HOW....did WE.....get here?

[Snowhog]

What is truly amazing; when one stops and actually considers it; is that with such small amounts of memory, code was written extremely well; it had to be in order to fit into such small memory pools. Bloat was something that came later, when memory size increased. Coding could be less exact; sloppy even. As memory increased, so did the number of 'bugs' in software.

[GreyGeek]

When I was in HS (also around 1975) a good friend saved his money and bought the same TI calculator. We spent days glued to him showing us all the "neat tricks" it could do.

I have a line on a used Acer Aspire V17 Nitro. Gonna pick it up either this weekend or next.

• NVIDIA Geforce GTX 860M 4 GB GDDR5
• Intel Core i7 4th Gen 4720HQ (2.60 GHz)
• 8 GB Memory 1 TB HDD
• 17.3" 1920 x 1080 LED-backlit IPS display 16:9 aspect ratio, Wide viewing angle
• 16.65" x 11.54" x 1.0" 6.61 lbs.
• DVD Super Multi
• 1 x HDMI
• 2 x USB 2.0 2 x USB 3.0

$250. Apparently, it is also locked with ransomware. I offered to take a look at it for the owners to see if I could clean it up but they just want to get rid of it. If I can salvage Windows, I'll see if my wife wants it as an upgrade to her HP. If not (and I'm not going to lose any sleep, If I can't). Drive gets wiped, Linux gets installed (maybe an SSD) and I'll play with it a while until I find a happy home for it.

For $250 that's an awesome machine! It's pretty close to my Acer, except that my GT 650M has only 2GB of RAM. With Minecraft my NVidia gives me between 400-600 fps. The difference between it and Nouveau on Intel's Integrated Graphics is huge. I predict that you'll love that machine if you get NVidia running on it. I'm using the 384 driver. A week ago running Kubuntu 18.04 the 390 driver gave me the same excellent performance.

[Qqmike]

GG, I have that TI and the HP calculator. Snowhog, I have several slide rules, including one identical to what you posted (I'll have to check the brand). We had to use it on exams in engineering school: had to carry only so many significant digits (there were rules for this), even in a chained calculation, like 23 x 357 x 872 all divided by pi, or some such.

What is truly amazing; when one stops and actually considers it; is that with such small amounts of memory, code was written extremely well; it had to be in order to fit into such small memory pools.

I recall one of our FORTRAN teachers being picky about HOW we wrote a line of code so that it wouldn't hog the resources of the machine. Program efficiency!

[Snowhog]

I recall one of our FORTRAN teachers being picky about HOW we wrote a line of code so that it wouldn't hog the resources of the machine. Program efficiency!

My Dad, back when he first got into programing (he taught himself, and then wrote a medical genetics program that was ultimately purchased by the University San Francisco Genetics Department), he purchased a computer running CP/M. He wrote and submitted to Dr. Dobb's Journal; which they published; a loader routine (IIRC) that was larger than the memory allocation provided by CP/M (at that time), but that 'ate it's tail' in order to make room for the rest to execute. He was rather proud of that.

[GreyGeek]

My Dad, back when he first got into programing (he taught himself, and then wrote a medical genetics program that was ultimately purchased by the University San Francisco Genetics Department), he purchased a computer running CP/M. He wrote and submitted to Dr. Dobb's Journal; which they published; a loader routine (IIRC) that was larger than the memory allocation provided by CP/M (at that time), but that 'ate it's tail' in order to make room for the rest to execute. He was rather proud of that.

Sounds like he turned the CP/M into Dr Who's phone booth!

[SpecialEd]

Ok FWIW, I'll bite.

Short story;long.



I didn't touch my first computer until I was 29. IBM PC clones. I learned on DOS 3.0 and 3.3. I was reluctant to try Windows but that's the way the wind was blowing and I was all in. I used PCs at work, at home, it was all I knew. I became aware of Linux at some point but thought it was for nerds.

About 7-8 years ago the Windows install on my son's computer got corrupted. While I was searching around for recovery and installation disks, on a whim, I burned a live DVD of Ubuntu. It got him online until I could straighten out his Windows. I played around with it a bit but not much.

Fast forward till about 2014 or 2015 and my other son had a laptop he wasn't using so I installed Linux Mint on it to learn and play around. I still had Windows on my own laptop. I used Mint to d/l stuff off the Internet, etc., and played around with it a bit but after a while I had to put Windows back on it for him.

January 2017, I started getting frustrated with MS and Windows because they had been pushing Windows 10 so hard, and I had to remove their downloads, etc.

Realizing that Win 7 would be reaching EOL and having no interest in 8.1 or 10 and getting fed up with MS, I installed Linux Mint KDE on my laptop along side of Windows 7. I tried it for a few days then switched to Kubuntu. I don't remember if I found the Kubuntu Forum before I switched to Kubuntu or if it was the other way around. Having a lot of experience with Fora and moderating, I was instantly drawn to the Kubuntu Forum, due to the quality of posts and posters and the excellent signal to noise ratio. Reading the forum (GG). I decided to try Neon within a couple days of installing Kubuntu. This was around February of last year.

