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Hey - did you know if you click on the title of a thread it will take you to the first unread post since you last visited that thread?
but were afraid to ask: 
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smilie in place of the real @
Pretty Please - add it to our Events forum(s) and add to the calendar! >> 
Let me just say
- Thread starter jlaird
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aeronca65t
Great Pumpkin
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I'm on about the same hardware right now (but with a low-end DSL connection).
"Wax on, wax off.....patience Grasshopper". /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/angel.gif
"Wax on, wax off.....patience Grasshopper". /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/angel.gif
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My first computer had a 164, yes, a 164 meg hard drive! It took 5 1/2 inch floppies. No windows, just DOS. I forgot the name of it. I think it was a Thomas Edison. Hehe. It was better than the old Commador though, as it ran on floppies, no hard drive! I had the original word perfect in it with DOS and I think there were over 500 different commands, that you had to type in by hand, to get the program to do what ever you want. Then Windows 3.1 came out and I had to compress the hard drive to install it.
! Windows! From then on, it's been a never ending trip. Just looked at a new one with Vista, 2 gigs of memory, 300 gig hard drive, TV and the whole bit.
I guess it'll never end. PJ
lawguy
Jedi Knight
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When I was a kid, our first PC (previously had a TRS-80 Color Computer) was a Tandy 100 EX. It was a 186 clone with no hard drive whatsoever. Every time you started it, you put the system disk in, turned it on, allowed it boot up, then removed the system disk, inserted the program disk, loaded that, and if you wanted to save anything, that was on the floppy too.
How soon we forget, the old floppies were 5 1/4, not 5 1/2....and that was a compact version of the original floppy- 8 inches.
My first law clerk job was at a law firm with a TRS-80 model 2, a 64k computer with dual 8 inch floppies and again, no hard drive. That was the legal research computer...and that was in 1997.
It was hooked to an old daisywheel printer that sounded like the end of the world when it was printing.
How soon we forget, the old floppies were 5 1/4, not 5 1/2....and that was a compact version of the original floppy- 8 inches.
My first law clerk job was at a law firm with a TRS-80 model 2, a 64k computer with dual 8 inch floppies and again, no hard drive. That was the legal research computer...and that was in 1997.
It was hooked to an old daisywheel printer that sounded like the end of the world when it was printing.
Steve_S
Yoda
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<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Quote:]My first computer had a 164, yes, a 164 meg hard drive! [/QUOTE]
Luxury! My first computer had only a floppy drive as no hard drive was made for it. I'm not even sure hard drives existed yet. Or at least not in a size that would fit into a single room. DOS? Hadn't been invented yet. I was running CP/M. Go Fox Base! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Look at the size of that beautiful 4" green screen CRT!
How do you know you're getting old? When you owned an Osborne 2 Portable Computer.
Luxury! My first computer had only a floppy drive as no hard drive was made for it. I'm not even sure hard drives existed yet. Or at least not in a size that would fit into a single room. DOS? Hadn't been invented yet. I was running CP/M. Go Fox Base! /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/smile.gif
Look at the size of that beautiful 4" green screen CRT!
How do you know you're getting old? When you owned an Osborne 2 Portable Computer.
Way back in the early eighties, when my Dad was starting out in computers, his company had TRS-80s. I remember how cool it was when he brought one home for a weekend to show us how neat this thing was. Heck, he even hooked it up to the television!
Every once in a while, I think about finding an old TRS-80 and replacing the computer with it, just to see what he does.
As for dial up, I can't afford Comcasts internet rates and can't get DSL through the phone company in my area, so that's all I get. I find it's not all that bad for general purpose web surfing. I don't do that much downloading of stuff, and I can live without streaming video.
-Wm.
Every once in a while, I think about finding an old TRS-80 and replacing the computer with it, just to see what he does.
As for dial up, I can't afford Comcasts internet rates and can't get DSL through the phone company in my area, so that's all I get. I find it's not all that bad for general purpose web surfing. I don't do that much downloading of stuff, and I can live without streaming video.
-Wm.
aeronca65t
Great Pumpkin
Offline
My first computer was a Timex-Sinclair 1000 (in 1982).
Memory was stored on an audio cassette tape and video fed to your TV. "Programs" were fed in through an "executive audio tape". It had 2K, I think. And a membrane keyboard.
Computers have a bit improved since then.....
Memory was stored on an audio cassette tape and video fed to your TV. "Programs" were fed in through an "executive audio tape". It had 2K, I think. And a membrane keyboard.
Computers have a bit improved since then.....
A
aerog
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Guest
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DOS? CP/M? Floppies? Tsk tsk. My first was a TRS-80 Model-1. Out of the box it was a Z80 based keyboard with 16k-RAM and pretty much a low-res B&W TV tube with no tuner attached. It didn't even have lower-case characters. Programs were mostly in BASIC, some in machine code. Everything came on cassette. I upgraded mine with an "expansion interface" giving me a whopping 48K, but gave me the ability to run a second (oh boy!) cassette tape deck, floppy drives, and a genuine RS232 interface so you could use MODEMs.
