ScuzzBlog: Diaries November 2017
Entry 01st November 2017: Post: 1
Work of art
I know many will disagree but when you hold in your hand a book
like the Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide you can not
but marvel at the energy and effort undertaken by those involved
in the early development of the computer, in their desire to
progress the art of computing. There are close to 500 pages of
detailed instruction within this book. You sense a burning energy
to advance as quickly as possible. Computing in this period did
feel like those involved were on a mission. What is more significant
is how the subject touched the imagination of so many, no matter
who and where. The boundaries of intellectual ownership in terms
of what the computer offered were no longer restricted to academics
studying at colleges, but to every bedroom enthusiast that could
get hold of little treasures like this book and a working computer.
When I look at all the amazing things that were created from very
ordinary individuals I despair at how much we have now lost to
relatively mundane blogging and text talk. I really do marvel at
the know-how of your common computer user of times since past in
their dynamic activity to develop new and ever more expanding ideas
for the computer. Yet I sense books like these are a thing of the
past. What I fear more is that both the books and the efforts of an
age will never be replicated by human kind. There was a time when
advancement in this technology was in the ownership of all. There
has never been a time when literally anyone could map the future
of a technology. Sadly that ownership appears to have dissipated.
And now the books lay idle and I sense the fingers that once
powered the micro have turned to the trivia of social media as
an outlet for their time.
So much was achieved at the hands of ordinary folk at the end of
the last century. So much was created and so much was written.
I guess in truth even more is written today, but what of its true
worth.
And so I praise the efforts of all those that pioneered the world
of computing in the eighties and nineties and marvel at this book
I hold in my hand. I am grateful to have lived through that period.
In truth there has never been a more exciting, rich and rewarding
period for the computer. It will never return.
OK... Welcome to the world of scuzz .. ITS NOVEMBER TIME !!!!
Commodore 64 Programmer's Reference Guide
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