I was in the computer shop for the first time in a while the other day, just a typical consumer-type electrical shop, and I was astounded to see that they were selling hard discs with a capacity of 1.6 Terrabytes!!!!! Before some of the younger people on here wonder what I was so amazed about, you have to bear in mind that the first computer I used looked like THIS!!!!!!!
Yes, the first PC's I worked with at the University when I was an undergraduate student (back to 1989) had 256KB of Memory and just 2 floppy drives (5¼ inch., 360 KB) (no hard drive). So, whe had to handle always 2 floppys with us: one having the whole operating system (some kind of MS-DOS, perhaps 2.1 version), the other one having our software development tool (Borland Turbo C or Turbo Pascal). Their microprocessors ran at 4,77 Mhz.
Now modern laptop PC's, you can carry with you anywhere, have about 1000 times more power: 2Ghz Pentium M processors, 2GB of RAM, 80GB hard disk drives,...) Happy to have them!
By the way... THIS was the first computer I programmed with (1981). It had 1KB of memory. When I finally got the 16KB plug to expand it I got amazed!
Good old times, but now we are pretty more comfortable!
I've still got one of those Sinclairs. Actually, its the 1986 model. I stopped using it because I like graphical interfaces, but as a server, it runs 1.5 fine. But so far the unicode on 1.6 bogs it down too much. 
1.6 Terabytes! I have to update my computing course (Just checked the net, they offer 2,5 Terabytes even up here in Lapland!
The first computer I worked with (in 1978) was a company mainframe, but I have no idea what mark it was, just that it was very slow to work with. The first PC I worked with was this.
A PET??? You were lucky....
My first attempts at programming were performed on a time shared Honeywell Series 6000 mainframe. Doesn't sound so bad, but we had about 1 hours access once a week. We had to prepare programmes in BASIC on punch tape offline using a TTY33 (pictured). We then fed them in an hoped they run during the online time. As there was a class of about 25 you stood in a queue, if it didn't run then tough, try again next week
My first attempts at programming were performed on a time shared Honeywell Series 6000 mainframe. Doesn't sound so bad, but we had about 1 hours access once a week. We had to prepare programmes in BASIC on punch tape offline using a TTY33 (pictured). We then fed them in an hoped they run during the online time. As there was a class of about 25 you stood in a queue, if it didn't run then tough, try again next week
#define PYTHON_MODE TRUE
You had a keyboard? Looxury! I dreamed of having a keyboard!
I had this
, except that I couldn't afford the hex displays, so I had to use 16 LEDs to display the output in binary instead. Toggle switches, no permanent storage, and a huge 256 bytes of RAM.
I built that when I was just a young fella.... it always was flaky as heck, thanks to my less than perfect wirewrap and soldering skills, but boy did I sure have a lot of fun with it.
#undef PYTHON_MODE
You had a keyboard? Looxury! I dreamed of having a keyboard!
I had this
, except that I couldn't afford the hex displays, so I had to use 16 LEDs to display the output in binary instead. Toggle switches, no permanent storage, and a huge 256 bytes of RAM.I built that when I was just a young fella.... it always was flaky as heck, thanks to my less than perfect wirewrap and soldering skills, but boy did I sure have a lot of fun with it.
#undef PYTHON_MODE
Here's my first computer, which we got back in 1982. I seem to recall it costing more than the price listed here, but perhaps that is because we also bought the screen AND the 5 1/2 inch floppy drive, instead of using the tape recorder method.
I used it until 1989, when I got a Mac. I remember in 1989 having a discussion with my cousin's husband about buying a Mac. He worked in a physics lab at a defense contractor, so presumably needed good computing power. He told me at the time if I got a 20 MB HD, I would "never use all of it." LOL!
I used it until 1989, when I got a Mac. I remember in 1989 having a discussion with my cousin's husband about buying a Mac. He worked in a physics lab at a defense contractor, so presumably needed good computing power. He told me at the time if I got a 20 MB HD, I would "never use all of it." LOL!
