Topic: when did you start using computers (Read 7694 times)

Mackie · « **on:** August 09, 2005, 03:33:46 pm »

again out of pure curiosity

for me it was in either 88 or 89 , i was 4-5 years old (the only hobby i started before computers was Judo, started exactly when i was 4 years old, practiced til 17) and my first computers were a C64 and a Sinclair spectrum... yeah they were outdated even at that point of time, it took about a year or two before i moved to 386 computers but as you might of have imagined it took a me a while to learn how to use them since i was so young

(born 84) .

Dracho · « **Reply #1 on:** August 09, 2005, 03:35:26 pm »

About 1981...

and here it is..

http://oldcomputers.net/atari400.html

Mackie · « **Reply #2 on:** August 09, 2005, 03:38:19 pm »

Quote from: Dracho on August 09, 2005, 03:35:26 pm

About 1981...

and here it is..

http://oldcomputers.net/atari400.html

too bad they dont make computers that pretty/compact anymore :/

Tus-XC · « **Reply #3 on:** August 09, 2005, 03:45:48 pm »

93 w/ a packard bell bought from jc penny....

Mackie · « **Reply #4 on:** August 09, 2005, 04:21:26 pm »

jc penny.... hm. heard the name. aint that sort of a chain-store company?

as for me starting with old style computers you can blame my dad for that, he wanted me to start from the, well, start. the beginning, i quess i should thank him for that since i now know a sh*tload about way-old computers and their games ;p

kmelew · « **Reply #5 on:** August 09, 2005, 04:51:48 pm »

Quote from: Dracho on August 09, 2005, 03:35:26 pm

About 1981...

and here it is..

http://oldcomputers.net/atari400.html

I still have my Atari 800 somewhere...

Nemesis · « **Reply #6 on:** August 09, 2005, 05:06:39 pm »

1978. Heathkit H11

Link to info on the computer

Built from a kit.

The Postman · « **Reply #7 on:** August 09, 2005, 05:25:55 pm »

1981, HP 41CV
1985, HP 41CX

I still have and use the CX, RPN Lives!

NJAntman · « **Reply #8 on:** August 09, 2005, 05:37:03 pm »

1986.

Learned basic Basic programming in HS on a Mac. Later that year freshman semester at NJIT we had to learn Fortran 77 and got to rent an 8086 for 4 years.

Ah, the memories of DOS 3, XYWrite word processor, and TK!Solver. Can't recall how I ever had the patience to wait for that beast to boot up from a 5.25 floppy.

E_Look · « **Reply #9 on:** August 09, 2005, 05:59:17 pm »

High school early '70s; IBM 1130, a card reading mainframe type beast.

kmelew · « **Reply #10 on:** August 09, 2005, 06:01:35 pm »

Quote from: NJAntman on August 09, 2005, 05:37:03 pm

Learned basic Basic programming in HS on a Mac.

You had Mac's?!? We only had TRaSh-80's

AlienLXIX · « **Reply #11 on:** August 09, 2005, 06:08:56 pm »

My mother brought home an Apple IIe and hooked it up to the family TV set. I don't remember the year all I know is that it had a tape player and large black floppies. Ohh and we even had a telephone modem! The kind that had a cradle. My mom was a programer for the local community colage.

Maybe that was early 80s? I was 11 or 12? $:-\$

toasty0 · « **Reply #12 on:** August 09, 2005, 06:22:25 pm »

As if I have ever used one.

J. Carney · « **Reply #13 on:** August 09, 2005, 07:34:55 pm »

Apple IIe in the late 80's. We had ONE in the whole school- because one of my elementary school teachers went out and bought it with her own money. My parents got one for me later on that year with a lot of educational games.

My first real 'modern' comp was next- a Packard Bell in about 94. My first computer games?

