Your First Computer

[DrStrabismus]

Originally posted by mklose
It was based on the database we used
in school back then to enter all the data for the "Dooms Day" project, where every primary school in the UK was involved in to gather data. Later this data was put onto two huge laser disks. I wish I could get that somewhere on CDROM. That Database ran on an Acorn BBC.

I understand that the pace of change is such that the Doomsday project may now be lost. See for example http://www.tasi.ac.uk/advice/delivering/digpres.html

The original Doomsday book still remains readable after more than 900 years.

[hadaso]

Originally posted by admiralu
... A computer major with no computer!

The shoemaker walks barefoot!

[dragon1]

The first computer I ever touched was in 1980 at work. It had four 9 inch floppy drives which we used to back up our accounting data on disks. It used a proprietary operating system called Cromix, which was like Unix. The company I worked for, Cromemco, Inc., manufactured microcomputers so we used all of their products.

My first home PC was a 386/33 desktop with a 30MB hard drive that I purchased from a PC clone maker for $899 in 1991. Later, Win 3.1 and a 100MB hard drive were installed. I bought a 14 inch VGA monitor from my employer, TeleVideo, which I had at home as a loaner - supposedly to work at home.

I installed the DOS, some games, a simple graphics program, and, to please the hubby, productivity software in the form of MS Works. I haven't used it in such a long time, I thought I'd forgotten how to access everything since I have to go through the DOS shell.

For awhile, I thought about upgrading it to a 486. But by the time I stopped waffling, the first Pentium came out. I still have this computer. The hubby wants me to get rid of it. I need to find a computer recycler, after I completely delete or move the contents out of the hard drive. It and the monitor still work fine.

[Lily]

My first one was a TI 99 No need to tell my age
Then 1 XT 8086 (don't remember the RAM, but it had a 30 Mb hard disk. LOL)
Then, an AT 486...
Then, a Pentium II.
Currently, two Pentium III (a desktop and a laptop)

Those are the ones I owned/own, but I remember we used Commodores 64 at high school, with tapes and 5 1/4" floppy disks

Later I worked with mainframes (AS/400).

[denverharless]

Radio Shack TRS80, 16K Color computer. I had it hooked up to my 13-inch black and white TV, despite the irony of it being called a Color Computer. I used to subscribe to the magazine called Hot CoCo, for "Color Computer". I programmed in basic on it and played some games. Had fun making my own games. I saved my stuff on a cassette tape. Seems like ancient history now.

[cadwellm]

I vaguely remember mine. It was about 1978 and I was 12 years old. I remember saving up enough money to buy it and it was about $99 (probably on sale because it was discontinued. LOL)

It was a short black box, about a foot long, with a keyboard attached to it via a cord, not a ribbon. I think it was a Tandy or Texas Instrument computer. I hooked it up to my black and white TV.

I learned to program on it but it didn't have any memory (I couldn't afford to buy the memory). When my mother told me it was "time to turn that thing off and go to bed now", I would lose the hours worth of programming I had done.

I've looked all over the internet to find out what it was but I haven't been able to locate it. If any of you know what it might have been let me know because you have perked my curiosity.

[Charlene]

Our first was the Commodore VIC20. We never got the modem to hook up, but we did get the tape drive that was able to load and run pac-man and frogger. I'm still with the Commodore Amiga coumputers, and my main machine I use everday for the past 12 years is my C= CDTV. I have an Amiga 500 (A500) and an Amiga 2000 (A2000), but they don't get much use (only when boting up to keep them alive heehee)
My first internet service was with GEnie and used lynx for browsing, as I continue to due to this day, since it is simple and fast.

Charlene

[Eric L]

Commodore 128

I remember typing in code for entire programs by hand out of magazines.

[Dave P in StLouis]

Originally posted by Eric L
Commodore 128

I remember typing in code for entire programs by hand out of magazines.

Dear Eric,

I do too, although I never owned a Commodore 128. I have fond memories of typing obscure bits of Assembly Language into debug.com and producing "real" programs. One of my favorites came from the December, 1991 (IIRC) issue of Compute magazine. I'd written a letter to Richard Leinecker, their "Tips and Tools" editor, asking for a program that would sound a beep whenever I hit Caps Lock. the result was a whopping 118 bytes! Microsoft intoduced this same feature as part of "Accessibility Options" in Windows 95. I've always thought I was partially responsible.

Best wishes,
David P.