Desktops: Poll: When did you first start using a personal computer?
- 7/13/07 1:22 PM
Me Too
by hhoytjr - 7/17/07 9:10 PM In reply to: TI- 99 4A by BDJA4Still think that the TI 99/4A never reached it's full potential. The TMS 9900 chipset was top flight military chip. Had full system with peripheral expansion box and hard drives. TI marketing never appreciated the product and gave feeble support. TI extended basic Gave very high accuracy decimal calculations, like a scientific calculator.
My first personal computer was a TI99-4A
by archae0 - 7/13/07 7:42 PM In reply to: Poll: When did you first start using a personal computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I bought my TI99-4A in 1983. It was SO cool! 32K (yes K) of RAM, built in OS and Basic plus a color display. (Well it was color if you hooked it up to a color television) In all honesty, it was pretty darn cool for 1983. At first I only had cassette tape for storage. But soon I got a single sided single density 5.25 in floppy drive. I had a Multiplan spreadsheet cartridge and actually tracked financial information with it. I used the TI99-4A for several years for entertainment and real work. I finally replaced it with a 286 that ran DOS in 1988.
The TI99/4A was a 16K computer
by owenj9677 - 7/14/07 11:57 AM In reply to: My first personal computer was a TI99-4A by archae0Around 1982-83 I was a computer repair technician for TI. The TI99/4A was indeed a 16k computer, 32k with the memory expansion added. When the home computer division folded, I was privy to use the TI Pro (8088 based 286-like clone). I built my first 286 clone, then moved to 386 and then 486. Then I took a giant leap and went to an AMD based 586 then Athlon and Athlon 64. During my foray into the TI Pro I saw $500 non-Smart Modems, $600 5Meg HardDrives and the first Internet tools(besides UNIX) written for OS/2 and, Lotus 123 that came on 4-5 5-1/4" floppies due to it being written in Assembly Language. Things have really taken off since then. I'm really glad to have seen the industry in it's infancy.
Ojon
1984
by smartipants - 7/13/07 7:45 PM In reply to: Poll: When did you first start using a personal computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
In 1984 I was working in a structural engineer's office, and they had me use an IBM for typing client documents. The screen looked like DOS (no gui) and had a: and b: drives. I had to code in text attributes the same way we do in html today (<b></b> or <i></i>, etc.). One day the boss brought in a brand new Apple computer with the funny model name of Macintosh, and he let me play around on it. That's when the computer bug bit me, and I've been happily PCing ever since in both Windows and Mac OSes! :o)
1st "computer"
by jaytmoon - 7/13/07 7:49 PM In reply to: Poll: When did you first start using a personal computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My first was a Tandy, TRS-80 Model 1. 16Kb ram, a cassete tape drive adn very few apps. It forced me to learn BASIC programming in order to make real use of the system. It was God awful slow and dummer than dirt compared with the cheapest cell phone today.
Dumber than the cheapest phones? That was the first three...
by ZTBELL21 - 7/13/07 8:58 PM In reply to: 1st "computer" by jaytmoonAs I posted later in the forum, my first three computers were an Apple IIe, a DOS-based Tandy 2500SX/20 built in 1992 and a 1996 Panasonic ToughBook CF-25. The cheapest cell phone available today has more available brainpower than all three computers combined!!!
Also, I played around with BASIC for some things, but have never really needed it since my first experience with Windows 9x/Me (which was in High School, in 1999, a full four years after Windows 95 launched).
Yeah! That was my first CPU as well.
by Screaminlizard - 7/13/07 11:54 PM In reply to: 1st "computer" by jaytmoonWell actually, although my first CPU was a TRS-80 from Radio Shack, mine only came with 4k, yes, that was no typo, 4k of RAM. Later, we upgraded to 16k. The best part was having to use a monochrome monitor and tape cassette for storage. Remeber the BBS (bulletin board service), otherwise known as the internet. It was so primitive back then. Who would have guessed it would develop into what it is today! I think our first modem was 9kbps and all our computer games were text. They went something like: You have entered a dark room with a door on the right. Ahead of you is a creature leering dangerously. Would you like to: a) run back the way you came b)head for the door to the right c) fight the creature.
Ahhh, those days were great.
TRS-80!!!
by jeffmo2334 - 7/16/07 5:21 AM In reply to: 1st "computer" by jaytmoonThat was my first computer, too. Got it in jr. high, and learned to program in BASIC. Saved my lawn mowing and birthday money to upgrade to 64k, and buy a PASCAL compiler!
Had its own strange set of games -- does anyone else remember "Dungeons of Daggoreth?" Awesome game 
1973
by Paracelsus - 7/13/07 8:02 PM In reply to: Poll: When did you first start using a personal computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Does the name, Wang, ring bell for anyone?? LOL!!
My undergrad Alma Mater had a Wang in the Natural Sciences building. What a monster that thing was!!
Oops...
by Paracelsus - 7/13/07 8:04 PM In reply to: 1973 by Paracelsussorry... that wasn't a PC was it? Never mind.
OH but it was!!
by isaacm30 - 7/14/07 12:35 AM In reply to: Oops... by ParacelsusSony put out one that used MS-X that stood for Microsoft extended.
Yamaha was another who did the same.
My first computer was a SpectrovideoMS-X that stoll a march on the others by including a 3.5 HD The game I enjoyed was Child Park, Which I can't track down today. Any help would be welcome.
AH, WANG
by auldtwa - 7/13/07 10:58 PM In reply to: 1973 by ParacelsusWhen I worked for a law firm the summer of my 2nd year of law school (1981) the firm had a WANG room. Climate controlled; you had to put things to be typed through a little window. They let me do part of my law review article on it. (I'd started with the law schools TRS-80). You had to climb up onto a little platform with a special seat.
My very first computer was a nameless little thing that had a cassette tape drive and used the TV as a screen. In 1985 we got a IBM, whichever model was before the AT. I too learned BASIC and told my young son that if he ever typed "format" lightning would strike him dead.
But my very first computer experience, indirectly, was in 1967 while my then husband was in grad school. He typed his programs (in Fortan, I think) onto little punch cards and submitted them to what I faultily recall as robed priests at the Stanford Computer Center. I used to go over with him in the middle of the night; there was a priestless reader available where you could run your punch cards through and it would print out whatever was on them. So I would type out letters home on punchcards and then print them. So cool to send letters on wide lined computer paper.
The good ol' days
by newkiwi - 7/14/07 1:00 AM In reply to: AH, WANG by auldtwaYes I went to the university of Maryland after my 3 year stint as a
Western Union computer tech. I too had the punch card experience though our assignment was the mondane sort routine in COBOL. Choice was bubble up or push down technique. Wonder if anyone remembers those techniques.
Sure...
by Willy - 7/14/07 9:50 AM In reply to: 1973 by ParacelsusWang, I fixed some monitors for them way back. Alot of users really had a Wang following, but then Wang sold out or was brought out. Our co. brought out Data 100, so you know we had some old equipment. Does that feel any better? -----Willy
128K Mac
by mdpeterman - 7/13/07 8:05 PM In reply to: Poll: When did you first start using a personal computer? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
My first was the 128K Macintosh released in 1984. Yes, the First Mac, one of the more reliable computers I have used. I still have it and will turn it on just to turn it on and see how much has changed from the 1st mac to the iMac and OSX.
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