WSU IS&T 1100 Week 4-5

[firemeboy]

Discuss, pontificate, and wax eloquent.

[firemeboy]

Friendly reminder that the essay is due at the end of the week. Sunday at midnight.

[Spanglish]

So whats the difference, if any, between science and technology?

[Cheese]

Spanglish shouted:

[Cheese]

Hello!
Since I'm here, I'm going to try to continue a fun/explosive topic that was brought up in class. During the lecture, the

Almighty Lord of Life and Death, King over All Us Poor, Cringing, Sleepless Students

quoted his computer specs and dared us to top him. I, however, wish to go the other way. I want to see who has the oldest computer and what you do with it. For starters:

My super-de-duper granddaddy of all PCs is a:

• K62 500Mhz
  
• 256 Mb RAM
  
• 58 GB HD
  
• Voodoo 3 2000 Video Card
  
• No internet connection whatsoever
  

Think this is the machine I keep under a tarp in the garage? No! I use this thing for EVERYTHING (gosh-darn). I program on it, write my essays on it, play games on it, hack into government servers and embezzle funds with it.

Now, is there anyone who has a family heirloom or fossil who can beat that?! I mean, I had to pull the T-rex teeth out of the case when I bought it!

The winner of this competition will win my undying pity.

Most laughingly,
~Saanenkaese Traditional, farmhouse, hard cheese made from cow's milk. This wheel-shaped cheese has a natural, very tough rind, brushed and oiled. Saanen is a very hard, brittle cheese, with a deep yellow interior that is intensely fruity. It resembles Parmesan or Sbrinz and is good grating cheese that will keep almost indefinitely. Saanen was traditionally reserved for special occasions, when pieces of the cheese would be shaved off and served with a glass of fruity, local wine. This Swiss grating cheese is matured for up to seven years.


[This message has been edited by Cheese (edited 02-05-2003 03:23 PM).]

[firemeboy]

Cheese said:

quote:

---

Almighty Lord of Life and Death, King over All Us Poor, Cringing, Sleepless Students

---

Let's see, where is that extra credit column?



I wish I still had my dad's TI-99 and the 'chisolm trail' game that went with it.

Ahhhh... Good times.

[Spanglish]

Hey smoked gouda cheese,
That makes sense, science is the use of the technology that is created. Thats pretty interesting... and it looks like the teach is gettin his feathers ruffled.. thats pretty funny. Oh esta, todo bien.

[CrystyB]

quote:

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No internet connection whatsoever
[...]
hack into government servers and embezzle funds with it.

---

That's a nice feat...

( and if that's your dinosaur comp, i ain't going to even mention a byte or even a BIT of my specs... )

[This message has been edited by CrystyB (edited 02-05-2003 10:22 PM).]

[ChinaMan]

I may not have the BEST computer, and I certainly don't have the OLDEST computer, but I am willing to bet a lot of $ that my parent's computer crashes more times than anyone else's. They still have the thing and it goes down, on average, once every two weeks. Can ANYONE beat that?
Why does it go down? Who knows! It COULDN'T be the fact that my mother knows NOTHING about computers except the difference between the monitor and the keyboard, or that everytime it crashes my dad calls my brother (who knows nothing of computers) to fix it. I'm not claming to be an expert here, but my brother always just says "There's the problem, you need a new ________" They've gone thru like four modems, five hard drives, three printers, two scanners and several other pieces of hardware!
-ChinaMan

[hondo]

i spent yesterday afternoon upgrading memory on a pIII 550, started with 128Mb... still using dial-up too - do i win anything? i also learned that some things arent 'backwards' compatible... thats got to be worth something!

[Cheese]

CrystyB said:

[BalbanesBeoulve]

I have a pentium II 300 mhz, 32 mb RAM, 3 gig HD somewhere in my house. I used it up until a few weeks ago.

[Kanchaser]

I have an apple computer! I think its got cancer!!!

[Edogg]

Hey, I am not sure what kind of computer I have, but I know that its a good one. Its fairly new and we upgrade it when we can. My mom is smart with the technology stuff and she knows how to operate it all. In class we talked about new economy and the myths that come along with it. We did that pop quiz thing. I was so suprised at the numbers that were coming back for the answers. Like with people that get paid less than they did 10 years ago. I didn't think there were that many people getting paid less than they did before. That is crazy. All I know is that it would be nice to be a CEO, well maybe.

[Jaamal]

I have a DELL computer and I really don't use it. That is why I am taking this class so I can get a better understanding of computers. I don't know anything about it. I want to get a better understanding of the Internet, I really don't know to much about it,but I realize whats at my fingertips. I defently think that the internet is a very good thing if used correctly. About the economy I think it is in a recession right now and think it a bunch of crap that CEO get paid so much money. When I grow up I want to be a CEO!

[allstate]

At first I thought it was impossible that we are making less today than we were 20 years ago, but I understood more when I was talking with a guy from my work that brought up the point that 20+ years ago you could afford to finance a house with the common mans salary. I find that funny, today I make about $6.50 per hour and there is NO POSSIBLE WAY I could afford a house, it puts things into perspective.

