On 12/17/11 3:58 AM, Canuck57 wrote:
On 16/12/2011 1:17 PM, X ` Man wrote:
On 12/16/11 1:57 PM, Canuck57 wrote:
On 16/12/2011 6:09 AM, X ` Man wrote:
On 12/16/11 6:38 AM, X ` Man wrote:
On 12/15/11 9:10 PM, Canuck57 wrote:
On 15/12/2011 12:26 PM, North Star wrote:


I remember when we got our first office pc...
Only designated people were allowed near it and no one was
allowed to
eat, drink or smoke in it's vicinity.





Back then they were union North American made and cost $8000 in old
1980
dollars, which according to the government inflation calculator is
$22K
today.

Back then was 1982 or 1983 for IBM's first PC, and they weren't
anywhere
near $8000 in US or Canadian dollars. They were less than a quarter of
that amount, and only some parts in them were "American-made."
Further,
IBM wasn't unionized. In fact, about the only large-scale supplier of
PC's who was unionized back in the early to middle "PC" days was AT&T
and even those boxes were merely assembled from parts made outside the
USA.

I bought one of the first IBM PC's sold to consumers in our area,
from a
dealer in Northern Virginia.

So, as usual, you are full of crap. Like your shower buddy, iSnotty,
you
have no real knowledge of actual history in any area.


Addendum...bought my first IBM PC in 1982, apparently, a few months
after they were introduced in 1981. Paid $1650 in 1982 dollars, not
$8000 or anything near that.


http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ex...c25_birth.html

Says $1,565 as list for striped bare. However everything else is extra.
Monitor, software, hard drive storage, second floppy, memory, modem,
printer, even shipping with Canadian pricing it was $8000. Even the
"Basic" and assembler packages cost extra. Even the ST506 hard drive
controller was extra. As was the power supply upgrade if you wanted hard
drives.

So $1,565 is like buying a car without the windshield, seats, steering
wheel and wheels. For Canadians, taxes and duties extra.

So blow it out your ass there harryk fleabagger. The real cost of a
usable system was $8000.


I paid $1650. Didn't buy overpriced monochrome PC monitor. Bought with
one floppy, bought second floppy later. Dealer gave me software.
Sorry....your claim of $8000 or anywhere near it is bull****.

Funny, you want to store a 5 mb DB in 1982, it was going to cost you a
lot more than $1500 for computer and drive....

http://ns1758.ca/winch/winchest.html

While Micky mouses like you were toying with 32K RAM and 360K floppies
it just wasn't good enough and I required 10 mb hard drives, and
printer. And while you probably used pirated copy of MS-DOS, sorry, that
wouldn't work where I worked. MS-DOS was an extra charge. So was the
compilers, BASIC and graphics software. Yes, graphics, while you were
toying with 24 lines of 64 characters I was

More on Itty Bitty Machine pricing....

http://oldcomputers.net/ibm5150.html

But you add maxed out memory and double floppies, $3000, $1600 hard
drive, $1000 modem plus some software it didn't take long. Printers and
a plotter with autocad were not cheap either.

To be honest, I can't remember the exact price tag but it was over $8000
in 1982 dollars.


The point was about the early IBM PCs, **** for brains, and that was
what I was basing my pricing on. My first PC didn't have a hard drive
and I had no need for compilers. I used the PC for word processing and a
little bit of databasing. LEss than $2000 would get you everything you
needed to do what I was doing, less than 25% of the $8000 you claimed.

A compiling accountant...what a laugh.

--
http://flickr.com/gp/hakr/oR82kN