Off topic, just have to vent!

[Bruce Noblick]

Just for grins, let's laugh about my first computer.  It was a heathkit
h/z89/90 with a single sided floppy and HDOS operating system.  I got CP/M
for it, a couple of double sided floppy disk drives and a memory board with
a meg of memory.  I put nearly $2,000 into that little machine and used it
for about 10 years and wrote my own speech program for it in CP/M.  It was
nothing to brag about but it was fun to play with.  Oh yes, I also used a
type-n-talk speech synthesizer and liked it.

The first hard drive I heard of was an 8 meg drive and I thought that was
great because it would hold about 10 to 20 or even 40 of the floppies.  We
even looked seriously at 8 inch floppy drives though I only used one of
those at work.

I wonder if the ancients talked like this about different types of wheels?

Enjoy!
Bruce

----- Original Message -----
From: "Alex Snow" <alex_snow at gmx.net>
To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 7:13 PM
Subject: Re: Off topic, just have to vent!


> Well, I learned to type on an apple 2e with 2 disk2 floppy drives and
> talking typer from APH with one of those echo synths. Hated it! Used to
make
> it crash and make the teacher come over and fix it for me even though I
new
> how.   Sources tell me that it's still in the "Computer Lab".
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Gregory Nowak" <gnowak1 at uic.edu>
> To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 6:36 PM
> Subject: Re: Off topic, just have to vent!
>
>
> > Ah well now, my first machine was a 286 IBM ps/2 2011-c34 with 1 mb of
RAM
> and a 30 mb hd. I still have it too, though you can't do much with DOS and
> such a small amount of resources. It's in good condition too, I just need
to
> get hold of a floppy drive to replace the original.
> >
> > Well, that's all from me about my first machine.
> > Greg
> >
> >
> > On Thu, Apr 11, 2002 at 04:44:30PM -0400, Alex Snow wrote:
> > > The slowest notebook I have now is a toshiba 75 mhz with 800 megs of
> hdd.
> > > I'm thinking of putting linux on it.  Toshibas are good machines.  My
> first
> > > computer was a 386/8 mhz with 80 mb disk.
> > > ----- Original Message -----
> > > From: "Toby Fisher" <toby_fisher at bigfoot.com>
> > > To: <speakup at braille.uwo.ca>
> > > Sent: Thursday, April 11, 2002 5:31 AM
> > > Subject: Re: Off topic, just have to vent!
> > >
> > >
> > > > On Wed, 10 Apr 2002, Alex Snow wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Can anyone tell me if this deal on a 486 notebook really sux? I
> think
> > > > > it does. Found it on pricewatch.com: (Not New) REFURBISHED -
4400C,
> > > > > 1Year Labor/90days Parts Ltd. Warranty 486/25,8MB/200MB Hard
Drive,
> > > > > 1.44 Floppy, Active Color,Serial/Parallel ports no adapter
included
> > > > > (Part - T4400C ) $ 89 I mean, what are you supposed to do with
that?
> > > > > Linux will barely run on it.  If someone offered me one for free,
> I'd
> > > > > take it. but not for $89.
> > > >
> > > > Hmmm, probably the biggest problem there is the hdd, and you'll
> probably
> > > > find that most of that $89 is for the lcd display.  Still, it'll
> handle
> > > > Linux ok, but your bigbgest problem would probably be the lack of a
> cdrom
> > > > drive, though I do believe that the Slakware A disk series will
still
> go
> > > > onto floppies, which is the minimum neededc to get get system up, so
> you
> > > > can install over the net or whatever.  Wouldn't go for it personally
> > > > though, as I have a 486 notebook with higher spec.
> > > >
> > > > HTH
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Toby Fisher Email: toby at g0ucu.freeserve.co.uk
> > > > Tel.: +44(0)1480 417272 Mobile: +44(0)7974 363239
> > > > ICQ: #61744808
> > > >    Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
> > > >    See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
> > > >
> > > >
> > > >
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> > > >
> > >
> > >
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> >
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> >
>
>
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