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  #31  
Old December 7th 05, 03:31 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
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Default Satellite tracking software


"Andy Clews" wrote in message
...
Thus spake Jim unto the assembled multitudes:

The BBC Master machines were _wonderful_ computers for their time.
Implying that they were somehow not a 'real' computer is doing them
a grave disservice. They were, I admit, quite long in the tooth by
that point though.


dons rose-tinted glasses
I spent several days typing in all the programs in Peter Duffett-Smith's
"Astronomy with your Personal Computer" into a BBC B and saving each to a
5.25" floppy disk, then spending several more days debugging them all, and
eventually having great fun running them. Also had huge fun writing my own
moon-phase program, which superimposed on to a primitive moon map in order
to provide a simple observation planner. Happy days.
removes rose-tinted glasses


harks back...
That said, I used to have a 48K rubber keyed ZX Spectrum and on that, I had
a game called Academy. On the B-Side of the tape - TAPE! - was a program
that had a star cat that would display stars of various magnitude with an
inverted display.
/harks back...

Cheers,
Jim


  #32  
Old December 7th 05, 06:36 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
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Default Satellite tracking software


"Tom" wrote in message
...

"Martin" wrote in message
...

These PC V Mac debates pale in compasison to the Amiga V Atari ST
debates of old. Many a good argument there. Must admit I love the
old Amiga, although being able to buy a new PC these days and run
my old software is something all these newbie's to computing take for
granted. As an owner, of a Vic 20, Atari 800, Commodore 128, Amiga
then finally a PC the cost of buying new software each time was murder!


I'll bet it was! You should have bought a PC in the first place, instead
of all those toys. ;-)

brag
I remember bringing in my IBM PS/2 Model 70 486 PC to school as part
of a talk on astronomy, and ran several programs during the hour talk,
including GrandTour. At the time (1990), the school had BBC Master
128 machines everywhere. My talk was the first time many of them had
actually seen a real computer, and my little ol' PC was more powerful than
all of them put together. They also had two A3000 Archimedes machines
which approached something like a real computer, but were still just toys.
/brag

GrandTour still runs on 2000/XP.




Well the PC was non existent at the time of the VIC 20, unless you consider
the Commodore PET which came out in the mid 80's if I remember. In those
days, Commodore, dragon, Sinclair, Atari & Apple were the big players

Martin


  #33  
Old December 7th 05, 06:38 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software


"James Hill" jay ay undaskor hill on microsoft's hot mail dottcomm system
wrote in message
...

"Andy Clews" wrote in message
...
Thus spake Jim unto the assembled multitudes:

The BBC Master machines were _wonderful_ computers for their time.
Implying that they were somehow not a 'real' computer is doing them
a grave disservice. They were, I admit, quite long in the tooth by
that point though.


dons rose-tinted glasses
I spent several days typing in all the programs in Peter Duffett-Smith's
"Astronomy with your Personal Computer" into a BBC B and saving each to a
5.25" floppy disk, then spending several more days debugging them all,
and
eventually having great fun running them. Also had huge fun writing my
own
moon-phase program, which superimposed on to a primitive moon map in
order
to provide a simple observation planner. Happy days.
removes rose-tinted glasses


harks back...
That said, I used to have a 48K rubber keyed ZX Spectrum and on that, I
had a game called Academy. On the B-Side of the tape - TAPE! - was a
program that had a star cat that would display stars of various magnitude
with an inverted display.
/harks back...

Cheers,
Jim


Well should all be having this chat sat around a manky wooden table in some
pub drinking foul smelling beer called old belly stretcher or something
going on about the "old days"

Martin


  #34  
Old December 7th 05, 08:23 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software

Martin wrote:

Well the PC was non existent at the time of the VIC 20, unless you consider
the Commodore PET which came out in the mid 80's if I remember. In those
days, Commodore, dragon, Sinclair, Atari & Apple were the big players


The first PET was around in 1977 or 78 as I recall. The big three at
that point were Commodore (with the PET - the VIC hadn't happened yet),
Apple (with the Apple ][ ) and Tandy with the TRS-80 range.