Silent Service II and Red Storm Rising

Javora · « **Reply #14 on:** August 09, 2005, 07:57:40 pm »

'83 on a Digital Mainframe and TRS 80's. Simple times.

toasty0 · « **Reply #15 on:** August 09, 2005, 08:39:24 pm »

Quote from: Javora on August 09, 2005, 07:57:40 pm

'83 on a Digital Mainframe and TRS 80's. Simple times.

Dang, you IS old.

E_Look · « **Reply #16 on:** August 09, 2005, 08:44:32 pm »

That's old?? Okay... you're right, that's old!

Darth Sidious · « **Reply #17 on:** August 09, 2005, 09:04:20 pm »

First computer in home. Mac Classic 1990.

Prior to that i'd used earlier macs (and Apple IIs) at friends and at parents work.

First bought computer. Gateway 500mhz midsummer 99

E_Look · « **Reply #18 on:** August 09, 2005, 09:26:08 pm »

Oh, first computer bought? Leading Edge Model D2, a clone of the 80286 (CPU by Daewoo!); came with a 5¼" floppy drive, a whopping 30 Mb MFM HD, an amber monochrome (tiny) monitor, AND NO MATH COPROCESSOR!! I had to buy it a couple of months later. But oh, it came with this superb feeling clicky keyboard. My kid is still using the keyboard and won't give it up!

Captain Pierce · « **Reply #19 on:** August 09, 2005, 09:30:35 pm »

Back in the very early 80's, my school bought a Bell & Howell computer... Bell & Howell mostly made 16mm film projectors, but apparently at the point they had started either licencing (or ripping off

) the original Apple II. About the same time, my aunt had a TRS-80, and I think shortly after that she bought us a TI-99/4A, if anybody remembers that glorified game machine.

I did actually figure out how to program BASIC on the TI-99, but quickly gave up on it when I realized that our only tape recorder was incompatible to serve as a storage drive...

The first computer I personally bought was an Apple IIe (used) in 1989... $600, and I promptly blew nearly another $400 on the color monitor, because I was damned if I was going to look at that old green phosphor monitor ever again after having to deal with it all through high school... In college I mostly worked on Macs (after giving up Computer Science as a major, where I worked with PC Jr.'s for BASIC and something called an Alpha Micro for PASCAL, COBOL, FORTRAN, etc.), and probably would have bought one at some point if all the cool games hadn't been on PC.

My first PC was purchased late in 1998, and I've had 7 more since (of which I still own 4

).

Ravok · « **Reply #20 on:** August 10, 2005, 04:04:15 am »

When SFC 1 came out. I bought one just to play that game.

S'Raek · « **Reply #21 on:** August 10, 2005, 04:36:26 am »

The first one I can remember is the Xerox 860 that I used when I joined the Navy in 1984. We may have had a Comodore or something like that but if so I don't remember.

Anyway 860 linky - http://www.old-computers.com/museum/computer.asp?st=1&c=488

We really liked these things because you could be the crap out of them, and we did, and they would still work.

Capt. Mike · « **Reply #22 on:** August 10, 2005, 05:31:05 am »

10th grade, 1970, audio modem connection to the school system's IBM mainframe, read punch tape, and for us old school military, the round key, 2" stroke keyboard.

First home computer was an Atari 800, which still works, with a Happy drive (actually, 2 of them), so we can play M.U.L.E. whenever we want....plus the odd trip to Alternate Reality, the Dungeon.

Mike

Javora · « **Reply #23 on:** August 10, 2005, 07:54:44 am »

Quote from: std::toasty0 on August 09, 2005, 08:39:24 pm

Dang, you IS old.

Quote from: E_Look on August 09, 2005, 08:44:32 pm

That's old?? Okay... you're right, that's old!

I'm not old yet but I'm getting there.

The funny thing is that people think I'm still a teen. A couple of years ago I contracted a company to do some work on my roof. When I went out one morning to see how they were coming along, the crew boss asked me if my parents were home. His mouth hit the roof and the stuttering began when I told him that I owned the home.

