Stephen Mann Wrote:Okay, you're older than I am.Quote:Star Ranger4 wrote:whippper snappers. My first (owned) computer was its predecessor, the Commodore 64.The first computer I touched was the local community college's timeshare set-up (for a class on computer graphics). It used dumb terminals hooked to the college mainframe. I learned Basic on the TRS-80 my Junior year in college, after which I bought a Commodore 64 (w/ 300 baud modem). My college computer lab had Apple II and II+, Commodore 64, and IBM Jr. machines. All of which used 5" floppies....and yes, they really were floppy.
and I'd learned basic programing on TRS 80's and occasionally the school's mainframe, which I think i've mentioned in the past used like a 300 baud Accoustic coupler. thats right, not a modem per sey, but an actual accoustic coupler you'd manually dial and then plug the handset into when the other end picked up and started the handshake protocol!
Fortunately, I never had to deal with punchcards, though many college friends did.
I only ever had one box of punch cards, and I never used them all. I had more than a few lengths of paper tape, though.
Do you remember an old Canadian SF series called Starlost? Do you remember the computer terminals in the show? We had one of those at home for a couple of months, when I was young - the speed of the characters appearing on the screen was accurate for data being transmitted over a 110 baud (not 110k, just 110) acoustic coupler.
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."
- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012