By June, Windows was deleted completely (I do run WIndows 7 in a VM so I can use my SONOS wireless sound system). Other than that it's been Neon ever since. I've made a few mistakes along the way, learned a few things and am a happy and kontented kamper.



Thanks to all the great posters here and to Snowhog for his patience and kindness.

[dibl]

Well, Woody, since you asked ...

1971, sophomore year at Ohio State majoring in Zoology and minoring in Russian, it seemed a reasonable idea to sign up for a basic course in computer science, so I found myself in an introductory COBOL class. I learned I had no noticeable aptitude for programming, or passion about it either. But I also learned I could use COBOL on an IBM 360 to calculate and print out a table of very precise measurements for testing the 8-inch paraboloid glass mirror that I was grinding for a reflector telescope -- very useful, indeed ...

1975, Commodore introduced a nice hand-held digital calculator that simplified life in the office where I was a government buyer working with a lot of basic math (prompt payment discounts, lists of items, quantities, and prices, etc. etc.), so for a few hundred bucks I bought one of those. Later HP offered a "Business Analyst" calculator that was even more useful.

Fall of 1982, the Commodore 64 came to my town and my attention. That little machine, with an RF converter allowing me to use a TV for display, and a floppy disk drive to hold a word processing program and the data files, was my introduction to personal computing. A few years later an IBM PC appeared in my office at work, for the price analysts to use, but it didn't take me long to find out they weren't using it during lunch hour so I got to explore its capabilies that way.

1986, PC-compatibles began appearing in the literature, and eventually when PC-AT compatibles came available, I shelled out $2200 for a 12 MHz Northgate with a math coprocessor and a 3.5 inch floppy drive along with its 40MB hard drive. I thought I had something really powerful, and for a couple years I really did. I played a lot of Flight Simulator in those days.

Fast forward through the rest of the 1980s, the 1990s, DOS versions, Windows 3 as a DOS program, WIN 95 and its successors to Win XP, an OS/2 installation with my first browser and discovery of the World-Wide Web, and several hardware upgrades. In the summer of 2006 I added a second hard drive to my Win XP box and it locked me out with a "Call MS For Assistance" message -- the first I'd ever seen. Upon getting MS on the phone, and relating my problem, I was grilled with a series of questions that I found intrusive and insulting, concerning how I came to own that computer, what modifications I had ever made to it, and how many hard drives, exactly, did I have installed in it. Upon reporting that I had just installed the second hard drive, I was told that two hard drives was the maximum permitted by my Win XP license, and that if I wanted to add any more hdds, I would have to buy a server license. Then they gave me the new validation code so I could unlock the system. In the 10 seconds following the end of that phone call, I resolved to launch myself at researching Linux and whether it would be possible to extricate myself from the obnoxious grip of Microsoft. Found a knowledgeable engineer in my company who told me to try SUSE or Ubuntu. Found the Ubuntu website, found the download Live CD images, and downloaded 6.06 "Dapper Drake", and proceded to torture myself for weeks learning to make it work on my hardware. Somewhere along the way I discovered the KDE version of Ubuntu, Kubuntu, found it equally interesting and easier, in some ways, than the Gnome desktop. It didn't take long to see that this forum was the place to come with my stupid questions.

I kind of went back and forth between Ubuntu and Kubuntu for awhile, as there were some tasks that were more efficiently done with the Gnome packages of that day, but eventually I settled on Kubuntu and the KDE desktop. I installed each new release of Kubuntu from 6.10 on, through 10.04. But I also kept playing with other distros, just to learn what else was out there and whether I was being as productive as possible doing the work that I used the computer to accomplish. So I installed Fedora, Slax, E-Live, Debian, and a few others that escape me now, just to have a play with them. But I always kept Kubuntu installed and updated, and used it for all serious work.

In late 2009 I installed a Debian derivative named sidux. Basically it was pure Debian, but it was the development branch code named "unstable", and its value proposition was that it was a "rolling release", i.e. there were not new versions, as such, but rather it was continually updated through the Debian repo mirrors. At the time, having had a Kubuntu version upgrade go badly and having fallen into the habit of complete new installations, with lengthy configuration exercises, every six months, the rolling release system was attractive, so I began using it while learning a lot more about the dpkg and apt commands than I had ever needed for Kubuntu. By the time Kubuntu 10.10 was released, I felt sufficiently proficient with my Debian KDE rolling release that I stayed with it and skipped the Kubuntu reinstallation. sidux became aptosid, the more socially adept part of the dev team forked siduction, and that is the Linux that is running on three desktop computers and three laptops in my house today. The only reinstallation I have done was in 2013 when an SSD died and I had no alternative.

But I love this Kubuntu forum and so I hang around, like an annoying ex, to enjoy the continuous flow of useful information and intelligent debate that seems to be unique to this group. And thank you for letting me participate.

