| View previous topic :: View next topic |
| Author |
Message |
Gatsby
Joined: 09 Feb 2007
|
 Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:35 pm Post subject: |
 |
|
For an unusually interesting history of the computer industry, read "Accidental Empires," by Robert X. Cringely. You won't be able to put it down.
Speaking of obsolete technology, I was trained on an IBM mag card machine in a college course. Talk about being out of touch with reality. Never saw one again in my life.
And then there was the Kaypro CPM 8 bit "portable" that was inflicted upon me by a defunct newspaper. It was in a big steel case with a tiny 5 inch or so green CRT monitor and double 5 1/4 inch floppy drives. It weighed about 30 pounds and had a built in 300 baud modem.
This original Kaypro was pre-PC, pre-DOS, pre-mouse late 70s design, but with an operating system eerily similar to PC/MS DOS. Reason: Microsoft bought for $50,000 an OS that was mostly a rewrite of 8 bit CP/M into 16 bit and sold it to IBM. The rest is history. So if you knew DOS, you could figure out this old Kaypro. The paper, which was owned by a filthy rich oil service company, insisted that my successor in the bureau slot actually haul this monster to meetings, in a day when they actually had real laptops, even ones with Windows 3.1 I told him to slip on the ice and put it out of its misery. He was chicken, though.
On the other hand, there was the Tandy 102, one of the great portable computer designs. Ran off 4 AA batteries for about 8 hours. Remarkably powerful, efficient text editor. Built in 300 baud modem. Supposedly the last software Bill Gates had a hand in writing. A marvel of tight code writing. In fact, I would dare say that once you got to know it, the Tandy was the easiest, fastest computer to write on I have ever seen, using the F keys to execute basic commands. I ran into an AP writer with the fancier Tandy 600. She didn't want a PC laptop.
Say, did you know that Vint Cerf, "the father of the Internet," was profoundly deaf, as was his wife. He fully appreciated the value the Internet and e-mail would have to the deaf, especially in the act of courtship. She eventually got a cochlear implant as an adult and learned to speak impeccably.
Last edited by Gatsby on Sat Mar 17, 2007 1:10 am; edited 1 time in total |
|
| Back to top |
|
 |
huffdaddy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 7:50 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| Quote: |
Never actually used punch cards, but they were still floating around in the late 80's. |
Late 80s? I'm talking about the early 70s. |
Oops. I meant late 70s. Have a hard time keeping my decades straight.
I used my Kaypro laptop well into the mid-90s.
I had the 2000+ with the bigger screen though. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bellum99
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: don't need to know
|
| Posted: Fri Mar 16, 2007 10:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| There was a space game where you would travel to different planets and trade to gain money. Sometimes you had to fight other ships....Trade Wars was its name. That was great..LORD was good, too. Sometimes I miss those times...oh the free time. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 2:32 am Post subject: |
|
|
| mindmetoo wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
Late 80s? I'm talking about the early 70s. I learned to write on printout paper of what was either a Honeywell 115 or IBM 360 mainframe computer. |
I typed Lunar Lander BASIC into a Varian computer via a teletype, recording the program on punchtape. And you played the game with all output on paper teletype. The computer used magnetic core memory. I think it had about 4K of it. |
Ah, Lunar Lander and BASIC. Those were goodtimes. I think I still have all those computer game code books somewhere at home. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Thunndarr
Joined: 30 Sep 2003
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:14 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| mindmetoo wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
Late 80s? I'm talking about the early 70s. I learned to write on printout paper of what was either a Honeywell 115 or IBM 360 mainframe computer. |
I typed Lunar Lander BASIC into a Varian computer via a teletype, recording the program on punchtape. And you played the game with all output on paper teletype. The computer used magnetic core memory. I think it had about 4K of it. |
Ah, Lunar Lander and BASIC. Those were goodtimes. I think I still have all those computer game code books somewhere at home. |
I used to hand carry my packets to and from the server. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 5:15 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Thunndarr wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
| mindmetoo wrote: |
| Hollywoodaction wrote: |
Late 80s? I'm talking about the early 70s. I learned to write on printout paper of what was either a Honeywell 115 or IBM 360 mainframe computer. |
I typed Lunar Lander BASIC into a Varian computer via a teletype, recording the program on punchtape. And you played the game with all output on paper teletype. The computer used magnetic core memory. I think it had about 4K of it. |
Ah, Lunar Lander and BASIC. Those were goodtimes. I think I still have all those computer game code books somewhere at home. |
I used to hand carry my packets to and from the server. In the snow. Uphill. Both ways. |
We do sound that pathetic don't we  |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mack the knife
Joined: 16 Jan 2003
Location: standing right behind you...
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 7:10 am Post subject: |
|
|
| Quote: |
| We do sound that pathetic don't we |
Not pathetic, just old.
And no one's mentioned SNAKE or Oregon trail? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
ThePoet
Joined: 15 May 2004
Location: No longer in Korea - just lurking here
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:01 am Post subject: |
|
|
I used to be the SysOp of "The BOARDing House" back in Edmonton in the late 1980's...Ran PCBoard software with an IBM XT and a 10 MB hard drive! Great times. I tried to make TBH emulate the atmosphere of Bloom County, which was a super great cartoon.
Wonderful memories!
ThePoet |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
huffdaddy
Joined: 25 Nov 2005
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 11:05 am Post subject: |
|
|
| mack the knife wrote: |
| Oregon trail? |
Ohhh. Oregon Trail. Is there a copy of that floating around? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
mindmetoo
Joined: 02 Feb 2004
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 4:05 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| huffdaddy wrote: |
| mack the knife wrote: |
| Oregon trail? |
Ohhh. Oregon Trail. Is there a copy of that floating around? |
I cut my teeth on Lunar Lander, Star Trek, and Hammurabi. |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
Hollywoodaction
Joined: 02 Jul 2004
|
|
| Back to top |
|
|
europe2seoul
Joined: 12 Sep 2005
Location: Seoul, Korea
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 6:51 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| bellum99 wrote: |
| There was a space game where you would travel to different planets and trade to gain money. Sometimes you had to fight other ships....Trade Wars was its name. That was great..LORD was good, too. Sometimes I miss those times...oh the free time. |
Hm....I think its name is Elite at least on ZX Spectrum. Same fabula.
Complicated game... |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
bellum99
Joined: 23 Jan 2003
Location: don't need to know
|
| Posted: Sat Mar 17, 2007 9:24 pm Post subject: |
|
|
| ThePoet wrote: |
I used to be the SysOp of "The BOARDing House" back in Edmonton in the late 1980's...Ran PCBoard software with an IBM XT and a 10 MB hard drive! Great times. I tried to make TBH emulate the atmosphere of Bloom County, which was a super great cartoon.
Wonderful memories!
ThePoet |
Do you remember the BBS board in Edmonton called "Programmers Guild"? |
|
| Back to top |
|
|
|
FAQ
Search
Memberlist
Usergroups
Register
Profile
Log in to check your private messages
Log in
