it is on all macs, daniel, but the fn (function) key makes the command work

Is that a Tiger change? Hmmm.

I know there's not supposed to be a codec issue on Macs, so I'm not sure why QT balked at so much.

I love Growl. My father hated it, because up came a window he couldn't click on. However the idea that while I'm typing fast it's okay to give a new window the focus is crank-making to me. I hate when typing hits the combo of keys that makes a command decision on the popup and then dismisses it.

I can't remember if I had to install the Xvid/Divx codecs separately or not to play torrents in QT. (I normally burn everything to DVD and play it on the TV, so it doesn't come up that often.)

The only codec I installed with quicktime was the wmv support. Weird.

[link] covers most of my quicktime codec needs.

Popular Mechanics review of the top six computers. Of 1982. [link]

The IBM PC had just been introduced.

From PM:

It used to be that programs were easy to copy and change. But manufacturers began to lose money as many people made copies of software and gave them to their friends.

Now, many manufacturers have figured out how to “copy-protect” discs. A copy-protected disc—like a cartridge—can’t be copied or changed.

To our mind this is a disaster: Most people learn programming by changing programs to fit their own needs. This capability of customization is what makes computers so attractive. New ways of copy protection will probably be found soon. Until then, a computer owner may have to put up with being “locked out” of his own machine.

eta:

All the companies which make these computers... are referred to as "primary manufacturers." Companies which make software or hardware to "fit" one of these machines... are called "secondary manufacturers."

I've never heard that terminology.

Popular Mechanics review of the top six computers. Of 1982.

I've used all six of those computers.

I've used all six of those computers.

You win. I never used the PET.

The PET's the one I probably used the most. Or possibly the Apple II. The computer club my dad signed me up for way back when had a whole bunch of PETs and TRS-80s (as all us right-thinking people know, this is, of course, pronounced Trash-80), and we had a II at home.

The computer club had a small smattering of the other computers, so I had much less exposure to those, and mostly I encountered the IBM PC in my dad's office (he was a professor of education, specialized in technology in learning -- I've been ahead of the computer curve pretty much my whole life).

I had an Atari 400 rather than an 800, but that was a fun computer to program. There was good documentation on where to poke and peek values in memory to make the graphics work. I wrote a few video games for it (they games sort of sucked, but hey I was in middle school and/or early high school at the time).