Post #184,298
11/17/04 3:04:15 AM
11/17/04 3:05:47 AM
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Practical Demonstration of Breadth Of ZIWTer Experience
We can demonstrate this right here :-)
First computer you ever used in the workplace? (disregard exotic UNIX/Pr1meOS/VMS/etc boxes used at University)
I’ll start, with an Acorn A3000 (8MHz ARM2, 2MB RAM, no HD), which I used to produce the stock sheets for the ice-cream kiosk in which I had a summer job when I was 14-16.
In the real, tax-paying world of work, ten years later (long story), I started with a 25MHz 486SX, with 8MB of RAM and a 120MB hard disk.
And yes, you CAN fit DOS 6.22, WfW 3.11, Office Pro 4.3, plus a Netware 4 IPX/SPX client plus IPX->TCP/IP gateway onto that disk. And Netscape Navigator 3.
And have room for a document. Or two, if they’re short.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Home]
Edited by pwhysall
Nov. 17, 2004, 03:05:47 AM EST
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Post #184,303
11/17/04 6:35:25 AM
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In the Army
Wang PCS II
16k RAM
2 160k floppy
No HD
Wang BASIC
Use to create personnel management (HR) application
A good friend will come and bail you out of jail ... but, a true friend will be sitting next to you saying, "Damn...that was fun!"
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Post #184,307
11/17/04 7:03:09 AM
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IBM 5120
[link|http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/pc/pc_6.html|http://www-1.ibm.com...bits/pc/pc_6.html]
My first taxable computer work... Wrote a payroll program for the ARC (Association of Retarded Citizens) for Hunterdon County.
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
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Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
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Post #184,312
11/17/04 8:58:41 AM
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PDP-11 controller
at a thread-making factory. Ported a diagnostic application my professor developed at the colledge. The OS was RT-11, VT220 terminal. I added Russian language to the terminal, and as a diversion programmed Archon-like game.
--
This guy's ahead of his time! He's using quantum programming methods: in universes where invalid data is passed to this function, it does not return. Thus you are ensured that you will only have valid data after calling it. Optimally you'd destroy the universe on failure, but computers haven't quite advanced to that level yet.
-- [link|http://thedailywtf.com/archive/2004/10/26/2920.aspx|The] Daily WTF
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Post #184,316
11/17/04 9:08:53 AM
11/17/04 9:33:45 AM
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IBM 709.
[link|http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP709.html|IBM 709], a vacuum-tube (valve to Peter) machine, with 16K? of 36-bit words. The memory used ferrite cores (hence the term "core dump"). Besides coding Assembler, one could use Fortran. And, of course, the input medium was punch cards.
The above machine was about to be replaced by an [link|http://www-1.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP7090.html|IBM 7090], a transistor machine, and it was my job to make some experimental I/O gear work with the new electrical interface.
Just slightly later, by a couple month or so, I used the [link|http://www.cedmagic.com/history/dec-pdp-1.html|DEC PDP-1] (There had to be a PDP-1! :)). It had 4K (but possibly 8K) of 18-bit words. Paper tape was the primary input medium for your code. It was a "hands on" machine. It was, in fact, physically the very machine on which Spacewar, the first video game, was written and run.
There was no OS for the PDP-1. You boot loaded from paper tape the program you needed.
[edit] Can't leave well enough alone. :)
Alex
In politics, what begins in fear usually ends in folly. -- Samuel Taylor Coleridge, poet (1772-1834)
Edited by a6l6e6x
Nov. 17, 2004, 09:24:48 AM EST
Edited by a6l6e6x
Nov. 17, 2004, 09:33:45 AM EST
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Post #184,317
11/17/04 9:13:22 AM
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Atari 800
Yes. 64K RAM (32K at a time, top bank switchable with a POKE) and a cassette drive.
I wrote a BASIC program that was used to input and sort (by album and title) all of the songs at my Dad's radio station, save the list to cassette, and print the whole shebang out. I was about 13 or 14 at the time, I'd guess, and working weekends running the sound board at the radio station.
Next summer job was on a 286 running Paradox, creating randomized (with rules) playlists of the songs for the production manager to put on reel-to-reel for a varied rotation, ca. '89 or so (meaning I was 20).
