Old farts reminiscing about computers

[Beryl]

My first job (Social Security contributed) was as a card puncher for a Fortune 50 company at the ripe old age of 13! (Talk about child labor violations. ) I'd just finished learning how to type because it was an 8th grade course back then.

My first computer was an IBM XT.

 

[muleferg]

I believe I'm the oldest Fart here. 32 year old in a 83 year old body.
Vic 20
Commodore 64
Amiga 4000

Vic 20

Now

 

[ohmman]

My mom handed me a Spiderman comic/Radio Shack Propaganda piece not long ago. First, remember these awesome electronics kits they sold? And second, see if you can pass the quiz! Don't cheat!

 

[AudubonB]

Missed #10 !

 

[cmu5p]

You guys may think you're all old farts, but I think all this computer talk is sexy. I'm 40 and first recollection of computer use was math castle in 5th grade.
Makes me wish my parents steered me into CS rather than medicine, but now live vicariously through my children who've been encouraged to learn to code since they were 5.

 

[green1]

Guess I need to get in here, I don't think of myself as all that old, but I regularly horrify people with tales of computers past.

Our first computing device at home was teletype machine that hooked up to an acoustic coupler modem (dial the rotary phone by hand and place the handset on the modem), no screen, just wide-format paper and a keyboard.
We shortly afterwards added a Commodore VIC20 to our repertoire, complete with cartridges and the old audio-cassette drive. I did a lot of Basic programming on that thing.
I also remember programming at school in Basic on the AppleII (we also used Logo as an introduction to programming) even before we had these devices at home. (anyone remember those wonderful prompts to take out the disk, flip it over and re-insert so the program could read the other side?)

Since then we've had the various 8088, 8086, 286, 386, 486, pentium, and on, and on. going from the old green or amber screens up to the current QHD displays.

It's funny thinking of how far computing has come, and what my daughter will think when I tell her these stories in a few years, knowing she will always have more computing power in her wrist watch than I ever had available to me until a couple years ago.

 

[brianman]

I'm 52, but my father was a professor at a local college and I was playing with the '370 terminals and getting credit for it by time I was 10. I was fascinated by 6502 assembly when my high school got an early, 4K Apple. Thought I'd died and gone to heaven. As the few that have posted here clearly know, those where the days when you clould literally know all there was to know about micros. It was wonderful. Wonder if anyone remembers the magazine, Kilobaud. Man that was the juice.

Gotta disagree a bit here. Part of what makes computers compelling to me is that they opened up for the general populace, rather than the lucky few.

If "the lucky few" and "the mainframe crowd" were the only ones with significant access when I was in school, I would have picked a different career.

Similarly, interestingly, compelling productive EVs weren't available to the masses (IMO) until Tesla came along. Hence joining TMC, etc.

 

[mzpolo]

ahhh... the memories. Yup, had the radio shack thing. My only A+ at Coast Guard (fall semester of 1980) was in computer programming. We used Fortran. Super advanced ... we were networked with Dartmouth and could actually "chat" with tutors, reading off the dot matrix printer near by.
Now... I couldn't make a web page if my life depended on it.

 

[doug]

TRS-80 CoCo for me, 8 years old.

Me too with the CoCo2 at about the same age. I saved my programs to an audio cassette.

 

[DCWitt]

At 62 years young, I don't really feel like I really fit the thread title....but, reading of your early computer experiences really got me reminiscing.
I think my first experience with computing was about 1971 at the University of Illinois, using the PLATO computer system. Don't remember many details, but I do remember that I was infatuated with the potential for computing and automation from that day forward.
I think my first computer was a TI 99/4A. I remember coding in basic to analyze food and labor costs in the restaurant I was managing at that time. Used a cassette recorder to save and load code. 300 baud modem. And some game cartridges. Anyone remember Parsac?
I think we moved up to an Apple II not too long after. I fell in love with the Apple II and operated a rudimentary BBS (Bulletin Board System) I later ran a BBS on a Mac computer in our home under the name "Tri-Delta BBS".
I continued to be an Apple evangelist and purchased one of the first Apple Lisa systems and later added a 5 megabyte hard drive and a memory expansion card.
I later moved on from the Lisa to Macintosh and when I eventually took over as President of that restaurant company (where I wrote the basic cost analysis program), I installed Mac's on every desk at our home office and networked them with what was called Appletalk. Eventually (circa 1989) I wrote a POS (Point of Sale) system that ran on Macs and deployed it in all of our restaurants. Even though I retired from that position in 1992, my POS system stayed in place in most of those restaurants until just a year or two ago.
At some point, not sure when, I jumped off the Apple ship and began running Windows systems. Seemed to be the only way to handle the accounting needs of my companies....
I think my love of computers and automation significantly shaped my career. I feel fortunate to have matured during the time when digital computing revolutionized business and industry.

 

[Cyclone]

My mom handed me a Spiderman comic/Radio Shack Propaganda piece not long ago. First, remember these awesome electronics kits they sold? And second, see if you can pass the quiz! Don't cheat!

