-
Last edited by the86d; 05-03-2018, 11:25 AM. -
Atari 800 $800
IMB XT $5400sigpicComment
-
Personally, my 1st computer was an IBM PC, not even an xt. 2 180k 51/4" floppy's was the input/storage method.
I learned to operate an IBM 360/4 back in the early 70's. A whopping 4k RAM, input via punch-card, tape drive storage. Took up half a floor in an office building. The floor had to be raised and a massive cooling system forced cold air to the units.
We've come quite away in the last 50 years.AL
CGF Contributor
NRA Golden Eagle
Being north of 70 has definite advantages: I was able to do all my stupid stuff before video cameras, smartphones, utube, and the internet.
Comment
-
Commodore 64, also. My father still has a Macintosh SE in his attic. It was one of those that had the signatures of the designers engraved on the internal heat shields for some reason. He fires it up every now and again and the date/time is still correct...Comment
-
Also looks like a Tandy 1400LT
Wait...
...it IS a 1400LT:
- Rich
Originally posted by dantoddComment
-
commodore 64 here. but i used my cousins TI with the tape thing and all.Comment
-
TI-16 with a whooping 16k of ram and 1 5.25" floppy drive to load the system disk into, DOS1.1 around 1978. Started learning how to program with DOS, wrote a few short programs, used a cassette tape to save them.
Looking back, the single most important computer advance was coming up with a system that made you spend hard earned money continuously with new computers, upgrades, software only to be replaced with buying more new computers, upgrades and software. Ingenious I say, Ingenious!!!^^^The above is just an opinion.
NRA Patron Member
CRPA 5 yr Member
"...which from their verbosity, their endless tautologies, their involutions of case within case, and parenthesis within parenthesis, and their multiplied efforts at certainty by saids and aforesaids, by ors and by ands, to make them more plain, do really render them more perplexed and incomprehensible, not only to common readers, but to lawyers themselves. " - Thomas JeffersonComment
-
i remember when CD burners first came out.
we went to the computer swap meet on weekends to get the best deal on drives and cards and cases etc...
it wasn't long after x2 came out before x4 and x8
and by the time you bought an x8, x16 came out
and then x32
they had x32 already when they released x2.Comment
-
I started out with my first computer in late '77 with the altair, Learned Assy language programming. Wrote my own DOS. Then I got hold of a TRS80 in 1979. Learned to program in Basic. 1981, I purchased a Timex Sinclair, and all the goodies with it. In that same year, the company I worked for, purchased 30, new IBM-PC 5150 computers with green screens. I taught them how to use them, how to use basic to write there own menu's. Most of that was done by me though. In thanks, they gave me my first, IBM PC 5150.
Fast forward to late 1983, When they upgraded, I ended up with 20 5150 computers, and several Apple II's. I fixed them all, sold them to just about everyone for $500-$900/each!
Took that money, bought A PC-XT, and within three months, an IBM-PC AT 5170 with a 20mb HDD, and a Commodore 64 with all the goodies, and an original NES.
1984, The NES started needing repairs. I figured it out, and within a month, my garage was full of them I had to repair. $50/each, took five minutes to fix them. I made a killing. Meanwhile, I get more computers from my company, and a couple veterinary clinics.......
That's how it started, and why I'm where I'm at today with computers.... Since 1983, I've had at LEAST 20 computers at the same time, and I still do. Although now, its principally laptops.
Along the way, I've learned:
Computers in general.
How to write an O/S that functions properly.
How to write menu systems that wound up on quite a few business computers.
Several different BASIC languages (all pretty much the same).
Assy Language.
Fortran, and COBOL (Haven't used either since about '95).
How to negotiate to get computers from companies who just upgraded.
In 1990, I met John McAfee, we became friends. He got me some contract work for Lockheed.
I've worked for the DoD, administrating SIPRNET, and various other "security" projects.
I've done some contract work for NASA, Lockheed, ADP (Automatic Data Processing), Lawrence Livermore Lab, Microsoft, and Intel.
I spent the first 12 years at the DoD, doing "computer stuff", and then the next 13 years, doing "other" projects for them as a GS civilian. Retired at 50, 12-August-2012, after 25yrs/service.
All this started with a single, punch card during an IBM programmers class in 1976, a soldering iron, and a lot of determination.