Then I had a part-time job during school and summer programming FoxBASE on a 386 running Xenix for a trucking firm.
First full time job was at Coopers & Lybrand programming tax calculators (the program interpolated current tax data 10 years out) in C on OS/2. We were using 486 DX66/2s with 64M of RAM, and man were we living the high life with those machines. This was 1992.
My current job involves Sun 6800s and Linux.
Regards,
-scott anderson
"Welcome to Rivendell, Mr. Anderson..."
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Post #184,322
11/17/04 9:53:11 AM
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Let's see...
Real jobs, eh? OK. An NCR 286 PC running DOS 3.3 using WordPerfect 5.0; and a IBM AS-400 something or other running some data entry stuff for a company that owned about 70 Domnios Pizza stores.
The data entry stuff was very unfriendly - e.g. To enter 100 units of pizza dough I had to type in 10000. :-/
Cheers,
Scott.
(Who used an [link|http://www.interex.org/tech/csl/RTE/HP_Manuals/RTE-A/|HP-1000], an [link|http://www.coho.org/~pete/IPC/integral.html|HP-IPC], an IBM 1xxx thing (that had a disk pack that was 2 feet in diameter and was run by Hollerith cards) that controlled a flat-bed CalComp plotter the size of a pool table, a [link|http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/VAX-11-750.html|VAX 11-780], and an 8 MHz IBM PC in graduate school. The school also had an old analog computer but I never did anything with it. But I won't mention those.)
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Post #184,323
11/17/04 9:56:32 AM
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Sequent Balance 21000
-----------------------------------------
How do you convince a Washington Journalist that you're not slapping him in the face?
Tell him you're not.
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Post #184,331
11/17/04 10:38:48 AM
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Depending on how you count, Mac 7, or Pentium 1
My first paid job where I had to use computers was as a graduate student. There I was using Macs.
If you count a brief consulting job, then running Linux on a Pentium 1.
If not, then running Windows NT 4.0 with no service packs, again on a Pentium 1. (Developing programs aimed at Windows 3.1 on 486 machines.)
Yeah, unlike the rest of you I spent a long time with no intention of getting into computers.
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #184,332
11/17/04 10:40:20 AM
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First money made was with Apple II
Doing the parents business then Old San Francisco Steakhouse. First full time gig was with Motorola VersaDOS.
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Post #184,336
11/17/04 11:30:15 AM
8/21/07 5:39:52 AM
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Mac SE30
At Martin Marietta Astronautics in Littleton - the whole place was Macs.
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
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Post #184,338
11/17/04 11:47:57 AM
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First did lab work on a COmmodore 64.
First paying job started on an IBM PS/2 80...bought brand new for me at a price of some 10 grand I believe.
I had the nicest machine in the office. Most were using XT or AT machines.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #184,346
11/17/04 1:59:04 PM
8/21/07 5:40:08 AM
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Oh, well if we're going to count lab work
done while a student in the PRRC (Petroleum Recovery Research Center), then we had a fairly complicated lab apparatus that was controlled by an hp-71 basic machine. But I didn't program it - only used it.
"The significant problems we face cannot be solved at the same level of thinking we were at when we created them." --Albert Einstein
"This is still a dangerous world. It's a world of madmen and uncertainty and potential mental losses." --George W. Bush
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Post #184,358
11/17/04 5:48:39 PM
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I dabbled in programming the 64...
...but included it only because it was the first machine that was primarily accessed by me as lab assistant for the chem department. Had to use it to earn my grade.
I also used a series of different machines in college...but was taught programming with punchcards (fortran).
Then we used some AT machines to do economic modeling and project workflow design...but that was coursework.
I had earlier computer experience...but I can't recall machines. Interesting thing was that we could "chat" with other college labs as WV was networked in the 70s. I was doing instant messaging 15 years before I knew what instant messaging was.
The PS/2 Model 80 (with a 4 mb (maybe 2) Orchid memory card upgrade woohoo!) was my first machine at my first official post college job.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #184,339
11/17/04 11:48:04 AM
11/17/04 2:37:04 PM
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Not sure if I count
'cause I'm not a programmer, but here's mine:
I self-taught myself the Apple IIE using Apple Writer and Apple Works, at the community college in 1986, which led to my first job using a computer, KCVF Radio Station.
