Posts: 12,159
Threads: 203
Likes Received: 13,385 in 6,564 posts
Likes Given: 13,143
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
37
08-04-2021, 11:41 PM
Your First Computer Was?
Mine was a 1982 Sinclair ZX Spectrum.
• Firmware: 3.54 MHz Zilog Z80A CPU, 16K RAM (16,384 bytes of read/write storage);
• Display: 32 x 22 character text display, 256 x 192 pixel resolution, 8 colours;
• Sound: 1 channel, 5 octaves, inbuilt speaker;
• I/O: Z80 bus, tape, RF television;
• Storage: External tape recorder or micro-drive.
I coupled it with a little Sony 3" reel-to-reel tape recorder, and a 12" portable TV.
The soft rubber keyboard was a bastard to use, with most keys having multiple
functions—which made programming a true pain.
Sinclair BASIC looked like this...
The Sinclair's games were pretty... uh... unexciting LOL.
The screen scrolls vertically, and the skier has to avoid the trees and slalom poles.
I'm a creationist; I believe that man created God.
Posts: 6,987
Threads: 84
Likes Received: 3,560 in 2,335 posts
Likes Given: 2,368
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
26
08-04-2021, 11:46 PM
Your First Computer Was?
Commodore 64, but I'm not sure what year. I loved doing things in BASIC, though. I was way too amused by that language.
Is this sig thing on?
Posts: 20,154
Threads: 297
Likes Received: 22,161 in 10,188 posts
Likes Given: 20,001
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
78
08-04-2021, 11:52 PM
Your First Computer Was?
TRS80 Model 1
I think I got it in 1977, it was the newest tech one could have, a computer you can have at home. Not in the picture is a cradle for the phone receiver. There was no internet per se, but you could call other computers and converse. There was also Compuserve that would connect you to a variety of "bulletin boards".
Posts: 9,037
Threads: 26
Likes Received: 7,712 in 4,028 posts
Likes Given: 21,786
Joined: Dec 2018
Reputation:
52
08-05-2021, 12:18 AM
Your First Computer Was?
I never had a personal computer until about 1988. That was a generic 8086 machine. I did, however, program an Olivetti-Underwood Programma 101 in High School.
If you get to thinking you’re a person of some influence, try ordering somebody else’s dog around.
Posts: 23,608
Threads: 508
Likes Received: 29,546 in 14,110 posts
Likes Given: 6,502
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
41
08-05-2021, 12:27 AM
Your First Computer Was?
Commodore 64 w monochrome monitor.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
Posts: 25,021
Threads: 47
Likes Received: 34,799 in 15,983 posts
Likes Given: 37,607
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
61
08-05-2021, 12:34 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2021, 12:46 AM by Thumpalumpacus.)
Your First Computer Was?
The first computer I worked on was a Commodore PET in high school. Learned BASIC programming on it, 4K of RAM, I/O was a cassette drive. The next few years saw upgrading up to a Commodore 8032, same OS/BASIC loaded in.
First computer I owned was a C64. The familiarity with BASIC helped, and I was very happy to now have a floppy drive; I could now store 370k. This was 1989. By 1991 I'd gotten a 286 with two-by-twenty-meg hard drives, and could clock 14 Mhz processing speed.
I still laugh at how my 4G phone which is six years old kills anything I owned before 2013 or so. My son doesn't even get how we old'uns could get along without quad-cores and such.
On hiatus.
Posts: 2,363
Threads: 35
Likes Received: 5,071 in 1,863 posts
Likes Given: 7,020
Joined: Nov 2018
Reputation:
36
08-05-2021, 01:11 AM
Your First Computer Was?
A Dell desktop I bought in 2000 and used with dial up internet.
My elementary school in the early 1980s had a few Apple IIe computers that we wheeled around on carts from classroom to classroom.
-Teresa
There is in the universe only one true divide, one real binary, life and death. Either you are living or you are not. Everything else is molten, malleable.
-Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom
Posts: 9,083
Threads: 73
Likes Received: 5,577 in 3,352 posts
Likes Given: 4,554
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
45
08-05-2021, 01:20 AM
Your First Computer Was?
Atari 400. Worked at Chick Fil A and saved up and got an Atari 800 with disk drive and dot matrix printer. I was big-timing, no cassette tape memory for me, lol. Amazing how expensive that stuff was.
Posts: 7,070
Threads: 17
Likes Received: 9,696 in 4,500 posts
Likes Given: 17,506
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
41
08-05-2021, 01:22 AM
Your First Computer Was?
Apple IIe
Posts: 23,583
Threads: 58
Likes Received: 16,537 in 8,867 posts
Likes Given: 7,818
Joined: Dec 2018
Reputation:
41
08-05-2021, 01:27 AM
Your First Computer Was?
My first computer that I used was a CDC Cyber 6600 mainframe, using stolen passwords, to play Star Trek after my math for gifted children class at the university.
The first computer that I owned was a Corona PC IBM PC clone in 1984. I forget how much memory it had, but no hard disk, and two floppies which eased things considerably.
