Earlier quoted context omitted.
Hey, I store recipes on my home computer! Having a portable handheld terminal that can view the recipes makes it much more practical than it would have been in the 80s.
What recipe storing app do you use?
Obsidian
The Useful Personal Computer
31–40 of 44 posts
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#32I remember how computer enthusiasts had hard time explaining to “regular” people what personal computers were good for. They would often mention things like cooking recipes and balancing checkbooks which really was not convincing at all…
> The first TRS-80 ad was similarly scattershot, promising to be everything to everyone: “[p]rogram it to handle your personal finances, small business accounting, teaching functions, kitchen computations, innumerable games
Innumerable games sounds very compelling (though the Apple II was more solidly in the video game system business with support for color graphics and game controllers; but Apple's Mac later yielded many nice black-and-white games, aided by the Mac's sharp, though tiny, display.)
Nice article though showing a spreadsheet (two versions of VisiCalc), two word processors (Electric Pencil and WordStar - of George R.R. Martin fame), and not just games (MicroChess) but a rather interesting, if primitive, abstract animation program (Electric Paintbrush).
Digital art/creativity is I think an underappreciated application area for computers, though programs like {Mac,MS,Deluxe}Paint etc. and Photoshop were milestones, and demoscene software formed its own art practice and culture. Processing is perhaps a modern heir to Electric Paintbrush.
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#33"Appliance Computer" is such a cool name
"You don't upgrade your toaster, do you?" -Steve Jobs (supposedly, infamously opposing any kind of upgrades, slots, etc. for the Mac)
see also: https://www.folklore.org/Diagnostic_Port.html
> Steve immediately nixed his proposal, stating that there was no way that the Mac would even have a single slot...
> He would also rather have them buy a new 512K Mac instead of them buying more RAM from a third-party
The more things change...
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often think this way about my smartphone: what do I need the “smart” for? Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders. Seems so little… How old of a hardware could support my needs?
> taking/viewing photos Camera and screen quality are often what the new generation of a phone is sold on. For everything else, yeah if you're not watching videos or gaming then you probably don't need a top-end model.
I think this is where the consumer should be demanding more. We went to the moon and back with 64kb memory computers. Why are these basically sci-fi devices in our pockets that can communicate between each other dumb terminals for a bit of JSON and tracking.
"Apps" should be using the array of sensors to be more than displays of simple information AOL could have done if they had really good marketing
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#35Reliving the days when the possibilities were endless and we weren't already captured by an entrenched computing path is important. 50 years ago, every marketer intuited that a home computer would be used for storing recipes. It never happened. Why not? (Reasons aren't hard to come up with, but the process of doing so draws our imagination toward what computer interfaces could have been and should still be.)
RE ".... a home computer would be used for storing recipes...."
No doubt, some home computers where used for this purpose, However, (QUICKLY) much more interesting applications where discovered, for example games and educational applications, business applications, engineering applications including spreadsheets ... Look at old software catalogs of software around 1980 (say) .. to verify this range of available applications or CD application archive CDs .....
Example Apple II catalog from cira 1980 from archive.org https://ia903201.us.archive.org/12/items/Programma_Catalog_S...
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#36Reliving the days when the possibilities were endless and we weren't already captured by an entrenched computing path is important. 50 years ago, every marketer intuited that a home computer would be used for storing recipes. It never happened. Why not? (Reasons aren't hard to come up with, but the process of doing so draws our imagination toward what computer interfaces could have been and should still be.)
RE ".... a home computer would be used for storing recipes...." No doubt, some home computers where used for this purpose, However, (QUICKLY) much more interesting applications where discovered, for example games and educational applications, business applications, engineering applications including spreadsheets ... Look at old software catalogs of software around 1980 (say) .. to verify this range of available appli…
Interesting that by far the majority of the programs in this catalog happen to be games.
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#37This article really resonates with me. Sometimes I stop and think that in actuality people do very little computing with their devices. If people actually used computers to manage their life, a windows 95 dekstop would already be plenty powerful to run all the necessary software. As always, entertainment and ads are what keeps the treadmill going
I often think this way about my smartphone: what do I need the “smart” for? Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders. Seems so little… How old of a hardware could support my needs?
> Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders
That's not really "little". Back in the day computers could only do a fraction of this. Today you have it all in your pocket
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
I often think this way about my smartphone: what do I need the “smart” for? Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders. Seems so little… How old of a hardware could support my needs?
> Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders That's not really "little". Back in the day computers could only do a fraction of this. Today you have it all in your pocket
Everything on that list could be done 30 years ago with an internet connection, except maybe online maps. Do not confuse functionalities with how much modern GUIs weigh things down
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders That's not really "little". Back in the day computers could only do a fraction of this. Today you have it all in your pocket
Everything on that list could be done 30 years ago with an internet connection, except maybe online maps. Do not confuse functionalities with how much modern GUIs weigh things down
By "back in the day" I was thinking more IBM PC era, rather than Windows 95 era. I agree that there's almost no qualitative difference between how personal computing was done 30 years ago and now.
Re: The Useful Personal Computer
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would love to see a new Newton with the same spirit of innovation but current tech. Current phones are so boring. No innovation, just slow evolution.
It really was way ahead of its time. I remember the handwriting recognition being excellent for the time, too. Meanwhile Palm forced its users to write each letter one at a time in a tiny box and requiring specific sequencing of each stroke too. Newton had a modem module you could plug in and third parties had written web browsers for it, it basically was the first smart phone just without the phone. Trying to imagin…
I had the message pad 100 and a message pad 120. My handwriting improved, and it s recognition also improved. It was brilliant. I stored shopping lists and recipes on it. Although a lot of fun was made of the handwriting recognition, it was surprisingly good, and got better with use.