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Re: Canon Cat Forth Source

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<hughaguilar96@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Saturday, September 5, 2015 at 6:52:58 AM UTC-7, Mux wrote:
>>> I really really wanted a Canon Cat back in 1987, but the $1495 price
>>> tag was way beyond my means --- by comparison, the Atari-ST was $999
>>> and had 1MB of RAM plus MIDI support, and you could get Forth for it as
>>> an option, so it was a much better bargain --- I couldn't afford it either though.
>>> 
>>  > Everything was expensive back then --- I wanted the Atari-ST, but I
>> ended up lowering my standards yet again and getting an IBM clone --- so
>> I learned MS-DOS (barely better than CP/M, and it had those weird
>> "terminate-and-stay-resident" utilities that always clashed with each other).
>>> 
>>> Now I can walk into WalMart and buy a dual-core 64-bit laptop for
>>> $400-$500 (about $150 in 1987 money) --- back in 1987 I would have
>>> predicted that we would have a lunar colony by 2015, but would not have
>>> predicted such inexpensive and incredibly powerful computers, and would
>>> not have predicted the internet either.
>> 
>> It's amazing how expensive technology was in those days, especially if
>> you account for inflation. Atari 2600 games were like $30 in those days. For 4k roms :-)
>> 
>> -Mux
> 
> Mass production kills innovation --- now we have low-cost computers
> (mostly built in China) --- but we have had to lower our standards,
> similar to how I lowered my standards back then.

Wow, wow, mister. Please keep your lower standards to yourself, and please
don't say "we."

Fortunately we in Russia are very open to innovations, and we always keep
our standards high. That's why American companies are buying things from
Russia even though there are supposed to be some sanctions. By the way,
it's funny, isn't it? Sanctions, lol.

> If everybody were to examine all the possible designs and choose the best
> for themselves, there would be a variety of systems in use, but Windows
> wouldn't be one of them (because Windows is nobody's idea of "best") ---
> MicroSoft got where it is because the federal government mandated that
> there had to be a standard for all government offices, and in their
> bureaucratic wisdom they picked MicroSoft --- now Windows swamps out everything else.

Mister Murrican forgot how Microsoft got it? I know pot and meth are very
popular in US, but I hope average people still can remember things.

> I was just thinking about how cool it would be to build a Canon Cat.
> Upgrade it to a ColdFire processor, give it a hard-disk, give it a small
> laptop to reside in, etc.. But cool or not, it would be hugely expensive
> --- likely $4000 (approximately the 1987 price adjusted for inflation)
> --- so, still a flop commercially.
> 
> Meanwhile we can get dual-core 64-bit Windows computes at Walmart for
> $400 (an order of magnitude less expensive) --- but the software is ugly
> and inefficient --- nobody enjoys working with Windows.
> 
> The economy is winner-take-all --- it is similar in music where we get
> mass-produced schlock such as Hanna Montana and now Justin Bieber --- but
> all innovation and talent is squelched.


-- 
dunno

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Canon Cat Forth Source Mux <Yvo.Zoer@gmail.com> - 2015-09-04 12:51 -0700
  Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2015-09-04 14:32 -0700
    Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Mux <Yvo.Zoer@gmail.com> - 2015-09-04 14:44 -0700
      Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Paul Rubin <no.email@nospam.invalid> - 2015-09-04 15:31 -0700
        Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Mux <Yvo.Zoer@gmail.com> - 2015-09-04 20:50 -0700
        Re: Canon Cat Forth Source hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2015-09-04 23:52 -0700
          Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Mux <Yvo.Zoer@gmail.com> - 2015-09-05 06:52 -0700
            Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2015-09-05 16:26 +0200
            Re: Canon Cat Forth Source hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2015-09-05 21:11 -0700
              Re: Canon Cat Forth Source dunno <dunno@dunno.dunno> - 2015-09-06 07:17 +0000
                Re: Canon Cat Forth Source rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2015-09-07 15:14 -0400
                Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Jason Damisch <jasondamisch@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-08 14:31 -0700
              Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Jason Damisch <jasondamisch@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-08 14:31 -0700
                Re: Canon Cat Forth Source "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2015-09-08 23:14 +0100
                Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Jason Damisch <jasondamisch@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-08 15:30 -0700
                Re: Canon Cat Forth Source hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2015-09-08 20:48 -0700
                Re: Canon Cat Forth Source "Alex McDonald" <blog@rivadpm.com> - 2015-09-09 14:53 +0100
    Re: Canon Cat Forth Source "David N. Williams" <williams@umich.edu> - 2015-09-05 10:31 -0400
    Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Matthias Koch <matthias.koch@hot.uni-hannover.de> - 2015-09-07 10:49 +0200
      Re: Canon Cat Forth Source hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2015-09-07 11:18 -0700
        Re: Canon Cat Forth Source rickman <gnuarm@gmail.com> - 2015-09-07 15:35 -0400
        Re: Canon Cat Forth Source "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-07 20:15 +0000
          Re: Canon Cat Forth Source dunno <dunno@dunno.dunno> - 2015-09-07 21:44 +0000
            Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Coos Haak <chforth@hccnet.nl> - 2015-09-08 00:50 +0200
            Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Bernd Paysan <bernd.paysan@gmx.de> - 2015-09-08 01:47 +0200
        Re: Canon Cat Forth Source dunno <dunno@dunno.dunno> - 2015-09-07 21:36 +0000
  Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Jason Damisch <jasondamisch@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-05 09:13 -0700
  Re: Canon Cat Forth Source Matthias Koch <matthias.koch@hot.uni-hannover.de> - 2015-09-07 13:51 +0200
    Re: Canon Cat Forth Source hughaguilar96@gmail.com - 2015-09-07 08:32 -0700
      Re: Canon Cat Forth Source "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-07 19:43 +0000
        Re: Canon Cat Forth Source borota@gmail.com - 2015-09-07 12:49 -0700
      Re: Canon Cat Forth Source "WJ" <w_a_x_man@yahoo.com> - 2015-09-07 22:00 +0000

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