Mountain-high though the difficulties appear, terrible and gloomy though all things seem, they are but Mâyâ.
Fear not — it is banished. Crush it, and it vanishes. Stamp upon it, and it dies.
Vivekananda
Posts: 9,083
Threads: 73
Likes Received: 5,577 in 3,352 posts
Likes Given: 4,554
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
45
08-05-2021, 01:28 AM
Your First Computer Was?
(08-04-2021, 11:46 PM)c172 Wrote: Commodore 64, but I'm not sure what year. I loved doing things in BASIC, though. I was way too amused by that language.
I remember messing around with BASIC too, you could make little games and stuff, little "IF - THEN" computations. Never occurred to me in the slightest to pursue it as a career option or that it even was a career option, but I wonder how that would have changed my life, getting into that field at that time (mid 80s). That must have been peak computing for me, I can barely turn on a computer now. Something about a button.
Posts: 5,665
Threads: 356
Likes Received: 7,737 in 3,447 posts
Likes Given: 13,568
Joined: Feb 2019
Reputation:
22
08-05-2021, 01:40 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2021, 01:40 AM by GenesisNemesis.)
Your First Computer Was?
If my mother's computer counts, I guess it was a Gateway 2000. We still have it and it still works. First computer I had to myself was a Dell laptop my brother gave me. No, I didn't find anything illegal on it (that was after the cops had already taken a look at it).
“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” -Carl Sagan.
Posts: 23,608
Threads: 508
Likes Received: 29,546 in 14,110 posts
Likes Given: 6,502
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
41
08-05-2021, 01:43 AM
Your First Computer Was?
(08-05-2021, 12:34 AM)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: The first computer I worked on was a Commodore PET in high school. Learned BASIC programming on it, 4K of RAM, I/O was a cassette drive. The next few years saw upgrading up to a Commodore 8032, same OS/BASIC loaded in.
First computer I owned was a C64. The familiarity with BASIC helped, and I was very happy to now have a floppy drive; I could now store 370k. This was 1989. By 1991 I'd gotten a 286 with two-by-twenty-meg hard drives, and could clock 14 Mhz processing speed.
I still laugh at how my 4G phone which is six years old kills anything I owned before 2013 or so. My son doesn't even get how we old'uns could get along without quad-cores and such.
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
Posts: 2,363
Threads: 35
Likes Received: 5,071 in 1,863 posts
Likes Given: 7,020
Joined: Nov 2018
Reputation:
36
08-05-2021, 01:45 AM
Your First Computer Was?
(08-05-2021, 01:28 AM)jerry mcmasters Wrote: I remember messing around with BASIC too, you could make little games and stuff, little "IF - THEN" computations. Never occurred to me in the slightest to pursue it as a career option or that it even was a career option, but I wonder how that would have changed my life, getting into that field at that time (mid 80s). That must have been peak computing for me, I can barely turn on a computer now. Something about a button.
Oh boy, I remember being in a computer lab in college in the 90s and thinking "where the f is the on button on this thing?" And thinking everybody sitting around me was so much more technically savvy than me (they weren't, I came to realize ).
Fun fact: Computer coding and software programming used to be "women's work" and women led the way in those fields until circa mid-1980s when those cultural views switched to "computers are for boys and men".
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/magaz...sContainer
-Teresa
There is in the universe only one true divide, one real binary, life and death. Either you are living or you are not. Everything else is molten, malleable.
-Susan Faludi, In the Darkroom
Posts: 23,608
Threads: 508
Likes Received: 29,546 in 14,110 posts
Likes Given: 6,502
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
41
08-05-2021, 01:50 AM
Your First Computer Was?
That must be when they figured out that men will waste hours playing silly games!
Robert G. Ingersoll : “No man with a sense of humor ever founded a religion.”
Posts: 20,154
Threads: 297
Likes Received: 22,161 in 10,188 posts
Likes Given: 20,001
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
78
08-05-2021, 01:52 AM
Your First Computer Was?
(08-05-2021, 01:50 AM)Minimalist Wrote: That must be when they figured out that men will waste hours playing silly games!
So do women....
Posts: 25,021
Threads: 47
Likes Received: 34,799 in 15,983 posts
Likes Given: 37,607
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
61
08-05-2021, 02:04 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2021, 02:08 AM by Thumpalumpacus.)
Your First Computer Was?
(08-05-2021, 01:43 AM)Minimalist Wrote: (08-05-2021, 12:34 AM)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: The first computer I worked on was a Commodore PET in high school. Learned BASIC programming on it, 4K of RAM, I/O was a cassette drive. The next few years saw upgrading up to a Commodore 8032, same OS/BASIC loaded in.
First computer I owned was a C64. The familiarity with BASIC helped, and I was very happy to now have a floppy drive; I could now store 370k. This was 1989. By 1991 I'd gotten a 286 with two-by-twenty-meg hard drives, and could clock 14 Mhz processing speed.
I still laugh at how my 4G phone which is six years old kills anything I owned before 2013 or so. My son doesn't even get how we old'uns could get along without quad-cores and such.
