- AVincentInSpace ( @AVincentInSpace@pawb.social ) English5•18 hours ago
The 8-Bit Guy has a nice video covering the functionality of a number of such devices. They’re fascinating bits of kit – they’re like calculators you can type BASIC programs into. One of them can even be hooked up to a pen plotter to make graphs on paper – it can even graph in 3D!
- JerkyChew ( @JerkyChew@lemmy.one ) English39•1 day ago
I had this comic book, it was a special edition sold at Radio Shack when I was a kid. And yeah that pocket computer was just a big calculator that had a lot of keys.
- brianary ( @brianary@startrek.website ) English24•1 day ago
I had that computer, and it was much more than a calculator, unless you mean a modern programmable one. This one could be programmed in BASIC. It also had a receipt-sized printer you could get.
- TrenchcoatFullOfBats ( @TrenchcoatFullofBats@belfry.rip ) English8•1 day ago
There was a book series called Micro Adventures that featured a kid named Orion who used a TRS-80. There were BASIC programs in the books that you could run if you had a TRS-80.
- lud ( @lud@lemm.ee ) English7•1 day ago
Or rather it was a pocket compute-er. It’s very primitive compared to a modern computer but it’s still a computer.
- xthexder ( @xthexder@l.sw0.com ) English6•1 day ago
The first computers took up entire rooms and they could only do about as much as a calculator. There was a point in time that having a computer do multiplication and long division for you saved you hours of time because the alternative was have 2 or 3 people do it by hand and then compare to check for mistakes.
Some of the code cracking computers used for breaking war-time ciphers were state of the art, and their only job was to check as many combinations as possible, way faster than any human could. Which left the actual scientists to find optimizations and analyze any results.
- lud ( @lud@lemm.ee ) English5•1 day ago
Yes exactly.
Many years ago you could even have a job as a (human) computer. You pretty much computed/calculated stuff all day.
- Aggravationstation ( @Aggravationstation@feddit.uk ) English16•1 day ago
How to impress your cousin you mean
- NigelFrobisher ( @NigelFrobisher@aussie.zone ) English4•1 day ago
That’s not a TRS-80. What are they trying to pull?
- Morphit ( @Morphit@feddit.uk ) English8•1 day ago
Looks like the first TRS-80 Pocket Computer: http://www.trs-80.org/pocket-computer-1/
Edit: Unless this is a joke about it being made by Sharp, not Tandy?
- awesomesauce309 ( @awesomesauce309@midwest.social ) English13•1 day ago
Oh it’s a real thing. The frame seemed older than the 80s
- perishthethought ( @perishthethought@lemm.ee ) English5•1 day ago
Oh, “the late twentieth century” as someone said to me recently? It was eons ago.
- StellarExtract ( @StellarExtract@lemm.ee ) English1•1 day ago
Or “the 1900s,” which is even more painful
- ArxCyberwolf ( @Snowpix@lemmy.ca ) English2•1 day ago
That keyboard looks painful to use…
- Hubi ( @Hubi@feddit.org ) English3•1 day ago
But can it run Doom?
- 👍Maximum Derek👍 ( @Bishma@discuss.tchncs.de ) English12•1 day ago
I’m imagining Superman’s Krptonian family all arriving via their space pods to a family reunion where they, and the holograms of their parents, geek out over 80’s human tech.
- Jake Farm ( @Jake_Farm@sopuli.xyz ) English9•1 day ago
They have pockets in their capes?
- IninewCrow ( @ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ) English5•1 day ago
He uses it once … then crushes it with his hands into a small diamond that he drops into his belt later.
- Blackout ( @Blackout@fedia.io ) 4•1 day ago
In the comics they are always stealing things from the news stand and stashing it there. It’s Superman’s 2nd greatest weakness.
- IninewCrow ( @ininewcrow@lemmy.ca ) English8•1 day ago
I had one of these in grade nine! An uncle gifted me this calculator in my first year of high school. I was smart … but not smart enough to know how use one of these or to realize that it might be a thing to keep. I used it for a year and it promptly disappeared after that.
- OpenStars ( @OpenStars@discuss.online ) English2•1 day ago
six ounces of big computing power…
I think this just broke my brain:-P.
- I_am_10_squirrels ( @I_am_10_squirrels@beehaw.org ) English3•1 day ago
Is that six ounces of computing power in your pocket, or are you just happy to see me?
- OpenStars ( @OpenStars@discuss.online ) English1•1 day ago
por que no los dos, wink 😉