My Digital Life. It happened by default. My 30 years of computer experience is a result of being a writer. In 1985, I was confronted by a Tandy Model 100 computer as I took a job as the reporter and editor of a Colorado weekly newspaper. Before that, I only used manual typewriters. Since then, I've spent 20 years with MS-DOS systems and about 17 years with Microsoft Windows variations. In 1998, I started using a Solaris UNIX system for Internet access via a shell account, and have installed LINUX on several computers. I have an understanding of math and science and can use most tools with competence - so I'm familiar with both software and hardware. I can write simple BASIC programs, and am comfortable modifying system .ini files and the formidable Windows system registry. I still prefer to use MS-DOS programs, and Windows applications only when there's no alternative. As a result of this experience, aquaintances, friends, and neighbors often call on me to sort out problems they're having with their Intel/IBM based computers. I only eat Apples, not use them. ================================================================ That's the summary - your reading is optional beyond this point ================================================================ If you wish to learn to sail, start with a small responsive class boat like a Lightning, then you will know the principles of handling an America's Cup contender. I think the same principle applies to computers. I learned on the Tandy Model 100. With so little memory every byte counted and you had to be efficient in writing both text and BASIC programs. You learned to do the job with the least resources. That philosophy has stayed with me. The Model 100 is still a remarkable machine. Produced in 1983 for Radio Shack, it's one of the world's first `laptops' and uses an Intel 8085C 2.7Mhz cpu. It has no moving parts, weighs about three pounds, and has only a maximum of 32,000 bytes of random access memory (RAM). It also has an equal amount of read only memory (ROM) set in integrated chips which contain its built-in applications programs, one of which was a word processor that generated simple ASCII text. It only had a 40 column by 8 line liquid crystal display screen (LCD), but you easily adapt to it. It also had a built in modem and telecommunications program that allowed it to talk across telephone lines to computer networks, or wired directly to other computers via the RS-232 serial port on the back. It could connect to a printer, and its own external floppy disk drive. The modem feature prompted major daily newspaper publishers to buy them for their reporters for remote assignment work during the mid to late 1980s. A reporter could be at an event, write a story immediately thereafter, get to the nearest telephone and upload the text via an acoustic modem to the newspaper's main computer on a very short deadline. In 1986-87 I used mine to communicate with The Wall Street Journal, when I represented them as a correspondent from Denver. Now in 2009, I can still use it to dial up my UNIX-based internet service provider to check e-mail. I didn't have to use the built-in modem and a telephone line at the weekly paper. I went to the publisher's main office in the neighboring town and connected the Tandy directly to the newspaper's minicomputer and typesetting machine network and uploaded my files. It took two dumps of the Model 100 to fulfill my copy quota - about 5,000 to 6,000 words a week. In early 1986 I discovered that people had set up computer bulletin boards (BBS) via a dedicated phone line in their homes for general file sharing and messaging about computers and other topics. I learned of several, and during evening free time, ventured to dial up one at 300 baud, the fastest the Model 100's internal modem could go. To my delight, I did it right, and I was on-line to what seemed a magic world of electronic communications. As I became more experienced at BBS communications, a friend loaned me a 2400 baud modem which I connected to the RS232 port on the back of the Model 100 and went on-line using the AT Hayes command set. It seemed incredibly fast, but I couldn't read the copy as it arrived on the screen as I could at 300 baud. In mid-1986, with no hope for advancement and other prospects in the wind, I left the weekly paper and the Model 100 and moved to Lakewood, Colorado to continue free-lance writing work. However, I vowed to buy a used Model 100 since I knew how they worked and were much cheaper and less complicated than Intel DOS-based computers. Some weeks later, from a classified newspaper ad, I found a Model 100 with a printer, external floppy disk drive, and all the cables and manuals for $450.00. It had the maximum amount of RAM Tandy supplied, 32K, and was in flawless condition. Sometime in 1990 I also posted my first message on the Internet to a USENET newsgroup on atmospheric research through a gateway on the FIDO BBS network. I also wrote publicity and advertising copy for a real estate broker in Denver, and was given access to their MS-DOS Intel 80386 computer which at the time was running DOS 4.1 and Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS. It was my first experience with MS-DOS systems and that legendary word processing program. As that company `upgraded' their systems to Windows 3.1, I was able to learn it as well over the next couple of years. Meanwhile, at home, I was still using the Model 100. In 1995 I had to buy an Intel DOS-based PC. I had a contract to write a book for an infirm client that required me to work out of his home as well as my own. My choice was a 1990 Compaq SLT386s/20 portable with a 20Mhz 386sx cpu, 2MB of memory, and a 120MB hard drive. It cost $400.00 and included MS-DOS Version 5.0 and the Wordperfect 5.1 program I was used to. New, it cost over $5000.00. Having this machine at home allowed me to explore the operation of DOS in depth. I learned to connect the Model 100 to the Compaq to transfer small programs and text files back and forth. I had a 387sx math co-processor installed to run some science programs I had, and eventually found similar machine at a government auction that had the factory internal modem in it. I swapped it to my original Compaq so I could communicate remotely. In 1996, I added 2MB of memory when a government client contracted with me to edit a massive report in MS-WORD 6.0 which was compatible with their agency's system. In 1998 I established an Internet account with a UNIX-based a free-net operating out of Denver. It was the beginning of my UNIX education which like DOS and Windows never ends as there is always something new to learn about this vintage and extremely flexible and powerful operating system. Once I was at a garage sale not far from where I lived, and there was a Model 100. The owner asked $4.00 for it, we settled for $3.00 and I took it home. I had four half-used `AA' batteries and put them in, and it came to life. I connected it to the phone line, and checked my e-mail. The many DOS application programs written in assembly language during the mid-to-late 1980s probably represent the heyday of superb American programming. They were tightly written, fast, efficient, and small programs that didn't take up megabytes of disk space or memory. I still use many of them, and for writing, can do almost anything I want to do with an 4.7 Mhz 8088cpu and 10 megabyte hard drive. One megabyte of just ASCII text is about a 500 page book. However, I have `upgraded' somewhat. The main computer at home is a Pentium 75 clone with 98MB of RAM and a 2GB hard drive running Windows 95b. I configured it to boot directly to its DOS 7.0 kernel. From there I still use Wordperfect 5.1 for DOS and many of those early, efficient DOS programs. With an installed 33.6bps modem and the reliable DOS communications program Procomm Plus 2.0, I can dial my free-net Internet service provider, explore the World Wide Web, maintain my website, e-mail family, and read favorite USENET newsgroups. I confess to having a Pentium III Dell Inspiron 8000 laptop configured for public wireless access, and 750mhz desktop clone for off-line work with topographic and astronomic programs. I also have an suitcase full of analog computers made by K&E, POST, Pickett, Dietzgen, and others. Other digital computers include various configurations of Chinese and Japanese abacuses. All are optimally configured and maintained for various applications, experimentation, and demonstration purposes. Except as a learning system, I think LINUX is overkill for stand-alone personal home use. Unless you're an Apple Computer System X user, that is. ;-) -end-