Posted: 4/13/2008 4:55:59 AM EDT
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I can. The '60s and '70s thread got me thinking about some of the things we take for granted these days. I can remember when this stuff was new and exciting. The first TI calculator. The TI-2500.  LED watches. ALL the cool kids had an LED watch.   Computer geeks:     What the serious computer pros were using in '89.  Of course I left out the Apple series, the Commodores, and others. |
Born in 1958, so yes. I got my first TI calculator in High School. I think my parents paid $200 for it (a lot of money back then). Nowadays, you can get one with MORE capability free, inside a cereal box.  ETA: What about the smell of freshly-mimeographed History quizzes? |
lol, I was born in 1985. You are as old as my dad. 
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Thats not exactly true... Kids today are required to purchase a TI graphing calc, they cost round about $200 Something like this here. While thats a whole different ballgame in calculators, $200 is still $200. |
I rember the stuff in the OP and I also learned to type on one of those IBM's. (sigh) |
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THe bad part is that the things that are so cutting edge these days (the Iphone, for example) will look just as dead and dated in five years as the TRS-80 does to us now. My TRS-80 was connected to a TV as a screen and a tape recorder to save documents. Man, was I hot shit. |
And you are as young as my son. Get a haircut!!
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No, inflation hasn't gotten that bad, yet. data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl |
$200 in 1974 dollars is/was a lot more than $200 in 2008 dollars. Spending $200 in 1974 was like spending $973 today. Inflation Converter And the calculator back then didn't do as much. |
I had one of these when it was brand new: Had all the performance upgrades available as they came out: 4MHz processor, 3-colour screen, 640K RAM (remember, 64K was considered shit-hot at the time), 10Mb hard disk (when most people only had 2x 128K floppy drivers). You don't even want to know how many thousands that cost..... |
I still have one.  I vaguely remember the TR calculator, I have no recollection of the early home computers. I don't think they existed in my hometown. I did however have a push button LED watch. 
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List of worlds worst investment items. |
I paid $10,000 for two 5meg Intel Above memory boards. That gave a monstrous 12 megs memory total for that 286-12 server !! Also ran 4 300 meg CDC Wren drives off a SCSI controller giving massive storage. Now before you guys laugh, the software was much tighter and that 286-12 server handled about 50 work stations. 5sub. |
This is what I started on. My Dad gave it to me several years ago after he "rediscovered' it in his basement. I'm holding onto it as a collector's item. and the stats for this antiquated beauty: Apple III Introduced: May 1980 Released: Spring 1981 Price: US $3495 w/128K RAM US $3815 with monitor How many? 65,000 TOTAL (four year) CPU: Synertek 6502A, 2.0 MHz RAM: 128K, 512K max. Display: Color composite video 16 colors at 280 X 192. 16 shades at 560 X 192 Ports: Two serial ports External floppy port Expansion: Four internal slots Storage: Internal 143k 5-1/4 inch floppy External floppy drive OS: Apple SOS (Sophisticated OS) |
+1 I have one of the first Ipods that came out and I'm almost embarrassed by it's monochrome screen. |
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LOL we got the Tandy5000 for Christmas in 89 or 90. God was I the envy of the neighborhood kids. I used to stay up all night playing Sid Miers Civilization. I first learned about computers on one of the 2 state of the art Apple IIEs our school had. Played much Oregon Trail on those. |
 ti-401 FTW i even wear it on occasion  but the real players had an accutron |
Damp paper with purple ink...  showin my damn age dammit.
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