I got my start in electronics many, many years ago. Before transistors were readily available.
I have built and repaired lots of equipment, including radios, TV, and audio equipment.
My father was a ham and he tried to get me interested in getting a license, but I never cared for
the idea of talking on the radio.
I belong to RAGS (Radio Amateurs of Greater Syracuse), and I go to as many hamfests as I can.
Recently, my sister in California got her license as a total surprise to all of us, and took dad's
old call. Not wanting to be one-upped, I got my Technician license also.
There are a lot of pictures of my computer and electronic projects on this site (and two others linked to it). My biggest regret is that I didn't take more pictures early on.
My first exposure to computers was with a local company which made microprocessor-based cardiac monitoring equipment, using the Z80. I got to know the chip very well, so that I didn't need any schematics. When they went under, I went to another company (where I am now), which had also used the Z80. It was also the basis of my first home-made computer, which had only a hex keypad for an input, and 8 LED's for an output.
My first store-bought computer was the TRS-80. Not bad for it's time. It had a good version of BASIC, and I built an EPROM programmer, a plotter interface, MIDI port, a custom musical keyboard interface, and a few other peripherals. Later, I made several copies of the TRS-80 which actually worked more reliably than the original, and with fewer parts.
The only other processor I had worked with at the time was the 6800, which was used in the Heathkit ET3400 CPU trainer.
The IBM PC (before the XT) was around $5,000, and the XT clones were over $1,000 even without hard drives. Eventually the prices eased down. Someone gave me a keyboard, then I spent about $150. on a mother board, $60. each for two floppy drives, and built my own power supply and monitor. As with all computers, newer software made the old machine useless. All that would run and still be useful was WordStar 3.0.
As time went on, I wound up getting newer and better machines, then Windows 3.1 came out. It seemed spiffy, but Win95 and Win98 promised to be easier to use. This led to scanners, ink-jet printers, digital cameras, and a modem. Instead of getting better, more and more problems appeared - software incompatibility, crashes, hardware problems. It only gets worse. Case in point, my K6 system NEVER worked right, even before I installed any apps. Lots of crashes, and it usually won't shut down without a reset or hitting the power button.
OOPS! I'm slipping into the rant mode again. Sorry.
In the beginning, I have had a tiny bit of exposure to Apple. When the iMac first came out, I was very disappointed to find out that it didn't have a floppy drive, so I didn't consider it. Later, I spotted an article mentioning that iMacs were available with CD writers. Very cool - a way to get data out of it! I had saved my pennies and got an iMac G4, I'm very impressed with it. The hardware is awesome - the first thing I did was pop in some DVD's, and I was blown away by the video quality. The LCD makes good pictures look better, but it makes bad ones look worse. The Apple Pro speakers perform far better than I expected.
I'm still learning the finer points of OS X. I miss having different sounds for the various functions in Windows, but the stability and resistance to viruses more than makes up for the differences.
I had planned to use iMovie for my video work but there is still an issue with going between Mac and PC's. Everyone I am sharing files with is using a PC. iMovie only exports .MOV files or DVD's, which Apple admits are not compatible with all DVD players. Most of my family and friends do not have Quick Time. Also, the .MPG files I made with my Dazzle USB Video Creator usually cause the iMac to lock up, even though they run flawlessly on every PC I have tried.
I haven't encountered any problems with image files or audio CD's, so I guess I'm doing OK for now.
Another problem isn't caused by Macs or PC's, but it's the problem of newer and newer apps required to run video clips. I'm running into more stuff that just isn't worth the bother - if it's a .WMV (which looks to me like Windows Meta Virus), I just trash it.
Here's what I did with the PC, and migrating to the iMac:
Web browsing
I had been active on eBay, and I like to browse around for old radio and TV information, and download pictures.
There are some clean pictures out there. Because of security problems and LOTS of spam, I dropped eBay.
Using IE on the iMac, and had only used the PC to look up some news groups. I'm not interested in a news group
reader for the Mac because 99.99% of what I did look at was either filth or drivel.
Safari looks enticing, but since I don't spend enough time on-line to justify road runner, I'll stick with IE.
e-mail
I have a standard POP3 e-mail (I don't post it on my site in an effort to reduce junk mail), and web-based
accounts - elvirafan at mail.com and bobsmuseum at hotmail.com
Using Apple's Mail, and it works fine. I trash everything that looks the least bit suspect, no matter whose
name is on it. Please include an appropriate subject line if you write.
FTP
Where I used Ipswitch WS_ftp on the PC, Fetch on the iMac is much easier to use.
