The really interesting thing about DOS 1.1 (or actually very slightly later revisions) is that it was the first to be released to OEMs other than IBM. Early clone makers such as Zenith, Corona, Columbia Data Products, Eagle Computers, or Compaq (you might have heard of that last one), never would have gotten off the ground if Microsoft had not licensed it out to them.

Some of the early "MS-DOS" compatibles were not even hardware compatible with the IBM PC. All you could rely on was the presence of an 8088/8086 and MS-DOS provided I/O calls. And those OEMs had to customize MS-DOS to recognize their proprietary hardware.

I'm not so sure about the value of Word for Windows 1.x. It wasn't even the first word processor for Windows (Beaten by AMI and PageMaker).

Now, on the other hand I have heard some interesting things about the internals of Word 1.00 for DOS.

In other news, lobotomies are good for people. The less you think, the better you feel. See the full story on Fox News. :P

But seriously, If the results are really more about behaviors, then the REAL problem is that current society does not adequately provide similar social outlets or activities for people who don't happen to believe in imaginary sky beings.

Thing is, it started off trying to be fairly realistic. If they had started out from day 1 explaining that these nanites were implemented to collect and redistribute power with some not fully understood tech that might be supernatural or alien, then it would be easier to just sit back and enjoy. But instead they keep everything secret so they can pull out some new WTF whenever they feel like it.

Take the basic premise and characters, and stuff it in a mind-warping anime, and it would probably work well.

But as it is, they use real actors... who ironically seem to lack energy. And the plot seems to have no real direction (Turn the lights back on? How is that supposed to work after 15 years of neglected infrastructure?). Whoever writes this stuff just wants to yank around the audience. And it probably will get canceled without a proper ending.

From my perspective, half the fun of watching any sifi-ish show is exploring the universe they have created, and too much secrecy and inconstancy ruins it.

On the brighter side, they nuked Atlanta. :)

The only thing that spoiled it was that the same statement was missing a emi-colon

That was the ONLY thing that spoiled it?

In a show where power is magically inhibited by some fucking nanites, who can also bring back power to stuff that has 15-year old aged batteries or no other power source, can be used as weapons, while at the same time having the ability to heal people, that that have become sentient, that can bring the fucking dead back to life, are being worshiped, communicate through hallucinations, can re-create an entire world in a Matrix-ish type way, and who knows what kind of shit they are going to pull out of their asses next! (Don't know why I watch that piece of shit)

Are you sure that is the ONLY thing that spoiled it for you?

That site is really script heavy, here is a direct link to a clearer picture: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wi...

Ah, the modern tech industry, creating solutions for problems that don't exist.

Such as Windows 8 or the Slashdot beta.

The beta site feels like the kind of place where one would expect hear "We only support Windows, Mac, and Linux with current IE, Chrome, or Firefox".

let's take a moment to reflect on what Slashdot HAS run on over the years.

Here are just a few screen shots I have handy:

Amiga
http://toastytech.com/guis/ami...

BreadBox (GeoWorks)
http://toastytech.com/guis/bbe...

BeOS
http://toastytech.com/guis/b5p...

QNX 1.44MB demo floppy:
http://toastytech.com/guis/qnx...

MacOS 7.5.5
http://toastytech.com/guis/mac...

OpenStep:
http://toastytech.com/guis/ope...

Lynx:
http://toastytech.com/guis/tex...

Windows NT 3.51 (this actually shows a version of SeaMonkey modified specifically to view current Slashdot correctly!)
http://toastytech.com/files/Se...

I've seen so many products and sites go in this direction over the years, it makes me sick. Something reaches near perfection and then someone decides to rewrite it in Java or .Net or XML or something, and totally ruins it.

Slashdot doesn't need some redesign. It just needs a few bugs fixed.

Where did they even get the idea that anyone wants any of that stuff on the beta site? Large fonts, huge pictures, HTML 9000 or whatever it is at today. What does Dice think this site is, I Can Has Cheezeburger? Actually, even THAT site went downhill after a bogged down redesign.

A real geek site would work great running on an Amiga using HTML 3. Oh, right, we had that:
http://toastytech.com/guis/ami...

One of the strengths (and simultaneous weakens) of Opera was that it used it's own unique rendering engine. That gave it an advantage in specialized situations where others would not quite fit.

Since they changed to using webkit, they are, in my opinion, basically irrelevant now. They might have well just become another one of those circa 2000 Microsoft Internet Explorer shells.

Say what you will about Presto not working on site x, y, or z, more diversity is good, and it helps keep real standard in check. There were once too many sites that were only viewable in IE, I do not look forward to a future internet that is only viewable in Google Chome.

Is there any hope at all that they might open source the Presto Rendering engine?

> How about a demo of Jay Miner demoing the Amiga 1000?

Or how about a video of the 1982 Comdex where supposedly VisiCorp showed off a development version of their brand new "GUI" environment Visi On? Doubt anyone recorded that, but it would be interesting to see.

And there is actually a video on Youtube of the fall 1983 Comdex with a demonstration of a brand new product in development from Microsoft called "Wiindows". Stole all the thunder from VisiCorp, but obviously didn't put a damper on Apple's Macintosh released shortly afterwards.

If windows 7/8 wasn't a downgrade from XP in every respect,

Wrong. Windows 7 is better than XP in every way

(For the pedants: "Except size on disk")

On the other hand there is the abomination known as Windows 8.

And that is all one can easily find in most stores these days.

You can run XP in a virtual machine if you have software you must absolutely run that cannot run under Windows 7 or 8.

Not if the software you need to run is a device driver for special hardware.

And you still have the issue that the VM may need to talk to the outside world and therefore be as "vulnerable" as real hardware.

Microsoft isn't putting customers at risk by not patching what will then be a 13-year old operating system. They had a full life cycle plan in place and customers have had many years advance notice to plan their transition. The lack of resources placed on transitioning legacy software to something other than an end-of-life OS is squarely the fault of the customers. The people in charge obviously don't place a great deal of importance on security or support. They have made their decision, let them suffer the consequences.

What do you mean you've never been to Alpha Centauri? Oh, for heaven's sake, mankind, it's only four light years away, you know. I'm sorry, but if you can't be bothered to take an interest in local affairs, that's your own lookout. Energize the demolition beam. I don't know, apathetic bloody planet, I've no sympathy at all.

Another skummy thing I have seen on at least a few instances, a show will reach some climatic scene with important dialog, and before the main character's voice even trails offTOYOTA SAVING!

I remember downloading the shareware version of DOOM from a BBS shortly after it was released. Shooting at the soul sphere displayed in level 2 because I didn't' know what it was, and then almost falling over dizzy when I had to get up and go!

It certainly wasn't the first FPS to exist or even have networking (see Mazewar on the Xerox Alto), but it was the first to provide a fully immersive experience (full screen, all surfaces with texture, and sound) on a common desktop PC.

When I first heard of DOOM, and even judging by a leaked alpha (5/22), It looked like it would be a slow interactive game similar to Ultima Underworld. Boy, did that turn out not to be the case!

The thing that really kept it popular was how easy it was to create completely new levels.

And then having to upgrade from 4 to 8 megs to keep episode 3 from chugging away...