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Charles, I think I just missed that big power failure by a week or two. I had moved to the OTHER side of Houston at the end of April, 1978 to a new apartment that had connections (that's when I got the Filter-Flo set). Although an engineer and I commuted for about 2 months or so until the workday relocation happened. Because of ourt typical long work day and the long distance and me not being able to drive at night, I had the "carpool" pal. 3 weeks after I'd signed a contract to begin building a townhouse near Stafford, the "move" was announced. I had to have our VP write a letter to get me out of the contrract saying I was being transferred.

And yes, I was let go with my silver badege. I was about 3 months shy of receiving my gold badge when let go in 1997. I was pissed. [this post was last edited: 4/15/2012-17:14]
 
DecWriter

Allen, oh boy do I remember those--DecWriter, DecWriter II, and DecWriter III. I used to do competitive analysis and sale support against that a lot. TI came out in 1977 the Omni 800 series Model 810 and 820 dot matrix printer (150 cps) whose production was placed where I got transferred to in 1986. the 820 was a direct competitor of the DecWriter. It came in RO (receive-only) and KSR (keyboard send receive like above). The 810 got an extremely lucky break. It was intended to compete against Centronic comparable printes. Centronics had a product problem as well as production issues and were backlogged for MONTHS. TI went for the jugular vein of Centronics' weakness and was extremely successful, one of the most successful of any TI commercial products before calculators. They were extremely rugged. The two businesses are now part of the legacy of two different firms here in town--Acer America (TravelMates) and AER (I think) printers. Largely airline ticket printers.
 
Tell me about the commute. We had built a jome out in Spring off Aldinewestfiel north of the airport and they had said we were moving offices out there. Had been in the Greenway Plaza area off tSW freeway. Plans changed and they built the east extenion on the SC building in
Staffor. Commuted 32 miles one way took 1960 to
Eastex through downtown the SW freey way to Atafford. Left at 6:00 am to gert to work by 8:00 and was home between 6:30 to 7:00 pm. Yes long days. Moved to Staford in Nov 1977 after my wife got transfered to a new schoolo of
Fondren. Year t the dfay in 1978 they were loading us up to move to New Orleans. Remember the amonia truck that fell of the top overpass at 610 and SW freeay. Had just been trhugh the exchange. Had to drive 1960 clear around that for 3months and 1960 and 6 were two lanes then.
 
Yes I remember that ammonia truck incident falling off the highest overpass in the city. Spent several hours not knowing where my dad was. We knew he was in the area at the time because he was a salesman. He was stuck in that traccic for hours, but wasn't hurt or harmed by those horrible fumes.
 
My Computer Memories

My first computer was a TI 99-4/A ($200 after rebate if I recall). Learned Basic on it, but the items for expansion were too expensive for me, so I sold it.
Second computer came in 1996. After my then boyfriend taught me the wonders of the Internet, I bought a Packard Bell on sale at Walmart. I cut my teeth on that machine; even took the whole computer (monitor and all) to the radio station where I worked at the time, and reported on the '96 election results as they came in from the election department. (Although our station had computers, none had a modem! The station owner later agreed to buy a newer PC with Internet capability.)
By 2000, it was time for a new computer, so I purchased a Gateway all-in-one design. It served me well until I replaced it with a Dell.
These days, I'm using a Toshiba Satellite laptop to write news stories from home. It sits on the desk in the home I share with my partner (who was the BF who originally turned me on to the Internet). He has a top-of-the line HP with a big screen in his bedroom.
Amazing how things come around, don't they?
 
First computer I ever used was a Radio Shack Color Computer (I think they were called the "CoCo" or something like that by some.) My elementary school PTA bought them for the school when I was in sixth grade.

Experience #2 was in jr. high. The school had a computer lab of TRS-80 Model 3s. This was also my first experience with networks. The student computers did not have any sort of disk drive (or even a cassette drive--cassette drives were common "cheap" storage in the early 80s). Instead, they were networked to a master computer with floppy drives. This computer lab left me with mixed feelings. The official school curriculum had our math classes use it with some idiotic teach math program. Thus the school could claim we were learning current skills.

