I've been reading and enjoying Hackers by Stephen Levy, about the young hackers at MIT in the late 1950s/early 1960s who were pushing the envelope regarding what a microcomputer could do.
I'm not a computer geek in the programming/hacking sense at all. But it got me thinking about my own early machines: The Tandy 102 portable, the Tandy Color Computer II (very briefly), and then my first full-fledged MS-DOS machines. I loved the 102, which was the slimmer successor to the Model 100, introduced in 1986. It weighed just over 3 pounds, ran for 20 hours on 4 AA batteries, had an 8-line, 40-character LCD screen, built-in 300-baud modem, and built-in programs for text, scheduling, address book, telecommunications (which meant logging onto BBSes and CompuServe/Delphi back then), and a maximum of 32K RAM. Compared with my 128Gb iPad Air, it was the equivalent of scratching cave pictures on a wall with a rock versus Shakespeare. But that doesn't make the memory of that machine any less appealing.
I literally threw my 102 away six or so years ago. I knew that the machines I had then far exceeded its capabilities. I also tossed every issue of Portable 100 that I had, the magazine that grew up to celebrate the 100/102/200/600 family of Tandy portables. But now I'm wishing I had kept it. It had BASIC built-in -- meaning, you could program the thing yourself -- and it had tons of third-party peripherals and a large -- and still existing -- fan base of supporters who wrote and shared software, developed fascinating implementations, etc. In short, I'm beginning to understand the "romance" or nostalgia that folks have with older, outdated machines.
Thankfully, I've discovered a Web site where someone has scanned in every issue of Portable 100 for downloading. It's fascinating to go back to 1983, when the Model 100 came out, and read just how excited everyone was about this computer. In two years, they'd sold 6 million of these machines. And Bill Gates himself has said that it holds a very special place in his heart, with the OS representing the last time he wrote the bulk of the code for a project. (Microsoft wrote the software.) Like the iPad, the Model 100 was life-changing and visionary. But it came out at a time when computers were so new to the general public that there was genuine giddiness about a product like this. The idea that you could take a computer in your briefcase or on a plane was revolutionary -- especially at a time when a so-called laptop computer typically weighed over 12 pounds and cost upwards of $4,000.
I know I'm rambling. But I just love revisiting that time when this was all new and truly exciting and no one had any idea where all of this would lead. Don't get me wrong: I'd never trade my iPad for a Tandy 102. But I think there's value in having both: One for all of the truly incredible things it can do today and one to remind me of where things all started.
Bob
I'm not a computer geek in the programming/hacking sense at all. But it got me thinking about my own early machines: The Tandy 102 portable, the Tandy Color Computer II (very briefly), and then my first full-fledged MS-DOS machines. I loved the 102, which was the slimmer successor to the Model 100, introduced in 1986. It weighed just over 3 pounds, ran for 20 hours on 4 AA batteries, had an 8-line, 40-character LCD screen, built-in 300-baud modem, and built-in programs for text, scheduling, address book, telecommunications (which meant logging onto BBSes and CompuServe/Delphi back then), and a maximum of 32K RAM. Compared with my 128Gb iPad Air, it was the equivalent of scratching cave pictures on a wall with a rock versus Shakespeare. But that doesn't make the memory of that machine any less appealing.
I literally threw my 102 away six or so years ago. I knew that the machines I had then far exceeded its capabilities. I also tossed every issue of Portable 100 that I had, the magazine that grew up to celebrate the 100/102/200/600 family of Tandy portables. But now I'm wishing I had kept it. It had BASIC built-in -- meaning, you could program the thing yourself -- and it had tons of third-party peripherals and a large -- and still existing -- fan base of supporters who wrote and shared software, developed fascinating implementations, etc. In short, I'm beginning to understand the "romance" or nostalgia that folks have with older, outdated machines.
Thankfully, I've discovered a Web site where someone has scanned in every issue of Portable 100 for downloading. It's fascinating to go back to 1983, when the Model 100 came out, and read just how excited everyone was about this computer. In two years, they'd sold 6 million of these machines. And Bill Gates himself has said that it holds a very special place in his heart, with the OS representing the last time he wrote the bulk of the code for a project. (Microsoft wrote the software.) Like the iPad, the Model 100 was life-changing and visionary. But it came out at a time when computers were so new to the general public that there was genuine giddiness about a product like this. The idea that you could take a computer in your briefcase or on a plane was revolutionary -- especially at a time when a so-called laptop computer typically weighed over 12 pounds and cost upwards of $4,000.
I know I'm rambling. But I just love revisiting that time when this was all new and truly exciting and no one had any idea where all of this would lead. Don't get me wrong: I'd never trade my iPad for a Tandy 102. But I think there's value in having both: One for all of the truly incredible things it can do today and one to remind me of where things all started.
Bob
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