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Signs from children
Hard and Soft Memories
Some call it nostalgia, others Memory. Without Memory, there is no Future.
Today "technology" is often identified just with the latest market news but, not knowing what there was before, we are in fact unable to distinguish between the new and the old, to choose what will there be tomorrow and we are completely at the mercy of the commercial strategies of others. That's no good for quality of life and of democracy!
Here are just a little information about hardware and software we used for our jobs (for who wants to know more, many news are on the web, of course). Maybe, knowing something of them it can be useful for understanding better what we have done and we can do, to recover useful and little-known features of old tools, to take the best from different systems and programs in the Years , for some other purpose than just selling.
Today we deal with Computers based on Windows, Apple OS, Linux Systems, with Smartphones running Android or iOS (old Symbian, Blackberry and Windows Mobile of only few years ago were not so bad, but they are out forever!), and with game machines by Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft... But maybe the software under the electronic system of our car, washing machine, TV set are others and different, as well as there are many dedicated Systems in industrial production, weather report, satellite communication...
In the end, to say "learning how to use a computer" is quite a nonsense, because the ways to use a computer are in the end countless.
Amiga computer came out in 1985 with a true multitasking system, 10 years before Windows and 15 before MacOS!
It was for years a hit for video gamers and TV professionals.
Amiga 1200, well hidden into a cheap home machine, in 1992 still had remarkable multimedia features, great for painting, presentations and video titling.
example 1, 2, 3
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MSX systems were proposed in the 80s as a standard for "home" computing, with a fair success during some years. Though their technology was not very advanced, some MSX2 machines allowed to do unique things, almost "impossible" with other machines. The Philips 8280, 1987, was a true "video computer" with real time digitizing and superimposing, as we never have seen before and after.
example
Here are some typical drawings made with the Logo language, created by Seymour Papert in 1967 and brought later from the 80s in several versions on all kinds of personal computers, particularly suitable for introducing children to programming.
This is from the presentation of Iplozero, running on Windows, by Giovanni Lariccia and Giovanni Toffoli.
Information on other software is following...
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