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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:01:31 PM EDT
[#1]
I started in the early 90s. My dad ran a BBS and I was on it. I would have been 12 in 1993. I actually still have his US Robotics 16.8 Dual Standard modem still. It's one of those old big ass long flat types. He still has a bunch of useless old (and probably inoperable) computer junk from the 80s and shit in storage. I highly doubt any of it is any good anymore after being in storage in the Phoenix, AZ heat for years.
 It's not like he'll ever hook any of it up and use it ever again.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:02:36 PM EDT
[#2]
TL;DW
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:04:41 PM EDT
[#3]
My first computer experience was playing Lunar Lander on a mainframe as a kid in my uncle's engineering lab at the University of Illinois in 1975.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:06:38 PM EDT
[#4]
I wrote programs on punch cards.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:07:32 PM EDT
[#5]
Still have mine... And it still works.
Wow... That was weird... Photobucket linking to different pics Trying again 
But this was later... So I guess I am a looser. 
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:07:38 PM EDT
[#6]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
My first computer experience was playing Lunar Lander on a mainframe as a kid in my uncle's engineering lab at the University of Illinois in 1975. I am with ya. Space Wars on a PDP 8 in 73 was my first experience. It had a Tektronix color printer attached. Research Triangle NC. BTW, I was a big TRS-80 M1 guy. Still have my first mainstream computer. and it works. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:08:46 PM EDT
[#7]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards. I didn't write code on punch cards till the mid 80's. FORTRAN. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:10:55 PM EDT
[#8]
My mom programmed banking computers with punch cards in the late 60s. I got my first home PC in 79.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:15:14 PM EDT
[#9]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards. 
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:24:45 PM EDT
[#10]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
So did I.
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards.
Me too. When I did my masters thesis I was the first one on campus to write a thesis on a word processor (main frame) and printed via computer as opposed to a typewriter. The math dept had a fancy daisy wheel printer that met the print quality requirements and let me print my thesis on it. My first computer was an IBM PC with no hard drive and a single floppy disk - may have been a double sided, double density I think. I still remember upgrading it to a 20 MB hard drive and a second floppy. Woot woot! |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:26:52 PM EDT
[#11]
PET 6502 qualifies. I will allow 77. (This is all in fun guys, no pissing matches)
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:28:06 PM EDT
[#12]
I wasnt even born until '83.
Forever a noob. :-( Posted Via AR15.Com Mobile |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:28:50 PM EDT
[#13]
Guess I'm a newb.
But I knew a few DOS commands before I could actually read and write... |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:29:27 PM EDT
[#14]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Me too. When I did my masters thesis I was the first one on campus to write a thesis on a word processor (main frame) and printed via computer as opposed to a typewriter. The math dept had a fancy daisy wheel printer that met the print quality requirements and let me print my thesis on it. My first computer was an IBM PC with no hard drive and a single floppy disk - may have been a double sided, double density I think. I still remember upgrading it to a 20 MB hard drive and a second floppy. Woot woot! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards.
Me too. When I did my masters thesis I was the first one on campus to write a thesis on a word processor (main frame) and printed via computer as opposed to a typewriter. The math dept had a fancy daisy wheel printer that met the print quality requirements and let me print my thesis on it. My first computer was an IBM PC with no hard drive and a single floppy disk - may have been a double sided, double density I think. I still remember upgrading it to a 20 MB hard drive and a second floppy. Woot woot! 20MB hard drive was chick bait. (Contrary to archeological reports, there were chicks that were into computers) I married one, an ATARI freak. Don't judge. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:32:08 PM EDT
[#15]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Me too. When I did my masters thesis I was the first one on campus to write a thesis on a word processor (main frame) and printed via computer as opposed to a typewriter. The math dept had a fancy daisy wheel printer that met the print quality requirements and let me print my thesis on it. My first computer was an IBM PC with no hard drive and a single floppy disk - may have been a double sided, double density I think. I still remember upgrading it to a 20 MB hard drive and a second floppy. Woot woot! Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards.
