CASAA | IT & Technical
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i started in 6th grade on a TRS80, couldnt afford the 5 1/4 disk drive, and my printer was 2" thermal paper. I had to spend hours inputing basic code for 20 minutes of cheesy games and drawings, and print it to keep it, so i could enter it all again the next night. We couldn't afford the C64 and such. Although in the 2 years to follow I became quite proficient with apple ]['s! Imagine my excitement when I got the first MAC GUI.
Now I am PC because I have to, and various linux distro's because it rocks!!!
Now I am PC because I have to, and various linux distro's because it rocks!!!
Sounds familiar. My dad worked for RadioShack around the time of my birth and he hand delivered the prototype power supply for the first TRS-80, so some of my very earliest memories are learning rudimentary BASIC programming on the thing. Next thing I learned was a TI, then the Atari 400 (fun, but that ****ing flat keyboard!)...and finally in junior high I finally got my C64 and had an absolute blast trading warez with my friends.
Then there was the fateful day my dad brought home that first PC. My friends initially scoffed as the only thing that was functionally better than the C64 was the 40mb HDD which was a novel concept. I'll never forget when I explained to a friend how much space 40 MEGAbytes really was and he laughed it off saying that was way more than you'd ever need. Now I have an 8gb flash card the size of a fingernail....in my phone. 8-o
Anyone want to buy a Franklin Ace 1000 with a dead power supply? It makes a nifty paperweight. I've been thinking about donating it to the Smithsonian.
Trash 80s and Vic 20s...ahh yes.. My first was a Timex Sinclair. 
If ya are in need of hosting space, I may can hook you up
If ya are in need of hosting space, I may can hook you up
Since we are traipsing down memory lane... I began working on computers in 1977. The server was a Control Data Cyber mainframe and the clients were semi-intelligent terminals. The product was called PLATO, and it was the first graphical computer-based education system. Regular computer terminals displayed text only, 40 characters per line, with some dead pixels between each line for readability.
Our specially made Magnavox terminals had 500 by 500 pixels and touch screen capabilities (remember that the "mouse" had not yet been invented). Unfortunately, the thinking was that orange dots against a black background would be easy on the eyes (not).
In addition to delivering interactive lessons, the system provided individual and group communications capability. The individual communications were called "P-Notes" for "personal notes" and "TERM-talk". These were the forerunners of e-mail and instant messaging. The group communications were called Group Notes and Talkomatic. These were the forerunners of threaded discussions and chat rooms. If you want to see what a PLATO screen looked like: PLATO People: TERM-talk and Instant Messaging
Our specially made Magnavox terminals had 500 by 500 pixels and touch screen capabilities (remember that the "mouse" had not yet been invented). Unfortunately, the thinking was that orange dots against a black background would be easy on the eyes (not).
In addition to delivering interactive lessons, the system provided individual and group communications capability. The individual communications were called "P-Notes" for "personal notes" and "TERM-talk". These were the forerunners of e-mail and instant messaging. The group communications were called Group Notes and Talkomatic. These were the forerunners of threaded discussions and chat rooms. If you want to see what a PLATO screen looked like: PLATO People: TERM-talk and Instant Messaging
Here are a few thoughts...
CASAA forum, very open in nature, but on-topic discussions only. I say on-topic only not because of censorship or any such thing, but to keep distractions out the forum - there are other forums for off-topic (ie: Not CASAA) discussions. Members-only access to the forums, preferably.
Blogs for members of the board and officers for PV issues.
Blog aggregation of our favorites out there, like Dr. Siegel.
Some sort of CMS... aside from blogging, posting articles and publishing statements should be easy for those designated to do so. There may be more than one person involved, and I'm always wary of flat out editing a page just to add content. CMS wins.
If we could get into it, a tool like Google Wave could be very handy.
Group calendaring (authorized personnel editing only, obviously).
Submission forms to direct inquiries, legal, medical, etc.
A wiki to incorporate information spread across so many wiki's, forums, etc, into one location. If there is a specific direction (such as harm reduction methods, and not manufacturer specs, whatever, I'm not thinking of this right now), thats fine. Pointing to other locations works as well, but it would be nice to have an in-house system of aggregation.
Now for more coffee....
CASAA forum, very open in nature, but on-topic discussions only. I say on-topic only not because of censorship or any such thing, but to keep distractions out the forum - there are other forums for off-topic (ie: Not CASAA) discussions. Members-only access to the forums, preferably.
Blogs for members of the board and officers for PV issues.
Blog aggregation of our favorites out there, like Dr. Siegel.
Some sort of CMS... aside from blogging, posting articles and publishing statements should be easy for those designated to do so. There may be more than one person involved, and I'm always wary of flat out editing a page just to add content. CMS wins.
If we could get into it, a tool like Google Wave could be very handy.
Group calendaring (authorized personnel editing only, obviously).
Submission forms to direct inquiries, legal, medical, etc.
A wiki to incorporate information spread across so many wiki's, forums, etc, into one location. If there is a specific direction (such as harm reduction methods, and not manufacturer specs, whatever, I'm not thinking of this right now), thats fine. Pointing to other locations works as well, but it would be nice to have an in-house system of aggregation.
Now for more coffee....
PLATO was awesome! Up to then the coolest interface I'd seen was using APL on a Selectric console. PLATO blew me away when I saw it. Never got to work with it though.
I'd agree with most of this, but there's no reason not to have section of the forum reserved for off-topic chatter. Any forum will have some wandering (just look at this thread!) and a moderator can just move stuff there. Off topic areas are often where friendships evolve and people get to know each other. Same holds for any chat room(s) the site has.
Trash 80s and Vic 20s...ahh yes.. My first was a Timex Sinclair.
jeez. how could I forget the Sinclair.... talk about a quality keyboard. I had arthritis at age 10
slightly more on topic...
Got a Windows 7 upgrade disc today. Anyone installed over Vista? Is it worth the hassle?
Got a Windows 7 upgrade disc today. Anyone installed over Vista? Is it worth the hassle?
i beta'd 7 since the first official release, while i have only done clean installs, it runs more like xp without hogging so much resources as vista. you will enjoy it
ok, I think this does belong here.
There has been some talk of collaboration applications and Wiki type applications. There seems to be many open source options for both. Would seem like a good idea to experiment with a few of these apps.
Anyone else interested in this?
There has been some talk of collaboration applications and Wiki type applications. There seems to be many open source options for both. Would seem like a good idea to experiment with a few of these apps.
Anyone else interested in this?
Ditto - I hate an upgrade, but from a clean install it's Micro$ofts best OS yet (ok...ok...I know that's an oxymoron)
Off the top of my head.... eGroupWare, Citadel, Zimbra, Kolab, AccessGrid.... I'll probably list too many.
What are the required and desired features? Document collaboration, IM, email, calendaring, audio/video teleconferencing? Even document collaboration can be expanded to online or print collaboration. Whiteboarding?
Thoughts?
What are the required and desired features? Document collaboration, IM, email, calendaring, audio/video teleconferencing? Even document collaboration can be expanded to online or print collaboration. Whiteboarding?
Thoughts?
I'll defer to others who have had some experience with web conferencing.
Windows7 is a great OS - and I'm a long way from being an M$ fanboi. Not only is it faster and smoother than Vista, it has a lot of great features. Will use all the resources your machine has, but doesn't demand much like Vista did. Even runs great on the little netbook. And yes, file copy is fixed.
I'm with you Webby on the upgrade install, but it's well worth a reformat IMO.
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