Then I was hired the next year in 1987, by the Counseling Dept at same college, using an IBM clone running Wordstar 2000. They hired me with no IBM experience, but trusted I would pick it up, and I did, within a few weeks.
My next computer job was 1988, at the local University, working on an IBM clone using Wordstar. However, they also had an Apple IIE there, and I was able to create a special database for one teacher using Appleworks. To this day they call me sometimes to help with that, although they finally managed to convert it to MS.
My favorite was at the Veteran's Hospital in 1989, I got to work on a Business Macintosh, which was one of the coolest computers I'd ever seen, doing data entry all day long. I was in heaven, I loved that job, but it was a temp one. I think the name of the program I used was FoxPro, or something like that.
Moved to McDonnell Douglas also in 1989,(at the time it was called that, now it's Boeing), and worked using D-Base, on a Cathode Ray Tube, (which I came to understand wasn't really an actual computer, but hooked to a mainframe). Did input data and various other things and was move to classfied areas to work on the A-12 Stealth Fighter (I think it was the A-12) until it was cancelled. Got caught in the big layoff of 1992.
Then I worked on an IBM Clone at David Marshall, now using Word Perfect, along with some odd specialty programs I don't remember for creating catalogues and such.
And I finally ended up at the University again, converting everything from Wordstar to MS Word (using Win 3.11),in 1993. Had a few other odd jobs after that, but nothing with any computer exciting enough to mention.
Brenda
Edit: I thought the last one was wrong, and I was right, it was a conversion from Wordstar to MS Word, but I'm not sure which version, just that it ran on Win 3.11.
Edit: I also think I misunderstood, and only the first computer was requested not the various ones since. Sorry if I goofed.
"It's not where a person stands in time of comfort and security, but rather where they stand in times of strife and controversy that determine true friends."
(Quote sent to me by a true friend, author unknown).
Edited by Nightowl
Nov. 17, 2004, 12:22:55 PM EST
Edited by Nightowl
Nov. 17, 2004, 02:37:04 PM EST
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Post #184,345
11/17/04 1:56:45 PM
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Interdata 7-32
Interdata became Perkin-Elmer a bit later, and the 7/32 and big brother 8/32 got different names, but had the same functionality. disregard exotic UNIX/Pr1meOS/VMS/etc boxes used at University)
You are such a child! ;-) At (the) University, I used an IBM 360/44 (IBM's idea of a minicomputer at the time). Only 5 of these things existed in the world. VAXes? Didn't happen for about 3 years after I left (the) University... jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #184,348
11/17/04 2:16:37 PM
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I didn't use one at University, so I can't ...
...compete on that level. Ididn't take any computer science courses then. I already had a career as a programmer, so I learned about other things. How to pour beer without a head, how to pick up women, how to party hearty on no money at all - You know, important things that have carried me through the years.
I did use an NCR Century 101 in high school, though. Is that exotic enough not to count?
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
|
Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
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Post #184,360
11/17/04 5:51:25 PM
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No...but you had that radio shack thing
to play with while learning those other life lessons.
Someday we'll publish the recipe for "rice mush pie" ;-)
Right after we make millions with the beer diet.
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #184,365
11/17/04 6:02:14 PM
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*grin* Feed The World
Imric's Tips for Living
- Paranoia Is a Survival Trait
- Pessimists are never disappointed - but sometimes, if they are very lucky, they can be pleasantly surprised...
- Even though everyone is out to get you, it doesn't matter unless you let them win.
|
Nothing is as simple as it seems in the beginning,
As hopeless as it seems in the middle,
Or as finished as it seems in the end.
|
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Post #184,369
11/17/04 6:47:23 PM
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one gd drunk at a time
If you push something hard enough, it will fall over. Fudd's First Law of Opposition
[link|mailto:bepatient@aol.com|BePatient]
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Post #184,351
11/17/04 2:29:01 PM
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Wang VS 75
At least I think it was the 75, been a while.
Darrell Spice, Jr. [link|http://www.spiceware.org/cgi-bin/spa.pl?album=./Artistic%20Overpass|Artistic Overpass]\n[link|http://www.spiceware.org/|SpiceWare] - We don't do Windows, it's too much of a chore
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Post #184,353
11/17/04 2:49:29 PM
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My mother used an NBI something or other in the early '80s.
