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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Maximite Age Demographics Poll
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donmck Guru  Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Maximite Age Demographics Poll. I was just chatting with Richard (tctec), and I was mentioning why I thought the Maximite was becoming so popular. Well, it is a real fun computer, or micro-controller system, at a very good price. There are users jumping out of the wood work from 30 odd years ago. Like me, many people launched businesses, and life time careers, on the back of the early Basic computers, and they just have to get involved with the Maximite. The reasons are many. I am getting messages right now from the older group of users, that are writing games in Basic. You did say games in Basic Don? This is really crazy when you see what you can get today, on your iPhone, or iPad. There is a new movement here which I am having trouble understanding. It is the era of the iMax. I really wonder how many younger users we have? Why not do a simple poll? Sorry, I did say that the last one, was the last poll for a while, but I am very interested if we are actually attracting new blood to the Maximite. The Maximite Age Demographics Poll is at: http://www.themaximitecomputer.com/maximite-age-demographics -poll/ The corresponding Forum thread is at: http://www.thebackshed.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=3600&PN =1&TPN=1 And yes, you can only vote once, sorry Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| Ray B Senior Member  Joined: 16/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 219 |
Poll shows interesting demographics - as I expected based upon time of day of posts. Next you could ask "how many persons started working life as a PMG / ABC/ DCA Technician In Training - that will draw a few out of the woodwork... RayB from Perth WA |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
I'll leave this poll to sit indefinitely so we can have a good look in months, and years to come, but I suspect you are correct Ray. I am from the PGM TIT school of 1959, along with 3 others from the same year, that I still have contact with. No I won't poll it for now, and I can't find an icon with a wheel chair or hearing aid, so I settled for the good old geek one. 
Is that close to a representation of our groups 
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
This is a great idea and I think you will find the current early poll results will remain the same. Us "older programmers" are the ones attracted to this "hardcore" level of coding and hardware. The younger generation are so use to having high level languages, point-and-click interfaces and object oriented environments. They just don't have the hair on the chest like we do. :) Yes, there are far better and more modern games nowadays in this era of iPods and powerfull PC's. But using that train of thought, why have the Maximite at all? Why Bother? It doesn't even do colour! No 16 bit sound circuits and it's speed pales to the speed of a modern 4 core PC. It would be interesting to hear each persons reason for using the Maximite. Nostalgia? A new challenge? |
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| Ray B Senior Member Joined: 16/02/2007 Location: AustraliaPosts: 219 |
Well Don you have now exposed your history. Put me down as a PMG TIT in an intake of about 120 kids in 1965 in Perth. Of that number maybe 20 were ABC broadcast and DCA aviation techs. A lot of these guys moved on to be the leaders in technology in Australia. This was in the days when we had a government in Canberra who understood Nation Building. Don't know about Normie Rowe he only lasted 12 months in the PMG before he went on to "shaking all over". My own technical career in Telstra lasted 33 years including in later years moving into Building Engineering being responsible for some of the first Building Management Systems (BMS) in Perth buildings then into Commercial Project Management where I still run a small consultancy. Computing background - PDP11, 6802 down at times to machine code level then for fun VZ200/300 Dream6800 etc then now pot around with Liberty Basic, Picaxeing & Maximite with particular focus on hardware interfacing - still wanting to develop that networked BMS System for home one day..... RayB from Perth WA |
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captainbill Newbie  Joined: 16/06/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 37 |
Don About this poll. Do you want a. our actual age. b. how old we feel c. how old we wish we were d. how old our kids think we are It makes a difference how I answer ;-) Bill Old school. Still interested. Head in the clouds. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
Geez, I hope that is all I exposed. I went into radio in the second year. By 1964 I was running my own business, and I have actually written a little about my later work efforts on the web: http://www.dontronics-shop.com/australias-first-pc.html http://www.dontronics-shop.com/mechanic-tote-history.html http://www.dontronics-shop.com/dontronics-company-informatio n.html Used PDPs 11/40, 11/34, vaxes, mini-scamps, TRS-80 and family, 6800, the list goes on and on, but I never did anything with the Picaxe. I got first offer in Australia, as Bob Nicol had passed away at Microzed, but I turned it down. I figured how can you make money out of a $5 chip, but I think David Lincoln has done very well with it. I knew he would have to put in a lot of work. Something I wasn't prepared to do. A little like counting resistors into retirement, no thanks. A little story about Bob. Years ago, someone had told me he had passed away. I was after something he had, so I rang. Not only wasn't he passed away, his daughter had her funeral that day. For those that don't know, she was an invalid in a wheel chair, and that is why he got into the Basic Stamps, to get some robotic control going for her. I tried to get off the phone as quick as I could, but he wanted to talk to me about technical things, as he said it would get his mind off his other problems. I later got hold of the dude that told me the news of Bob's death, and told him what had happened, and he had to apologize, as he obviously been given wrong information. Years later I was told Bob had passed away, almost jokingly, I rang him to see what he had to say about it this time. Unfortunately his wife answered, as he had truly passed away the second time around. There was a man that would give you all the time in the world. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
1. Can I phone a friend? 2. All of the above. 3. None of the above. 4. If you choose d., I may have to increase the age range up. 5. See 1. Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