E_Look · « **Reply #24 on:** August 10, 2005, 10:09:00 am »

Quote from: Ravok on August 10, 2005, 04:04:15 am

When SFC 1 came out. I bought one just to play that game.

You serious??

toasty0 · « **Reply #25 on:** August 10, 2005, 10:14:13 am »

Quote from: E_Look on August 09, 2005, 08:44:32 pm

That's old?? Okay... you're right, that's old!

If you promise not to laugh I'll tell you my first computer. A PET(hole punch card kit), and then after that a Commodore64.

Ravok · « **Reply #26 on:** August 10, 2005, 01:03:40 pm »

Quote from: E_Look on August 10, 2005, 10:09:00 am

Quote from: Ravok on August 10, 2005, 04:04:15 am
When SFC 1 came out. I bought one just to play that game.

You serious??

Absolutely!!

I had no use for one. and no desire to own one prior to that.

Javora · « **Reply #27 on:** August 10, 2005, 03:07:31 pm »

Quote from: std::toasty0 on August 10, 2005, 10:14:13 am

Quote from: E_Look on August 09, 2005, 08:44:32 pm
That's old?? Okay... you're right, that's old!

If you promise not to laugh I'll tell you my first computer. A PET(hole punch card kit), and then after that a Commodore64.

Oh I used those but not until after I started using the Digital/TRS80's. They were kind of fun to play with.

Alidar Jarok · « **Reply #28 on:** August 10, 2005, 04:50:37 pm »

Let's see, I was born in 87. I've had a computer as far as I can remember. I vaguely recall updating it to Windows (3.0 or something like that). Didn't get another computer until the i-Mac came out and, not long after, another Computer that ran on Windows 98 SE.

Just plain old Punisher · « **Reply #29 on:** August 10, 2005, 08:08:11 pm »

My first computer was steam powered!

KBF-Angel Slayer · « **Reply #30 on:** August 10, 2005, 09:44:54 pm »

Xerox 860, and an Apple II at work, (Both were THE computer at the time, supposedly.) First home computer? A Commodore +4.

Alidar Jarok · « **Reply #31 on:** August 10, 2005, 09:50:04 pm »

Quote from: Punisher on August 10, 2005, 08:08:11 pm

My first computer was steam powered!

Your lucky, mine was hamster-powered

E_Look · « **Reply #32 on:** August 10, 2005, 09:55:12 pm »

Wow they had mice back then!

Dracho · « **Reply #33 on:** August 10, 2005, 10:12:28 pm »

Our mainframe at work is so old some of the lines of code refer to an abacus..

"If redbead=left"

KBF-Angel Slayer · « **Reply #34 on:** August 10, 2005, 10:18:39 pm »

My first keyboard was heirogliphs.

toasty0 · « **Reply #35 on:** August 10, 2005, 11:28:12 pm »

Quote from: Punisher on August 10, 2005, 08:08:11 pm

My first computer was steam powered!

That's only because you kept pissing on the heat sink.

Ravok · « **Reply #36 on:** August 10, 2005, 11:34:47 pm »

Quote from: Punisher on August 10, 2005, 08:08:11 pm

My first computer was steam powered!

Ahhh yes the old Eli Whitney 01 . You had to like the look of that baby!!

Hand hammered riveted steel case, and the 2 man boiler it took to run it.

and those 3ft floppy disks drives and 1 gig of memory, It was way ahead of its time.

Bonk · « **Reply #37 on:** August 11, 2005, 05:37:09 am »

Started basic programming on a Commodore Vic 20 on display in Woolco in 1986.

GarrethMacLeod · « **Reply #38 on:** August 11, 2005, 09:10:32 am »

Late 70's - Atari 400 followed a year later with an Atari 800. (both are now gathering dust in the attic)

1982/3 - First Mainframe - Digital PDP11 (upgraded a couple years later to a VAX/VMS)

Same approximate timeframe I got my first "real" home pc. A 286DX (?) but I don't remember who made it. It's probably also in the attic with the Ataris.

