I remember Compute!. When ABC Publishing bought them out, that was it. More advertisement than tech info.
Remember the 'Computer Shopper'? ABC Publishing bought them, too. I remember that I could hardly wait to ger my hands on the Computer Shopper. There were times that the magazine's spine was over an inch thick... and all those good deals and tech info. I miss that publication. On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 4:56 PM, Raper, Jonathan <[email protected]>wrote: > Ok, so I'm WAY late on this one, but I have to chime in... > > My first computer was a Commodore 64, but I remember my dad tinkering with > a PET. We also had the portable version of the C-64 that had about a 4-5" > CRT display built in, along with a 5.25" floppy. The keyboard snapped over > the display and floppy... > > Also, I remember getting ours to talk - really cool for the early-mid > eighties. > > We were members of TCUG (Triad Commodore User's Group), based in > Greensboro, NC. Where COMPUTE! Publications was based. > > Now for the REALLY interesting tidbit...the corporate headquarters for my > company, Eagle Physicians, is located at 324 West Wendover Avenue, Suite > 200.... > > The SAME EXACT address where COMPUTE! Publications was based before it > started going by the wayside. I was still getting some mail (because I was > the only IT guy at the time) back in 99 and 2000... > > Jonathan L. Raper, A+, MCSA, MCSE > Technology Coordinator > Eagle Physicians & Associates, PA > [email protected] > www.eaglemds.com > > > -----Original Message----- > From: Ben Scott [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Thursday, August 06, 2009 1:00 AM > To: NT System Admin Issues > Subject: Re: [OT][Humor] AOL > > On Thu, Aug 6, 2009 at 12:28 AM, Steven M. Caesare<[email protected]> > wrote: > > Indeed. Too bad they never thrived after transitioning > > to the x86 world, as they obviously had some amazing > > coding talent. > > Yah. That. A lot of that. > > > -virtual memory of sorts > > Oh, yah, I forgot about that. PC/GEOS had memory swapping, too. > Not true "virtual memory", since that would require an MMU, and the > 8086 didn't have one of those. > > No memory protection, for the same reason. Their code crashed less > often than MS Windows does *with* an MMU, though. :) But I did have > things blow up on me on rare occasions. The state restore came in > *real* handy then. > > > -bank memory switching (unmapping the native c64 ROM to expose 16K > additional RAM) > > That kind of thing was less important on the PC, of course. You had > a whopping 640 KB there. ;-) > > PC/GEOS might have supported EMS and/or XMS, though. I can't remember. > > > -a pseudo pre-emptive OS (no multiple apps, but the OS could preempt the > app) > > Yah, I don't know how they did preemption on the 8088, since there > was no hardware support for "real" processor tasks. I assume > something driven off the timer interrupt. > > > -programming environment w/ interactive resident debugger > > That didn't come with the "regular" GeoWorks product. I suppose > their must have been an SDK of some kind somewhere. > > > -office apps including word processor(with mail merge from the database), > spreadsheet(with charting), database, and page layout > > Sounds similar. The PC flavor came with GeoWrite (word > processor/basic page layout), GeoCalc (spreadsheet), GeoDraw (vector > graphics), GeoFile (database), and GeoComm (modem/terminal). And AOL. > > > And a bunch of other stuff. All in 64K, which > > meant the kernel had to be _REALLY_ compact. > > Yah, that's way more impressive than even 640 KB. 64 KB is *tiny*. > > > http://lyonlabs.org/commodore/onrequest/geos.html > > Neat. It's amazing they did all that on a C64! Heh, it even > supported Klingon! :-D > > Hey, I found a page on PC/GEOS: > > http://www.geocities.com/originalravinray/geos/history_contents.html > > That backs up my claim that the AOL GUI was originally done by > including the PC/GEOS core with AOL. It also mentions an early beta > which included UI drivers (we'd call them "themes" today) for Motif, > OpenLook, DeskMate, and IBM CUA. > > And, holy crap, there appears to be a company still maintaining and > selling PC/GEOS! > > http://www.breadbox.com/ > > It doesn't look like the apps have changed much. I'm tempted to > download the trial just to check it out. It was pretty fast even on > my 8088; I can't imagine it would be slow in a VM on my Core 2 Duo. > :-) > > -- Ben > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > Any medical information contained in this electronic message is > CONFIDENTIAL and privileged. It is unlawful for unauthorized persons to > view, copy, disclose, or disseminate CONFIDENTIAL information. This > electronic message may contain information that is confidential and/or > legally privileged. It is intended only for the use of the individual(s) > and/or entity named as recipients in the message. If you are not an intended > recipient of this message, please notify the sender immediately and delete > this material from your computer. Do not deliver, distribute or copy this > message, and do not disclose its contents or take any action in reliance on > the information that it contains. > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ > ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~ > > ~ Finally, powerful endpoint security that ISN'T a resource hog! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbeltsoftware.com/Business/VIPRE-Enterprise/> ~
