What Handheld systems do you own/enjoy?
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http://www.ticalc.org/ is the place I used to go to, when I was using my TI-86 more frequently.Jeff-20 wrote:Also, is there a good TI-92 page where I could see the userware, etc.?
My half-finished (but playable) TI-86 game can be found there in the file archives:
http://www.ticalc.org/archives/files/fi ... 10328.html
Story time again. I, too, bought an original Gameboy back in 1990 when they first came out. I, too, was overall impressed with it; the graphics, animation, and gameplay were exceptional for a portable system in its price range, and the battery life was quite good as well. I bought the external rechargable battery pack for it. My interest in it faded when I started to crave games with more sophistication, yet every new game that became available for it seemed to be of the same genre (side-scrolling platform). Then my real life became more interesting than video games, as I pursued a career as a computer programmer, got married, bought a house, and all that.
I eventually learned, just as Peter in Office Space learned, that a career in computer programming is dreadfully boring. The programming I did on my Commodore, and the programming I did in college, that was fun. My life as an actual computer programmer was nowhere near as interesting as I thought it'd be. I was doing well financially and had nothing to really complain about; my cubicle was roomy with plenty of storage space and a nice view out a window, the people I worked with were great, the hours were flexible, and the dress code was "Business Casual." I felt a lot of pride in the fact that I was a programmer. However, I couldn't escape the feeling that something was missing. I had put on 60 pounds of extra weight, and I actually became boring. Then the Nortel layoffs came, while my company was sold out to shareholders. I started getting dumped on, so I moved on to IBM...where, after a year in a two year contract, I realized that I'd really be happier doing labour at a union job. So that's what I did.
My weight has come off and I come home feeling great everyday. There is no dress code, except for the safety equipment. No office politics, no BS...just go to work, get the job done, then go home and relax with a cold beer. Ah, almost complete, but something was missing....
I happened across a used Gameboy Color for sale for $10 a couple of years back. I bought it, and a couple of games for $5. I still have a few of the games from my original gameboy kicking around. I had found what I had lost. Now that I've fully realized that I no longer need to keep on the bleeding edge of computer technology, I'm going to induldge myself in the guilty pleasure of programming and using the 8 bit Commodore hardware. See, I finally feel truly liberated. I can program what I want, whenever I want, and answer to nobody. I just go to work, do my job, and when I get home, I can mess around with my Vic.
I still use my Gameboy Color, and picked up a Playpal (plays 20 Sega games) for $20. I got my son a Gameboy Advance SP for Xmas, though Dad gets to play with it sometimes. Though the portable game systems play a very small role in my life right now, I'm glad to have them.
I eventually learned, just as Peter in Office Space learned, that a career in computer programming is dreadfully boring. The programming I did on my Commodore, and the programming I did in college, that was fun. My life as an actual computer programmer was nowhere near as interesting as I thought it'd be. I was doing well financially and had nothing to really complain about; my cubicle was roomy with plenty of storage space and a nice view out a window, the people I worked with were great, the hours were flexible, and the dress code was "Business Casual." I felt a lot of pride in the fact that I was a programmer. However, I couldn't escape the feeling that something was missing. I had put on 60 pounds of extra weight, and I actually became boring. Then the Nortel layoffs came, while my company was sold out to shareholders. I started getting dumped on, so I moved on to IBM...where, after a year in a two year contract, I realized that I'd really be happier doing labour at a union job. So that's what I did.
My weight has come off and I come home feeling great everyday. There is no dress code, except for the safety equipment. No office politics, no BS...just go to work, get the job done, then go home and relax with a cold beer. Ah, almost complete, but something was missing....
I happened across a used Gameboy Color for sale for $10 a couple of years back. I bought it, and a couple of games for $5. I still have a few of the games from my original gameboy kicking around. I had found what I had lost. Now that I've fully realized that I no longer need to keep on the bleeding edge of computer technology, I'm going to induldge myself in the guilty pleasure of programming and using the 8 bit Commodore hardware. See, I finally feel truly liberated. I can program what I want, whenever I want, and answer to nobody. I just go to work, do my job, and when I get home, I can mess around with my Vic.
