welcome’ approach to YouTube in general, and the Brothers Murph are at great ease with this philosophy and yet they take on simple party games thru to the heaviest euros with the same distillation equipment, and yet their reviews are never trivial or throw away. We had the chance to chat to Nick at Airecon this year and he was a lovely guy, slightly blown away by the fact that people liked his channel. He’s also an awesome artist too.

3) ACTUALOL

There are many reviewers on the web who have cost me a fair amount of money, the worst being Zee Garcia, however, a close second is Jon Purkiss aka Actualol. Jon has a terrifying gift for finding games, and especially ridiculously affordable games, that I buy on spec and then end up absolutely loving. Jon has a light and breezy style which is instantly engaging - I also really want his comfy chair (surely in exchange for a nice review on here Jon???). His videos are tidy and concise and yet still convey a deep enthusiasm and joy for games. His reviews very clearly portray what the setting of the game is and what you’ll be doing, without getting embroilled in the rules. He always has great footage of the game on the table (please reviewers - look at the ratio of your face to the game you’re talking about - less than 10% game and i’m walkin’) and often favours the less pricey end of the market which suits me fine. Brilliant games I love thanks to Jon include: Second Chance, Magic Maze and Ninja Academy

4) OUR FAMILY PLAYS GAMES

There’s not much to be said about Mik & Starla Fitch that cannot be gained from watching a mere 3-4 minutes of their channel. For sheer exuberance aimed squarely at a love for bringing families together via our glorious hobby, you cannot top these guys. If you are ever - EVER - feeling slightly lacklustre about gaming or losing your mojo for whatever reason - heck if you are just feeling slightly down, treat yourself to 10 minutes in the company of these two excellent human beings. Their reviews and playthru’s have all the humanity you need in a game and after five minutes you are thinking “Is the US too far to go just for a gaming evening?” We’d both utterly love to sit across the table from these lovely people and just play, and I can’t say that about every reviewer, I’ll be honest. Their reviews are often centred around unloved classics (watch their vid dedicated to why they love Catan as an example - you’ll be clicking Buy Now before your know it) and also some great quirky unknowns that I’m trying to hunt down even now. They’ve just had a brilliant couple of boosts from both a spot of Good Morning America recently, and becoming reviewers for the mighty Dice Tower. I’m immensely grateful for a tweet by Rodney Smith for pointing me in their direction, my social media is a much brighter place with the Fitch family in it.

5) RAHDO RUNS THROUGH

“Heeeeey Everybody”. One of the first board game reviewers I ever caught on YouTube was the inimitable Richard Ham aka Rahdo. And I’m so glad I did. I would genuinely never sit down and try and learn a game from one of Rahdo’s playthrus, they are what I imagine being in a wind tunnel full of 50 tonnes of feathers is like. BUT and this is crucial - if I want an idea of what a game is going to feel like to play, there is no finer deliverer of the remote game experience than Mr Richard Ham. His unique ability to explain how a game is going to work, turn by turn; the decisions you will make; the things you’ll have to consider; the short and long term goals; are all brilliantly covered in one of Rahdo’s videos. His ability to make different choices for his ‘ghost partner’ Jen (who does exist in real life, we have bought jewelry off her, she’s lovely) also adds a real dynamism to the games, showcasing the flexibility in a design for different play strategies. Rahdo tends towards 2 player games and usually at the heavier end of the scale, but if there’s a game you are thinking of buying, check Mr Ham out first!

6) WATCH IT PLAYED

It’s often been said that Canadians are some of the politest folk on the planet, but when it comes to ranking Canadians, well, I’m sure they’d be too humble to rank each other so I’ll have to. Rodney Smith is the loveliest man in the world. There, end of article. But it’s true. We’ve been watching Rodney since we first got confused about the rules for Mice & Mystics (which we still got wrong but that wasn’t Rodney’s fault) and his ever chirpy, ever positive approach to his rules rundowns is utterly remarkable and frankly, enviable. And it’s his attention to detail and clarity for explaining rules that have rightly made Rodney one of the most important resources in the gaming hobby. If you have ever struggled over a rulebook and haven’t raced to Watch It Played, I will guarantee you will have spent far longer on that rulebook and lost way more hair than you ever needed to. We had the great honour of playing Rajas of the Ganges with Rodney at Airecon in 2019, and I mugged up on the rules sooo much. Regular imbibers of this rag will know my sloth for reading rulebooks is legendary but fortunately ‘er across the table (TM) loves them. But, for the 3 days running up to our trip to Harrogate, I did nothing but read that rulebook - this was THE Rodney Smith, you can’t get a rule wrong with Rodney. But of course, nerves kicked in and I could barely remember the rules of Snap, but the nicest man in the world could not have been nicer. Really, quantum mechanics has proved it. He was just the same man off the computer telly. Funny, engaging, warm and happy to chat as well as play (which I was also really nervous about doing!), if you don’t watch Rodney, are you really internetting?

