My first computer Revisited 4-9-2013

by KimW
55 replies
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Due to a thread that mentioned "old heads" I had to revisit this one.



This was my first computer I owned.
It wasn't the first I used,as my father had a trash80.
Enjoy a stroll down memory lane.
( I know the geeks here will spend a long time on the site).

OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    I almost bought one of those!
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  • Profile picture of the author whateverpedia
    This was mine - the Commodore PC10.

    OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
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  • Profile picture of the author Kenster
    Scary...I wasnt even born when that thing came out. How far we've come!
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  • Profile picture of the author djbventures
    OMG I cant believe mine was on there...UGH I'm aging ... even more scar-ed I remember it!

    OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
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    • Profile picture of the author GeorgettaSterling
      This is all very scary.

      Here is mine:

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

      Funny that now I am a PC gal.

      Mind you, I had that first computer when I was 12 (and it was second-hand).

      Georgetta
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      • Profile picture of the author veronica178
        Originally Posted by GeorgettaSterling View Post

        This is all very scary.

        Here is mine:


        Funny that now I am a PC gal.

        Mind you, I had that first computer when I was 12 (and it was second-hand).

        Georgetta
        same! yay!
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    • Profile picture of the author Lawrh
      Originally Posted by djbventures View Post

      OMG I cant believe mine was on there...UGH I'm aging ... even more scar-ed I remember it!

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum
      I was selling computers when the C64 came out. I moved a couple hundred in the first three weeks. $1200.00 for the computer with an external 5.25 floppy and a cheap desk. I couldn't keep them in stock.

      Only problem was that at least 50% were defective. A couple customers exchanged theirs 4 times before they got one that worked. They were still happy. For whatever reason the C64 was ridiculously popular.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lawrh
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    “Strategy without action is a day-dream; action without strategy is a nightmare.” – Old Japanese proverb -

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    • Profile picture of the author KimW
      Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

      I almost bought one of those!
      I did!

      Originally Posted by Lawrh View Post


      Lawrh,
      I also had a TI 99/4A. When they closed out TI let tham all go for about $50.That was still a lot of cash at the time, but it had 16K,while my Timex Sinclair,which had cost me $99, only came with 2K, so the TI99/4A was a speed demon!

      After the Ti99/4A, I got one of these!
      http://www.old-computers.com/museum/....asp?st=1&c=57
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by KimW View Post

        I did!
        I know I ALMOST bought an ELF, TI, and maybe a couple. ALAS, for whatever reason, I waited, and got an Apple II+ like some others here.

        OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

        I'm almost EMBARRASSED to say that THIS was the computer that saved Microsoft! According to pirates in silicon valley, if this computer was created a few weeks later, microsoft wouldn't exist. Paul Allen was about to pull out, and Bill Gates would have lost it all. WHO KNOWS, steve wozniak did a good job with the APPLE II, the APPLE II+ might have actually been BETTER! Microsoft wrote the basic for the APPLE II+.

        Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author hayden459
    My father bought me my first PC 9 years ago when i was 8 years. That was not so good looking and also not very highly featured but still i like it.
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  • Profile picture of the author Lawrh
    I got my 99 around 1982 so it cost me $700.00, lucky guy. My cousin had a Coleco Adam but I never played with it. I was jealous of his printer. I didn't buy my first printer until the early 90's.
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  • Profile picture of the author JustinDupre
    Wow! What a crazy looking old computers in the 80s.
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  • Profile picture of the author ocsSEO01
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    • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
      Originally Posted by ocsSEO01 View Post

      Here is my First Computer
      Is that an early portable computer? I have one very similar to that. Maybe even the same model.
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by Dan C. Rinnert View Post

        Is that an early portable computer? I have one very similar to that. Maybe even the same model.
        KIND OF, but they quickly started renaming them LUGGABLES!

        Steve
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        • Profile picture of the author Dan C. Rinnert
          Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

          KIND OF, but they quickly started renaming them LUGGABLES!

          Steve
          I just wish it still worked. I bought it used years ago, and have never gotten to see it power up.
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      • Profile picture of the author championpicks
        I thought it's an oscilloscope, it is for real?a computer?....haha
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  • Profile picture of the author Focl
    heh nice, my first was Commodore 64
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  • Profile picture of the author allisonays
    Wow computer with 2Kb RAM, technology is really on its fast pace and today, if you have that kind of memory on your computer you will surely wait years till a page loads.
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  • Profile picture of the author doylesoft
    My next machine was a 486 DX2 66 MHz.
    Ran Windows 3.11 and DOS 6.22.
    Had a 14.4 kbps modem and thought I was the coolest kid in town.

