Moldovan Ovidiu

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Stories By Moldovan Ovidiu

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    News By Moldovan Ovidiu

    TIM-S, HC, COBRA, CIP...

    First... there were magazines. Somewhere back in 1995. I think... Strange but attractive words and things in those publications: Processors, memory, hard disks.... Wait a second. Long before that! 1987 and 1988. In Communist Era, a small city in northern Romania. I was in high school, final 2 years before graduation day. I had the chance to use my first... computer. TIM S it was made in Timisoara by a romanian electronics company. It was destined to be compatible with ZX Spectrum. But it uses a romanian made processor a clone of a Z80 chip. A funny thing about that computer, but a very ergonomic one: It has a "Turbo" button, placed next to "Reset" switch. To much Turbo, followed by a necessary reset. If you want it, you can plug in an upgraded extensions board then you can connect peripherals like 5'' inch floppy-disks, casette players... Yep, we load games from tape casettes, and I used to play fantastic titles: Saboteur, Dizzy, River Raid, Lode Runner, Bruce Lee, Dan Dare. Specifications? Are you ready for this? U808 Processor - 3.5 MHz and 6 MHz, 16kb to 64 kb of RAM. 16kb ROM (Hard Disk!). Operating System: Basic(Beginner's All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code ) Language. Nice. There were severals personal computers on romanian markets back in that days: all sharing same specifications, all clones and therefore compatible with Spectrum, but assembled in different cities: HC, CoBra, CIP. Nice names? No. But great memories. My first real computer with proper operating system, I remember it was a Packard Bell with Windows 3.11 pre-installed and motorised by an Intel 486 processor. I buy myself some books (For Dummies), and started to learn Dos 6.22, Office Suite and Windows.

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    No screen name for me

    100 Words or less... Let's try the second option. No screen name for me. My real one for now. Anyway, it sounds strange enough for most of you because I'm from Eastern Europe. Nothing to hide behind a screen name, just proud to put down my opinions. 50 words. Yay!

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    Memories of a Geek?

    I don't know where it all started... But I do know what draws me into the world o technology. My passion for listening to music. I grew up in communist Romania. In my early childhood years, well in that period, the only technology my parents was using, was an old radio. Mostly tuned up on public service. All along the propaganda shows, there are some romanian music tunes, but they were enough for a curious kid. My attention was captured by that little box and all the voices and songs it delivers from inside his belly. My teenage years with all their ups and downs, were still trapted in an communist regime. So for the sake of a free spirit, music was the only tool to reach some sort of liberty. But accesing the artists of the 80's or 70's musical eras, was a difficult task in Romania. They are not easily playable at public radio stations. So you have to find solutions to listen english or american charts. I remember using myself a portable radio, a romanian product, with a broken expandable antenna. I always keep this equipment near a heat radiator, because this gives me a better AM or SW reception. Those were the years I begin to understand and love technology. All those players that help me listening my favorite songs. Those cassette recorders, tape players, vynil pick-ups, all of them were the only instruments that gave me access to the freedom of the world outside our political borders. Mostly, there were russian products: Majak or Kashtan Tape Recorders, polish and chechoslovakian cassette players: Unitra or Tesla. Still, those were robust and reliable pieces of technology. Then became the early 90's, the music changes alongside with technology for listening. Obviously my attraction for those new equipments grows, the communist regime was over and I was able to buy cd players, better amplifiers and speakers. Wow! No more expectations from me, as I embrace the quality of digital discs played on Technics equipment. Musical and technological heaven for a child or a teenager just escaped from an oppressive regime. In that years I began working as an tehnician for national telecomm company. And that prepares me for the next big thing. Maybe the biggest: The Internet. I embrace the new technology, because was part of my daily job to implemment it to the customers. My curiosity and attraction to everything related to information technology, takes the leading role. As long as the infrastructure evolves, the access to information becomes more cheap and more advanced equipments pass on through my hands. So... yes, somewhere along the road, I transform myself in some sort of .... geek. I don't konw if I am a complete kind of geek. No terms of comparrison yet. But sure I am a passionate. I do not depend on them on my daily regular life, at least I try to not let all those modern portable gadgets take control of my life. But sure I am willing to learn everything about this new world. Call it... the curiosity of the child. In fact "The Song Remains The Same", no? The child who used to listen to music on old and broken radios... That child now has access to online radios, streaming services, he can carry his favorite songs anywhere life takes him... New toys for new times. All those make him a geek? You tell... I might be subjective on this.

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