Javora · « **Reply #39 on:** August 11, 2005, 10:30:08 am »

Quote from: GarrethMacLeod on August 11, 2005, 09:10:32 am

Late 70's - Atari 400 followed a year later with an Atari 800. (both are now gathering dust in the attic)

1982/3 - First Mainframe - Digital PDP11 (upgraded a couple years later to a VAX/VMS)

Same approximate timeframe I got my first "real" home pc. A 286DX (?) but I don't remember who made it. It's probably also in the attic with the Ataris.

The VAX/VMS was the system I used, did you ever play around with those disk packs that you set into drive about the size of a dishwashing machine? Brings back a lot of memories.

Dracho · « **Reply #40 on:** August 11, 2005, 10:39:01 am »

Did you know they still manufacture & sell a mini-VAX system?

E_Look · « **Reply #41 on:** August 11, 2005, 01:32:28 pm »

I thought VAXs and the pdp's were minicomputers...

Bonk · « **Reply #42 on:** August 11, 2005, 01:41:04 pm »

I remember using Maple (It think it was - or some other stats program) on a VAX in university - nothing beat having to come back the next day for your printouts...

Dracho · « **Reply #43 on:** August 11, 2005, 01:55:00 pm »

Quote from: E_Look on August 11, 2005, 01:32:28 pm

I thought VAXs and the pdp's were minicomputers...

Not really. Here is a VAX v4.4

Here is a 6200

and here is a DEC MicroVax

E_Look · « **Reply #44 on:** August 11, 2005, 03:49:19 pm »

Um... yeah, but those are hardly the size of an old IBM or DEC mainframe, say the DEC-20, etc. Maybe it's just me; I've always thought of those units as minicomputers. Incidentally, by that I don't mean PCs, etc., which I call microcomputers.

Jack Morris · « **Reply #45 on:** August 11, 2005, 04:20:40 pm »

1985, Robbins high school, Austin, TX. Apples, then later on IBMs, and in 88 in the military we only used IBM compatible machines.

Just plain old Punisher · « **Reply #46 on:** August 11, 2005, 08:49:28 pm »

Quote from: Ravok on August 10, 2005, 11:34:47 pm

Quote from: Punisher on August 10, 2005, 08:08:11 pm
My first computer was steam powered!

Ahhh yes the old Eli Whitney 01 . You had to like the look of that baby!!

Hand hammered riveted steel case, and the 2 man boiler it took to run it.

and those 3ft floppy disks drives and 1 gig of memory, It was way ahead of its time.

And when the sucker crashed...well believe you me you didn't wanna be anywhere in the same zip code when the boiler blew!

The Bar-Abbas Anomaly · « **Reply #47 on:** August 14, 2005, 11:23:28 pm »

TRS-80 Model I with expansion port and 'stringy-floppy'!

7th Grade Science Class, 1980.

Just plain old Punisher · « **Reply #48 on:** August 15, 2005, 08:27:11 pm »

Is it just me, or is that lady just a little too happy to be next to that VAX

stoneyface · « **Reply #49 on:** August 15, 2005, 09:21:50 pm »

this is embarrasing...

early 80's using this hunk o' crap w/ cpm language

http://oldcomputers.net/televideo.html

yes! it's the Televideo TPC-1! oooooohhhh!!

i played a lot of text-based zork! lol

Sethan · « **Reply #50 on:** August 15, 2005, 09:50:56 pm »

1977 Hewlett Packard 2000C and 2000F mainframes via teletype.

First job was as a keypunch operator in 1978

Built a Heathkit in 1978 or 79

Edit: almost forgot - helped the computer techs work on the UNIVAC Q3 from 1981-83 here:

http://www.radomes.org/museum/scripts/acwinfo2x.cgi?site=%22Hancock+Field,+NY%22&key=HancockFieldNY&pic=HancockFieldNY&doc=HancockFieldNY

The computer looked like this (the one pictured is a slightly newer model)

Bought a C64 in 1983, started repairing them in '85.

