Poll - our oldest members

Greetings and welcome, Goldfynche.

"A child of the 1940's" is as much as I am prepared to disclose.

My first micro computer:

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With its IEEE-488 interface, was a great machine for data logging.

Though, I had previously used a PDP12 (mini, though not my own)

1200px-PDP-12-Update-Uppsala.jpeg


My interest in computers really begins in late 1970's, when along with others of my ilk, I took to scratch building 8 bit machines based upon designs and concepts published by 'Don Lancaster', 'Adam Osborne', and the monthly offerings of circuitry in 'Byte Magazine', esp by Steve Ciarcia. (It was a lot easier before SMD components became the norm.)

I am currently collecting together the needed components (some now expensive/hard to get) to do a re-visiting the past machine build.

The 486 era saw me leaving behind scratch built home-brew machines, when a post-grad course that I did, required participants to have a machine supporting a DOS based O.S. Though I still assemble my own PC's in the usual manner (ie purchase mobo, cpu, memory, case, kb, peripheral ip& op cards etc) I do so because it yields a greater sense of satisfaction. These days, it tends to be much more expensive than buying equivalent 'off-the shelf' model.

I do get greater longevity though, self assembled are more open to further changes being made. So even rather ancient devices now all have USB3, SATA3, eSATA, HDMI, and optical digital audio. Some have seen so much change though, it is like the 'twenty-years-old brush' which has had five new heads, and three new handles!

'Byte magazine', for anyone interested in having a look:

https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine
 
Just an update. I'm now 48. I turn 49 in April (so yes as speculated before - I'm an Aries).

My first PC was a clone AMD 80286 16 MHz system with a 40 MB drive and MS-DOS 4.01. I used the family TRS-80 Color Computer 2 before that, but just with Program Pak games.
 
Happy upcoming 49th birthday, Jody! I'm not much of a fan when it comes to astrology, but for what it's worth I am a Libra (October 6). I can't recall if it was a 486 or Pentium, but I do remember that my very first PC ran Windows 3.11 (we [or should I say, my dad] later upgraded it to 95--it wasn't cheap, but it was a big step up compared to what it shipped with!) It was a Packard Bell Multimedia machine with a CD-ROM drive and 16MB of RAM, but I can't recall many more details beyond that. Tons of fun and learning to be had back in that era!
 
cmccaff1 said:
Tons of fun and learning to be had back in that era!
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TBH (and I've been messing around with these here boxes of black magic since the very late 70's/early 80's), I doubt that statement has really lost its relevance for those of us who enjoy this kinda stuff.

And if I'm brutally honest, I've had as much fun (if not more) this last 4-5 years with Puppy Linux than I had for the whole of the previous quarter of a century using various versions of Windows. I'm lucky in that I no longer need to use any of the M$ 'standards' for work or anything like that; being semi-retired, and a full-time carer to boot, I have plenty of spare time to myself. Pup is very much a hobbyist's OS.....and nowadays, everything I do is for my own enjoyment.

Can't beat it....!


Mike. ;)
 
I hear you! There was just something very special about the 3.11/9x era as far as the kinds of programs that were released...the creativity back then was mind-boggling, and some of the apps of that time are still usable even today for practical purposes and entertainment too! There are still some very fun programs/games, but the aesthetic and times have changed quite a bit. The 90s software had a certain 'timelessness' to it.
 
Not only that, but the 80s/90s were very inspiring, as far as the hardware itself was concerned. Sure, they all had the same bits inside them, but companies did at least make some effort to distinguish their products from their competitors. OK, perhaps there wasn't much in the way of compatibility at that point in time, but stuff looked different, and there were some very novel designs around. Nowadays, everything is marked by its 'sameness'; the pinnacle of good design, apparently, is to be indistinguishable from the crowd.....

Probably why I've always liked quirky stuff like the Sinclairs, and Amigas.


Mike. ;)
 
I don't blame you one bit. The 80s/90s was a golden age for technology in just about every way imaginable.

When the 21st century hit, many things started to change, and in most ways not for the better.
 
OK, let's play along: I'm 74, was 5 months when Hiroshima was bombed.
The first computer I've played with was an IBM7044, the size of a small supermarket, 36-bit word, 32Kbyte ferrite-core memory - laugh as loud as you wish, then it was regarded as huge :D.
The first computer I owned was a self-contrived TTL monstrosity, still core memory, the size of a big fridge, that in spite of all wasn't all that bad at calculating, playing 'life' and word processing - if only it had had something less primitive than a clattering teletype as the only I/O peripheral. I still have one of its self-crocheted memory blocks collecting dust on my library.
Good old days...
 
Mike_Walsh said:
Not only that, but the 80s/90s were very inspiring, as far as the hardware itself was concerned. Sure, they all had the same bits inside them, but companies did at least make some effort to distinguish their products from their competitors. OK, perhaps there wasn't much in the way of compatibility at that point in time, but stuff looked different, and there were some very novel designs around. Nowadays, everything is marked by its 'sameness'; the pinnacle of good design, apparently, is to be indistinguishable from the crowd.....

Probably why I've always liked quirky stuff like the Sinclairs, and Amigas.


Mike. ;)
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You can say that aloud!
In those years the research was boiling wildly, not just simmering like today. Every couple of months a new promising technology popped up, granted you just time enough to learn how it worked and then usually vanished like water on the sand, swallowed by something better - I'm thinking of the "ovonic" (polycrystalline non-volatile memories), the magnetic bubble gizmos, the fluidics...
And most of the brand new devices you'd never be rich enough to afford, after a couple of months became available at a fistful of $ - I still remember a 1024x1024 pixel CCD offered as a joke at $1,000, that one year later you could buy by the dozen at $24.99 each, VAT included :).

Then shortly before the turn of the millennium the boiling began slowly to subside until things settled down and got standardized much like the shape of the cars - to the point that today to tell a PC from a Mac (or an Opel from a Honda) you have to put on your glasses and read the brand... :rolleyes:
 
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