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Belated intro

CuriousChord

Member
Joined
Jan 20, 2009
Messages
21
Location
Maryland, USA
Apologies for the less than timely intro here. Better late than never, I hope.

My first exposure to computers was in tenth grade (c. 1979), when we learned BASIC programming. Many fond memories of flowcharts, If-Then statements, and For-Next loops. The teacher had a TRS-80 and loved to gloat about what seemed a distant, far-away possibility for us students--a home computer, gee whiz! He even brought it into class to show off. But the real fun was field trips to the central "computer" school, so that we could run programs via the big punch-card reader. Fill in the holes with magic marker first, then punch them out with a paper clip.

After that, early 80s, it was college and a micro system linked to Dartmouth. More BASIC, no punchcards. Introduction to Colossal Cave.

After that, into the workforce c. 1985, and it was the realm of the Pr1me micro system. More BASIC, and conversations about assembly language and Fortran with the programmers.

Fast forward to the mid-90s. Still no personal computer at home, but there was growing awareness and presence of Macs and PCs at the office, plus Mom and Dad (both teachers) had an Apple ][ (or maybe a IIc) at home. However, all those years of hanging with programmers paid off as I became a system engineer. Mission: replace the aging Pr1me micro system with a new database-driven off-the-shelf system for managing geospatial information, with an SGML component for desktop publishing. Fun! And finally, c. 1997, Windows 95 at home!

But it wasn't meant to last. The new system procurement was troubled. So a fortuitous career move to system management for office automation (and the last days of the Pr1me micro) was in order. Lots of fun with a zero budget, raiding piles of warehoused 486s for SIMMs and seeing which computers could handle Win NT (3.51, then 4.0). Hence the interest in tinkering.

Fast forward to January 2009. Mother-in-law donates WinME machine "for the kids to play games." There are challenges. But a tinker here, and a tinker there, and a few Google searches later, challenges overcome. Still there was the memory of tinkering fun. And there was a brother's old Gecco 486 in storage. And there was the promise of multiple towers for $20 on craigslist. Hmmm....

Hence some posts here.
 
Hi CuriousChord,

And a belated welcome to you.

Seems computers have played a very significant part in your life, which means you’ve come to the right place.:)

Regards
 
Very entertaining history. Some fun things you got to be apart of on your way up. Welcome to the board and I think you'll have a fun time reminiscing with other folks here or even seeing someone restoring a system you never thought you'd see again.

- John
 
Thank you for the welcome messages, folks!

TandyMan, your post and signature (Linux, cookies) are interesting because one of the Craigslist Specials I picked up was an IBM Aptiva w/ Pentium II running ubuntu. Linux is completely unfamiliar to me--I had to look up ubuntu. Is it really freeware, such that no software license is required? Maybe it will be worth a look after the tinkering dust settles. Is Linux one of those things where once you go there, you can't come back?

Cheers! cc
 
I'm quite intrigued that you've really never heard of Linux? or is it that you're unfamiliar with the Ubunto distribution of linux?

Some googling (or wikipedia) will fill you in on the history better than I can but yes it's a completely open source free operating system (unless you want support, and there are a few commercial vendors that DO sell linux but are required (per the license) to make the source code still available so all can benefit from any development improvements of the OS).

So no licensing needed but the OS despite being around since 1992 is still just making it's way to be usable to a non-technical user. Although everyone I think is supposed to love it, I still find it tedious at a lot of tasks (especially keeping it up to date/patching). But if you're a programmer you'll probably enjoy it. On the bright side there are free compilers and emulators for lots and LOTS of systems out there that you can play with.

So for me, yeah I like BSD and am ok with linux but for every day work I still use an MS operating system because it bugs me about less stuff, and it's what I need to emulate the users I have to support.
 
Welcome CuriousChord,

I enjoy reading how people got into vintage computers.

I remember punchcards, Collosal Cave and working (as a user) on Pr1me computers!

Tez
 
Thanks, Tez. Fun reminiscing about those PR1MOS commands, eh?

I'm quite intrigued that you've really never heard of Linux? or is it that you're unfamiliar with the Ubunto distribution of linux?

Until coming here a few months ago, I had only heard of Linux. I thought it was pronounced Line-ux and guessed that it was a Unix-like approach (the aforementioned Pr1me employed Unix-like commands). But some Web searching on Linux and ubuntu has intrigued. The challenge will be to get past the login screen on the old Aptiva--apparently a switch gets you around the username/password and into an admin function. We'll see.

I'm no programmer (an editor by trade, actually), but I've enjoyed working with programmers, informally and as a system engineer. At the agency where I worked, "system engineer" meant bridging the gap between specialized subject matter and programming. In particular, I had to devise a table that mapped complex geospatial features and their attributes to text in a particular format--then explain it to the database engineers so they could build functionality. I used FileMaker Pro for the table. The result was cool. No one at the agency wanted to go near it, but the database engineers were glad to have it.

My computer knowledge is limited to whatever has been available. Put it on the table and it's fun to figure out. The idea of vintage computers is new but very intriguing. Good thing it's spring, when all the yard sales emerge. What treasures await?

Cheers! CC
 
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UNBUNTU IS AWESOME and im an editor too

UNBUNTU IS AWESOME and im an editor too

I thought it was pronounced Line-ux and guessed that it was a Unix-like approach ...

...I'm no programmer (an editor by trade, actually),

Cheers! CC

Cool! That makes (2) editors at the VCForums! See my little publications at www.micro100mag.blogspot.com. I hold the title of editor of the only publication in the world for a 30-year-old laptop that is used by a group of 60-year-olds (and me).

Unbuntu is possible one of the best Linux distros you can find. If you like the eye-candy of Vista, along with the stability of XP, along with the small size of Windows 3.1 (just joking about the size, but it is pretty small), but in FREE OPENSOURCE version, then Unbuntu is for you. Nowadays, Unbuntu is actually shipped already installed on some modern laptops, and is availiable (heavaly customized) as an option on almost ALL modern netbooks (eeepc, for example).


Although I am an editor, I don't really pay much attention to grammer and spelling in my posts, so please, no ranting about that. :cool: Had that before.
 
See my little publications at www.micro100mag.blogspot.com.

Although I am an editor, I don't really pay much attention to grammer and spelling in my posts, so please, no ranting about that. :cool: Had that before.

Nice little Micro 100 newsletter, no doubt meant to be read on old gear--fun! No editorial rants from this corner. Old Editor's Adage: "Never be too critical of a mistake. It's evidence that someone tried to do something."

Cheers! CC
 
It is a fun little hobby. It was meant to be read on a 40-column TRS-80 Model 100 slabtop. You could view it in EDIT.COM at 40 columns just fine.
 
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