    Loved Netscape 1.1 and 2.0. Sigh.
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  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
    GOD, on my next computer I even forget the brand. ODD, since I sold them. Only actually sold ONE though, to myself. But it was basically an IBM XT. It looked and worked the same way but it had a TURBO switch! IBM computers, and a lot of hardware/software only ran at 4.77Mhz, and this could run at 8Mhz as well. I went to get a 386DX, but they were WAY too expensive. I bought a 286/25Mhz that some "friends", I loaned it to because they INSISTED they would take care of it, ended up supposedly giving away. In real memory mode it was faster than a 386DX anyway. I bought a 386sx/16 for my last employer to PROVE that I was right about the relative speed of a routine I wrote. They were DIRT cheap! The board cost like $330! When I got them a linux 486DX system(EISA, but THAT's ANOTHER story) I got the 386sx. I skipped the 486 series entirely and got a pentium at 75Mhz. I could go on, but YIKES, that is enough computers ALREADY, and I got you up to like 1994.

    Steve
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    • Profile picture of the author Edk
      Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

      GOD, on my next computer I even forget the brand. ODD, since I sold them. Only actually sold ONE though, to myself. But it was basically an IBM XT. It looked and worked the same way but it had a TURBO switch! IBM computers, and a lot of hardware/software only ran at 4.77Mhz, and this could run at 8Mhz as well. I went to get a 386DX, but they were WAY too expensive. I bought a 286/25Mhz that some "friends", I loaned it to because they INSISTED they would take care of it, ended up supposedly giving away. In real memory mode it was faster than a 386DX anyway. I bought a 386sx/16 for my last employer to PROVE that I was right about the relative speed of a routine I wrote. They were DIRT cheap! The board cost like $330! When I got them a linux 486DX system(EISA, but THAT's ANOTHER story) I got the 386sx. I skipped the 486 series entirely and got a pentium at 75Mhz. I could go on, but YIKES, that is enough computers ALREADY, and I got you up to like 1994.

      Steve
      I had an XT. I don't think it was my first. From new - I didn't have it from new - they were in the region of what £8000-00 would be today. Things change...
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  • Profile picture of the author pjCheviot
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    I owe it all to Sir Clive

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  • Profile picture of the author Kurt
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  • Profile picture of the author DireStraits
    Our first "proper PC", way back in around 1994/1995, was a Gateway 2000 "P5-75" (I think), a huge beast with a monster 75 Mhz processor, 8MB ram, 2MB video and a hard drive which - funnily enough - weighing in at 500MB actually had less storage capacity than a CD. This cost my dad the pricely sum of around £1500-2000 GBP, at the time.

    How times change, haha.
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  • Profile picture of the author Don Schenk
    OMG How fun! CP/M then DOS - there was IBM DOS, and MS-DOS.

    I put off buying one until the C64 came out. Mine even had a cassette tape drive for external memory. I went through 3 of them before I got one that actually worked.

    Then in 1987 I bought a shiny new Kaypro brand XT clone with a 5-1/4 in floppy and a 40 meg (not gig) hard drive! It cost about $4,000. Oh yeah and a dot matrix printer.

    I had arrived.

    Do you remember buying a hard drive and having to do a low level format before you could set a partition and do a regular format?

    :-Don
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    • Profile picture of the author seasoned
      Originally Posted by Don Schenk View Post

      OMG How fun! CP/M then DOS - there was IBM DOS, and MS-DOS.

      I put off buying one until the C64 came out. Mine even had a cassette tape drive for external memory. I went through 3 of them before I got one that actually worked.

      Then in 1987 I bought a shiny new Kaypro brand XT clone with a 5-1/4 in floppy and a 40 meg (not gig) hard drive! It cost about $4,000. Oh yeah and a dot matrix printer.

      I had arrived.

      Do you remember buying a hard drive and having to do a low level format before you could set a partition and do a regular format?

      :-Don
      Actually, they stopped making disks that didn't require a low level format in like the 60s or 70s. The newer drives are low level formatted at the company and often still have an algorithm to do it. When I started, even in IBM PCs, there was ONE "format". It did the low level AND the high level format, and there were NO partitions!

      Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author GeorgettaSterling
    Remember doing low level formats? Ha! I remember when all the computer magazines (like "Byte") called them "Winchester" hard drives, apparently because they were based on having a fixed and a removable disk, each with 30 MB (so "30-30").

    How I longed for that miraculous hard drive. I had two floppies though, which was pretty good in those days. Later, I got a Z-80 and 80 column card for my trusty Apple so that I could run (wait for it) CP/M. See, CP/M was the "serious" and "professional" operating system.