Got a job repairing HP mainframes in '86.

NJAntman · « **Reply #51 on:** August 16, 2005, 12:05:35 am »

Quote from: stoneyface on August 15, 2005, 09:21:50 pm

this is embarrasing...

early 80's using this hunk o' crap w/ cpm language

http://oldcomputers.net/televideo.html

yes! it's the Televideo TPC-1! oooooohhhh!!

i played a lot of text-based zork! lol

That thing looks like a prop from 2001 Space Odyssey.

KBF-Angel Slayer · « **Reply #52 on:** August 16, 2005, 10:57:05 am »

This is what I started working on. It is really just a huge word processor, but I used it for five years...

prometheus · « **Reply #53 on:** August 18, 2005, 04:07:42 pm »

1979 - Commodore PET, I was 4 years old... "Helped" my father to program a load of primitive games into it to amuse myself and my young friends at the time...

1983 - Commodore VIC 20, where I first started programming BASIC and had my first shot of a flight simulator...

1986 - Commodore Plus 4... I loved this one for programming, much improved on the old Commodore V2 basic...

1988 - BBC micro computers attatched to a mainframe... Programmed them in Comal, got first experience of Networks and primitive DOS, and hacked the school computer system...

1990 - Amiga 500, where I first got into using DOS to write scripts and into Image Manipulation Suites...

1990 - Apple Macintosh, just for desktop publishing work, basically manufacturing false Identification to obtain alcohol...

1997 - Amiga 1200, where I managed to play Deluxe Galaga for a total of 96 hours and be late for work on the 5th day... This was because a friend and I had a high score vendetta...

1997 - First Pentium PC, A Cyrix 233 MHz running... yiccchhhh, windows 98 first edition...

2002 - Got my first Delta 10 10 and configured an AMD Athalon 2000 XP PC for Multitrack Recording...

Commander Maxillius · « **Reply #54 on:** August 19, 2005, 01:20:53 am »

1986-1993 Elementary school years: My school had about a million Apple II's and IIe's. My 5th grade teacher even had a IIc.

1993-1996 Middle school: we had one lab full of Macintosh LC's, and another full of Mac Classics. I'm still trying to get the version of SimCity that was on them as well as a little game called Artillery. I've got that on my mini, but since it's a 15 year old program, it has a hard time dealing with a processor that's 200 times the speed it was written for!

1996-2000 High school: one lab was full of what I swear were the same Mac Classics the middle school had, and the other lab started with 166 MHz Compaqs with Win95 and switched to 400 MHz home-made jobs with Win98.

1999: 1st purchased machine: Hewlett-Packard Pavilion 4455; 400 MHz Pentium II MMX. Originally with Win98, 64 MB RAM, 6.2 gig hard disk, single 32x CD-ROM; upgraded to 256 MB RAM, 4x DVD-ROM and Win XP The DVD drive was acually the first upgrade and it played a few movied pretty well, but It must've bured the RAM up since after a while it didn't like playing movies anymore lol. Deceased 2004. Its motherboard is hanging on my wall

2002: 2nd PC: Toshiba Satellite 1405-S151 laptop; 1.2 GHz, instantly upgraded to 512 MB RAM from 256, with Win XP and 30 GB hard disk. It's serving me quite well, besides the fact that it's on its 2nd hard drive and no longer sleeps or hibernates properly (refuses to wake up).