But at that time I also had a science teacher who was very into computers. He had programmed for RadioShack. He regularly got us into the computer lab, and it was then that I got my first experience with word processing. A lot of my "computer life" might not have ever happened, or happened much differently, if it hadn't been for my science teacher.

In high school, I saw a computer lab for typing class exercises. (Also TRS 80 Model 3 or 4.) I took computer programming (BASIC) which introduced me to the Apple II series. The lab had everything from an original Apple II to a IIc in it. Later on, a science teacher got me off hours access to the computer lab if I promised I'd word process all my lab reports so he wouldn't have to plow through my wretched handwriting.

Since earlier posts have shown Apple II series, I won't bother with that. But here's a link to a TRS 80 Model 3

 
For years, a computer of my own was a regular on-again, off again dream. The dream varied as to model. It was usually influenced by what I was used to. In junior high, it was the TRS 80. In high school, it was the Apple II. With a short lived dream of a Commodore C64. I never had any experience with the Commodore, but it was cheap. I read an article about getting started with word processing for less than $500 using the Commodore. (I suspect other computers might have also worked.)

There was some talk in my family about getting a computer. But it took years to happen. Computers were not cheap, and there was little to justify it beyond the possible educational advantages for me.

Eventually, though, I did get a computer: a Macintosh SE, one of the all-in-one designs with a black and white screen. It was probably more computer than I actually needed. But I was sold on all the things it could that other computers couldn't. One thing was printing with fancy fonts. A high school teacher could do that with his Apple IIe--but that required special software, and it took something like 20 minutes per page. Although, while I could have probably gotten along with a Commodore, or a Laser Apple IIc clone, I really did like the Mac. And it certainly made school work easier, and I probably did some things that I couldn't have otherwise. I remember at least one assignment (carefully put together on the Mac) made a huge impact on the professor. The content was solid, but the presentation did help guarantee that "A."
 
Early Internet years

The Macintosh served me nearly ten years, into the Internet age. Although I didn't use the computer much after school. It would get fired up if I needed to write something, but could also have long, idle periods.

An employer I had in the mid 90s required regular reports. These were done on paper, but there was an option for doing them on an IBM PC--which was the preference, since the forms could be submitted on floppy. However, I didn't have access to an IBM, and had no interest in owning one, unless I got it for free. That never happened.

When the Mac finally died, it got replaced with the first of a series of used Macs about the age of my SE. It meant easy and cheap changes, since most of what I had could be used on the new system.

My early Internet experience was entirely on other people's computers, mainly ones in libraries. This was good enough for what little I needed (light e-mail, light research).
 
My first computer, bought in about ‘95, was a Micron built in Idaho (now they are the Crucial Memory people). It was an early Pentium 90, initially running Win 3.1, then Win 95. I paired it with a Nokia 17" monitor and a Calcomp tabloid size printer that was really a Canon with some special drivers. I still have the printer though don’t use it much. The Micron had a really nice Candian made Matrox video card that allowed switching resolutions via hot keys in 3.1, though lost that feature in Win 95.

 

When the Micron got too slow, about 2000, it was replaced with an Xi running an AMD based motherboard. Xi is still in business making computers in San Clemente. I can’t recall the video on this but think it was ATI. Initially this setup ran Win NT, then I upgraded to Win 2000 Pro. Both worked well although the upgrade was a PITA as you had to install the 2000 over NT and there was a conflict in hard drive partitions. At some point I upgraded to a really nice Trinitron based IBM monitor. The Xi was set up to print through either the little Calcomp or an HP 650C plotter. I still have (and love!) the 650C.

