[extropy-chat] SPACE: Spirit Problems

[Anders Sandberg]

Mike (of course) has me beat, my first computer had 1024 bytes of RAM. I
still remember the many years I spent programming that little Sinclair
ZX81 (I still have it), and how it taught me so much about the need for
structured code, object orientation, efficient algorithms and recursion -
mostly by not having much of either, so I had to invent my own versions.
Very good education. The kids of today are so spoiled...

[Slightly serious: I actually think there is much merit in having people
start out learning programming in a very constrained environment, so that
they get a chance to learn to sneak around constraints well. ]

One of the fun details of the computer was the FAST and SLOW modes: by
turning off the screen signal programs ran faster, so there was a command
to do it. If you cycled the modes fast you got a cool flickering, and I
was trying to use it to entrain my brainwaves.

Kevin Freels said:
> Wow! What a story! I'm a bit younger. My first puter was a Commodore
> VIC-20
> with 5KB RAM and 16KB ROM. I was so cool to everyone in school when I
> managed to put the school phone directory onto a cassette and lookup names
> by first name, last name, or phone number. I charged students $5.00 for
> each
> tape. Since then I haven;t made a dollar in the tech world!

I actually sold a tape with ZX81 programs I had made to a friend for 100
crowns. I still think it was almost a fraud (but he is still my friend).

-- 
Anders Sandberg
http://www.nada.kth.se/~asa
http://www.aleph.se/andart/

The sum of human knowledge sounds nice. But I want more.