Dear silicon.com... ZX Spectrum nostalgia, Mac attack, tag a bag…

The topic that got readers turning to their keyboards this week was silicon.com's latest poll: What was your first home computer? Comments came flying in on this, some cheering for the winner, while some were a little miffed their favourite didn't feature on the poll… And from old computers to the latest in high-tech cool, the age-old debate - Mac vs PC - got readers riled this week. The jury's still out on this one… Finally, RFID bag tagging at the airport - good idea? Bad idea? silicon.com readers are split…

Winner: The ZX Spectrum!
ZX Spectrum crowned king of computer classics

I would have liked to complete your survey of "what was your first home computer" but it only lists computers from the early to mid 1980s, ignoring the fact that home computing actually started in the late 1970s, with computers such as the Nascom, which sold more than 20,000 units, the Commodore PET and the Tandy TRS-80.
-- Steven Abrams, Liverpool

My first PC was a Sinclair ZX81, but my first 'main' PC was a VIC20, which took me through four years to my O'levels, before being replaced by a C64 and an AppleII+.
-- Nigel Goodey, Rushden

Note that most of these lovely little machines were British. As were most of the early mainframes, back in the 1960s.

Where are today's British innovators? Emasculated by so-called "Computer Science" departments; that's where.
-- Dick Vinegar, Wimbledon

Editor's choice

silicon.com editor Steve Ranger flags up his picks on the site this week...

♦ Minority Report: iPhone, Android and the world in your pocket
♦ Peter Cochrane's Video Blog: Athens and roam
♦ Video: CIO Agenda 2008
♦ ZX Spectrum crowned king of computer classics
♦ Naked CIO: The true cost of IT

I've still got my Spectrum in a box in the attic! I just remember having to get the volume absolutely right for the games to load!
-- Anonymous, m

My old Spectrum sits in a small display frame to remind me of how simple computers used to be to use and how easy it was to do almost anything with it that was required....(within its limitations).

Okay, now we have much more powerful machines and they do so much. I'm not complaining mind but I reckon the new ones cause me more stress...

Anyway - back to my horse and cart to go down't mine....
-- Babbly Fish, Scotland

Mac attack
Minority Report: Why I am a Mac user

My first Mac, a 533MHz single CPU, replaced a 1GHz Windows desktop. It did everything faster and more smoothly than its predecessor. The bundled software passed along by the previous owner also saved a lot of money compared with what I would have had to pay to add similar functionality to my Windows machine. Something a lot of people overlook.
-- Mick Mooney, Derbyshire

My only two problems with Macs:

1. You mention form over function, by merging the computer and the screen together in the iMac you limit both devices and keep the user from upgrading either should their needs change, without upgrading the whole system.

2. Price. I would have chosen a Mac last November but I wanted a quad core computer and to get that from Apple I would have spent $3,000. Instead I bought a PC and spent less than half.
-- James, Somewhere

I last tried a Mac in 1986 - time to try again?

I bought my first DOS PC because I needed to be compatible with the software and OS used in my industry.

My previous non-DOS computer had been much more pleasant, secure and effective, but although it could run a PC emulator, it was not really compatible.

These days, I use whatever works - including several flavours of Linux.
-- Richard, UK

"I last tried a Mac in 1986 - time to try again?"

That about sums up the entrenched attitudes Seb talked about! It's about the same as me saying "I last tried Windows in 1986 - has it changed?" - Only in existing and being able to access gigabytes of memory instead of just 640k !
-- Simon, Cumbria

You may be missing one more thing...

I've never thrown a Mac away. My oldest machine, a Powermac pizza box, bought in 1994 still works as a mail server. We've got an iMac that archives CDs. Yes, I've given them away to save space, but they still do what they originally did really well.

PCs of only two or three years' vintage are earmarked for landfill just because they won't run Vista. Which is the most cost-effective now?
-- Don Tregartha, Mac Heaven

Half the hardware at twice the price
-- Anonymous, New York

Tag a bag
RFID bag tags could save air-travel industry millions

The best travel advice I ever got was:
"Unless you have no alternative; don't travel with more than carry-on luggage."
-- Haydn Rees, Eindhoven

For several years the airlines have been saying they do not want to pay the extra costs of RFID. This makes me remember when credit/debit card authorisation started in the UK in 1983. Everyone could see the benefits but no one wanted to pay. The banks, the card companies and the retailers had been arguing for several years as to who should pay. Now it's standard practice and everyone benefits. We never learn.
-- Simon Allen, Hertfordshire

Modern business plans seem to have abandoned any pretence that the consumer is still important to them.

Surely their primary focus should be on improving existing facilities to benefit their paying customers first and then look for the enhancements later?
-- Radical Meldrew, Suburbs

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