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Memory lane for computer lovers

I'd like to have back just half of the jack I've spent on computer goodies through the years. Everything was crazy expensive in the beginning. Your walk down memory lane was fun... thanks for sharing.
 
Guess I will date myself ...

Where was the Timex/Sinclair 1000? 2k RAM, B+W, saved to a cassette tape recorder, can't remember if there was sound.
 
First HDD I ever had on a PC was 5 megabytes, bought second-hand sometime in 1989. A 5.25inch full-height MFM Rodime along with the required full-length ISA slot Xebec controller.
 
kevincott said:
Guess I will date myself ...

Where was the Timex/Sinclair 1000? 2k RAM, B+W, saved to a cassette tape recorder, can't remember if there was sound.
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Yes it was the US version of the British Sinclair ZX81. The ZX81 only had 1k RAM as standard, Timex/Sinclair 1000 had 2k as standard. Both expandable to 16k by using an external RAM-pack.

Non of these computers had sound. There was various after-market sound boxes though to give them sound.
 
olbriar said:
I'd like to have back just half of the jack I've spent on computer goodies through the years. Everything was crazy expensive in the beginning. Your walk down memory lane was fun... thanks for sharing.
Click to expand...

I recall my folks spend a ton on our first Windows 3 computer (I think it was 3, came before 95).
Haven't finished it yet, but reading Jobs' biography and hearing about what those things went for in the 80s, I was pretty shocked.
 
dreadnatty08 said:
I recall my folks spend a ton on our first Windows 3 computer (I think it was 3, came before 95).
Haven't finished it yet, but reading Jobs' biography and hearing about what those things went for in the 80s, I was pretty shocked.
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You should be shocked, considering that Windows 3 didn't come out until 1990! :D
 
Back in the early 80's I bought my first personal computer. It came with I think just a keyboard and computer that had a cassette drive and no mouse. I bought it in a department store for around 3 or 4 hundred bucks. Had it a little while and got board with it, sold it and didn't get another computer till win95 came out. Wish I could remember who made it.
 
Well I'll be. I found it. hahahahahaha

complete.jpg
 
When I was a kid, our hard drives had to spin up in ten feet of snow ... uphill ... BOTH WAYS! ;)

Seriously, great post for those of us who've been through the trials and tribulations of the last 40 years of tech. :)
 
It was a constant defrag and mark bad sectors back in the day as well. I had a friend that would pull his HHD out and stick it in the fridge from time to time. His box would get so hot, even with the cover off and a large fan cooling it, that the access was off because of the drives RPM. Was way too expensive to replace :)
 
dreadnatty08 said:
Ah, come on now. ;)
Pretty sure it was 3, maybe 3.1? I don't know, I was like 8 years old. :rolleyes:
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Windows 3.0 for DOS came out in 1990. Windows NT 3.1 came out in 1993.

Correct me if I'm mistaken, but you seem to be saying that Windows computers of that era were extremely costly. Since you mentioned Jobs' book, it looks like you're inferring that the Macintosh was a bargain compared to a Windows PC. I'm not interested in starting any flame wars, but I would like to point out that Apple products have never been bargain items.

For the record, my first microcomputer was an Apple ][+, and my second was a used Fat Mac. I'm not taking any side; simply stating the facts.
 
I think one day, we will be posting old ads recounting things like the iPad 3, the S3, small non-3d screens and those slow systems that had to make due with less than 100 gigs of memory. Your kids will be asking how we ever managed with less than 500 TB of memory and HDD space.
 
Gmash said:
Probably won't be using HDD by then.
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I do not like to guess about technology and what the future holds. I do think the HDD will disappear, however. SSDs are cheap and getting cheaper. Perhaps something will replace the solid state devices. Some display molecular memory is one possibility.

I will go out on a limb and say SSDs will be with us for a long time.

Or perhaps not.

Or molecular memory.

Or the Borg will arrive and we will all be part of the collective. That is to say, Apple will introduce iBorg and those Sci-Fi writers were correct all long.
 
Ahh, the Sinclair. I owned one. Traded it in on my first C64 (got some sort of discount). Came back to the store a few days later to buy software (what we called apps back then) and my Sinclair was being used as the front door chock.

At one point I think I owned 6 C64's and a 128 at the same time.
 
Wow thank you for sharing, my first HDD I was also a 5 megabytes that thing was so loud and slow later I purchase a new motherboard and 80286 8 mhz processor to make it run a littel faster i beliveit was 1988 the cpu by it self was $400.00
 
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