Computers

[Gingermick]

Dot matrix was the bees knees compared to the daisy wheel printers. ehhh, whirrrr, chick, erhh. whirrr, chick.....
Could print a whole letter in half an hour.

[petersemple]

My first computer was an IBM 5100 http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5100.html
Complete with 1/4" tape drive and built in monitor. I guess it was the equivalent of a notebook. And what was even cooler is that it could play the Star Trek game. It was a few years old when we got it.

Peter

[Gingermick]

and weren't they cheap.

[Alastair]

Cut my teeth in first year Uni, on a punch card driven IBM360. Later in a second attempt at another Uni, it was a Burroughs mainframe

Started playing on the HP 9825 in late '70s doing chemical reaction monitoring and reactor simulation modelling at work. Single 2" tape cartridge, with program on track 1 and data storage on track 2. Melted one with the constant scanning back and forth.

Then was running one of the first spreadsheet programs on it in '82. (remember supercalc?)

Later early IBM PC and XT, used as a data management system for factory records, and later as a programming interface for PLC run plant.

Then the world as it is caught up, with Internet, email and Windows!

[AlexS]

First desktop computer I used was an Olivetti Programma 101 in about 1968. From memory, it had 13 registers, some of which could be reduced in precision to give a few more registers. Program & data I/O was by magnetic card, and as with most machines of that time, often required multi-step processing.

My first big job was writing software for the HP41C, the wis-bang fancy claculator with 2K of memory, at the time it was amazing

In 1978, I wrote a hydrographic data processing system for a 64K machine, the HP9845. This was an amazing machine, and driving two plotters, a digitiser, two x 8" floppies, line printer, thermal printer & two x cartridge drives, it did things that up 'til then were only done on mainframes.

While playing around with it, I wrote a program that would plot the bar codes for a HP41C (or was it HP41CV?) program if you typed in the code. You could then program the calculator by swiping with a bar code reader.

Later on, I used a portable (if you had a coolie at your command) Kaypro, and various other early machines.

[joe greiner]

The Kaypro was "portable" because it had a handle; weighed about 20 pounds, IIRC.

Earlier, around 1980+, I had the full package for the HP41 (C?, CV? who knows?). I wrote a program for multiple moving loads on a "beam-on-elastic-foundation," for a boat repair facility. I set the machine running at 11:59am, and departed for lunch break. When I returned, I found the desk covered with paper tape. Lucky me, I did the post-processing by hand.

Joe

[AlexS]

I set the machine running at 11:59am, and departed for lunch break. When I returned, I found the desk covered with paper tape. Lucky me, I did the post-processing by hand.

Joe

Ah yes. We used to run flood routing programs on the Olivetti overnight - just make sure it has a new roll of paper, set it running & go home. Several times, a 'good samaritan' turned it off thinking we'd forgotten to.