Are you a specialist or a generalist?

[Tony Duell]

> 
> Hi,
> 
> Just wondering if you regard your classic computing skills as =
> specialised or generalised?
> 
> Do you have lots of various old systems with different processors and =
> architectures, or do you specialise in a particular processor, =
> architecture or system?

Hmmm.. Generalist in the sense I've worked on most things, I will happily 
attempt to repair anything. Specialist in the sense that I am a hardware 
hacker, I don't do much on the software side (it doesn't even have to be 
computer hardware, or even electronic hardware...)

Of course there are computers that I prefer to others. Coming from the 
hardware side, the simpler the components, the better. Large LSI chips 
are a pain :-). So I go for machines with CPUs built from TTL, small 
PROMs and PALs ()PDP8/e. Unibus PDP11s, Philips P850 series, PERQs, 
HP98x0 calculators, etc). 

-tony