I hate sodding Windows XP and I hate PCs
in [UK Mac]
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From: Dr Geoff Hone on 23 May 2010 13:05 On Sun, 23 May 2010 15:08:02 +0100, jim(a)magrathea.plus.com (Jim) wrote: >Rowland McDonnell <real-address-in-sig(a)flur.bltigibbet.invalid> wrote: > >> Whatever the bloody things were, they were Amstrad, and they ran >> Wordstar 2000 from MS-DOS and they had 5/25" floppy drives. > >Sounds like the PC1512 and PC1640 machines. Quite good machines overall. >As I recall, they used the old-style MFM hard drives. I never found out >why, but they always -sounded- lovely - they made quite, melodic >chirping noises when in use. > ><http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Amstrad_PC1512.jpg> Yup, remember the 1512 and 1640 machines. Usually came with a Seagate 20mb MFM drive (ST225, I think) and you saw several with a 30mb hard card. The graphical OS was DR Gem. Way better than Windows 2 (which was what MS were offering at the time) I always wondered why DR dropped it, along with DR-DOS 6 (way better than MSDOS 4. Uncle Alan had a record for backing the wrong horse on computers: - the 3" drive on the PCWs - Gem on the PC clones Still, he did help get computers into the mass market, just when Apple were moving away from it. Geoff
From: Jim on 23 May 2010 13:21 Dr Geoff Hone <gnhone(a)globalnet.co.uk> wrote: > Still, he did help get computers into the mass market, just when Apple > were moving away from it. I have fond memories of the 1512 and 1640 machines. I have much less fondness for the horrible PC2286 machines - they made my life miserable for abut 6 months. Jim -- "Microsoft admitted its Vista operating system was a 'less good product' in what IT experts have described as the most ambitious understatement since the captain of the Titanic reported some slightly damp tablecloths." http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/
From: Chris Ridd on 23 May 2010 13:48 On 2010-05-23 18:05:44 +0100, Dr Geoff Hone said: > On Sun, 23 May 2010 15:08:02 +0100, jim(a)magrathea.plus.com (Jim) > wrote: > >> Sounds like the PC1512 and PC1640 machines. Quite good machines overall. >> As I recall, they used the old-style MFM hard drives. I never found out >> why, but they always -sounded- lovely - they made quite, melodic >> chirping noises when in use. >> >> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Amstrad_PC1512.jpg> > Yup, remember the 1512 and 1640 machines. > Usually came with a Seagate 20mb MFM drive (ST225, I think) and you > saw several with a 30mb hard card. > The graphical OS was DR Gem. Way better than Windows 2 (which was > what MS were offering at the time) I always wondered why DR dropped > it, along with DR-DOS 6 (way better than MSDOS 4. I remember seeing one of these. GEM on it was awful compared with GEM on the Atari ST I had at the time. -- Chris
From: Woody on 23 May 2010 14:29 Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote: > On 2010-05-23 18:05:44 +0100, Dr Geoff Hone said: > > > On Sun, 23 May 2010 15:08:02 +0100, jim(a)magrathea.plus.com (Jim) > > wrote: > > >> Sounds like the PC1512 and PC1640 machines. Quite good machines > > > > overall. > >> As I recall, they used the old-style MFM hard drives. I never found > > > out > >> why, but they always -sounded- lovely - they made quite, melodic > >> chirping noises when in use. > >> >> <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Amstrad_PC1512.jpg> > > Yup, remember the 1512 and 1640 machines. > > Usually came with a Seagate 20mb MFM drive (ST225, I think) and you > > saw several with a 30mb hard card. > > The graphical OS was DR Gem. Way better than Windows 2 (which was > > what MS were offering at the time) I always wondered why DR dropped > > it, along with DR-DOS 6 (way better than MSDOS 4. > > I remember seeing one of these. GEM on it was awful compared with GEM > on the Atari ST I had at the time. Yes, I had the displeasure of using that. -- Woody
From: zoara on 24 May 2010 06:06
Chris Ridd <chrisridd(a)mac.com> wrote: > I'm baffled that people need toolbar buttons to do things like > copy/paste, or even save/print. The keyboard shortcuts for these have > been pretty standard for 20 or so years, haven't they? I'd argue that the people who memorise and use keyboard shortcuts (even just copy and paste) are outnumbered many times over by those who aren't even aware such shortcuts exist. Hell, they may even be outnumbered by people who aren't aware of the clipboard, full stop. -z- -- email: nettid1 at fastmail dot fm |