The COMPUTER Thread

[GH85Carrera]

I remember going to a Commodore club meeting and meeting a guy that had just bought his Commodore 64. He had no programs and was looking to find out where to get them. He did have a modem, and we exchanged phone numbers.

When we got home I called him and gave hime two lings to a program to type in. He did, and ran that program. That allowed me to upload a real terminal program to his computer. He could then run the terminal program to visit the many local BBSs in the area. He thought I was a super genius, but it was just what someone else figured out.

We sent Fido mail to each other and it was some of my first email. We both only had floppy disc readers but he made a funny but embarrassing typo. He meant to ask me if I yet had a hard disk, but he typed hard dick. I about fell on the floor laughing, and when he saw his typo, he avoided me from then on as he was so embarrassed. It was not until I got my 4.7 MHz PC that I bought the 10 mb hard disc.

[stevej37]

I thought I was all set when I bought my Radio Shack 'CoCo' color computer.
Can't remember the year...but they had just released it.

The internet hadn't been invented yet.

.

[fanaudical]

I've been into computers only enough to use them. I had a Vic20. I've programmed in Fortran. I was playing Pole Position with my son on my Commodore 64 as the clock struck midnight on Dec 31, 1999 just to laugh at the rest of the world. I have built a few from parts. I've got an SGI 550 in a box in the garage if anybody is interested.

It's crazy how cheap they've gotten. I just picked up a second-hand Dell Mobile Precision 7540 to run Linux now that I'm tired of Windows - 16GB RAM, 12 core Xeon at 3.1 GHz, 512GB SSD, 4GB nVidia graphics card - <$300...

[masraum]

I'm similar to many of you. First PC was a C64. We bought the C64 when it first came out before a floppy drive was available, so used a cassette deck for a few months until the floppy drive was released. It mostly ended up being a game machine. I did not get into programming and although my dad did type a program in, I was thoroughly underwhelmed by the results of days of typing.

I got my first "IBM compatible" (running MS-DOS) PC in the fall of 1988 when I was in college. It was a Tandy 1000 TX with 640k RAM and "Tandy Graphics" (16 colors, but CGA resolution). I did learn a bunch about computers and making it run as efficiently as possible, and loved "computers" with that. I upgraded it by adding a "hardcard" (HDD on a HDD controller card that plugged into an ISA slot) IIRC. My next upgrade was a VGA card with a meg of RAM that I upgraded (via individual chips) to 2meg. I added a soundblaster card. When I moved out of the dorms, I got a modem (probably 9600 or 14400). I spent a lot of time on dial in BBS'.
I've built a few computers from scratch over the years, but the last two have been all-in-one purchases (HP running MS Win, and now a 27" iMac).

I've dabbled with various OS over the years including various flavors of Linux, and had access to Solaris Unix at work. Now at work, I have access to servers running Redhat, and still enjoy working in the CLI. For work for the last 25+ years, I've supported various types of network equipment, mostly via CLI.

I haven't tried running Linux for a home PC in years. I enjoyed learning and tinkering with it in the past, but I prefer something that does what I need and is stable which I have been getting for the past 15+ years. And now that I'm on Mac, I also have a *nix style CLI if I want/need it.

[jyl]

My next laptop, I’ve decided, is the Asus Zenbook Duo. It has two screens and the keyboard can be magnetically attached over the lower screen or lifted off and set on the desk.

[KFC911]

Just curious .... how many of y'all are just "users" of computers ... who plug & play (hardware) and software (OS/Apps) to do a task or tasks?

They are just tools ...

I loved to invent from scratch ... and if the code doesn't exist to get the job done....

Then I would learn it, and then produce it ... and did ... my whole IT career.

370 Assembler is/was my benchmark ... if one can master that ....

The rest is SOOO easy peasy ...

Computer geeks are

[ramonesfreak]

Originally Posted by Gogar

wow that might as well be me! Nailed it. Still have the C64 downstairs!

Me too. I was 10. Thanks dad. Got a 128 after that.

