1981 Internet story
 

In article ,
says...

On Tue, 30 Jul 2013 10:12:11 -0500, Califbill
wrote:

iBoaterer wrote:
In article ,
says...

On 7/30/13 8:44 AM, Gogarty wrote:
In article ,
says...
(Snip)
I was on CIS and for a while on another similar provider, the name of
which I don't recall...wait a minute, was it The Source? I am proud that
I never tried AOL. :)

It was The Source. Thanks for jolting my memory. Never did AOL or
Compuserve.

My equipment was all Radio Shack -- TRS80 and TRS100 laptop. That was a
really usefful machine. Ran on AA batteries, used acoustic cups with modem.
We were early computerized travellers.

Really started witha huge IBM word processor in 1970.


Ahh, the Trash80. Lots of my friends had that one. They all called it
their Trash80.

My first "computer" was an IBM MT/ST. It wasn't mine, actually, but when
I worked at the teachers union, my secretary was the "operator." It was
a large, clunky memory typewriter that used selectric like type balls. I
had to run it on occasion on weekends to produce crap for board
meetings. It was just awful.

I learned Basic programming with my first PC, an IBM PC. Very
frustrating at first because just about everything I input came back
with "syntax error" errors. Cursed a lot...as a guy with two degrees in
English, I did not make "syntax errors," but of course these were syntax
errors of a completely different variety. :)

I had a freebie account at The Source because a friend had the company
as an advertising and PR account and he had "freebie" accounts to give out.

My first computer was a Sinclair that you hooked to the TV. Learned DOS
on it, then on to TRS-80 which wasn't an "IBM word processor" by the
way, it was a Radio Shack.

My first computer was an NCR 315. Filled a room. 10k decimal memory.
Tape drives, and mag card ( CRAM ) for storage. 1964. First times on the
net was ARPAnet with KSR33 and VT52 terminals on DEC systems. First PC was
about $10,000 total. Bought for company and had disk drive and 8" floppy.
Still have a recipe for spicy peanut noodles I printed out on a dot matrix
printer from the Bay Area forum in about 1982. As to VisiCalc, we had DEC
corp equipment at Visicorp I designed to run Edison drives. System
Industries was the employer then.

In the late 60s and early 70s I had just about all the mainframe time
I wanted so I was writing 360 assembler in my spare time.

It took a while before I figured out why I would want a computer at
home. I was making purpose built machines with TTL and CMOS.
I still like that idea more than using the ubiquitous PIC that
everyone likes.
Once we started using PCs at work, I wanted one at home. Parts were
free. I just couldn't get cases. That is why most of my early machines
were "woodies"

My PS/2 mod 70
http://gfretwell.com/electrical/woody.jpg

He said woody....

1981 Internet story
 

In article ,
says...

In article ,
says...

(Snip)

My first computer was a Sinclair that you hooked to the TV. Learned DOS
on it, then on to TRS-80 which wasn't an "IBM word processor" by the
way, it was a Radio Shack.

The Trash80 had a max of useable RAM of about 30K. To fit into that Radio
Shack devised a superb word processing program the name of which now escapes
me. I use the TRS WP as long as I had the TRS80, which, by the way, originally
had no lower case. Eventually you could buy a chip and insert it to get lower
case.

My clients were not pleased to receive text in teletype form. So I would
compose the text and hand it to my wife who then typed up a proper copy with
upper and lower case.

My printer in those days was an enormous Anderson-Jacobson terminal which had
an IBM mechanism including the golf ball typehead.

Scripsit!!!

1981 Internet story
 

F.O.A.D. wrote:
On 7/30/13 8:44 AM, Gogarty wrote:
In article ,

says...
(Snip)
I was on CIS and for a while on another similar provider, the name of
which I don't recall...wait a minute, was it The Source? I am proud
that
I never tried AOL. :)

It was The Source. Thanks for jolting my memory. Never did AOL or
Compuserve.

My equipment was all Radio Shack -- TRS80 and TRS100 laptop. That was a
really usefful machine. Ran on AA batteries, used acoustic cups with
modem.
We were early computerized travellers.

Really started witha huge IBM word processor in 1970.


Ahh, the Trash80. Lots of my friends had that one. They all called it
their Trash80.

My first "computer" was an IBM MT/ST. It wasn't mine, actually, but
when I worked at the teachers union, my secretary was the "operator."
It was a large, clunky memory typewriter that used selectric like type
balls. I had to run it on occasion on weekends to produce crap for
board meetings. It was just awful.

I learned Basic programming with my first PC, an IBM PC. Very
frustrating at first because just about everything I input came back
with "syntax error" errors. Cursed a lot...as a guy with two degrees
in English, I did not make "syntax errors," but of course these were
syntax errors of a completely different variety. :)

I had a freebie account at The Source because a friend had the company
as an advertising and PR account and he had "freebie" accounts to give
out.
Two degrees? The BS continues.

1981 Internet story
 

wrote:
On Tue, 30 Jul 2013 13:40:19 -0400, Gogarty
wrote:

My printer in those days was an enormous Anderson-Jacobson terminal which had
an IBM mechanism including the golf ball typehead.

I can't begin to tell you how much we liked the dot matrix printer
when it started replacing all of those Selectric based consoles.

The selectric was an improvement over the NCR 315 console which was
originally an IBM typewriter pre Selectric with solenoids to trip the
hammer. Then we had on the later model a Teletype receive only terminal
that was super light duty, that was designed to turn on only while a
message was being received. We ran the shafts in oilite bushings 24/7. Cut
grooves in the shaft. PIA to rebuild.

1981 Internet story
 

wrote:


The selectric was an improvement over the NCR 315 console which was
originally an IBM typewriter pre Selectric with solenoids to trip the
hammer. Then we had on the later model a Teletype receive only
terminal
that was super light duty, that was designed to turn on only while a
message was being received. We ran the shafts in oilite bushings
24/7. Cut
grooves in the shaft. PIA to rebuild.

I worked on both of them. The Model B was easier to keep going.

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

I still have my "Doctor of Teletype Technology" card that the Navy
issued when graduating from Teletype repair school in Norfolk.
Never really worked on them much due to going into another Navy school
program, but I was briefly the only person on my first ship that had
been to the school. I was also the first of three non-rated people
who received orders to the school directly after RM "A" school.
Caused a lot of ill feelings among others in the class who were
typically E-5's and E-6's who had to re-enlist in order to get the
school.

Mod 28 ASR machines running at 110 wpm.