A 30-year-old computer is taught how to send Tweets!
February 25, 2010 3 Comments Friday, February 26th, 2010, Netcast 1035
When I heard someone had written a brand new 2010 program that would let a person send TWEETS from a 1981 Commodore VIC-20, I figured we should make that computer the choice for this week’s Gadget Warehouse Friday. First a bit about the VIC-20. It went on sale early in 1981 for just: $299 (US). Here are some specs on the computer thanks to PC Museum: CPU: MOS 6502, 1MHz RAM: 5K (3.5K for the user) Display: 22 X 23/ text 176 X 184 / 16 colors max. It had a composite video port, which meant you didn’t need a monitor. You could just use your color TV set. For gamers there was a joystick and cartridge port. Now if you still happen to have a working VIC-20, you can use it to send Tweets. Here’s the scoop from the creator of the program: Syd Bolton. He’s curator at The Personal Computer Museum. Syd said: “Many have asked ‘Why are you doing this? There’s not much demand for new VIC-20 software.’ It was the challenge of creating a bridge between the past and present. It’s amazing how far technology has progressed in the past 30 years. The software runs from a cassette tape on an unexpanded VIC-20 with only 5 KB of RAM and a processor that runs at 1 MHz. To put this in perspective, an average PC today runs at 3000 MHz and contains 2,097,152 KB. That means the average computer today has 419,430 times the memory power and 3000 times the speed of a personal computer from the 80’s The museum created a software platform for many vintage computers to be able to "tweet" (called "TweetVER" which is short for Tweeting from a Vintage ComputER). For those who would like a copy of the software program, visit the museum’s website http://www.pcmuseum.ca for information. If you’re tweeting from a vintage computer, add me, let me know, and I’ll follow you back: www.twitter.com/thegizwiz
Hear this Netcast: www.twit.tv/dgw1035
Reader Comments (3)
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Looks like an amazing machine,though bit old but quite reliable.
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