Single-sided, double-density 5.25" floppies on the TRS80 held something like 360k worth of data, but if you were daring you'd use a hole-punch to cut a second notch in the floppy so you could use the back-side of it. At the time floppies weren't cheap, and to set up a drive on the TRS80 cost me around $300.
When I finally stopped using the TRS80 I'd had two 5.25" single-sided double-density drives, a 2400baud hayes-compatable direct-connect modem, a Gemini-Star (Epson MX80 compatable don't you know) printer that used typewriter ribbons for ink, and I hacked the keyboard and added a custom chip to give it lower-case so I could type letters on the computer.
In an earlier version - uppercase only, a thermal-paper printer, a 300-baud direct connect (but manual-dial) modem, and a single 5.25" floppy drive:
Single-sided, double-density 5.25" floppies on the TRS80 held something like 360k worth of data, but if you were daring you'd use a hole-punch to cut a second notch in the floppy so you could use the back-side of it. At the time floppies weren't cheap, and to set up a drive on the TRS80 cost me around $300.
When I finally stopped using the TRS80 I'd had two 5.25" single-sided double-density drives, a 2400baud hayes-compatable direct-connect modem, a Gemini-Star (Epson MX80 compatable don't you know) printer that used typewriter ribbons for ink, and I hacked the keyboard and added a custom chip to give it lower-case so I could type letters on the computer.
In an earlier version - uppercase only, a thermal-paper printer, a 300-baud direct connect (but manual-dial) modem, and a single 5.25" floppy drive:
A
aerog
Guest
Guest
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hehe - I had a terminal like that too, used it for ham radio stuff in the late 80s. Bought the thing for $5 at a swap meet.
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned having a Commodore PET yet!
I'm surprised nobody has mentioned having a Commodore PET yet!
T
Tinster
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Guest
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"Luxury! My first computer had only a floppy drive
as no hard drive was made for it."
Total luxury, that one.
MY first computer had TWO large disk floppy drives.
One for the operating system and the other for data.
An IBM something or another.
Back in the day
d
as no hard drive was made for it."
Total luxury, that one.
MY first computer had TWO large disk floppy drives.
One for the operating system and the other for data.
An IBM something or another.
Back in the day
d
coldplugs
Darth Vader
Offline
My first home computer was a "Digi-Comp I". This was in the early sixties. It had a 3-bit main storage and no disk or tape. It could be programmed to do a few simple (obviously) things like count from 0 to 7, simulate a 3-floor elevator, and a few other things.
It was programming using plastic tubes. It used no electricity and the clock cycle time was about 2 cycles/second, or as fast as you could toggle it.
This machine taught me binary & octal and I went on to IBM mainframes in the sixties and beyond.
I just googled the Digicomp and it looks like it may be possible to get another one. I can't wait.
https://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/build_your_own_digicomp_mechan.html
It was programming using plastic tubes. It used no electricity and the clock cycle time was about 2 cycles/second, or as fast as you could toggle it.
This machine taught me binary & octal and I went on to IBM mainframes in the sixties and beyond.
I just googled the Digicomp and it looks like it may be possible to get another one. I can't wait.
https://www.makezine.com/blog/archive/2006/02/build_your_own_digicomp_mechan.html
aeronca65t
Great Pumpkin
Offline
OK, when John described his non-battery do-dad, I immediately thought of my old Addiator mechanical calculator (below). I used it when I was a 5th grader in Catholic school in the early '60s.(we were required to have them). The numbers moved with a sharp metal stylus that was great for stabbing your friends. /bcforum/images/%%GRAEMLIN_URL%%/jester.gif
And I used a Commodore PET when they first came out. Early in my teaching career, I had a principal who bought a large number of them for the school. He let us all take them home for the Summer so we could learn how to use them (this was considered very "leading edge").
And I bought a TI99-4a after the Timex.
I recall when modems were first popularly used on PCs and most folks had a "14.4" modem. A friend of mine spent quite a bit of money to get an extra fast "17.2" because he wanted to "be ready if things speeded up".
And as an old-tyme NC (now CNC) programmer, I used a ~Teletype~ . I'm sure John has used these things too.(and some of you others as well)
Addiator
And I used a Commodore PET when they first came out. Early in my teaching career, I had a principal who bought a large number of them for the school. He let us all take them home for the Summer so we could learn how to use them (this was considered very "leading edge").
And I bought a TI99-4a after the Timex.
I recall when modems were first popularly used on PCs and most folks had a "14.4" modem. A friend of mine spent quite a bit of money to get an extra fast "17.2" because he wanted to "be ready if things speeded up".
And as an old-tyme NC (now CNC) programmer, I used a ~Teletype~ . I'm sure John has used these things too.(and some of you others as well)
Addiator