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Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,160 Likes: 13
Campfire Kahuna
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Campfire Kahuna
Joined: Jul 2001
Posts: 60,160 Likes: 13 |
mtrancher,
My first was also a Kaypro, purchased in the mid-80's when they were used by many writers. Didn't write any books on it, but did write hundreds of magazine articles over five years.
Got lucky on the books, kinda. Wrote my first on two typewriters. One died halfway through the book, so I bought another to finish it. Then graduated from the Kaypro to a Tandy (Radio Shack) before writing the next one.
“Montana seems to me to be what a small boy would think Texas is like from hearing Texans.” John Steinbeck
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Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 13,234
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2005
Posts: 13,234 |
Amstrad. Sold as a computer, but since it couldn't do anything but word processing, that was kind of a stretch.
After that was a locally-built 386, with a 20 MB hard drive.
Remember when there were independently owned computer stores where the owner would build you a PC from pieces-parts?
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Joined: May 2002
Posts: 9,533 Likes: 2
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: May 2002
Posts: 9,533 Likes: 2 |
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Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 17,289
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2006
Posts: 17,289 |
The first computer I bought is the one I'm using right now. A 2002 vintage Dell. It's still working.
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Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 15,644
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Mar 2008
Posts: 15,644 |
Mac SE30, 1988 - -used it to measure distances and angles on radiographs with a digitizing plate. Truly, trouble free for years. I don't drive a Subaru. I would eat at Chic fil A if there was one around.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683 |
first computer was for biz, just remember it had a Seagate hard drive and was a 286, also recall it cost us over 5 grand and the computer guy that reco'ed it said it would be the only computer that we'd ever need for as long as we lived as it was way overpowered for our needs and uses and the software we used.
lol, a year later we had a 486, I don't believe that guy descended from Nostradamus
it'd be interesting to figure up what we've spent on puters over the years.
Flew to Houston TX late 80's to check out software specific to our biz. The guy had also put another fan on the box to keep it cool.
just the programs we've used, 2 of them now, have cost over 6K each
when my sis was dating a programmer I wanted him and I to build software for our industry and market it, early 90's
local kid here a few years later that worked for the local beer distributor built software for Miller brewing co. and sold it to them for 100K iirc.
he then went on to create the software that I believe both Regis and Supercuts use (same company)
at one time I think he was employing 50 geeks right here in our little burg. he's a sharp guy
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.
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Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 10,653
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Dec 2009
Posts: 10,653 |
Remember when there were independently owned computer stores where the owner would build you a PC from pieces-parts?
My last two computers were built by the owner/operator of a small shop. He moaned and groaned when I insisted on a floppy disc drive, but I got it.
You're Welcome At My Fire Anytime
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Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2005
Posts: 16,554 |
Tandy Color Computer with the 16K high memory option, 4K was standard. Cassette tape player for mass storage. The Color Computer was built around Motorola's 6809E processor which was a really cool CPU in those days. All Motorola parts inside and data sheets were available so they were a hacker's delight.
Funny, you wrote a nice letter to Motorola and some days later the data sheets came in the mail and it was better than Playboy. Now you can punch up data sheets on the Internet almost instantly for any part that was ever made.
The key elements in human thinking are not numbers but labels of fuzzy sets. -- L. Zadeh
Which explains a lot.
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Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 422
Campfire Member
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Campfire Member
Joined: Jan 2008
Posts: 422 |
mine was an IBM 360 used in my first computer course (1967) in college....ForTran....from there graduated to an IBM 370 running HASP...if you are a systems programmer, I guess you can say it's yours.....PC's didn't come around for some years yet.
That 370 had a whopping 8 Megs of core memory....no 8 bit words back then, we used hexadecimal....the memory was water cooled and would fill a medium clothes closet!
When a column of troops under Lt. Col. Francis Smith moved into the countryside to collect arms and munitions gathered by the patriot militia, hostilities erupted at Lexington and Concord on Apr. 19, 1775.
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Joined: May 2003
Posts: 20,494
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: May 2003
Posts: 20,494 |
My first PC was a cobbled together parts one that a friend of a friend put together. It had 256K of RAM and a 40 megabyte hard drive. I remember my buddies asking me what I was going to do with all that space.
"Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life." (Prov 4:23) Brother Keith
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Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 13,268
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Sep 2007
Posts: 13,268 |
first computer was for biz, just remember it had a Seagate hard drive and was a 286, also recall it cost us over 5 grand and the computer guy that reco'ed it said it would be the only computer that we'd ever need for as long as we lived as it was way overpowered for our needs and uses and the software we used.
lol, a year later we had a 486, I don't believe that guy descended from Nostradamus Computers only get obselete due to the software. I just recently retired my dad's main computer for business which was a 386 running at 25mhz which he used for an old version of AutoCad, but it worked and worked everyday for 20 years. We already had the programs to run with it for AutoCad so no need to out and speed $4k for a new AutoCad license and $20k for new versions of the software. We have had lots of machines that run DOS or an early version of windows like 3.1 run for a decade or more running CNC equipment because the software doesnt' change. When I was a kid my neighbor was an electrical engineer who liked to tinker with computers and he ran the local electric company. I got LOTS of hand me down stuff that ws the envy of about 99.9% of home users. My first hard drive was 5mb, everyone called them winchester drives back then and I used an 8" floppy at the same time I got as a hand me down. I got a hand me down 110 baud teletype modem and was "online" from then on. In the late 80's I got a hand me down "demo" HP Laserjet II printer, prettu sure it cost more than my Trans Am I drove in high school. I retired that printer only about 4 years ago - so 20 years of service out of a free printer.
Last edited by NathanL; 08/04/12.
Otto is my co-pilot.
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Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Apr 2010
Posts: 20,683 |
Nathan I really should have hung out with you a lot more when we were younger!
dayum, I been doing it all wrong! lol
I'm pretty certain when we sing our anthem and mention the land of the free, the original intent didn't mean cell phones, food stamps and birth control.
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Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 6,064
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Dec 2004
Posts: 6,064 |
I remember seeing a 1 meg platter from a hard drive hanging on a wall at Storage Tech when I worked there.
It was pretty cool at the time and larger than a vinyl LP record,
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 16,740
Campfire Ranger
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Campfire Ranger
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 16,740 |
My high school had Apple 2E's but my first one was a C-64. Jumpman was the best game ever.
A government is the most dangerous threat to man�s rights: it holds a legal monopoly on the use of physical force against legally disarmed victims.
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Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 39,301
Campfire 'Bwana
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Campfire 'Bwana
Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 39,301 |
Commodore 64 that used cassette tapes for programs and utilities. The "64" came from the whopping 64 KILObytes of memory. Second was the now-famous "Trash-80". Ed Yep the Commodore was my first with a tape drive and tapes that sometimes loaded. Second was a generic 8086 with a 8087 chip that cost more than a new laptop does today. I remember AUTOCAD taking all night to do a regen.
The first time I shot myself in the head...
Meniere's Sucks Big Time!!!
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Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,659
Campfire Tracker
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Campfire Tracker
Joined: Mar 2005
Posts: 5,659 |
"Far better it is to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much" Teddy Roosevelt
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Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 11,116 Likes: 1
Campfire Outfitter
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Campfire Outfitter
Joined: Jun 2004
Posts: 11,116 Likes: 1 |
The Altairs are often cited as the first home computers. But IIRC, the Heath H8 debuted at the same show.
During about the same period, Tektronix was in the graphic computer business. Their claim to fame was a CRT phosphor technology that "remembered" where it had been written, so you could do direct vector stroke graphics without video RAM.
I worked there, and we were allowed to buy parts at cost +15%, and that was the source of my Tek 4051 in about 1975.
It had an internal tape drive. My friends were envious when I got an absolute killer deal on a pair of 8" floppy drives at just $300 each. 32K of operating system and BASIC in ROM, and 32K of static RAM.
Be not weary in well doing.
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Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 889
Campfire Regular
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Campfire Regular
Joined: Dec 2010
Posts: 889 |
all learning is like a funnel: however, contrary to popular thought, one begins with the the narrow end. the more you progress, the more it expands into greater discovery--and the less of an audience you will have...
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Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,261 Likes: 25
Campfire Oracle
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Campfire Oracle
Joined: Dec 2003
Posts: 86,261 Likes: 25 |
All these Commodore 64s makes me wonder if they were before or after the wonderful Vic 20?
If you take the time it takes, it takes less time. --Pat Parelli
American by birth; Alaskan by choice. --ironbender
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