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| − | <noinclude>:''This page refers to the comic named "1996". For comic #1996, see [[1996: Morning News]].''</noinclude>
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| | {{comic | | {{comic |
| | | number = 768 | | | number = 768 |
| − | | date = July 19, 2010 | + | | date = |
| | | title = 1996 | | | title = 1996 |
| | | image = 1996.png | | | image = 1996.png |
| − | | titletext = College Board issues aside, I have fond memories of TI-BASIC, writing in it a 3D graphing engine and a stock market analyzer. With enough patience, I could make anything... but friends. (Although with my chatterbot experiments, I certainly tried.) | + | | imagesize = |
| | + | | titletext = College Board issues aside, I have fond memories of TI-BASIC, writing in it a 3D graphing engine and a stock market analyzer. With enough patience, I could make anything ... but friends. (Although with my chatterbot experiments, I certainly tried.) |
| | }} | | }} |
| | | | |
| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | There has been a stunning amount of progress in pretty much any measurable dimension of technology since 1996. We laugh at our prior naivete, pointing out that what would be a non-functionally awful computer now was considered state of the art at that time. Likewise with a {{w|PalmPilot|Palm Pilot}}, arguably a precursor to today's omnipresent smartphones. {{w|Texas Instruments|Texas Instrument (TI)}} calculators, however, appear to have been left behind, not having made any significant advances (or price drops) since the newly discovered issues of the US computer magazine ''{{w|Computer Shopper (US magazine)|Computer Shopper}}'' were published. Thus, while we groan at how awful our state of the art technologies truly were in 1996, we are reminded that some technologies have remained in relative stasis over the years.
| + | In this strip there are two people going through a box of old things and find a computer catalog. The man is fascinated at how much things have changed in 15 years. He finds an old computer that has terrible specs compared to today's standards for $3,000. The woman, also interested, finds an old palm pilot with similarly outdated specs for $299. The man then finds a TI calculator in the catalog and reads the specs. The woman begins to say how much times have changed but then stops. They then rant at TI because the specs listed for their calculator in 1996 are almost identical to the specs for their current calculators. The woman speculates that the reason their calculators still cost so much is because there is only one engineer alive who knows how to make displays that bad. This is because now displays have moved on to color displays with many more pixels yet TI calculators still have black and white, very low resolution displays. The image text is referring to programs the author made when he had a TI calculator. He could program anything except friends, even though he tried to make a program that he could have conversations with. |
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| − | The title text mentions {{w|College Board}}, the organization that runs the SAT and AP tests. It alludes to the fact that College Board's practice of only allowing (or requiring) specific models is at the root of how TI can charge high prices for stagnant technology, although these days they allow numerous models including the (previously) open-source Numworks calculator.
| + | ==Transcript== |
| − | | + | >[A man is going through a cardboard box marked "MISC", and finds a catalog. A woman looks on.] |
| − | The title text then reminds us that when they were new, TI calculators were relatively powerful tools if you knew how to use them. TI-Basic was a fairly versatile programming language that could be used to make anything from games to reference files to computational programs.
| + | Man: Check it out -- old |
| − | | + | Computer Shoppers |
| − | The second half of the title text is a reminder to those of us who felt like gods for knowing how to program that power comes at a price—in this case, the power to program a calculator costs [[866: Compass and Straightedge|friends]]. Since, as of this comic's publication date, no program yet devised had truly passed a Turing test, even the most sophisticated {{w|Chatterbot}} (program designed to mimic conversation) couldn't quite qualify as a friend. As of June 2014, however, [http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/jun/08/super-computer-simulates-13-year-old-boy-passes-turing-test a computer convinced 33% of the people who spoke to it that it was a human, qualifying it to pass the Turing Test]. Though some [http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/06/09/turing-test-eugene-goostman_n_5474457.html skepticism] on this point is [http://www.popsci.com/blog-network/boxplot/did-chatbot-really-pass-turing-test needed], as it only passed the University's contest, not the actual {{w|Turing test}}.
| + | ! Wow -- in 1996, $3,000 would get you a 100 MHz Pentium system with a parallel port, |
| − | | + | two serial ports, a 2MB video card, and "MS-Windows" |
| − | Being unable to "make" friends was also later mentioned in [[866: Compass and Straightedge]].
| + | Woman: |
| | + | Nice! |
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| − | While many people aren't aware of them, TI ''does'' make more modern calculators in their {{w|TI-Nspire series}}, although they were introduced after this comic was published. The newest versions have color screens and (''finally!'') non-BASIC programming support through {{w|Lua (programming language)|Lua}} and {{w|Python (programming language)|Python}}. However, most K-12 schools in the US still use the TI-84 calculator series, which is based off the calculator shown in the comic. (Although it also supports Python and has color screens on the higher end models.)
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| − |
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| − | ==Transcript==
| |
| − | :[Cueball is going through a cardboard box marked "MISC", and finds a catalog. Megan looks on.]
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| − | :Cueball: Check it out - old ''Computer Shoppers!'' Wow - in 1996, $3,000 would get you a 100 MHz Pentium system with a parallel port, ''two'' serial ports, a 2MB video card, ''and'' "MS-Windows"
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| − | :Megan: ''Nice!''
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| | | | |
| − | :[The two are face-to-face, and they each have a separate copy of Computer Shopper.]
| + | [The two are face-to-face, and they each have a separate copy of Computer Shopper.] |
| − | :Megan: And $299 would get you a Palm Pilot 100- - 16MHz, 128Kb storage, and a memo pad, calendar, and state-of-the-art address book that can store over 100 names!
| + | Woman: And $299 would get you a Palm Pilot 100- -- 16MHz, 128Kb storage, and a memo pad, calendar, and state-of-the-art address book that can store over 100 names! |
| − | :Cueball: Oooh!
| + | Man: Oooh! |
| | | | |
| − | :[Cueball continues to read from his.]
| + | [The man continues to read from his.] |
| − | :Cueball: And $110 would get you a bulky TI graphing calculator with around 10MHz CPU, 24Kb RAM, and a 96x64-pixel B/W display!
| + | Man: And $110 would get you a bulky TI graphing calculator with around 10MHz CPU, 24Kb RAM, and a 96x64-pixel B |
| − | :Megan: Times sure have... ...have... uh.
| + | W display! |
| | + | Woman: Times sure have... ...have... uh. |
| | | | |
| − | :[They both put down their catalogs.]
| + | [They both put down their catalogs.] |
| − | :Cueball: Okay, what the hell, T.I.?
| + | Man: Okay, what the hell, T.I.? |
| − | :Megan: Maybe they cost so much now because there's only one engineer left who remembers how to make displays ''that'' crappy.
| + | Woman: Maybe they cost so much now because there's only one engineer left who remembers how to make displays |
| | + | that crappy. |
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| − | {{comic discussion}} | + | {{comic discussion}} |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Cueball]]
| + | <!-- Include any categories below this line--> |
| − | [[Category:Comics featuring Megan]]
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| − | [[Category:Computers]]
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| − | [[Category:Engineering]]
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