Thread Number: 33982
/ Tag: Other Home Products or Autos
Our Early Computers |
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Post# 368520   3/16/2017 at 15:16 (2,569 days old) by electrolux137 (Los Angeles)   |   | |
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~ Writing about my first web sites in the Vintage Forum, I got to thinking about our first computers.
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Post# 368536 , Reply# 1   3/16/2017 at 17:48 (2,569 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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My first computer was a Mac Classic that I bought shortly after I started graduate school in 1991. It was the last of the original all-in-one Macs to run the 8 mHz Motorola 68000 processor that the original Mac had debuted with in 1984. It had an integrated 9-inch monitor, 40mb hard drive and 2mb of RAM, which I quickly maxed out to 4mb, giving it just barely enough horsepower to run the Multifinder to have two applications open simultaneously. It also came with a black-and-white Apple StyleWriter ink jet printer. The whole thing cost me a shade under $1,600 and I shamelessly copied the software I needed from computers in the campus labs. Later on, I added a 2400 BAUD modem that allowed me to access such things as campus e-mail, the library's newly digitized catalog, and a few other limited resources, including the N.C. Office of State Personnel's online job listings, through which I found my first job after grad school. Everything was text based back then. The Web wouldn't come into my life until about 1996, by which time I had upgraded to a newer, faster Mac.
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Post# 368543 , Reply# 2   3/16/2017 at 19:25 (2,569 days old) by portable (Corvallis, OR)   |   | |
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I remember the first computer that my employer bought in the early 80's. I worked for a Children's Hospital in California. The hospital administrator called all of us department heads to his office to show off the new acquisition. It looked just like the one in your first picture, Charles. I think it was an IBM. He told us that personal computing was the thing of the future. We all looked at each other and thought "OK, grandpa has gone round the bend this time!"
None of us could figure out what in the world we would use it for, since we had a mainframe computer, and a staff of people to feed that beast. Within a year, the Budget Manager and the "Compliance" Manager (Medicare/MediCal reporting) were sharing it. No one else would go near the thing. However, within 3 years, at my next job, we each had computers on our desks, and thought of them as indispensable. Boy, times have changed.
My first home computer was an Apple IIC. More than one of our early VCCC newsletters were done on that thing. |
Post# 368589 , Reply# 5   3/17/2017 at 21:35 (2,568 days old) by fan-of-fans (USA)   |   | |
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We didn't have a computer until 1999 or so. I used the old Macs from the 90s though, and loved them. These days everything about computers seems to change so fast, it's hard to get nostalgic anymore. I remember my first experience with the web in 1998 or so - Netscape Navigator - and that was a slow connection, nothing happened!
I really liked the first iMac when those came out and always wanted one, but I did have an all in one Macintosh Performa, which I loved. |
Post# 368610 , Reply# 6   3/18/2017 at 11:18 (2,567 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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Hans wrote: And we still are not using that silly metric system
I reply: Well, we do use metric for some things--like 2 liter Pepsi bottles--and we're very much out of step with the rest of the world, to our own detriment, by not making more extensive use of it. I actually prefer metric for smaller measurements. Millimeters make a whole lot more sense to me than fractions of an inch. I remember getting the same lecture about switching over to the metric system in elementary and junior high school in the mid '70s. At first, I thought it was terribly difficult to use because my first exposure to it was when my fifth grade math teacher tried to teach us formulas to convert between English and metric measurements. That was a classic example of a poor teaching strategy, IMO (and I say that as a college professor). My sixth grade teacher did it much better. She handed out metric rulers and turned us loose to measure things in centimeters and millimeters without trying to convert anything back to inches. In doing that, she taught us to actually USE the metric system natively. |
Post# 370715 , Reply# 12   4/14/2017 at 16:26 (2,540 days old) by kloveland (Tulsa)   |   | |
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I personally would not want to go back in time. We have accomplished so much, it’s not perfect but I would not want to live in 1969, 1979 or even 1999. If it was 1969 I wouldn’t be reading or responding to this since it’s on a computer.
I've liked computers ever since I was 6 years old. My grandmother bought me a used 286 and since then it's been a love affair, much like the vacuums. |
Post# 375547 , Reply# 15   7/18/2017 at 17:44 (2,445 days old) by vacerator (Macomb Michigan)   |   | |
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the GCC in Cheltenham uses. A VPN? Many servers? I think token rings are obsolete. Speaking of giant donut architecture, have you all seen the new Apple complex in California? |
Post# 375564 , Reply# 16   7/19/2017 at 08:15 (2,444 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)   |   | |
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I don't remember details about my first computer but I do know I got it in 1992 from a mom and pop computer store in my town called computer generations. It was an IBM Aptiva with windows multimedia and O.S 2 warp and DOS program. It did have hook up for internet but we never got the internet for that computer. I remember my parents chocking over paying $2,000 for it. My Mom was addicted to playing the game SOKO PM where the little man pushes boxes and my Dad was addicted to the game silent steel which was a navy sub game. We all argued over the computer like a bunch of kids.
In 2000 I bought a new computer that I saved up for. It was a Compac Presario with windows 2000. I was pretty "Presario" that I bought it. I hated that thing and I couldn't believe I laid down $1700 of allowance money on it. |
Post# 375649 , Reply# 17   7/21/2017 at 09:30 (2,442 days old) by human (Pines of Carolina)   |   | |
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Post# 375653 , Reply# 18   7/21/2017 at 10:37 (2,442 days old) by kirbyvertibles (Independence, KS)   |   | |
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Post# 376458 , Reply# 19   8/5/2017 at 20:51 (2,427 days old) by jfalberti (Visalia, CA)   |   | |
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I was a student in the first graduating class from the brand new high school in Beaver Falls, PA. That was the first year the school offered computer programming as an elective. The class was taught with DEC PDP-11 with 4 dumb terminals and 8 inch floppies. The language they were teaching was a version of BASIC. A friend of mine took the class, and I wanted to take it too. You had to have the teachers permission to sign up for the class. I asked him, and he asked me if I had taken Calculus or Trig. I hadn't and told him so, and he refused to give me permission to take the class. He said I would never do anything with computers. I believed him, and dropped the idea. Fast forward to 1982 or 83, and I was in K-Mart, and they had a Timex Sinclair 1000 on clearance for $30. Took it home and plugged it in to the TV, and started reading the manual. Taught myself BASIC in short order, and was wondering what the heck was so hard about this? A few more years later, I lost my job due to the station closing, so I applied for grants and went to the local community college. Got my AAS in Information technology, and have worked with computers ever since. Have had many computers at home since then. First real computer was a Kaypro IIx that ran CP/M. Had dual floppies, and 64K of RAM. Used to run Word Star on it, and dBASE II. My first IBM compatible was a Commodore PC 10-2 XT clone. two floppies and 640k RAM. I saved up and installed a 20 MB hard disk. Had no idea what I was going to do with all that space. Since then, I've switch to Macintosh after they switched to Intel processors, and haven't looked back. Currently, I live in central California, and am a System Admin III for local government. I wish I could tell that teacher how wrong he was.
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