NBI = "Nothing But Initials" supposedly. It used 8" floppies.
Cheers,
Scott.
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Post #184,368
11/17/04 6:40:16 PM
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NBI is a word processor, not a computer per se
(Of course, there was a computer of some sort in there, but all it would do is process words.)
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
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Post #184,370
11/17/04 7:00:37 PM
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Wasn't Wang's stuff similar?
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Post #184,395
11/18/04 3:22:13 AM
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Dunno, but..
Typing a paper on a Wang - was for me the intro to instant editing sans Whiteout!
You could write your closing \ufffd whenever the little grey cells spit out your Point, and not by some inane serial process of.. waiting. Looked promising, that.
Looking at the km2 of utter c r a p that led-to.. my enthusiasm was wildly misplaced.
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Post #184,449
11/18/04 6:29:49 PM
11/18/04 6:31:27 PM
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Wang also had a word processor
The world leader, in fact. However, as the market for dedicated word processors petered out, Wang upgraded the word processor hardware, added some form of OS (dunno exactly what that was), bundled their word processing package and sold the whole shebang as a "general purpose" computer that also happened to support the leading word processor of the day. IIRC, the thing was non standard in both hardware and software, and very expensive compared to the Apple ][ and that newfangled IBM PC that was just starting to hit the market at the time. Also, a company called AMI released software for the PC called, appropriately "Ami" that worked just like the Wang word processor software. Would even read Wang WP disks, IIRC. That was basically the death of the Wang as a market player.
[edit: typos, what else?]
jb4
shrub\ufffdbish (Am., from shrub + rubbish, after the derisive name for America's 43 president; 2003) n. 1. a form of nonsensical political doubletalk wherein the speaker attempts to defend the indefensible by lying, obfuscation, or otherwise misstating the facts; GIBBERISH. 2. any of a collection of utterances from America's putative 43rd president. cf. BULLSHIT
Edited by jb4
Nov. 18, 2004, 06:31:27 PM EST
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Post #184,356
11/17/04 4:22:55 PM
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IBM PC
Original IBM PC. Maxed out to 640K. 2 Dual density floppy drives. 5/10MB IOmega Bernoulli Box drive.
At first I hand entered insurance rate tables. Later I took over the bookkeeping, and eventually all the IT stuff. I'm still here (but I do have a better PC).
--
Chris Altmann
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Post #184,357
11/17/04 4:40:38 PM
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I would hope so! :-)
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Post #184,359
11/17/04 5:49:33 PM
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first computer I worked on
was soldering boards for a univac product of some sort. Didnt touch them again until many years later when I was flogging XT's grey market and decided to save money by doing my own warranty work. First OS I touched was Forpro running on Fortune Computers.
regards,
daemon
that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE
clearwater highschool marching band [link|http://www.chstornadoband.org/|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]
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Post #184,372
11/17/04 7:16:40 PM
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Several "levels"
1st that has money associated with it was a CP/M
(Quasar?) using a Televideo 910 terminal. And
then an S100 bus TurboDOS box. But
those were associated with my brother's business,
and the money was "token", so I don't think they
count.
The first "almost real job" was on a dual floppy
MAC as a bookstore. I helped them setup Peachtree
accounting. Got paid in books, mostly.
My 1st real job has me working on a Tandy Model-3
running TRS-DOS (tech support for communications
program called Teleterm) and then a Tandy 6000
running Xenix.
My PC on my desk was some type of Tandy PC, 8086.
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Post #184,374
11/17/04 7:29:54 PM
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Not entirely fair.
Due to different lengths of experience and so on and so forth. :-)
My first experience in a *workplace* would have been an Intel 8085 development kit my dad borrowed once or twice from where he worked. Stock, it came with 256 bytes of RAM. I think they'd figured out how to add 2K, which was not that surprising considering they worked with electronics of various sorts. My dad worked in Radio Equipment Services for Sydney Airport.
I even went to work with him a few times and played with that same kit. Hang on: that means my first workplace computer would have actually been a baudot teleprinter! Complete with paper tape reader/writer. Hmm.
