What was your first home computer?

[Schaumburger]

I have been watching the CNN series "The Nineties." Last week's episode was about technology in the 1990's, and the focus was on how during the 1990's many Americans purchased their first home PC (or Mac).

Do you remember when you purchased your first home computer? What was your first internet service provider?

I bought my first home computer in 1997, I think it was either a Compaq or an HP desktop running Windows 95. Had a dial-up modem, so if I was on line, people calling me on my landline phone got a busy signal. I'm pretty sure my first PC cost over $1,000. America Online (AOL "You've got mail.") was my first internet service provider.

Does anyone use a dial up modem any longer? I don't think the connection would be fast enough for today's internet.

Now I'm on my fourth home computer, a Toshiba laptop that is pushing 5 years old, which will probably get replaced sometime early next year. My office recently switched to Windows 10, so by the time I replace my laptop, I should be pretty comfortable with Windows 10. My work laptop is a new HP, and it really boots up quickly.

As a side note, in this episode, Bill Gates did not come off as a humanitarian as Microsoft was being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for antitrust violations.

[Wiotte]

IBM PC Jr. 1984, cost me $1,500 with the IBM employee discount and easy payroll deductions [emoji51]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Polar Bear]

I'm a PC guy, but my first computer was an Apple II.

[Mikeod]

We got an Eagle back in 1984. CP/M based. I used it for work as well. Sad story. The owner of the company was killed in a car wreck the day the company went public and he became a multi-millionaire.

A bit later we got an Apple II for my son.

Now we have more power in our phones.

[ColdNoMore]

First used was one at work.


1984 IBM-PC-AT


Slash, file....retrieve. :D

[SFSkol]

Desktop - Epson QX10 1984

CP/M - Operating System
Running Valdoc
W Epson FX-80 dot matrix printer - I still have and use.

Portable -1989 NEC Starlet

CP/M 2.2 operating system
64K RAM
Software included:
Wordstar - Word processor or writing scripts
Calc - Spreadsheets for logging writing expenses
Filer - Cardfile for project ideas and contacts
Telcom - 300 Baud modem - To submit scripts to Hollywood agent


Still have it! Works!

Now running Linux Mint 18.2 (07/2017 release on 2004 Dell 610 (Had XP-Pro). Runs great

[John_W]

In 1992 I had started a mail order business selling new out of print records and import CD's. I was doing a tabloid size display ad in a music trade magazine. A friend had made me a header and footer and I was typing and pasting the entries. He showed me on his computer how easy it was to use Coreldraw 3. After a couple of lessons I went to Circuit City and bought a Packard Bell 486 33mhz 4 MB Ram 13" monitor and tower for about $1100.

I remember going to computer shows throughout the 90's and looking at all the new models each year. You would give the vendors the specs you wanted and they would put together the computer, it was always about $1800. I actually kept that first computer until about 2000 when I needed a Pentium computer for the newer Coreldraw releases. I remember buying that next one from a place in New Jersey that had one of those big display ads in the big Computer Shopper Magazine that you'd see at all the newsstands. I think I paid about $2100 for that next computer, probably included a printer.

[CFrance]

In 1985 we had an Atari with those blue "loops." Then we had a Mac Performa in the 90s. Then we discovered we don't share well, and now we go through them two at a time.

[biker1]

My first home computer was an Apple II. My first "real" computer was a CDC Star 100.

I have been watching the CNN series "The Nineties." Last week's episode was about technology in the 1990's, and the focus was on how during the 1990's many Americans purchased their first home PC (or Mac).

Do you remember when you purchased your first home computer? What was your first internet service provider?

I bought my first home computer in 1997, I think it was either a Compaq or an HP desktop running Windows 95. Had a dial-up modem, so if I was on line, people calling me on my landline phone got a busy signal. I'm pretty sure my first PC cost over $1,000. America Online (AOL "You've got mail.") was my first internet service provider.

Does anyone use a dial up modem any longer? I don't think the connection would be fast enough for today's internet.

Now I'm on my fourth home computer, a Toshiba laptop that is pushing 5 years old, which will probably get replaced sometime early next year. My office recently switched to Windows 10, so by the time I replace my laptop, I should be pretty comfortable with Windows 10. My work laptop is a new HP, and it really boots up quickly.

