Personal question: How old is your computer?

[Gasoline Fumes]

Originally Posted by freebeard

What symptom?

One of the four computers in this room is a mid-2007 20" iMac I got some years ago for $75. The same shop would want hundreds today. OTOH the newest one has a neural processing chip (just needs a daughterboard).

I should get the 1994 Mac TV out of the shed and see if it still boots.

The built-in CRT monitor doesn't work, the processor struggles with most websites, and now it's difficult to get it to turn on. And I couldn't get it online via wifi the last time I tried.

[freebeard]

Some of those are fixable. Keeping up with HTML5 not so much. Your search term is "Macintosh reseller [ZIP code]".

You'll be a hero...

It was the perfect dorm room computer in the 1990s. Macintosh, TV and CD stereo.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macintosh_TV

I guess I'll have to brave the cold and check it out, and report back.

[Piotrsko]

Other than dry power capacitors, should boot, but keep it away from the internet with an airgap.

My XP still functions but goes all hissy because I don't allow it online.

[freebeard]

Dragged it out and dusted it off. Everything is there right down to the handheld remote control, and the box for it.

Powered it up and it throbbed once --not the startup beep, prolly the CRT horizontal flyback. Now nuthin'.

discover.hubpages.com/technology/vintagemacintosh

Macintosh TV
Released as a limited edition in 1993, the Macintosh TV was one of the few desktops ever released in black and Apple's first attempt at computer-television integration. Equipped with a cable TV ready tuner card and a television monitor, the TV could switch from a computer to a television set in a matter of seconds and even came with a remote control. Yet it was incapable of recording live video, only still frames. Its poor processor speed and other limitations made the unit a failure and ultimately only 10,000 were sold.

Complete System
Mint Condition: Up to $500
Working Condition: Up to $350
Broken: Up to $100
Part Out Value: $150–300
Most Valuable Component: TV Tuner Card

[cRiPpLe_rOoStEr]

Originally Posted by freebeard

It was the perfect dorm room computer in the 1990s. Macintosh, TV and CD stereo.

A few years ago, there was still some demand for such all-in-one PCs back here. Haven't seen so many after FTA TV switched from analog to digital.

[freebeard]

There're young folks alive today that don't know about QDOS.

Why the World Went Nuts for Windows 95 | Nostalgia Nerd

Apple released their Human Interface Guidelines in 1984, Microsoft responded with a $1 billion marketing campaign in 1995.

[redpoint5]

My first computer was in 1995, with Win 95.

[Isaac Zachary]

Originally Posted by redpoint5

My first computer was in 1995, with Win 95.

My first computer was in the mid 80's, a Tandy Color Computer 2, but we got an IBM with a 286 with MS DOS not long after that.

[redpoint5]

Originally Posted by Isaac Zachary

My first computer was in the mid 80's, a Tandy Color Computer 2, but we got an IBM with a 286 with MS DOS not long after that.

Yeah, I had that too and figured it was a video game console because of the cartridges. Nobody showed me that it contained the Basic programming language.

Happy I avoided a career in software development though. I don't have the attention span to implement customer requirements, which are always dumb.

[freebeard]

That's why I made post #296. There is an amazing deep history behind the origin of the personal computer (robot head).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dormouse_Said

What the Dormouse Said: How the Sixties Counterculture Shaped the Personal Computer Industry, is a 2005 non-fiction book by John Markoff. The book details the history of the personal computer, closely tying the ideologies of the collaboration-driven, World War II-era defense research community to the embryonic cooperatives and psychedelics use of the American counterculture of the 1960s.

The book follows the history chronologically, beginning with Vannevar Bush's description of his inspirational memex machine in his 1945 article "As We May Think". Markoff describes many of the people and organizations who helped develop the ideology and technology of the computer as we know it today, including Doug Engelbart, Xerox PARC, Apple Computer and Microsoft Windows.

Markoff argues for a direct connection between the counterculture of the late 1950s and 1960s (using examples such as Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, California) and the development of the computer industry. The book also discusses the early split between the idea of commercial and free-supply computing.

Originally Posted by redpoiny5

Happy I avoided a career in software development though. I don't have the attention span to implement customer requirements, which are always dumb.

That was some of the best work I ever had, evaluating programs submitted for publication, writing manuals and catalogs and producing artwork for advertising. The businesses were small and there were a lot of different tasks.

When I went on to technical support it was more customer-centric, but they were prone to begging and I got a dopamine hit every time I saved someone's job.