Reliving the days when the possibilities were endless and we weren't already captured by an entrenched computing path is important. 50 years ago, every marketer intuited that a home computer would be used for storing recipes. It never happened. Why not? (Reasons aren't hard to come up with, but the process of doing so draws our imagination toward what computer interfaces could have been and should still be.)
> "[...] every marketer intuited that a home computer would be used for storing recipes. It never happened."
Storing recipes "never happened"? Rubbish! Even famous cook Casey Ryback used his Apple Newton to store recipes, as evidenced in the 1995 documentary Under Siege 2 [1].
Hey, I store recipes on my home computer! Having a portable handheld terminal that can view the recipes makes it much more practical than it would have been in the 80s.
It didn't? Who knows how many copies of Americas_test_kitchen.pdf are floating around out there, how many recipes are in Apple notes or in Google Keep. Sure, you might just Google for "banana bread recipe" and get lost on a tangent about technology, and the smartphone isn't the personal computer of yore, but recipes existing in a digital format has happened.
RE ".... a home computer would be used for storing recipes...."
No doubt, some home computers where used for this purpose, However, (QUICKLY) much more interesting applications where discovered, for example games and educational applications, business applications, engineering applications including spreadsheets ... Look at old software catalogs of software around 1980 (say) .. to verify this range of available applications or CD application archive CDs .....
This article really resonates with me. Sometimes I stop and think that in actuality people do very little computing with their devices. If people actually used computers to manage their life, a windows 95 dekstop would already be plenty powerful to run all the necessary software.
As always, entertainment and ads are what keeps the treadmill going
I often think this way about my smartphone: what do I need the “smart” for? Maps, messenger, banking app, taking/viewing photos, web browser, listening to audio (music, podcasts, audiobooks), taxi app, calendar/reminders. Seems so little… How old of a hardware could support my needs?
In the 60s, my dad told me that the greatest coming inventions would be:
1. a TV you could hang on the wall like a picture
2. a typewriter that would enable correcting what you wrote
He was right!
(I remember when my dad was writing a book, my mom spent endless hours retyping the revised manuscripts. It seemed like a hellish task to me. I'm glad that job is gone.)
Classic tech is still a source of very important lessons, and potentially software and hardware options. Both in regards to focusing on building for the hardware, saving energy and power, but also even in relation to software that had it's time but could be rebuilt for modern hardware and serve a new purpose.
I remember how computer enthusiasts had hard time explaining to “regular” people what personal computers were good for. They would often mention things like cooking recipes and balancing checkbooks which really was not convincing at all…
> The first TRS-80 ad was similarly scattershot, promising to be everything to everyone: “[p]rogram it to handle your personal finances, small business accounting, teaching functions, kitchen computations, innumerable games
Innumerable games sounds very compelling (though the Apple II was more solidly in the video game system business with support for color graphics and game controllers; but Apple's Mac later yielded many nice black-and-white games, aided by the Mac's sharp, though tiny, display.)
Nice article though showing a spreadsheet (two versions of VisiCalc), two word processors (Electric Pencil and WordStar - of George R.R. Martin fame), and not just games (MicroChess) but a rather interesting, if primitive, abstract animation program (Electric Paintbrush).
Digital art/creativity is I think an underappreciated application area for computers, though programs like {Mac,MS,Deluxe}Paint etc. and Photoshop were milestones, and demoscene software formed its own art practice and culture. Processing is perhaps a modern heir to Electric Paintbrush.
We had a Commodore 64 and an Amiga back in the 80s. I used to type up books reports and research papers which was really nice.
Once, I got in trouble and had to go home and write sentences. I used the word processor to copy/paste the sentence 500 times (or whatever it was). The teacher was dubious of this, but not fully understanding personal computers, gave in and accepted it.
This article really sells short the importance of user groups and even more informal networks, as well as type-ins, in providing software, whether deliberately released by the author to the public or not. Upwards of 99% of the software on the personal computers I saw in the early 80s was non-purchased. Computers are awesomely powerful copying machines, and we took advantage of that to the fullest!
A few of the most important software packages, like Microsoft BASIC, VisiCalc, and WordStar were motivated by the opportunity for profit, and those have disproportionate visibility in the historical record because people bought advertisements for them.
Nobody bought ads for the software distributed on the monthly HUG disks, because you didn't have to be convinced to part with your money to get a copy, and the author didn't have any incentive to convince you. If you wanted any software from the "HUG Parts List" you could get it for roughly the cost of copying: https://vtda.org/pubs/REMark/1980/remark-issue12-1980.pdf#pa....