Me too. When I did my masters thesis I was the first one on campus to write a thesis on a word processor (main frame) and printed via computer as opposed to a typewriter. The math dept had a fancy daisy wheel printer that met the print quality requirements and let me print my thesis on it. My first computer was an IBM PC with no hard drive and a single floppy disk - may have been a double sided, double density I think. I still remember upgrading it to a 20 MB hard drive and a second floppy. Woot woot! punch cards and paper tape, until I was given my very own RT-11 boot disk, then I did all my development using TECO on a PDP-11. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:35:09 PM EDT
[#16]
I had a heathkit pc I don't remember if 70's or very early 80's
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:39:36 PM EDT
[#17]
Built Z-80 based machine in early 70's.
2K x 8 of memory - etched board and drilled every hole and soldered each mem chip. Good news is could use power supply as a welder if needed! |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:48:43 PM EDT
[#18]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
20MB hard drive was chick bait. (Contrary to archeological reports, there were chicks that were into computers) I married one, an ATARI freak. Don't judge. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
Quoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards.
Me too. When I did my masters thesis I was the first one on campus to write a thesis on a word processor (main frame) and printed via computer as opposed to a typewriter. The math dept had a fancy daisy wheel printer that met the print quality requirements and let me print my thesis on it. My first computer was an IBM PC with no hard drive and a single floppy disk - may have been a double sided, double density I think. I still remember upgrading it to a 20 MB hard drive and a second floppy. Woot woot! 20MB hard drive was chick bait. (Contrary to archeological reports, there were chicks that were into computers) I married one, an ATARI freak. Don't judge. Pics of "ATARI freak" wife. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:51:13 PM EDT
[#19]
Then I'm a newb. My first machine was a C-64, but honestly I never got the hang of it. The first one I picked up on was an 8086 running MSDOS 3.3.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:53:33 PM EDT
[#20]
Before 1975
Use front panel switches Octal switches for address - enter then Octal switches for data - enter Repeat until bootstrap complete Press Run - enables paper tape reader Read paper tape - enables Diablo disk drive Diablo disk drive enables terminal Using boot disk - enter data using terminal replace boot disk with data disk Run program Replace disks as necessary |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 4:53:47 PM EDT
[#21]
I can remember walking out of American Computer Traders ( now sadly closed
 ) in mid 1992 with my first ever hard drive.
As I rushed out of the store with my first ever hard drive, it felt like the clouds opened up and angels were singing. I had a Used ( 1 Year Warranty! ) 40MB hard drive that was just about the size of a firebrick. The whole way home where my Tandy PC was already open and awaiting the insertion, I couldn't believe I was able to get a 40MB HD for only $400 out the door. And OMGWTFBBQ FORTY MB I will NEVER be able to use all that space! |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:00:44 PM EDT
[#22]
MS-DOS my ass CPM rules |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:03:17 PM EDT
[#23]
Quoted:
If you are interested in how this all began, watch this. For context, I had to build my first machine, an Altair. (sigh, the memories.) BBS Documentary - The BBS and Personal computer fuse being lit. After making a career of telecom, then remote instrumentation and web development, I look back via this documentary and see the exact moment where I made my decision to be a computer scientist and engineer. What a stroll through time, a time I thought lost. A time rolled up in my personality and career. Enjoy. kinda sucks that you spent most of your life without any real technology. imagine a galaxy note 3 in 1975. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:04:26 PM EDT
[#24]
If your name isn't Ada Lovelace, you are a newb.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:08:18 PM EDT
[#25]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Still have mine... And it still works. Wow... That was weird... Photobucket linking to different pics Trying again http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/pet/IMG_0031.jpg But this was later... So I guess I am a looser. http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/pet/IMG_0036.jpg http://i37.photobucket.com/albums/e72/jfg_4/misc/computers/pet/IMG_0033.jpg Yep, I remember those except my first computer was the Trash-80 (TrS-80.) From there I went with Apple's but did early work on VAX systems. Who remembers Gates talking about no one would ever need more than 4MB of RAM. Good times, good times. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:09:28 PM EDT
[#26]
VIC-20 N00b checking in. I wrote tighter code in that big 3.5k than I do now. :)
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:10:44 PM EDT
[#27]
Is there anything worse than someone picking up the phone and killing the connection right as a long download is about to finish?