I don't belive the economy is as bad as they say it is, but it would be nice to get a slice from the CEO's pie of wealth.

p.s. Ill get back to you on my PC's capabilities, Ill warn all, its slow and old.

[Gelit]

Poor Kanchaser... I hate those Cancerous Apples Anyways... I don't even have a computer... I have to use this one of my sisters... DO I WIN? How's that for bein' slow? I'm not even up w/technology. I HAVE TO WIN!!!

[Arsenalrocks]

I was just reading in our book about the printing press and how much effort went into it. It's something that we take for granted because we can print pages and pages of information with the click of a button. Can you imagine having to print a school report using the movable type. It would be very time consuming and very agrivating. That's just another argument I have that technology can be a great thing. These are just some of the thoughts that I had while reading in the book.

[Kerioth]

Apple, Dell, IBM, etc… Come on guys! Frankenstein is the way to go! Except of course when everything ends up nice and spiffy...except the 6GB hard drive...heh.

What's up with having an AMD Athlon 1600, 512 MB Ram, 1.4 Ghz, Running Windows XP Professional (don't worry...it's legal...no, really.) And my little hard drive. I've been fluctuating between 1GB and 200M free. I've decided that I need a burner. Easier than stealing my roommate's during working hours. Heh. So I doubt I'm at the top, know I'm not at the bottom...but it's so much fun to quote computer specs.

Feta articulated earlier:

quote:

---

I'm going to try to continue a fun/explosive topic that was brought up in class.

---

I would just like to extend my hand in congratulations for deciding the topic for the week. *laffs* Good job, and nice topic.

Oh, and Arsenal Rocks, I doubt anyone would have been required to print school documents using moveable type. That's what feathers were invented for.

------------------
"I don't want to achieve immortality through my work, I want to achieve it through not dying."

-Woody Allen

[Cheese]

Hello all!

allstate groaned:

[Beebs]

I really have no idea what we are supposed to be posting about so I will just go with the conversation. I have a computer but I have no idea what kind or anything like that. As long as it works I don't care. I am also taking this class to learn more about technology as you can tell I really don't have any idea about it. Like when you people go off about all you computer stuff I really get confused then doze off so please be kind to the computer challenged people.

[shining gundam]

Well my computer is a PIII. Not too, bad. I am hoping to get a new one this summer. Maybe a laptop.
The statistics from that pop quiz were kind of disturbing to me. They prove that old saying about the rich get richer and the poor get poorer, I guess. Hopefully this is not a trend and the numbers start going the other way very soon. I want to pose this question to my fellow students, what do you think the numbers will be like in another 10 to 20 years from now? Personally, I think the trend is going to continue but at a slower pace. Anyways that's my two cents!

[Cheese]

Hello!
A perl of wisdom from shining gundam:

[karrots]

Well you want a topper. For the oldest computer. Its to bad I just quit using it. It was a:
Pentium 75
64 Megs RAM
1x500Meg HD
1x1Gig HD
Modem
10/100 NIC

I had Linux loaded on it. It ran my http proxy file server space. I think it had a little more HD space than I have listed but thats all I can remember. Its main purpose was to be a router for my dialup connection to serve two other computers at my house. I did a bunch of other random things with it. Now I have cable modem and use a regular hardware router. The P75 is sitting in the closet and collecting dust. It still works. I may pull it out when I move out. I was pretty proud of it while it was working.

Karrots

[karrots]

I forgot to say the primary computer I do use is a AMD 900Mhz with 256Meg I think. Thats the family computer. My personal one I use if its occupied is a K6-2 450 with 192Megs of ram. 8Gig HD with Linux and a 15 Gig with Win2000 on it.

Mine is mainly a test bed for things. Works great for my needs. I don't do any heavy gaming like was mentioned in the MWF 11am class.
Karrots.

[Dark Legionaire]

First from what it looks like everyone has some computers that age about 2 years. That is nothing i still have a working Epson 80/88 with like 1 meg of memory and a 28.8 modem, then my dad still uses my old 486 computer with 16 megs of memory and no modem with like 200 megs hard drive space(the Epson does not even have a hard drive). My server is a 133 Mhz with 80 megs memory and 2 gigs hard drive space, and network card. My brother uses my 233 Mhz computer with 3 gigs hard drive, network and 128 megs. I have 2 pentium III 500 Mhz computers. One has 256 mges ram 30 gigs hard drive, great video card and network, the other has 128 megs, 20 gig hard drive, network, great video card. The computer that I use for myself all the time is a screaming AMD Athlon XP 1800+, with 512 megs memory, 60 gigs of hard drive space, top of the line video card, network(both wireless and NIC). So I think that I have everyone beat on the computer topic.

