I don't post on here very often, two posts in one day is something of a record for me. I don't really know how to program, save for a little bit of Python on my Raspberry PI. So as an M100 user, I guess I'm what you could class as an enthusiastic/user. I use my M100 for writing articles for my vintage tech blog, the battery life just makes it a great machine to use. The screen is far superior to the Amstrad NC100 I was using previously, which was more of a word processor then a real computer like the TRS.
Anyways, I thought I would share with you an experience I had with my M100 last week, while we had a spell of sunshine. I know it's not exactly dissecting a system rom or anything ambitious as getting an M100 online over wifi. But I thought I would share it, as it's was a fun moment using a 30yr old computer for what it was meant for. Last week the sun blessed us with an appearance, so a group of us 'nerds' decided to venture out in to the sunshine to soak up some Vitamin D! I packed a rucksack and threw my M100 inside, thinking I could finish off a blog post. Sitting on the picnic blanket with a flask of tea, I kept having people come up to me, inquiring about the Tandy. I genuinely didn't think anyone would raise an eye brow, aside from take pity on the sad nerd who couldnt afford a Macbook Air. To my surprise people wanted to know about the little machine, which I was more then happy to tell them about. Even if it did mean I didn't get any work done! Some of them sort of knew what it was, while others were completely baffled. One guy even asked if I hooked it up to the PC using USB. When I explained to him that I used a serial cable, there was a lost expression his face. Clearly not a lover of old RS-232! The oddest part of the outing was having my friends seven year old son approach me, looking genuinely confused. "What is that?" "It's a computer" I replied "No, it doesn't have a lid" Argued the child "That's a laptop, this is a portable computer. See this label on the front, it says 'Portable Computer', it can work out maths problems and I can write on it just like a regular computer" "It's not a computer, it doesn't have a screen! how do you close the lid?" "It doesn't need a lid and the screen is there see!" So if you want to confuse a small child, wave an old computer at them and watch their brain explode lol. Having grown up in the 80's, it's really difficult to get my head around the fact there is a generation now, that see's touchscreens as common place. I really wonder what they would make of sitting in front of a C64 and typing out a program listing from a book, like I did when I was 7-8 years old. Thats what I think of when someone says the word computer. Anyways, that was a random adventure with my M100, still a useful work horse. Hope nobody objected to me sharing :-) James