I had one of those 150-in-1 electronic project kits! My uncle got it for me as a Christmas gift on year. I loved that thing! On the quiz, I got all 10 correct, which surprised me.

 

[pgiralt]

Me too with the CoCo2 at about the same age. I saved my programs to an audio cassette.

Coco2 for me when I was 6. Loved that thing! Moved on to an Apple //c a few years later.

 

[Drucifer]

My mom handed me a Spiderman comic/Radio Shack Propaganda piece not long ago. First, remember these awesome electronics kits they sold? And second, see if you can pass the quiz! Don't cheat!

View attachment 97594View attachment 97593

I had the 150 in 1 project kit...but my dad was an electrical engineer and had worked for NASA, so OF COURSE he got that for me.

 

[AudubonB]

So far I count four of us who cut our teeth on Dartmouth's Time Sharing System. I wonder who else is out there?

 

[HankLloydRight]

Right before I got into computers for real, I was really into building electronic projects of all sorts. I lived in the local Radio Shack store.

I had a 50-in-1 electronic kit which I really abused. But what I *really* wanted was the new 150-in-1 kit from Radio Shack. I mean, I *really* wanted it!! I was probably 10 or 11 at the time. IIRC, it even had a 555 timer or some other small chip on it.

But for that holiday season, instead, my dad got me this: http://www.totallytrygve.com/computer.php?item=188&picture=0

When I showed my disappointment that I didn't want a "ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTER" and what I really wanted (and I really thought I was going to get) was the 150-in-1 kit... he took it away as quickly as he gave it to me. Rightfully so, as I was being an ungrateful brat.

But he eventually gave it back to me after "I learned my lesson". So a few days later I sat down and tried to figure it out. Nothing about it was "electronic" or "digital" or "computer". It was a set of levers that moved up and down, and you connected them with wires that eventually lit up incandescent bulbs in the "display". Inside the display you were supposed to put these tissue-like-paper sheets with PRE-PRINTED letters or numbers inside each box. Based on how you wired up the switches and lights, some of the boxes would light up. It really didn't do anything to teach about computers, logic, or programming. It was an exercise in placing the wires based on the instructions, inserting the proper "display cards" and moving some levers to get the pre-defined results. REALLY BOOOOORING! It could not do anything like on the box -- "predicting the weather"?? "computerized medicine" WTAF? Looking back on it, one can see how it might have been able to create a set of AND or OR gates and to be able to light up the lights based on that.. but a "DIGITAL COMPUTER" it was not. I played with it for about a week, and realized it was pointless and boring. I was now even more disappointed that I didn't get the 150-in-1 kit. If my dad wanted to introduce me to computers and programming, one of those CARDIAC kits for $10 probably would have been 1000x better that this dud (sorry, Dad!).

Here's a video of the thing in "action"
KOSMOS LOGIKUS Experiment 5 - YouTube

 

[Cyclone]

It definitely left a strong impression though Hank!

 

[ohmman]

It definitely left a strong impression though Hank!

haha. No kidding! Wait just a second...

SF-5000 : 150-in-1 kit
as
Firmware 7.0 UI : Expected UI

I think we've just gotten to the bottom of something! :wink:

 

[HankLloydRight]

haha. No kidding! Wait just a second...

SF-5000 : 150-in-1 kit
as
Firmware 7.0 UI : Expected UI

I think we've just gotten to the bottom of something! :wink:

ha ha -- you might be on to something there.

 

[mspohr]

Anybody have this: American Basic Science Club
American Basic Science Club: Story of a Successful Small Business - - Quick Reference

This was the absolute best science kit. Each month you would get another kit of parts which added on to the existing kit.
Kit 1: Electrical Lab with Safety Power Transformer, Electro-Chemical Projects, Neon Lamp, “Mystery Shock Box”, Relay, Solenoid, Magnetizer/Demagnetizer
Kit 2: DC Power Supply, Voltmeter, Wheatstone Bridge, Low Speed Strobe Light
Kit 3: Amplifier, Oscillator, High Speed Strobe Light, Sound Experiments, Ripple Tank
Kit 4: Shortwave and Broadcast Radio, Audio Amplifier, Microphone, Transmitter
Kit 5: Telescope, Microscope, Lamp Housing, Optical Lab, Camera Lucida
Kit 6: 35 mm Slide Projector, Microscope Projector, Spectroscope, Ultraviolet Lamp
Kit 7: Analog Computer, Weather Station, Wind Vane and Indicator Board
Kit 8: Atomic Energy Lab, Thermal Energy Lab, Barometer, Anemometer, Sling Psychrometer
Kit 9: Photography Lab, Photomicrography Camera, Photo Cell Projects
Kit 10: Surveyor’s Transit, Telescope Mount, Talking on a Light Beam, Photoelectric Relay

Good times!

 

[HankLloydRight]

I would have loved that!!

All I got was a stinkin' 'ELECTRONIC DIGITAL COMPUTER'