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk AIM/iChatAV: JCAndrew2

Is anyone interested in helping contribute to a whisky podcast? If so,
please visit http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk/theDram/ thank you.
  #35  
Old December 7th 05, 11:20 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software


"Jim" wrote in message
...
Martin wrote:

Well the PC was non existent at the time of the VIC 20, unless you
consider
the Commodore PET which came out in the mid 80's if I remember. In those
days, Commodore, dragon, Sinclair, Atari & Apple were the big players


The first PET was around in 1977 or 78 as I recall. The big three at
that point were Commodore (with the PET - the VIC hadn't happened yet),
Apple (with the Apple ][ ) and Tandy with the TRS-80 range.

Jim.


Was the PET late 70's? That makes me feel even older. The good old Tandy
TRS-80, nearly bought one of those as well!! Funnily enough the best games I
ever playted were on the old Atari 800 which was one hell of a machine for
its day.

Martin


  #36  
Old December 8th 05, 12:20 AM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software

James Hill wrote

dons rose-tinted glasses
I spent several days typing in all the programs in Peter Duffett-Smith's
"Astronomy with your Personal Computer" into a BBC B and saving each to a
5.25" floppy disk, then spending several more days debugging them all, and
eventually having great fun running them. Also had huge fun writing my own
moon-phase program, which superimposed on to a primitive moon map in order
to provide a simple observation planner. Happy days.
removes rose-tinted glasses


harks back...
That said, I used to have a 48K rubber keyed ZX Spectrum and on that, I
had a game called Academy. On the B-Side of the tape - TAPE! - was a
program that had a star cat that would display stars of various
magnitude with an
inverted display.
/harks back...


I did much the same with a Sinclair QL: its native SuperBasic was more
akin to Pascal than to other basics of the time, and third-party
enhancements made it better still, with a robust multitasking OS.
SuperBasic was also great for the sort of quick hacks I use Perl for
now.

With bits of code from Duffett-Smith's books and elsewhere I got as far
as an animated sky chart and graphical satellite tracking, but the
512x256x4 display was restrictive even by the standards of the time.

Happy days indeed!

--
Hil
  #37  
Old December 8th 05, 08:18 AM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software

Martin wrote:

Well the PC was non existent at the time of the VIC 20, unless you
consider
the Commodore PET which came out in the mid 80's if I remember. In those
days, Commodore, dragon, Sinclair, Atari & Apple were the big players


The first PET was around in 1977 or 78 as I recall. The big three at
that point were Commodore (with the PET - the VIC hadn't happened yet),
Apple (with the Apple ][ ) and Tandy with the TRS-80 range.


Was the PET late 70's?


Yep :-) The PETs were late 70's up until about 82(ish).

That makes me feel even older. The good old Tandy
TRS-80, nearly bought one of those as well!!


The TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 was the first computer I owned. Loved it to
bits.

Funnily enough the best games I
ever playted were on the old Atari 800 which was one hell of a machine for
its day.


No arguments here.

sigh

Ok, I'm off for a pint at "The Old Motherboard And Solder".

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk AIM/iChatAV: JCAndrew2

Is anyone interested in helping contribute to a whisky podcast? If so,
please visit http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk/theDram/ thank you.
  #38  
Old December 8th 05, 03:03 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software


"Jim" wrote in message
m...
Martin wrote:

Well the PC was non existent at the time of the VIC 20, unless you
consider
the Commodore PET which came out in the mid 80's if I remember. In
those
days, Commodore, dragon, Sinclair, Atari & Apple were the big players

The first PET was around in 1977 or 78 as I recall. The big three at
that point were Commodore (with the PET - the VIC hadn't happened yet),
Apple (with the Apple ][ ) and Tandy with the TRS-80 range.


Was the PET late 70's?


Yep :-) The PETs were late 70's up until about 82(ish).

That makes me feel even older. The good old Tandy
TRS-80, nearly bought one of those as well!!


The TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 was the first computer I owned. Loved it to
bits.

Funnily enough the best games I
ever playted were on the old Atari 800 which was one hell of a machine
for
its day.