When *I* started earning, I had a nice Olivetti M290. 286 with 2Mb of RAM and I think it was a 20Mb HDD. And an EGA screen.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
| |
Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #184,377
11/17/04 8:01:48 PM
11/17/04 8:04:21 PM
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Tandy/Radio-Shack 6000 "multi-user" with XENIX
Tandy/Radio Shack 6000 with Z80A and 68000 processors, 15 MB hard drive and XENIX (version? Dunno) with 4 users at the same time!
This was a Pizza/Bar/Grill I was a the resident "fill-in for anything" employee. I usually had to help the manager fix his term, and show the new employees how to punch-in on the system. Orders were also punched in on this horribly hard to use system.
That 15MB Hard Drive held enough to keep records for 18 MONTHS!
I also got to help everyone time and time again how-to operate the levers on the Tallgrass Tape Drive. (At least I believe it was a Tallgrass Tape Drive, if it wasn't... I guess I don't remember properly)
This was High School, being 16-18 years old at the time. They actually put the system in while I was working there. It was PAINFUL, until everyone understood the system.
If you wanna count other stuff, in Middle School, I made an indexing program/system on a Commodore PET, with the 9" Display!!!! The Librarians loved it and spread it to all the other libraries in the school system. Soon, all the programs in all the books were available on tape... using my indexing setup (in Basic No Less)
I never considered Writing Basic, programming... infact I still don't.
-- [link|mailto:greg@gregfolkert.net|greg], [link|http://www.iwethey.org/ed_curry|REMEMBER ED CURRY!] @ iwetheyNo matter how much Microsoft supporters whine about how Linux and other operating systems have just as many bugs as their operating systems do, the bottom line is that the serious, gut-wrenching problems happen on Windows, not on Linux, not on Mac OS. -- [link|http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1622086,00.asp|source]Here is an example: [link|http://www.greymagic.com/security/advisories/gm001-ie/|Executing arbitrary commands without Active Scripting or ActiveX when using Windows]
Edited by folkert
Nov. 17, 2004, 08:04:21 PM EST
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Post #184,378
11/17/04 9:33:15 PM
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PDP 11
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Post #184,380
11/17/04 10:40:14 PM
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That reminds me of something
I was at the museum of computer history with a friend. When we came to the PDP-10s he commented that he programmed on a PDP-10. A discussion ensued about where and when he did so.
It turned out that the PDP-10 in the museum was one of the ones that he had programmed on!
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #184,428
11/18/04 1:56:22 PM
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does this mean....
....I am headed to the museum to be cherished and preserved? :)
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Post #184,432
11/18/04 3:53:18 PM
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Sorry but...
I don't think that this friend has met you, let alone programmed you...
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #184,469
11/18/04 9:24:17 PM
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my bad.....
.....misunderstood the context of your comment.
/me applies more blonde hair dye to gain clarity <grin>
Signed,
Unprogrammable One
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Post #184,474
11/18/04 9:58:08 PM
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Ha! :-)
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Post #184,477
11/18/04 11:16:57 PM
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how the heck do you flirt with the alta ergo :-) ?
I would be proud if needing a programming job to program to your requirement docs?
Im frothing(no frothing dammit)
hmm if you dyed It would make you some one to dye for
fuggetabout it,
One of these days I need to get to the west caost and say hey
regards,
daemon
that way too many Iraqis conceived of free society as little more than a mosh pit with grenades. ANDISHEH NOURAEE
clearwater highschool marching band [link|http://www.chstornadoband.org/|http://www.chstornadoband.org/]
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Post #184,511
11/19/04 10:48:58 AM
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Hint: Clairol is only clear in ads
I'm just trying to give you clarity on how to clear things up. But if you're blond enough already, this comment will make no sense. (And maybe if you're not blond as well.)
Question: Why do women dye their hair blonde?
Answer: They may be blonde, but it makes men act blonde!
Cheers,
Ben
I have come to believe that idealism without discipline is a quick road to disaster, while discipline without idealism is pointless. -- Aaron Ward (my brother)
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Post #184,394
11/18/04 3:12:52 AM
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Guess it depends on the definition of 'used'
or work/play.
So can't count playing Star Trek (by whatever name) on CDC-6600 via TI thermal-paper terminal or fiddling with a Commodore PET (actually used for some measurements regarding huge motor-generator sets) or hP programmable calculators.
