The first computer I ever had was a Vic 20 that cost $44 from Kmart. I think the tape drive I hooked up to it cost almost as much. Eventually I upgraded to a Commodore 64 and it's "lumbering hippo" of a disk drive. Had an analog modem that you had to put the handset into the acoustic cups, until some anonymous ddialer gave me a real modem -- real meaning 1200 baud, I believe! I used to get the Compute! magazine and laboriously type in basic code, and I had a few cartridge games. I was the first person (in my school, I think) to turn in a book report on computer paper (fanfold greenbar) -- written in Quick Brown Fox, a word processor, and I didn't know enough to know how to set top & bottom margins, and the teacher fussed because my text ran right through the perforations, so I didn't separate my sheets.
In high school (10th or 11th grade, maybe? so '84 or '85) I took a computer math class that was structured programming in basic with a horrible teacher, and I ended up helping a lot of my classmates. Also took an applications class the semester before that and learned word processing and spreadsheets, but I don't remember what flavors of either. I know we had Apple IIe and IIc's at school.
I remember the first Lisa and later the Macintoshes in the stores, and sitting down and playing on them.
I remember playing Loderunner a lot on Tandys in Radio Shack when I worked there. And selling an old TRS something or other that had a big spiff (kick back to the salesperson who actually managed to sell it) on it because it was so old.
I remember starting my job here in Texas in 1987, and the Tandy 1200 that was mine to use (and the only computer the company had at the time). *shudder*
I remember the Commodore 128 and the one with the tiny built in screen. I remember monochrome monitors and when page white screens came out, instead of glowing yellow or green. And how I had a color monitor briefly at work, until Bruce gave it away, or took it over himself (which was okay, because our accounting software was quickbasic based, and locked up in color anyway.)
The first computer I bought with an 80 meg hard drive for work, and wondering what on Earth I would do with all that space. Having to replace the harddrive with phone support from Skip because we'd bought it from Comp USA and the drive was bad (isn't that where y'all worked?)
The first network, EasyLan, that replaced the "sneakernet" concept, and how great it really did work.
The first time I screwed up knowing I should "restore" a "backup" and being there til Midnight while Bob untangled our mangled data and Bruce looked on -- and realizing about 10:30 or so why it had happened, NOT that I was going to say anything!
Saving logs of ddial chats with Bob while he provided tech help so I could study it later and learn DOS commands...
The first PC clone we had in the house (well, apartment) was yours, I think.. you were letting us "store" it there, although I don't remember why anymore. :) I'm sure it was an 8088 processor, and seemed way cool and very, very different from the Commodore.
The time when EasyLan finally died, and you helped us migrate to Windows For Workgroups 3.11 (fairly new at the time) and spending a fortune bringing Kathy's PC up to 1 meg of memory!! And having the nifty Windows For Workgroups Dos add-on, so we didn't have to put every machine up on Windows.
And remember Dr Dos? Hahah.
And... of course........... the classic -- "It just wants to know where the F1 key is" which has to make it into any computer reminiscing!
no subject
In high school (10th or 11th grade, maybe? so '84 or '85) I took a computer math class that was structured programming in basic with a horrible teacher, and I ended up helping a lot of my classmates. Also took an applications class the semester before that and learned word processing and spreadsheets, but I don't remember what flavors of either. I know we had Apple IIe and IIc's at school.
I remember the first Lisa and later the Macintoshes in the stores, and sitting down and playing on them.
I remember playing Loderunner a lot on Tandys in Radio Shack when I worked there. And selling an old TRS something or other that had a big spiff (kick back to the salesperson who actually managed to sell it) on it because it was so old.
I remember starting my job here in Texas in 1987, and the Tandy 1200 that was mine to use (and the only computer the company had at the time). *shudder*
I remember the Commodore 128 and the one with the tiny built in screen. I remember monochrome monitors and when page white screens came out, instead of glowing yellow or green. And how I had a color monitor briefly at work, until Bruce gave it away, or took it over himself (which was okay, because our accounting software was quickbasic based, and locked up in color anyway.)
The first computer I bought with an 80 meg hard drive for work, and wondering what on Earth I would do with all that space. Having to replace the harddrive with phone support from Skip because we'd bought it from Comp USA and the drive was bad (isn't that where y'all worked?)
The first network, EasyLan, that replaced the "sneakernet" concept, and how great it really did work.
The first time I screwed up knowing I should "restore" a "backup" and being there til Midnight while Bob untangled our mangled data and Bruce looked on -- and realizing about 10:30 or so why it had happened, NOT that I was going to say anything!
Saving logs of ddial chats with Bob while he provided tech help so I could study it later and learn DOS commands...
The first PC clone we had in the house (well, apartment) was yours, I think.. you were letting us "store" it there, although I don't remember why anymore. :) I'm sure it was an 8088 processor, and seemed way cool and very, very different from the Commodore.
The time when EasyLan finally died, and you helped us migrate to Windows For Workgroups 3.11 (fairly new at the time) and spending a fortune bringing Kathy's PC up to 1 meg of memory!! And having the nifty Windows For Workgroups Dos add-on, so we didn't have to put every machine up on Windows.
And remember Dr Dos? Hahah.
And... of course........... the classic -- "It just wants to know where the F1 key is" which has to make it into any computer reminiscing!
Okay... so that was more than 2 memories. *blush*