Posted on 04/27/2024 2:27:01 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
Tesla Model S Plaid, 1,020 horsepower, 0-60 in 1.99 seconds, 1/4 mile: 9.23/155 mph.
Yes. I got my Apple II PC in 1977. They were advertised as "PC" back then. All of 4K RAM memory, of which only 2K was usable by me for programs, written to cassette tape. I soon added floppy drives, more memory, then a hard drive and modified the motherboard with my own code in EPROMS. I still have that machine, upgraded to run on a flash drive with thousands of programs built in, with speech and music processors, still runs.
But, for my jobs I needed IBM PCs, got a 80186 running 6MHz. Faster and better machines came out at a brisk pace in the early 1980s, and got cheaper. The thing I liked about early machines was the ability to easily manipulate the hardware and software, even controlling floppy and hard drives at the byte level (where you could defeat copy protection on hidden tracks). All concepts that matched the big machines I worked on (mainframe and mini computers).
All this was similar to automobiles. One of my hobbies was working on cars, where I rebuilt engines and transplanted them in different cars. Now, I won't touch modern engines with all the computer components in them. I still have a couple 1960's era cars that are very easy to work on, modified the intake ports and cams. I imagine that it is the same case with early EVs, easy for hobbyists to tinker with, before they become too complicated as they are improved. I have an EV that I've owned for 5 years, and might tinker with it when it gets older just for the heck of it.
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