Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

This is the place for posts that don't fit into any other category.

Moderator: RichardW

User avatar
NewcastleFalcon
Posts: 24563
Joined: 25 Feb 2009, 10:40
Location:
My Cars:
x 6866

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Regards Neil
Only One AA Box left
687 Trinity, Jersey
User avatar
mickthemaverick
Donor 2024
Posts: 13523
Joined: 11 May 2019, 17:56
Location: Hertford
My Cars: 70+ former cars (list available) including 11 Citroens, 3 Renaults
Current cars: 2004 Subaru Legacy 2.5 SEn, 1994 Mazda MX3
x 6011

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by mickthemaverick »

That article says the first "truly automotive navigation system" was developed by Honda in 1981. Well what about James's system in his DB5 in 1965 I say. Worked all the way to Geneva!!! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
Hell Razor5543
Donor 2023
Posts: 13727
Joined: 01 Apr 2012, 09:47
Location: Reading
My Cars: C5 Mk2 VTX+ estate.
x 2993

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by Hell Razor5543 »

mickthemaverick wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 10:46 That article says the first "truly automotive navigation system" was developed by Honda in 1981. Well what about James's system in his DB5 in 1965 I say. Worked all the way to Geneva!!! :-D
True, but it had a REALLY annoying beep every few moments!
James
ex BX 1.9
ex Xantia 2.0HDi SX
ex Xantia 2.0HDi LX
Ex C5 2.0HDi VTR
Ex C5 2.0HDi VTR

C5 2.2HDi VTX+
Yes, I am paranoid, but am I paranoid ENOUGH?
Out amongst the stars, looking for a world of my own!
User avatar
NewcastleFalcon
Posts: 24563
Joined: 25 Feb 2009, 10:40
Location:
My Cars:
x 6866

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Gibbo2286 wrote: 06 Feb 2021, 09:43 I'll bet that the entertainment kit in that cost more than a couple of small cars. :)
In 1981 Honda offered the "Electro Gyro-Cator" navigation unit. The unit was optional for the equivalent of about $2,750 – nearly 25 percent of the price of the actual cars themselves.
Regards Neil

.
Only One AA Box left
687 Trinity, Jersey
User avatar
Paul-R
Donor 2023
Posts: 6916
Joined: 07 May 2009, 16:24
Location: Wirral, NW England; Vaucluse 84, France
Lexia Available: Yes
My Cars: 2015 1.6 Blue HDi 120 Peugeot 308 Active SW
2013 2.0 HDi 163 C5 Exclusive Tourer
2003 2.0 HDi 110 C5 Exclusive Estate (Gone)
2001 2.0 HDi 90 Xsara Estate (Gone)
x 1369

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia

Post by Paul-R »

CitroJim wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 07:24Windows CE... I once dabbled in it... It promised much but did not really fully deliver but I think in those days the hardware was the limitation rather than any fundamental issue with CE itself...
I have a CE tablet which I picked up for a couple of quid at our radio club's junk sale previously owned gems a couple of years ago.

Never been able to a damn thing with it whenever I've switched it on!
As I get older I think a lot about the hereafter - I go into a room and then wonder what I'm here after.

Inside every old person is a young person wondering what the hell happened.

"Trying is the first step towards failure" ~ Homer J Simpson​
User avatar
NewcastleFalcon
Posts: 24563
Joined: 25 Feb 2009, 10:40
Location:
My Cars:
x 6866

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Worked all the way to Geneva!!!
Worked all the way to Geneva!!!
regards Neil
Only One AA Box left
687 Trinity, Jersey
User avatar
CitroJim
A very naughty boy
Posts: 49526
Joined: 30 Apr 2005, 23:33
Location: Paggers
My Cars: Bluebell the AX, Polly the C3 Picasso, Pix the Nissan Pixo, Propel the duathlon bike, TCR Pro the road bike and Fuji the TT bike...
x 6160
Contact:

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia

Post by CitroJim »

NewcastleFalcon wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 11:34 In 1981 Honda offered the "Electro Gyro-Cator" navigation unit. The unit was optional for the equivalent of about $2,750 – nearly 25 percent of the price of the actual cars themselves.
Interesting link Neil :)

Gosh, how things have moved on...

I have a full GPS navigation system complete with world maps on my wrist :)

The first navigation system I remember was 'Auto Route' running on a 286 PC back in the late 80s... It was a real piece of magic... The software lived on two 5 1/4" floppy disks...
Jim

Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
User avatar
mickthemaverick
Donor 2024
Posts: 13523
Joined: 11 May 2019, 17:56
Location: Hertford
My Cars: 70+ former cars (list available) including 11 Citroens, 3 Renaults
Current cars: 2004 Subaru Legacy 2.5 SEn, 1994 Mazda MX3
x 6011

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia

Post by mickthemaverick »

CitroJim wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 17:48
NewcastleFalcon wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 11:34 In 1981 Honda offered the "Electro Gyro-Cator" navigation unit. The unit was optional for the equivalent of about $2,750 – nearly 25 percent of the price of the actual cars themselves.
Interesting link Neil :)

Gosh, how things have moved on...