[id10t]

So heres a great one


When I was 10 I wanted to learn about computers

Craig, one of the slightly older kids at the synagogue mentioned this after school place tgat was half arts/cradts and half programming. Loved it

Craig went to the IB program for high school, I smoke dope and chased skirts.

Craig graduated and went to college (Stanford), I got out of hs didnt have a plan so I got a job in a hospital


1996 Craig was asked to do a start up for a killer business idea involving this new Internet thing. He declined, wanting to finish his masters but said to call him when they were ready for their first real employee.

That little internet nbusiness is still going, you may have heard of Google ....

[berettafan]

Originally Posted by masraum

Or days, for very little to happen. We got our first PC (a Commodore 64) in the fall of 1982. Yes, there was a manual that came with it that had programs to type out, and my dad had some magazines that had programs to type out. I never attempted it (I was 12 and had better things to do than type for days). My dad did attempt it, and due to his typos and/or typos in the program, he then spend a ton of time debugging it to get it to work. When it finally worked, a red circle bounced on the screen.

Basic was a major turn-off of programming for me. Too much work for too little result. I wonder if something else would have sparked my interest differently.

same here!

I loved the c64 for games. got a lot of years out of that thing and enjoyed every second of it.

[GH85Carrera]

The closest I ever came to programming was some fancy batch files.

I helped develop the 100K film recorder the did 8x10, 4x5 2.25x2.75 and of course 35mm recording. I had the prototype and I made all the factory samples for potential clients around the world. I made myself several complex batch files to modify the Autoexe.bat and SYS.bat file in the DOS days. I still have my DOS 1.1 and 2.2 discs.

It was cool to talk to a real programmer and have him walk me trough the modification of the proprietary code in assembly that ran the recorder.

Now I just run very expensive aerial photo programs, and surf the internet.

[john70t]

In the early 90's a guy bought the house next to my parent's lake property.
(The neighborhood was still mostly little summer cottage shacks back then. Good location.)

George was a big-wig inventor of early Compression Algorithms, to my understanding.
also possibly dealing with cancer
I'd see him occasionally and say hello. Nice guy. Very reserved and well dressed.

George rebuilt into a nice place with a heated sidewalk and everything. Had a chill full time fixit guy who hung around a bit baked doing this or that. Super cool everything. His smoking hot daughter stopped by one day and I checked out the leaking oil pan on her beater Ford. That was a slow ball down the center which I watched go past. Sigh.

My father had some kind of permanent sand-in-drawers issue over George's new porch railing partially blocking our full view. Rules and standards. It was a 1-direction war.
Pop loved computers and new tech. I had a lot of IP ideas.
But that was that.
(The neighborhood later rebuilt into giant hideous McMansions breaking ALL the HOA rules.)

[flipper35]

Started on a C64. Couldn't afford a lot og gams so I programmed a lot myself, including a CAD program.

Also got hired to write a program for a local farmer that had Angus beef cattle so they could track a bunch of stuff I no longer remember. I was glad they had a C128 because the sequential database took a lot of RAM, or so I thought at the time.

Who else had an Amiga or two? They were awesome back in the day. Wish I had the money at the time for a Toaster to go with it. The local TC station had one.

IBM clones after that.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I still have the receipt for my first VCR....$1395 at Williams Magnavox Furniture Store.
It loaded with a tray that popped up after pushing a button. No remote..too early for them.
The only way to watch a movie was to wait for the store to order one in and hope to get there first to rent it.

The VCR was a heavy brute...I'll bet it weighed 20 lbs. (1980)

I had one. It cost a thou$snd. I had to finance it. I set it to record Dick Cavet who I think was on a 4pm PST. IDT I rented movies. Maybe.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by id10t

So heres a great one


When I was 10 I wanted to learn about computers

Craig, one of the slightly older kids at the synagogue mentioned this after school place tgat was half arts/cradts and half programming. Loved it

Craig went to the IB program for high school, I smoke dope and chased skirts.

Craig graduated and went to college (Stanford), I got out of hs didnt have a plan so I got a job in a hospital


1996 Craig was asked to do a start up for a killer business idea involving this new Internet thing. He declined, wanting to finish his masters but said to call him when they were ready for their first real employee.