The dominance of not-for-profit software copying never ended, from my point of view. We went from in-person user-group meetups and mail-order disks to BBSes, computer clubs at schools, and colleges, and then to FidoNet, Usenet, and the internet. Shareware was a big deal starting in the mid-80s; it was sort of nominally profit-motivated, but most shareware authors never made any significant money, and kept writing shareware anyway. Exceptions like McAfee Antivirus were exceptional. See https://bbs.retropc.se/smmvirus/00index.html for some kind of idea about the environment McAfee came from in the BBS era.
MarkLowenstein|3 months ago
spankibalt|3 months ago
Storing recipes "never happened"? Rubbish! Even famous cook Casey Ryback used his Apple Newton to store recipes, as evidenced in the 1995 documentary Under Siege 2 [1].
1. [https://starringthecomputer.com/feature.html?f=23]
whartung|3 months ago
eigencoder|3 months ago
fragmede|3 months ago
youainti|3 months ago
asdefghyk|3 months ago
No doubt, some home computers where used for this purpose, However, (QUICKLY) much more interesting applications where discovered, for example games and educational applications, business applications, engineering applications including spreadsheets ... Look at old software catalogs of software around 1980 (say) .. to verify this range of available applications or CD application archive CDs .....
Example Apple II catalog from cira 1980 from archive.org https://ia903201.us.archive.org/12/items/Programma_Catalog_S...
gwbas1c|3 months ago
Almondsetat|3 months ago
As always, entertainment and ads are what keeps the treadmill going
volemo|3 months ago
WalterBright|3 months ago
1. a TV you could hang on the wall like a picture
2. a typewriter that would enable correcting what you wrote
He was right!
(I remember when my dad was writing a book, my mom spent endless hours retyping the revised manuscripts. It seemed like a hellish task to me. I'm glad that job is gone.)
ktallett|3 months ago
whobre|3 months ago
musicale|3 months ago
Innumerable games sounds very compelling (though the Apple II was more solidly in the video game system business with support for color graphics and game controllers; but Apple's Mac later yielded many nice black-and-white games, aided by the Mac's sharp, though tiny, display.)
Nice article though showing a spreadsheet (two versions of VisiCalc), two word processors (Electric Pencil and WordStar - of George R.R. Martin fame), and not just games (MicroChess) but a rather interesting, if primitive, abstract animation program (Electric Paintbrush).
Digital art/creativity is I think an underappreciated application area for computers, though programs like {Mac,MS,Deluxe}Paint etc. and Photoshop were milestones, and demoscene software formed its own art practice and culture. Processing is perhaps a modern heir to Electric Paintbrush.
RyanOD|3 months ago
Once, I got in trouble and had to go home and write sentences. I used the word processor to copy/paste the sentence 500 times (or whatever it was). The teacher was dubious of this, but not fully understanding personal computers, gave in and accepted it.
Win! Win! Win! ...
lysace|3 months ago
https://www.thealmightyguru.com/Wiki/index.php?title=Signeti...
kragen|3 months ago
A few of the most important software packages, like Microsoft BASIC, VisiCalc, and WordStar were motivated by the opportunity for profit, and those have disproportionate visibility in the historical record because people bought advertisements for them.
Nobody bought ads for the software distributed on the monthly HUG disks, because you didn't have to be convinced to part with your money to get a copy, and the author didn't have any incentive to convince you. If you wanted any software from the "HUG Parts List" you could get it for roughly the cost of copying: https://vtda.org/pubs/REMark/1980/remark-issue12-1980.pdf#pa....
The dominance of not-for-profit software copying never ended, from my point of view. We went from in-person user-group meetups and mail-order disks to BBSes, computer clubs at schools, and colleges, and then to FidoNet, Usenet, and the internet. Shareware was a big deal starting in the mid-80s; it was sort of nominally profit-motivated, but most shareware authors never made any significant money, and kept writing shareware anyway. Exceptions like McAfee Antivirus were exceptional. See https://bbs.retropc.se/smmvirus/00index.html for some kind of idea about the environment McAfee came from in the BBS era.
mkoubaa|3 months ago
musicale|3 months ago
see also: https://www.folklore.org/Diagnostic_Port.html
> Steve immediately nixed his proposal, stating that there was no way that the Mac would even have a single slot...
> He would also rather have them buy a new 512K Mac instead of them buying more RAM from a third-party
The more things change...