My First Computer, The only computer I bought ever
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You make me feel old. I was using computers back in 1979. The first computer of my own was a ZX81 then a ZX Spectrum. That creaking noise you hear is my nostalgia kicking in!
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
I AM old. The first computer I ever used was in 1969. It was a Control Data 6000-series mainframe at Michigan State. I was a math major and decided to take a FORTRAN class as an elective. I was hooked and immediately knew what I wanted to do the rest of my life. Too bad it has not worked out that way. My soul got crushed in my last job and I'm not that much interested in programming after retirement any more.
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You make me feel old. I was using computers back in 1979. The first computer of my own was a ZX81 then a ZX Spectrum. That creaking noise you hear is my nostalgia kicking in!
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
My first computer also was a ZX81. I just read the Basic manual and started programming. I remember how excited I was when the 16K expansion module came out! (I used a large rubber band to keep the connection secure.) I was manager of an optical store back then, and wrote an inventory program and printed the results on the Sinclair's tiny thermal printer. I also remember the BBS calls using the 300 baud modem, where the output was so slow that you could read everything in real time. Good times, good times...
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Year 1998, I started Learning about the wonder (computer). I was in high school I realized RAM is the biggest deal. But yet I didn't know how it looks. As a matter of fact I learned the monitor as a minor thing in year 2000 when I started my University. Year 2000, I left Chittagong. Cause my father was just retired. Chittagong was his working place. So, We moved to Dhaka. My getting fat day started. All I did was watch cable, eat and sleep sometime went go my aunt house. That was only physical exercise I used to do. From ground floor I had to Ride 5 storied building. no escalator or elevator. I have started my bachelor degree just a month. Yet I had lot to learn. And my father decide he will buy me a computer. But I don't know how to buy a computer. Moreover I didn't know what shall I say to the shop. May be something like this: This Idea was before 1996:) Me: I want to buy computer. shopkeeper: What Kind of computer do you want? Me: The black one and make sure the mouse is not Plague infected. Shopkeeper: How much powerful do you want? Me: 10HP may be In Bangladesh Computer is awfully expensive. 40,000 taka is outstanding high for us(at that time it was like $800 may be but not sure. and its a big amount). Anyway my father asked his brother in law about it. He requested two boy living in his neighbor. They were computer something(cant remember what they were, actually never knew). They agreed to assist us. Then the golden day came. I woke up very early in the morning. Probably 4:30 am in the morning. Finished my morning prayer. then I started my longest waiting. Around 9:00 clock those two boy arrived. Then we started a longest journey to New Elephant Road. Perfect for me. I was the New Elephant going to New Elephant Road(I was 101 Kilo. i.e. 222.2lb) 3 wheeler with 3 stroke engine was carrying us. Anyway I was not that dumb to ask for computer with 10HP. It was the idea of mine when I was in high school. But the computer shop was shocking for me. Scattered boxes, random things organized in the rack I don't understand any of them. But there was no computer around. Well, my father told them the budget. My father took a good budget. Because most of other people do the budget around 30K but for me it was 40k. After reaching the shop my father asked to the shopkeeper "Does Sony make Computer?". Well, to my father SONY(the japanese company) was something like hercules, Supreme of all. Then the shopkeeper said. you can get the cdrom from SONY :)
I don't even know what were the specs of the first computer I used, rumour has it that my uncle had a computer at home and he had a Windows 3.1 computer, yes, the one with File Manager screen ;). Anyway, i wasn't allowed to be anywhere within 6 feet of it since way back then computers were the toys of the rich and my uncle was a well off dude and I was quite young so my uncle figured that if i touched his precious little junk, i would screw it up (obv he didn't know any better). Never in my whole life had i felt insulted, belittled, condescended yet so amazed, awed and hooked at the same time. I bought my first computer around 10 years later in 2001 which was a custom built PC with 64 MB RAM, 20GB (or may be even 40GB) HDD, 14" color CRT monitor, Intel Pentium 3 333MHz processor, Windows Me and a pre-paid 40-hour internet connection pack used over a 64KBPS dial up modem. I miss that FAX tone....good ol' days. Look back now, those computers would probably be sitting in a computer history museum...