I still use my Gameboy Color, and picked up a Playpal (plays 20 Sega games) for $20. I got my son a Gameboy Advance SP for Xmas, though Dad gets to play with it sometimes. Though the portable game systems play a very small role in my life right now, I'm glad to have them.
Once again, I love story time!
What is "labour (sic) at a union job"? I also have a liberated life, but I have yet to find the house and wife (sigh)... envy you guys. I work around 9 hours a week on the job; the rest is at home (and the ammount of effort is really up to me). There are still office politics and BS, but witht the low hours, it takes little of my life.
Of course, a programmer probably makes much more than a professor. salary dot com places programmers in the 6 figure range pretty much across the board. I don't mind sacrificing pay for free time because I get stressed out easily.
It's true, once you get a little comfrotable and secure in life, you can go back and explore all of the youthful leisure times again.
ssjlance, I never could imagine so many systems at your age!
What is "labour (sic) at a union job"? I also have a liberated life, but I have yet to find the house and wife (sigh)... envy you guys. I work around 9 hours a week on the job; the rest is at home (and the ammount of effort is really up to me). There are still office politics and BS, but witht the low hours, it takes little of my life.
Of course, a programmer probably makes much more than a professor. salary dot com places programmers in the 6 figure range pretty much across the board. I don't mind sacrificing pay for free time because I get stressed out easily.
It's true, once you get a little comfrotable and secure in life, you can go back and explore all of the youthful leisure times again.
ssjlance, I never could imagine so many systems at your age!
Programmers make $100,000 and upwards per year? Would that be very highly skilled programmers at important positions or are wages generally so screwed in the USA? Over here, a programmer who makes $60,000 a year is quite well paid, in my opinion. Around $40,000-45,000 per year (before taxes, of course) would be a regular salary.
Or maybe we're talking game programmers in particular, those who work for major companies delivering digital entertainment for major game consoles? I guess they rank in higher in the salary, but also have more to prove to stay on the top.
On the other hand, one can't compare wages across countries since the tax systems are different. You probably pay less tax, but have to finance your health insurance etc by your own money while over here all that is financed by public service.
Or maybe we're talking game programmers in particular, those who work for major companies delivering digital entertainment for major game consoles? I guess they rank in higher in the salary, but also have more to prove to stay on the top.
On the other hand, one can't compare wages across countries since the tax systems are different. You probably pay less tax, but have to finance your health insurance etc by your own money while over here all that is financed by public service.
Anders Carlsson
Manual labour; that's where one uses their physical aptitude to do the work for which one gets paid. A union is an organization of the workers who negotiate fair pay and benefits from their employer, using their collective labour as their only bargaining chip. If you watch the movie Office Space, at the end, Peter is doing manual labour; since it's in construction, it is most likely that he belongs to a union. The word labour is the correct way of spelling what Americans would spell labor. The movie Office Space closely resembles the story of my life.Jeff-20 wrote:Once again, I love story time!
What is "labour (sic) at a union job"?
Ha! Not since the massive Nortel layoffs of 2001. You're LUCKY to make $60,000 a year, and that a good contract, with no benefits or job security. A typical contract would probably run at around $40,000/year; again, without benefits nor job security. Many of these contracts these days have their programmers working in sweatshop conditions. I don't know anyone in programming who's making six figures on a regular basis; I do know various tradespeople in a union who make that regularly year after year with full benefits, including a sweet retirement package.Jeff-20 wrote: Of course, a programmer probably makes much more than a professor. salary dot com places programmers in the 6 figure range pretty much across the board.
I like to think of it as exploring the paths I didn't take. I know much more about programming now than I did when I programmed in the sound effects for the Vic 20 way back when; at 12 going on to 13, I didn't know much more than how to use the print statement, variables, and goto statements. Now I can really dig deep into that computer without regrets that I ought to be refreshing my Oracle skills instead. I hate Oracle. I always hated it.Jeff-20 wrote:It's true, once you get a little comfrotable and secure in life, you can go back and explore all of the youthful leisure times again.
