286

Two Hundred Fifth Post: 286

In case you are not familiar with the 286, it is the predecessor to the 586 or pentium. Back when I was learning BASIC programming in high school the pentium was just released. We didn’t have the fast computers just the 286's. But of course a fast system is nothing without software and that is where the school was lucky that they had invested in some decent software.

The 286's were enough to run Basic and Pascal, but there was only 2 pentiums for the students learning C++. One of the students was trying to hack the schools network and found out how to access the network without logging in. Another student commented on this and said he was trying to pirate the computer technology and sell it to the Germans. Hilarious! Although the teacher didn’t improve of any types of hacking.

One program that I remember from the 286 is IBM CAD. This was an easy to learn CAD. We use it for drafting. If it wasn’t for faster computers and multitasking combined with different file formats, this CAD software would still be very useful.

Besides lacking the fastest computers, I’ll admit that we did use some new technologies such as a webcam and an HTML editor briefly. I learned a lot about BASIC and still have a copy of Tandy Basic somewhere. Now, I am trying to become proficient in C++ and this is much easier with improved technology. I’m using the 3dbuzz set of VTMs which is basically a lecture that plays on the computer. And during the lecture you get to see what is happening on the instructors computer. I’ll Blog on how it turns out. I have worked with C++ in the past writing simple programs, but it is such a vast language.

Isn’t it funny the same subjects you learn in high school are boring, but latter you pay for your schooling and are motivated to learn it on your own. You start to miss the boring exercises in the text book. So until you sleep through you next class.... May the Creative Force and Holiday Spirit be with You