As a side note, in this episode, Bill Gates did not come off as a humanitarian as Microsoft was being sued by the U.S. Department of Justice for antitrust violations.

[Schaumburger]

Desktop - Epson QX10 1984

CP/M - Operating System
Running Valdoc
W Epson FX-80 dot matrix printer - I still have and use.

Portable -1989 NEC Starlet

CP/M 2.2 operating system
64K RAM
Software included:
Wordstar - Word processor or writing scripts
Calc - Spreadsheets for logging writing expenses
Filer - Cardfile for project ideas and contacts
Telcom - 300 Baud modem - To submit scripts to Hollywood agent


Still have it! Works!

Now running Linux Mint 18.2 (07/2017 release on 2004 Dell 610 (Had XP-Pro). Runs great

When I started using a computer at work (my first "real" job at a bank on the far north side of Chicago) in 1983, I was using Word Perfect for word processing and Lotus 1-2-3 for spreadsheets. The first operating system I had to learn to use at work was MS-DOS.

In 1983 only employees at the bank who had PC's at their desks were admins. and other support people. Managers, directors, VP's and up had no clue about using computers at work (unless they had one at home or worked in the IT department at the bank).

Fast forward to the engineering firm I worked for from 1988 to 2015. In 1988 no engineers or designers were using PC's yet. CAD appeared I think in the early 1990's, and a lot of drafting employees had to retrain to learn CAD if they wanted to keep working. My long-time manager, a VP who was 71 when when we both got the boot (a/k/a laid off/reduction in force) in 2015; in my last few years with this company, he was much more proficient in using PowerPoint than I was.

[Kahuna32162]

An Epson 2 E with a whopping 20 meg HD and 64 Kb or ram. 10 inch green screen monitor and an epson dot matrix printer. Bought it at a Computer Center in a mall for $2,500. Salesman told my I'd never fill that 20 meg HD! 1987

Now, HP pavilion dual core with 12 gigs ram, twin 2.5 tb hdd and dual 24" monitors. I think it's time
for an upgrade.

[deano_hoosier]

Well it definitely wasn't a home computer, but I was fascinated by it. A Friden SR 101 electrical-mechanical calculator that would extract square roots which was a wonderful thing in designing gear trains in 1966.

Friden (http://www.vintagecalculators.com/html/friden.html)

[yesi3putt2]

In 1963 I went to work for the brand new Columbus Plaza Hotel in downtown Columbus, Ohio . I worked the front desk and when people checked in, I took their info and keyed it into an IBM keypunch machine that spit out punch cards (I went to IBM Keypunch School)..all restaurants and vendors in the hotel had scaners that transfered transaction info to the front desk receivers and punched out cards that on checkout all transactions were included on their final bill....waaay back when

[SFSkol]

My most secure private data storage, where I keep all my confidential information.

[Schaumburger]

My most secure private data storage, where I keep all my confidential information.

Wow, I haven't seen one of the big floppy disks in many years!

[rubicon]

My first computer was a Radio Shack Tandy $2500. We also purchased our first printer which I believe was a HP pin wheel drive. I believe the years was 1983.

[John_W]

If you guys are going back to where you worked and the computer you used on the job, then I think I've got a winner. It was August 16, 1977 and how do I remember, it was the day Elvis died. The equipment was a (ARTS 2) Automated Terminal Radar System at Pensacola Approach. We were closing the old approach control located on the Navy base 9 miles away and opening a brand new approach with computerized radar at Pensacola Regional Airport. Our approach was bigger than most because we handled not only the civilian traffic but all the aircraft flying in and out of the 3 Navy Airports in the area and up to Flight Level 210. Most approachs only handle up to 10,000 feet and maybe 25 miles out, we handled up to 50 miles out.

Our new facility looked like a mini-center, we had 10 radar displays each one was outfitted with a new ARTS 2 system, which had a keyboard for entry and a joy stick so you could slew your cursor to the aircraft you wanted to handoff or receive or whatever. This was night and day from what we had at Navy Pensacola. With the digital readout on the screen we now also had altitude from the aircraft transponder and we had ground speed because the computer can calculate speed between radar sweeps. Every aircraft was given a different transponder code to squawk that was unique in the system and the computer would recognize the aircraft and tag it after 2 sweeps.

