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| » Online Users: 64 | | 29 members and 35 guests | | Alan in Little Washington , AlexL , Bernhard , Bigdog72 , ChrisMathes , digger , enm , farmerbw , flatheadfisher , FredP , gordonmt , Henry W , JeepDriver , JimmyC , Joe Scharle , jtdums , Kicbak , mgoins , MikeH , newtonc , PeteM , ptt49er , PurpleThumb , RayH , rsitzejr , Splint Eastwood , titan04 , vinson , woodArtz | | Most users ever online was 180, 04-22-2008 at 12:18 AM. |  | | 
06-11-2008, 08:48 AM
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#16 |
Name: Joe City: Holly Springs State: NC County: Wake Join Date: Sep 2005 Age: 65 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 7.00 over 30 days |
Originally Posted by McRabbet  This was the first 'personal computer' I used -- in the early 1960's. It took up most of a room and we wrote our prgrams in FORTRAN. Typical turn around time for fixing a single character error in your program was about an hour. Rob, that thing had almost as much power as my HP calculator! I put one behind a 1440 in Thule Greenland in prep of Apollo 13. (196  |  
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06-11-2008, 09:23 AM
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#17 |
Name: Glenn City: Baskerville State: VA County: Mecklenburg Join Date: Jan 2008 Age: 59 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.30 over 30 days |
Originally Posted by McRabbet This was the first 'personal computer' I used -- in the early 1960's. It took up most of a room and we wrote our prgrams in FORTRAN. Typical turn around time for fixing a single character error in your program was about an hour. Since we have taken a turn down memory lane, my first machine: http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...me_PP1401.html
The other machine I spent hours at was an 029 card punch. A trip to the Smithsonian a few years showed both of these as part of a display on the history of computing. Fortunately former operators are not resigned to museums, they just become woodworkers  Anybody need a bazillion 3" floppys ?
__________________  " I get knocked down but I get up again" - Chumbawamba | |
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06-11-2008, 09:46 AM
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#18 |
Name: Joe City: Holly Springs State: NC County: Wake Join Date: Sep 2005 Age: 65 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 7.00 over 30 days |
Can you say 'ebcdic '? Oh, and don't forget the 'star' reg.
This is fun! | |
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06-11-2008, 09:56 AM
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#19 |
Name: Glenn City: Baskerville State: VA County: Mecklenburg Join Date: Jan 2008 Age: 59 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.30 over 30 days | Originally Posted by Joe Scharle Can you say 'ebcdic '? Oh, and don't forget the 'star' reg.
This is fun! Old joke about the inherent quirkiness of EBCDIC: Professor: So the American government went to IBM to come up with a data encryption standard, and they came up with— Student: EBCDIC! | |
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06-11-2008, 10:07 AM
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#20 | | Site Programmer
Name: Jim Campbell City: Hillsborough State: NC County: Orange Join Date: Feb 2006 Age: 38 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 3.03 over 30 days |
I'm getting misty eyed here.
I dug out my hand drawn map of the motherboard of my first 386.
Back when installing Linux meant numerous trips under the hood and 10+ hour kernel compile time......
Now a days these young whipper snappers get a gooey install screen. Autodetect this!
I've been running slackware since 1993!!
Jeff, I commend you for your actions. For the DIY compting fellow, I find little compares to the "I wonder if I can get linux to run on it" game!
Jim
__________________
"Its not about the destination, its about the joinery!"
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06-11-2008, 10:24 AM
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#21 |
Name: Will Goodwin City: Raleigh State: NC County: Wake Join Date: Jan 2008 Age: 35 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 0.47 over 30 days |
I been gone for a while...busy busy with school work (finishing my degree). I have until March to finish 12 courses. I didn't expect to find this thread when I got back.  ... My first computers were a TRS-80 and a Comodore 64 (loved the logos drawing program and the role playing game where you had to figure out the commands "You see a frog:" "kill frog, talk to frog ... man I am going to smash this thing  "... in school they were using AppleIIc and AppleIIe. Back when everyone who was a apple geek had the multicolored apple sticker in the back window of a volvo station wagon.
I graduated to a Mac classic (couldn't get the disc out  ).
Learned C on that machine and then moved on to Turbo C on a Vax. (I was 16).
My dad worked for Prime computer in Mass, so he was the builder. He taught me all about the innards and I focused on the software. That is what I am trying to do with my degree. Get a piece of paper that tells everyone else I actually know what I'm doing lol. (Even though I been peeking and poking since I was 10 years old).
