Retrochallenge, 2005

[Ethan Dicks]

On 6/14/05, Ronald Wayne <appleto at gmail.com> wrote:
> On it not being a challenge: setting aside the thought that a lot of
> people will have trouble because they use the latest hardware
> alongside their old machines, there is still that issue of the machine
> multiplier.  Any determined user of an early-1980s machine will have a
> lead in the endurance and online challenges simply because they are
> earning two or three times as many points while doing the same thing.
> So while 68040s and 80486s are permitted, they are at a disadvantage.

Well... my old Amiga 1000 (1985 - 8MHz 68000) was attached to the rest
of the world via UUCP starting in 1987.  I used to run mail _and_ news
on a 20MB (MB!) spool disk (yes, it was a partial news feed).  Given
that there are web servers and browsers, etc., I don't think an Amiga
is much of a challenge, either.  I mean, I _like_ my "modern" 300MHz
laptop, but I would still be able to communicate with people, write
software, print letters, etc., with something 4% as fast with 1% of
the memory.  I would have to backtrack to an 8-bit as my daily-use
machine to really affect my daily routine.  If I were using a 486, I'd
probably just throw a version of Linux on it that fit the memory
footprint (Slackware or RedHat 5), and go about my normal business.

Just don't make me mess with dial-up - I haven't used a modem in over
10 years.  It was cute and all in 1983.  By 1993, POTS lines didn't
cut it.

-ethan