Amiga - What If It Were Today....

[Belial6]

@save2600

I think your too pessimistic about what could be done, even if right on the money about what will be done.  What the Amiga did in it's day (obviously) wasn't impossible, but was shocking at what it did in it's price range.

So, take a look at it from that perspective.  If someone could put together a system that had the things we can do today at huge prices, but could do it at less than a grand, what would we have?  I know that I have been waiting for a game cube.  Not the box that Nintendo put out, abut a 6 walled room you could play in with displays on all sides.  Maybe we would have to settle for the floor not being a screen, so 5 sides, but we have the tech today to put up a 8'x8'x8' fiberglass framed tent with walls made of materiel designed for projecting an image from behind.  5 projectors, and we have a fully immersive environment for starting this new ground breaking system.  Maybe it could be improved by making it a dome, and have software distort the display properly so that it looks right from the inside.  Now, had some motion sensing cameras that have better response time that MS's, and you have a gaming environment, and actually a work environment like you have never seen before.

A similar effect could be achieved with stereoscopic glasses.  3D TVs will find their niche in video gaming (I don't think they will in watching television), but it is really the wrong approach for 3D gaming.  Monitors fit inside the glasses with a left eye and a right eye image would make a lot more sense.  Again, fitted with motion detection, you would have a whole new gaming environment.

Neither of these would be are outside the scope of what we could do today.

For more businessy type stuff, how taking the above game cube and making it the office cube.  Build in a really good real time video codec (liklely in hardware), and make the cube your office cubicle.  A couple of these in the office, and you could have face to face meetings just like you were there.  You would get all of the same audio and visual cues without the long commute, as you would be sitting or standing right next to the person you were having a meeting with.  Heck, put in a little fake Segway in the corner, and you could cruse around the entire office.  Would a system that gave you a 'Virtual Cubicle' networked with an entire office of 'Virtual Cubicles', 'Virtual Conference Rooms', and maybe even 'Virtual Lunch Rooms' be any more difficult engineering wise, or any less ground breaking than what the Amiga was when it was released?

All that being said, I still think that making stuff happen physically is the 'PC' of the next decade.  Robotics has just gotten cheap enough to be a home hobby for the nerds.  We are at the robotics stage of the early computer kits.  We are just at the verge of the Vic20 stage of robotics.

[Belial6]

Tell us exactly how you feel



The desktop computer is becoming a thing of the past. Computers are bought by most people for simple internet tasks, and we're at the point where that will start phasing out in favour of smart phones, tablets, netbooks etc

I would say that you are splitting hairs and redefining words.  For example, when I was in school, there was a style of music called 'Heavy Metal'.  Today, there is Heavy Metal, Metal, Nu-Metal, Grind-Core, Black Metal, Death Metal, Speed Metal, Hair Metal, NWBHM, Power Metal, etc., etc., etc...  Heck, much of what was defined as 'Heavy Metal' when I was in school, doesn't even get filed under any of the 'Metals' anymore.  Go into a record store and find a copy of Quiet Riot's 'Metal Health'.  It is in the rock, or pop section.  It isn't counted as heavy metal anymore, even with the word 'Metal' right there in the name.  Many will now come out and claim that it never was 'Metal'.  We see the same thing with "The King of Rock and Roll".  Today he is considered to have been a country singer.  I have had people tell me that I am stupid for claiming he sang Rock and Roll.

So, back to the point, smart phones, tablets and netbooks ARE computers.  They may be small, they may be portable, but the definitely are computers.  They are exactly what any computer nerd would have told you computers would one day be.  Netbook in particular, wouldn't even be out of place in 2000.  They would have just been called a laptop computer and cost $2500.  Tablets and smartphones would have been considered amazingly cool and cutting edge, but would have been immediately identified as computers by any 1980's nerd.

As you can see here, at one time, the Atari 2600 was considered a 'Computer'.



No doubt, that most people would argue that it never was, even though it had a keyboard, and could be programed by the end use in basic.

There is much room for innovation in computers, it's just that marketers will want give them a new name so that they don't get associated with those last millennium boring and nerdy devices.

[Belial6]

The root of twitter is from what a bird does.  You 'tweet' as in make short chirp of a message.  As much as I don't use twitter, making stuff up about it doesn't help your argument.

