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1st touch on a Computer

oldMohawk said:
Yes Pete, I remember often seeing the dawn breaking as I was trying to sort out 6502 machine code.
Microsoft Windows is 35 years old .... it's history in pictures see the link below
https://birminghamhistory.co.uk/forum/index.php?threads/windows-10.45268/post-560475
:)
Click to expand...
What a great montage of not computers but our recent history! My first computer 1948 IBM PC with a 160 drive and MS dos! Not that I am a gamer but I did enjoy playing “donkey kong”
Thanks for the memories!
 
my first pc was a xt 8088 @ 4.77 MHz. a 10mhz hard disk the size of a house brick and ega graphics.
and lemmings game :grinning:
220px-Ibm_px_xt_color.jpg
 
xt hd i was for ever using norton disk dr. defrag. disk manager. but it was never any good if i still had it it would make a good anchor:grinning:
 

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oldMohawk said:
I remember a time in the 1990s when someone in our office bought a new computer and it had a 1GB hard drive ... we were all amazed ... all that space to store programs, photos and data !!
Click to expand...
And the cost of that 1GB!!!!!!!!! You could probably get 50TB for less today.
 
wow they must be rich..The 80s was a cool time, and not just for hair bands. In 1980, we saw the first 1 GB hard drive, priced at a casual $44,000.(36 524.4 GBP) But home computing wasn't far off, thanks to the hard work of IBM and others – these early innovators were laying the groundwork for a product that would be around for a long time.A 5MB hard disk drive from Apple cost $3,500 ( 2905.29) in 1981.
o_O
 
I suppose we all use our computers differently, most of us probably using some version of Windows and either the Chrome or Edge browsers. Some of us use Apple devices with the Safari browser. I use an iPad every day but only for viewing - I rarely post from it.
I've always used Windows but if my very nice Windows 11 computer with it's 27" screen packed up and I had £1.5k to spend, I would probably buy an iMac ... ;)
 
imac sounds like a Potato digger:grinning:

i once bought a Macintosh Classic it was too complicated for me so i sold it and went back to ibm clones
1672393610500.jpeg
www.geeksforgeeks.org

Difference between Windows and macOS - GeeksforGeeks

A Computer Science portal for geeks. It contains well written, well thought and well explained computer science and programming articles, quizzes and practice/competitive programming/company interview Questions.
www.geeksforgeeks.org www.geeksforgeeks.org
 
mw0njm. said:
imac sounds like a Potato digger:grinning:
Click to expand...
I regularly Zoom meet with someone who has an iMac and when I share my screen with them they can often see fine detail with their hi-res screen which I can't see even though I have a 2560x1440 screen. However, I think for normal everyday computing Apple computers are overpriced and Windows is best ... :)
 
oldMohawk said:
I regularly Zoom meet with someone who has an iMac and when I share my screen with them they can often see fine detail with their hi-res screen which I can't see even though I have a 2560x1440 screen. However, I think for normal everyday computing Apple computers are overpriced and Windows is best ... :)
Click to expand...
my brother has a machine me thinks you can boot it in win sys or mac.he is a printer and says mac rules in his kind off work
 
oldMohawk said:
I suppose we all use our computers differently, most of us probably using some version of Windows and either the Chrome or Edge browsers. Some of us use Apple devices with the Safari browser. I use an iPad every day but only for viewing - I rarely post from it.
I've always used Windows but if my very nice Windows 11 computer with it's 27" screen packed up and I had £1.5k to spend, I would probably buy an iMac ... ;)
Click to expand...
I use my Lenovo W11 for my serious work and iPad and phone for other. My wife is an Apple person, with computer, iPad Pro which is a big phone and phone. Your pricing is great in £ than ours in $. As far as zoom and the like, my Lenovo is plenty good for me!
 
Way back in the old days, when Dixons had High street shops, I had one of these.
Amstrad portable.jpg
Source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a2/1b/be/a21bbe34d216fb7d509732b6f959f129.jpg

I had enough money left under the mattress to buy the lowest spec version, which was (wait for it) 512K.
I went into Dixons, but they hadn't got one in stock. The nice man behind the counter said "We have one of the top of the range 640K models in stock, with 2 floppy drives". And then the clincher, "You can have it for the same price". I suspect that it was their only stock, and they were glad to see the back of it.
It did have a good keyboard, but no other discernible redeeming features. The screen appeared to be dark green text on a light green background. I could hear the beads sliding about on the internal 4.77 MHz abacus. I passed it on to a friend. She gave it a week, (and remained friends), and passed it on I know not where.

Andrew.
 