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Wow. Kids. Spoiled. You had a keyboard and a monitor. My first computer consisted of a switchboard with ten sliders that each controlled a gang of ten switches. You connected the switches together with wires that you cut yourself, to make AND and OR and NAND and NOR and XOR gates. Yes, the computer came with a spool of copper wire, and a wire stripper. More basic than BASIC. :laugh: The computer also had ten light bulbs that you connected to the switches. A very low resolution monitor! The switches doubled as memory, so it had effectively a 10 bit RAM. It was powered by a humongous 9 volt battery, the size of a hip flask. When I move to the States, I had to figure out how to wire it up to a DC power supply because I couldn't find those kinds of monster batteries in the States. So that those ten power hogging light bulbs wouldn't run down the battery too quickly, there was a single push button that you had to use to turn on the finished circuit. Oh, and I had to put it together, myself. :cool: You used it to wire up cool programs like "if the humidity is high" (slide switch 1) AND "the barometer is falling" (slide switch 2) THEN "it will rain" (lightbulb 1). I even taught it to play tic-tac-toe. That was in 1970. The computer cost about DM100 (about $50, at the time). I've tried to find a picture of it online, but I guess they don't make it anymore. :((
Same complained was made by our professor in university. He said "you are spoiled cause you have computer in home. you would do better if you had only 30 minutes share in a month and by this time you will have to upload your new program for test"
I know I am coward since the day I know that fortune favors the brave
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Year 1998, I started Learning about the wonder (computer). I was in high school I realized RAM is the biggest deal. But yet I didn't know how it looks. As a matter of fact I learned the monitor as a minor thing in year 2000 when I started my University. Year 2000, I left Chittagong. Cause my father was just retired. Chittagong was his working place. So, We moved to Dhaka. My getting fat day started. All I did was watch cable, eat and sleep sometime went go my aunt house. That was only physical exercise I used to do. From ground floor I had to Ride 5 storied building. no escalator or elevator. I have started my bachelor degree just a month. Yet I had lot to learn. And my father decide he will buy me a computer. But I don't know how to buy a computer. Moreover I didn't know what shall I say to the shop. May be something like this: This Idea was before 1996:) Me: I want to buy computer. shopkeeper: What Kind of computer do you want? Me: The black one and make sure the mouse is not Plague infected. Shopkeeper: How much powerful do you want? Me: 10HP may be In Bangladesh Computer is awfully expensive. 40,000 taka is outstanding high for us(at that time it was like $800 may be but not sure. and its a big amount). Anyway my father asked his brother in law about it. He requested two boy living in his neighbor. They were computer something(cant remember what they were, actually never knew). They agreed to assist us. Then the golden day came. I woke up very early in the morning. Probably 4:30 am in the morning. Finished my morning prayer. then I started my longest waiting. Around 9:00 clock those two boy arrived. Then we started a longest journey to New Elephant Road. Perfect for me. I was the New Elephant going to New Elephant Road(I was 101 Kilo. i.e. 222.2lb) 3 wheeler with 3 stroke engine was carrying us. Anyway I was not that dumb to ask for computer with 10HP. It was the idea of mine when I was in high school. But the computer shop was shocking for me. Scattered boxes, random things organized in the rack I don't understand any of them. But there was no computer around. Well, my father told them the budget. My father took a good budget. Because most of other people do the budget around 30K but for me it was 40k. After reaching the shop my father asked to the shopkeeper "Does Sony make Computer?". Well, to my father SONY(the japanese company) was something like hercules, Supreme of all. Then the shopkeeper said. you can get the cdrom from SONY :)
I'm curious, how do you think it's cute to steal the work of others? Is it really a joke to you? What if you worked all day for something and then the boss didn't pay you? Would that be cute too? I suppose he could then go post on a blog "I stole the work of all my employees today :p" ... right? Stop it. Not only is it wrong, and you know that it's wrong, but stealing copyrighted material is drawing the attention of powerful authority whose solution to this very real problem will NOT be a solution any of WE PROGRAMMERS will like. By the way your post here was referenced in my regular email from CodeProject.com and I sent them an email that they shouldn't promote software piracy. Hopefully they will contact you or at least remove your posts - if they want to be known as serious, ethical professionals.
