"There were a lot of interesting versions of BASIC done for Japanese machines this article misses (..)"
Most likely referring to MSX-Basic. Which shows it's (c) Microsoft on the startup screen.
Not the fastest, but a very full-featured Basic compared to most Basics around @ the time. Iirc it does non-integer math on BCD coded values. Single & double precision, so users can decide RAM use/speed/precision tradeoffs.
Maybe there were other Japanese machines using MS-supplied Basics before that. But if so, likely few (any?) after MSX was introduced ('83), since that was big in Japan leaving little room for 8-bit competitors.
My very first computer was a Spectravideo MSX computer which I got in exchange for writing some demo programs for the midwest distributor for the company. Fun little machine, although I still preferred Apple in general.
I have a question, can something like this survive in today's world? or have the disassembling tools now too advanced to easily wipe something like this when cloning.
It sounds like you are asking whether anti-cloning or anti-piracy measures would survive in today's world, and that's something of an ugly arms race. The publishers know whatever scheme they put in will eventually be defeated, but most of them just want to deter piracy for a limited period after the release date.
The Microsoft easter egg is from an earlier era where things aren't so ugly. The Cutting Room Floor has more easter eggs of that nature, for example:
If you copy someone's code, always add a bunch of easter eggs saying the code belongs to company X, Y and Z. Then nobody else can claim it as their own.
On the Altair Basic, good achievement; but giving how fast Forth was, I'd guess that using a fixed point and a optional floating point for a 8800 machine it would send Basic to NUL.
Bill gates is the only remaining hacker one can look upto. Yes he was ruthless but also the amount of work he did for humanity was orders of magnitude more than others.
The current crop of rich folks are really the wrong uns and come from a deep history of bad families. Rotten blood really shows.
One of my favorite past times is reading different Bill Gates biographies. They never get old. Right now actually just started reading the one he actually wrote recently. It's excellent so far.
Bill? The one from Halloween Documents? Richard Stallman among the reaining Scheme, Common Lisp, Lisp Machines, Forth and UXN hackers are the ONLY remaining ones.
Everything else has no clue what's babbling about.
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armor to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place."
I wouldn't call that an easter egg. IMHO it's rather a backdoor. A covert method to gain access to information about the system. Indeed what is the benefit to the user? No need to feed the mythology about BG. He was not a developer. Period.
An excellent article. Bill Gates himself posted a comment: https://www.pagetable.com/?p=43#comment-1033
Nice! From that comment:
"There were a lot of interesting versions of BASIC done for Japanese machines this article misses (..)"
Most likely referring to MSX-Basic. Which shows it's (c) Microsoft on the startup screen.
Not the fastest, but a very full-featured Basic compared to most Basics around @ the time. Iirc it does non-integer math on BCD coded values. Single & double precision, so users can decide RAM use/speed/precision tradeoffs.
Maybe there were other Japanese machines using MS-supplied Basics before that. But if so, likely few (any?) after MSX was introduced ('83), since that was big in Japan leaving little room for 8-bit competitors.
My very first computer was a Spectravideo MSX computer which I got in exchange for writing some demo programs for the midwest distributor for the company. Fun little machine, although I still preferred Apple in general.
What do you think his hn username is? :)
billg. https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=billg
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Related. Others?
Bill Gates' Personal Easter Eggs in 8 Bit Basic - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30110068 - Jan 2022 (1 comment)
I have a question, can something like this survive in today's world? or have the disassembling tools now too advanced to easily wipe something like this when cloning.
It sounds like you are asking whether anti-cloning or anti-piracy measures would survive in today's world, and that's something of an ugly arms race. The publishers know whatever scheme they put in will eventually be defeated, but most of them just want to deter piracy for a limited period after the release date.
The Microsoft easter egg is from an earlier era where things aren't so ugly. The Cutting Room Floor has more easter eggs of that nature, for example:
https://tcrf.net/Super_Tetris_3
Also try searching for "hidden copyright".
Oh how dreary. I was hoping for something fun and whimsical but it's just IP protection...
nice, always blows my mind how much history is packed into old computers and all the random stories. i geek out over this stuff tbh.
If you copy someone's code, always add a bunch of easter eggs saying the code belongs to company X, Y and Z. Then nobody else can claim it as their own.
I think you're thinking of the legend of DOS and mixing it with this story.
https://www.geekwire.com/2012/csi-redmond-forensic-analysis-...
On the Altair Basic, good achievement; but giving how fast Forth was, I'd guess that using a fixed point and a optional floating point for a 8800 machine it would send Basic to NUL.
interesting!
"I stole this and put my name on it first"
Bill gates is the only remaining hacker one can look upto. Yes he was ruthless but also the amount of work he did for humanity was orders of magnitude more than others.
The current crop of rich folks are really the wrong uns and come from a deep history of bad families. Rotten blood really shows.
>Bill gates is the only remaining hacker one can look upto.
Assuming Bill gates is the only hacker you are aware of.
What is interesting to consider is if Dave Cutler had not been available or otherwise did not choose Microsoft in 1988.
Would Microsoft have adapted BSD NET/1 as Apple eventually did, instead of continuing OS/2?
What's interesting is that Cutler said in an interview that initially he talked to Gates but wasn't interested until Ballmer swayed him in.
with a few minutes of pretext: https://youtu.be/xi1Lq79mLeE?t=3224
One of my favorite past times is reading different Bill Gates biographies. They never get old. Right now actually just started reading the one he actually wrote recently. It's excellent so far.
Or Paul Allen in Accidental Zillionaire.
You can also just look up to normal people who are better than Bill Gates, even if they're not as rich as him.
Bill? The one from Halloween Documents? Richard Stallman among the reaining Scheme, Common Lisp, Lisp Machines, Forth and UXN hackers are the ONLY remaining ones.
Everything else has no clue what's babbling about.
His wife did divorce him due to his involvement with child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein
https://www.today.com/news/bill-melinda-gates-divorce-linked...
The body language analysis [2-3] of the PBS News Hour Interview [1] is quite something.
[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VOgVcFv_tWs
[2] Bill Gates was BLINDSIDED by Jeffrey Epstein question https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SwAk3797Bn0
[3] Communication Professor Reacts to Bill Gates Interview on PBS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79ExQWKb2vA
"The idea that Bill Gates has appeared like a knight in shining armor to lead all customers out of a mire of technological chaos neatly ignores the fact that it was he who, by peddling second-rate technology, led them into it in the first place."
I wouldn't call that an easter egg. IMHO it's rather a backdoor. A covert method to gain access to information about the system. Indeed what is the benefit to the user? No need to feed the mythology about BG. He was not a developer. Period.
No need to try and rewrite history just because you hate M$ or whatever.
I don't hate Micro-soft however I like the truth. Do you know the BASIC was open source ? Wikipedia is your friend.
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