7) TABLETOP MINIONS

“Pachow” From boardgames to wargames. As well as my slight addiction to cardboard, my other opiate overlord is 28mm plastic miniatures. Specifically those involved in tabletop skirmish games like Malifaux, 7TV, Fallout Wasteland Warfare, GuildBall and a smattering of others. Though recently more focused on the frankly insane amount of content being released by Games Workshop, Tabletop Minions is presented by the splendid Uncle Atom. (In fact, I identify his content so much as Uncle Atom’s stuff that I honestly had to double check the name of the channel for this article!). My plastic habit uncle (sounds so wrong, but so true) has possibly the gentlest delivery of anyone on the internet. It’s not so much content, as therapy. I know the net is awash with AMSR channels at the mo, but if you don’t want to listen to some overmonetized southern californian with some bubble wrap and a large capsule condenser mic, just hop over to TTM and listen to the Uncle for 5 minutes. He’s like a soothing bubble bath of content about painting figures, philosophy of the hobby, general art & design principles, and great life advice. He also wears a fez.

8) GIRL PAINTING

“Hello Tchoobies!” I painted my first 28mm figure when i was about 12ish - it was, ironically, a space marine of some sort - the old clunky Ral Partha ones. It looked terrible, but each model got a bit better till I stopped for some reason a few years later. When I got into Malifaux a few years ago (ie decades, several of them, later), I knew I was going to have to get back into painting; heaps of grey plastic does not a skirmish game make. (Little did I know I would have to revisit my microscopy days either when assembling damn Bayou Gremlins!) Two channels were recommended to me, the Esoteric Order of Gamers (more later) and Girl Painting. EOG put me on the path to believing I could paint again, but Alexandra at Girl Painting actually made me believe I could learn to do it well. GP’s approach to painting figures, terrain and vehicles is based on solid art theory. Her explanation of colour relationships and the colour wheel is something I can quote to this day. All of the techniques that I lean on so heavily in day to day painting both for table and display I learnt from Girl Painting. Correct use of washes, wet blending, non-metallic metals, shading, drybrushing, highlighting, model reading, all of it from studying intently, often with a brush actually in my hand while watching the channel. I cannot recommend GP enough if you want to put paint to plastic. Whatever your ability, you will learn something from this hidden gem of a channel.