Salarys are very skewed in North America.carlsson wrote:Programmers make $100,000 and upwards per year? Would that be very highly skilled programmers at important positions or are wages generally so screwed in the USA? Over here, a programmer who makes $60,000 a year is quite well paid, in my opinion. Around $40,000-45,000 per year (before taxes, of course) would be a regular salary
Cost of programming labour is dependant on several factors:
- Skill set required for position
- Scarcity of these skills in general area
- Duration skill set is required
- Soci-economic conditions in recruiting area
- Cost / benefit of application being developed (market opportunity)
For example someone doing application development for military contract in southern California will tend to make more than in house programmer in fish plant in Maine.
With increasing popularity, routine assignments (post BRA) are outsourced to programmers in India
Mega-Cart: the ultimate cartridge for your Commodore Vic-20
I love this statement. I finally started having fun doing "retro-computing" a few years ago when I realised I didn't have to be ashamed about my VICs and Amigas being old, and started not caring anymore. The whole point of using them was because the were from a different era. I wasn't trying to keep up, or compare them to modern PCs anymore.DigitalQuirk wrote:Now that I've fully realized that I no longer need to keep on the bleeding edge of computer technology, I'm going to induldge myself in the guilty pleasure of programming and using the 8 bit Commodore hardware.
I hate the feeling you get when you are caught up trying to keep your PC upgraded to the lastest specs. That whole world tries to make you feel inferior if you don't have the biggest hard drive, the fastest graphics card, the latest games....etc. I'm so glad not to care about that.
I'm glad you got into a job you enjoy. During the 1990s, all the Canadian post-secondary schools were trying to convince people to go into IT, computers, etc. In fact, if you were thinking about pursuing the trades, you were made to feel as if you were a failure.
Nowadays, there is such a glut of computer & IT people on the market, they can't all find jobs. Tradespeople are now at a shortage and can charge a goldmine in hourly fees.
Just goes to show. One can be a computer programmer at a prestigious technology company and make over six figures per year, but when your toilet breaks you can't write a bit of C++ code to solve it. You need a tradesperson to come an save you.
"(sic)" is just a running joke from before you joined the board. A joke being a series of words communicated, ideally with the intent of being laughed at or found humorous by the reader. Just Americans having fun defending our spelling.DigitalQuirk wrote:Manual labour; that's where one uses their physical aptitude to do the work for which one gets paid. A union is an organization of the workers who negotiate fair pay and benefits from their employer, using their collective labour as their only bargaining chip. If you watch the movie Office Space, at the end, Peter is doing manual labour; since it's in construction, it is most likely that he belongs to a union. The word labour is the correct way of spelling what Americans would spell labor.
Hope you're not offended.As for the question about manual labor, I meant to ask what exactly that involves because there are so many jobs that I could imagine fitting that description. I'm not nosey; I was just a little curious about how it affected your day-to-day life.
I used to be a janitor before teaching. The early hours gave me really free days!
When I had my Amiga 500 and PC's were surpassing Amiga's capabilities, I always told myself that just because new stuff was out, and just because my computer was considered "Obsolete," didn't mean it suddenly ceased to function. It still did everything I always did with it. Of course, getting into programming and IT and all, that mindset only lasted about halfway through my first year of College.ral-clan wrote: I love this statement. I finally started having fun doing "retro-computing" a few years ago when I realised I didn't have to be ashamed about my VICs and Amigas being old, and started not caring anymore. The whole point of using them was because the were from a different era. I wasn't trying to keep up, or compare them to modern PCs anymore.
I hate the feeling you get when you are caught up trying to keep your PC upgraded to the lastest specs. That whole world tries to make you feel inferior if you don't have the biggest hard drive, the fastest graphics card, the latest games....etc. I'm so glad not to care about that.
The thing is, the Vic 20 with a Datasette drive is just as fun and rewarding to program today as it was back in 1983. It's actually more fun now, since I have it connected to a real monitor instead of the family TV set, and my knowledge of programming is much greater. As a tool to accomplish stuff (such as editing video from my digital camcorder), my PC is obviously superior...but for a hobby, using the Vic is much more enjoyable. I think it always has been.
