Circuit City Kaput
 

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 13:05:50 -0500, wrote:

On Sun, 18 Jan 2009 08:28:12 -0500, HK wrote:

My first pc came with WordStar. I hated it. Fortunately, a few days
later, I stopped by the computer store to whine, and the sales guy gave
me something called Volkswriter. It was *the* word processor for
computer newbies like me. Great little word processor. Had a
clackety-clack daisywheel printer and a real slow Hayes modem.

The PC1s came with a matrix printer and some diskettes. I used
"Easywriter" for years as my word processor. Other than that I had a
lot of the "stare at the C promp"t problem, wondering what to do with
the machine. I dabbled with BASIC and Assembler, writing little
programs that didn't really do much. This also had a spreadsheet
program (Visicalc) I never used.
Once I got a hard drive and started playing with dBase I started using
it more. When IBM/SBS/Sears came up with Prodigy I was "online" right
away ... at 1200 BPS

My PC1 (if that's the XT predecessor) came with 1 floppy drive.
Monochrome monitor. No printer. Can't remember if it was $1700 or
$2700. Wasn't cheap in any case.
Like you I goosed it to the max onboard ram which added I think about
$300 to the price. Second floppy cost I can't remember.
The fully loaded AST 6-pack was about $600.
The Epsom tractor drive printer was at least $300, but I got all the
greenbar paper I needed at work.
Was about a year later before I put a 20 meg Winchester HD in it.
$5-600 for that.
But I had plenty of boot-legged software off the bat, including the
full Micro-Focus Cobol suite, and put it to use writing a horse
handicapping system. Still have the source code for that.
Early PC's weren't cheap, that's for sure.
All that stuff was a lot more time-consuming than now.
Horse and buggy.
Think I was on-line pretty quick doing coursework. Seems it was
slower than 1200 BPS, but I'm not sure. Think is was the IBM network.
USR modem.
I'd almost lay odds my former employer is still paying for my IBM
network remote access to the mainframe OS. I never told them to
cancel it when we went to a GUI interface, as I wanted it for backup.
I really thought IBM would kill MS, but was way off on that.
When my sister got a PC and had me over to help her first thing I
did was replace her MS-DOS with PC-DOS.
If it wasn't IBM, I didn't want it.
Little did I know.
When IBM came out with their PC-OS I found it just as buggy as
Windows, and dumped it pretty quick when I saw it wasn't going
anywhere. They blew it somehow.
It's funny how many non-IT people jumped into that buggy early PC
world, but they did. Now everybody's an "expert."

--Vic

Circuit City Kaput
 

hk wrote:
wrote:
On Jan 18, 8:28 am, HK wrote:
Eisboch wrote:

"hk" wrote in message
m...
I remember Geoworks...at least the name. Not much else.
Geoworks came out around the same time as Windows 3.0 and was a similar
GUI interface.
I think the original Apple computers had the first mouse driven "click"
to navigate type GUI OS and Geoworks was an attempt at a PC version
Last I knew, Geoworks was still around but not doing this type of
program software development.
Eisboch
When I was about to buy my first pc, IBM and Apple had just come out
with competing models...the Apple Macintosh I think it was called.
Anyway, I looked at both, and decided against the Apple because the
company was charging extra for add-on numeric keyboard and the numerics
were part of the standard IBM keyboard.

My first pc came with WordStar. I hated it. Fortunately, a few days
later, I stopped by the computer store to whine, and the sales guy gave
me something called Volkswriter. It was *the* word processor for
computer newbies like me. Great little word processor. Had a
clackety-clack daisywheel printer and a real slow Hayes modem.

Now, as my crepitude approaches, I have pulled my PC desktop out of
service to set it up as a server and for the moment I am using my Apple
Mac as both a Mac and a PC. I need the PC mode because for a couple of
the software packages I use, there are no Mac counterparts. One of these
happens to be the software for my Garmin chart plotter. Most of the
software suites, though, work about the same on Macs and PCs. Some of
the Mac software is a bit more ergonomic than the PC software.

As soon as I get around to it, I'll be setting up an Apple desktop
machine.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You keep talking about your "server". Don't you mean back up computer?
What software are you running on this so called server?

I don't need a "back up computer." I have an HP MediaSmart Server, which
runs MS's Windows Home Server software, does automatic backups, and runs
a distribution system for movies, music, et cetera.

I'm not running any software on my future server. I haven't set it up
yet. I'm in the process of cleaning it up, doing a couple of hardware
upgrades, et cetera. It still has a copy of VISTA on it. Why are you so
interested in this?


Why do you insist on posting about it? This is at least the third time,
WAFA.