9) ESOTERIC ORDER OF GAMERS

Another dang fine antipodean and another slightly unusual channel. I have a terrible, terrible memory when it comes to rules. In our early days, we also had a a lot of games with seemingly very over-bloated rulebooks - FFG games basically. I suddenly realised what I wanted was to lift the lid of a box and find in the lid, a summary of the important stuff i needed to remember about the game. Apparently I was not the only one. In 2013 a chap known as Universal Head started publishing an amazing series of rules summaries which condensed down some of the bloatiest rulesbooks down to often one or 2 pages of A4. It was a (pardon the pun) gamechanger for me. I can’t count the number of games in our collection that have a friendly sheet of A4 now as the first thing you see when you open the box. They are brilliant. And he’s still doing it to this day. I would argue that the more useful leg to his activities is the website rather than YouTube channel, but his channel does have the aforementioned brilliant figure painting tutorials, unboxing videos and some crafting stuff. The website is definitely the place for the rules summaries and also a fantastic resource for build-it-yourself foamcore box inserts. Though Folded Space have now made box inserts pretty affordable, there’s still no feeling like the satisfaction of building your own, and I would argue that some of EoG’s designs actually make more sense than some of the Folded Space ones anyway. AND THE OTHER ONES (Who probably don’t really need the exposure, but hey, only 11 people probably read this so......) Why aren’t these on the list above? Just because I wanted to highlight some of the more marginal channels above or more specialist rather than the pure reviewers. SHUT UP & SIT DOWN Possibly my favourite channel on YouTube, whose name sounds more like a menacing Yorkshire greeting than a boardgame channel. SU&SD seem to be a real Marmite issue on the board game communities. And I genuinely don’t understand it. Yes, their reviews are often really funny but honestly, if that’s all you take away then you are missing some amazingly detailed and thought provoking work. Quinns and crew’s reviews are some of the most measured and balanced reviews in the gameyverse. Their reasoning for the conclusions they come to are incredibly well thought through and often very surprising based on the tone of the rest of the review. They have steered me to some games I would never have looked twice at and steered me away from some very shiny games that I might have blown a lot of money on otherwise. Flagposting great alternatives is also a signature of their reviews, and that again has often lead me to some fantastic games. We don’t always agree (their recent review of 10 Oink Games was savage imho) but we always disagree for the right reasons. Again, I would argue their website is actually a better overall resource, especially their podcasts which are superb, but all their content is fantastic.

in a highly similar vein I would add NO PUN INCLUDED. Efka & Elaine produce some of the most thoughtful and intelligent boardgame review content today, and often for some of the deepest and most complex games. The joy of boardgaming is that it is highly subjective and there are lots of times when NPI like/dislike a game that I do/don’t, but they are engaging and warm enough as presenters to hit you with a gentle subtext that says “It’s ok - I know we like this game, we get that you don’t, it doesn’t make any of us bad people, just people y’know, have a sandwich with us” Efka criticising a game reminds me of when Dennis Healey once described an argument with Geoffrey Howe as being ‘savaged by a dead sheep’, though not in the cynical manner of the original. The criticism is loaded with that crucial dose of ‘hear me out’ that is sadly lacking in 90% of all other reviewers out there. Efka & Elaine are no GoggleBox reviewers, they are the real deal - they genuinely understand how games work and why. The sheer moral turmoil that Efka expressed over the cultural issues in Rising Sun was some of the most thoughtful YouTube content I have ever seen. I just wanted to do a little shout out to Johannes & Sunniva at BOARD GAMING RAMBLINGS - I don’t have as much to say as they are relatively new on my radar, but I have really enjoyed their content so far and find them to be like one of those adorable gaming couples that you might see every once in a while at your gaming group and have a blast with, and then not see for months and go “Awh - I really miss Johannes & Sunniva - where’d they go?” that feeling, you know the one. Adorable, with a hint of the esoteric. Also, a quick but important mention to the other titan of boardgame rules explanation that is Paul Grogan of GAMING RULES!. Like Rodney Smith, Paul is meticulous about rules explanation and is really clear and simple to follow, even for very heavy games, which Paul tends to do more of than Rodney, which is probably why I end up watching Paul slightly less, but certainly not for any less quality. Paul has such a reputation in the industry that he now works closely with many designers and publishers to help craft the best rulebooks around as a consultant. So that’s it - congrats for making it through folks. Didn’t think it was going to run this long, but turns out.... I quite like a lot of the YouTubers I watch - who knew? Until next time... happy gaming y’all.

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mingos-commodoreblog · 5 years

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Commodore 486SX-25

#commodore #retro #retrocomputing #classic #vintage #80s #90s #collection #floppy #desktop #intel #486

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firstmicrochip · 4 years

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Evolution of Microprocessors 1971 to 1996

A chip fuses the elements of a PC's focal preparing unit (CPU) on a solitary incorporated circuit (IC), or probably a couple of coordinated circuits. Every single present day Cpu are microprocessor ( https://firstmicroprocessor.com/ ) making the miniaturized scale prefix excess. The microchip is a multipurpose, programmable gadget that acknowledges advanced information as information, forms it as per guidelines put away in its memory, and gives results as yield. It is a case of successive advanced rationale, as it has interior memory. Chip work on numbers and images spoke to in the double numeral framework.