I build all of my web pages from scratch, entering the HTML tage manually. I have used one of the page maker programs, but it tends to do what it wants to do, and it insists on uploading the pages instead of displaying them offline. I like to have control over what goes on the pages, so that they upload quickly, and don't get out of hand. My pages are primarily for displaying pictures and text, so they are rather simple in structure. On the iMac, I use BB Edit Lite.
My main reason for considering Apple is that the PC is getting very flaky.
I have two removable drives for this machine, as well as the other PC, but getting a modem installed on any of
the other three drives has been an exercise in futility. Apple's immunity to PC viruses is also makes it a very
good choice.
Since then, the K6 PC has been behaving since I got the Mac. It knows that it had better behave. The P3 PC sort
of melted down - it won't read a known good HD, and the HD from it will not boot in a good PC. I resurrected an
IBM PC to use with the Parallax Basic Stamp apps.
Digital imaging.
Started out with an Olympus D220, then went to a D460. I have the SmartCard USB reader, but it worked for only a
short time under Win95. Found a Mac-compatible Smart Media reader, and it works great. The newest camera has
a direct USB connection. I thought I may need to upgrade to OSX.2, but the Mac was already familiar with it.
I had been using Paint Shop Pro 4.12 for editing. Now using Photoshop Elements 2.0. Awesome.
LOTS and LOTS of digital photos. The vast majority are on off-line web pages, burned on CD's. Room for over
3000 pictures with room to spare.
Gave up on the Epson printer - the SUV of printers. Guzzles ink like it was water. Went to the HP940.
Much better.
Audio
Still using a Sound Blaster Live in the PC to convert records and open-reel tapes to .WAV format, and using
Wave Studio to edit, and remove those annoying clicks. The Plextor CD burner & software converts the .WAV files
to CDA format to make audio CD's. I understand that Mac uses AIFF files in place of .WAV,
and I really need to be able to edit those files. Not all of my records are ready to go straight to CD.
Update - got the Griffin iMic which works, but only with a magnetic cartrdige. An attenuator is needed to use
it with a cassette deck, no matter where the switch is set.
Found a copy of Cacophony, which appears to be a good audio file editor. Only used it on a couple of short files.
Since I bought the K6 specifically to make audio CD's, that's it's main task. It also comes in handy when I'm
listening to streaming audio on the Mac - just plug in the PC and record it.
Video
I have LOTS of old video tapes, and many of them are deteriorating. I was converting the worst ones to .MPG
files with the Dazzle USB Video Creator for the PC. The resolution is not up to par with units like the
Hollywood DV Bridge or the Formac, but good enough. Some of these .MPG files are part of my off-line web pages.
Given the cost of digital video, I'll stick with the Dazzle unit for now.
The cost of a DVD burner and an analog input device is much higher than a standalone DVD recorder, so I bought a Panasonic unit. When it feels like working, it works great. Later on, (if I still want to watch all those videos), I can eventually edit them on the Mac.
Documents
Lots and lots of magazine clippings, hand-drawn schematics and spec sheets. I've been scanning them in and
saving them on CD. Using a Microtek USB scanner. It would be nice if it was usable on the Mac. Might pick up
an HP 3500.
I also collect lots of text and notes, which I store in plain text mode. In the past, I have used WordStar (document mode), Ami Pro, and Word. All of them are totally incompatible. Text files will work with any word processor, and take up far less disk space. If I want to make a document look fancy, I'll just import in into Word, Apple Works and go from there.
Backup
Back up ALL of your data - images, documents, audio files. Important on any computer, vitally important on a
PC. A CD burner is the best method - the media is cheap, and it works with any computer with a CD drive.
In defense of DOS
Most people think of DOS as something ugly and primitive. I see DOS as the software version of an Erector set. It's simple, and it doesn't go off in five different directions when you do anything. It's obedient, and it doesn't crash.
DOS sits there and doesn't do anything until you tell it explicitly what you want to do.
Windows is constantly buzzing around, and if you do anything, it makes gross assumptions about what you want
to do, and then goes off and does things you don't want or need.
To quote Professor Higgins: "She will beg you for advice, your reply will be concise, then she'll listen very
nicely and go out and do precisely what she wants".
I have put together many projects using QBASIC running under DOS, and have had no trouble at all. Recently, I built up a board containing an 8-input 8 bit A/D converter, and a 16 bit A/D and DAC combination. This will be part of an instrumentation system, and plans are under way for an IC test system.
All of this is done on older PC's running DOS, and they can usually be had for free.
Other interests (which may later involve the iMac)
In addition to sitting at the computer, I also play a little music. Nothing fancy, but I played keyboards in our company band (unfortunately now defunct), and play around at home. I built a MIDI drum controller, and a MIDI guitar, because regular guitars are rather difficult for me to play - all those strings get in the way.
Feel free to check out all the other features on my site - lots of pictures to look at.