    BTW - I liked CP/M, and the very similar MSDOS - you had complete control and always knew what was going on. Now, I cannot even change file extensions. I guess that is "progress."

    Georgetta
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  • Profile picture of the author Lynette Crase
    I bought my first computer, a C64 OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum in 1985. It came with the tape drive and it plugged into the tv. I bought a 5-1/4 inch floppy drive for it later on. I thought it was the greatest thing since sliced bread

    Next was our first PC in 1993. It was a 486sx25 with 4mb ram and a massive 128mb hardrive We've had many more since then.
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    • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
      Kim, you've started a good thread here -- I also go misty-eyed when the subject of 8-bit machines comes up.

      My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with the rubber keyboard and 48k of memory...

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

      When Sinclair brought out the case/keyboard upgrade that turned a Spectrum into a Spectrum plus, I bought one and upgraded. But eventually, I sold it to my uncle and used the money to buy an Acorn Electron...

      OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

      ...and I've still got that machine in a box, sitting on a shelf.

      Anyway, if you're an 8-bit fan, you might want to watch "Micro Men", the BBC dramatisation of the battle between Sinclair and Acorn...
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      • Profile picture of the author KimW
        Originally Posted by John Henderson View Post

        Kim, you've started a good thread here -- I also go misty-eyed when the subject of 8-bit machines comes up.

        My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum with the rubber keyboard and 48k of memory...

        OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

        When Sinclair brought out the case/keyboard upgrade that turned a Spectrum into a Spectrum plus, I bought one and upgraded. But eventually, I sold it to my uncle and used the money to buy an Acorn Electron...

        OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

        ...and I've still got that machine in a box, sitting on a shelf.

        Anyway, if you're an 8-bit fan, you might want to watch "Micro Men", the BBC dramatisation of the battle between Sinclair and Acorn...
        YouTube - ‪MICRO MEN 0‬‎
        Thanks John, I wonder if thats available on dvd? Looks like something that would keep me engrossed while doing my dialysis.
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        • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
          Originally Posted by KimW View Post

          Thanks John, I wonder if thats available on dvd? Looks like something that would keep me engrossed while doing my dialysis.
          That's a good question. I've had a look at the Wikipedia page for this show -- Micro Men - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- but there's no mention of a DVD release.

          I think that your best bet is to save all of the pieces from YouTube to your HDD (I'm not sure which Windows app does this) and then stitch them together to re-create the 90 min program.
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          • Profile picture of the author Lawrh
            Originally Posted by John Henderson View Post

            That's a good question. I've had a look at the Wikipedia page for this show -- Micro Men - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia -- but there's no mention of a DVD release.

            I think that your best bet is to save all of the pieces from YouTube to your HDD (I'm not sure which Windows app does this) and then stitch them together to re-create the 90 min program.
            There is a torrent for a DVD rip, so it existed at one time. It's doesn't seem to be available anymore. Too bad. Most people don't realize that the computer industry, both business and personal, was started in Britain.

            Hey John, are there any videos about Tommy Flowers? The man who built the first computer (for Alan Turing).
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            • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
              Originally Posted by Lawrh View Post

              Hey John, are there any videos about Tommy Flowers? The man who built the first computer (for Alan Turing).
              There's a short interview with Tommy Flowers on YouTube (it's actually called "Tommy Flowers", so searching for it is a doddle), but 11 years ago a fantastic series was broadcast on British TV called "Station X" telling the story of the WWII code-breakers at Bletchley Park, including the contributions from Tommy Flowers. What an incredible man.

              I only taped the first episode (or maybe I taped more, but then stupidly recorded over them :rolleyes: ). The series can be found on VHS, but as with so many of those productions, their scarcity has pushed their price thru the roof...
              Station X - The Codebreakers Of Bletchley Park -...Station X - The Codebreakers Of Bletchley Park -...
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  • Profile picture of the author cpace32
    It's mind boggling to think now that my cell phone is more powerful than these older, more expensive computers!
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    • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
      Originally Posted by cpace32 View Post

      It's mind boggling to think now that my cell phone is more powerful than these older, more expensive computers!
      cpace, your cell phone is much more powerful than these old machines.

      The 8-bit CPUs tended to run at about 1 or 2 MHz which seems puny now -- but it meant that the programmers at the time had to be incredibly clever and innovative to create programs that were great, despite the restrictions of a slow processor and limited memory.
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      • Profile picture of the author seasoned
        Originally Posted by John Henderson View Post

        cpace, your cell phone is much more powerful than these old machines.