 

After that I also bought an Apple Cube. I worked for a guy who was a hard core Apple person, and he gave me an old iMac to use after he decided to make the whole office use Apple products. I hated that computer! It had a cheap one button mouse and the keyboard lacked a real delete button, instead the backspace key was labeled "delete", which lead to constant mistakes in typing text. It also crashed a lot. So I bought the Cube with my own money. It was a beautiful piece of engineering and design, dead quiet and compact. Unfortunately it was still a crashy PITA to use and unbelievably for an upper-level product came with a BOL one-button mouse which I replaced with a Microsoft wheel mouse - trying to zoom in CAD with no wheel is like having your finger cut off. After I left that boss the Cube came home with me as I still did a lot of consulting for him. Ironically it had no trouble running the HP plotter but I was never able to get it to reliably run a regular Brother printer or the Calcomp, even after buying a special $100 printer cable. I still have the Cube though haven’t cranked it up in years.

 

My next computer was a Fujitsu N-series laptop, with a Pentium processor and ATI video. I occasionally needed a laptop, and the Xi was getting too slow for the latest edition of Autocad. The Fujitsu had the best screen I’d ever seen on a laptop, and ran the new Autocad flawlessly, although battery life was a bad joke. It worked well for years until the video went out from poor cooling, evidently a known issue. I had a new motherboard installed but that took time so needed a new desktop.

 

Xi couldn’t build a new computer in less than a couple of weeks, but Sys Technology in Industry could. At the time I didn’t know Sys was an arm of the American distributor of Gigabyte products, a big Taiwanese company. When I picked up the computer I was shown to a fenced off area in the Gigabyte warehouse where a handsome Chinese guy was building all the Sys computers. This came in handy when the nVidia Quadro video card cooling fan started making noise after a few months. nVidia wanted to send a new one after they got the defective card returned, but I had a little talk with the Chinese guy. He talked to them and they agreed to send the replacement card down from San Jose to Sys after which I drove the computer to Industry and he swapped it out while I waited.

 

I’m still using the Sys, plus the Fujitsu if I need a laptop. The Sys has been very reliable, nVidia fan aside, and its’ AMD processor still handles CAD acceptably. However, Win XP is getting a little old for good support and I’ll need to either upgrade it or buy a new one in not too long. Sys is no more, so if new I’ll look to either Xi again or Polywell in San Francisco. I really dislike common store bought computers as they usually have low-end video cards and tons of useless pre-installed software I don’t need and if you try to upgrade all you get is a bunch of multimedia stuff I don’t need either. I use a stand-alone Yamaha sound card running through a power amp and a couple of stereo speakers, so any surround sound system is wasted on me. Give me a good processor, a workstation level video card and a full size keyboard and I'm a happy camper.
 
As time went by, I saw Internet at home as less of an option. If nothing else, the library was getting too popular, and every time they made changes, it seemed like the experience got worse.

At first, I thought of sticking with Apple--but it was too expensive. I heard stories of people using older Apple hardware for a while, but, as time went by, a Quadra running Netscape 4 became less and less viable.

About 2004, I got my first PC. It was nearly free--it was a Pentium 1 that been one of the first to ship with Windows 98. It was the first in home Windows experience I had, and it was terrible. I told someone it was like a bad vacation to a foreign country--I learned a lot, had lots of new experiences, but everything seemed to go wrong, and usually at the worst possible time. I tried this PC for word processing, and the word processor one night just suddenly crashed, no warning. I didn't lose much work, but I sure lost interest in using the PC.

That first PC gave me a chance to try Linux. I started with CDs in library books. It was rough--that machine could only easily run really old Linux distros. But it was promising enough that I got a Gateway PIII (also nearly free) a few months later. That machine could barely handle current distros, and I was quickly sold. Linux became my standard for Internet/modern OS.

For years, I kept using an old Mac (Quadra 650) for "real work." The old software still worked. These days, I'm using the Linux system more--it's more convenient--although I have a Mac for legacy document support and some tasks like page layout. Sometimes I think of going back to using an old Mac for work--less distractions, like the Internet. But it's so convenient using one computer for everything.
 
