Thanks all, now I don't feel so old. :P Considering my first computer was an Apple IIe.
Christopher J. Bosak Vector Company c. 847.603.4673 [EMAIL PROTECTED] "You need to install an RTFM Interface" - B.O.F.H. -----Original Message----- From: Webb, Brian (Corp) [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 10:58 hrs To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: for old timers My 1st was a C64. My first PC was a Zenith Z-171 sewing machine style portable. I went right for the top and bought 640KB of RAM to start along with the dual 5 1/4 inch 360 K floppies and internal 2400 Baud modem. It weighed 15 pounds without the battery - I never bought a battery as I just hauled it to where I needed it and then plugged it in. The grey scale LCD was pretty bad in terms of contrast. It was about $1900 at the time (1986 I think). I bought an Epson FX-85 for $400 or $500 to go with it.... I remember I tried to buy 1 MB of RAM, but the motherboard would only recognize 640KB. -Brian -----Original Message----- From: Angus Scott-Fleming [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, April 09, 2008 2:45 AM To: NT System Admin Issues Subject: RE: for old timers On 8 Apr 2008 at 23:52, Benjamin Zachary wrote: > You know I was right on that page and flipped through it real quick > and went on to look up the original ibm pc and a bunch of other things. FWIW I still have an IBM XT on the shelf, monochrome monitor, IBM keyboard, and all. One of these days I'll have to see if it still boots --before I put it up for sale on eBay ;-) My first personally-owned PC was a Zenith Z-152, 4.77 MHz, 320k of RAM and dual 360k floppies (320k/360k ? memory fades with time). It cost me over $3,000, with Microsoft Word 1.0 for DOS and an Okidata MicroLine 9-pin dot-matrix printer (which I still have). My brother-the-computer-scientist was jealous -- he worked at the local university and "only" had 64k of workspace on the CDC mainframe. On Dec. 31 one year (don't you love the income tax?) I upgraded the Z-152 to 640k RAM and a 7-MHz NEC V20 chip and added a $399 20-megabyte full-height hard drive. Ended up giving it to my kid's pre-school loaded with reading and other teaching programs, all pre-Windows, of course. When I upgraded my 1200-baud modem to 2400-baud I had to find an off-line Compuserve-forum-saving/reading program (OzCIS -- for the "old timers" -- did anyone else here use it?) -- at 1200-baud I could read the forums as they scrolled by, but at 2400-baud I could no longer keep up. Egad, I still remember my Compuserve ID: 75500,3223 and there's even one Google "hit" on my CIS ID still remaining "out there": http://www.google.com/search?q=%2275500%2C3223%22 Anybody here remember TeamB for dBASE? Angus P.S. Yes, I have a (partially) grey beard -- not quite Sid Dabster but "one of these days" I'll get there ;-) -- Angus Scott-Fleming GeoApps, Tucson, Arizona 1-520-290-5038 +-----------------------------------+ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~ ~ Upgrade to Next Generation Antispam/Antivirus with Ninja! ~ ~ <http://www.sunbelt-software.com/SunbeltMessagingNinja.cfm> ~
