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Super Hero
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Super Hero
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Here's an interesting piece. smile

Somehow I doubt you would find many 15-year olds capable of producing such a bit of programming these days. Let's hope that there is the odd talented one about, but they certainly seemed more ubiquitous back then!

I can't help but wonder also how much other great software was written back then that never saw the light of day, either because those reviewing the software thought it wouldn't make it (that is, didn't have much of a clue), or were afraid of copyright infringements, or some such thing. think

The marketing angle is very interesting. As most of us know, techies tend to get immersed in the bits and bytes of code, and tend to, let's say, neglect the selling side of things.

But I reckon that history tells us that successful ventures need two "Genius Guys":- the techno-whiz, and the salesman!

Steve and Steve (in the early days at Apple) are the "Golden Pair" who spring immediately to mind.

Meanwhile, Repton always was an outstanding game. I still remember my son Colin (32 years old now) spending days creating his own backgrounds, characters and all the rest. "Repton Around the World", or some such thing.

Lastly ... why Leeds, I wonder? Maybe there's something in the water up there. And ... I can't help but wonder what's happening up there these days. smile


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Hero
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Geoff, just out of interest, what were the specs of your first laptop comparing to what is available today for the same money.


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Super Hero
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Can't remember the details. Non compos mentis! smile

But ... just like the (original) Mini ... and, er, the Triumph Herald ... at the time it would have been the bee's knees!


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Super Hero
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OK Neil, seeing that you asked so nicely, I took a quick poke around in my archives, and dug out some info.

My first "proper" laptop cost SR 6,000 from the Shula Center in Khobar in early 1994 (before that I had managed with various "luggable" beasts based upon BBC Micro's and Masters, Z88's and good stuff like that). It was a 33 MHz 486 machine with 4 MB of RAM. Monochrome display (bluish tint) and DOS based. As I have mentioned before, that one was stolen from the office.

The next one (the following year) was similar, but had a colour display. It was also a 486 unit but this time with a whole 8 MB of RAM! 250 MB HDD, modem and 3.5" FDD. SR 7,000 (about £ 1,200 at the time) - so quite a lot of money, really. I did a lot of work on that machine, and (alas) it only lasted a year until it started giving hard-drive errors. Despite my best efforts (NDD, SpinRite, Norton Calibrate ... and anything else I could think of) in the end it had to be binned, sadly.

I had to wait until 2000 for my next one. It was a generic MTC Notebook PC. SR 6,800 from a shop in Khobar (again). This was a really nice 266 MHz 32 MB machine. I even had Linux running on it at one stage. It survived until 2005 (back in Blighty by then) when it went up in smoke in my brother's shed (probably got a bit damp, I expect).

And later that year (2000) I bought a Compaq "Notebook 100" for SR 6,000 from a shop called PC-Net in downtown Hofuf. That one had an AMD-K6 processor running at 475 MHz, but the screen was not so good as the MTC. The Compaq also took a hammering and I remember the W key finally failed (so I ended up using it with a standard keyboard plugged in the back). The FDD had long since given up (due, no doubt, to the "dust of Al-Hasa"), and I was never able to lay hands on a replacement. I said good-bye to the Compaq about 18 months ago when it went as part of one of my eBay "job lots".

A few years ago I picked up some old Toshiba's off eBay. These were nice, well made units, that have also now "moved on", as it were. Here they are (together with my trusty old Compaq).

These days I have an Asus which is also getting a bit long in the tooth, and will need to be replaced soon. Cost me £ 680 in late 2006 (from Weston-Super-Mare, for those who know it). So yes (as expected), prices have fallen whilst capability has risen (by a large margin).

But the bottom line as far as I'm concerned is that (apart from the internet) I'm still doing more or less the same sort of stuff on the Asus as I was doing on those Chinese Bondwells back in the early '90's! smile


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Super Hero
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Originally Posted By: Geoff Hannis
I did a lot of work on that machine ...

Indeed. Including working up a nice set of spreadsheets in Lotus 1-2-3 that I used for making proposals for servicing work.

No doubt many folk labour under the misapprehension that the streets of places like Al-Khobar are laid out in gold, when in fact (as anyone who has been to such places must agree) many of them are simply zift (dirt).

For a year or two I couldn't get my beloved Shaikh to find the money he needed to pay me, and at one stage got so low in funds that I didn't even have the option of flying out! So I set to trawling around the various private clinics (of which there are many) and small private hospitals, looking for repair and maintenance work (and, if possible, contracts).

The short story is that I would take an inventory of their equipment, including a quick assessment of condition of each item, feed all the data into my spreadsheet(s) and get back to them with a nice list, and some prices (just a couple of options - things had to be kept, shall we say, simple), within a day or two. Those guys were always impressed. Most of them didn't even have a list of the kit they had, of course.

I've just taken a look at a couple of spreadsheets from those days ... and, to be honest, was quite impressed by them. All they would need is importing into Excel to render them "presentable" even today. In fact, there could be a nice little database programming project just sitting there waiting to happen!

But it was hard work getting any sort of deal with those guys, and the "best" I ever got were understandings that they would call me when and if they had problems. So I ended up with a few "interesting" jobs that way. But even then, getting any money out of them was never going to be easy. Some of them even used to pretend to be "out" when I called by (usually after the evening prayer, as was customary). whistle

Luckily (as things turned out) another New Hospital Project came along, so I took a grab at that. It was a two-year project that ended up lasting over six years. Ideal, then. smile


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Hero
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So, looking at the specs it appears that they have changed the M to a G, for 6,000 riyals you can now buy 2 laptops with very decent specs or one apple computer.


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Super Hero
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For thirty-odd years, when folk have asked "should I wait", "which one is best", "which one should I buy"? ... and all that stuff, my answer has always been along the lines of:-

"It all depends what you actually want to do with it"! whistle

(More often than not, back in those days, folk didn't actually know. They just wanted a computer)

For instance, if you want to play games, you will need a high-end spec. If you just want to do a bit of letter writing, well you can pick up a complete used system from the classified adds in the local paper (in England, that is) for £ 100 or less.

I still have a bog standard 100 MHz PC here that sometimes still gets powered up from time to time. I can do stuff on there that is almost impossible to do on later machines.

Of course technology marches on, but it's not always valid to compare prices from the past. A more realistic way might be to ask the question:- "how many hours would I need to work to be able to afford that machine"?


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Super Hero
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Here's some interesting kit:- BBC Micro's at the BBC!

Does anyone have any information about any of the (other) kit shown? Like the computer at the bottom of the picture at bottom left? smile


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Super Hero
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If only we had audiences like this at the EBME Seminar! whistle


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Huw Offline
Hero
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Originally Posted By: Geoff Hannis
Patience Grasshoppa! smile



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