[GreyGeek]

dibl, did you ever use your Russian language training?

One of my exceptionally bright but very ornery physics students asked what I thought he should do. He wanted to learn Russian, among other things. Jokingly, I recommended that he apply to the CIA if he wanted fun and excitement. Years later I got a phone call. "Hi, remember me?" I recognized the voice, instantly. "How are you doing and what are you doing?", I asked. "Doing fine, working for the CIA as a Russian analyst. They have their own Russian language training school. I can speak it like a native." "Do any spying?" Silence. "Ok, never mind". This was after the time of the 1992 collapse of the USSR and before Putin. He told me, "Watch out for Russia, it is not the freedom loving country they claim it has become. We'll have trouble with them in the future".

We chatted some more about the old times at the college where I taught and he attended. I never heard from him again.

[dibl]

dibl, did you ever use your Russian language training?

I would not say I "used" it -- I never made a nickel professionally from my knowledge of the language. There's a "story" behind my choice to begin studying Russian as my mandatory foreign language option, but it's not that interesting so I'll skip it. Due to lack of practice, I'm sad to say I've forgotten more than I've remembered of it, at this point in my life.

I would, however, say that studying Russian enriched my life experience in several ways. I was born and raised in Ohio by parents who were from here, so my world view was rather limited, accordingly. Studying a foreign language necessarily entails studying the culture, and that leads to engaging with it as possible under the circumstances. An aged native Russian lady lived in Columbus, Ohio, with her disabled son, and occasionally participated with the OSU Russian program in "Russian tea" luncheons where we spoke only Russian and discussed the issues of the day, her history in escaping the Bolshevik revolution with her parents, through Europe and eventually to the USA, etc. It was an enriching experience, that broadened my view of the world, and 20th century history, and taught me how rough some people had it, compared to my own relatively comfortable middle-class upbringing. So it was a valuable influence on my life and my understanding of my fellow human beings -- part of a great educational experience in the early 1970s.

[GreyGeek]

Many do not appreciate how blessed we are in the country.

My language requirement in grad school was two years of German, which had been the leading scientific language of the day, besides English. I worked full time while in grad school and didn't want to slight my science and math classes or the labs, so I sacrificed my second year of German. I was flunking it, which meant I'd flunk out of grad school. Fortunately, the language requirement was reduced to one year of German. I had passed my first year so I was able to continue with my grad studies and graduate with a Masters in Biochemistry, and major hours in Physics, Math, Chemistry, Biology and Earth Science. My goal had been to be a HS teacher, and I obtained teaching certifications in all those disciplines. Since I was working full time while going to school I limited my semester hours to the minimum to be classified as a full time student, which was 12 semester hours. I also took classes all through the summer as well.

I had taken two years of Spanish while in HS, but long ago forgot how to read or right in either language. Now, I have trouble remembering English syntax and grammar. Did I mention that getting old stinks?

[Qqmike]

I had taken two years of Spanish while in HS, but long ago forgot how to read or right in either language.

And sometimes there's more to the story. You can master Spanish in school but laughed out of town in certain parts of the USA, like New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arizona, Nevada, S. Calif, Texas. In school, you learn Castilian or a more formal, clean language. In parts of the SW USA, you will find mixtures of Mexican, Spanish, English, and even Native American. You'll certainly draw some smiles speaking so formally from school. And if working on a construction site, you won't protect yourself (i.e., "fit in") simply by wearing a straw hat and long sleeved shirt (a la "wetbacks" who are accepted that way in the SW) -- not if you are trying to communicate in some formal school-Spanish. Don't ask me how I know all this.

[GreyGeek]

Ya, Qqmike. Between my Jr & Sr year of HS, after one year of Spanish, I worked on a roofing and siding crew that included a Mexican kid who could not read English. So, we made a deal, in the evenings he'd help me with Spanish and I'd help him to learn to read English. What he taught me was no where near what I had learned in school, and the Spanish teacher pounded it out of me.

[Qqmike]

GG, yep! Have an uncle, ex-Navy, tough Oklahoma-Texas cowboy-contractor, part Mexican, part "white," part Indian. We visited him on a summer vacation (jr high school), he taught me how to modify my school-Spanish so I would fit in and be understood well. My Spanish teacher had never seen the outside of a classroom--fashion clothes, tons of expensive jewelry, perfect grooming and complexion, perfect English & Spanish enunciation. When I told the class how "they" speak Spanish in NM-TX-OK, she got pissed off!

Construction sites are interesting places, as you probably know. All of a sudden, for no apparent reason, someone might fall off a roof. And hammers ... they often fly through the air out of nowhere Always best to "fit in."

[GreyGeek]

Ya, a person can even inadvertently touch to power lines and get knocked off a ladder!

I can tell you that when you wake up, laying flat on your back on the ground, you have no idea how you got there and why everyone is standing around looking at you with horrified looks on their faces.