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1st touch on a Computer

oldMohawk

oldMohawk

gone but not forgotten
We all use computers and I thought about the first one I ever touched at work in (history bit) 1979. It was a Commodore Pet with a programing language called Basic. We had it to do quotes and other calcs, but for a week or more we could not stop playing with it and very little real work was done, we even stayed late to play with it. We found out everything we could about a Secretary in the Buying Office, loaded it in the computer, and told her it could read her palm, know all about her and tell her future, if she placed her hand on the keyboard. She couldn't resist, and was amazed to see 'Hello Betty' appear on screen and it knew all about her. She was astounded and wanted all the Office Girls to try it, but it only had 32K of memory so we had to say she was special and it only knew about her. When it put a message on screen saying it was in love with her, she guessed what we had done and our nice little Pet nearly got smashed. We took a photo of it doing some 'real work'.
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1965 was the first time I touched a Honeywell Computer. And we thought it was fun to print out Eskimo Nell.

Ann
 
I think about 1985 at work we changed from using CNC lathes to proper PCs ( lowly 285 chips ) to control new machinery. Could not do it now, how quickly one foregets
 
Hi, Jean,
I wouldn't laugh, you seem to have learnt a lot in those 3 yrs, you use more features on the forum than I do. I bought my wife a wireless Laptop 3 years ago but she hardly used it. Lately though she's taken a like to my Desktop - big screen etc, and I have to use 'her' Laptop, but it keeps my legs warm !
oldmohawk :)
 
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Old mowhawk have only been on the internet for 13 months after getting nagged by Patty to do so but glad I did. Before then I was blooming good at games. Jean.
 
Bought my first computor from Curry,s Solihull 1980 it was an atari,to load up you had to type the command cload the bundle came to around £700 sold it 12 months later becausr i thought they would never catch on,how wrong can you be?Any body else got things wrong?
 
jag said:
Bought my first computor from Curry,s Solihull 1980 it Any body else got things wrong?
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Yeah .The Sony Beta Max video recorder. Better than VHS but to late on the market. Anything with Phillips name on it. Love the designs but they all give me heartache.:cry:

My mrs gave me her old laptop to keep my legs warm in the lounge. It was said I spent to much time in the spare bed room with my own computer.
 
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I bought my 1st home computer from Boots the Chemist in 1984. It was a Commodore Vic 20, it's still in the loft - probably could go on the Antiques Road Show in a few years time. Those Atari's were good in their day. I wanted one but my wife didn't ! Jean I've only had Broadband 9 months, only ever tried buying one thing - my TV licence - told my wife to watch it come out the printer as advertised on BBC. Guess what, it didn't - it came by post !
 
B.A.S.I.C.

Now there's a blast from the past!! :P

Beginners All purpose Standard Instruction Code - if I remember right!
 
bigmal said:
B.A.S.I.C.

Now there's a blast from the past!!
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Yes good old Commodore Basic V2 and only 3k ram on a Vic. On my previous PC, I downloaded a Commodore64 emulator complete with basic. Ran a game called Boulderdash which I use to play on the C64. Wonder if it's still around ?
:)
 
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I had the one of the first on the market, Clive Sinclair's ZX81 with all of 1k of memory. I later bought the 16k expansion pack. After graduating through all the computer technology of the ensuing years all 29 of them and acquiring new machines as I went, I still know as much about them now as I did back then with my ZX81.

Phil
 
My 1st computer was a laptop in 1990 and cost my old company UB about £7k. It was japanese Toshiba 4 GB of course and when I first took it with me on my 1st morning I put it on the roof of my company car!!
Yes you guessed it, I put my brief case in the car as normal and drove off.
I came to the 1st corner and my 1st laptop came of the roof for the 1st and only time. Yes it was brown bread on its 1st outing!! and yes it was a company 1st!!
 
pmc1947 said:
I had the one of the first on the market, Clive Sinclair's ZX81 with all of 1k of memory. I later bought the 16k expansion pack. After graduating through all the computer technology of the ensuing years all 29 of them and acquiring new machines as I went, I still know as much about them now as I did back then with my ZX81.

Phil
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I cut my (computing) teeth on a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 16K in the early 80's. I proudly bought and fitted the chips to upgrade it to 48K!!!!!! wow!!
 
Tried my hand on computer about 4 yrs. - an old one of my son's but I couldn't handle the mouse - still learning. I am afraid I don't understand a lot of the 'speech' that is used so get in a mess.

Jean - people used to call my mother Aunt Nell - although her name was Ellen. don't think we are connected!!!!! Miriam.:D
 
1965

ICT (later ICL) 1902 mainframe. Trainee programmer and operator.
It had 16K (yes K!) of core store. RAM was a later invention.
And 4 reel-to-reel magnetic tapes (like you always see in films).
Input was 5-track paper tape for data and 8-track for programs.
No high-level languages then (like BASIC, COBOL, C) - just an assembler called PLAN. I can still remember most of the instruction set.

And I'm still programming a bit in retirement, just for amusement.