John,

 

Up until Windows XP came along, I firmly believed that the only good Windows version I ever used was 3.1. All of the others caused me nothing but grief. When I ordered my Dell I asked if they could put Linux on it - at the time they couldn't but I reluctantly bought the Dell anyway. It came with XP and I have had no problems with it whatsoever, if you don't count having to replace the modem, ethernet board, and motherboard due to a lightning strike on the cable line outside.
 
Technicon, MIS (medical info system).

These systems were in hospital use mid 1980's while i was in Nursing school.    These systems used a "light pen" that you selected  medications ordered by an MD, or testing such as cxr (chest xray)labs and their results.  As antiquated as they are now they saved hours of paperwork. It was also the beginning of  "charge on charting", if you were given 2 tylenol tablets they showed up itemized on your bill, even a bandaid or pack of gauze 4x4's, all items on the "cart supply" had yellow tags that were like small post it notes were stuck to unit worksheets with every patients name on the floor, these charges were entered by a unit clerk at the end of every shift. Intake and output of fluids was charted as well with this system, an interim profile printed every 8 hours and the "permanent 24 hour" pages printed daily at 2 am.   At home like most folks we had dial up AOL, and a cannon computer around 1995.   Qualin, thank you for an interesting thread i had not thought of these in years.  Post #589673 shows what I recall as "second generation" of printers, the first i experienced were metal ie: a metal basket that held the paper as shown.  The printing was done by a large belt that revolved horizontally  with the print characters on the spinning belt,  the ribbons were simillar to IBM "Selectric" ribbons only much larger scale.  alr

[this post was last edited: 4/16/2012-04:07]

Technicon Medical Information System (TMIS) - Clinfowiki

clinfowiki.org clinfowiki.org
 
It came with XP and I have had no problems with it whatsoeve

I get the impression from what others have said that XP was a huge improvement over 98. One person strongly suggested XP when I got my Gateway PIII.

But my PIII was only licensed for Windows 98. The XP Home upgrade was at least a hundred dollars vs. $0 for Linux. I could see no compelling reason to buy XP--and there were compelling reasons past price for using Linux. Like better security. (This was when there was a huge virus problem on Windows.) I found that between my Linux system and my elderly Mac, I could do everything I needed to do. Windows 98 was good enough on the occasions I wanted Windows support.

Then, back when I got my PIII, Microsoft was pretty dominant. This was before Apple became hot, and before Firefox even existed. I am concerned about one company having so much influence on a crucial technology in any field. I wanted to support competitors.
 
Very interesting to read experiences of those who have been using computers for way longer than I have.

My first online experience, even before I used e-mail or the internet, was with my 1995 Pentium 90. I installed "United Connection" software from United Airlines, and used the built in 14.4 phone modem to make airline reservations online with United. Actually, the software searched for all airlines and you could use the software to book with other airlines, with United keeping the commission which existed in those days. The computer would dial a dedicated number at United for computer transactions, and you paid a toll charge for this if the number was not local. They did not provide an 800 toll free number.

I first began to see the power of the net when I helped some German friends make reservations to come over. I found some seats on British AIrways, using United Connection, that were $400 less per person than they had been quoted in person at a ticket agency (like $600 instead of $1000 return).

I could not use my credit card to pay for a trip originating in Germany, but I was able to place a 24 hour hold on the reservations and I called them with the locator number. The next day, they went to a travel agent and purchased the tickets at the $600 price, using the locator number.
 
As a crew member starting around 1991 we were able to access World Span (NW airlines reservation system) from home to check loads on flights, check other airline availability for dead heading purposes, etc. Previously you had to call a special 800 number to obtain this information from a res agent. Then around 1994 or so we could put our line bids in online rather than having to submit a paper form each month.
There was some resistance to this from employees. A lot of them didn't have home computers and didn't want one either. But you could always go to the airport and use one of the Worldspan terminals there if you wanted to. This made life a lot easier.

I wished they had word processing computers back when I was in college. Everything had to be typed on a typewriter and the professors took points off for typing mistakes.

And did you know that they are making the Commodore 64 again in an updated version?