I have a full GPS navigation system complete with world maps on my wrist :)

The first navigation system I remember was 'Auto Route' running on a 286 PC back in the late 80s... It was a real piece of magic... The software lived on two 5 1/4" floppy disks...
I remember Autoroute, I used to run it in the office on my RM 380 with twin 51/4 drives and CPM. Good days!!
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
User avatar
CitroJim
A very naughty boy
Posts: 49526
Joined: 30 Apr 2005, 23:33
Location: Paggers
My Cars: Bluebell the AX, Polly the C3 Picasso, Pix the Nissan Pixo, Propel the duathlon bike, TCR Pro the road bike and Fuji the TT bike...
x 6160
Contact:

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia

Post by CitroJim »

mickthemaverick wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 18:03 twin 51/4 drives and CPM. Good days!!
Ahh! CP/M! Magic :) That brings back memories :D It was the first Disk Operating System I learned and got quite competent with it... Even to programming in machine code and C...

There was some great software available for it too... One was Wordstar which was truly was excellent, a database (Ashton-Tate Dbase II) and a spreadsheet, the name of which escapes me now... Supercalc maybe?

I also used to look after a multi-user system based on CP/M called MP/M. It was hellishly advanced for the time as it ran multiple instances of what we would now call virtual instances of CP/M, one for each user under an executive... Each instance served an individual dumb terminal... The central hard disk and printers were all shared between users...

Looking back, it worked very much like VMWare does... (or how VMWare did just prior to my retirement...)

Knowing CP/M certainly helped transition to MS-DOS when it became dominant on the PC and CP/M faded into obscurity... Except on the Amstrad CPC and PCW home computers, of which I had one :)
Jim

Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
User avatar
white exec
Moderating Team
Posts: 7445
Joined: 21 Dec 2015, 12:46
Location: Sayalonga, Malaga, Spain
My Cars: 1996 XM 2.5TD Exclusive hatch RHD
1992 BX19D Millesime hatch LHD
previously 1989 BX19RD, 1998 ZX 1.9D auto, 2001 Xantia 1.8i auto
and lots of Rovers before that: 1935 Ten, 1947 Sixteen, 1960 P5 3-litre, 1966 P6 2000, 1972 P6 2000TC, and 1975 P6B 3500S
x 1752

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by white exec »

Never into operating systems or programming like Jim, I cut my PC teeth on an Opus 8088, MS-DOS, and a w.p. package called Wordcraft. This wasn't wysiwyg, but used codes and colours (colour, eventually!) on screen to flag fonts, bold, italic, underline, indents, etc. Decent print output, for subsequent offset printing, was from a Juki daisywheel printer, which would drop into Pause each time a wheel (font) needed changing.

We continued with Wordcraft for a good few years, but added Canon LBP4 b/w laser printers, with "hard fonts" available on printer plug-in font cartridges. These A4 Canons were the thick end of £1000 apiece, and the font cartridges around £100. How prices have fallen!

I moved on from Education just as MS Word was taking off. Wysiwyg was hugely welcome, although my OH was using it daily with Wordperfect II. Word has proved hugely durable, and versions have built nicely on each other, with backward compatibility - something MS have done really well IMO.

In the 70s and 80s manual cut'n'paste was a routine activity. "Camera-ready copy" needed to be created for subsequent offset platemaking or photocopying, so scalpels, green cutting boards, parallel-scale rulers, PrittStik or Copydex, and yellow-printed lay-up paper were the daily tools. An Agfa repro camera and Copyproof was pretty much standard too, which enabled rapid re-sizing, image manipulation and photo (half-tone) screening. All this made the move to on-screen page make-up an easy progression.
Chris
User avatar
CitroJim
A very naughty boy
Posts: 49526
Joined: 30 Apr 2005, 23:33
Location: Paggers
My Cars: Bluebell the AX, Polly the C3 Picasso, Pix the Nissan Pixo, Propel the duathlon bike, TCR Pro the road bike and Fuji the TT bike...
x 6160
Contact:

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by CitroJim »

white exec wrote: 08 Feb 2021, 07:35Canon LBP4 b/w laser printers, with "hard fonts" available on printer plug-in font cartridges.
I remember those printers with some fondness Chris... Built like tanks as I recall and very reliable :)
Jim

Runner, cyclist, time triallist, duathlete, Citroen AX fan and the CCC Citroenian 'From A to Z' Columnist...
User avatar
NewcastleFalcon
Posts: 24563
Joined: 25 Feb 2009, 10:40
Location:
My Cars:
x 6866

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

CitroJim wrote: 07 Feb 2021, 17:48 Interesting link Neil :)
Gosh, how things have moved on...
Here's another tongue-in-cheek illustration of the old and the new. Software-cars are full of it these days. Here's 2 update methods.
1. Bonnets up, wires plugged in as illustrated by VW updating their ID3 Fleet prior tor delivery.

Image
Meanwhile in a very large parking lot there are a lot of Teslas...
2. Over-the-air update, not a wire in sight...
Video wont embed story here
https://electrek.co/2021/02/07/tesla-up ... ns-coming/
Regards Neil
Last edited by NewcastleFalcon on 08 Feb 2021, 19:25, edited 1 time in total.
Only One AA Box left
687 Trinity, Jersey
User avatar
mickthemaverick
Donor 2024
Posts: 13523
Joined: 11 May 2019, 17:56
Location: Hertford
My Cars: 70+ former cars (list available) including 11 Citroens, 3 Renaults
Current cars: 2004 Subaru Legacy 2.5 SEn, 1994 Mazda MX3
x 6011

Re: Citroen XM Multimedia & other early IT in cars

Post by mickthemaverick »

Love the simultaneous Tesla titillation!! :-D
I used to be indecisive, now I'm not so sure!
I used to ride on two wheels, but now I need all four!
Post Reply