        The 8-bit CPUs tended to run at about 1 or 2 MHz which seems puny now -- but it meant that the programmers at the time had to be incredibly clever and innovative to create programs that were great, despite the restrictions of a slow processor and limited memory.
        NO! Some were 16 bit, and some went up to like 10Mhz! And intel NEVER made a processor that could properly access more than 64K until the 80286. The 80286 had a bug that made that functionality all but WORTHLESS! There were only perhaps 3 programs that could use the functionality in the 286. In the 386 it COULD be used with SOME things. The regular version of windows can't access that ability though. The regular versions of windows were ALL versions of windows called windows up to windows 98. AND windows ME, Windows 2000,XP,VISTA, and 7 are really windows NT.

        Anyway, the original IBM PC CLAIMED it could access up to 640K, but that wasn't really true. In the traiditional sense, 640K means 640K. In the new "real mode" sense, 640K meant 64K * 10! You had to use segment registers to show where the 64K memory started. THAT is why they had the "memory models", and sometimes things were limited to about 64K. It is ALSO why there was LIM and EMS and why they needed DRIVERS! BTW Dos is STILL limited to the 64K*10 model.

        But YEAH, my old APPLE II+ is FAR smaller and about 1/1000th the price of a computer that was also slower! And IT was 1.023Mhz, and 8bit! BTW, the=ough the processor could only access 64K, I had 192K on it! HOW? 64K+(16K*8)! YEP, SIMILAR to the IBM PC! The only difference was that the memory index was set via a register OUTSIDE the processor. In fact, it was BETTER than the original LIM card. The original LIM card provided no real memory map, but the apple method DID, so you could run worthwhile code in it.

        Steve
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        • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
          This is one of the first computers ever built and was remade in the '90s and shown in the video below.

          Thank God for new computers...

          Possibly the most important computer you've never heard of. [VIDEO]

          ~Bill
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          • Profile picture of the author seasoned
            Originally Posted by Bill Farnham View Post

            This is one of the first computers ever built and was remade in the '90s and shown in the video below.

            Thank God for new computers...

            Possibly the most important computer you've never heard of. [VIDEO]

            ~Bill
            Well, you have a reading mechanism that is based on technology that predates this by several decades, and has since been all but 100% replaced. You have storage is based on technology that predates this by several decades. Ironically, it's all but 100% replacement has been determined to be too expensive, and they now use essentially a miniturized version of what is here. They are Capacitor banks that are refreshed every couple milliseconds, AKA DYNAMIC memory! I believe the newer/faster memory(STATIC memory) IS used inside processors for cache! The mechanical methods date back over a hundred years, and have been mostly replaced by registers and clocks! The binary method is actually somewhat a matter of necessity. Because of degradation, detection problems, and HECK, early methods(such as this) of setting values, the have circuitry that operates at over 2.5v, and a 1 is 5v. That way a charge can degrade and still be a 1 and noise can be present and still be a 0.

            So gee, I don't really see the fantastic accomplishment here. Even the idea of setting up computing and solving a problem through mechanical means had been done before. Charles Babbage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia GRANTED, this is almost a hybrid between electronic and mechanical, but still.

            Steve
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            • Profile picture of the author Bill Farnham
              Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

              So gee, I don't really see the fantastic accomplishment here. Even the idea of setting up computing and solving a problem through mechanical means had been done before. Charles Babbage - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia GRANTED, this is almost a hybrid between electronic and mechanical, but still.
              Steve,

              Did you notice that the computer in the video is technology circa the 1930's?
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              • Profile picture of the author seasoned
                Originally Posted by Bill Farnham View Post

                Steve,

                Did you notice that the computer in the video is technology circa the 1930's?
                I figured it was around that time, why?

                Edison took credit for the phonograph in 1877. He also took credit for the incandescent light in 1879. So both of those were earlier inventions. Around that time, he supposedly invented the tube. The guy that got the ORIGINAL credit for the capacitor created it in 1745. Do we even know who invented the switch? HECK, you have to solve the problem of a conductor, and that basically tells you how switches work. And that predates ANY of this. Some argue that that goes back millenia.

                Did I notice it was the 1930s? Well, my FATHER worked on computers in the 1960s, and THEY were REAL computers. And it is now common knowledge that they built computers in the 40s. AGAIN, REAL!

                Since this "computer" is not what I would really call a computer, I guess it predates THAT, huh? If not, I would REALLY be laughing!

                Oh yeah, the company my father worked for had a lock on the punch card market. They wanted to KEEP it, so they had punch cards for a LONG time! And the reader just shot through them QUICKLY. FAR better than the machine in that video. The company? IBM! BTW that puch card was invented in 1890, but EBCDIC apparently wasn't created until about 1963.

