Groups | Search | Server Info | Keyboard shortcuts | Login | Register [http] [https] [nntp] [nntps]

Groups > alt.folklore.computers > #164452

Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later

Show all headers | View raw

On Fri, 3 Jun 2016, Quadibloc wrote:

> This did not ring a bell; I guess I must have missed the April, 1968 
> issue of _Popular Mechanics_, which had an article about that computer.
>
And the tone is wrong.

People wanted their own computers, and some even got them.  There was the 
ACS (Amateur Computer Society) that had some members. Some built their 
own, others scrounged, and I guess some might have had a PDP-8.  I think 
the thrust was having your own computer,  for many that goal was hard 
enough, so "using it" came second.

So when microprocessors came along, many kind of abandoned their works in 
progress, since suddenly a computer could be had cheaper, simpler and 
smaller.  And suddenly your home computer was something other people had, 
you didn't have to write the operating system and BASIC or whatever for 
your unique computer.

But the tone of the article is also off, since it hypes 1977, when it 
should be 1975 and the Altair 8800, or 1974 and the 8008 based Micro-8, or 
even the Scelbi 8008 computer.  Things moved a lot faster in retrospect 
than they did at the time.

   Michael

Back to alt.folklore.computers | Previous | Next — Previous in thread | Next in thread | Find similar | Unroll thread

Thread

[CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later RS Wood  <rsw@therandymon.com> - 2016-06-04 00:02 +0000
  Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later Quadibloc <jsavard@ecn.ab.ca> - 2016-06-03 17:30 -0700
    Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-06-03 22:18 -0400
      Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later "gareth G4SDW GQRP #3339" <no.spam@thank.you.invalid> - 2016-06-04 11:06 +0100
        Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later Michael Black <et472@ncf.ca> - 2016-06-04 09:39 -0400
          Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later "Charles Richmond" <numerist@aquaporin4.com> - 2016-06-11 10:45 -0500
          Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later hancock4@bbs.cpcn.com - 2016-06-11 13:19 -0700
  Re: [CM] the ECHO IV home computer, 50 years later Al Kossow <aek@bitsavers.org> - 2016-06-03 17:38 -0700

csiph-web