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Posted: **Fri Oct 14, 2016 9:35 pm**

For those that remember them and those who are interested. Found this site with some great pics.

[url]http://www.techrepublic.com/pictures/the-antique-computers-that-just-wont-quit/
[/url]

I started in the computer game back in the punched cards days. My Collage got its first PDP11 the year I finished and my first computer job was on a Fujitisu IBM360 clone, cutting code in COBOL (Some of my programs are still in use I believe). I even built my first PC from a kit (I paid extra and got 16Kb memory - Code had to be tight then).

The first hard drive for a PC was a whopping 10Mb and sold for $15,000 !!!!

Like I said, for those interested, I hope you enjoy.

Posted: **Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:22 pm**

Ever heard of the old Systron Donner Series 80 ? I had serial number #168 at one time.
http://www.glennsmuseum.com/analog/analog.html

Posted: **Fri Oct 14, 2016 10:35 pm**

I started with computers when the largest was a 20mb drive and it was a 14" platter drive. I worked as an electronic tect, repairing hard drives and boards. But my favorite thing was when I used to reverse engineer equipment and build them for cheaper then the boss could buy them for... To me, electronics were puzzles and I wanted to know how they worked.

Posted: **Tue Oct 18, 2016 4:16 pm**

I enrolled in a college computer class in 1973. I reserved time on a key punch machine, typed a couple of hundred cards, took them to the main frame in the library basement and went back in 2 days to retrieve my masterpiece! My punched cards were wrapped up in a print-out that basically said "you idiot, you messed up card #4 and we didn't print the rest because it was useless to do so." So, I reserved time on the punch machine, retyped my cards and the new assignment from the second class. Two days later, picked up my work......... there really is no reason to repeat the third sentence in this rant. I gave it one more try, then went and dropped the class. You people that started computing in the last 20 years don't know just how easy you have it!

Posted: **Tue Oct 18, 2016 4:41 pm**

I remember being round my cousin's house and playing on their Vic-20. It was the highlight of my week until I got a C64, i think it was my 8th birthday. F-15 Strike Eagle. Wow.

I heard the other day that the Vic-20 actually had a slightly higher processor clock speed than the C64. :-o

I hate to be pedantic, but an item usually has to be over 100 years of age for it to be considered "antique". :smile:

One of my first jobs after university was as a COBOL developer! They still develop new products using it today, lol. They pre-compile the code into C++, then compile that again to run on Windows.

Posted: **Wed Oct 19, 2016 5:32 am**

Mastersmith. I still have a box of punched cards, with the cross drawn on top, in my shed.

Totally agree that people coming into the business in the last 20 years have it much easier but having to learn assembler and hard code relational databases did give one a good grounding in the fundamentals.

huxleypig wrote:I hate to be pedantic, but an item usually has to be over 100 years of age for it to be considered "antique".

and Hux, we all know that "computer time" runs much faster than terrestrial time.

Posted: **Wed Oct 19, 2016 12:04 pm**

mastersmith wrote:I enrolled in a college computer class in 1973. I reserved time on a key punch machine, typed a couple of hundred cards, took them to the main frame in the library basement and went back in 2 days to retrieve my masterpiece! My punched cards were wrapped up in a print-out that basically said "you idiot, you messed up card #4 and we didn't print the rest because it was useless to do so." So, I reserved time on the punch machine, retyped my cards and the new assignment from the second class. Two days later, picked up my work......... there really is no reason to repeat the third sentence in this rant. I gave it one more try, then went and dropped the class. You people that started computing in the last 20 years don't know just how easy you have it!

Pfft. Try designing ASICs sometime. Then you are talking several months and a couple hundred grand for any little fix. You oldsters had it easy - there weren't even any ASICs or microprocessors back then. You could fix a flaw in the hardware simply by rewiring it and updating the schematics.

huxleypig wrote:I heard the other day that the Vic-20 actually had a slightly higher processor clock speed than the C64.

The key to the success of the C64 was largely the graphics chip, VIC-II, and probably to some extent the SID with its wonderful sound.
Various 6502 derivatives were already in widespread use with few, if any, other systems based on them being anything comparable in popularity.

.:: Keypicking :: Anything And Everything For Locksmiths, Hobbyist Lock Pickers, Locksport, Lock Picking, lockpicks, cutaways and Security. Simply The Best Lockpicking Forum Around!

Antique computers.

Antique computers.

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