I'm not sure I want to do the poll.. I go along with Groucho Marx on this one, "A man's only as old as the woman he feels!" Last night I burst into the room where my wife was reviewing an episode of The Big Bang Theory for her English class, to babble on to her of my force feeding the Maximite into the UBW32. She promptly burst out giggling, to which I initially took some offence, and explained that I sounded just like Leonard off the show. Hmm, a young Nerd at my age. Well I never. - Rob. p.s. It's whatever keeps us young. It may even ward off Alzheimer's in the long term! p.p.s. What the heck. I did the poll and I was in the highest percentage represented! For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
A couple goes out to dinner to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary. On the way home, she notices a tear in his eye and asks if he's getting sentimental because they're celebrating 50 wonderful years together. He replies, "No, I was thinking about the time before we got married. Your father threatened me with a shotgun and said he'd have me thrown in jail for 50 years if I didn't marry you. Tomorrow I would've been a free man!" ==================================== Yegad, the poll speaks for itself. I'm glad I started this one. No ankle biters for miles. I hope when the younger generation gets home from work, they will vote. They will know how to vote, won't they? Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
I'm afraid you won't see too much at all in the under 40 region. If you subtract 20 years, you'll see that the average age group were teens in this period. That's an indication that for many of us, the time of the personal computer explosion (1975-1985) is the time many of us were introduced to our TRS-80's, Apple II's, Microbee's, System 80'c etc. It's the crowd of this era that is attracting most of the new "Maximite's". For modern kids, the maximite looks lame. They don't have an appreciation in the evulution of the computer. They don't understand the underlying concepts and basic building blocks that make up a computer or it's history. I think another large aspect of the appeal of the Maximite, for us anyway, is it's accessibility. No overwelming OS, the hardware is accessible and , for me, the challenge of making something so small do some big things (or at least things we didn't expect it to be able to do). I get more of a buzz writing a program on the Maximite to do something that most wouldn't envision it to do. A 3Ghz multi-core PC with 2Gb accelerated 3D graphics card and 8Gb of RAM...well, I'd expect that to be able to predict next week's Gold Lotto results! Now THAT would impress me! :) |
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BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
Hi Ray, I started Apprentice Tradesman with PMG in Brisbane 1972. I was 28 when I was introduced to computing via the DREAM 6800, even though it was published in '79. Regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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stuarts Senior Member Joined: 15/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 199 |
Nick, I can write something to predict last weeks lotto results, is that close enough? Stuart Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once. |
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| Nick Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 512 |
If you can also wire up a time machine interface to the Maximite, that should be fine. :) |
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| Gadget Regular Member  Joined: 22/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 70 |
I remember a program for the TRS-80 to predict the lotto, might have to search through the micro 80 magazines to find it Terry |
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VK6MRG Guru Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 347 |
WOW, looks like i'm the youngest or second youngest member to do the pole! And here I'am thing that I'm getting to old to be playing with this sort of thing 
Looks like the younger people are to busy playing on there iPhones, PS3's, etc... Or too cool for the Maximite school! 
Its easier to ask forgiveness than to seek permission! ............VK6MRG.............VK3MGR............ |
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brucepython Regular Member Joined: 19/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 64 |
I got hooked at age 11 when I heard SILLIAC play a tune in 1957 at Sydney Uni. The tune (Waltzing Matilda) was abysmal, but the machine was awesome. Had to wait a while before I could afford a computer though. Built a DREAM 6800 and eventually had a word processor (TTY) running on it, all in machine code, an interesting learning experience 'cos I'd only coded a PDP-8 with mark-sense cards in FORTRAN at uni before that. Later came various models of the BBC, Apple ][, C64, Microbee, Mac and IBM PC in the course of my work developing software for a publisher. Also had a great time learning ARM code on the old Archimedes before Apple bought the rights to that extraordinary chip. My phone uses its great-great-great-great (or so) grandchild. I also used a TRS80 for a while but found it a bit boring compared to its contemporaries. These days I have a very deep and meaningful relationship with a Mac Pro running OS X and Windows all at once because I'm developing stuff to run on both platforms. My Maximite kit spent the past two weeks visiting three states before returning to Altronics in Perth. I can only assume it's got wind of some of the things I have in mind for it. Maybe it'll be brave enough to arrive next week, but I said that three weeks ago. What has surprised me is how excited I am by the prospect of coding retro style again. I can see it being handy for quick-n-dirty utilities just that aren't worth the bother of grinding out C++ and ideal for some monitoring/logging duties I have in mind. |
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| donmck Guru Joined: 09/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 1313 |
I am still surprised by the age poll. I guess I shouldn't have been. But yes, we have two kids in the 30 to 39 age group now. We can have fun on our iMAX. 
Cheers Don... https://www.dontronics.com |
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| BobDevries Senior Member Joined: 08/06/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 266 |
I'd bet that most of us are self-taught in the science of computing, since there were none available for use in schools when we went. Those in their 40's may well have had exposure to computers such as the Microbee, the Apple ][ etc, at school. regards, Bob Devries Dalby, QLD, Australia |
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| aargee Senior Member Joined: 21/08/2008 Location: AustraliaPosts: 255 |
And users groups CCUG(Q)... boys clubs (mostly) ... sad how the internet has taken all that away. For crying out loud, all I wanted to do was flash this blasted LED. |
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