The Horrifying Apple Super Bowl Ad That Time Forgot, 1985 • Hacker News Board

Re: The Horrifying Apple Super Bowl Ad That Time Forgot, 1985

#41

Post by userbinator » Sun, Feb 02, 2014, 6:18 AM UTC

greenyoda wrote: post #34

tosseraccount wrote: post #28

The irony is, the IBM PC was a very open machine. The Apple folks were the secretive ones.

Very open indeed. The Technical Reference Manual for the PC actually included circuit diagrams and the source code for the BIOS. Here's the version from the PC/XT (warning: huge PDF file): http://www.retroarchive.org/dos/docs/ibm5160techref.pdf

Here's the AT one, it was the last one that was open in that way (and closest to what the modern PC is based on): http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/ibm/pc/at/1502494_PC_... It's an even bigger PDF than the XT one :)

Re: The Horrifying Apple Super Bowl Ad That Time Forgot, 1985

#42

Post by userbinator » Sun, Feb 02, 2014, 6:21 AM UTC

mattl wrote: post #35

giantrobothead wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You say "were" as though that has somehow changed.

Do you have the source code to the BIOS now? http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/

> The only thing not working is changing the screen brightness, which stays fixed at 100%.

That would be enough to stop me from buying one. I have an X60 already (and found the schematics online), maybe it wouldn't be too hard to fix.

Re: The Horrifying Apple Super Bowl Ad That Time Forgot, 1985

#43

Post by jonheller » Sun, Feb 02, 2014, 5:15 PM UTC

I don't understand all the irony people keep pointing too. The point as I understand it is that people were miserable using the business products of that day.

Nowadays you could make an argument that people are lemmings for using Apple products just for the sake of them being Apple products, but judging from both anecdotes and high customer satisfaction ratings, I highly doubt the majority of Apple product users are miserable with their iPhones etc.

Re: The Horrifying Apple Super Bowl Ad That Time Forgot, 1985

#44

Post by mattl » Sun, Feb 02, 2014, 6:49 PM UTC

userbinator wrote: post #42

mattl wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have the source code to the BIOS now? http://shop.gluglug.org.uk/

> The only thing not working is changing the screen brightness, which stays fixed at 100%. That would be enough to stop me from buying one. I have an X60 already (and found the schematics online), maybe it wouldn't be too hard to fix.

Yeah, I bet you could add in a dial and control the resistance, but yeah... not in software.