My Family
TRaSh-80 and Other Things
My first exposure to personal computers came in
1980, when one of the nicest "bosses" I've ever had (you know
who you are, Linda!) loaned me her new TRS-80 for a few days.
It had 4Kb of RAM and you had to use regular audio cassettes to
save and load programs and data. If you were lucky, nothing went
wrong as that 4Kb BASIC program loaded (at least a 5 minute wait),
or you'd have to start all over again. But, this was amazing technology
in 1980, and it wasn't long before I had my own "TRaSh-80," as
the Apple II crowd not so lovingly called the TRS-80.
My
TRS [TRaSh] 80, circa 1984
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By the time the picture above was taken, around
1984, the TRS-80 had sprouted an expansion bay for a total of
48Kb of RAM, a floppy disk drive (100Kb capacity), and some third-party
add-ons, including a game port for use with an Atari joystick,
a sound card, and a very primitive speech synthesizer. By then,
I had become quite proficient at BASIC programming and had actually
sold several of my masterpieces. Among them was ABM Command,
a simple version of the Atari arcade game Missile Command;
Graphic Trek, a short animated Star Trek story complete
with synthesized dialogue; and GovRatio, a rather sophisticated
program that allowed small local governments to compile data and
compute a series of 28 financial ratios that allowed government
leaders to assess their jurisdictions' financial condition. The
BASIC program code for ABM Command was published in the
October 1981 issue of Softside, a computer magazine of
the time. Graphic Trek was published in July 1984 through
the computer bulletin board of another magazine called 80 Micro.
And, also in July 1984, GovRatio became the first software
package published and sold by the Government Finance Officers
Association, the premiere professional organization for government
financial managers in the United States and Canada. During the
period 1980 to 1984, I had a number of other TRS-80 BASIC programs
published in 80 Micro and in the official Radio Shack
TRS-80 Newsletter.
A
missile explodes over D.C. in
ABM Command . . .
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. . and the Enterprise blast the Klingons
in Graphic Trek
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After the TRS-80, I graduated to an Atari 800XL, with what was,
at the time, spectacular graphics and sound capabilities. After
that, my personal computers took a decidedly business focus --
first a CP/M machine with WordStar word processing and Multiplan
spreadsheet software, then a Compaq II (80286) portable, then
a Northgate Slimline 386, on to an IBM Aptiva (Pentium II), and
now to a Compaq Presario with a Pentium III "inside."
In 15 years, personal computer technology has taken
some enormous leaps forward, especially when you consider that
in 1980, my 4Kb RAM/audio cassette TRS-80 cost more than
my current 256Mb RAM/40Gb hard drive Presario. But do you know
what? Sometimes I really miss that TRS-80. Back then, just about
anyone could become their own "Microsoft." If you wanted a game,
you wrote it yourself. If you need a tutorial on state capitals
for your young one, you wrote that also. In other words, it was
a time when individual creativity put you on the cutting edge
of the computer revolution. It was FUN!
The Other Artists in the Family
I'm not the only creative
one in the van Beverhoudt family. Remember that Atari 800XL I
mentioned earlier? Well, my daughter Selene flexed her artistic
abilities on that computer, becoming a master of the graphic tablet.
The Christmas tree below was drawn freehand when she was about
7 years old. The following year (summer 1985), the local newspaper,
the V.I. Daily News, ran a "back to school" coloring contest,
and Selene decided to be creative. She used the Atari's graphic
tablet to trace the drawing published in the newspaper and color
it on the computer. She didn't win the coloring contest, but she
did win a special award for her creativity. Maybe that early experience
inspired her, because Selene is now studying graphic design in
Florida. Also, during the summers of 1996 and 1997, she had the
opportunity to work at the Daily News' advertising department,
composing ads on a sophisticated Apple Macintosh system with Adobe
Illustrator and Photoshop. Selene's also a computer programmer
of sorts, having designed and hand coded both her own web page
and a diving-oriented web page based on St. Thomas, Virgin Islands.
Check out a small sample of Selene's
Art right here at Sandcastle V.I. and also on her own
iDesign
Studios web site, which has a much more extensive art portfolio.
An
early Selene original . . .
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. . and the award-winning coloring contest entry
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Not to be left out, my wife
Helena has taken to the computer age, becoming quite proficient
at such Windows software as Lotus 1-2-3, WordPerfect, Quicken, and
TurboTax -- not to mention a Tetris and Backgammon! Helena's artistry
and creativity is exhibited in her wonderful (and wonderfully
delicious) cakes, a couple of which are shown below. The Star
Trek motif was for my 29th birthday (what else for a confirmed
Trekker), while the more traditional cake was for my sister's
25th wedding anniversary. What can I say, we're just a talented
bunch!
Helena's
whimsical and . . .
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. . traditional cake creations
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