I don't understand Armstrongs book..

[davekelly]

Space,

Man I remember the TRS 80. My dad got one at a computer show in NYC. I'm thinking it was about $400 back then. Yup 4K of memory and the tape player. I remember when Dad upgraded to the 16K expansion thing. Man we were computing!! I also remember Basic. That was way cool and helped me in college when I took Pascal and Fortran.

The neat thing about the TRS80 was that it was RTR. Back then if you wanted a computer yhou had to build the thing yourself. Kind of like some of the debates that we see now on this forum!!

[Anonymous]

QUOTE: Originally posted by davekelly

Space,

Man I remember the TRS 80. My dad got one at a computer show in NYC. I'm thinking it was about $400 back then. Yup 4K of memory and the tape player. I remember when Dad upgraded to the 16K expansion thing. Man we were computing!! I also remember Basic. That was way cool and helped me in college when I took Pascal and Fortran.

The neat thing about the TRS80 was that it was RTR. Back then if you wanted a computer yhou had to build the thing yourself. Kind of like some of the debates that we see now on this forum!!

I BUILT a computer that is equal to any out there last year. Saved by cutting out retail and all that overhead. Just parts and shipping.

I will never BUY a computer, I will keep building them as I need to in the future with all builds upgrading or improving on the previous generation. (Note Computers advance every 18 months or so)

[davekelly]

Cool deal HighIron. There is something to be said about building one - that's the only way to ensure that you get the motherboard, graphic board etc that you want and can avoid all that trash software that comes preinstalled.

Watch out though, there maybe someone out there that says you're not actually building a computer, but rather assembling parts. The real computer folks back in the 70's built their own motherboards out of individual chips etc etc etc.

But like modelrailroading, your computer should be what makes you happy and fits your needs. If it does that - its A OK in my book.

[roadrat]

If you can build a model Railroad you can assemble your own computer! and save a bundle too!


bill

[MisterBeasley]

Dave! Sprichst du FORTRAN? Parlez vous le Fortran? I used to tiptoe through the do-loops myself.

Believe it or not, I made a real living in FORTRAN from 1970 to 1999. Now I mostly code in Ada, but I drift in and out of C when I'm dealing with our signal processing people.

I used to put my computers together myself, but the last time I looked, I could buy my little girl a Dell for less than the price of the components. Yeah, it doesn't scream on MS Flight Simulator, but all she does is surf and IM her friends.

Gotta go. I've got my Bowser PCC car sitting on my desk, and it's never seen rails. Time to change that...

[rrinker]

My FIRST computer was a single board kit I built myself, but I started to learn to program several years prior to that by hanging out at the Radio Shack. I had all the early TRS-80 manuals, and had a binder of my own tapes for my programs. They never minded me hanging out there playing witht he computer - I probably sold more for them than anything they could do, what with an 11 year old kid programming it, it MUST be easy to use!
By High School I had gone through at least half a dozen different computers (still have most of them - realy wish I could find my Timex-Sinclair 1000 though) and finally bought a TRS-80 of my own - by then it was the Model 4P, a suitcase size transportable (no batteries). Still have that one too, I think it still works. That served me a couple years in college until I finally succumbed to the IBM compatible world. That one is one of the few I don't still have - I donated it to the model railroad club I belonged to, after I wrote a few programs for managing who owned what rolling stock.
FORTRAN, I know like the back of my hand. Had FORTRAN in high school, and again in college in a core requirement for all engineering students - course covered FORTRAN programming and numerica methods. Naturally I aced that one - and they invited me to tutor others in it the following year. So one of my jobs to have spending money in college came from tutoring others in FORTRAN programming.

[ereimer]

since we've completely derailed this thread i'll add that my 1st computer was an Apple ][ + with 48k memory and a cassette tape drive for storage . i also had lots of fun programming in basic and even messed around with assembly language a bit [;)]

never got a job in programming but i turned my computing hobby into a job at an Apple dealer and that evolved over the years into my current position as freelance Macinto***ech support / service guy

i also build my own windows machines . Dell makes pretty decent computers , but if you want to start with minimal specs and have the ability to upgrade components as you get the cash , doing it yourself is the only way

[SpaceMouse]

Sitting next to me is Frankenputer. It has the floppy drive from a 286 I got in 1989--the last computer I bought (not counting laptops). It has SCSI CD and CDR and now DVDR.

Funny, I upgraded the MB to 1.6 MHZ 3 years ago and haven't felt the need since.

Am I falling from Geekhood?

By the way. I shifted my work network to Netware in 1994 and have had 0.0 software-related crashes since. The only time I reboot is during power outages. Kiss this Microsoft.

[Jetrock]

I suppose that building one's own computer is a form of "scratchbuilding"--it, leatherwork and a few other forms of tinkering were my second-rate replacements for building model trains, which I gave up during my twenties and early thirties (building computers actually being much cooler, believe it or not, than building model trains, in the eyes of females.)

PDP-11s had some legs--I used one as recently as 1988 in college (My college had a very poorly funded computer department.)

My home PC actually began life as a 4.77 MHz XT clone with 256K of RAM, I picked it up in a thrift store for $5 and started upgrading about ten years ago. It's kind of a "my grandfather's axe" situation: This is my grandfather's axe--my father replaced the handle, and I replaced the head, but it's still my grandfather's axe! That XT clone is now a 700 MHz AMD, still definitely behind the times (as the XT was in 1995) but I'm getting ready to build a new system as soon as I stop spending all my disposable income on trains!!

[davekelly]

Jet,

Reminds me of an old joke. "I've had this axe for 25 years. Replaced the head 4 times and the handle 12 times."

[IRONROOSTER]

I started my programming career on a UNIVAC 1005 with 4K using assembly language. When I transfered to Germany I started using FORTRAN IV on an IBM 360. My first PC was a dual floppy drive - no hard drive, 8086 with 512K. My first home computer was a Commodore 64 with a tape drive, later I upgraded by adding a floppy drive.

Assembling your own computer reminds me of an old joke. How many programmers does it take to change a light bulb?








None - it's a hardware problem.

Enjoy
Paul

[MisterBeasley]

The computer service guy shows up for work 2 hours late. When his boss asks him where he was, he answers, "I had a flat tire." The boss counters that it doesn't take 2 hours to change a flat tire. "Yeah," replies the service guy, 'but I had to change all 4 of them before I found the bad one."

[SpaceMouse]

New Freelance Railroad forms here: The GWBF

Geeks with Bilfocals

A Friend was wondering why a woman married three times was still a virgin.

She explained. My first husband was called up to desert storm and we barely had time for the wedding. My second husband was an octogenarian and had a heart attack when I removed my clothes.

"But you've been married to your current husband for three years!"

She sighed. "He works for MicroSoft. He just sits on the edge of the bed and tells me how good it's going to be."