so, what was it?!

[slipstreamsurfr]

So, out of idle curiosity........

What was the first computer you ever owned. As well as a memory of it.

And then, what was the first computer you ever used in school and in what class?

The first computer I ever owned was a Sinclair ZX81 with the 16K memory add on and the electrostatic printer. I remember seeing the adds for first the ZX80 and then the ZX81 in Creative Computing and ordering it from England.

When it got here I hooked it up to a 12" black and white TV and a cassette recorder I bought from K-mart. I learned BASIC on that little machine with it's membrane keyboard, the annoying habit of crashing if you wiggled it and the top-heavy memory upgrade would glitch out on you. I also learned NOT to store your cassette tapes with your programs stacked on top of your b&w tv, especially not on the side where the flyback transformer was. /grin

My first computer I used in school was a TRS-80 Model 1 and ModelIII. It was in our Computer Science elective we could take in High School. I think I was a Junior, so this would have had to been around 82 or so. The shielding in those things were horrible. You could stand across a 30 foot room and aim a bulk tape/disk demagnetizer at the monitors and thumb the switch and watch the display twist. That model 1 was the first disk based machine I ever used. On it I wrote my first program bigger than 16K, a variation on the colossal cave adventure. I remember the week it grew so big that it would only load/run on the disk based model 1, not the cassette based model 1's because of size. I was so proud of myself. :)

Anyway, that's my two earliest computer memories, what's yours?!?

Comments

[ariel817.livejournal.com]

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!

Okay... so that was more than 2 memories. *blush*

[slipstreamsurfr.livejournal.com]

I had a vic20 also, I think it was computer #3, after the zx81, and while I still had my model 1. I had the pathetic vic modem (300 baud) that you had to unplug the handset from your phone and plug in the spiral cord into the modem. It was cool, had sound, and color, and basic again! I think I bought it in 84 or 85? A borrowed c64 when I had my first apartment in Garland. The turbo xt clone was built in that apartment and then loaned to you because I didn't have room for it when I was living on L's floor in Arl. after I left Garland. I didn't get it back until after my apartment with Skip. I remember the sound of Impossible Mission on Randy's c128 to this day. :)

Remember the old lisa I got from Computrac in the 90's? That was a blast, and the original mac128 that we gave your grandmother. She knew how to use a single button mouse almost from the first instant. I'd forgotten about converting your network at the office to a windows for workgroup setup with the DOS wg client. weird how I forgot about that until just now.

I've got Mikes model 4 and a couple of cassette based mod III's and a model 1 without an expansion interface in storage, I may have to go pull those out soon and try to book one up. Interesting note, when I sold my model 1 with it's expansion interface, serial card, accoustical coupler, printer, I sold it to a Radio Shack manager who was going to use it for his books at the store.... The people you meet at the sidewalk sale. The money from it went into building the turbo XT box you used........

wow..... thanks for helping me remember

[ariel817.livejournal.com]

Hahah.. yeah, Impossible Mission and Dino Eggs.. those were the games! How many times did I go to bed and wake up and find Randy and Roger still playing the next morning?! Personally, I liked Impossible Mission II much better!

I do remember your old Lisa, and of course the Mac 128 and how good she was at pool, was it not? You sure brightened up her days with that machine!

The WFW conversion was a BIG thing at work, I'll probably never forget that. I think I still have the dos add-on floppy disk somewhere -- or maybe I threw it out a couple months ago when I ran across it.

I remember my first brush with the Internet and the WWW -- probably on that XT turbo clone you built... taking forever and forever to load a page, and it was just a page of more links, and I wondered why on earth would I want to wait around that long for just more things to click on and wait for?

I remember the daisy wheel printer we had at work.. and the 9 pin dot matrix printers we had, of course. Printouts of general ledgers on greenbar paper....

[slipstreamsurfr.livejournal.com]

I remember us getting slipknot? working on your home pc so we could use the lynx text browser on OMEGA through the college dialup to see the net before any of us got an ISP account. Man, that was slow.

I can be accused of wrapping christmas presents in greenbar one year. (hangs head in shame)

[ariel817.livejournal.com]

Hahah... you made me laugh out loud truly with that last line!

Yeah.. I remember lynx.. don't know if it was slipknot or some other name... but I do remember what you are talking aou

[ariel817.livejournal.com]

Argh.. *about! That was SLOW and a LONG time ago!

And yet.. not so very long ago.. Rebecca was already born.. seems like it should have been longer ago than within her lifetime!