Re: computers vs toys
Re: computers vs toys
mryon said:
toys and computers are not disjoint sets.
It seems there's too much of a mis-definition of what a computer is now adays...what most people think of is what once was called an "Appliance Computer" like that what your staring at right now.
So by the classic definition of "computer", the old one, game systems, your car, your microwave, your T.V., your stereo, your watch, your kid's LCD video game, all of that including even a Pong System is considered a computer, it uses mathmatic COMPUTations to do the job, but on the other hand.....
Most people think of an appliance computer when computer is said these days, therefore it does not apply to other classes of machine such as your Microwave or your Atari 2600. Yet that does not mean said machines can't be made INTO a full computer. If someone had enough knowhow to make memory expansion, how to create a working keyboard and mouse, and such, an Atari 2600 could even surf the internet (the question would be "are you nuts?" concerning wanting to do it considering you would have to put a TON of add-on's including loads of RAM, a workable keyboard, possibly some way to use a track ball or keyboard to run the program, and even made a new modem to work with the serial address lines on the machine, and it would be waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond the scope of what most people would be willing to do on their own, and then the next challenge would be to manage to cram a Web Browser onto some kind of huge bankswitched cartridge that would probably resemble a cutting board when finished).
I consider the Commodore 64 a true computer, there's even an internet browser availible for it I believe, too bad I don't remember the link though, I'll see if I can find it tonight and edit it in here a bit later on...
My whole thought is this arguement is null anyway, the way they keep cramming E-mail and instant message service into computerized machines such as your car and your cell phone these days, eventually everything will be computerized to some degree. Actually, that's pretty frightening, being able to send and recieve E-mail on my Keurig Coffee Machine in 50 years, or send recipies via Toaster Fax (okay, so I'm getting a bit silly). It's just by one definition, anything that computes is a computer, but by another, it's anything with a keyboard that can do more than play Pac-Man and Pong.
