What Makes the Zilog Z-80 So Versatile and Sought After?

[katie0128]

Did not....

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Did so.Yo' momma so dumb, it takes her 2 hours to watch 60 Minutes.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Giving up already?

 

[katie0128]

Yes... I bow before your great and unending wit... I could never compete with such a prowess, so I shall not even try!

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

 

[katie0128]

<giggle!> KG, you always make me laugh exactly when I need it! Thanks.

O.k. - enough play time... I gotta get back to work. I have a wedding shower tomorrow and it is the first live show I've done since November. I'm really starting to freak out about it and I am NO WHERE near ready.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Don't forget to set your clock ahead so you aren't late.

 

[katie0128]

Oh great... one more thing to get done before I pretend to sleep for a few hours. At least the show isn't until 2p, so I have a full 13 hours. Oh wait... I guess I only have 12 hours. Crap.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Okay, I need to get some rest, too. So, I'm outta here.

 

[katie0128]

Nightie, night!

 

[Chef Endora]

Don't forget that I had to walk 5 miles to school each day, through 15 foot snow drifts, and it was uphill both ways.

Oh, wait. That was my father.

That was my father


I hate to age myself, but I remember standing in Sears mesmerized by "Pong."

 

[pamperedlinda]

That was my father


I hate to age myself, but I remember standing in Sears mesmerized by "Pong."

My brother and I got a Pong game when we were kinds - it was the bomb!

(guess that means we are both old!)

 

[chefann]

I remember having computer class in 7th grade on the new state of the art home computers that had oodles of memory - Commodore 64s! Of course, computers change so rapidly, that even the first one I bought for myself, 11 years ago, is a bit of a joke. It came with a whopping (and it was) 2 GB hard drive. My current desktop can handle that much RAM. Not that I use that one for much more than a print server now that I have my laptop. So I can unproductively multitask by surfing the net while I watch TV.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

The first microcomputer that I used was a Hewlett-Packard HP-85.

It was basically a calculator on steroids - the operating system was in ROM so it booted almost instantly. It had 16k of RAM that could be doubled to 32K of RAM, and by adding a cartridge called a ROM Drawer, the operating system could be enhanced, by adding op sys ROMs, to include high-end math functions.The HP-85 was fully self-contained with a 32 character-wide graphical display, a thermal printer that was capable of direct screen dumps and a tape drive for mass storage - 210k. That was astronomical in size in those days. There hasn't been anything as elegant since.I worked for a software house that sold structural analysis and design software to architects and engineers, and we sold a ton of these machines, bundled with our basic (so to speak) programs. A building frame analysis, that would have taken a good engineer a day and a half to do with a calculator, would be done in 25 minutes. Of course, with today's computers, the analysis is pretty much done before you release the return key, and you probably have more computing power in your cell phone than we had in the 85, but in it's day, it was an incredible machine.

 

[etteluap70PC]

My dad and I would sit and play Pong for hours!

I had a Comodore 64! It was OK. remember the giant floppies that were thin like cardstock? The computer magazines back then would have game programs in them. You just needed to copy th 3 pages of computer text... Arrrrgggg.... and inevitably there would be a typo so after spending 3 hrs typing it all in it still would not work!

LOL...... I feel so spoiled now.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

The engineering firm that I worked for had developed all their software on the Wang 2200 and ported it to the HP-9845 and later to the HP-85. Wang really had the first "personal computer" that was, basically, a Wang terminal with memory built into it and two 5¼" floppy drives mounted on top. The PCS-II was kinda homely but had all the power of the 2200 Minicomputer. The big system used 8" floppy disks (I think they held 80k on one side and later, the double sided ones held 160k) so the 5¼" on the PCS-II were referred to, rather derisively, as "dinky disks."

A few years later, when the 3½" hard-cased floppies came out, those became the dinky disks. It was also really difficult to explain to someone, who was a novice, why those hard-cased disks were called "floppies" because they were hard.And yes, there were thousands of jokes about "floppy" and "hard," as well as jokes about "drives" and "joysticks" and we really don't need to rehash any of them here.ETA: I found a photo of an HP-9845. This was some serious technical computing power in it's day, the graphics screen was unheard of in computers. Rumor has it that some of the targeting graphics in the first Star Wars film was done with a 9845. Remember, that film was made in the mid 1970's.