My husband, Mike, is a computer guy from the dark ages as well. When we were married, his colleagues put tons of punch card chads (I didn't know at the time that was what they were called!) throughout his car, in the vents and under the carpets. They were still flying through the car when we sold it three and a half years later!
--Mary
--Mary
Some of youz make me feel young! My first real computer was a Sanyo 1000, with 64k of memory, not one 8 inch floppy, but 2 5.25 inch floppy drives, cira 1983. Had had 8 hours of lessons from a consultant and I used it every day in business. Still and applications person. I brought in the C/Pm boot disk to a friend's class just last week out of my "history" file. They got "floppy" for the first time. Hard core, I migrated WordStar (leaving CalcStar for Lotus123) over to the new hot operating system (DOS) on my Kaypro which HAD A 20 MG HARD DRIVE (with what had to be a pair of 2 or 3 mm thick platters - great to show how a hard drive works).
Those were modern machines compared (no offense) to some of those bake-a-lite wonders- back before my time when applying a computer programming patch, was adding patch cords
God bless you all and thanks for the memories.
Those were modern machines compared (no offense) to some of those bake-a-lite wonders- back before my time when applying a computer programming patch, was adding patch cords
God bless you all and thanks for the memories.
My first computer, not as old as yours, was a Windows 3.11 for Workgroups, 20 something of RAM and a 50 MG Harddrive.
My friend picked up a load of old stuff from school which the IT guys were going to throw away, none of it worked, except the 30mb Windows 1 harddrive!
Windows one! That's going back!
My friend picked up a load of old stuff from school which the IT guys were going to throw away, none of it worked, except the 30mb Windows 1 harddrive!
Windows one! That's going back!
I really enjoy all the pictures of your old computers - my students had lots of fun looking at them.
Does anybody still remember the days before we had computers?
As I was cleaning up my office I came accross an old stencil from 1978. It's hard to imagine how we had to teach back then - and those stencils were treacherous - for some reason the right hand margin would never show -so the missing words had to be dictated to the class at the beginning of the lesson.
The worksome teachers could be recognized by traces of blue stencil ink on their hands - nobody would wear light-colored clothes to school.
And the typos - they could only be removed by using a razor blade and scratching the letters off the back of the stencil (sometimes that left a hole which ruined hours of work)
Only about 100 copies could be made per stencil - then we had to retype everything on a new stencil.
How happy we were to move on to copy machines and correction fluid in the mid- 80's.
Now I'm sitting in front of a computer and am connected to the rest of the world via high-speed DSL. Incidentally, I'm still teaching the lesson 'Taking a plane' - but I'm doing it with Moodle. What a difference to those days almost 30 years ago!
School sure is fun now
,
Ulrike
Does anybody still remember the days before we had computers?
As I was cleaning up my office I came accross an old stencil from 1978. It's hard to imagine how we had to teach back then - and those stencils were treacherous - for some reason the right hand margin would never show -so the missing words had to be dictated to the class at the beginning of the lesson.
The worksome teachers could be recognized by traces of blue stencil ink on their hands - nobody would wear light-colored clothes to school.
And the typos - they could only be removed by using a razor blade and scratching the letters off the back of the stencil (sometimes that left a hole which ruined hours of work)
Only about 100 copies could be made per stencil - then we had to retype everything on a new stencil.
How happy we were to move on to copy machines and correction fluid in the mid- 80's.
Now I'm sitting in front of a computer and am connected to the rest of the world via high-speed DSL. Incidentally, I'm still teaching the lesson 'Taking a plane' - but I'm doing it with Moodle. What a difference to those days almost 30 years ago!
School sure is fun now
,Ulrike
Ulrike,
Wow, now that's going back! I remember those stencils. What a trial! Nothing like a reminder like that to make you really appreciate what we have today! School is indeed fun now! 
--Mary
I remember using things like carbon paper and a slide rule--kids these days have never even heard of them!! (lucky kids)
We still have a yard long demonstration slide-rule. I dust it off every year for a lesson on Victorian calculations to link in with my pupils' history topic.
