Computer History and Advocacy Thread

[scaesare]

So, in the spirit of not clogging up the Investor Roundtable thread, I'm starting a separate thread here where we can debate discuss relevant computer history as well what appear to be some strong opinions regarding some of the players...

I haven't bothered to copy all of the existing relevant posts from that thread, but I may start doing so in order to reply here, as it's a topic I have interest in as well... Others are welcome to copy posts/replies (in context) here along with their own comments in order to spur on discussion.

 

[Tslynk67]

This was my first computer... 1977

 

[compu85]

I volunteer with the Vintage Computer Federation at their museum in Wall NJ, and exhibit in their yearly Festival.

I haven't made this video public yet because the audio is screwed up, but one of the metrics the ELR had to pass before we bought one was if an Apple Lisa fits in the trunk:

-J

 

[scaesare]

And FWIW it was SeaDOS that G&A bought.

Actually, although it was written by Seattle Computer Products, it's official name was "86-DOS"... known colloquially as "Quick & Dirty DOS"

 

[scaesare]

I volunteer with the Vintage Computer Federation at their museum in Wall NJ, and exhibit in their yearly Festival.

I haven't made this video public yet because the audio is screwed up, but one of the metrics the ELR had to pass before we bought one was if an Apple Lisa fits in the trunk:

-J

Lol. Props for having a Lisa.

 

[RFernatt]

38911 BASIC BYTES FREE

Ah, the good ole days...

 

[scaesare]

38911 BASIC BYTES FREE

Ah, the good ole days...

SYS 58235

 

[RFernatt]

SYS 58235

I see someone else has done their share of PEEKing and POKEing! I started with the 64, but really got into it with a 128. Basic 7 was so much more powerful. Then came the Amiga.

It was an interesting era in tech. So many new developments, a wide variety of companies popping up, you didn't know which tech would succeed or fail and which companies would still be around. A very dynamic time that in ways reminds me of the EV, solar, and energy storage industries today.

 

[WentOffGrid]

Then came the Amiga.

My business in 1983 ran on a CBM256 with quad-stacked 8050's wired with IEEE-488. Fun times!

Related to the history part, I collect core and other cool old tech. IBM 700 series, Russian, etc.

 

[scaesare]

I see someone else has done their share of PEEKing and POKEing! I started with the 64, but really got into it with a 128. Basic 7 was so much more powerful. Then came the Amiga.

It was an interesting era in tech. So many new developments, a wide variety of companies popping up, you didn't know which tech would succeed or fail and which companies would still be around. A very dynamic time that in ways reminds me of the EV, solar, and energy storage industries today.

+6502 | 6507 | 6510

 

[scaesare]

My business in 1983 ran on a CBM256 with quad-stacked 8050's wired with IEEE-488. Fun times!

Related to the history part, I collect core and other cool old tech. IBM 700 series, Russian, etc.

View attachment 340090 View attachment 340091

Wow, neat.

The stories about women with weaving skills being brought in to the workforce to build core memory frames I always found cool...

 

[bhtooefr]

My own history is growing up with 8-bit Apple IIs into the mid 1990s, and then my family starting to move to x86 hardware running DOS, then Windows, FWIW, with a couple of Macs of my own here and there.

(TBH, I forgot the exact arguments in Market Action that started this, but wanted to get in on this thread...)

 

[scaesare]

My own history is growing up with 8-bit Apple IIs into the mid 1990s, and then my family starting to move to x86 hardware running DOS, then Windows, FWIW, with a couple of Macs of my own here and there.

(TBH, I forgot the exact arguments in Market Action that started this, but wanted to get in on this thread...)

Wow the Apple IIs were getting long in the tooth by then!

My first exposure to computers was an Apple II+ in 4th grade around 1981...

 

[RFernatt]

Speaking of the Amiga, I still have some old COMPUTE! magazines including the Amiga issue from 1985. Anyone remember typing in pages of hex code out of magazines to get a new piece of software running? Each issue was like a mini Christmas for a young kid with a computer.

 

[SmartElectric]

Anyone remember typing in pages of hex code out of magazines to get a new piece of software running?

Yes. Not only that, I worked with twin brothers who submitted (successfully) programs (mostly games) to magazines that resulted in HEX code software "releases".

Funny story : magazine asked for the original source code .... pause ... answer "um, we code directly in HEX, we don't use an assembler or other tool..." lol! Savants rule!

 

[mongo]

Speaking of the Amiga, I still have some old COMPUTE! magazines including the Amiga issue from 1985. Anyone remember typing in pages of hex code out of magazines to get a new piece of software running? Each issue was like a mini Christmas for a young kid with a computer.

View attachment 341562

TRS-80 book of programs. Luckily for me, mom was an accountant and could enter strings of numbers pretty fast on the 10 key.

Interbank Incident for Color Computer 2 came on two floppies, but you had to enter a boot loader program to load it..

 

[arcus]

Atari 800XL and Spectrum ZX80 were my first encounters before I could afford my own second-hand Atari 65XE. Where I was growing up, $49.99 for a brand new cassette program recorder XC-12 was considered a fortune. At least for my family it was.

When PC era came, my 486DX2-66 was the fastest one on the block for quite some time. Most of the guys had 386 or 486SX (sans math coprocessor). I could do almost anything as far as compute goes on that machine, including graphics and 3D design (rendering was another story). Even helped my friend to do some music editing (my sound card had MIDI port). Today's CPUs are thousands of times faster, but I don't think we have improved much productivity-wise. It was truly a workhorse.

Ironically, the thing that brought it to its knees was MP3 playback. I could only play 8-bit stereo of 16-bit mono, with hardly any resources left to do anything else while WinAmp was running. Good times...

 

[GlmnAlyAirCar]

I think we already have a thread for this...

https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/old-farts-reminiscing-about-computers.55432/