OK.. CD 6600 (or 7600) assembling via punch-card batch for PDP-8. Program returned as punched paper tape for ASR-33, and on magnetic tape.. with maybe an inch of that giant reel used.
Load Point: whoosh, whirrrrr, zoom; then .. .. a 10G-STOP.
Fun.. killing a gnat with HMS Hood's (?) 16" guns.
The FORTRAN class brought early awareness that, Boolean manipulations would likely be my pianissimo, never mind.. \ufffdorte
But I did buy Osborne1 #0289 and, WordStar Lives in my firmware.
Mousing for attributes with hands off the HOME keys - sux as badly today as ever; a super-fast typist doing super and subscripts for isotopes and such [descriptive, as opposed to math formulae] -- on WS, will blow the M$Word slothful type outta the water. Still. er, {chortle}
pip B:=A:xxxx - Reverse Polish; eet eez Efferywhere
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Post #184,406
11/18/04 9:45:11 AM
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Original IBM PC running at 4.77 Mhz
DOS 2.0
No hard drive
Two 5 1/4 floppy drives
Can't remember how much RAM it had - 8K? 16K?
lincoln
"Windows XP has so many holes in its security that any reasonable user will conclude it was designed by the same German officer who created the prison compound in "Hogan's Heroes." - Andy Ihnatko, Chicago Sun-Times
[link|mailto:bconnors@ev1.net|contact me]
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Post #184,454
11/18/04 8:01:59 PM
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Originals had 4k or 16k.
That was depending on whether you had the A or B motherboard. The A could be expanded to 16k, the B to 64k. I don't think DOS 2 would run in 4k.
We had 30 Original IBM PCs donated to my school. Over the years I helped expand them to 640k. This required a memory card! And correct jumper settings, as we subsequently discovered. All were CGA. Three had printer cards and we had three printers to go along with that. We later had one mouse. That was where I got my first exposure to Microsoft Windows 1.0.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #184,771
11/22/04 11:20:22 AM
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Same box here.
bcnu,
Mikem
Eine Leute. Eine Welt. Ein F\ufffdhrer.
(Just trying to be accepted in the New America)
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Post #184,425
11/18/04 1:25:28 PM
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Vic20
The summer right outta high school I got a job in an automotive machine shop rebuilding cylinder heads. The owner of the place kept his books on some program he bought for his Commodore Vic20 which he frequently asked for help with.
After that, I got a job working in Quality Control at an Aerospace company. They had a Prime mini computer, a couple of Apple ][s and a few IBM-compatibles.
--
Steve
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Post #184,458
11/18/04 8:17:33 PM
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Re: Practical Demonstration of Breadth Of ZIWTer Experience
Depends on what you mean by "in the workplace".
The first computers in a workplace that I used was a 286 that me and a friend would use to play Might and Magic. We snuck in his office and worked through the various dungeon of Might and Magic 3. At the time it was the only computer we had access to that was fast (16 Mhz?), had VGA graphics and had a hard drive.
The first computers I did real work on where a batch of 286 and 386 computers in a computer training lab. They where hooked up through netware to grab the software and keep the configurations in synch. But that was an unpaid internship.
The first computers I got paid to work on was a 386, programming in Turbo Pascal. It was running some version of Windows 3.1, but I don't remember which one now. What I do remeber is that we where setup on a Lantastic network, which was the source of all sorts of oddities.
Jay
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Post #184,587
11/20/04 10:28:22 AM
11/20/04 11:13:20 AM
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But I worked though College! Not Fair!
High School / Early College
Sold Commodore VIC 20 and Commodore 64 sytems, and Commodore CBM at a computer store.
Bought my own Commodore 64.
Sold CP/M systems, most of the names I can't remember.
Sold Zenith "almost IBM compatibles" with MS DOS 1.1
Leased time on Apple II computer systems to customers.
Worked with BasicA, WordStar, and Visicalc
Late College
Prime 750 Operator, did backups, played early text role-playing games
IBM 4361 / IBM 7171 Operator and Networking Hardware (wired up terminals)
Used BitNet (predecessor to the Internet) to communicate with my now wife, attending another University. VM/CMS, REXX
Early TI "almost IBM compatibles" - Wrote Turbo Pascal data entry program for research projects for the Texas Poll, used by Harte Hanks communications. Worked with the Dean of Liberal Arts on Lotus 1-2-3 1a to create a spreadsheet matrix to maintain budget for them. Learned Symphony, but never used it.