The older system that we left at Navy Pensacola had no individual identifying ability. What I meant was you worked a sector and you would have every aircraft in your sector squawk the same code, that could be 0400 and every aircraft would look the same. You could tell yours from another sector because they might on 0500 or 0600 etc., but you couldn't tell one aircraft in your sector from another of your aircraft, you had to memorize each aircraft. Also without computer, there is no altitude or ground speed, you could tell a jet from a Cessna for example because when looking at primary radar, you see a trail behind the aircraft and of course a jet has a longer trail. The new radar was not primary radar, you were looking at a computer display, which meant you had to have a transponder in your aircraft to be seen.

The day we made the change over I was at Navy Pensacola with one other controller and we were handing off the aircraft to the new facility. They would give us the new transponder code and we would give it to the aircraft and when the new facility had radar contact we would give them control. During one of the landline communications with the other facility, the controller voice was coming out of the speaker above my console and he said, 'did you hear, Elvis died', that was some shock just when we were doing this. I never forgot that day.

https://farm6.static.flickr.com/5010/5379074957_ee8e990d76_b.jpg

[Polar Bear]

...Now we have more power in our phones.
We have far more power in our current phones than the computers used to land the first man on the moon. :)

[Fredster]

It must have been sometime in the early 80's and I was out of work, looking for a job.
After a couple of phone contacts with prospective employers who asked me computer related questions,
I realized I was what was known as a "computer illiterate".
This realization motivated me to invest in a small Mac (don't recall the model) and then each morning
I got out the manual, poured a cup of coffee, and proceeded to teach myself the basics.
I treated it like I was going to work!

Then as luck would have it, I get hired by a firm that was just considering going to computers,
and to my surprise, even with my rudimentary knowledge I was in a fairly short time the department computer guru! :MOJE_whot:
Go figure, what a change in a matter of months!

[biker1]

Well, yes, that was nearly 50 years ago in 1969 - an eternity in computer technology. My iPhone has more raw computing power than a Cray-2 (a system with no fundamental design limitations, not even price) from 1985 - 16 years later than that. However, it is a totally silly comparison as the design objective of the systems on Apollo were much different (power usage and reliability were important).

We have far more power in our current phones than the computers used to land the first man on the moon. :)

[jsw14]

I'm a PC guy, but my first computer was an Apple II.

My first PC was a Apple II C, no hard drive. Ur info was stored on 5" floppy disk. I still have it....:)

[n8xwb]

TI-99 in the early eighties, followed by an Apple 2C.

[jnieman]

I first began using computers in the late 1970's. My first one was a mag card with a one line screen. I remember we would have stacks and stacks of magnetic cards that had to be kept in order and numbered with a grease pencil. I remember dropping the stack on the floor by accident and it was an unnumbered pile. I had to start the document all over again. I graduated from that to a Wang computer with a tube monitor. I remember it having an Execute key where you would type then hit execute.

I still have my original AOL account and have used it all of these years and it still works fine.

[biker1]

Dropping an IBM 029 card punch deck was not much fun either. You pretty much only did that once and then you sequenced your decks.

I first began using computers in the late 1970's. My first one was a mag card with a one line screen. I remember we would have stacks and stacks of magnetic cards that had to be kept in order and numbered with a grease pencil. I remember dropping the stack on the floor by accident and it was an unnumbered pile. I had to start the document all over again. I graduated from that to a Wang computer with a tube monitor. I remember it having an Execute key where you would type then hit execute.

I still have my original AOL account and have used it all of these years and it still works fine.

[jnieman]

Dropping an IBM 029 card punch deck was not much fun either. You pretty much only did that once and then you sequenced your decks.

Yes, for sure I remember those punch card computers. I remember sending that document down to technical publications (tech pubs) for them to retype it. I think it was several hundred pages.

[biker1]

Depending on how much clout/funding you had would impact whether you could use hard drive space on the system. If you didn't have much then you used card decks.

Yes, for sure I remember those punch card computers. I remember sending that document down to technical publications (tech pubs) for them to retype it. I think it was several hundred pages.

[Nucky]

My first computer was a Compaq from Crazy Eddie. Searching for a faster dial up was everyone's mission and I had a company called Net-Zero. The computer cost me an arm and a leg and I was self taught and never gave up trying to learn how to use that sucker. I can remember the awe I felt when somebody in the computer talked to me. Whoa! Probably the best thing I could do now is take a course just above the basic class in TV'S. Thank's for another great memory Schaumburger.