 

[JAE]

For once, her in West Michigan, no snow for days! It was sunny and very cold yesterday. I spent the first part of the day at junior high volleyball tournaments. Then I cleaned out e-mail and balanced my checkbook for my PC account. DH brough Papa John's pizza home and we watched Mr. Magoriums Emporium or something like that. Off to bed early so I could get up on time this morning. No CS for me yesterday, which is amazing.

Sorry to those of you who are still enduring the snow accumulation. I went out to the beach of Lake Michigan on Thursday to see the ice bergs and took younger ds out in the evening so he could see them for the first time. I took a picture with my phone of the sunset behind the ice bergs, but I haven't sent the picture to my computer, yet.

Supposed to be in the 40's this week. Happy with that.

 

[JAE]

Ice Bergs on Lake MI Shore at SunsetHere's a picture taken from my phone while DS was outside walking on the beach with my coat on him. Way too cold for me to get out and walk closer. It's not that great a picture and the icebergs are far away, but you can get the idea, I hope.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Here's a picture taken from my phone while DS was outside walking on the beach with my coat on him. Way too cold for me to get out and walk closer. It's not that great a picture and the icebergs are far away, but you can get the idea, I hope.

Very cool JAE! But then, I know what I'm looking at, so it makes sense to me. Personally, I can hardly wait until those icebergs become waves again, and we can actually walk out on the pier!

 

[JAE]

You probably can't tell from the picture, but there were people on top of the icebergs and on the pier. Bad idea! The water was splashing into the ice, too. There are big chunks of ice in the channel and you can hear them rubbing along the walls. I usually don't go out there in the winter, but I went for a run Thursday morning out to the beach and just stood there looking around. It's pretty cool, and I think it's pretty unique.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Anyone climbing on one of those ice chunks is a candidate for a Darwin Award.

 

[JAE]

Anyone climbing on one of those ice chunks is a candidate for a Darwin Award.

No kidding! Went out again today, and still a few dummies up there. When walking back I saw my dh in the car with the boys heading toward the beach. I don't even want to know.... (They jumped off the pier once this summer. I didn't take that too well.)

 

[JAE]

Here are my very own children allowed to be on one of those icebergs. I won't mention who the dummy is who let them be up there.

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Okay, no name, but I suppose his initials are Mr. JAE?

 

[JAE]

Okay, no name, but I suppose his initials are Mr. JAE?

Uh, yes, but at least we have winter pictures for the scrapbooks. We usually skip winter. We go from Christmas to Easter/Spring Break with nothing in between.
They think they saw a mink. Here's a picture, but it's hard to tell.

 

[katie0128]

WOW! I think those pictures are pretty clear. That is really neat when kids can see "nature" up close and personal... but still at a safe enough distance to not have "nature" taste you!

 

[Intrepid_Chef]

Di pops in with some cheese to go with everybody's whine ...

I spent the day alternately:

* Making nachos and brownies for my non-show, which of course, nobody showed for. (Did it mostly for the experience, and in the vain hope neighbors would trudge through the white stuff. Hah!)
* Watching TV
* Making calls
* Doing laundry
* Attempting to clear a path, if only for the mail carrier.
* Getting stuff ready for my BIG SHOW
* Praying that the big show would not get called due to the blizzard!

Anyway ... big show was a TOTAL SUCCESS! Almost makes me wish I hadn't agreed to give away my ENTIRE COMMISSION to the host's Relay for Life team. (We are both committee members of our Relay ... she is a cancer survivor and is giving away her free products for baskets to benefit the cause!) The good news is I got two bookings so I will benefit in the long run!

Oh, and by the by ... I once owned a Laser 128!

Laser 128 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/02/Laser128_4.jpg/250px-Laser128_4.jpg

 

[PamperedPrincess02]

haha KG I can & can't wait to hear my DD talking about how CD's, Computer's, Ipod's etc....are so stone-age....only I doubt she will say stone-age lol! Wonder what the future will bring..hmmmm

 

[The_Kitchen_Guy]

Well, I can tell you that 20 years ago, we were pretty sure the personal computer would be a commodity, but we never, ever, expected laptops that would have more computing power than a Cray Supercomputer.