Circuit City Kaput
 

On Jan 18, 7:18*pm, D K wrote:
hk wrote:
wrote:
On Jan 18, 8:28 am, HK wrote:
Eisboch wrote:

"hk" wrote in message
news:FqmdnevrffQ8gO7UnZ2dnUVZ_vSdnZ2d@earthlin k.com...
I remember Geoworks...at least the name. Not much else.
Geoworks came out around the same time as Windows 3.0 and was a similar
GUI interface.
I think the original Apple computers had the first mouse driven "click"
to navigate type GUI OS and Geoworks was an attempt at a PC version
Last I knew, Geoworks was still around but not doing this type of
program software development.
Eisboch
When I was about to buy my first pc, IBM and Apple had just come out
with competing models...the Apple Macintosh I think it was called.
Anyway, I looked at both, and decided against the Apple because the
company was charging extra for add-on numeric keyboard and the numerics
were part of the standard IBM keyboard.

My first pc came with WordStar. I hated it. Fortunately, a few days
later, I stopped by the computer store to whine, and the sales guy gave
me something called Volkswriter. It was *the* word processor for
computer newbies like me. Great little word processor. Had a
clackety-clack daisywheel printer and a real slow Hayes modem.

Now, as my crepitude approaches, I have pulled my PC desktop out of
service to set it up as a server and for the moment I am using my Apple
Mac as both a Mac and a PC. I need the PC mode because for a couple of
the software packages I use, there are no Mac counterparts. One of these
happens to be the software for my Garmin chart plotter. Most of the
software suites, though, work about the same on Macs and PCs. Some of
the Mac software is a bit more ergonomic than the PC software.

As soon as I get around to it, I'll be setting up an Apple desktop
machine.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

You keep talking about your "server". Don't you mean back up computer?
What software are you running on this so called server?

I don't need a "back up computer." I have an HP MediaSmart Server, which
runs MS's Windows Home Server software, does automatic backups, and runs
a distribution system for movies, music, et cetera.

I'm not running any software on my future server. I haven't set it up
yet. I'm in the process of cleaning it up, doing a couple of hardware
upgrades, et cetera. It still has a copy of VISTA on it. Why are you so
interested in this?

Why do you insist on posting about it? *This is at least the third time,
WAFA.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Back to Circuit City's scam....

So, we went there to see just how good the "liquidation" prices were,
man, we should liquidate everything we have, it would be quite
profitable... We did a printout of the sale prices at Best Buy and
went hunting for a big external drive for backups (server in Harry
speak;). All of their prices were 10% off on most items, but the items
were jacked up 30-40% from regular retail!!! A typical Western
Digital 1 terrabyte external at Best buy was $129, at CC it was 10%
off the low, low price of only $179, yikes! We saw the same pattern on
cameras, shavers, etc... What a rip. We did get a couple of music CD's
at 20% off, what seemed to be the going price..
Aerosmith, Heart, Steve Miller, and Foreigner were among the lucky
albums that came home with us;)

Circuit City Kaput
 

Circuit City Kaput
 

"hk" wrote in message
...
SmallBoats.com wrote:
Eisboch wrote:

"hk" wrote in message
m...
BAR wrote:
hk wrote:
BAR wrote:
hk wrote:
Eisboch wrote:

"hk" wrote in message
m...


If I am not mistaken, my iPod has a 50 or 50 gig hard drive.
You'd have to buy 30 2 gig $10 SD cards to match the capacity.
That's a lot more than I paid for my iPod.

Plus, SD cars are small. If you are always swapping them out to
get to the music on another card, well...


You know, I think I am still hung up from the old days of having a
PAL 286 computer with a whopping 40Mb hard drive. I became very
frugal with disk space, saving all my documents on floppy disk so
the hard drive had room for programs. Its a habit I still have,
even though my newest computer has a 320Gb drive plus an
additional backup drive. I keep it squeaky clean of misc. stuff
that I really don't need.

I guess I can store some stuff without worrying about running out
of space.

Eisboch

My first PC had only a floppy drive. It wasn't until I got my hands
on an S-100 bus computer that I encountered a hard drive, but I
think it was only 20megs...


Yeah right? What processor was your S-100 bus computer running?


Compupro '286, so it was running an Intel 80286. Hell this was more
than 20 years ago, fella, when you were still puking beer into your
jockey shorts after standing guard outside the portipotty at the
marine barracks.

Ever see a Compupro? Big, heavy box.

What OS did you run on this Compupro '286?


DR's CP/M-86, licensed to Compupro.

But...there was a bootleg MS OS around, too. It sorta ran an early
version of Flight Simulator. You could boot the MS OS from a floppy.

I don't remember a whole lot more. It wasn't "my" Compupro, it was an
editorial review model that I had for about six months. It was a beast.




I remember a version of Flight Simulator than ran from a floppy on the
pre-286 machines (forget the nomenclature). The "airplane" was nothing
more than a cross and there really wasn't any terrain to speak of.

BTW, the Laser Pal 286 computers I had (the first computers I had in the
company) ran on DOS 4.1 and were loaded with the GeoWorks Ensemble and
Prodigy using a 2400-baud modem.
The GeoWorks Ensemble was a Windows-like program that included a
wordprocesser, a spreadsheet and something else that I can't remember.

Processor speed was either 8 or 12 MHz (no typo), depending on the
position of a "turbo" button.
It seems that 12 MHz was too fast for some of the software of the day.
It had 640k (that's "k") of memory with an additional 384K of
"extended" memory.