That little internet nbusiness is still going, you may have heard of Google ....

I figured I was probably the first Pelican to know about Google ... before I was a
pelican ... I started using it from about day 1 ... purely by accident .

I was on a jam band listserve and this dude started posting "his" menu and joked about trading cookies for worthless potential stock option to geeks at 3am ... all in jest.

He was Charlie ... the first, and new Google Chef ... like employee #60 or something ... also cooked for the Grateful Dead's circus a bit.

Wish I'd never met Kimmie before they married and she was handing out Gmale invites tho' .... the regerts of being "on the road"

I just sorta "fell into" computer science ... back in '78. Had no clue where it would lead ... for me, it was data communications, systems, networks, automation, copper > fiber, etc.

Then came the Internet/Intranets taking over in bigly corporate networks ....

And Steves ... more Steves than I could ever count

In binary ...

I loved being a systems programmer, and networking stuff ... the REAL techie stuff, and had access to the hardware, etc. like few others. Like the consoles (inside of the Big Blue boxes) and had total access to state-of-the-art comm front-end processors (later routers/switches) and literally just about everything that was "bleeding edge" ....

I had a blast

Long ago...

[stevej37]

The computer class 101 in college taught me nothing...except it was an expensive waste of credit.

A couple years after college I took a semester of digital electronics at a trade school for almost zero tuition. I learned way more practical stuff in that semester than the college class.

[NY65912]

First was a Commodore 64, when the kids got older our first real computer was a 386-40 with 2mb ram and a 80mb hard drive. At work our first machine was a 286 for estimating, painfully slow.

[Scott Douglas]

My first computer was a 286 that my sister-in-law used at her work that quit working due to a blown up power supply. Her late husband was able to get it for me when I was laid off way back in '92. I figured I'd better learn how to work a computer if I was ever going to get a job again.
I got a local company to redo the 286 into a 386-40 I think it was. I struggled with it using a monochrome monitor (remember thouse?) and 2mb of RAM. Finally bit the bullet and got it up to 4mb of RAM and got a bootleg copy of (what did Catia replace as the go to engineering drafting program? Damn, I'm getting old.) to work on it, sort of.
Learned how to install hardware as well as some software and make it all work. Was able to become comfortable opening up a 'box' and seeing what was up inside hardware wise.
Bought a HUGE hd of 200mb for $200 or so which was a lot of money back then for an out of work guy who had two young kids and a wife to support.
Now days I'm happy to have a working computer that's pretty fast even for it's age. I do need to get my HD cleaned up as I'm fast running out of space given that my cameras make such large photo files. And I do like taking pictures.

EDIT : AutoCad, that's the program.

[John Rogers]

Back in the day.....yes PC Magazine was thee reference for hardware, software such as games/apps/ETC and Intel had come out with the NEW 386 based 32 bit computer CPU. Well it was expensive and needed a whole new motherboard with 32 bit data paths. Soooo after all the grumbling Intel made a 32 bit IO CPU (386DX) and a 32 bit CPU with 16 bit IO the new and wonderful 386SX. Of course the problem was Intel had sped up the 80286 CPU and in PC Mag's test the 386sx and new and faster 80286 turned out the same results!

Well PC Mag had their technical wizard named John Dvorack following all this and he seemed to hate both IBM and Intel and every issue he'd raise hell about this or that. Well I remember an issue where it seems the computer engineers in Tiwan had figured how to make the 80286 CPU run much faster than even the 386DX! Whoa....so off to the far east went John and he found that their CPUs were exactly the same speed as older ones....they had found a way to rig/modify the PC Mag benchmarks so their results were skewed! Boy was he initially MAD with capital letters but then he got even by handing out those white pocket protectors to everyone in the company. They had none before they po'd him!
John Rogers the oldracer

[Alan A]

Spent way more of my life than I ever expected to trying to make silicon do as it was told.

The problem is ‘told’ is subjective and what I want and what it does is not always the same.

It's worse with an LLM - they aren’t even deterministic, so getting them to play nice with one another is a joy.

[john70t]