> From: Chris Trask <christrask@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
>> In the early 80s, when most of you were huddled in caves, banging rocks
>> together, typing on bended knee at the almighty ?C: ? prompt, I had a
>> full-windowing system, consistently and logically controlled by Doug
>> Englebart?s new-fangled ?mouse? ? all in ONE MEGABYTE of RAM!
>>
> Yes, and yes again! But how are you going to get newbie programmers to
> embrace the idea of efficiency in a world where they have been taught that
> speed and memory ar both infinite?
Y’mean, sorta like how we treat the whole damn planet?
Don’t get me started on my favourite bug-a-boo, fossil sunlight. (Indeed,
“What’s the problem?” with oil at or near 52-week lows.)
But we used to mine ore for kilograms of desired result… then grams of desired
result. Now, we’re getting MILLIGRAMS of metal per tonne of ore for certain
metals! (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFyTSiCXWEE) Trawlers used to go to
sea for a day and come back with kilotonnes of fish. Now they go out for a week
for tonnes...
Returning to the original off-topic topic: "Megabyte? I got that much data
stuck under my fingernails!” seems to be the modern attitude. Ah, for the days
when I designed and built a 16k RAM bank for my H-89 CP/M computer… and knew
quite a bit about what was in every byte!
Oh well. That sort of talk will get me in no end of trouble. I guess every age
has had its curmudgeons. We now return you to your regularly scheduled
cornucopia...
:::: Jan Steinman, EcoReality Co-op ::::
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