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I'm curious, how do you think it's cute to steal the work of others? Is it really a joke to you? What if you worked all day for something and then the boss didn't pay you? Would that be cute too? I suppose he could then go post on a blog "I stole the work of all my employees today :p" ... right? Stop it. Not only is it wrong, and you know that it's wrong, but stealing copyrighted material is drawing the attention of powerful authority whose solution to this very real problem will NOT be a solution any of WE PROGRAMMERS will like. By the way your post here was referenced in my regular email from CodeProject.com and I sent them an email that they shouldn't promote software piracy. Hopefully they will contact you or at least remove your posts - if they want to be known as serious, ethical professionals.
I understand your anger, but at that time I had very little idea about copyright even though I was old enough to know about it. But in my second story I forgot to add an small event that the solution and credit of the solution was stolen by a classmate. I never enjoyed it. Its happening even now too. I agree with you that not providing proper respect(whether payment or accepting that its done by someone) to the owner is not good its not technically stealing, its actually stealing. All the new students I talk with I suggest them to learn how to respect the copyright. So, I advise them to use application and software like linux(whichever version it is), open office etc.
I know I am coward since the day I know that fortune favors the brave
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I understand your anger, but at that time I had very little idea about copyright even though I was old enough to know about it. But in my second story I forgot to add an small event that the solution and credit of the solution was stolen by a classmate. I never enjoyed it. Its happening even now too. I agree with you that not providing proper respect(whether payment or accepting that its done by someone) to the owner is not good its not technically stealing, its actually stealing. All the new students I talk with I suggest them to learn how to respect the copyright. So, I advise them to use application and software like linux(whichever version it is), open office etc.
I know I am coward since the day I know that fortune favors the brave
I'm sorry that I seemed angry. That was not intentional and I do apologize. Of course I have also pirated much software in my lifetime. In fact my computer now is probably my first fully legal machine ever. It is good that you tell students about copyright respect, and also good that open source solutions are growing so the entire question of ownership can become moot. This is a discussion which has become very important to have.
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Year 1998, I started Learning about the wonder (computer). I was in high school I realized RAM is the biggest deal. But yet I didn't know how it looks. As a matter of fact I learned the monitor as a minor thing in year 2000 when I started my University. Year 2000, I left Chittagong. Cause my father was just retired. Chittagong was his working place. So, We moved to Dhaka. My getting fat day started. All I did was watch cable, eat and sleep sometime went go my aunt house. That was only physical exercise I used to do. From ground floor I had to Ride 5 storied building. no escalator or elevator. I have started my bachelor degree just a month. Yet I had lot to learn. And my father decide he will buy me a computer. But I don't know how to buy a computer. Moreover I didn't know what shall I say to the shop. May be something like this: This Idea was before 1996:) Me: I want to buy computer. shopkeeper: What Kind of computer do you want? Me: The black one and make sure the mouse is not Plague infected. Shopkeeper: How much powerful do you want? Me: 10HP may be In Bangladesh Computer is awfully expensive. 40,000 taka is outstanding high for us(at that time it was like $800 may be but not sure. and its a big amount). Anyway my father asked his brother in law about it. He requested two boy living in his neighbor. They were computer something(cant remember what they were, actually never knew). They agreed to assist us. Then the golden day came. I woke up very early in the morning. Probably 4:30 am in the morning. Finished my morning prayer. then I started my longest waiting. Around 9:00 clock those two boy arrived. Then we started a longest journey to New Elephant Road. Perfect for me. I was the New Elephant going to New Elephant Road(I was 101 Kilo. i.e. 222.2lb) 3 wheeler with 3 stroke engine was carrying us. Anyway I was not that dumb to ask for computer with 10HP. It was the idea of mine when I was in high school. But the computer shop was shocking for me. Scattered boxes, random things organized in the rack I don't understand any of them. But there was no computer around. Well, my father told them the budget. My father took a good budget. Because most of other people do the budget around 30K but for me it was 40k. After reaching the shop my father asked to the shopkeeper "Does Sony make Computer?". Well, to my father SONY(the japanese company) was something like hercules, Supreme of all. Then the shopkeeper said. you can get the cdrom from SONY :)
With Pentium III, CPU was measured in MHz, not GHz. RAM had moved from KB to MB. Speed and storage were still increasing at impressive rates. My first laptop was about 5 years ago, 1.1 GHz single core CPU. My brother-in-law upgraded the memory to 360MB. (About 200MB more than it started with.) I bought a new laptop a year ago. 2GHz dual core, 3GB RAM. I saw a desktop computer that ran at 3.6GH quad core for about $6,000 US last year. Getting a computer that runs 800+ GH may still be a pipe dream ten years from now. Seems to be moving towards virtulization, service farms, and cloud computing (Is the last redundant?) than speeding up the CPU now. When I went into retraining about 6 years, the training center I went to used older computers that ran at 500MHz. I think that was close to top of the line in 1998. I know it was faster than the destop I bought around 1998. PS piracy is bad, but it's also a fact of life throughout most of the world. Don't feel bad about stating a fact. Codeproject has no business burying their head in the sand and pretending it doesn't exist. I wouldn't worry too much about repercussions from them because someone got upset you stated a fact.
