8 Dec
1998
8 Dec
'98
1:08 p.m.
On Tue, 8 Dec 1998, Doug Yowza wrote:
As you probably know, the Scelbi-8H came well before
the Altair and had a
similar price. But the Altair got a cover story in Popular Electronics,
and the Scelbi didn't. Of course, the Mark-8 got an even earlier cover
A Mark-8 is on my list of things to watch out for - as I, like many
others, attempted it but failed - but I'm not holding my breath. It
would be interesting to run the Scelbi 8008 BASIC on (SCELBAL).
I think the infatuation with the Altair today is due to reporters and
popular writers repeating each other over and over that the Altair was
"the first personal computer", which is nonsense. Low-priced personal
Now I'm scared - me and the popular press agree! That is, it was
MY first personal computer, which is a fact. As you well know, once
people start into 'whose on first', distinctions start to blur -
"No, Charlie Babbage had the 'first' personal computer', 'No! - it
was Yang Lin's Abacus that was the 'first' personal computer', heheh.
It would be just as arbitrary so say a club of 5 people with
machine 'X' don't count, but suddenly a group of 2000 with machine
'Y' makes 'Y' the 'first'.
Anyway, back to saving data... :))
Chuck
cswiger(a)widomaker.com