nice job. Well put. Lol
----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <thomasward1...@gmail.com>
To: "Gamers Discussion list" <gamers@audyssey.org>
Sent: Saturday, April 25, 2009 11:20 AM
Subject: Re: [Audyssey] Help with a few things.
Hi Aaron,
Ummm...no. The Apple II series of computers were made in the early 1980's
long before such concepts as talking software synthesizers and screen
readers existed for that matter. Quite frankly the hardware couldn't have
supported them because the early Apple II models shipped with a wopping 1
MHZ processor and 64 KB of ram which was later upgraded to 128 KB of ram.
So obviously a screen reader with a software synth, assuming you could
even create one on those hardware specifications, would have completely
used up all the system resources to run. So what we had for accessibility
back in those days was an additional board, an Echo Vox, you iinserted
into the machine that was able to speak what ever was presented on screen,
and not very well at that.
To give you an idea of what computers were like 25 or 26 years ago we need
to look at how different things were back then. In terms of my lifetime it
doesn't seam all that long, but in the life time of computers, as we now
know them, it was an eternity ago. Especially, since most computer users
today can't even remember a time when Microsoft didn't exist, but the
Microsoft software empire was created and built up from the ground with in
the last 30 years. Well within the life time of several people including
me.
1983
Apple Computers were the leading PC manufacturer world wide. While IBM
held the business market Apple became popular because of their affordable
desktop computer systems for schools, homes, and for other non-business
uses. The Apple II E was the most powerful PC on the market sporting a 1
MHZ processor and 64 to 128 KB of ram, and could be upgraded for more
memory intensive applications.
IBm was the world leader in business machines mainly producing large
business computer systems such as network servers and mainframes. The
leading business operating system was Unix.
Microsoft who? Yes, as hard as it is to imagine today Microsoft was an
unknown software company that set up in Bill Gates garage and who were
still trying to make it to the big time. Microsoft only managed to get
there by purchasing a PC operating system called QDOS from a private
software developer who was trying unsuccessfully to get IBM and other
mainstream companies to purchase it. Bill Gates gambled, purchased the
writes to QDOS, and as it turns out it was the right business decision at
the right time.
It so happens IBM had been breaking into the PC market too, and Unix
required to many system resources to run on their PC lines. So they put
out the call to software companies looking for an OS that would run on
their systems. In steps Bill Gates and Microsoft with PC Dos 1.0 in hand.
IBM purchases PC Dos, licensing it from Microsoft, and suddenly Microsoft
is rolling in money.
What happened next was again the stuff of legend. Other companies such as
HP, NEC, Packard Bell, etc came along and wanted to run Dos on their
systems too. However, do to some licensing terms Microsoft couldn't give
them PC Dos so Bill Gates pulled a fast one on IBM. He took PC Dos
modified it here and there, added this, removed that, and released MS Dos
1.0. Bingo now the market was flooded with PC computers running Microsoft
Dos, and Microsoft quickly went from a nobody to a household name.
And that, boys and girls, is todays history lesson. Grin.
Valiant8086 wrote:
Hi.
How about SAM? Isn't SAM just a software speech synthesizer you could
install on those? I guess there's software somewhere to read the console
or what ever you need to read right?
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