                BTW about that ahem... Computer that read the 1890 punched card? http://www.columbia.edu/acis/history...tabulator.html

                He later created ones that could ADD, and he died in 1929!

                Steve
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                • Profile picture of the author Lawrh
                  Originally Posted by seasoned View Post

                  Edison created the phonograph in 1877. He created the incandescent light in 1879. Around that time, he invented the tube.
                  Citing Edison as an inventor is a great way to destroy one's credibility.

                  9 Inventions Edison Did Not Make | Jawad on Web 2.0

                  From the article:

                  Thomas Edison himself did not invent major breakthroughs. He often took credit for the ideas and inventions of others and most of his patents were little more than improvements on already existing products. He was an astute businessman, and as such, had greater impact on innovating existing products than inventing new ones. To quote himself, "I always invent to obtain money to go on inventing."

                  The real inventor of the incandescent bulb:

                  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Swan

                  Edison was his the Bill Gates of his era. Never inventing, just stealing ideas then (having his staff) refine them and taking credit.
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                  • Profile picture of the author seasoned
                    Originally Posted by Lawrh View Post

                    Citing Edison as an inventor is a great way to destroy one's credibility.

                    9 Inventions Edison Did Not Make | Jawad on Web 2.0

                    From the article:

                    Thomas Edison himself did not invent major breakthroughs. He often took credit for the ideas and inventions of others and most of his patents were little more than improvements on already existing products. He was an astute businessman, and as such, had greater impact on innovating existing products than inventing new ones. To quote himself, "I always invent to obtain money to go on inventing."

                    Edison was his the Bill Gates of his era. Never inventing, just stealing ideas then (having his staff) refine them and taking credit.
                    I meant to make a distinction on the light bulb. 8-( But it was my understanding he DID invent the tube. In fact, the tube really requires an environment that is filled with a gas that is not a great insulator, or a vacume tube which, it was my understanding he did.

                    In any event, the idea behind the basic lightbulb may not even really belong to anyone. Put too much power through a conductor, and it will GLOW! It should have ESPECIALLY been obvious to people of the day. Today, we have thicker wires, and usually lower power sources. But HECK, old fuses worked on the same theory of the light, the only difference being that they were made to burnup. effectively like a lightbulb would without the glass enclosure.

                    Still, in this case, it doesn't discredit me. You can credit an EARLIER person, but that only further helps to discredit LATER people! 8-)

                    I didn't know that about the phonograph, etc.... I'll correct my post.

                    BTW it is WELL KNOWN that edison had people working for him that were GOOD. And the top guy usually takes the credit. That is how IBM and certainly most other companies work. INTEL is apparently different, but I saw some patents THERE that I don't consider LEGIT!

                    Steve
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  • Profile picture of the author teleam
    My first computer was a Tandy Trs It was only a keyboard and I asked the sales person "where is the computer?" and he replied " your holding it" I found out you have to hook it up to a TV and a cassette player for the programs. I mainly used it for handicapping horses.

    It used basic program.

    couple of years later I bought my first 286 which I have up to this day. Of course it went through several motherboards.


    Tom
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  • Profile picture of the author joshuamcel22Z
    I remember my first computer...

    I was 8 years old in Mr. Watson's computer lab learning how to use the commodore 64. I remember it took 2-3 days to just program a smiley face on the screen - oh, those were the days... all those X's and O's.

    Joshua
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  • Profile picture of the author axinawilliams
    Hey !

    Its indeed nice stuff

    awesome pictures taking us down the memory lanes and
    old workstations getting resurrected !!

    Regards!!
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  • Profile picture of the author antiquenh
    Good thing I wasn't born that yet. Advent of computers now is amazing as it continue to improve some specifications and features.
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  • Profile picture of the author bizfox
    it's been so long i can't remember my first computer.

    I'm pretty sure it was an apple
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  • Profile picture of the author Pauline60
    I had a ZX81...and then a Spectrum. Can't believe I am admitting to this.
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  • Profile picture of the author John Henderson
    Eeeeeeeeeeh Pauline, don't be ashamed pet! Back then, the people who owned a Spectrum were getting ready to be part of the future...
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    • Profile picture of the author KimW
      Originally Posted by Pauline60 View Post

      I had a ZX81...and then a Spectrum. Can't believe I am admitting to this.
      Originally Posted by John Henderson View Post

      Eeeeeeeeeeh Pauline, don't be ashamed pet! Back then, the people who owned a Spectrum were getting ready to be part of the future...

      Uh, did you look at my first post?
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