Brummie a long time ago said:
Way back in the old days, when Dixons had High street shops, I had one of these.
View attachment 180652
Source: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/a2/1b/be/a21bbe34d216fb7d509732b6f959f129.jpg

I had enough money left under the mattress to buy the lowest spec version, which was (wait for it) 512K.
I went into Dixons, but they hadn't got one in stock. The nice man behind the counter said "We have one of the top of the range 640K models in stock, with 2 floppy drives". And then the clincher, "You can have it for the same price". I suspect that it was their only stock, and they were glad to see the back of it.
It did have a good keyboard, but no other discernible redeeming features. The screen appeared to be dark green text on a light green background. I could hear the beads sliding about on the internal 4.77 MHz abacus. I passed it on to a friend. She gave it a week, (and remained friends), and passed it on I know not where.

Andrew.
Click to expand...
That must have been circa 1997/98! I was using an original much upgraded IBM PC. In 2000 I bought an ultra light 2 1/2 # Sony Vaio. It had the small drive for the discs in your photo, I purchased a huge CD drive, both drives had usb connectors. Two years ago I found the floppy drive when we moved and mentioned to a couple of nerdy friends who borrow it frequently to find out what is on their discs.
 
oldMohawk said:
I suppose we all use our computers differently, most of us probably using some version of Windows and either the Chrome or Edge browsers. Some of us use Apple devices with the Safari browser. I use an iPad every day but only for viewing - I rarely post from it.
I've always used Windows but if my very nice Windows 11 computer with it's 27" screen packed up and I had £1.5k to spend, I would probably buy an iMac ... ;)
Click to expand...
Just purchased a new iPad, took Apple one week to get my password straighten out. My wife got a new iPhone, took 7 trips to the Apple Store, $850 and she hates it. The charging connector is differs on my iPad, my wife’s phone from her iPad Pro! USB, is universal serial buss, UNIVERSAL means the same as but I guess Apple sees it differently! We have more charging cords that you can shake a stick at. The only plus is that the wireless chargers in our cars handle both phones. Sorry for the rant and I don’t even want to talk about my iPod :cool:
 
I dimly remember Evesham Micros. I think my first computer, a mid 80s era ZX Spectrum, or some of its accessories came from them.

I learned BASIC programming on the Spectrum, and still use the language today on occasion, for Excel automation and suchlike.

My first serious software job was in the mid 90s working on a Highways Agency information system for the Midlands area traffic control centre in Birmingham. It was called MATTISSE and pulled together information from assorted sources of accident, roadworks and traffic jam data, plotted the incidents on map for the traffic controllers and composed regional summary reports.

I moved on from road and rail software to air traffic control, then was fortunate enough to get the chance to move into spacecraft engineering which I've been doing ever since, on an assortment of environmental monitoring and exploration missions.

I've enjoyed reading through the assorted history and nostalgia on this thread (though sorry to see so many of its original contributors are no longer with us), and thinking back to Birmingham's role in launching me into a fascinating career.
 
My first computer was also the classic ZX Spectrum, bought second-hand in the mid 80’s. It has all of those pixel art platform programmes like Manic Miner and a few shoot-em ups too and an adventure game based on The Hobbit.

I did play around with the Sinclare Basic programming too but amongst the collection of cassette tapes was a spreadsheet and a data base programme.

I took a close look at these eventually as I have not seem anything like this before and quickly realised that this was one of those ecstatic-time moments, the world was going to look very different soon.
 
ZX Spectrum i bought one from a boot sale complete with small printer and drive it ran my ham radio packet for a few weeks and then got a vic 20 machine wow even played games on it,that soon went and i got a commador 64 and arnie the terminator disk soon got fed up with that.
so started building pcs from scratch getting bits and bobs from computer fairs on a sunday,that was interesting from a xt 8086 8088 286 386 486 dx2 to pentium

for the pc geeks
PC motherboards changed significantly in
1995 when the ATX standard replaced the AT standard. The ATX standard introduced an improved layout for better airflow and easier maintenance, along with better power management. Other major changes include the shift from ISA to PCI and then PCI Express (PCIe) for expansion slots in the 1990s and 2000s, and the gradual integration of components like audio, video, and networking directly onto the board in the late 1990s.
Major changes in motherboard design
1995: ATX standard introduced. The ATX (Advanced Technology Extended) form factor replaced the older AT (Advanced Technology) standard, which had been in use since the 1980s.
Improved layout: ATX was designed with a more efficient layout that improved component placement, cooling, and accessibility.
Better power management: The ATX standard included features for improved power management.990s to 2000s: Expansion slot evolution.
PCI: The 1990s saw the introduction of the PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect) standard, which offered much faster data transfer rates than the older ISA slots.

now i cant be bothered i just buy one off ebay
:joy::joy:
 
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