The Old Computer

I have no idea what you guys are talking about. My computer is white with a picture of an apple on it. 'Bout all I know about the thing.
 
All this nostalgia about ancient digital machines, brings to mind my days fudging with punch cards and Fortran when I was a freshman in college.

Or the time I programmed a TRS80 for a friend's parents to print checks. It would take the check amount and convert it into text: "seventy one and 89/100." That effort paid off with several dinners. Can't remember the last time I paid for something with a check...
 




I miss Heavy Metal.

I haven't written a line of Fortran in the last 60 minutes. Better get back to work. Had coffee, a donut, and watched Bugs Bunny for a break.
I used the Internet to "Telecommute" to work to write Fortran paying my way through college. In 1980.
 
I'm old. I could have retired a few years ago.
I learned how to program using transistorized computers.
But not so old to have used Vacuum Tube computers. My first job was converting software to new machines.
If anyone saw "Hidden Figures", I converted the satellite orbitology code from that computer to a PC in the 1980s.
 
Sonnar Brian said:
I speak your language.
When I was hired out of college, 1981- the market was super-hot for computer scientists. I was hired to write code for a Vax 11/780 with an FPS-120b attached array processor and for the Texas Instruments Advanced Scientific Computer. I loved that machine. The person that was going to be my new boss asked that I stay around. Told him it would take someone offering me a job to write code for a HAL-9000 to get me away from the ASC. I recently had some of the vector instructions from that computer implemented in FPGA for an embedded project. Still the best instruction set of any computer ever built.

We had a couple of wide-spread Internet outages this weekend. I use stand-alone computers for real work, so it did not impact me EXCEPT the DVR missed recording Bugs Bunny and Road Runner on Saturday morning. Probably was a DNS attack. Stupid Internet.
Click to expand...

Internet outages? Stupid internet? But of course your BITC assets are safe.
 
My newest computer, just arrived at USA Barnes & Noble stores:
med_U71056I1614709271.SEQ.0.jpg
 
My Fergusan BigBoard II still boots up, but the Monitor Power Supply blew out.
I still do a lot with 8-bit microcontrollers. BUT- I like the Z80 instruction set better. Great at handling Interrupts.
 
One computer programming class 1971, COBOL, late nights compiling code and running cards in the Stanford computing center. End of story. Sad.
 
RichC said:
Ha ha! Yes!

I've been using it for about 45 years...!

Love the purple LEDs, but it eats batteries, thinks to itself when calculating (do anything complex and the display flickers for a few seconds before the answer appears) and if do a calculation in different ways, the last digit after the decimal point may differ (rounding errors!). The numbers printed on the buttons wear off, so every decade I end up buying a scrap calculator to steal its buttons! Who says electronics don't last - nearly half a century of use!

50995520833_2bd6babbba_d.jpg
Click to expand...
Not the same one I have, mine's the older Sinclair Scientific, not the Cambridge Scientific. Mine's RPN (not well implemeted), fixed-point display (5+2) and has no memory. Another I have is the Cambridge Programmable, which looks very similar to yours but is programmable (clue in the name) and runs off a 9V PP3 battery. I also have a Sinclair Enterprise Programmable, arguably the best calculator Sinclair ever made.
 
Pál_K said:
...
I also worked on IBM 360 and DEC PDP-11’s, DECsystem 10’s, and VAXes. I still love assembly language - got to write some ARM assembly language not too long ago.
Click to expand...

I think my first computer course in FORTRAN was on an IBM 360. I remember one of the most common errors was card jam! The 360 was already out of date at that point, so next I tried Z-80 assembly language thinking I would have a more user friendly system. What? I have to do all that to multiply two numbers together? After that it was mostly Fortran or BASIC. then eventually Mathematica, stat packs, followed by more high end simulation packages (i.e., less programming, and more engineering applications). My first computer was a Sharp 1500 (also sold as the Tandy TRS-80). My first calculator was a no name basic RPN calculator in ~1975. After that and since it has been HP RPN (currently a 35S).
 
I bet I can lay my hands on my father's Sinclar calculator, in mint condition and hardly used. 2+2=2. Need to type +2+2=4.
 
Last edited:
This thread has inspired me to photograph some of the relics I've collected over the years:

med_U71056I1614721598.SEQ.0.jpg


med_U71056I1614722388.SEQ.0.jpg


Above: Mac 512 converted to Plus, identical to the one I owned in the 1980s, but unlike my original, I picked this one out of the trash in the 1990s. I had to pay for the manuals and floppy disk box, but they could still be had fairly cheaply at the time.

Bottom: Powerbook 180. Works fine but one of these days I should build a new battery for it. 2.5" SCSI hard drive is thoroughly obsolete of course, but I have an adapter card which allows it to use Compact Flash instead.
 
In my storage unit I have issues of the old Byte magazine. Some of those covers were wonderful works of art.

I’m trying to downsize to a smaller unit. I threw away about three dozen issues last year, but saved about six.

I also have very old National Geographic magazines - I think as a kid I got them from what I guess you’d call a thrift store. They have no photo on the front - just text describing the contents. The photos inside are B&W. I won’t throw them away, but I’ve got a lot of them.
 
It can be quite refreshing to disconnect from The Web for a time.

FWIW even today there are many who never use computers etc.

Chris
 
I have too many computers in the house at the moment. My computers include a Mac mini M1, a Raspberry Pi 400, a Pinebook Pro laptop, and a work-issued MacBook Pro. If you add phones, tablets, and my wife's laptop to the list, it's a little ridiculous.

On the plus side, I have still-working (and often used) HP 12C and 15C calculators within reach.
 
My 2009 iMac is still working fine, and with google chrome, is less troublesome on the web than my 2013 15" Macbook. The same is true of my 2009 13" Macbook, except it needs a new battery. I'll have to figure out where to get one. eBay, maybe.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top