As for kids not having the ability to live through the wonders of the early computer world, I would disagree.  They are just doing it with robotics for their hardware, and they are fiddling with software to control that.  Most of us didn't work with vacuum tubes.  What we did was use pieces that where already built for us.  The C64 was not a build from scratch machine.  The Amiga wasn't a build from scratch machine.  Heck, even the old Heathkits were not really build from scratch if you talk to the people that worked on the parts that the kits were built up from.

As for printers being evil.... As funny as that comic is, 90% of the complaints about printers only apply to Inkjet printers.   Just buy a laser printer, and they work fine.

Franko,  if you want to get back that feeling you had with your early computers, look into robotics.  They are just getting to where the vic20 or c64 were for home computers.  I'm pretty sure with a little hacking, you could make something compatible with your tickle sticks.  I would recommend the 2 ribbed model for the vic20 feeling, and the 3 ribbed model for the classic c64 feeling....

[Belial6]

I was referring to the claim that the root word of twitter is twit, as in an idiot.  Perhaps it was just a pun, but it is making a connection that just isn't there.

The problem isn't that this generation is dumber than previous generations.  What you are seeing that this generation actually does communicate more.  The downside to that is that just as has always been the case, most people are dumb.  You just didn't notice before because they had no way to tell you.  It's like violence against kids.  We live in an age where it is at an all time low, yet most people think it is more than ever because they now hear about every incident in the country, where as a generation ago, they only heard about it if it was in there state. A generation before that, they were luck if they heard about it when it was just one town over.

You really shouldn't complain about wasted bandwidth.  Just as I told my father a decade ago when he would complain about people using the internet for voice chat... It is the bandwidth 'hogs' that push the envelope.  They set the bar, and the rest follow.  For half a decade now, my phone has been run over the internet, and no one thinks twice about it.  Because of the bandwidth 'hogs' of last decade, I can now stream movies in HD to my TV from a selection of thousands of titles.  The bandwidth 'hogs' are our friends.  Bandwidth usage is graded on the curve.  Someone will be setting the curve for the class.

I am not a fan of facebook, or twitter, but I can definitely say that the internet has increased my letter writing by at least a couple of thousand fold.  Prior to the internet, I wrote at most 2 letters a year.  At most.  Today, I write half a dozen a day at least.  This being one of them.  Letter writing isn't dead.  It is just delivered online, and it has exploded in popularity.  The phone?  That might be used a little less, but that is only because people do so much more of the communication in notes.

I will agree with the atrocious spelling and grammar though.  I am not a stickler about either.  I generally go with the fact that complaints about spelling and grammar are more frequently not, internet speak for "I don't want to agree with you, but I have nothing to refute what you say, so I will look for spelling errors."  I avoid complaints about spelling and grammar because we all make mistakes now and then.  Declaring someone wrong due to poor spelling can only lead to a declaration that you are wrong yourself.  That doesn't mean that some of the stuff posted doesn't look like it was written by a retarded monkey.

[Belial6]

I am programmed to think anything popular today must be incredibly stupid and unworthy. Not sure exactly where I picked that up, but it is what it is.  lol:

I'm pretty sure that you over heard it from those kids on your lawn.

[Belial6]

But are we much better?  Yapping on about where a product 20 years dead would be today?  It's kind of like what I say my experience with Netflix is.  When I got Netflix a decade ago, I started watching every movie I ever wanted to see.  I then re-watched every movie that I wanted to see again.  THEN I started on the movies I don't want to see.  Most of it is crap.  Every once in a while though, I get a pleasant surprise and find something that I would have never found otherwise.  When I don't, I also get context on what other people find interesting.

We live in an age where getting information in not the skill one needs.  Filtering and processing the information is the skill of today.  It will likely become even more important in the future.

[Belial6]

I'd go as far as to claim that iPads and other tablets are the Amigas of tomorrow. They are going to cut out a big niche in the private market, and you can bet your arses on that there will be retro communities aimed at iPhones and Galaxy pads in 20 years!

I kind of doubt iPhones will.  They are designed to stop working eventually, and their reliance on a subscriptions for one of it's primary functions makes it unlikely.