I snapped one up, as did many others. It lets the P102 work in the “modern” world without cables and serial port connections to computers that no longer have them!

Originally posted by Julie
I wish I still had one of my Commodore 64’s with the 5.25 inch drives that I had modified so I could copy copy-protected software. Those were the days my friends

If you’re really feeling nostalgic but don’t have access to the hardware, there’s always emulation. A fast Intel or AMD running linux can pretty much emulate any old system, including the C64, to wit:

http://simon.mooli.org.uk/LXF/C64/C64.html

That said, and since this bids fair to become a “retrogeek retrospective bragging rights” thread, I must (to my wife’s chagrin) confess to owning:

VIC 20, C64, Sinclair ZX80, Heath H89 (my first computer), Kaypro4, Tandy 100, Tandy 102, and NEC 8201

Life is good on The Trailing Edge

In the early years of computers, data storage space was at a premium, and to save space the date was written using two digits to represent the year. For example, the character string ‘63′ would be used to represent 1963. Many of the older computer systems which remain in use today still have the two-digit date code. The problem arises when an older computer system tries to use the year 2000 date because it thinks the date is 1900, not 2000. This misreading can potentially cause serious problems, the extent and scope of which are not fully understood.

Still 4 digit date related.

That was interesting. thanks.

Originally posted by beantown53
Then why did millions of lines code had to be modified for a 4 digit year?

A four digit date is no more y2k compliant than a 2 digit date… it’s just less ambiguous. Y2K compliance is more complex than just presentation — it has to do with storage, computation, and presentation of the values. I’ve seen non-y2k compliant applications fail in all kinds of interesting ways by representing dates past Dec. 31 1999 as things like (using 2001 as an example):

1901 (i.e., the app stores the last two digits and just slaps 19 on the front)
19101 (i.e., the app stores the offset from 1900, but again just slaps 19 on the front)
1910 (same as above, but truncates leftwise at 4 digits)
9101 (same as above, but truncates rightwise at 4 digits)
1 (i.e., date register overflows at 1999 — this one’s rare, I’ve only seen it in one case)

…and there are other more essoteric oddities that have to do with storing the date with weird epochs. For example, some older UNIX, Windows and Macintosh systems store the date as a 32-bit integer representing the number of seconds since a particular epoch in the late 20th century. For example, the UNIX epoch is Midnight, Jan 1, 1970, which means that in Greenwich England, at one second past 03:14:07 on Jan. 19, 2038 those machines are going to think it’s 20:31:28 Dec. 14 1901 (or some other wildly inaccurate date!). I’m more worried about *that* problem than I was about Y2K. See http://www.deepsky.com/~merovech/2038.html for more info.

Wise people in the IT industry don’t talk about the “Y2K” problem, because that’s a misnomer. The real problem is that time is infinite, and computers can’t handle infinity. To a computer, everything has a beginning and an end (even numbers) — so they refer to this class of problem as “STorage Overflow Problems”. The acronym STOP clearly indicates a developer’s priority when they run into one of these: STOP and fix it!

Originally posted by helf
[B]I do believe y2k compliant date means going past 1999 and into the 20xx’s

You can’t set the date on the tandy to anything past 1999 unless you install a rom patch this guy made that changes the static 19 to 20. [/B]

Then why did millions of lines code had to be modified for a 4 digit year?

You can’t set the date on the tandy to anything past 1999 unless you install a rom patch this guy made that changes the static 19 to 20.

Originally posted by Altema
There was a program for the Apple ][ called bitcopy or something like that. It did not care what was on the disk, as long as it could read the sectors. I used to jump into emulation to use it on my /// in the early days.

I remember there was a simular program for the XT…

Originally posted by Altema
There was a program for the Apple ][ called bitcopy or something like that. It did not care what was on the disk, as long as it could read the sectors. I used to jump into emulation to use it on my /// in the early days.

Locksmith did it all for me. Also used CopyPlus I think. Between the two I don't think there was ever a disk I couldn't back up. Still fire up the old ][e for a game of Choplifter, Rescue Raiders, Loderunner or Conan. Classic system. Thanks for bringing up old memories of those days.

Originally posted by Julie
I wish I still had one of my Commodore 64’s with the 5.25 inch drives that I had modified so I could copy copy-protected software. Those were the days my friends

There was a program for the Apple ][ called bitcopy or something like that. It did not care what was on the disk, as long as it could read the sectors. I used to jump into emulation to use it on my /// in the early days.

Originally posted by alanh
The Alphasmart Dana is the first thing to come along that could really fill the same niche as the Tandy model 100…. It’s similarly tough, good built-in keyboard, similar battery life, and adds the power and flexibility of a modern PalmOS device….

Thank you for mentioning the AlphaSmart Dana!

Yes, the Dana has been called the spiritual successor to the Tandy 100.

It has also been called the Tandy 100 of the 21st century.

If anyone is interested, please visit the AlphaSmart Community Centre for more information and user tips on the AlphaSmart Dana.

For even more info on the Dana, there’s also Greg Gaub’s review of the AlphaSmart Dana right here at The Gadgeteer.com’s site!

Mark

http://www.the-gadgeteer.com/tandy102-review.html

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