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This user has been on Wikipedia for 10 years, 4 months and 24 days. |
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Hello and welcome to my homepage!
I am an electronic engineer, Wikipedian since July 2002, and ever since the 1970s I have been busy with microprocessors, designing micropocessor based electronic equipment. In fact, in 1980 or so, I designed one of the first Dutch Microcomputers, called the ASTER CT-80. It was a TRS-80 clone, that could also run CP/M. Since then I have been interested in the history of computers. I own an extensive library with German, Dutch, British and American computer magazines. For example an (almost) complete complete collection of BYTE magazine. I also collect old homecomputers of which I have between 80 and 90 (I lost count), with my oldest computer being a Datapoint 2200, which is considered the oldest system that can be considered a Personal Computer, and which CPU architecture has Insipred the architecture of Intels first 8-bit CPU, the Intel 8008. A CPU architecture which Successors are still used in the CPU's of all PC's (and now Mac's too).
[edit] Some of the articles I created
Listed in order of addition, last addition on top.
- Pin header was amazed to find this staple product of electronic devices had no entry in wikipedia
- DCEbus the I/O bus designed by DAI
- HB-F9P MSX2 computer for which I helped writing the built in application package memovision for SONY
- Text semigraphics and Semi graphical characters which were later merged together.
- Z-DOS from a redirect page
- V.23 from a redirect page
- Sinclair X-1
- Mi2 (console)
- Cloud (operating system)
- Skytone Alpha-400 The worlds cheapest 7" screen mini notebook at €130
- The Brew (band)
- People's Computer Company
- Home computer remakes and its category page [1]
- Experiment-s
- Linpus Linux
- Electronics today international (magazine)
- Elektor Junior Computer
- GOS (operating system)
- Influence of the IBM-PC on the PC market first started as mainly a list in Personal computers, (which I also mostly wrote) later split off to become an article about this topic.
- Nuna4 and Twente One Dutch Solar cars in 2007.
- List of MSX compatible computers and an example the NMS-8250.
- List of MSX emulators.
- Actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia catholica translated from Dutch article.
- List of Apple II clones and List of TRS-80 clones
- Xbox 360 disk scratching problems Investigated and massively expanded this part of the article about Xbox 360 hardware problems.
- MSX-DOS about the disk operating system for MSX standard home computers.
- List of microprocessor development boards about systems such as the KIM-1 and motorola MEK6800D2
- Panasonic JR-200, a rare home computer, one of a very few systems to use a 6802 processor.
- 1chipMSX about the return of MSX home computers. Programming FPGA's in VHDL anyone?
- Mega Duck/Cougar Boy Just two rare Handheld game consoles I have recently acquired. I now also took a picture of them, and placed it in the article. I also wrote an article about "Watara Supervision internals" and a similar article "Mega Duck internals" so you can see the similarity of both designs. These pages have since been removed from wikipedia main because they were deemed to be "not encyclopedic", but the pictures I took for these articles can still be found here User talk:Mahjongg/Mega Duck Internals.
- Parallax Propeller, The most interesting Micro-controller I have seen in a long time (upgraded from the stub).
- List of home computers by video hardware What had gotten into me to take on this Herculean task I don't know, but this has been a major job (I loved to do), it's almost finished now (as long a no new systems/info show up).
- Video Display Controller is a subject that's near to my heart, it indirectly lead me to start on the "List of home computers by video hardware" article.....
- Comx-35 Still don't have found one for my collection, (I own about 80, I lost count, home computers and game systems) but I remember these.
- Kilobaud Microcomputing (magazine)'s are part of my extensive collection of home computer magazines. I liked them because of all the Schematics in them.
- Electronics today international (magazine) is another very old magazine that very early published designs of Home brew computers. I remember the "system 68", it did not have a keyboard or any other input device, you could only use a lightpen to turn on pixels (memory bits) on and off, and to start your program. That is in the time that everybody else used a switch-panel and led's, like the Altair. A very odd system! Maybe Ill write an article about it someday.
- So, I like obscure old home computers, the PSI Comp 80 (computer) is certainly one.
- The DAI Personal Computer was another one, from our friendly neighbour country. It died an un-deserved early death, but had great potential.
- Talkie tapes a funny way to store audio.
- List of edible fish (removed) and Barnevelder are from the time that I was organizing Category Lists_of_foods.
- Logic family is about the different kind of digital logic families, like TTL logic, the current article still resembles my starter.
- Visual thinking I wrote shortly after I discovered I am a "picture-thinker" myself, I think I did not even have a user page here.
I did much more, and older stuff, (the oldest may well be the article about my Aster CT-80) but I have to stop somewhere with this list.
[edit] My thoughts about Google Chrome OS
Well, I do not have a crystal ball, or inside information, but I have been reading and thinking a bit about Google Chrome OS lately (October 2008) and I have especially read a lot of nonsense about it. These are my thoughts about Chrome OS (I hope they give it a more catchy name before they launch it).
- Its cloud based, so it will use (google) services a lot, but that fact will be oblivious to most users.
- It will continue to function without being on-line (local cashing and such, see google gears for the basics of it).
- You will be able to store stuff locally, not only in the cloud (for your music, love letters or contracts you don't want to store in the cloud, so don't worry to much about privacy) even when the application is cloud based.
- It -will- multi task just fine, so you can play your favorite music on a "media player" while editing your spreadsheet
- It will use a new Windowing system that is optimized for client-server use over a network (TCP/IP), something based on NX technology. That is the main reason not to use X, X also works with a client-server architecture, but isn't optimized for having something like TCP/IP in-between the client and the server, the new windowing system will allow for a much better experience where applications run on the cloud, while the users system just displays the result, and takes input. Google has already been experimenting with this technology with their Neatx demo system, but they will probably rewrite it for inclusion in the windows manager of Google OS, as Python code may not have the efficiency that is needed.
- This will enable them to run -any kind- of application on the cloud, and give the user an experience as if its running locally, yes even games (and I don't mean flash based games either, I mean games that now run on a Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3).
- even on relative weaker performing hardware, so even on a $100 ARM cortex based netbook. Any hardware will work as long as you have a high-bandwidth connection when you are using very interactive stuff like games. If you have a somewhat more powerful system such applications may even perform well (due to the local cashing system) even with a lower bandwidth connection. Normally less interactive applications (word processing etc) will work well on the most low cost hardware and networking connection.
- As they (or any other cloud provider) can run -any- application on the cloud, they -could- choose to run Windows applications on the cloud (Using Wine, running on a Google server, not on the users system).
- Again, it doesn't have to be Google itself that offers this service, as Google OS, and so all the protocols used, are open source, anybody can offer this (or any other kind of) service.
- Not sure how a google OS application provider would manage fees for commercial (Windows) software, but I assume they will use some kind of licensing system, so you don't have to buy software to use it.
- Google (or other Google OS application providers) will take care of "installing" (Windows) applications, you just make use of them, (you only need to choose which ones you want to use), so no more installing/deinstalling chores.
- It will cause a paradigm shift in how we think about using computers. When I think about the future of Google Chrome, I think about something like this.
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