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With Pentium III, CPU was measured in MHz, not GHz. RAM had moved from KB to MB. Speed and storage were still increasing at impressive rates. My first laptop was about 5 years ago, 1.1 GHz single core CPU. My brother-in-law upgraded the memory to 360MB. (About 200MB more than it started with.) I bought a new laptop a year ago. 2GHz dual core, 3GB RAM. I saw a desktop computer that ran at 3.6GH quad core for about $6,000 US last year. Getting a computer that runs 800+ GH may still be a pipe dream ten years from now. Seems to be moving towards virtulization, service farms, and cloud computing (Is the last redundant?) than speeding up the CPU now. When I went into retraining about 6 years, the training center I went to used older computers that ran at 500MHz. I think that was close to top of the line in 1998. I know it was faster than the destop I bought around 1998. PS piracy is bad, but it's also a fact of life throughout most of the world. Don't feel bad about stating a fact. Codeproject has no business burying their head in the sand and pretending it doesn't exist. I wouldn't worry too much about repercussions from them because someone got upset you stated a fact.
yeah my bad 850MHZ and RAM was 128MB
I know I am coward since the day I know that fortune favors the brave
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We also had to walk 20 miles to school every day uphill in the snow and then back home uphill in the snow. And it was always dark.
Barefoot, with barbed wire wrapped around your feet for traction? Yeah, kids these days don't know how good they have it.
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Actually I can top his story about how easy kids have it today. In my time, I had to walk 10 miles in the snow to buy weed.
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Year 1998, I started Learning about the wonder (computer). I was in high school I realized RAM is the biggest deal. But yet I didn't know how it looks. As a matter of fact I learned the monitor as a minor thing in year 2000 when I started my University. Year 2000, I left Chittagong. Cause my father was just retired. Chittagong was his working place. So, We moved to Dhaka. My getting fat day started. All I did was watch cable, eat and sleep sometime went go my aunt house. That was only physical exercise I used to do. From ground floor I had to Ride 5 storied building. no escalator or elevator. I have started my bachelor degree just a month. Yet I had lot to learn. And my father decide he will buy me a computer. But I don't know how to buy a computer. Moreover I didn't know what shall I say to the shop. May be something like this: This Idea was before 1996:) Me: I want to buy computer. shopkeeper: What Kind of computer do you want? Me: The black one and make sure the mouse is not Plague infected. Shopkeeper: How much powerful do you want? Me: 10HP may be In Bangladesh Computer is awfully expensive. 40,000 taka is outstanding high for us(at that time it was like $800 may be but not sure. and its a big amount). Anyway my father asked his brother in law about it. He requested two boy living in his neighbor. They were computer something(cant remember what they were, actually never knew). They agreed to assist us. Then the golden day came. I woke up very early in the morning. Probably 4:30 am in the morning. Finished my morning prayer. then I started my longest waiting. Around 9:00 clock those two boy arrived. Then we started a longest journey to New Elephant Road. Perfect for me. I was the New Elephant going to New Elephant Road(I was 101 Kilo. i.e. 222.2lb) 3 wheeler with 3 stroke engine was carrying us. Anyway I was not that dumb to ask for computer with 10HP. It was the idea of mine when I was in high school. But the computer shop was shocking for me. Scattered boxes, random things organized in the rack I don't understand any of them. But there was no computer around. Well, my father told them the budget. My father took a good budget. Because most of other people do the budget around 30K but for me it was 40k. After reaching the shop my father asked to the shopkeeper "Does Sony make Computer?". Well, to my father SONY(the japanese company) was something like hercules, Supreme of all. Then the shopkeeper said. you can get the cdrom from SONY :)
Nice story. I remember the first computer I learned BASIC programing on was a Tandy TRS-80 Model III! The first one I bought myself was a Tandy Color Computer 3 (128k) back in 1986 or 1987 I think it was. I can't remember what I paid for it though. I also remember buying the tape drive (audio tapes! lol) for it so I could store my programs. I didn't buy my first PC (a 386) until around 1992 while in Germany with the Army. I got it for something like $50 from a guy that was PCSing. Bought a new HDD for it for about a half months pay (or it felt that way at least) for 40MB!
