26 Comments on The Old Computer Museum

  2. In 1985, I had a Kyocera PC with a 10mb hard drive. It cost me about $4,000 and weighed more than I did. But it was the Rolls Royce of its time. (Orange monchrome monitor included.)

    5

  3. I like building my own computers, upgrade about every other year.

    Here is a good book recommendation for those interested in how the digital revolution, the internet, microprocessors, software, the World Wide Web and the personal computer started;

    https://www.amazon.com/The-Innovators-Walter-Isaacson-audiobook/dp/B00M9KICAY/ref=sr_1_1?crid=BHY79UCKTHGR&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.lkLGxjD8LlHYt4XySsg7L5Tcu9deiOYsNlTfJ1dFYhTdBduUashemh4akdKeNZEUba-PYUDv8VnhTsrboY7DhT-3bpOq970xqvfh4GFN3x2X-mTpKoZr9D-7rcrkaHVCpzdI3aITADI6dmwYXy9I7L_IdTTMj8M7-7cpMXibyaZHVXkrSD9Y3fl1P3hg5xx3IWXkH2lcrWakBez9kJgy9QfbTOv3wGl5Dv3cP4Ap_CU.kwrhnQXP1wLcW-QggrE0MJ7zYHWjspJ2EpYihEZiAf8&dib_tag=se&keywords=the+innovators&qid=1754266787&sprefix=the+innovators%2Caps%2C233&sr=8-1

    One of the funniest parts is the feud between Gates and Jobs, how each stole technology from PARC (Xerox home base in Palo Alto) while accusing the other of blatant thievery.

    5

  7. I remember programming on a portable computer with Fortran IV in the mid 1980s. I can’t remember the name, but I think it started with a C.
    My first personal PC was a Gateway. I think I purchased it around 1994.

    4

  10. Boot

    Trunk

    Get it?

    **IOTW TRUE STORY**
    Back in the 70s, somebody in my circle was a technology procurement official for a big company with world wide business outlets in many foreign countries. Stuff like portable AM AND FM in one radios that even picked up TV audio channels. He even had a tiny color TV he took out fishing way back when that was not easy. He let me use a portable VHS Camera that recorded onto Home Sized VHS tapes. If you snapped off the VHS tape plastic tab in the top corner you could write protect the tape from future recordings. If you taped over the tape hole you could disable that.

    That is where the story started.

    That camera could also record the TV with a special cable that you could hook to the back of your TV with two prongs and two screws. Not too tight or they can break.

    You could record TV broadcasts like A Christmas Story or the Wizard of Oz or things like that and there were no or just one break in the middle interruptions for commercials.

    You could also record over already recorded TV tapes, over and over, to record those twilight zones 30 to 60 minutes nightly airings to watch time shifted.

    You could re-record only the audio part of the tape, as that part of the mag wave was seperated in new ways and stereo with left and right channels. It was an accident that caused a couple of albums worth of audio recordings to get taped over those movies.

    That accident discovered on playback was interesting and caused further investigation into the subject. If you started the album at just the right time with one hand and pressed both of the record keys with the other hand and it started exactly at the lions third roar then you will have started recording side one. Side two timing is much more difficult and took some math to get it just right.

    There is only One original.
    All the rest are imations.
    G Man

    2

  11. My folks bought an apple IIe, and I dove into it.

    Learned BASIC and assembly. Later, and reluctantly, learned Winblows, which i supported through Compaq.

    Learned Linux in my software engineering degree, which i pretty much use exclusively at this point.

    3

  13. Harry,
    Finger Pad.
    Wish I hadn’t sold it. Now.
    The 2K of RAM expansion pack would lose connection if it got moved while in progress. Grey Duct tape was used to fix that problem but it sometimes still struck. Those cassettes had write-protects too and the same fix.

    Next we’ll be discussing 5 1/4 floppies and double-sided double-densities and portable hole punching write-enablers for double the space.

    Sup Harry!

    5

  14. What? No Heathkit PDP-11/03? Shame…

    My parents threw mine out in the mid-90’s. I left it behind when I got married, and expected to go back and get it. Nope… I still have the RSTS/E tape for it.

    Linux for the win…

    KR (currently in occupied territory)

    3

  15. I had an Apple II back around 80/81. Built it from scratch, someone at work had cloned a bunch of motherboards so I decided to get in on it. We all ordered the parts together for the bulk discount, the RAM was expensive. I soldered in all the ICs and other components myself. Bought a second hand power supply and keyboard from a local hobby shop. Used a cassette deck for storage and an old B&W TV for a monitor at first, when I had a little more money I got the floppy disk drives and a Green Gorilla monitor. The only problem I had was a microphonic crystal on the motherboard, every time I set my beer down the computer would reset itself.

    5

  16. Commodore 64 for the win. My mom would take me to a local pc game warehouse where they had tons of floppies and cassettes like frogger and digdug. My favorites were always the Summer Games series.

    4

  18. When I went to grad school, I had to take a week-long course in Fortran and learn the protocols of Central Data Processing where you would submit your IBM punch card deck on one day and retrieve your printout the next.

    The next year the Uni traded their IBM 360 for a CDC 6600. The CDC could run 25 simultaneous remote terminals communicating through Teletype machines. My dept got three Teletypes!

    1

  19. My first was a Commodore VIC-20. I didn’t do much more than play around with it a bit. The first Windows computer was in ’97. It was custom built from a computer shop. I was pretty late to the game. A lot of co-workers had PC’s and were online with a dial-up connection. They finally talked me into getting my own.

    After that first one, I built my own. I also built them for friends and family. I never kept count but maybe 25 or 30.

    Now, I’ve been using laptops for longer than I can remember. I’d love to have a desktop I’ve built myself with dual monitors but my wife has taken over the spare bedroom and there is no place in the house I’d want to have a desk. These open floor plans have a downside.

    2

  20. TRS-80, two floppy drives!! Bought it in 1981 for close to $2k. First job was computer operations on Digital (DEC) PDP11 mainframes running TOPS OS. Moved on to IBM PC’s and 390 based IBM mainframes. Wised up after a few years and got out of IT.

  21. I had a magnificent Pickett slide rule in the mid ’60’s which was replaced by an HP-45 calculator in 1973. Loved that slide rule and that calculator! And then, later, too many computers. I need both hands and both feet to count them.

    2

  24. Before the thread closes.

    If you want a snapshot of the tech in the early 80s, find old DAK Cats. Master marketing reseller of cutting edge tech catalogs that were tech candy to the techies.

    There are some copies on the internet archive site in pdf form. You could fit many thousands of PDFs on a 32GB memory stick and still have room for hundreds and hundreds of other files of other stuff. Audio. Video. Audio and Video. Pictures. Stuff like that.

    The BSR Equalizer with 10-Band display and a Commodore 64 and a 19 inch Color TV had me hooked for monthly payments that whole year. It was fortunate the C-64 came with a free copy of Winter Games. Also, it was a really cold cold winter and I spent a lot of time inside those years. There were two seasons there where I was. Winter and July.

    Good Times.

    2

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