Drives: 5 1/4-inch 1.2MB floppy, 3 1/2-inch 1.44MB floppy, 42MB hard

With monitor, it was just under $2000.

Eisboch

Yeah, the first one we brought home was a Packard Bell, 20 mb hdd,
1.2mb-5 1/4" floppy, and a 12 baud modem.. Think it ran Dos 3.0 or
something like that.. Can't remember the name of the system we had before
that, it was some kind of game system based thing iirc..


-----------------



Gee...and I thought my 300 bps modem was slow. A 12 baud modem?
Some network guru you are.

I was an FE for an online data center while going to college. Based in San
Francisco, we had leased lines as far as the Canadian Border and Salt Lake
City. 110 baud. When they brought a 9600 Baud modem to the Fall Joint
Computer show in SF in about 1996 we were all amazed you go transmit that
fast and with an acoustic coupler. First PC I bought for a company I
worked for was an 8 mhz PC and was about $4400 and had a 10 meg disk drive.
First disk drives I worked on were 5 platter, 14" 5 mbyte units.

Circuit City Kaput
 

On Jan 18, 8:44*pm, hk wrote:
wrote:

Back to Circuit City's scam....

So, we went there to see just how good the "liquidation" prices were,
man, we should liquidate everything we have, it would be quite
profitable... We did a printout of the sale prices at Best Buy and
went hunting for a big external drive for backups (server in Harry
speak;).

Perhaps in your low-life uneducated crap mind, you think a hard drive =
server, but when you project your idiocy, it just makes you look...dumber..

Pftttt... How's that hdd and ram install going in your "server
rebuild"?

Circuit City Kaput
 

Circuit City Kaput
 

On Jan 18, 9:49*pm, hk wrote:
wrote:
On Jan 18, 8:44 pm, hk wrote:
wrote:

Back to Circuit City's scam....
So, we went there to see just how good the "liquidation" prices were,
man, we should liquidate everything we have, it would be quite
profitable... We did a printout of the sale prices at Best Buy and
went hunting for a big external drive for backups (server in Harry
speak;).
Perhaps in your low-life uneducated crap mind, you think a hard drive =
server, but when you project your idiocy, it just makes you look...dumber.

Pftttt... How's that hdd and ram install going in your "server
rebuild"?

I don't have the problems you seem to have with computer hardware and
software. There's not much to installing a stick of RAM or a SATA drive.
You might be able to do it with a few hours of instruction.

I'm sure two gigs of RAM is more than sufficient for a server project,
don't you?

Well, if I thought you could honor a wager I still have the reciepts
and paperwork for several Point of purchace systems I set up in retail
stores, Custom computers I built for architects with plotters etc, and
several networks my wife and I set up for a fortune 500 company,
transfering from tolken ring to ethernet, before you could buy systems
right off the shelf. I don't know a lot about toy software for posting
pictures of family kitty cats and walmart chairs, or trolling on
usenet, but I sure know a lot more about hardware and networks,
plotters, raid systems,,etc. than you do.. pffftttt....

Circuit City Kaput
 

On Jan 18, 9:54*pm, wrote:
On Jan 18, 9:49*pm, hk wrote:





wrote:
On Jan 18, 8:44 pm, hk wrote:
wrote:

Back to Circuit City's scam....
So, we went there to see just how good the "liquidation" prices were,
man, we should liquidate everything we have, it would be quite
profitable... We did a printout of the sale prices at Best Buy and
went hunting for a big external drive for backups (server in Harry
speak;).
Perhaps in your low-life uneducated crap mind, you think a hard drive =
server, but when you project your idiocy, it just makes you look...dumber.

Pftttt... How's that hdd and ram install going in your "server
rebuild"?

I don't have the problems you seem to have with computer hardware and
software. There's not much to installing a stick of RAM or a SATA drive..
You might be able to do it with a few hours of instruction.

I'm sure two gigs of RAM is more than sufficient for a server project,
don't you?

Well, if I thought you could honor a wager I still have the reciepts
and paperwork for several Point of purchace systems I set up in retail
stores, Custom computers I built for architects with plotters etc, and
several networks my wife and I set up for a fortune 500 company,
transfering from tolken ring to ethernet, before you could buy systems
right off the shelf. I don't know a lot about toy software for posting
pictures of family kitty cats and walmart chairs, or trolling on
usenet, but I sure know a lot more about hardware and networks,
plotters, raid systems,,etc. than you do.. pffftttt....- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Oh, not to mention HTML, PhP, MySQL, Miva, SHTML, Apache, Linux, SSH,
Pop........ etc. I have designed dual language, user programable
websites in english and spanish, designed and built from scratch a
survey program for one of the biggest personell survey systems on the
east coast, taking them from paper to full automated electronic
systems. My wife was one of the origional 20 or so folks who worked
with the Miva developers and in the day, we helped another fortune 500
company move over from dedicated server for business, to hosting
providers and wrote several manuals for them... We have in our employ
a certified Windows CNE who runs systems on that side for us.. The
list goes on... You don't even come close..

Circuit City Kaput