I've also got a few Moodle questions on £sd arithmetic to go with this. How's that for anachronism.
Those in the UK may enjoy the Museum of Computing in Swindon.
I've also got a few Moodle questions on £sd arithmetic to go with this. How's that for anachronism.
Those in the UK may enjoy the Museum of Computing in Swindon.
Miles,
I still remember those terrible slide rules - I never understood how they worked and still have nightmares about them today. But I do enjoy the interactive one.
Thanks for writing the blog - I hope it'll convince our math teachers to start using interactivity. Math is so much more fun when teachers use more than just the board and chalk. Had I been taught math the modern way I might have been quite good at it.
Please continue the blog,
Ulrike
Miles, your students might also enjoy this. I'd really love to have one, but they cost an arm and a leg!
Not trying to outdo anyone
, but my first year group in primary school was the last one to learn to write using steel nib pens and ink pots! (before the school switched to ballpoints) It gave me a great respect for the art of writing and admiration for those medieval monks who spent their days copying books by hand.
And I bet now someone will come who remembers carving runes in rune stones as a child
, but my first year group in primary school was the last one to learn to write using steel nib pens and ink pots! (before the school switched to ballpoints) It gave me a great respect for the art of writing and admiration for those medieval monks who spent their days copying books by hand.And I bet now someone will come who remembers carving runes in rune stones as a child
I don't think I ever made one, but I can smell the fluid even now. That was the "smell of school" when I was a kid.
"Victorian mathematics"!!! egads Miles, now I feel reallllllyy old. By the way, I was the only girl in my advanced math class in high school--another thing that has changed (but it had its percs--I was teacher's pet and could never get in trouble, no matter what I did).
We learn by doing. I was going to slap a picture into this slide just like I do with my moodle. Didn't work. Here is a link that might work.. Sanyo 1000
The linked worked
the 30 minute edit comes in handy, I don't look like the complete idiot.
Always liked the T. Edison remark that goes something like "I have not failed 1000 times, I have learned 1000 ways it would not work".
Anyway I brushed off the mouse droppings
________ (you fill in the pun), found a level spot and took a couple of quick pictures. Hey, it was a balmy 15 degrees F out in "the side shed". You can't quite make out the wear mark on the keyboard where an office manager's bracelet wore off the paint on the keyboard. You can just make out the function key cheat sheet still taped to the keyboard.
I see my 1002st try of attaching a small file works.
The linked worked
the 30 minute edit comes in handy, I don't look like the complete idiot. Always liked the T. Edison remark that goes something like "I have not failed 1000 times, I have learned 1000 ways it would not work".
Anyway I brushed off the mouse droppings
________ (you fill in the pun), found a level spot and took a couple of quick pictures. Hey, it was a balmy 15 degrees F out in "the side shed". You can't quite make out the wear mark on the keyboard where an office manager's bracelet wore off the paint on the keyboard. You can just make out the function key cheat sheet still taped to the keyboard.I see my 1002st try of attaching a small file works.
After messing around with Apple I and II, Kaypro and Osborne in the late 70's and early 80's I made the plunge to Mac in March '84, and still have this exact model in my closet at home. Maybe someday I'll donate it to the local computer musuem. I remember how excited I was in 1985 when I was able to buy a 20MB external hardrive for my prize possession. I think it was only $700.
I have under my desk a huge disk array ( about 12" platters stacked inside a plastic case that looks like a cake cover) that I salvaged from an old classroom. Way before my time.
My first purchased computer (mine, all mine!) was a used Mac SE, which I upgraded to support a portrait display, and have 4MB. This involved a lengthy process of finding a torx screwdriver that was 8" long (very hard to do back then... ended up attaching various connectors to a wrench from sears) and cutting a resistor on the motherboard. I thought a sheepskin would make good padding for a workspace. Nobody had yet clued me in to static and discharging... but amazingly it all worked.
