In a General Discusion topic Dream Street Rose was complimentary about my musings and I replied at some length there. It would be more appropriate to make it a new Small talk topic so here it is:-
Quote:
Originally posted by Dream Street Rose:
Hello Sir John,
I love reading all your posts even if I don't always understand some. Not your fault, just my education is not as good as yours. 
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I am delighted Rose that you have admitted enjoying some of my screeds
I am not especially highly educated a humble BSc is all I aspired to and I recall saying after my finals in 1963 that that was the last exam I would ever take. However I take a keen interest in all things technological nowadays having had to jump into the field of computers in 1991 when due to a management buyout (by me and two of my reps) of the little UK distribution company I had got of the ground and I had to set up computerised accounts for it.
I had previously only dabbled in computers, having been impreassed in the 60's by the uses of early examples in Canada at Rolls-Royce Canada and at Air Canada and getting itemised (computerised) Bell Canada Telephone bills back in 1966 or thereabouts
I did build a Sinclair zx80
from the 79 quid UK kit version in 1982 which had a mighty Z80 computer processor, then progressed up through the Intel 8086,
I used an early Amstrad 5086 for a long time
then progressed up through 80286,80386,80486 until Intel,cheesed of by competitors using their designations introduced their next series which they christened "Pentium" rather than call it the 80586.My eyes therefore lit up when an emailed newsletter today promised "the image gallery: 35 years of Intel chip design. With most of the world's software written with x86 in mind"
at:-
http://ct.techrepublic.com.com/click...s%3d5%26fs%3d0
I now see that the Zilog Z80 was the "the successor to the Intel 8080"
where Intel's first chip (for a calculator) was "The 4004 Microprocessor, which debuted 35 years ago,It sparked a technological revolution because it was the first product to fuse the essential elements of a programmable computer into a single chip"
next "The 8008 Microprocessor was twice as powerful as the 4004"
No I do not know what the 8081,08082.8084 were but the 8088 was used in the first IBM Personal Computer
Anybody Valerie??
I am now intrigued by the growing "convergence" of electronic gadgets be they mobile/cell phones PDAs GPS devices with or without internet access, an mp3 player, video player,television, kitchen sink etc,and ever smaller full blown computers;indeed just this week Time is reporting on Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen's new Vulcan Flipstart ultra-mini PC, or UMPC
which will be competition at the $2000 level with the latest OQO2(on the right)
comparison at:
http://gizmodo.com/gadgets/pcs/oqo2-...ope-244252.php
And see the Time article at:-
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/ar...604866,00.html
For myself I am more than happy with my 1999 issue HP Jornada 820 desktop companion
Its overall size is only
24.6 cm x 3.3 cm x 17.8 cm
i.e since cm are illegal under the SI (System Internationale)
about 10 by 8 by 1.5 inches and its weigh is only 2.5 Lbs
with a nice large 8.2" screen and finger sized keyboard
See my free website at:-
http://h1.ripway.com/johnsjornadasite/
That was my original page that I know badly needs revising and consolidating with
http://www.johnfowles.org.uk/Jornada/
The Jornada 820 is much like a grown up calculator as it features instant on instant off and a 10 hour operating time per battery charge.
Magic.
Especially if you can get one cheap on ebay last year I got two of these ostensibly obsolete devices from an Illinois computer recycler for under US$120 the pair!!