Complete History of Microprocessor

1971: The First Intel 4004 Microprocessor

The 4004 was the world's first microchip, a solitary chip made and created by Intel. It was a 4-piece CPU and was likewise the most readily accessible monetarily. This advancement provoked the Busicom adding machine [1] and drove the best approach to give "knowledge" to lifeless things and furthermore on the PC.

1972: Intel 8008 Microprocessor

At first coded as 1201, was approached Intel for Computer Terminal Corporation for use in its programmable terminal Datapoint 2200, but since Intel completed the venture late and didn't meet the desires for Computer Terminal Corporation, was not decisively utilized in the Datapoint . Hence Computer Terminal Corporation and Intel concurred that the i8008 could be offered to different clients.

1974: The SC/MP Microprocessor

The SC/MP created by National Semiconductor, was one of the primary microchip, which opened up since the start of 1974 the name SC/MP (prominently known as "Scoundrel") is an abbreviation for Simple Cost-powerful Micro Processor (Single Chip and cost). Presents a location transport and 16-piece information transport 8 bits. One component, progressed for now is the ideal time, is the capacity to discharge the transports so they can be shared by various processors. This chip was generally utilized for its ease and given in packs to instructive purposes, innovative work of different modern controllers.

1974: The Intel 8080 Microchip

THE 8080 turned into the CPU of the primary PC, the MITS Altair 8800, purportedly, named for a goal from the Spaceship "Starship" network show Star Trek, and IMSAI 8080, framing the reason for machines running the CP/M-80 working framework. Supporters of Altair PCs could purchase a PC at a cost (at that point) of 395 USD. In a time of a couple of months, a huge number of these PCs were sold.

1975: Motorola 6800 Micro-CPU

Is produced by Motorola, the Motorola MC6800, known as 6800 he was discharged not long after the Intel 8080 Named after which contained around 6,800 transistors. A few of the main microcomputers during the 1970s and utilized the 6800 processor. These incorporate the SWTPC 6800, which was the first to utilize it, and the notable 680 Altair plentifully This chip utilized as a feature of a pack for driver advancement frameworks in the business. Beginning from 6800 processors different subsidiaries were made, one of the most impressive Motorola 6809

1976: Z80 Microprocessor

Zilog Inc. The organization makes the Zilog Z80. It is a 8-piece chip worked in NMOS innovation and depended on the Intel 8080 is essentially an augmentation of it, which bolsters every one of your guidelines. After a year hits stores first PC that utilizes the Z80, the Tandy TRS-80 Model 1 furnished with a 1.77 MHz Z80 and 4 KB of RAM. It is one of the best processors of the market, of which there have been numerous clonal forms, is as yet utilized widely today in many inserted frameworks. The organization was established Zilog 1974 by Federico Faggin, who was boss architect of the Intel 4004 chip Intel 8080 and later.

1978: The Intel 8086 and 8088 Microprocessor

A deal made by Intel to the new PC division of IBM, made the IBM PC Business laid extraordinary hit with the new item with the 8088, called the IBM PC. The achievement of 8088 moved Intel to the rundown of the main 500 organizations in the Fortune magazine, and named it as one of the organization's business triumphs of the sixties.

1982: The Intel 80286 Microchip

The 80286, prevalently known as 286, was the first Intel processor that could run all the product composed for its ancestor. This product similarity stays a sign of Intel group of chip. Following six years of its presentation, there were an expected 15 million 286-based PC, introduced the world over.

1985: Intel 80386 Microprocessor

This Intel processor, famously called 386, got together with 275,000 transistors, in excess of 100 fold the number of as in the first 4004 The 386 included a 32-piece engineering, with capacity to perform various tasks and a unit of interpretation of pages, which did a lot simpler to actualize working frameworks that will utilize virtual memory.

1985: The VAX 78032 Microprocessor

The VAX microchip 78032 (otherwise called DC333) is single-chip 32-piece, and was created and made by Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC); MicroVAX II introduced in gear, together with his boat isolated drifting point coprocessor, the 78132, had a limit of near 90% of that could convey the VAX 11/780 minicomputer that was introduced in 1977 This chip contained 125,000 transistors was made ZMOS Technology at DEC. The VAX frameworks dependent on this processor were favored by the logical and designing network during the 1980s.