 
The first was an Apple //c, with a color monitor, and an ImageWriter II a year later.

Then, a Tandy 1000, a 2500XL, and a homebrew 486 tower.

Sold that machine and bought a Macintosh SE Superdrive. Had a 1200 baud modem for that beast.

Then a Quadra 800, a Power Mac 6100/60, a PowerMac G3/233 Minitower in biege, and after that its been laptops all the way out.

Had a Powerbook 156c, Duo 2300c, a Wallstreet G3, a Pismo, a tibook, and a G4 aluminum.

Lately, a first generation intel 15", then a Core 2 Duo model.

Now my main machine is a MPB15 i7.

Also have a collection of old Apple stuff, including a 128k. There is a Core2Duo Mini in my living room on the TV.
 
My first computer was a dedicated word processor, the Xerox 860 full-page display. It cost $14,000 new in 1982, which converts to around $33,300 today. I purchased mine second-hand in 1984, for $3,000, which converts to $6,600 today, still a lot of bucks.

It was the crème de la crème of word processors. It required an expensive service contract from Xerox, as it did need periodic servicing. Lucky for me, Xerox had a disorganized billing department, and I never received another bill after the first year.

The CPU was heavy; maybe around 200 lbs? This thing was built like a tank. It came with a high-volume daisy-wheel printer, the optional automatic envelope and paper feeder, and a sound cabinet.

And, no, that is not me in the photo below. I would never wear one of those ribbon bows!

retropia++4-16-2012-15-36-15.jpg
 
I got my first computer when I was in 5th grade it was a
Apple Macintosh Performa 550 With color StyleWriter II
Processor Speed: 33 MHz
Processor Type: 68030
System Bus Speed: 33 MHz
Standard RAM: 5 MB
Motherboard RAM: 4 MB
RAM Slots: 1
Video Card: Dedicated
Standard Hard Drive: 160 MB
Standard Optical: 2X CD-ROM
Standard Disk: 1.44 MB (Auto)
Original Mac OS: 7.1

My freshman year of H.S. I got a H.P. Pavilion Sears Special
333 AMD K6-2 microprocessor
Microsoft Windows 98
Standard: 64 MB (SDRAM) Maximum 4 MB shared with UMA Video
Maximum: 256 MB
Speed: 66 MHz
Primary (Level 1) Cache: 64 KB (on processor)
Secondary (Level 2) Cache (Max.): 512 KB (on motherboard)
Video Memory: 4 MB UMA
Resolutions 2 MB Video
Hard drive: 6.4 GB
CD-ROM drive Speed: 24x speed (maximum)
Fax Speed: 14.4 Kbps (v. 17 bis)
Data Speed: 56 Kbps v.90

Semi upgraded in 2004 after my apt was robbed to a
Compaq Presario 6300
Intel ® Pentium ® 4 processor - 2.4GHz
512KB L2 (secondary-on chip) cache
System Memory 512MB 133MHz DDR SDRAM
Hard Drive 80.0 GB UltraDMA Hard Drive
CD-RW (40x max write/10x max re-write/40x max read)
16x max speed DVD-ROM
56K ITU V.90 Modem
Graphics Integrated Intel Extreme graphics
64MB shared video memory

Right now I use my Apple iPad 3, 16gb white with Verizon LTE WI-FI
Or
Apple iMac
Core i3
12 GB Ram
500 GB Hard Drive
OSX 10.7 Lion
21.5"

And in between selling the iPad 2 and waiting for the 3 I have a
Hot Pink Sony Vaio Netbook running Ubuntu
Intel atom POS nothing spectacular to brag about.
Model PCG 21313L

That about does it, I am pretty much strict Apple now since I have been with Ron. We have 2 Apple tv's, Apple Time Capsule, each have a iPhone, and an Apple Airport Express.
 
Xerox dedicated word processor

 

 

Wow... and it had the 8 inch floppy drives... how KEWL is that for data storage!  
smiley-laughing.gif


 

Kevin

 
 

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