[Carla B]

In the mid 80's I had a very costly PORTABLE Compaq that weighed 35 lbs. that I would carry around to do clients' bookkeeping. I couldn't afford to buy it outright so my friend financed it. Then we got married and I didn't have to make payments any more.

[Jima64]

home built from a kit, very sloow almost no storage.

[Jaggy]

I think the first was Gateway? I just remember buying it cause the black and white box was so darn cute !!!!

[Schaumburger]

I think the first was Gateway? I just remember buying it cause the black and white box was so darn cute !!!!

My second desktop computer was a Gateway -- probably purchased around 2002. That is when I went from a dial up modem to hi-speed internet from the dreaded Comcast. In 2002 in the northwest suburbs of Chicago the only choices for hi-speed internet were AT&T or Comcast, and AT&T was not yet available in my suburb. I have been a Comcast customer (for better or worse) since 2002.

Gateway used to have retail stores, and I took several classes at their retail store near me. All of the classes were free of charge.

[Sparty6971]

The first computer I worked with was a large main frame at our university - batch processed. We were given 20 seconds of user time for each problem we had to solve for our class in learning Fortran IV.

The first computer I actually owned was an Apple ][e in 1982. Eventually had a dot-matrix Apple Printer, two disk drives, a CPM card, and a memory expansion card on which I was able to afford an extra 128K of memory. Computer User Groups were quite the thing to belong to back then just to learn how to do simple things just beyond loading AppleWriter as well as starting to learn about the ARPANET AND DARPANET.

[mtdjed]

In the mid 1980s I had a job requiring making huge proposals for jet engines, parts, tools , support etc. I was introduced to Wang PC-001 (Professional Computer) at work. Bought one myself used for around $3000. The Monitor CRT weighed about 20 pounds and had a black screen with white characters. Had two 5 1/4 floppy drives. Added a hard drive. Used a spreadsheet program called Multiplan. The thing weighed about 30 pounds and took up half my desk. Had a printer with tape and paper with holes for the sprocket drive. I think my word processing software was called Officewriter. No Internet access. Data transfer by me carrying floppies from work to home and back.

My wife hated that machine.

Just bought my wife a new IPAD Mini 4 yesterday with 132 GB for $279.

[chuckinca]

My first computer was a IBM PC Jr with 128K of RAM that cost me about $2500. In 1985 I traded my brother-in-law, a computer sales rep, a highchair for a used MAC 512 with a 20 Meg hard drive. Used a telephone modem at 2400 K speed to get on the web and use Prodigy - where I got my computer moniker chuckinca (people then were always asking where you were from so I put it in my online name).

.

[LittleDog]

Our first computer was an Apple II in the late 70's. We had a dot matrix printer and the monitor only showed 40 characters on a line. When my agency was going to get an IBM pc I was a social work supervisor but was one of the few people in the agency that was familiar with computers so I got the job as an Administrative Analyst. The agency purchased an IBM pc in the early 80's and eventually we purchased an external 5 MB external hard disk. I remember the sales people at the computer store said that we would never fill up that hard disk. That was the era when 1-2-3 spread sheet came on floppy disks.

How times have changed.

John

ps - Bought a Macintosh when they came out in 1984.

[villagetinker]

My first 2 computers were DIY (solder in all the parts), an RCA COSMIC ELF 1802 based, and a little later a Zilog Z-80 based, both had 4K of memory (around $400 each!!), both used a cassette recorder for program storage, and both were programmed in hexadecimal machine code.

Then came a Radio Shack model 1, I built my own expansion interface, and a speed doubler circuit. This was expanded include my first hard drive 5meg at a cost of around $400.

Then came an Apple 2, actually a black apple (made by Bell & Howell?), had to get one of these as I had a side job writing custom software, and the customer had Apple PCs.

Then there followed a string of increasing larger IBM based PCs over the years. While I did do some custom computer interfaces for the side job, in general I gave up building my own after wire wrapping a 128 kb memory card, around 50 ICs, and lots of connections, but worked like a champ for years.

Continued to write custom software, this time for my employer (gave up the side job), and eventually ended up with a patent of some of it.

I still dabble with some of the small single card computers.

I honestly do not remember the internet provider, both I do remember the joy of going from 300 baud, 1200 baud, then 28.8k baud, and all the way to 56k baud.
fond memories.

