now computers are tiny and cheap .....if only justice could progress as fast in 40 years

we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 mpg. Then again...

Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason, you would simply accept this.

Sometimes, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.

that is how you turn them off.

I think if cars had kept up they would be getting 10,000 mpg and cost $4.99 in the impulse line.

I suppose it could use some updating.

an easy to read 16 line by 80 column screen. And 272k of user available ram for working with enormous amounts of data. Its about time.

I remember spending more than $1,000 for a 10 MB hard drive + controller kit in '84 for my '82 Kaypro II, running CP/M. I couldn't imagine how I would ever be able to fill anything of that enormous capacity. I'd shelled out extra and didn't buy the 5 MB drive I initially assumed would be more than sufficient for my lifetime. That's about the size of single, highly compressed mp3 song to put that in perspective.

My first gigabyte drive cost me more than $1,000 and would dim the streetlights outside when I turned it on. I'm buying 2TB drives for under a $100 now.

It really is amazing when you think about it.

I held out until the 10MB drives were on the used market and paid $200. Thing was as big a small cigar box too IIRC.

Remember those ads showing people with a Kaypro II on their lap in an airline seat? Must have been first class, as those things weighed 25 to 30 lbs and even more with the external battery pack you'd need.

Still, I wonder how many computers bought today would still be in perfect working order in 30 years? That's drives, keyboard, display, everything. Well, not the hard drive.

I ran a BBS on it for years which I had written myself in assembly language.

She used it until the Cupertino mind control gang got a hold of her.

the salesman showed me one and told me it had a micro-chip in it; I handed it back to him and said, "I ain't buying it if it's broken." And the rest is ancient history. Impressed?

I am still getting used to the switch to Mac from my lifelong affair with PC (Windows 8 was just abuse) but the fact that it is miniscule and still nicely engineered and powerful is awesome.

of a room and did nothing but sort punch cards.

Seven 12 inch disks, around 20lbs, in a contraption with a handle on top. You would put it into a machine that looked like a big top loading washer.

Also have a stack of company logo punch cards. The Honeywell booted off of cards... Also had core memory. When it broke they would have to call in some retired Vice President off the golf course to poke it with a paper clip to get it working.

There was always the thought, what if it comes loose and barrels through the room.

Doggie can't get close enough to the fire hydrant.

Lost two hard drives in one week and we were forced to do something. That 20 MB was just too cool, we thought! That was 1994.





What a blast from the past!


Laura

Nobody has asked me to convert an eight inch floppy since the 'nineties.

At this point I'm afraid to power the beast up. The electrolytic capacitors in it would probably go off like a chain of firecrackers. I'll bet the host IBM PS/2 is dead too.

The first computer I built used telephone relays. I didn't keep that, but I loved the noise it made. The second computer I built used an 1802 microprocessor. I used parts from that to build my third computer in 1979. Sadly that home-brew doesn't work anymore. But some of my Atari 800 family computers still work.

I don't start my old computers often because I've got them all emulated on my Linux desktop. I can go back in time whenever I like without leaving my chair.