 I would occasionally set up BBS software for some friends to connect to. Really would have been nice to have a second phone line though... I think the last time I managed to connect to a BBS with a slow modem must have been around 2003. I had pulled out my old 300 baud modem and found a BBS that was being run off a 2400 baud modem that would slow down enough to talk to a 300, and the computer that was hosting the BBS was something really silly like a TI-99 or something like that. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:11:56 PM EDT
[#28]
I remember playing Wumpus on a PDP-8(?).
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:12:34 PM EDT
[#29]
My first professional job was as a tech for Mohawk Data Science....who built the data-recorder. The first key to tape machine. Huge stuff.
MDS 6400 The 6400 was TTL...transistor to transistor logic, pre IC. Quite challenging to run out a logic problem with an oscilloscope and change out the offending component. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:15:30 PM EDT
[#30]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
VIC-20 N00b checking in. I wrote tighter code in that big 3.5k than I do now. :) Vic-20 here, too. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:20:20 PM EDT
[#31]
Newbie here. Didn't get started until the ripe old age of 6 in 1979 when I started learning how to write code in BASIC on a TI-99/4. Upgraded to a TI-99/4a by the age of 9 and wrote my first graphical game with sound and joystick controls. Now I'm just a lowly IT Infrastructure Architect.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 5:21:14 PM EDT
[#32]
Best friend(and next door neighbor)'s dad worked for Tektronix. I remember picking horses for a horseracing game that would print out on fanfold paper. They also eventually got a Pong game that we played on a black and white TV.
ETA: It was a Decwriter, iirc. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 6:59:50 PM EDT
[#33]
I wasn't even alive
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:25:47 PM EDT
[#34]
Very interesting videos. That brought back some fond memories of pre-internet social media.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:28:33 PM EDT
[#35]
N00BS - PREPARE TO FEEL MY WRATH....
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:32:01 PM EDT
[#36]
Was working in the garage with my dad when I was home on leave, and he pulled out a box of punchcards and expounded on the advantages of punchcards over magnetic tape. Even could still read the cards. He did pretty well for himself in telecom, and the database wars.
Quoted: If you are interested in how this all began, watch this. For context, I had to build my first machine, an Altair. (sigh, the memories.) BBS Documentary - The BBS and Personal computer fuse being lit. After making a career of telecom, then remote instrumentation and web development, I look back via this documentary and see the exact moment where I made my decision to be a computer scientist and engineer. What a stroll through time, a time I thought lost. A time rolled up in my personality and career. Enjoy. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:38:58 PM EDT
[#37]
Lots of "you don't know shit" "shut up noob" 'puter angst going around these days.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:41:57 PM EDT
[#38]
Quoted:
If you are interested in how this all began, watch this. For context, I had to build my first machine, an Altair. (sigh, the memories.) BBS Documentary - The BBS and Personal computer fuse being lit. After making a career of telecom, then remote instrumentation and web development, I look back via this documentary and see the exact moment where I made my decision to be a computer scientist and engineer. What a stroll through time, a time I thought lost. A time rolled up in my personality and career. Enjoy. My BBS is still listed here, and at least one other place which I won't link because it also has my personal email address, which will turn 20 years old this year. 