No arguments here.

sigh

Ok, I'm off for a pint at "The Old Motherboard And Solder".

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk AIM/iChatAV: JCAndrew2

Is anyone interested in helping contribute to a whisky podcast? If so,
please visit http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk/theDram/ thank you.


Great thing about Atari cassette player was they used to put an audio track
on the tape so as you were waiting for a game to load you could listen to
some nice music. Oh that 15 minute wait!!!

Martin


  #39  
Old December 8th 05, 06:27 PM posted to alt.radio.satellite,alt.satellite.gps,sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe,uk.sci.astronomy
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software



Martin wrote:
"James Hill" jay ay undaskor hill on microsoft's hot mail dottcomm
system wrote in message
...

"Andy Clews" wrote in message
...
Thus spake Jim unto the assembled multitudes:

The BBC Master machines were _wonderful_ computers for their time.
Implying that they were somehow not a 'real' computer is doing them
a grave disservice. They were, I admit, quite long in the tooth by
that point though.

dons rose-tinted glasses
I spent several days typing in all the programs in Peter
Duffett-Smith's "Astronomy with your Personal Computer" into a BBC
B and saving each to a
5.25" floppy disk, then spending several more days debugging them
all, and
eventually having great fun running them. Also had huge fun writing
my own
moon-phase program, which superimposed on to a primitive moon map in
order
to provide a simple observation planner. Happy days.
removes rose-tinted glasses


harks back...
That said, I used to have a 48K rubber keyed ZX Spectrum and on
that, I had a game called Academy. On the B-Side of the tape - TAPE!
- was a program that had a star cat that would display stars of
various magnitude with an inverted display.
/harks back...

Cheers,
Jim


Well should all be having this chat sat around a manky wooden table
in some pub drinking foul smelling beer called old belly stretcher or
something going on about the "old days"


It's called news:uk.comp.vintage and has a whole load of reminiscences!

--
Graham W http://www.gcw.org.uk/ PGM-FI page updated, Graphics Tutorial
WIMBORNE http://www.wessex-astro-society.freeserve.co.uk/ Wessex
Dorset UK Astro Society's Web pages, Info, Meeting Dates, Sites & Maps
Change 'news' to 'sewn' in my Reply address to avoid my spam filter.
  #40  
Old December 30th 05, 06:33 PM posted to sci.astro.satellites.visual-observe
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default Satellite tracking software


"Martin" skrev i melding
...

"Jim" wrote in message
m...
Martin wrote:

Well the PC was non existent at the time of the VIC 20, unless you
consider
the Commodore PET which came out in the mid 80's if I remember. In
those
days, Commodore, dragon, Sinclair, Atari & Apple were the big players

The first PET was around in 1977 or 78 as I recall. The big three at
that point were Commodore (with the PET - the VIC hadn't happened
yet),
Apple (with the Apple ][ ) and Tandy with the TRS-80 range.


Was the PET late 70's?


Yep :-) The PETs were late 70's up until about 82(ish).

That makes me feel even older. The good old Tandy
TRS-80, nearly bought one of those as well!!


The TRS-80 Model 1 Level 2 was the first computer I owned. Loved it to
bits.

Funnily enough the best games I
ever playted were on the old Atari 800 which was one hell of a machine
for
its day.


No arguments here.

sigh

Ok, I'm off for a pint at "The Old Motherboard And Solder".

Jim
--
Find me at http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk AIM/iChatAV: JCAndrew2

Is anyone interested in helping contribute to a whisky podcast? If so,
please visit http://www.ursaminorbeta.co.uk/theDram/ thank you.


Great thing about Atari cassette player was they used to put an audio
track on the tape so as you were waiting for a game to load you could
listen to some nice music. Oh that 15 minute wait!!!

Martin

I remember my Sinclair ZX-81 that gave me only one try when saving on tape,
if that failed the program was lost!
My later Commodore 64 had also some strange ideas, the cassette player had
to be put under a pillow to work well.
But I still keep these things, once in a while I take them out from the
shed, just to think back and remember those good days.

Kjell Rømma, Norway



http://home.online.no/~romma/


 




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