Will
__________________ Will 
"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." - Henri Cartier Bresson Translation: No pics, didn't happen. | |
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06-11-2008, 10:28 AM
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#22 |
Name: Glenn City: Baskerville State: VA County: Mecklenburg Join Date: Jan 2008 Age: 59 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.30 over 30 days |
Good to "hear" from you again Will, good luck with that course load!! Nice to see someone else who remembers the Tandy dinosaurs 
__________________ " I get knocked down but I get up again" - Chumbawamba | |
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06-11-2008, 10:35 AM
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#23 |
Name: Will Goodwin City: Raleigh State: NC County: Wake Join Date: Jan 2008 Age: 35 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 0.47 over 30 days |
Hey Glenn!
Yah someone mentioned floppy drives. My dad used to scrounge parts from things people threw out at work... he was going to build a computer for us lol. There was a 7 or 8 inch floppy drive still sitting with a monochrome monitor and a keyboard in our basement when I graduated highschool.
Will
__________________ Will
"Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again." - Henri Cartier Bresson Translation: No pics, didn't happen. | |
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06-11-2008, 01:59 PM
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#24 |
Name: Mike Gilley City: Willow Spring State: NC County: Wake Join Date: Nov 2007 Age: 40 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 4.20 over 30 days |
__________________
Regards,
Mike
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WARNING: I may contain more then a trace of nut. -- Stephen Colbert
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06-11-2008, 04:08 PM
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#25 |
Name: jeff... City: Stovall State: NC County: Granville Join Date: Mar 2006 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.77 over 30 days |
The keyboard controllers would always go out on those motherboards - people used to think the keyboard was plug and play I guess. Plug the keyboard in when the computer was on blow the chip. This was before sockets so those chips were soldered to the motherboard - I wished I has a dollar for everyone I replaced. At first I would remove the old chip from the mother board (pita) but later I just solder the new chip to old - worked just as well and could repair in about 10 mins vers an hour.
Oh the days of the 8086 / 8088 / 286 and RAL hard drives 
__________________
"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." -- Jedi Master Yoda | |
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06-11-2008, 05:04 PM
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#26 | | Asst. Webmaster
Name: Bas City: Cary State: NC County: Wake Join Date: Aug 2007 Age: 35 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 7.00 over 30 days |
Originally Posted by jeff... The keyboard controllers would always go out on those motherboards Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue.
__________________
Bas.
I don't need it. I just want it.
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06-11-2008, 07:48 PM
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#27 |
Name: jeff... City: Stovall State: NC County: Granville Join Date: Mar 2006 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.77 over 30 days |
Originally Posted by Bas Error: Keyboard not attached. Press F1 to continue. - Yep smart computer hu? I can't remember the pin numbers... but if you shorted out two of them you could get the computer to boot without the keyboard error - anyways was good trouble shooting technique for a bad keyboard controller. I had a little piece of wire in my tool kit for just that purpose.
How about that LANtastic with RG58 cable, tee connectors and BNC ends with with that funky green terminating resistor. Try integrating SCO Unix into that network, I did a lot of them... Were talking pre token ring and 10BaseT.
__________________
"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." -- Jedi Master Yoda | |
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06-11-2008, 07:55 PM
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#28 | | Administrator
Senior Moderator
Name: Tracy City: Salisbury State: NC County: Rowan Join Date: Feb 2008 Age: 47 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 7.00 over 30 days |
My first was a 286 with a 12 mhz processor and a Turbo button that took it to a 25 mhz. Had a 325 meg hard drive.
__________________ Tracy
Making Friends One Post At A Time
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06-11-2008, 08:08 PM
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#29 |
Name: jeff... City: Stovall State: NC County: Granville Join Date: Mar 2006 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.77 over 30 days |
BTW - I'm really liking this YOPER OS - I especially like it when it boots and says Loadnig YOS (Your Operating System) the guy who put this hacked up distro of Linux for older machines is quickly becoming my hero... and I'm serious when I say it's running fast - he really hacked up the kernel good...
I had to do a little kernel hacking when I installed RH on this 486 but didn't want to go to far - because - I'm not sure what all that stuff in the kernel does.
I would say if you looking to use an older computer to surf the net, run open office and do a little development - Try YOPER I'm liking it, you might too...
__________________
"Do, or do not. There is no 'try'." -- Jedi Master Yoda | |
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06-11-2008, 09:13 PM
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#30 |
Name: dick cunningham City: Apex State: NC County: Chatham Join Date: Jul 2006 Age: 68 Avg Visit Freq/Week
= 6.30 over 30 days |
I started with a comodore 64 way back when, I made a box for it. Anybody want it?
dick
__________________
Hold on tight to your dreams. "ELO"
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