[Northerner52]

in 1984 Apple had a weekend test drive with a Mac and printer. Took it home for the weekend and computerized a non profit mailing list of over 2,000. External HD from Corvus was the size of a small printer! I created a database in less than an hour. The Mac without a HD was $2,500. Been a Mac guy ever since. in 1989 my employer let me take a Mac home and I remember using Apple eWorld for dial up. Very cute Town Square interface. in mid 1980s ought a $2,500 Leading Edge clone but sold it in a few years. Today have 6 Apple products!

[leftyf]

I go way back, my first was a Commodore 64 (I think I remember it right).

[Villager Joyce]

This was a great walk down memory lane. Thanks for the great question and answers.

[rexxfan]

I have been watching the CNN series "The Nineties." Last week's episode was about technology in the 1990's, and the focus was on how during the 1990's many Americans purchased their first home PC (or Mac).

Do you remember when you purchased your first home computer? What was your first internet service provider?


My first computer was an Apple II that I bought in 1980. I sold it a year later when the IBM PC came out. My first Internet provider was a small local ISP in the Mid-Hudson Valley. idsi.net that I signed up with sometime in the early 1990's. Most of those small, independent ISP's are gone now. Now I get Internet through my cable company (Optimum in NY and Comcast here).
--
Bob C

[jpvillager]

1980 Atari 800 + 1st colored TV. Kids say it was the best Christmas ever. Never told them it was my present also. Still have the 800 and all that goes with it. Very first was 1966 at UB. Main frame using key punch cards.

[crash]

Looks like I am the only one here mine was an Atari 520 st. 512 K of memory no hard drive. It used the Motorola 68000 processor the same as the Mac. I was the computer emulator in our club and could run IBM xt software and Mac software using emulator hardware and software. It ran Mac software faster than a Mac but was painfully slow as a IBM xt but so was the xt. I added 2 megs of memory and a 30 mb hard drive which I thought I would never need more.

This was when AOL was just starting up as the only graphic based internet site. My aol username was my name with no other letters or numbers added.

[CowBubba]

Commodore VIC 20.

[Henryk]

TRS-80, then commodore 64. Later PC-XT with Genie.

[CowBubba]

TRS-80, then commodore 64. Later PC-XT with Genie.

My first real computer was the 64. Ya know we're dating ourself just knowing what a Commodore 64 is. I had a VIC 20, but it was barely a computer.

[twoplanekid]

My first experience with computers was using a mini system that used these two removable storage media, an eight inch floppy and a 5 megabyte removable platter. For those computer buffs out there, the name of this popular computer of the late 70’s would be??

[Henryk]

My first real computer was the 64. Ya know we're dating ourself just knowing what a Commodore 64 is. I had a VIC 20, but it was barely a computer.

Heh, heh. Aging ourselves? LOL!

Actually, in the '70s I was on the IBM-370 doing assembler programming, and later supervisor state and key 0. Anyone relate to this?

[Henryk]

My first experience with computers was using a mini system that used these two removable storage media, an eight inch floppy and a 5 megabyte removable platter. For those computer buffs out there, the name of this popular computer of the late 70’s would be??

Wang?

[twoplanekid]

Wang?


Yes! I am constantly impressed by the accumulated knowledge of Villagers.

I started out with a Wang 2200T with 16K of ram which was then upgraded for several thousands of dollars to a 32K VP. The Wang ended up being a 64k MVP unit with multiprogramming capabilities which allowed adding several terminals.

As custom applications were not available or taking too long to be written, I taught myself to program the Wang and ended up writing most of the applications.

I talked the Champaign Historical Museum in Ohio to keep and display the Wang as a historical artifact.

[golf2140]

I go way back, my first was a Commodore 64 (I think I remember it right).

Yep, great machine at the times. I was able to do our little league memberships on it. Way back when !!

[Aloha1]

In 1975 at Honeywell, we sold a 25 MB disk drive ( yes, 25 megabytes) that required an air cooled environment for $25,000. It went with the Honeywell 2000. A state of the art computer with 256KB of internal memory and the latest in Hollerith punch card technology. Again needed an air cooled room and cost $250,000.

In 1979, I saw something called the Texas Instruments 99/A home computer. Used GROM cartridges for games and basic learning games plus 5 1/4 inch floppies so you could run things like Multiplan. I knew the world had changed at that moment and switched careers. But I still have that TI 99/A!