[end of bore, sorry]

Stan
 
ZX 81 (adverts said it could run a power station), ZX Spectrum, remember the screech and red and blue lines when loading programs, an ICT1902 just like in films, and a flying Laptop! :)
Whilst posting earlier, back to reality when my son phoned and said a Trojan in his laptop was corrupting his Services.exe file and he was wary of entering passwords etc. Every time he reinstalls the file, the Trojan alters it. He uses the laptop for business and all the usual virus checkers etc can't sort it at present. Looks like the hassle of a possible Windows reinstall.:(
 
hi.my first was a vic 20,then i bought a xt 8086 with a ega screen 3 colours .
running dos 5 and windows 3.around 96 i bought a 286 from tandy in ward end.that is still working.a massive 20meg hard disk was fitted as a extra lol.:D:D
.
 
I started with an Acorn Electron and graduated to a BBC B with twin
5 1/4 " disc drives. At work was using an Olivetti M20 with twin drives.
This was aqbout 1977
 
I first touched a computor on January 30th 2009, my daughter said i was getting depressed after the death of my wife and needed something to keep my brain occupied so she bought me a Packard Bell desktop.I am like a kid with a new toy.Bernard67
Arnold.One of neighbours is a retired IT tutor, handy eh!
 
el-stano said:
1965

ICT (later ICL) 1902 mainframe. Trainee programmer and operator.
It had 16K (yes K!) of core store. RAM was a later invention.
And 4 reel-to-reel magnetic tapes (like you always see in films).
Input was 5-track paper tape for data and 8-track for programs.
No high-level languages then (like BASIC, COBOL, C) - just an assembler called PLAN. I can still remember most of the instruction set.

And I'm still programming a bit in retirement, just for amusement.

[end of bore, sorry]

Stan
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Hi el-stano, my brother worked as a field engineer for ICL so was likely your paths may have crossed one time or another.

Like others, I was introduced to computers via the ZX81, which I bought for my kid for £40 from WH Smiths in West Bromwich. It caused more tears than happiness when the program they'd spent hours writing wouldn't work just because a comma or a full stop had been missed somewhere. It was then left to me to sort it. :cry:

Our next venture was a Tandy 1100FD laptop for my youngest daughter to take to university in 1991. Including the matrix printer it cost over £800. With no HDD it relied on 3.5" floppies for input and storage.

My introduction to the Internet was on a Packard Bell iConnect 1300 loaded with Windows ME it had 64mb RAM and a 20gb HD. With the rip-off extended warranty, printer and scanner, it cost £1500 from PC World. (My present Dell desktop and laptop, both more than double that specification and loaded with XP, cost half that price for the two.)
 
oldMohawk said:
We all use computers and I thought about the first one I ever touched at work in (history bit) 1979. It was a Commodore Pet with a programing language called Basic. We had it to do quotes and other calcs, but for a week or more we could not stop playing with it and very little real work was done, we even stayed late to play with it. We found out everything we could about a Secretary in the Buying Office, loaded it in the computer, and told her it could read her palm, know all about her and tell her future, if she placed her hand on the keyboard. She couldn't resist, and was amazed to see 'Hello Betty' appear on screen and it knew all about her. She was astounded and wanted all the Office Girls to try it, but it only had 32K of memory so we had to say she was special and it only knew about her. When it put a message on screen saying it was in love with her, she guessed what we had done and our nice little Pet nearly got smashed. It eventually done some 'real work'.
Click to expand...
Bit of light relief - here we are on a history forum, but our keyboards have took a pounding this last week or two - my first touch on a computer was in 1979 - on a computer with 32k of memory and it was called 'Pet' and it could tell fortunes... :rolleyes:


pet8032.jpg
 
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I think my first experience with a Computer was about 1972 or 3. Certainly prior to 1975. It was a mainframe system which had 'reputedly' been transported by Ship from Chicago as being obsolete.

The 'occasion' was when a 'trained' operator had to take over for a while, and I was tasked with operating the the radio. Within a very short time, our roles were reversed.:biggrin:

Later, when I requested a Course, I was told by the trainer, "You know enough about it already!"

21 years later, working in a Control Room setting I was informed that because they had no record of me 'doing the course', I needed to go on one. Which, incidentally, I did pass.

By which time I was already conversant with BASIC, BATch files, .COM files and a few other tweaks and turns. Although 'self taught', I'm relatively competent with VB and HTML. I keep meaning to get a grip with C++ but....just can't be arsed.:untroubled:
 
My first eperience with a computer was only visual. I worked for GKN at St George's Mill in Heath Street, on the 'Hollerith' machines (horrid things). These were for the wages of the men working on the screws and fastenings that GKN made at that division - they were fed into one end of the machine and a long tape came out the other end. it waqs about twenty feet long if I remember rightly. My next experience was at Sutton Coldfield College of Further Education as it was called then - in 1982. Goodness knows what the computer was, but I was taught Word Star. Short break before my next experience - late 1980's. I wold not know how to live my life without one, as I use it to look up everything, from cinema to theatre, wallpaper, carpet, stately homes, you name it, I have probably looked it up. Wonderful things, until they go wrong, that is.

Shortie
 
wow old thread!

Spectrum128k 1986-1987 both me and my older brother got one for Christmas.... and so started my computer love affair
 
My first contact with a computor was in about 1974, when the output of a machine I was using was sent to a mainframe elsewhere and came back on large piles of z-fold print out , usually about 4 or five lots each about 8 inches thick. Then had to wade through the chaff to get to and calculate the results i wanted. To get a better appreciation I went on a short course on (I think) ALGOL 67, which was what the machine used. Had to input things by punching holes in cards. Got enough knowledge to decide I'd never be a programmer, and my next experience (other than a little on a ZX81), was a PET a few years later.
Mike.
 
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