I have owned:
Apple (All of them but 2)
MacIntosh (just about all of them)
Altair
Amstrad
Amiga (All of them, including one that was a prototype).
Commodore (all of them).
Timex
Tandy (all of them)
TI
IBM (all but a PC-Jr.)
Osborne
Just about every PC clone ever manufactured at one time or another, including an Acorn.
A few SPARK stations by SUN, running UNIX.
Out of all of them, the high-end Amiga's were, and still are, my favorites.
Been a good ride.
Last edited by Dragunov; 05-13-2018, 12:10 PM.Comment
-
Remember your first...?
My first was an Atari 400, and I still have it along with an Atari tape drive which was its only storage option.
I later had an Atari 1200xl, then onto IBM clones like 286, 386, etc.
I remember the old modems like 300 baud and how awesome it was to jump to 1200 and 2400 baud. You could download that new text-based game is just a few hours, as long as nobody picked up another phone extension in your house.
That first Atari 400 got me interested in BASIC programming which led to dabbling in other programming languages like Pascal and Fortran. That led to a career in IT and I still use VBA to enhance ERP systems (VBA is the only language that is built to this particular ERP system). Most of my time these days is spent with T-SQL.Last edited by rdfact; 05-06-2018, 8:42 AM.Comment
-
No Weiss? Otherwise, very impressive!I started out with my first computer in late '77 with the altair, Learned Assy language programming. Wrote my own DOS. Then I got hold of a TRS80 in 1979. Learned to program in Basic. 1981, I purchased a Timex Sinclair, and all the goodies with it. In that same year, the company I worked for, purchased 30, new IBM-PC 5150 computers with green screens. I taught them how to use them, how to use basic to write there own menu's. Most of that was done by me though. In thanks, they gave me my first, IBM PC 5150.
Fast forward to late 1983, When they upgraded, I ended up with 20 5150 computers, and several Apple II's. I fixed them all, sold them to just about everyone for $500-$900/each!
Took that money, bought A PC-XT, and within three months, an IBM-PC AT 5170 with a 20mb HDD, and a Commodore 64 with all the goodies, and an original NES.
1984, The NES started needing repairs. I figured it out, and within a month, my garage was full of them I had to repair. $50/each, took five minutes to fix them. I made a killing. Meanwhile, I get more computers from my company, and a couple veterinary clinics.......
That's how it started, and why I'm where I'm at today with computers.... Since 1983, I've had at LEAST 20 computers at the same time, and I still do. Although now, its principally laptops.
Along the way, I've learned:
Computers in general.
How to write an O/S that functions properly.
How to write menu systems that wound up on quite a few business computers.
Several different BASIC languages (all pretty much the same).
Assy Language.
Fortran, and COBOL (Haven't used either since about '95).
How to negotiate to get computers from companies who just upgraded.
In 1990, I met John McAfee, we became friends. He got me some contract work for Lockheed.
I've worked for the DoD, administrating SIPRNET, and various other "security" projects.
I've done some contract work for NASA, Lockheed, ADP (Automatic Data Processing), Lawrence Livermore Lab, Microsoft, and Intel.
I spent the first 12 years at the DoD, doing "computer stuff", and then the next 13 years, doing "other" projects for them as a GS civilian. Retired at 50, 12-August-2012, after 25yrs/service.
All this started with a single, punch card during an IBM programmers class in 1976, a soldering iron, and a lot of determination.
I have owned:
Apple (All of them but 2)
MacIntosh (just about all of them)
Altair
Amstrad
Amiga (All of them, including one that was a prototype).
Commodore (all of them).
Timex
TI
IBM (all but a PC-Jr.)
Osborne
Just about every PC clone ever manufactured at one time or another, including an Acorn.
A few SPARK stations by SUN, running UNIX.
Out of all of them, the high-end Amiga's were, and still are, my favorites.
Been a good ride.Comment
-
"Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." - NiebuhrComment
-
I was given a Zenith Data Systems "lugable".
2 5 1/4 in floppies
512k ram that immediately upgraded to 640k. Which prompted all my friends to ask....
Why do you need so much ram....nobody needs that much.Last edited by Old Marine; 06-05-2019, 7:31 PM.Comment
Tweet
There are currently 1769 users online. 39 members and 1730 guests.
Most users ever online was 239,041 at 10:39 PM on 02-14-2026.
Comment