[vcf-midatlantic] efficiency, put another way

[Dave McGuire]

On 06/08/2016 12:18 PM, Dan Roganti via vcf-midatlantic wrote:
> ​I think the term "resource-poor" for describing the 60s, 70s​ or maybe the
> 80s is inaccurate
> It is relative, depending on your viewpoint - if you keep looking from the
> 21st century viewpoint
> But if you were there in the thick of it back then, it was actually the
> norm.
> So you were expected to design with those constraints
> Constraints are a fact of life in engineering

  I agree 100%.  Many of us were there (myself for the 70s and 80s at
least), we never thought of our computers as resource-poor.  It was more
like "Wow, this system has 64K of RAM!  SOOO much more than the last
one, look at how much more I can do!"

  I had the unfortunate occasion to have a very unpleasant conversation
with a sociopath many months ago.  He was a nontechnical older kid
visiting the museum with his technical friend, and we were talking about
vintage computing of course, which led to talking about games.  He
essentially verbally trashed early game implementations.  I'll never
forget it...he said something akin to, "And you finished the game and
smiled, but then you realized the graphics sucked, and you realized you
were sad."

  That's not the way it was.  Not that I was ever really into games,
even as a child, but still.  Nothing sucked back then...everything was
"AWESOME".  Most of it, nowadays, is simply a bit better. (graphics, for
example)

  The same holds for resource scarcity.  We can look back on it now, and
mostly wonder how we got by on such scarce resources.  But you know
what?  That's exactly my point.  We're so lazy and sloppy now, if we had
to get real work done on one of those systems, we couldn't do it if our
lives depended on it.

  Let's hope they never do.

            -Dave

-- 
Dave McGuire, AK4HZ
New Kensington, PA