I hate designating computer types via commercialism TRON

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

So we all know what the film TRON was. Great film could have went places, but instead they made a really long commercial about Windows ( Control Panel ) and then another even worst crappier commercial about how Apple screwed up OS X with intel.

Okay so computer were called

Microcomputers, for the obvious reason, then the towers came with the PC way of thinking.

Towers was really just a Super 80's way of saying Microcomputer, and then finally the labtop

changed to notebook. Okay, so that is okay, and understandable, we need more power so we build giant towers, for these small little Micromachines. That is logical.

So then they started to call this stuff High-tech equipment. Meaning High technology, which is what

I learned in tech class back in 1996 ( when you was in the computer room playing the A:/ drive). Then after 2001 ( of course ) they started to reference High-tech as Low-end ( like my 100mhz Nt machine, or the 800mhz machine I still use today ) and anybody willing to spend thousands of dollars on graphic cards, lights, power supplies, 100GB of memory were all called power-user ( which is where I am today ) and these people used machines known as High-end.

Today practically all Dell ( absorbed companies ) computers with 3gigs processors, a built in GPU 8x, and 4gigs of memory are magically High-end. Along with OS X machines being a user workstation model. So they duced us again, by creating another name.

Legacy.

All over the internet, all I see is the word Legacy. Which is perferctly understandable since all the boomers, and early generation Xers are old, and we younger Xers and Yers are now in this world with a smaller population surplus. Legacy, what I leave behind for my children.

People have to cut crap, with the Legacy. They are not even using names to labels anymore but that trick word to just say "past products" that is unsupported, but still used. Their is soooo many setups out their, and with the Eco-freaks ( the Planateers ) they are constantly throwing

Greener is good, greener is better, along with the it is okay to shoot arabs ( mixed people ) nonsense, and of course the uhmm Oil, Oil, Oil we should give a ****, and finally the stupid idea of how "lets blame the kids for not wanting to go to school, lets just shutdown the schools the college know it all says" seriously the last ten years has been a wasted hash compared to the 1990's or even 80's.

I am just sick and tired of seeing the word legacy on everything. The store kid, in the circuitcity is using it. This **** commercial disney is just playing along, to look intresting.

.....................

So that tron remake ( Legacy ) movie we all saw, complete crap don't pay for it. They had all the commercial computer geek characters and in the end the main character rids off into the daylight with a virgin girl, not before jumping off a building and paracuting like that realler stil fake film Hackers.

...........

When learing computer programming, and engeneering how do you think that is going to be like in the future. When the East Asia ( now I am sounding like 1984 ) is still programming in Assembler and we are using super super high end. seriously.

[submix8c]

Hate to dispute you, but Legacy simply means "All Done, In Production, Nothing More To Do Here, Move On To New Development". At least that's the general meaning in the Military. Once I was offended that the systems being maintained were called "legacy" but after the explanation was given to me, I settled down. My mistake was not "moving on", now I'm no longer involved.

edit - and as for Assembler, what do you think all of the 2nd/3d/4th/nth generation languages are built upon? Machine Code never goes away...

Edited March 12, 2011 by submix8c

[Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa]

I know that people still consider assembler as a machine code language, but the majority of programmers are not taught how to use assembler from the get go. Instead they are thrown a bunch of various programming standards we could all name in a row. Say this is the now, and somehow it works out for the programmer intent.

I am just so ticked off, when I see people using the term Legacy to reference old, done, finished, gone, no more drivers. What ever happen to Alpha, Gamma, Zeta, and Omega lingo? or just putting the word "Final" at the end of the driver to signify it's completeness or even "Extended Final" ( EF ) or something like that?

Legacy crosses over into the idea of leaving something behind. Like the man who inherted a farm from his father, won the jackpot, then spent it all, and finally selling the farm. The farm can go furthur, but to use Legacy is like saying "dead man's X belongings", "deadman's shoes" or "deadman's project".

For the boomers I could see why commercially, somebody would be that cruel to use the word legacy. Just to keep tossing the words around like HD, ( which could be Hard Drive, High Definition ( RGB )), in consideration to PS2 ( which is a radio standard, and playstation two ) which is perfectly understandable and differnt between work and play. I just contradicted myself.

Now as with the work and play idea. Millions of Boomers will be telling thier Xers and Yers

children, about leaving the world behind. Like the last war left people confused about the way a person should feel towards Zionists, and the why people should ignore Arabs. Like forcing idea's to make the next set of people flow like the last, on a commercial level.

Edited March 13, 2011 by Ludwig Von Cookie Koopa

[Tripredacus]

For the boomers I could see why commercially, somebody would be that cruel to use the word legacy. Just to keep tossing the words around like HD, ( which could be Hard Drive, High Definition ( RGB )), in consideration to PS2 ( which is a radio standard, and playstation two ) which is perfectly understandable and differnt between work and play. I just contradicted myself.

Well if you want to get technical, the short version of "Hard Drive" is HDD (Hard Disk Drive), as it related to FDD (Floppy Disk Drive) and ODD (Optical Disc Drive)... Also, PS2 (aside from Playstation 2) isn't the short for the input device, that is PS/2 which is the IBM Personal System/2. The reason why PS/2 is used for keyboard and mouse input is because those ports first appeared on the IBM PS/2 systems.