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:54:08 PM EDT
[#39]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
Lots of "you don't know shit" "shut up noob" 'puter angst going around these days. 20 years ago this type of knowledge was something special... now it is more than commonplace. Think of the kids of today buried in their iPhones.... their parents had far less exposure at the same age. It's "in my day" talk of technogeeks. I will always have a special place in my heart for these folks... seriously. Many of their generation treated (treats?) computers as some sort of necessary evil, the silicon satan that their kids told them they should have. Not the older generation of technogeeks... they embraced and learned this technology before it was cool. My hat goes off to you, ladies and gentlemen. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:57:41 PM EDT
[#40]
A bit dated now, but fascinating nonetheless.
 |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 7:59:41 PM EDT
[#41]
Quote HistoryQuoted: PET 6502 qualifies. I will allow 77. (This is all in fun guys, no pissing matches) Oh man, 6502. The first assembler I ever wrote was for 6502, stupid 12 addressing modes were the death of me. The PET and the Apple ][ both used it as I recall. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 8:03:12 PM EDT
[#42]
My first computer. That would have been about 1979 or so.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 8:04:59 PM EDT
[#43]
Quoted:
If you are interested in how this all began, watch this. For context, I had to build my first machine, an Altair. (sigh, the memories.) BBS Documentary - The BBS and Personal computer fuse being lit. After making a career of telecom, then remote instrumentation and web development, I look back via this documentary and see the exact moment where I made my decision to be a computer scientist and engineer. What a stroll through time, a time I thought lost. A time rolled up in my personality and career. Enjoy. Altair was late in the game. Real geeks were soldering their Southwest Tech's together at that time. I was pushing cars around at my dads feet, but we were running lego cars with it a few years later. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 8:06:22 PM EDT
[#44]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
20 years ago this type of knowledge was something special... now it is more than commonplace. Think of the kids of today buried in their iPhones.... their parents had far less exposure at the same age. It's "in my day" talk of technogeeks. I will always have a special place in my heart for these folks... seriously. Many of their generation treated (treats?) computers as some sort of necessary evil, the silicon satan that their kids told them they should have. Not the older generation of technogeeks... they embraced and learned this technology before it was cool. My hat goes off to you, ladies and gentlemen. Quote HistoryQuoted:
Quoted:
Lots of "you don't know shit" "shut up noob" 'puter angst going around these days. 20 years ago this type of knowledge was something special... now it is more than commonplace. Think of the kids of today buried in their iPhones.... their parents had far less exposure at the same age. It's "in my day" talk of technogeeks. I will always have a special place in my heart for these folks... seriously. Many of their generation treated (treats?) computers as some sort of necessary evil, the silicon satan that their kids told them they should have. Not the older generation of technogeeks... they embraced and learned this technology before it was cool. My hat goes off to you, ladies and gentlemen. I really dig the old school "in the beginning" stories of the 60's,70's and 80's and have been actively seeking out vids on the subject over the last year. One of my favorites. http://video.pbs.org/video/2332168287/ |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 8:06:57 PM EDT
[#45]
First computer in 1983, then on to the C-64 and 128. Wanted an Amiga but never got one..
Payed 10 cents per minute to be online dialing long distance from Alaska to Washington and connecting to Q-Link and many BBS's - Used to start a 512K download on my ultra fast 400 baud modem, then go to the store buy something to cook for dinner, sometimes the DL was done when I got back - sometimes not.Took COBOL and went on from there and have been involved in IT in some form since 1986. It was, and is, fun. Just for kicks- The average historical price of ram: http://www.statisticbrain.com/average-historic-price-of-ram/
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Posted: 4/18/2014 8:57:00 PM EDT
[#46]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
If your name isn't Ada Lovelace, you are a newb. Well played, Fiver, well played |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 9:25:57 PM EDT
[#47]
while not into it as early as some I remember my moms kaypro II and attempting to programming on a TI-99 or a clone only to run out of memory. It was great to go to school and work on a apple II.
speed |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 9:30:15 PM EDT
[#48]
plz don't nop-sled my buffers.
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Posted: 4/18/2014 10:03:16 PM EDT
[#49]
Quote HistoryQuoted:
I wrote programs on punch cards. I am a member of the club joined in 1962. |
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Posted: 4/18/2014 10:25:30 PM EDT
[#50]
First programming class I took we had to do one project on punch cards. That would have been after 6th grade in 1980 or thereabouts.
Never again. |
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