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What year did you get your first computer?


hershy314

hershy314

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If I remember correctly I got my first comp when I was around 8 or 9 so that would be around 1989. It was a custom built desktop unit. Only thing I remember it had the old 386 chip in it. I think it was a Compaq....at least that's what showed on the monitor. I know it was custom built cause each piece was bought sepretely and my parents had some one put it all together. I remember taking that thing completely apart and put back together so many times.
 
My first computer was a Tandy 1000 with a 8086 processor, I got it around 1987.
128kb memory, 2 51/4" floppys

I upgraded to 640kb for around $250 and added a 10mb hard drive for $800, and that's !987 dollars
 
Macintosh II forget what year 86? (it was new and big bucks)what a dinosaur now, wish I still had it
 
Steve you had a good one for the time. You ask a kid today what floppy is, they will look at you in the strangest way. iDad I remember those things, probably why I've stuck with Windows based computers all my life.
 
Always been a Mac guy, never ever had a pc or windows OS.
 
Past few years I've wanted a Mac but the price always drives me away. I don't think they are worth as much as Apple sells them for. Almost got one from my brother for $200 but his wife loses it while cleaning the house. Don't ask how cause I have no clue.
 
Heh - you're nothing but young upstarts.

Here's the way manly men used computers back in my day...

The 1st computer I ever used was a CDC 160a back in 1963-4:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/...ation/CDC_160a/cdc.160a.2003.102654001.lg.jpg

It was the system controller / job scheduler / etc for a CDC-1604:
http://thisdayintechhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cdc1604.jpeg

As I recall, one started up the CDC 160 by setting the address of the punch paper tape unit using front panel switches. The bootstrap loader was contained on a roll of punch paper tape. This then allowed one to run programs to address the tape drives, the programs on one of which then allowed you to start up the CDC1604. Once that was up and running, life was easy because you then could use ultra-modern devices such as these to enter user programs:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/IBM_card_punch_029.JPG
http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/photos2/1k/ibm2501.jpg
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/IBM1402-PunchCardReader.jpg
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/ibm082.gif


I dare you to top THAT for oldest computer used by a PSG member!

;-)

T
 
DAMNNNN.... iDad beat me to the punch.... :bustagut::bustagut: .... slow connection just to find one lousy abacus. I used to use that ...

Tomm.... I wonder if those behemoths can handle Photoshop.


Oh... the famous GOTO application ...

My Dad brought home his office's Commodore Executive 64. A hi-tech model - cpu... 1Mhz , 64k ram , 5" monitor .
His Boss didn't like the new technology and still preferred the typewriter. Their lose , my gain.... :bustagut:
 
As soon as I saw the image of the abacus starting to fill in, I started to laugh my head off, knowing what was coming next!

OK... OK... u win!!!!

T
 
Wow! How old ARE you? I graduated from High School in 1963. You still have good mind..LOL :)
Tom Mann said:
Heh - you're nothing but young upstarts.

Here's the way manly men used computers back in my day...

The 1st computer I ever used was a CDC 160a back in 1963-4:
http://archive.computerhistory.org/...ation/CDC_160a/cdc.160a.2003.102654001.lg.jpg

It was the system controller / job scheduler / etc for a CDC-1604:
http://thisdayintechhistory.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/cdc1604.jpeg

As I recall, one started up the CDC 160 by setting the address of the punch paper tape unit using front panel switches. The bootstrap loader was contained on a roll of punch paper tape. This then allowed one to run programs to address the tape drives, the programs on one of which then allowed you to start up the CDC1604. Once that was up and running, life was easy because you then could use ultra-modern devices such as these to enter user programs:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/IBM_card_punch_029.JPG
http://www.dvq.com/oldcomp/photos2/1k/ibm2501.jpg
http://www.computermuseum.li/Testpage/IBM1402-PunchCardReader.jpg
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/computinghistory/ibm082.gif


I dare you to top THAT for oldest computer used by a PSG member!

;-)

T
Click to expand...
 
Spectrum zx and a Commodore 64, i can remember doing the balloon in flight program and then running it and it looked rubbish but back then it was like i was a Nasa science officer at mission control:cheesygrin:
 
Holy crap you people are old! I'm almost 40 and my first computer was in 1997 from Gateway, running windows 95.
I laughingly remember getting it, messing around on it a bit before work and freaking out because I didn't know how to shut it down.
I had to call my girlfriends, sisters, boyfriend to tell me how to shut it down. Now I don't even think twice about ripping mine apart and modding it myself. Oh how the years have passed.
 
I guess there are some old folks here.
my first computer was in 1997 from Gateway, running windows 95
Click to expand...

I believe my first computer ran PC-Dos 2.0.
I had 2 floppy drives.
I tried to learn all the commands by playing with them and seeing what the did.
I tried "diskcopy a: b:" which duplicated my "one and only disk", my boot disk, to drive B:, cool right.

Then I said "Hmm what does format do"?

So I tried "Format A:" and erased my original boot disk.
True story, thank god I learned Diskcopy first!

I remember a breakthrough program called 'Double Dos".
You could actually have 2 DOS environments active and toggle between them.

You could have Wordstar open in one DOS environment and dBase active in another or whatever programs you were using.

This is obviously way before Windows.
 
Haha! That's awesome Steve. The only time I ever had to screw around with Dos was when a game I bought either for some reason wouldn't auto install, or when it specifically required you to manually install the game or program.
 
Where serious data crunching needs to be done, DOS / UNIX text utilities still are irreplaceable.

I would like to see someone use Excel or any other home/business oriented program to add the 2nd, 5th and 99th columns of ten thousand data tables, and then write (to different files) only those lines in the tables where that sum is negative. Of course, one could write a full-fledged program in most any programming language to do that, but it's only a few lines of script using AWK and either a DOS batch file or UNIX. It would be more work even using Matlab or Mathematica, environments specifically for mathematical calculations.

T
 
Last edited:
ALB, to answer your question about age, when our daughter was about 6, she approached me with this very serious look and asked, "What were the dinosaurs really like, Daddy?"

Fortunately, she didn't ask my wife.

:mrgreen:
 
Last edited:
Tom Mann said:
ALB, to answer your question about age, when our daughter was about 6, she approached me with this very serious look and asked, "What were the dinosaurs really like, Daddy?"

Fortunately, she didn't ask my wife.

:mrgreen:
Click to expand...


That B fighting talk for clareB you understand mate:bustagut:
 
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