2003: 3rd PC: Hewlett-Packard Pavilion 725n; Athlon 2400+ @ 2.0 GHz, 512 MB RAM, with WinXP, then Mandrake Linux version 10.0, then back to Win XP after I realized I know enough Unix commands to shut the machine down and put Windows back on. However, I permanently messed it up by putting Linux on it. It still doesn't run right so it's on loan to my sister's boyfriend

2005: 4th "PC": Apple Macintosh Mini; 1.25 GHz PowerPC G4, originally with 256 MB RAM, but it took only 2 weeks for me to realize OS X doesn't like anything less than 512, so that 's what I gave it. It's also the machine I've decided will be my entry back into the Mac world. I left using System 6, and came back at Mac OS X 10.3 Panther... that's 4 whole versions and a processor shift!

prometheus · « **Reply #55 on:** August 19, 2005, 06:59:03 am »

My God! I remember having to load programs in from a Magnetic Tape now that I think back to this!!! Waiting half an hour for a program to load into memory and praying that no one in the house would turn a hoover or something on that would cause a voltage spike and crash the bloody thing... What a nightmare... I don't think I could live like that any more...

Sethan · « **Reply #56 on:** August 19, 2005, 07:02:24 pm »

Heh - try having to toggle instructions in on the front panel for a paper tape loader so you could load an OS.

prometheus · « **Reply #57 on:** August 20, 2005, 03:40:01 am »

Thankfully, they were a little before my time...

I downloaded a DSKY simulator a while back... It's a surprsingly rapid and effective way of executing computer programs... You have a two digit Verb Code to tell the computer what aspect of the program to execute, ie. verb 37 will tell the computer to expect a program change, and then a Noun 12 (in the LEM) would tell the computer to commence a countdown to launch...

Don Karnage · « **Reply #58 on:** August 22, 2005, 11:00:17 pm »

well the first computer was a comodor vic20 with the tape cassette, but whe didn't keep it and in the mid 80's i don't know what kind of computer but i remember the software, it was lotus 1-2-3, the software was divide into 4 or 5 disc because the monitor was not color (a stupid excuse to says the computer was not able to read it) and we sell it , in the mid 90's i was a pentium one, 75 Mhz, 8 meg of ram, no sound card, a 256 color svga video card, win 3.11 in it and later the update it to win 95, it was stolen in 98 by my tenent, the cops didn't belive us because there was not trace of infraction, sure the tenent have the key to opend the door, (i stole the refregerator in revenge when we move), after that i get a pentium one, 200Mhz, 32 meg of ram, hd of 10 gyg, video card of 16 meg i think, win 98, the com was efective in 2001 and whe buy a use amd k6 2, 400Mhz, i give it away after i buy a amd athlon duron 1533 Mhz, 64 meg of ram and a few other stuff in it, (i no longer have it) now i have a pentium 4 3.0 Gyg with 1 gyg of ram, 256 meg of ram for the video card, hd 200 Gyg, got another one in ben built with amd athlon 1.8 gyg, video card 256 meg, hd of 40 and 200 gyg, in the future well who know.

E_Look · « **Reply #59 on:** August 23, 2005, 11:44:32 am »

Quote from: Dracho on August 10, 2005, 10:12:28 pm

Our mainframe at work is so old some of the lines of code refer to an abacus..

"If redbead=left"

You youngsters get all the coolest stuff. All our beads were black... and the few inscriptions on the sides were in ancient Chinese. Not even Toasty is that old.

toasty0 · « **Reply #60 on:** August 23, 2005, 12:16:58 pm »

Quote from: E_Look NCC-9091 on August 23, 2005, 11:44:32 am

Quote from: Dracho on August 10, 2005, 10:12:28 pm
Our mainframe at work is so old some of the lines of code refer to an abacus..

"If redbead=left"

You youngsters get all the coolest stuff. All our beads were black... and the few inscriptions on the sides were in ancient Chinese. Not even Toasty is that old.

No, I'm not. Atleast we had colored beads and knots in our cords.

prometheus · « **Reply #61 on:** August 25, 2005, 08:19:42 pm »

Quote from: NJAntman on August 16, 2005, 12:05:35 am

That thing looks like a prop from 2001 Space Odyssey.

Small world, I'm just watching that right now... The Earth Orbit scenes...

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Topic: when did you start using computers (Read 7694 times) var addthis_config = {"data_track_clickback":true};

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Topic: when did you start using computers (Read 7694 times)