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You make me feel old. I was using computers back in 1979. The first computer of my own was a ZX81 then a ZX Spectrum. That creaking noise you hear is my nostalgia kicking in!
------------------------------------ I will never again mention that I was the poster of the One Millionth Lounge Post, nor that it was complete drivel. Dalek Dave CCC Link[^] Trolls[^]
You are not alone there Dave. My first computer was in 1979, a Compukit UK101. Aaah those were the days.. 1MHz, 8bit processor, 4Kbytes of RAM, 48 x 16 screen resolution on a black/white TV. I remember paying around 230 UK pounds sterling for the computer and another 50 pounds for the additional 4Kbytes of RAM upgrade. One Saturday morning, I drove across London to CompShop and bought the computer, it came as a kit you had to solder together yourself. It took me 12 hours to build (6pm Saturday through to 6am Sunday). I still have it and it still works as designed. One of my favourite parts (NOT) was the editor, the user manual stated something like "if you make a mistake typing in a line, simply retype the line". You said you had a ZX81 in 1979, i recall 'Sinclair' releasing the ZX80 in late 1979 and the ZX81 in late 1980.
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My first was a UK101 kit computer, bought 1979 I think. I was living in a single rented room and by the time I got back from the shop with it, it was already about 9pm. Set to with the soldering iron, soldering in all the sockets and discreet components, plenty of burnt fingers. Left the biggest sockets till last, so I had some "experience" with the easier ones. This of course meant the (6502) processor socket was last to be soldered on to the motherboard. Gone midnight now, very tired. Still, soldered it in carefully and there was no way that baby was ever coming out. Started slotting in the chips - memory (both the 4096bit chips, giving a total 1kb memory) then the logic gates and finally - the 6502. :omg: :omg: :doh: :sigh: :( I'd only gone and soldered the 6502 socket on the wrong side of the board!! God knows how I'd managed to do that; just too tired by then, I guess. Well, there was no way I could unsolder the socket, so all looked doomed. Until inspiration struck; very VERY carefully bend each pin 180 degrees so all pins were pointing UPWARDS instead of down, and effectively fit the chip upside down. (Anyone who's worked with those chips knows the pins can break off very easily if too much stress is put on them, but by 2am I'd reversed them all and the chip was finally in place - sort of. You can't imagine the relief when I powered up, tuned in the telly (no monitor!) and saw that little blinking cursor inviting me to start tapping in machine code. That UK101 ran for years, I doubled the CPU clock, filled out the RAM to 8Kb then "piggybacked" another 16 chips on top, with separate loose wires for the top-bit addressing, added a sound chip, doubled - then quadrupled - the baud rate to the cassette player, and doubled the video ram (again, piggybacking one chip on top of another) to double the screen resolution. With this super-fast, massively extended UK101 I visited a few computer clubs (remember them?) and other UK101 owners would take a peek at the board.... WHERE's THE PROCESSOR??? All they could see were some filled-in holes in the motherboard where the 6502 socket should be. Got some very weird looks... :-\