OK, who remembers these?

[Dos_Box]

I don't know is this article has been mentioned here but it made a good read: Coding on tape - computer science A-level 1970s style - BBC News

 

 

I recall the first computer I saw in high school. It was a teletype looking thing than ran off punch tape and had its own special room.

I never once saw it in operation. By the end of the first year we had a 'real' computer suite with RM and BBC machines. This beast of a teletype still sat in it's own custom built enclosure and was still there when I left in '86 and I never once saw it working (jult like the kilns in the art dept!).

[elsiegee40]

I realise that I'm a dinosaur - I left school in 1982.

 

I had no idea Computer Science A Level existed then

 

I did my Computer Studies ( note the name) degree at Lancaster University based on Physics A Level and previous experience of Basic on my Dad's Commodore Pet that he used to bring home from work. I'm got to choose whether I got BSc or BA because the university authorities had no idea how to classify Computing. I chose BSc.

 

I did the entire first year programming modules on punch cards. We got to use Mop terminals and a teletype in the second year.

 

When I graduated I went to work for a major insurer. We had punch cards for output to the brokers and underwriters because they preferred them to continuous feed paper or a screen display. The machines were eventually retired around 1998. One of them went to the Science Museum:D

Edited April 11, 2016 by elsiegee40

[DavePa]

I realise that I'm a dinosaur - I left school in 1982.

 

I'd been at work for a few years by then!

 

Never had computers at school but had my 1st experience of 'computing' using a dumb terminal sometime in the mid 1970's although that was purely using it to look up customer records as we (North Thames GasBoard) were in the process of transferring records from microfiche onto a mainframe. Probably have 100x more processing power in my mobile phones these days!

[localzuk]

That stuff predates me a bit! My first computer, when I was 4, was the Acorn Archimedes, brought home by my dad during holidays from work. Even then, I was amazed and in love with computers.

 

I missed out on the early era sadly.

[Patrick]

My first computer was mitsubishi apricot running 3.1 I'm quite a way off you guys. Would of liked to have been there for start of it all though. Edited April 11, 2016 by Patrick

[TechSupp]

I hold my hand up and say I remember those things! I left school in 1980 and had done two years of computing by then. We had a telephone link to the local collage and used to use a punched tape machine to prepare code before either running it over the phone or having a trip to the collage and creating the punched cars in big wads to....calculate the are of a triangle etc!

[bossman]

Left school in 1976 my only computer was a slide rule and a book of logarithm tables at that time.

 

First computer Commodore VIC-20 then moved to the Commodore’s Amiga 1000

 

The rest is history, a long history as I am moving towards the grand age of 60 and still learning.

 

Found a good history site:http://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/

Edited April 11, 2016 by bossman

[rich_tech]

Child of the Acorn Electron here, parents bought me one for my 6th birthday (1986), built sturdy too, nearly at Ferguson Videostar standards of durability had to connect a separate tape recorder too, magical times there waiting for games to load.

 

I also started out on the internet in the 90s with a 14.4k modem, though I am wagering we will not be long before people on here connected from the days of ADSL/Cable Modems only.

[elsiegee40]

I'd been at work for a few years by then!

 

Never had computers at school but had my 1st experience of 'computing' using a dumb terminal sometime in the mid 1970's although that was purely using it to look up customer records as we (North Thames GasBoard) were in the process of transferring records from microfiche onto a mainframe. Probably have 100x more processing power in my mobile phones these days!

 

I worked for the CEGB (Electricity Generation) in my holidays on their attempt to computerise Personnel records. Their computers were better than those at university, at least the ones the undergraduates were allowed to use, until I got to my final year

[DavePa]

@bossman - born the same year as me. I also had slide rules and books of logarithm tables but a different start in computing. 1st I had was a Sharp PC1211 handheld which was followed by a Sharp MZ-80k, couple of BBCs and then a long line of PCs starting with an Amstrad PC1512

[unixman_again]

When I was at high school in the 1970s, the nearby teachers college had computer, which was probably an IBM System/3 which select group of us were able to use. My memory is vague but I remember we typed in some BASIC and I think we got it to play Noughts and Crosses.

 

In my final year of high school, I built a modified version of J.A.C.K.I.E (Joint Arithmetic Calculator and Kinetic Input Evaluator) from the book We Built Our Own Computers It was electomechanical (relays) and had 8 bits of memory. It would add, subtract or multiply. I have a copy of the book (in immaculate condition) and I'd love to remake it. Trouble is, I was much cleverer then - I don't understand the CPU diagrams in it.

 

Come 1976, I was at uni were we had a CDC Cyber 173 (picture below) and DEC PDP-8s and PDP-11s. The Cyber was programed via punched cards and/or timesharing VDU and you could use BASIC, COBOL, Fortran, Pascal or machine code. The latter was highly discouraged. On the PDPs it was all machine code, fed in via paper tape or a DEC LA36 Decwriter. We also learned RPG II, which we programmed on OMR cards and they were sent off somewhere, and came back three or four days later. In my final year at uni, we had an Apple but I never bothered with it - seems to be too much of a toy.

