Ever thought about the hardware....???

Rob Keeble

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GTA Ontario Canada
I know we have a few guys here that hail from the beginning of the tech sector days, guys who can remember assembler programming, the good old 8080 and 8085 processor and know what the heck 1 killobyte actually is and just how much memory that used to be.

Well i caught a show on BBC called "Click" it covers the latest happening in the tech world mostly related to Internet and related tech but has ventured wider into cellphone are lately.

So i get to see that a company by the name of ARM is behind most of the new chips going into the smart mobile phones. Appears they design then for the companys and then someone else produces them in a fab plant.

Well they show that the latest thing these guys are working on is a processor that will run multiple high definition videos simultaneously on one mobile platform in the smart phone category.

So i mention this to my 16 year old that wants all the latest gadgets but has no clue of the difference between Mbyte and Gbyte or even understands what a kilobyte is despite Dad trying to educate him.

He being a teenager answers back " Yeah i know so what and what did you expect" :rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl: It took everything in me not to hit the roof.:eek:

Here i was admiring these Arm guys work like a fine work of art in the Louvre and this new know it all generation had no concept of where this work of art has originated from.:(

It trully is amazing the power that is being packed into these small devices.:):thumb: Seems we are going full circle back to the days of solid state logic and i dont see no room there for the inefficient high level coding boys who keep on needing more and more memory and faster and faster processors to run it all.:rofl:
 
There is a recurring theme in science fiction novels where far in the future our technology becomes so advanced that no one really knows how it works, it is just accepted that it does. Kind of like an elementary school child's understanding of gravity; you let go of something and it heads towards the ground but, "Yeah I know, so what, and what did you expect?".
 
"Yeah I know, so what, and what did you expect?".

This is why history repeats itself, for that is the price of ignoring it.

Underlying the remark however is more than ignoring history. It shows a disdain for what has come before, and that, unfortunately, colors every other aspect of life.

I do not mean to start something here, so please do not take me wrong. I am just saddened that society in this time in history so readily tolerates disdain for others.

That we have great respect and compassion for the members of THIS family, makes FWW a most lovely place to hang out. It is a model of relationship I wish could be brought into everyday general living.

Sighhhh....
 
Rob this is a different portion of the same frustration I feel when students can't even hang up wrenches in the correct order because they have failed to learn it be it in math class, science class, or in my classroom. Now, in their defense, computers are pure magic to me. I do not know nor do I try to know/understand how it is they work/communicate/upload/download/send pm's, emails, etc. Maybe that is why I feel most relaxed and calm when working with wood or riding or driving my horses.
 
You 1000% right there Carol. About both things you mention. This place tells me there is still hope for humanity.:thumb:

Hey Johnathan, i dont want to sound like an old geyser here but i feel we made a wrong turn when society gave up punishment. Back in my day at school i loved my Industrial Arts classes. But we had teachers that were very strict. Every tool whether it was metal work or woodworking class has a designated marked out place on a shadow board. You were given 10 tags with a number on at the beginning of the year. That number was your name. When you took a tool it had to be replaced by the tag. If the tag was there at the end of shop and your tool was not, you bent over and felt the consequences of your negligence at the end of the period. Fullstop justice was administered immediately and you knew not to do it again. If you did you were again reminded by pain that your discipline was lacking.

Now ask me why i put my tools away after i work in my shop and clean up.:rofl::rofl::rofl:

Now i wonder if i could use this method to get the teenager to keep his room clean.:rofl::rofl:
 
Rob,
Things do change. I remember when the company bought a Tektronix desktop computer to replace the downtown big mainframe computer that was accessed with a teletype paper tape terminal. The teletype was 16 cps.

They opted for an upgrade of 16k to 32k of memory. An intermittent problem was eventually traced to the optional memory chip. One of the leads of the DIP was not inserted into the socket, but was bent and only pressing on the top.

Still remember when Dick Tracy's wristwatch/communicator seemed unbelievable?
Now it is only the size of our fingers and the sharpness of our eyesight that is limiting the size of our cell phones.

Paul
 
In college we had 1 computer on campus, it ran in Fortran. We all had to share it and the data was inputted using punch cards, and no hanging chads or it would screw up the data..

The first Desk top I worked on was made by a company out of Louisiana. It was called the Tano and came standard with 16 K of memory, you could up grade it in 16K increments to a maximum of 64 K by plugging in memory cards that were about 8"x10" and stuffed with chips. The disk drive was a single sided single density disk and you could add an options second disk. It had no operating system and only ran assembler programs. It had a metal case and weighed a ton. it was billed as the most affordable desktop at $1995.
 
Darren,
Talking about tapping brainwaves, I heard about researchers that have been able to decode brainwaves and predict what words that the person was going to say. The research was done by inserting extra electrodes into the brains of patients with epilepsy. They were having surgery anyways to have different electrodes implanted to help control their seizures.

This means that people who are paralyzed would be able to communicate by speaking through a computer.
 
The brainwave program
Researchers at Utah University in Salt Lake City have been working on a machine that they claim can translate brain signals into speech.

But rather than trying to discover their friends' innermost secrets, these researchers are hoping to use the machine to help patients who are unable to speak. It could ultimately allow people who are paralyzed as a result of a stroke or Lou Gehrig's disease to communicate quickly.

The complete audio download is at http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/09/09/audio-aih-brain-waves-words-utah.html
 
In college we had 1 computer on campus, it ran in Fortran. We all had to share it and the data was inputted using punch cards, and no hanging chads or it would screw up the data..

The first Desk top I worked on was made by a company out of Louisiana. It was called the Tano and came standard with 16 K of memory, you could up grade it in 16K increments to a maximum of 64 K by plugging in memory cards that were about 8"x10" and stuffed with chips. The disk drive was a single sided single density disk and you could add an options second disk. It had no operating system and only ran assembler programs. It had a metal case and weighed a ton. it was billed as the most affordable desktop at $1995.

Don,
I remember back when I first got into freight forwarding... computer disc drives looked like washing machines and controllers were the size of refrigerators... we could load 2 controllers and 4 drives in an igloo and had a full load... about 4000 or 5000 lbs in the container. We shipped an Amdahl computer from Santa Clara to London for Scottland Yard... the computer took up a full 40' ocean container plus a good portion of a 20'.... had to have special air conditioning to keep it cool and was supposed to be the latest and greatest in police work.

Then one day a group of bright IBM engineers came up with an idea to make a desk top sized computer... the desk top was about 24 x 24 x 30 inches tall... IBM management pooh-poohed the idea... it would never sell, people will not want computers at their desk, yadda yadda.....

Look at lap tops today... they will almost do everything that the Amdahl monster did... maybe more.

I also remember that to export those desk top computers required a special export license from the department of commerce... if they had a baud rate (does anyone know what a baud rate is???..... I did once, but have forgotten how to calculate it now).. over a certain level, they would then require a department of State license because of the potential for use as weapons control computers......
 
Chuck I remember us recieving a shipment of that embargoed cargo in SA. Our defense contractors within our larger group wanted a fancy Cad system that was on the list of no ship to bad boys. So we had to buy it for them. When it arrived they had to pack the whole lot out and set it up in our offices before they would release the sale. When the paper work was signed and they left we packed it all up and shipped it down the road to the defense contractors. Only thing it meant is we paid more than normal for the products.

I also got to see all the contraban hi tech machinery and computers that were not supposed to be sold to the Eastern Bloc countries at a time when they were all part of the Soviet Union. Yeah right IBM computers in their factories no problem. They were just very old models. :D

The embargos never work, they only serve to make middle men richer.
 
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