Mainframe - Did maintenance work on SAS for longitudinal study of Heroin addicts (it wasn't pretty, the study results)
VAX (don't remember the generation) - Fixed sociologist's research project who was loosing data in UCSD Pascal. He did not understand multi-user systems.
Senior year, purchased my own Zenith MS-DOS compatible system. 8086 / Dual double-density disk drives. With help from an expert, replaced the serial processing chips in my Zenith after a lightening strike wiped the chip out. Programmed in Turbo Pascal, and wrote programs in WordStar for the mainframe, then transferred them to the mainframe.
First Work After College
IBM 370 Mainframe Assembler - Busted dumps and resolved system problems in Transaction Processing Facility (TPF), mainly used by banks and airlines. (I worked for an airline.) REXX, VM/CMS, IBM Assembler. Some of the assembler code dated back to the 1960's.
Worked on Paradox database for department to track file system usage by the TPF system. Don't remember the hardware platform 286 technology IBM compatible.
Bought myself a hard drive.
Now
3 Windows Computers at home, 2 Debian Linux (about to be upgraded to SuSe, I think)
Work on RedHat AS 2.1 at work, on IBM xSeries Hardware, multiple CPU.
Also working on Solaris 2.6, 8, 9 and AIX 4.3 (which I know is out of date, but it is being replaced with the Linux stuff)
Large box supported is 12 CPUs.
EDI Software Architect, Sterling GenTran Integration Suite, Cyclone Commerce AS2, All Java Architecture.
Pharmacy Industry.
About 2-3 years of Java experience, and programming in C since 1990 and C++ since 1992.
Had to fix an "old" C program just this week. The return code from execvp wasn't being checked. Now I need to review the rest of the code to see if there are more uglies like that. I didn't write it.
Glen Austin
Edited by gdaustin
Nov. 20, 2004, 10:37:33 AM EST
Edited by gdaustin
Nov. 20, 2004, 11:05:32 AM EST
Edited by gdaustin
Nov. 20, 2004, 11:13:20 AM EST
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Post #184,608
11/20/04 2:02:27 PM
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Franklin (Apple II clone) highly modified.
I built up this machine (a duplicate of my home computer) to use in production cost estimating. It had an 80 column card, 2-MHz Z80 card and Vista controller with two 8" DSDD floppy drives (1.2-Meg each). It ran CP/M-80 and the software was Perfect Writer (derived from Mince (Mince Is Not Complete EMACS) and Scribble), SuperCalc spreadsheet and Turbo Pascal.
The only other computers in the company at the time were an IBM System 34, and Engineering had a Terrac running the UCSD Pascal operating system. They fiddled with it a lot but I'm not sure they ever got it to do anything useful.
[link|http://www.aaxnet.com|AAx]
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Post #184,652
11/20/04 10:55:33 PM
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Mac SE
Late summer 1987, when I took my present gig as a one-year temporary assignment. At that time my extremely conservative employer (doing business from the same San Francisco city block since the latter 1850s) had at most a couple of dozen terminals in the building talking to our distant mainframes, themselves of paleolithic provenance. The first PCs didn't arrive in the building until a couple of years after that. Since then I've gone through a Mac II, a pair of 8100s, a B&W G3 (still my main production machine, although starting to falter as it approaches its sixth birthday) and a graphite G4 (for low-end video editing and sundry OS X-specific applications). All of these have been, so to say, "off the grid" to the unspeakable relief of our long-suffering LAN Guy, and when it is necessary to exchange files with the generic network Dell (running NT[!]—I did mention that the employer is institutionally prone not to put itself at the cutting edge?) I do so via Sneakernetted Zip disks.
Sorry, what was the question again?
cordially,
Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist.
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Post #184,668
11/21/04 1:41:07 AM
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IBM 3083 running VM/SP
[link|http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/mainframe/mainframe_PP3083.html|IBM 3083] running VM/SP 3 (or 4?). Wrote an application (using REXX) for calculating student grades for one of the math profs at [link|http://uvic.ca/|UVic]. Also calculated pi and e to 1,000,000 places (using FORTRAN G).
Have fun,
Carl Forde
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