 

My first job, in 1979 was working on IBM 360s and all programming was via punch cards. There was a team of six programmers and three punch girls and part of the punch girls remit, was to make coffee for the programmers. I couldn't be bothered with that nonsense and I was once told off by the boss for making my own.

 

Like DavePa and Bossman, I learned to use a slide rule and log book at school. I still have both and I can just about still use them.

 

I briefly had a Commodore 64 when they came out. I sold it after about 6 months, for more than I paid for it. There was a shortage at the time.

 

I didn't get a home PC until 2002 - I used the Unix boxes at work. I was beaten soundly by my father, who got one in 1999.

[DJ-1701]

BASIC <3

First machine here I remember was my mum's Commodore Vic20. Used to get those old programming guides, loved playing and coding on it. Also remember playing games such as Space Invaders and Blitz.

 

[jinnantonnixx]

First computer was a Spectrum for Christmas 1982.

In school we had BBCs and a 380Z, but nobody really knew how to operate it.

College was DEC HiNet and IBM XTs and ATs.

Uni was with 286/386 era and Sun Sparcstations/Unix and VAX VMS mini.

First job was on IBM AS/400 mini + PCs.

Downhill from thereon.

Edited April 11, 2016 by jinnantonnixx

[MkII]

Same age as @bossman and @DavePa. At school in 1974 we had the option to go to the local tech to use their mainframe. Ticker tape typewriters in the basement. What a nightmare.

I'm sure there was a BBC in school later. And my 6th form had a mainframe in a room jealously guarded. Never got in. My boss had a Z80, Z81 and Spectrum, and later a QL and an Archimedes. Work got us a Viglen 286 to install a database. My wife owned a C64 so I adopted that for a year or so. 1st PC was a 386.

[Dos_Box]

My journey went something like:

 

ZX81

Commodore C16

Atari 130XE

Commodore 64

 

*Lot's of fun time programming in BASIC and manually entering HEX dumps I'm always tempted to buy a ZX81 when I see them come up on Ebay. That and a Spectrum because I never had one and I think it's a design classic!

 

Then there was a 9 year break until I brought a...

 

Compaq 386 laptop (used)

Time Computers Cyrix 200 thing (it was truely, truely awful).

[DJ-1701]

Time Computers Cyrix 200 thing (it was truely, truely awful).

 

Ah, so I was not alone in having a Time Machine.

[Little-Miss]

I quite clearly remember an Amstrad CPC464, and then an upgrade to a CPC 464Plus....it had a cartridge in the side with Burning Rubber on it.

 

Then a mixture of second hand PCs that i would break and then eventually learn to fix....

 

Eventually built my own. Couldn't tell you what was in it now though....

Edited April 11, 2016 by Little-Miss

[DJ-1701]

and then eventually learn to fix....

 

Some of us are still working on that part.

[crc-ict]

I started off with a secondhand Atari 800XL, probably somewhere around 1989.

 

Followed up shortly after with an Atari 512STE (which I still have).

 

After that, moved on to an Advent PC with a 486 DX/2 50 processor, 4MB ram and a 170MB HD, about 1995.

 

PCs all the way from that, going through a Cyrix 6x86, AMD K6/2 500, Celeron, Pentium 4, Core 2 Duo up to today's i5-2500K

[Patrick]

My journey went something like:

 

 

Time Computers Cyrix 200 thing (it was truely, truely awful).

 

You have just reminded me that i used to have a Cyrix CPU powered computer in the mid to late 90's. I had completely forgotten about that! I was probably only 7 -8 year old at the time so i probably killed it taking it apart and trying to put it back together.

[Little-Miss]

I owned an Olivetti PC at some point too....

[Tesla]

First PC was a Compaq PC with a 386 processor with windows 3.1 (I broke that)

 

second one was a 486 with windows 9...5? (I fixed that after windows went and done goofed.... more fluke than anything!)

 

third was a Pentium 200 Mhz MMX machine, windows 9...8? Not sure tbh (bought a newer machine so my Mum could play Riven, I think)

 

Fourth was Pentium 4 2.6ghz processor (this lasted about 8 years)

 

Current one my parents have is some AMD Dual core thing that does what they need it to!

[DJ-1701]

I owned an Olivetti PC at some point too....

 

With or without a hard drive?

 

It's amazing to think all the brand names that have disappeared now... Tulip Computers anyone?

[DalekSec]

My 1st family PC was xp... my 1st PC was vista

[BKGarry]

My first PC was an IBM Aptiva Desktop PC

 

133Mhz Pentium

12MB EDO RAM

1.5GB HDD (that was really noisy)

Had a soundblaster Pro 16bit ISA Card in there

Shared SIS Graphics

4 speed CDROM Drive :-)

 

I loved it, came with Windows 95 with Plus, which meant I had plenty of time to practice the Space Cadet Pinball more than everyone else.

 

It was brought from Tempo for £1,200 and was the cheapest machine they did :-/ (my dad had some shares with Tesco's save as you earn scheme at the time)

Edited April 11, 2016 by BKGarry