ECN Forum Forums Technical Discussion Re: Computers and the Internet Remember Your First Computer?

Wow! What version of Word is that?

I gotta upgrade!

(LOL!)

Looks good, but it's running under Windows.

It'll crash as soon as you select any of those worthwhile options....

i'd like this one please,
cream & sugar too

I still have my IBM XT. I think it's 1979 or 1980. It running speed is 2mb. The 286 was 16. That was when you had to know all the commands to have it get you anywhere, doing the old C:/ prompts and stuff. No internet connection as it wasn't available at that time. Had 5 1/4" drive. Could hear the fan running from the other room. I don't think the trash man waould evern take it, still up in the attic. It has one of the first color monitors a CGA (color graphic adapter)

Vic 20s! I remember using them in day camp when I was littler. "Shift and Clear, disappear" was how we remembered to clear the screen.

In 3rd grade we had Apple II+ computers and then the Apple IIe. In High School we had Macintoshes.

My own computer was at first a Texas Instruments TI994/A, with a tape recorder. I remember sitting and typing in those BASIC programs that were oh-so-thrilling.

I then moved up to an Apple IIc. I still have the thing. One could get eye damage from trying to read the tiny screen...

Mr. Tedesco:

Relative to WiFi, a neighbor of mine is trying to set up a service that will serve those locally who are not able to obtain DSL.

I am one of the fortunate DSLers. Just down the block is where the fiber begins, so those folks are out of luck. My friend has been testing sort of a cellular model that will utilize a DSL line via the WiFi equipment. Pop the wireless card into your Palm or Laptop and you have an internet-live computer. Just keep a spare battery or two ;-)

As to having a lot of gadgets around, yes, the technology changes so quickly that I go by the general rule that once I buy something, it's already obsolete...

Fortunately, the 'net has some great places to compare prices, such as http://shopper.cnet.com/ which will give you price comparisons from many different sources.

Have fun!

We were introduced to computers just as I started High School.
We got to use one of the first of the Apple computers and had it hooked up to an old B/W TV in the "computer room",(there was only a single computer in this room).
Later on, we moved up to the latest BBC computer and we all got a taste of BASIC programming.
Then the Beeb MkII came out and we thought it was Christmas!.
About this time I left school and bought a kit to make a simple Z-80 based computer called a TEC-1B, from a company in Australia and it had all sorts of add-ons, but by todays standards, it could really do much, not long after I bought an Amstrad and had it, until the power supply mysteriously blew one day.
I replaced this with a Amiga 500, a computer I still have today, although it's uses are pretty limited.
And these days I am using a Compaq with all sorts of rubbish inside it, including lots of nasty Windows stuff!.

I had a BBC Model B for some years as well and they were a pretty nice little micro. They still have a big following in Britain today and BBC-related stuff shows up on eBay all the time.

Before the BBC, I built an Acorn Atom from a kit. This was virtually the predecessor to the BBC, as it was Acorn which extended the design and sold the BBC on it for their computer literacy project.

In the days when I was still at school and unable to afford a computer of my own I had to "make do" with the school computers: We had a Research Machines 380Z micro, and a room which was full of an old Elliot 803 and its peripherals. The local tech college had a PDP-11/40 at that time, and we had a terminal at school, or I'd go down to the college's "terminal room" some evenings. That had something like twenty or more ASR33 teletypes clunking away in it -- It was almost like working in a machine shop!