Um Ok, Who cares? I dont...

Let's see famous sci-fi writer entering the age of computing which was thought to be the future. . . .nope nothing to do with scifi. . . ugh

If you do not care, don't read it. . . and don't post. I think its kinda neat to see an image a great sci-fi author with the TRaSh-80 and absolutely despise negativity; especially when it flaunted.

I think we have lost our sense of wonderment with computers. Back in the 80s everything seemed so amazing. Part of the problem is we advanced so fast that no one really understands what a Gigabyte of data really represents anymore. 16K was a lot back then, its was huge.

Well said loupetron.

I feel sorry for anyone who can't look at this article and smile.

Who cares? Lots of folks. We had at TRS-80 when I was a kid and it was a big deal. I felt like I could one day use it to rule the world. Nihlus, you hit the nail on the head; too much, too quickly. Most people don't appreciate what it was back then because the tech has grown so much, but this article made my day.

I can remember when personal computers were science fiction, as was space travel. :)

The remarkable thing is that so many SciFi authors who have otherwise been prescient about what the future will bring have underestimated the rate of evolution of many technologies, such as our computers and wireless communications. Many bemoan that we have not done more in space, but I have begun to see it as fortifying our technology until we are truly ready to take on the next frontier. It's more a matter of being a bit off in calculating which technologies would outpace each other. Propulsion and environmental recycling still have a way to go to reach more distant planets in a reasonable time. We'll get there when we're ready and be even more prepared than the inspired SciFi authors expected.

I think this is cool as hell. I'm fascinated by how the guys who dreamed up _their_ future, which became _our_ present, dealt with living in that which they imagined. Arthur C. Clarke, who imagined the communications satellite, spoke eloquently about the cultural impact of the cell phone just before he died. Get you brain around this: Jack Williamson, who remembered as a toddler arriving in New Mexico with his family in a covered wagon, toward the end of his life wrote on computers, used the internet, etc.

Ok i was wrong, I guess only really old people care. Still does not make me care. Heck, i still have an IBM 8088 sitting in the basement, that has not been touched in 30 years or so, and that's older than the TRS80.

"I may be a coward," Asimov said. "But if you force me, I can use it."

That's what she said.

Whocares? And yet you cared enough to come back and post a second time. Consider yourself a hypocrite.
As others have pointed out, this matters to anyone with a thinking brain, not just old people. Asimov was one of the greats in science fiction. The fact that computers and telecommunications have come so far so fast in such an unexpected fashion should be of interest to everyone. These fields were driven by intense interest by a large number of people who found them personally useful. If we can accomplish so much in such a short time, imagine what other areas we could make leaps and bounds in if we really wanted to? Alternative energies anyone? I would say transporation, but I think the thing that has held us back here is the fact that we are primarily still using inefficient 100 year old technology that has been slightly improved in dribs and drabs.We have only very recently started to turn our attention to better energy sources in any serious way. If we continue to push this harder, I predict we will see advances similar to what we have seen in computers. This story about old computers stands as a reminder to what we have done and can do.
That's why we care.

Unfortunately Mr. whocares pretty much sums up the attitude for his generation. Pity the future. Loved the article and nostalgia.

I loved those computers from the early 80s. I still have my timex sinclair 1000 and a commodor vic 20. They both still work. Those were the days when you got programs from books and magazines and typed in the basic programming by hand.

Sigh, don't feed the trolls is good advice. I continually assume I am talking to sentient humans and am continually disappointed.
Perhaps someone can tell me what kind of a sad life someone has to has to find making people complain a good way to spend their time? It is for people like this that I support mandatory sterilization. If we don't just outright eliminate them, can we at least make sure they don't make more wastes of air? I know, this option is not culturally feasible, but a guy can dream, can't he? Behavior like this is evolutionarily and culturally a seriously bad idea and we as a society need to figure out ways to aggresively and definitively deal with trolls.
Maybe there's a gene for amazingly stupid annoying behavior. That way we could do amniotic tests for it. "I'm sorry, Ma'am, but your child is an annoying twit, she has to be eliminated for the good of us all."

groan... the old TRaSh 80. Even at the time, it was considered a hunk of junk. The Commodore I had at the time (1982) was upgradeable to a 64 (gee, when 64 kb was a big deal), but I moved over to the Colleco ADAM, which was an electronic typewriter when you turned it on, one button made it a word processor, and it ran Colleco games. With a daisy wheel printer, you got cleaner printing than with the dot-matrix most computers used (rather like the later Brother word processors with daisy wheel printers, which I had one about 20 years ago). Wonder what Asimov would think of the Tetrabite machines of today?

jdmimic, how about writing that thought as a story? SciFi, er, I mean SyFy could drastically improve their "original" movie lineup with an amazing premise like this one.

Cheers

Got to love Mr. Asimov's sideburns... I believe those qualify as "mutton chops".

Even more sci-fi was the fact that he got AIDS from a blood transfusion during an operation. And died of it, unfortunately, no deus ex machina or high tech saved him in the end.

Very sad.

Well, not ALL of us considered the TRaSh-80 a hunk of junk. The model displayed with Mr. Asimov (TRS-80 Model II) came with 32k RAM upgradeable to 64k. I used my first Model II to do inventory control for a fairly large industrial staple and nail manufacturing facility. It's where I cut my programming teeth.

Awesome image. I agree, anyone that can look at it and not smile is not human.

I remember those old computers back in the 80's. I had a bunch of them. The Timex-Sinclair 1000 was my first computer, it came with 2k of RAM which I upgraded to a whopping 16k. But the best home computers of the day were the Atari's. The 800 XL was way better than the C64.

Good memories.

Love the mini computers... Miss the days of when knowing Basic, Fortran, PL1, and Cobol was almost a requirement to do any real comp work - NOT!

Do remember my first real computer experience, the thing took up the whole front of a classroom, and one put in programs either with reader cards, or with tape. Gives one a real appreciation of the modern day laptop!!!

I also remember his ads, and makes one wonder now where computers will be in a century, as their progresses has slowed some of late. - kh

@Paul

The surgery was heart and he lived about ten years after the tainted transfusion.

So medical science did succeed in giving him a few more years than he would have had without it.