Dude, you've got no goddamned room to talk, your first computer was a fucking abacus.
ETA: Just wonderin', do rotary phones even work any more with modern telephone infra?
On hiatus.
Posts: 20,154
Threads: 297
Likes Received: 22,161 in 10,188 posts
Likes Given: 20,001
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
78
08-05-2021, 03:16 AM
Your First Computer Was?
(08-05-2021, 02:04 AM)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: (08-05-2021, 01:43 AM)Minimalist Wrote: (08-05-2021, 12:34 AM)Thumpalumpacus Wrote: The first computer I worked on was a Commodore PET in high school. Learned BASIC programming on it, 4K of RAM, I/O was a cassette drive. The next few years saw upgrading up to a Commodore 8032, same OS/BASIC loaded in.
First computer I owned was a C64. The familiarity with BASIC helped, and I was very happy to now have a floppy drive; I could now store 370k. This was 1989. By 1991 I'd gotten a 286 with two-by-twenty-meg hard drives, and could clock 14 Mhz processing speed.
I still laugh at how my 4G phone which is six years old kills anything I owned before 2013 or so. My son doesn't even get how we old'uns could get along without quad-cores and such.
Dude, you've got no goddamned room to talk, your first computer was a fucking abacus.
ETA: Just wonderin', do rotary phones even work any more with modern telephone infra?
I don't know, maybe with normal old fashioned landlines. I have a model like that but with push buttons, it works fine. I have the cell for when the phoneline is out, and the phone line for when the electricity (and router) are out. We get outages here. Drunken trees running into cars and such.
Posts: 25,021
Threads: 47
Likes Received: 34,799 in 15,983 posts
Likes Given: 37,607
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
61
08-05-2021, 03:57 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2021, 03:58 AM by Thumpalumpacus.)
Your First Computer Was?
(08-05-2021, 03:16 AM)Dom Wrote: I have a model like that but with push buttons, it works fine.
So they still work on touchtones; that makes sense, given all the switchboarding we all have to wade through. It'd be cool to find out.
Interesting read on it at Wiki, here. I'd imagine they could process the contacts.
On hiatus.
Posts: 5,335
Threads: 105
Likes Received: 8,298 in 3,560 posts
Likes Given: 3,413
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
26
08-05-2021, 10:29 AM
(This post was last modified: 08-05-2021, 10:30 AM by abaris.)
Your First Computer Was?
Apple macintosh plus. Still have it stored in my brother's garage.
Posts: 4,146
Threads: 9
Likes Received: 4,425 in 2,145 posts
Likes Given: 5,541
Joined: Oct 2018
Reputation:
25
08-05-2021, 11:35 AM
Your First Computer Was?
I can't remember the make and model of my first computer, but it didn't have a hard drive. It operated with a pair of 5¼" floppy discs. One held the program and the other collected data. The screen was a 12" mono-colored TV monitor.
“I expect to pass this way but once; any good therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now. Let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.” (Etienne De Grellet)
Posts: 549
Threads: 35
Likes Received: 929 in 366 posts
Likes Given: 95
Joined: Jan 2019
Reputation:
15
08-05-2021, 12:08 PM
Your First Computer Was?
The first computer I ever worked on was the Nike Hercules analog computer. It consisted of four cabinets the size of refridgerators and had the computing power of an early flip phone.
It did five things.
1. tracked a target
2. tracked a missile
3. computed and intercept point for the 2
4. sent guidance information to the missile
5. sent a detonation command to the missile
It received analog voltages and frequencies that represent the range, azimuth, and elevation data of the target and missile from the target and missile tracking radars. It did this using vacuum tube op amps and analog servos.
This simple computer was able to successfully guide a missile to intercept an ICBM on reentry back in the 1960s. Something we are still having a hard time doing with more modern technology today.
Save a life. Adopt a Greyhound.
Posts: 15,693
Threads: 325
Likes Received: 13,164 in 7,353 posts
Likes Given: 11,918
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
28
08-06-2021, 10:48 AM
Your First Computer Was?
...coal_fired.
Posts: 9,308
Threads: 233
Likes Received: 18,113 in 7,069 posts
Likes Given: 13,961
Joined: Sep 2018
Reputation:
42
08-06-2021, 04:15 PM
Your First Computer Was?
Tandy 1000. You could barely call it a computer. I remember playing Tetrus on it but wasn't too interested in computers. I'm still not.
Posts: 4,994
Threads: 12
Likes Received: 5,686 in 2,509 posts
Likes Given: 6,481
Joined: Nov 2018
Reputation:
31
08-06-2021, 11:13 PM
Your First Computer Was?
The first PCs I used were Apple IIs of variouse vintages, and the competing IBM PCs of the day. My first home PC was a monster of a machine. It had a Pentium 120 processor, 64Meg of RAM, an 8X CD ROM, and a 1.2 Gigabyte HD that I'd never be able to fill up!
For the time, it was a beast. Today it would be, at best, a door stop.
|