I now have a collection of se's and such in my shed- thought it'd be cool to get the flying toasters going on all of them and use them as bookshelf supports instead of cinder blocks...
d.i.
Wow. That "cakebox" sounds like a Winchester disc. Where I once worked as a Sales Clerk when I was 18 (boy I hated that job - the most miserable job I ever had) we had a machine that hummed like a banshee and had about 5 winchesters stacked in it IIRC (I might be wrong there) that we (ahem, not me) had to reach inside to change for backup. There was a kind of over-centre-catch type white handle in the middle to lock it in place.
I'd completely forgotten about that. I really hated that job (did I mention that?).
I'd completely forgotten about that. I really hated that job (did I mention that?).
OK, I am loving this thread down memory lane. So here is mine.
My first microcomputer network installation in a Middle School (1982) had a server with 32K of Ram and a single 5 1/4 Floppy Drive and 16 16K diskless micros. They were networked with cassette player I/0 cables and you could download and upload basic programs over the (LAN). The entire system ran $22K USD.
My first microcomputer network installation in a Middle School (1982) had a server with 32K of Ram and a single 5 1/4 Floppy Drive and 16 16K diskless micros. They were networked with cassette player I/0 cables and you could download and upload basic programs over the (LAN)
. The entire system ran $22K USD.
Thread down "memory lane"? Was that pun intentional?
Sometimes also known as "war stories" ... It's not just about how primitive the tools were, it's how primitively you used them:
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum ZX (borrowed from my dad's office), the rubber keyboard doormat thingy, sometime around '82-'83. Me and my brother were avid computer users, but at first we had no mass storage of any kind! At least anything that we could operate. So if we wanted to play a game, we had to write one first, I'm not kidding... Luckily those were also the times of the games as listings on computer magazines. "NOOOO! Don't turn it off!" (We later got a tape drive, regular cassette player did just fine)
After an upgrade to Commodore 64 we had a tape drive (and a screwdriver!). After some months of learning the BASICs, it was time to move on to the machine language. We admired the speed that it changed the colors on the screen with, compared to the Basic programs. But with the lack of an assembly editor of any kind, we had to type the numerical codes of the commands to directly the memory. To make programs more flexible, we had to put a lot of NOP (no operation) commands here and there, to allow for more code. Also, those days we had a GOTO (jump), and we used it a lot.
"But tell these to the kids nowadays, they won't believe you"
My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum ZX (borrowed from my dad's office), the rubber keyboard doormat thingy, sometime around '82-'83. Me and my brother were avid computer users, but at first we had no mass storage of any kind! At least anything that we could operate. So if we wanted to play a game, we had to write one first, I'm not kidding... Luckily those were also the times of the games as listings on computer magazines. "NOOOO! Don't turn it off!"
After an upgrade to Commodore 64 we had a tape drive (and a screwdriver!). After some months of learning the BASICs, it was time to move on to the machine language. We admired the speed that it changed the colors on the screen with, compared to the Basic programs. But with the lack of an assembly editor of any kind, we had to type the numerical codes of the commands to directly the memory. To make programs more flexible, we had to put a lot of NOP (no operation) commands here and there, to allow for more code. Also, those days we had a GOTO (jump)
"But tell these to the kids nowadays, they won't believe you"
The first program I wrote on my first computer (also a Commodore 64) was a card game. Right then I had not yet heard of the GOTO statement. To make the game last three rounds, I actually copied that part of the game three times.
It's not just about how primitive the tools were, it's how primitively you used them
I really enjoy this thread and the sharing 
However, this Yank didn't get the thread name. I get most of the computer speak in the content, figured the thread name was something out of the Hobbit, more likely Gormenghast or some south of the equator MoodleSpeak term. Wrong.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gob1.htm
utterly astonished, astounded that might translate to "Well shut my mouth!"
However, this Yank didn't get the thread name. I get most of the computer speak in the content, figured the thread name was something out of the Hobbit, more likely Gormenghast or some south of the equator MoodleSpeak term. Wrong.
http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-gob1.htm
utterly astonished, astounded that might translate to "Well shut my mouth!"
