[marianne237]

The first computer I was involved with still used key punch cards, and my job was a key punch card operator. The computer was kept in an isolated office with air conditioning and it was the most fascinating thing I'd ever seen.
After switching jobs, my office purchased a large Radio Shack Tandy that used 5" discs for storage. It was fun to work with and did the job needed.

My husband had a Compaq, and wanted to upgrade to a new 'puter in late 1999. We held off getting one until 2000 because of all the questionable statements going on then about how computers would be all messed up.
Remember all that silliness that was going around?

We now have an Acer.

First one was a Radio Shack PC2 - basically a programmable (basic) calculator. Mostly for hobbiests. My first real computer was a PC with 8k ram and two 5 1/4" floppy drives (A & B). I never did use the TRS 80 8" floppy drives. Then a few months later, I moved up to 16k ram, with a 5MB hard drive, and then to a 64 k ram and a 10Mb hard drive. I thought that was all the computing power I would ever need. I started using the old VisiCalc spreadsheet program in about 1980, which led to Lotus 1-2-3 (which I still use today), and then to Excel. Since I started my career in finance and accounting in the late 1960's, well before there were any desktop computers, I can fully appreciate the exponential productivity gains the computer has allowed.

[golf2140]

Commodore 64. What a beast !!!!!!!!

[Xavier]

Originally Posted by The Great Fumar

Mine was a Philco and it was gas operated .......I still have it but my wife won't let me turn it on ...

phew fumar

Did it have a kick-starter or did you have a newer model?

[obxgal]

packard bell

[DickY]

Commodore 64, upgraded to a Commodore 128, before that had an Adam game system.

[faithfulfrank]

Originally Posted by memason

Frank....looks like you've bought into the rumor mill on the Apple tablet. It'll be interesting to see if they announce one, since there's a ton of buzz already.

Do you also have an iPhone? I have one and it's the most amzing phone/computer/ipod/???? I've ever owned...bar none. I gave up a World Edition Blackberry for the iPhone...never looked back. Even used the GPS for golf, here in Germany last year.

I do not want to throw off the thread, but I also do not want to appear rude and not reply, so No, I do not have an iphone....i'd love one, but Verizon is king up here, and until I move to Florida full time, in 532 more days, I can't have one. If you guys get good reception there with ATT, then I may. Who knows if by then ATT will even have the contract exclusively by then?

Anyway, back to the original question.......

Thanks! Frank

[Don H]

I had a Radio Shack color computer hooked up to a tv. It had 4K of memory. That's right 4 "K"! I had dial-up to what was probably the first online service, Compuserve. It was a text only service. I used to fool around with programming using "BASIC" from a how-to book sold by Radio Shack. This was probably around 1979. The other big computer Radio Shack sold back then was the TRS-80. It was their original offering. Programming was stored on an audio cassette tape! Whoa, we've come a long way.

[Shirleevee]

Gateway

[Xavier]

Originally Posted by Don H

I had a Radio Shack color computer hooked up to a tv. It had 4K of memory. That's right 4 "K"! I had dial-up to what was probably the first online service, Compuserve. It was a text only service. I used to fool around with programming using "BASIC" from a how-to book sold by Radio Shack. This was probably around 1979. The other big computer Radio Shack sold back then was the TRS-80. It was their original offering. Programming was stored on an audio cassette tape! Whoa, we've come a long way.

Yes we have. I have a true story about a friend of mine who also had a Color Computer and we had a little club of enthusiasts. Anyway, after upgrading his memory and doing all we could to be in the technology main stream, he decided to buy a 5 1/4 in Disk Drive. He called a place in Massachusetts to make the order and the sales lady asked how many disks he wanted. He said, as serious as could be, "Well I can't imagine ever needing more than one." We HAVE come a long way. Do you remember the Rainbow Computer Magazine. People would write Basic code and publish it in the magazine and we'd type it in to our computer. I used to write programs in Basic so the kids could practice their math facts and many times I out-wrote the memory in the computer.

[zcaveman]

I started my career in programming with the IBM 1401 back in 1965.

But my first purchased home computer was a TRS-80. I used a cassette player to save the programs I wrote in Basic. I crossed my fingers every time I loaded them. Prayed to make sure they loaded. The disk drives were too expensive. The next was a Commodore 64 with that special programming add on. Can't remember the name but it had some great correlation macros. I wrote several sub shoots boat programs and a library program in BASIC. My first real computer was an IBM Aptiva. I really liked it but it had a software modem that croaked every time the ISP made made a change. And of course it was my fault. After spending countless hours debugging every new problem, I purchased a ZOOM modem and unloaded the Aptiva modem software. Clear sailing after that.

My only problem with the PCs is that I lived out in the sticks in New Jersey - Sussex County and the best I could do was a 26000 Baud transfer rate.

When I moved to TV I went right with the cable modem and have been a happy guy ever since.

[mitchbr47]

In 1984 I bought my first computer. It was a 128k Apple IIc with that ugly green screen. With a printer the bill was over $1600. The OS was called ProDos. I wouldn't mess with the cassette tapes on earlier computers. I remember wasting a whole prep hour trying to load a cassette. Very frustrating until the invention of the floppy disk. I remember typing grad school papers and the data wouldn't always fit on one floppy disk. Those were the days! I ran that machine for 7 years. It still ran but was so outdated. I still have it in the attic up north.

[RVRoadie]

There is something fishy about the OP. Look at the 4 threads that the OP started, with no subsequent posts. Also, these same threads have been started by the same OP on the Escapees Forum (RV forum that I follow).

[chuckinca]

Ur right - strange!

[Yoda]

RADIO SHACK Model 1