On Sun, 15 Sep 2013 22:09:36 +0100, Stephen wrote:

> On 15/09/2013 7:08 PM, Jim Henderson wrote:
>> Well, you just want to use it as a tool - you don't want to be a
>> mechanic. :)
>>
> But the sad thing is, I did want to be a mechanic. Well an electronic,
> mechanic. And I was for many years.

People change over time, though - obviously.  I may well get to that 
point myself.

> When I started working with computers. You had to enter about a dozen
> instructions in binary (or BCD) into switch registers just to tell it
> that you wanted it to read from a paper tape reader. Then you would load
> an operating system then load the program. Then wind the tape back into
> rolls.
> Now it is a washing machine. That does (or mostly not) what I want it to
> do.

I don't remember those days, but I do remember entering BASIC programs 
from Dragon magazine to generate characters for D&D.  We didn't have a 
cassette drive or disk drive at first, so if I wanted to run the program, 
I had to enter it by hand.  That meant the computer stayed on more than 
it probably needed to be, and on more than one occasion, my parents 
turned it off without realizing that they'd caused a day's worth of data 
entry to be lost.

>> Some of the ultras are supposed to be pretty good - ISTR that Dell has
>> something like the Macbook Air now.
> 
> Why is that a standard?

Because it's small and lightweight, and generally (I hear) has good 
battery life.

> Anyway I will look into it, I don't want to spend a fortune for
> something that will run Blender, I can't see me seriously using Pov on
> it for a while.

That's part of the tradeoff these days, I think - you can have small and 
lightweight, or you can have power.  Granted, the power in the smaller 
systems is increasing. :)

>> I'm actually a little surprised that Apple hasn't sued them yet.
>>
> They have probably got enough on their plate atm.

*snortlaugh* like that ever stopped them. ;)

Jim

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