Subj : Participation (oven baked motherboards)
To : Ben Collver
From : Ruth Haffly
Date : Sat Feb 01 2025 13:32:27
Hi Ben,
RH> And it cleared some unused but still good stuff out of our house. Last
RH> night I heard Steve talking about Commodore 64 computers with someone on
RH> line. We had one for 10 years, rehomed it about 4 years after we
RH> upgraded to PCs and had orders to move. We had to make a weight
RH> allowance so rehoming anything like that, that was not being used,
RH> helped us meet it. Anyway, Steve and the other guy were commiserating
RH> with each other about getting rid of the C-64, sort of wishing they
RH> still had them. I don't know if we still have the emulator program that
RH> we had at one time.
BC> I know an online musician who runs special software to operate the
BC> C=64 as a synthesizer. You can see screenshots in the first few pages
BC> of the user manuals.
Still some life left in the old system. Back around 1985 my parents were
visiting us at Fort Hood, TX. Dad had started a computer based services
(bookkeeping, payroll, etc) business the year before. I know he was
using Tandy products, don't remember what one at the time but he'd
started around 1979 with a TS-80. He was quite impressed with what the
C-64 could do--but not enough to go out and buy one.
BC> If i were going to emulate a C=64, i'd probably go with VICE.
BC> <
https://vice-emu.sourceforge.io/>
I've no idea what Steve uses as I do nothing that requires a C-64 or
emulator.
BC> I remember loading arcade games from cassette tape onto a VIC-20. I
BC> also remember two friends playing games on a C=64, and i didn't get as
BC> much
BC> screen time on the C=64 as on the VIC-20. One friend had a floppy
BC> drive and the other was using cassette tape only. But he was given a
BC> HUGE set of cassette tapes. Whoever owned that C=64 before him
BC> collected a lot!
Steve started out with the datasette, typing in programs from "Compute's
Gazette" and other magazines. It was a cost saver, an Army SPC4 pay
meant we still had to watch our spending. The computer (and a microwave
oven) came from our tax refunds. After a 3 month temporary duty (TDY) in
Germany in early 1985, he was able to buy the floppy drive. IIRC, he
bought his first monitor about that time, after starting out using our
one and only tv.
RH> For the next time you get significant (clean) snow and have maple
syrup RH> on hand? We had 1.25" of snow last week, not enough to
harvest. Enough RH> to shut down the area for a couple of days tho. (G)
BC> Exactly. So far this winter we had a dusting of snow one day. I
BC> happened to bicycle through it to a dentist appointment. Sadly for
BC> that dentist's business there was not enough snow to make candy in.
We're in the beginning days of a warm spell (60s and low 70s) but it
looks like it'll be cooling off again in about 10 days. Not enough for
snow before my next dental visit tho, can't make Jack's Wax to "gum up"
my teeth before seeing him.
RH> I remember it too. We got our first TV when I was in 4th grade, only
one RH> channel. A few years later my dad reworked the lead in (no
antenna, just RH> a wire from the main line) wire and we got 2 channels.
When I came home RH> from college for Easter break, my folks had tied
into the NYC cable, RH> with one local channel. IIRC, the ads for Almond
Joy and Mounds were in RH> the days when we got just 2 channels.
BC> When i was a kid, my parents went without a TV because they thought it
BC> was a bad influence. But we brought a TV in the house for that
BC> VIC-20, and slowly began to use it as a TV too. I personally think it
BC> was good for me to have had limited exposure to media, but i didn't
BC> see it that way when i was a kid. :-)
My parents had one the first year we were married, then gave it to my
mom's family when they (mom & dad) moved to an area where they couldn't
get any sort of reception. That was the set they (grandparents) gave
back to us when they got their first color set. It was only black and
white but I can remember seeing ads for Shake and Bake, M&Ms (plain,
peanut and almond [!]), Almond Joy (and Mounds), etc as well as the ad
for Alka-Seltzer, featuring people poking other's bellies, with the tag
line "no matter what shape your stomach is in, Alka Seltzer will make it
feel better" (not sure on the last phrase).
BC> Title: TV Cookies
BC> Categories: Cookies
BC> Yield: 1 Batch
Would be interesting to know the origin of that name.
---
Catch you later,
Ruth
rchaffly{at}earthlink{dot}net FIDO 1:396/45.28
... Not all questions worth asking have answers...
--- PPoint 3.01
* Origin: Sew! That's My Point (1:396/45.28)