Even the laptop to notebook terminology isn't just a change of words, but the entire portable system designed had changed. Laptops and Notebooks really are two different things.

[dencorso]

And, then, you now have Netbooks too, which are yet another, totally different, animal, IMO.

As for the PS/2, it was chosen to be in a mirror relation with OS/2, which is equally related to the venerable CP/M and OS/3x0 (with x in <6,7,8,9>), as far as the forward slash fad for naming OSes go.

And, BTW, I'm typing this in my true blue Model M keyboard, manufactured in the US in 1993 by IBM, and still going strong, which is heavier than most Netbooks. Yay!

[Tripredacus]

Offices are so much quieter now that modern keyboards lack the clackiness of the old IBM keyboards.

[jaclaz]

Offices are so much quieter now that modern keyboards lack the clackiness of the old IBM keyboards.

And people BOTH because of lack of attention AND because they have non-clicky keyboards do much more typing errors, which the smart correctors catch and transform in something usually unrelated, stupid or ununderstandable.

Iqaluit is an example of a common word that is messed up :

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/887571/en-us

Another interesting suggestion is that you should "Learn to spell HTML":

http://office.microsoft.com/en-gb/frontpage-help/learn-how-to-spell-html-HA001042927.aspx?redir=0

(it hints that FrontPage may create "superfluous" HTML code )

jaclaz

[CoffeeFiend]

Keyboards with mechanical switches FTW.

[dencorso]

Never mind the clickiness, unless it annoys you. The greatness of the Model M is its long key travel, coupled with the resistance of the internal steel coil spring, which makes it a real balsam for the fingers' joints (more so for those who learnt how to type in a real mechanical typewriter, not a computer keyboard).

[CoffeeFiend]

Never mind the clickiness, unless it annoys you. The greatness of the Model M is its long key travel, coupled with the resistance of the internal steel coil spring, which makes it a real balsam for the fingers' joints (more so for those who learnt how to type in a real mechanical typewriter, not a computer keyboard).

There are plenty of newer keyboards that use nicer mechanical switches than the ancient model M IMHO. More of a "click" than a "clang!" sound, and requires a bit less of force too but you still get the awesome tactile feedback. I'm most likely going to buy a Das Keyboard this year. Nice cherry MX switches, USB goodness, but still no "bend" in the rows alas...

[Glenn9999]

There's really nothing new under the sun. I remember the older mainframe workers talking how the mainframes had features 20 years ago that they tout today in PCs as the great big thing. And they were right.

Anyway...that IBM keyboard for the win. Still best keyboard I ever had. Worst part of keyboard selection is whether they work well to type or play games. Some I've had are better and some are worse, but the current one I have has to be the worst one ever for both. Cotton keys, key jamming abound. Hardly can type too fast because I have to keep checking my work for keys not registering. Not to mention the two games I have now I can't play because the key combinations the game requires result in key jamming on the keyboard (for example, numeric 10-key pad and the arrow keys). That IBM keyboard was designed well and worked very well.

Edited March 16, 2011 by Glenn9999

[dencorso]

Well, if you like them, like I do, you can still get yourself a true Model M even today. Look here.

[jaclaz]

now-a-days keyboards have far better compared to past

Really?

Just out of curiosity, how long an experience do you have on a M type keyboard to make a comparison?

And with WHICH "now-a-days" keyboard are you making a comparison?

NOw, compare this (example):

http://pckeyboards.stores.yahoo.net//customizer.html

with this (other example):

http://www.directron.com/kbimk651.html

sometimes (not always, you get what you pay for )

Just for the record, due to an unfortunate accident involving wife, some heavily sugared coffe, and an experimental particle accelerator I have only TWO good ol' IBM keyboards left....

Still just for the record, what cannot be called but "Everything you ever wanted to know about keyboards and never dared to ask":

http://www.overclock.net/keyboards/491752-mechanical-keyboard-guide.html

jaclaz

[Kelsenellenelvian]

now-a-days keyboards have far better compared to past

I can go through a new keyboard in less than a year...

I only went throught the old ones after a major mishap. (like the formentioned coffee).

Hmmm what does that say?

[Tripredacus]

There's really nothing new under the sun. I remember the older mainframe workers talking how the mainframes had features 20 years ago that they tout today in PCs as the great big thing. And they were right.

A lot of things work that way. New ideas and products almost always start in the "high-end" (read: big money) organisations like those who can afford things like that. How many ideas have come from big business and the military? Who would have thought that Servers would end up in the home, or GPS in the car? It still happens to this day, where features in server class products make their way to the desktop such as memory interleaving and U/EFI.

I can go through a new keyboard in less than a year...

I only went throught the old ones after a major mishap. (like the formentioned coffee).

Hmmm what does that say?

I found my favorite keyboard to be the one that came with the Mac G3 and it worked just fine on a PC, even on Windows 98. Of course one major problem is that they aren't serviceable. Meaning, once you spill your drink into it, you can't take it apart, and because it is clear you will never be able to forget what you did, even on your way to the trash bin. If it wasn't so expensive to replace I would get another one! I've had two, one lasted 6 years and the other less than 1 year, and both ended up as mini aquariums...