[Dark Legionaire]

I still can not believe that people make less in perspective than they did like 20 years ago. Things can only get worse. Figure in another 20 years where will we be? We are going to be making nothing soon enough and the economy will be in shambles. Lets hope that we find a way to fix these money problems so that we aren't sent back to the stone age.

[dazedconfused]

For x-mas my family took pity on me and bought me a compact system not sure about it's innards. but the computer i have right next to it was a highschool experiment my friend did years ago with a steal your face sticker on it it's so home made the plugs in the back are rigged so hopefully the wires don't fall out. because nothing is marked. THe good thing is it hasn't crashed yet plobably bacause it is in safe mode.

[shining gundam]

In response to Dark Legionaire, even if the trend continues in twenty years our country won't be in shambles. Why you ask? Well I'll tell you! This trend started twenty or so years ago and is the country now in shambles, no it is not. We just need to be aware of the trend and come up with solutions to reverse it. But at the same time this country is still and hopefully will always be, better off than most of the other nations around the globe (no disrespect to any other country but I do live in America and I am thankful for it). We are going to be fine. I think the future leaders of this country will come up with something that at the very least just stabalizes the economy.

[extropalopakettle]

I have an Atari 800 with 64K (K, not M) of ram, no disk, and a Basic language cartridge. I don't use it now though.

I've got a 16mHz 386 with 8Meg ram and a 40Meg MFM hard drive (MFM was before IDE, basically floppy technology with a hard disk). No longer in use. Oh, and it has a math coprocessor to do floating point calculations in hardware, which at the time went for about $500.

I have a 90Mhz Pentium with 16Meg of ram and 2 2gig hard drives. And I used to do 3D graphics animations on it (one of which I sold for $1000). I don't use that one much anymore either.

I have 4 machines that I use regularly. The one I'm on now is a home-built dual processor 450mHz Celeron running NT. Also have a 1.5gHz Compaq Presario running Win 2000, a 180mHz Pentium Pro running RedHat Linux, and something like a 500 mHz Dell running NT. All hooked to one 21" monitor, keyboard and mouse through a KVM switch, and networked (along with my wifes 900mHz Dell) through a Linsys router, a netgear hub and Toshiba cable modem. I haven't yet hooked up my second wireless router to give my Toshiba e740 Pocket PC wireless net access. At night with the lights out, it's very pretty - all the blinking green lights on the hub, router, kvm, PCs. Oh, and two 650 watt UPS backups. But lately I just access my two office machines remotely using GoToMyPC, which I think is fantastic (though not free).

[DNA]

YO I had an 800 mhz Duron AMD, 128 MB Ram, 8GB hard drive, CD ROM 8X, and a 56 K modem. This was a pretty shitty comp. luckily it just crashed, my hard disk went bad, so I just purchased a Compaq Presario, AMD Athlon, with Windows XP Home, 256 MB DDR, 80 GB Hard drive, DVD Rom , and CD-RW drive. Its workin out great! much better than my last comp.

[CrystyB]

Well when i posted i thought it wouldn't matter since this would be the very last topic that might get hijacked... i was wrong!

[Beartalon]

I can best extrapalopakettle. I still have my Vic20, but it is packed away in a box somewhere.

The difference between science and technology: Vic20 is a technology. Science is what took the Vic20s and IBM PETS and made them what we have today.

And what I have today: P4 1.8GHz, and that's already old...

[ChinaMan]

Not to be rude or anything, but maybe we should start talking about the topics that our AMAZINGLY SUPERIOR TEACHER has us reading about, instead of the oldest or newest computers. What do you think?

[Chuck]

I didn't get a copy of the reading list.

I had a TRS-80 with a 1.774 MHz clock and 48K of RAM. No disk drives. It used a cassette recorder to store data and programs on cassette tapes at 500 BPS. I got a pair of 78.5 KB floppy disk drives later that cost me $500 each. It would be 25 years old now if I hadn't tossed it into a dumpster.

Now I have a 1.2 Ghz Pentium III notebook computer with 256 MB of RAM and a 30 GB hard drive.

[MacadamiamaN]

I found one of those at the dump, fully working with the person's files on it and the operating system. My uncle told me at MIT, they called them the "trash-80".

[Chuck]

Apple users called it the Trash-80. I don't remember what we called Apple computers back then.

[Gelit]

I'm with you Chinaman. As interesting as this "I can beat you" computer talk is... I feel it might be more interesting to throw a little something else into the fire. How bout internet dating. That would be a fun topic. Anyone tried it? Remember, nobody knows who you are, so - please, BE HONEST. C'mon everybody - join me on this online dating topic. How does everyone feel about it?

[BalbanesBeoulve]

No. I will not date you.

[teethgrinder]

I don't think i'd win the ancient computer award since i got a new computer about a year ago. it's a p4 2.0 GHz. But about the trend in the change of earnings, I thought that it was crazy to find out the real numbers of what happened in the past twenty years. It seems that all we'll be able to do for a job in 10 to 20 years would be to be a ceo. Because if we weren't one we wouldn't make neough money to buy anything.