1989: Intel 80486 Microprocessor

Producing 486 truly intended to have a PC with cutting edge highlights, including a guidance set improved skimming point unit, or FPU, an interface unit transport and upgraded reserve bound together, all incorporated into one's own microchip. These enhancements made the i486 were twice as quick as the pair i386 - i387 working at a similar clock recurrence. The Intel 486 processor was the first to offer an incorporated math coprocessor or FPU; him that quickened notably the counts. FPU unit utilizing an increasingly mind boggling scientific activities are performed by the coprocessor so the capacity for all intents and purposes free of the principle processor.

1991: AMD AMx86 Micro-CPU

AMD processors fabricated by 100% good with Intel codes that second. Called "clones" of Intel, they even beat the clock recurrence of Intel processors and fundamentally lower costs. Here the Am286, Am386, Am486 and Am586 arrangement are incorporated.

1993: PowerPC 601 Microprocessor

It is a RISC processor innovation 32-piece, 50 and 66MHz. Its plan utilized the transport interface of the Motorola 88110 In 1991, IBM looks for a collusion with Apple and Motorola to support the formation of the microchip, the AIM (Apple, IBM and Motorola) union rises whose point was to expel the area to Microsoft and Intel had in frameworks dependent on 80386 80486 and PowerPC (PPC or MPC abridged) is the first name of the processor family RISC design, which was created by the AIM Alinza. Processors this family are chiefly utilized in Macintosh PCs Apple Computer and its presentation is firmly because of its RISC design.

1993: The Intel Pentium Micro

The Pentium chip had an engineering fit for executing two activities without a moment's delay, on account of its two pipeline information 32 bits every, equal to 486DX (u) and the other proportional to 486SX (u). Besides, it was furnished with an information transport of 64 bits, and permitted access to 64-piece memory (however as yet keeping the processor 32-piece support for inner tasks, and records were likewise 32 bits). The MMX forms including not just gave the client an increasingly proficient administration of sight and sound applications, yet in addition offered at speeds up to 233 MHz. 200 MHz form of the most fundamental and worked around 166 MHz recurrence was incorporated clock. The Pentium name was referenced in the funnies and TV addresses day by day, really an exceptionally well known word came not long after its presentation.

1994: THE PowerPC 620 Microchip

This year, IBM and Motorola built up the principal model of 64 piece PowerPC processor [2], the most progressive execution of the PowerPC design, which was accessible until one year from now. The 620 was intended for use in servers, particularly improved for use in arrangements of four and eight processors on application servers and database video. This processor joins 7,000,000 transistors and runs at 133 MHz. It is offered as a scaffold movement for those clients who need to utilize 64-piece applications without quitting any pretense of running 32-piece applications.

1995: THE Intel Pentium Pro Micro-CPU

Propelled in fall 1995, the Pentium Pro (proficient) processor was planned with a 32-piece design. It was utilized in servers and programming and workstation applications (organizing) immediately helped their coordination into PCs. The yield on the 32-piece code was amazing, yet the Pentium Pro was regularly more slow than a Pentium when running code or 16-piece working frameworks. The Pentium Pro processor was made out of about 5.5 million transistors.

1996: AMD K5 Microchip

Having relinquished the clones, like AMD Intel made with innovations. AMD propelled its initially devoted processor, the K5, Pentium rival. The design of the AMD K5 RISC86 was progressively like the engineering of the Intel Pentium Pro to Pentium. The K5 is inside a RISC processor with a Unit x86-decoder changes each order x86 (application in progress) RISC orders. This standard is utilized today in all x86 CPU. In many regards surpassed the K5 Pentium even lower cost, anyway AMD had little involvement with the advancement of microchips and the various achievements checked creation were overwhelmed with little achievement, was deferred one year of flight showcase, a purpose behind this working frequencies were lower than those of the opposition, and in this manner PC creators underestimated that it was second rate.

1996: The AMD K6 and AMD K6-2 Microprocessor

With the K6, AMD not just got truly offer rivalry to Intel Pentium MMX, yet additionally soured what had in any case been a lovely market predominance, giving practically level processor Pentium II however at a cost a lot of lower. In gliding point counts, the K6 was likewise underneath the Pentium II, yet over the Pentium Pro and MMX. K6 had a range that goes from the 166 to the 500 MHz and MMX ins

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