Yes, I remember those days. At first, I wanted to be a computer programmer, but my teacher advised against it; telling me she didn't think I had the aptitude to do so. Back then, everyone thought you had to be some kind of university-educated genius to even consider computer programming. Then I wanted to be an electrician, but like you said, I was made out to be a "Shop class loser." So I took some business courses and ended up programming anyway. Wish I had stuck with the electrician idea, though every day I feel like Peter did at the end of Office Space now. I get my excercise and a paycheque, without the BS and TPS reports.ral-clan wrote:I'm glad you got into a job you enjoy. During the 1990s, all the Canadian post-secondary schools were trying to convince people to go into IT, computers, etc. In fact, if you were thinking about pursuing the trades, you were made to feel as if you were a failure.
Ain't it the truth! These days, you're lucky to get a contract at $40k a year with no benefits, working in sweatshop-like conditions, with very little if any creative input allowed. I'm much happier doing programming as a hobby now, with absolute creative freedom.ral-clan wrote:Nowadays, there is such a glut of computer & IT people on the market, they can't all find jobs. Tradespeople are now at a shortage and can charge a goldmine in hourly fees.
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saundby
- Vic 20 Enthusiast
- Posts: 166
- Joined: Wed Feb 22, 2006 11:55 pm
- Website: http://saundby.com/
- Location: Gold Country, CA
My handheld systems are an HP200LX, a Sony Clie SJ-22, and my Nokia 3650 cellphone. My kids have a collection of Game Boys, but I play the games on the Cube with the GBA adapter, it saves my eyes from too much eyestrain. It's getting tough to use my beloved 200LX these days with the way my eyes are going.
I like to use Turbo C++ on the 200LX, Pocket C and an Elite knockoff on the Clie (it's a PalmOS computer), and the cellphone is used for Frodo (C64 emu) and Doom.
I went from a physically demanding job in construction (civil steel field engineering) to a lab job in avionics R&D to a job doing instrumentation and control systems for rockets to an IT job designing high end server environments to owning my own engineering company. In the transition from a hard hat to a lab coat I put on about 10lb., and got a little soft in the middle. In my transition from a lab coat to business casual I, too, put on about 60 lb. In my transition from business casual to jeans and shirt with collar (closest thing my company has to a dress code, though we put on slacks, white shirts, and ties for customer visits) I've lost 50 lb. and the rest of the extra weight will come off in short order.
The company is basically my "midnight engineering" work turned into a day job. When I walked out the door of a "Fortune 14" corporation after rising from a regional job to a corporate-level one where I would be reporting to our executive board, I had only a couple of ongoing support contracts of negligable value and nothing else going at the time. But I've done well, I provide work for a number of other people, about half of whom are people on their own like me, and the other half folks with day jobs who have the capability to take on outside work. Some jobs I work alone, others I pull together teams of 25 or so. I have two permanent employees who help me out -a lot-. I'm going to have to hire more people to backfill them in the more menial tasks if their technical skills keep growing the way they have been. They're getting to be worth more as techs and engineers than they are as admins and customer contacts.
-Mark
I like to use Turbo C++ on the 200LX, Pocket C and an Elite knockoff on the Clie (it's a PalmOS computer), and the cellphone is used for Frodo (C64 emu) and Doom.
I went from a physically demanding job in construction (civil steel field engineering) to a lab job in avionics R&D to a job doing instrumentation and control systems for rockets to an IT job designing high end server environments to owning my own engineering company. In the transition from a hard hat to a lab coat I put on about 10lb., and got a little soft in the middle. In my transition from a lab coat to business casual I, too, put on about 60 lb. In my transition from business casual to jeans and shirt with collar (closest thing my company has to a dress code, though we put on slacks, white shirts, and ties for customer visits) I've lost 50 lb. and the rest of the extra weight will come off in short order.
The company is basically my "midnight engineering" work turned into a day job. When I walked out the door of a "Fortune 14" corporation after rising from a regional job to a corporate-level one where I would be reporting to our executive board, I had only a couple of ongoing support contracts of negligable value and nothing else going at the time. But I've done well, I provide work for a number of other people, about half of whom are people on their own like me, and the other half folks with day jobs who have the capability to take on outside work. Some jobs I work alone, others I pull together teams of 25 or so. I have two permanent employees who help me out -a lot-. I'm going to have to hire more people to backfill them in the more menial tasks if their technical skills keep growing the way they have been. They're getting to be worth more as techs and engineers than they are as admins and customer contacts.
-Mark