Old Computers

Discussion in 'Other Reminiscences' started by Hal Pollner, Apr 16, 2019.

  1. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    I recall years ago when Desktop computers were actually placed on top of the desk.

    My first computer was a Commodore VIC-20. I had 4k of RAM, (4000 bytes), enough to store one page of text.

    It didn't have a mouse...I moved the cursor from the keyboard.

    My programs and data were saved and loaded from cassette tape. This was before DOS.

    I used a modulator to display the computer output on a TV set.

    Later, I had a more modern computer that provided the Internet, which I accessed by dial-up phone.

    Hal
     
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    Last edited: Apr 16, 2019
  2. Don Alaska

    Don Alaska Supreme Member
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    I think my first computer was a Timex that hooked up to the television. Later I had a Commodore, a TRS-80, and an Apple E-3 (I think), before I moved into Windows systems. I had a computer custom built for me in the 1990s that had a whopping 11 MB of disk space, and one computer person told me that that would be enough to last me forever as I would NEVER run out of storage. Now I have 2 TB of storage and one file can be 11 MB!
     
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  3. Ken Anderson

    Ken Anderson Senior Staff
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    • Coleco Adam
    • TRS-80
     
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  4. Hal Pollner

    Hal Pollner Veteran Member
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    We called the Radio Shack TRS-80, the "Trash-80".

    Hal
     
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  5. Von Jones

    Von Jones Supreme Member
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    My first computer was Best Buy's brand unfortunately I can't remember the name but if I heard or saw it written I would say 'Yeah, that's it!'
     
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  6. Frank Sanoica

    Frank Sanoica Supreme Member
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    @Von Jones
    When would that have been, Von? What time frame? I ask because I got a computer from a young man who knew them, I knew nothing (just an Engineer, what could you expect?), as I had advertised a service as a provider of conversions of old cars to fuel injection (computer run) technology, a wide-open possibility I saw as viable about 1997. John gave us an old PC, complete, issued the credentials as he was trying to establish himself as a provider, a new, wide-open business possibility he thought. My own business did provide a number of high-bucks conversion jobs, and I was kept pretty busy. But my computer illiteracy then hindered me. Then, fate intervened. We sold our place outside Phoenix, the house I had built by myself, outlined elsewhere, moved to very rural Missouri Ozarks with NO INTERNET service available, and my business died. John left Phoenix, we lost touch, and I wondered then, and still now, what he had done, and how he was. He tried opening a business competing with the likes of AOL, and all the others, I warned him, but he was an optimist, me the pessimist.

    While in MO, we did get internet after much political wrangling, but dial-up only. Our data was lucky to download at 5K per second. Even email was pitifully slow, pictures near-impossible, videos absolutely impossible. But, slowly, I "got the hang of it".

    Frank
     
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  7. William DeFox

    William DeFox Very Well-Known Member
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    My first computer was a TI-99/4A, the "home computer" hawked by Bill Cosby in the early 1980's. There was no internet, and you'd enter lines of code into it for ten minutes to be rewarded with a blocky image on screen of something like a rocket taking off. There were also game cartridges that could be inserted into it and awkwardly played using the keyboard. The system looked nice, but it's performance was hardly captivating...
     
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