This first computer i ever saw was a "Dumb Terminal" my dad brought like 5 of them home from the plant he worked in. The were basically a screen a key board and 3.5 floppy. The screen had two colors black and green. I never used it much but my dad was a huge Ham Radio enthusist also known as Amertuer radio. So he had a TNC hooked up to this thing through a 9-pin port. This TNC was then hooked to a 2 meter, 440 ham radio. The TNC acted like a modem it generated a series of beeps buzz and other assorted noises and brodcasted them across this radio. In the town i lived in they had a club of the guys who did ham radio so they had a specified frequency that they all ran these TNCs on. You could send emails, files and even do chat rooms. The TNCs ran at like 2400 bauds. The program they ran was KGOLD i think, i hear that it still exsist.
Long ago i tried to get my ham license when i was probably 10 but i cam shy by 2 questions. Back then i was attempting the Technician no code plus license. Since then i have never really found the time to read the book and go take the test.
I use to sit and listen for hours as my dad talked on his ham and ran that computer. it was all great fun.
sorry about grammer i'm not very stong in that section...
Long ago i tried to get my ham license when i was probably 10 but i cam shy by 2 questions. Back then i was attempting the Technician no code plus license. Since then i have never really found the time to read the book and go take the test.
I use to sit and listen for hours as my dad talked on his ham and ran that computer. it was all great fun.
sorry about grammer i'm not very stong in that section...
Oh wow, I now remember that my first email was via packet radio. The last leg was actual read to me on the phone by a local ham operator.
As a graduste student (1970) for my project work I worked with a mechanical calculator for one month to compute an intercorrelation matrix of 60 students with 20 variables.
Next year I joined as a research assistant to analyse 10,000 precoded questionnaire using IBM sorting and CAM accounting machine. My specilization at that time was using these eqipments for No Answer and Do not know (NA/DK) anysis to find out the pattern so that future survey will have less problem for the researcher. Same year we strated working on a Russian computer donated to us. We started programing in Fortran. I got the opportuinty to use IBM 360 with OSIRIS package to complete the national sample survey on Health.
I left the job same year to join my doctoral program starting with IBM 1302 and then moved to IBM 370/166.
Once I was asked to help a compromise between a marketing and hardware engineer (partners) and got involved in having a closer look at DEC Nova computer (Mini computer) with 20 dumb terminals using COBOL.
When Micro computers emerged I started buying and using for my personal use. The popular one at that time was BBC Micro. Parallely I started a hardware course for paraprofessionals from industry to learn hardware and helped each one of them to assemble a micro computer from the component levle.
Then moved on to use PCs with DOS, Windows 3.1 and started using Linux 0.9 with 52 Floppies.
I remember my association with computers continue uninterrupted for the past 36 years. My satisfaction is there for training a large number of adults to learn computers with higher level languages like Basic,Fortran, COBOL and prolog.
Identifying the interest in using computers I encouraged my daughter to use the DEC nova computr's dumb terminal to write COBOL code at the age of 7 paying one rupee per line. I purchesd form London (1985) a micro labelled My First Computer having audio and helping her to use the machine to learn English and Maths. Still she is keeping the machine with her and it was working till last year.
The sad story is that computer is a tool designed for adults and somehow it appealed more to the young (permitting scholl children to get exposed to the dangers of computers is a matter of concern) leading Nicholas Necroponte (Media lab MIT) to the phenomenon of cultural divide - more younger than the older using computers. His coinage of digital divide info poor vs info rich gained more popularity and people are less concerned with the issues of introducing computers to adults to learn the computer applications.
Today's world of computing is at the cross road. Which is better - using the young with more programing language exposure with less functional knowledge or the adults with more and domain knowledge with less exposure to computing?
In India the first computer arrived at 1964. I am really previleged to use computers from 1970 that too from the field of social science - Psychology.