Computing from 1976

[Fred Cisin]

On Sat, 30 Dec 2017, Sean Conner wrote:

>  4K should (had we truly doubed everything every 18 months) now be 1T
>  (terrabyte):

>> 2) What did Gordon Moore actually say in 1965?
>  That the number of transistors in an integrated circuit double every 18
>  months.
>> 3) How much is $500 of 1976 money worth now?
>  It depends upon how you calculate it.  I'm using this page [1] for the
>  calculation, and I get:
> 	$4,960.00 using the relative share of GDP

>> 4) Consider how long it took to use a text editor to make a grocery
>> shopping list in 1976.  How long does it take today?
>  I would think the same amount of time.  Typing is typing.

Except that it seems like it didn't used to take so long to get the 
machine started up.

>> Does having the grocery list consist of pictures instead of words, with
>> audio commentary, and maybe Smell-O-Vision (coming soon), improve the
>> quality of life?
>  For me, not really.

Really.

>> How much does it help to be able to contact your
>> refrigeratior and query its knowledge of its contents?
>  It could be helpful, but with the current state of IoT, I would not want
>  to have that ability.

But, we could also do our web-surfing standing in the kitchen?

>  EMACS is lean and mean compared to some of the "text editors" coming out
>  today, based upon Javascript frameworks.  It's scary.

When a simple peice of software comes on a DVD, because a CD-ROM is no 
longer big enough, . . .


>  -spc (Yeah, I realize these were probably rhetorical in nature ... )

Don't you hate rhetorical questions?