Bits & Bytes - ROM and RAM

[DancingMadRB3]

Anymore ROM and RAM seem not to matter much in the days of high capacity HDD's and SSD's, sure having more RAM does matter considering what operating system you use but on linux it seems that ROM and RAM are just buzzwords on how it uses both ROM and RAM.

Especially where SWAP is concerned.

[manoelramon]

When I was a kid.. every Saturday morning 7:00am, I used to turn on my TV in a brazilian channel called TV Cultura to watch a TV program called Bits & Bytes. I learnt everything about computer on this program and I am very glad for finding one of those episodes on internet today.

[summer20105707]

How relevant your computer remains depends on you the user or programmer. Remember that these computers that are sold in stores today are yesterday's supercomputers.

[sweiland75]

rumpack

[jhonnydrama]

wow that's luba man did she ever get fat

[pcmarriotthk]

ah...the golden age of computing!

[TOMMY95215]

This would be great for my teacher to use in ICT simply because he sucks at explaining stuff.

[zorinlynx]

Hey there, do you happen to have any episodes of "The Computer Room" which was a TVO show from the mid-to-late 80s? I used to watch it as a kid and would *love* to see even a single episode or part of one again. :)

[StevenBradleyScott]

ROYAL CANADIAN AIRFARCE!!

[Tomsavini666]

This reminds me of this computer I had forever ago it had a 30gb hdd and 126mb ram, and idk what the processor was but it was beast, but now my computer has to bae at least 100 times better, 2tb hdd, 8gb ram, i7 920 2.6ghz, and a graphics card to boot, my my how technology has really taken soar.

[emilygrae]

Oh my goodness! I got my Atari 800 in the summer of 83, and used it almost daily until 1990... This is great to watch! I love both Billy and Luba!

[BranislavDJ]

PERMANENT?!HA!

If we hire Bill Gates nothing will be permanent!

XD

Maybe errors though... XDD

[aartie]

Also, Luba lives next door to me, so it's all very weird.

[ClassicGarth]

@aartie Ha! Small world. I bet she hasn't seen these shows since they were made, but clearly people are still seeking them out and enjoying them.

[aartie]

God I loved this show when I was a kid.

[Jacko1394]

ATARI!!

[cleofas2]

jajajaja el ruco que sale esta bien cagado

[zigzagbigbag]

i have all episodes of this and party game. transfered from beta

[LonelyVagabond]

I remember being shown this in highschool. Completely useless information now.

[localhbci]

@LonelyVagabond: Not completely useless. Even the most advanced personal computers still have a ROM that gives the computer the most basic instructions as to how to load the main OS into memory. Without that, your expensive PC would be a paperweight.

[djmaxion]

i keep my memmory in my hard disc

[holodocdr]

I recorded the series on Beta in 1983 (if it hasnt faded by now I have it). Any idea if this was released on DVD? I cant keep these :(

[ClassicGarth]

There is no official DVD release, though there are probably bootlegs out there. Some people trade & collect these things.

[SaganAppreciationSoc]

@holodocdr

Output your Beta tapes to your computer then upload them to YouTube.

[holodocdr]

Even if I could, there might not be much of a signal left on those tapes. We're talking about recordings made 27 years ago this month

[MarkArandjus]

Good times, good times...

[axxaxaxx]

how old is this

[ClassicGarth]

This series originally aired in about 1983. Even though it was for the novice computer user, it goes into remarkable detail about the inner workings of computers.

[AnalogX64]

anyone know where to get these episodes?

[MatthewTie]

This brings back so many memories. We used to watch these in computer class in public school.

[DopePhishOfDoom]

I MISS MY LITTLE FLOPPY DRIVE

[firesmile01]

Jeesh,

Garth ... do you have the whole series? I'd love to have it...

[coldfustion]

Did they not have hard drives back then or something? This is so retro lol.

[ClassicGarth]

Hard drives did exist, but home users did not have them. The video you just watched would have filled up a whole hard drive costing $2,500 (about $5,000 today adjusted for inflation).

[ClassicGarth]

Also, this ROM and RAM lesson still applies to today's computers, basically. You still have a ROM chip that tells the computer how to start up (though these chips can usually be erased and re-written now), and the RAM chips still lose their contents when the power is off. (These days you can use Sleep or Standby mode which keeps the RAM chips powered up)

[ask4fish]

Computers without hard drives (floppy drive only) were widely available into the early 90s.

[cadefulp]

Nope If you're a today GUY then its normal back in those years no one had HARD DRIVES mainly beceause No one knew how to do it

[Lisucaxx]

I remember turning this show the minute it came on!! I was about 5 or 6 at the time and i think only one person i knew had a computer. man, you could make lunch AND eat it waiting for that game to load!!

[rbairos1]

The first time I saw this show I was 12 years old in my grandmothers living room. The second time is now, on a 32" LCD, Quad 2.4Ghz CPU, downloaded via an optical isp in a high-tech computer graphics company.

:)

[GuitarGod83]

It's funny, the guy in this video, Billy Van is it?, reminds me of a professor I had a few years back. Coolest guy ever.

[coolzeroproject]

gee.. it feels proud to be a computer geek. thanks to this video.. i can share more clearly to my students the basics..

[sent2null]

This show is primarily why I am a software engineer today. Love it! I was 11 at the time but made sure never to miss an episode on my local PBS station. Thanks for posting the vid.

[OofusTwillip]

Ah, the soothing, melifluous tones of Fred Napoli's narration...

[kurtman68]

I thought the narrator sounded like Leslie Nielsen - who is/was Fred Napoli?

[jcice3]

Here in Atlantic Canada, Bits and Bytes aired in 1983 on our local CTV affiliate, ATV (now CTV Atlantic). I never missed an episode.

[ThirdOfJune4444]

Wow! I'd almost forgotten this show. Living in Atlantic Canada too, I always watched this show. Brings back many memories. I was 11 when this aired. Luba's certainly made a good career for herself. I was sadened to hear about Billy's passing some time ago.

[mcpish]

I used to watch this show all the time when I was a kid in the 1980's. I was about 7-10. It was on a station in Winnipeg called "VSP-7" run by the local cable company that carried special educational programming.

[Brockton]

Thanks for posting these, eh! Used to love this show as a geeky child back in the 80's.

I tried contacting TVO a while ago about possibly getting my hands on an episode or two of this series, but they never got back to me about it.

[xanfan5378]

Are you still looking for a copy of the series?

[wiigirl06]

I remember this show!! Too bad the series isn't available somewhere. I suppose its too dated for todays machines though. I guess it would still be useful for the basics though.

[ClassicGarth]

What I love about these old shows is that they assume you've never used a computer before. And then they teach how everything works, even how to write a small program of your own. You can't really make a show like this anymore.

[wiigirl06]

Do you have any more of these? I would really like to see more clips. Thanks again for what you have posted!