[Schaumburger]

A movie that well illustrates the pre-computer days of the early 1960's is "Hidden Figures" which was released earlier this year. If you want to rent a great movie, get this one. The story focuses on a team of female mathematicians who worked for NASA before computers were commonplace. Parts of the movie may make you angry; parts of the movie will make you cheer and applaud.

[TomPerry]

My first computer was a Tandy Radio Shack TRS-80 around 1972. It had 16K of memory and I boosted it up to an amazing 48K of memory!! I installed two double-density, double-sided 5 1/4" floppy drives for an amazing storage of 360K each!! With the supplied Manuel I taught myself to wright programs in Basis. I used it in my CPA practice for years with an Epson MX-80 bi-directional dot-matrix printer with a speed of 80 cps!! We said "nobody could type that fast!!!".

[aninjamom]

Our first one was a Dell 429? that I think we inherited from a boss that was upgrading. My husband just wanted to be able to type a letter on it, and I learned a lot about computers and Windows by going: "what does this do?" and then having to "escape" or reboot! That computer was very forgiving. I remember being impressed when the 1MB floppy came out! Now I have a Toshiba Satellite laptop with 1TB on it and a touch screen. I love it but I do miss the CD drive.

[Topspinmo]

I go way back, my first was a Commodore 64 (I think I remember it right).

I had the up scale version Commodores 128 with hole punch paper printer. Kmart special mid 80s? Some knowledge in COBOL, pascal, and basic was really handy.

[JerryLBell]

My first home PC was a Texas Instruments TI-99/4A. According to Wikipedia, it had a 3 Mhz CPU made by Texas Instruments, 16 kilobytes of graphics RAM and 256 bytes of "scratchpad" RAM. Programs that I typed in were saved to audio cassettes. It had a BASIC language interpreter built-in and from that I taught myself programming. I took a class on BASIC to expand on that and from that ended up quitting my career in sales, going back to school to learn programming, becoming a college instructor and then a software engineer. That first computer put me on the road to the career from which I just retired.

My second home computer was a LOT more fun. It was a Commodore C64. It had a 1 Mhz CPU made by MOS, 64 kilobytes of RAM and 20 kilobytes of ROM. I had first one then two floppy drives (5.25", 160 Kb single-sided diskettes). It also had a BASIC language interpreter built-in but you could load and run interpreters and compilers for several other programming languages plus word processors, spreadsheet generators, graphics programs, music programs and thousands of games. There are still people out there that think that this was the most fun home computer ever.

I eventually got an IBM PS/2 PC; the first "serious" or "business" computer I ever owned. It was the first I had that included a hard drive (aka a "fixed disc"). Since then I've bought or built probably a dozen or more computers for myself and dozens for other folks.

There is no other technology that has ever grown the way electronics like this has. For example, my first hard drive held forty megabytes (essentially, forty million bytes). I have several hard drives in my current PC ranging from two to eight trillion bytes each and each of them are smaller, hugely faster and much less expensive than that first one. Plus I have a tiny "flash" drive in my phone that holds 128 billion bytes (32,000 times the capacity of my first drive), has no moving parts and is the size of the fingernail on my little finger. The advances are mind-boggling. Don't even get me started on comparing tablets and smart phones to those original PCs. If cars had advanced at the rate of computers, we'd all be buying flying cars for a few hundred dollars that got a thousand miles a gallon and could go into orbit or drive us to the moon.

[JerryLBell]

I had the up scale version Commodores 128 with hole punch paper printer. Kmart special mid 80s? Some knowledge in COBOL, pascal, and basic was really handy.
That was my third computer! It was everything good about the Commodore C64 but twice the speed, twice the memory and an 80 column (instead of 40 column) display. What a great early PC!

[Ithreeputtoo]

I had a Commodore 64 back in mid 80's first then an Apple II

[Regor]

Bought a TRS-80 in 1977 when they were introduced. 4k of ram. Around $600 then (Equivalent to $2600 today). Used a cassette tape for storage

[MrGolf]

A DEC Rainbow in 1982 or 3.

[MrGolf]

My first modem was 300 baud. Thought it was really something special. Now we complain if refresh isn't instantaneous. HA

[tuccillo]

I had a Digi-comp.

Digi-Comp I - Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I)