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    Computer history

    I decided to make a post about my past experience with computers, starting with the very first. I thought it would be interesting to read what other peoples experiences were too. This post also ended up a lot longer than I intended, which is why I added just a brief summary at the end.

    I cant remember how old I was but my first experience with a computer was a skiing game on a Sinclair ZX81 owned by a friend of my parents.


    Then a friend of mine got himself a BBC micro B when I was 10, so I would be round his house playing games many times after school. This would have been in the early 80's, and soon after that, my parents bought a Sinclair ZX spectrum, which I mainly used for games, but my father actually took the time to learn to program and I remember being very impressed with the analogue clock program he wrote. I used to copy programs from magazines, some worked, some didn't and I would have to go through the listing line by line until I had corrected all the typing errors (there was invariably more than one) Frustrating to say the least. I managed to write a few simple programs of my own, but they were really basic and usually did just one thing, like using the “GOTO” command to print a never ending list of profanity! (What schoolboy with a computer didn't)

    We had the spectrum for quite a while, upgrading the memory from 16K to 48K during that time, until my father bought an Amstrad PC which ran a very early version of windows, may have been one of the first versions. When it booted it just came up with a C prompt, and one had to type “win” to actually load windows. I think it had a 20MB hard drive, maybe not even that, not sure how much memory though and an 8086 processor. My father used a lot of DOS based software, like Lotus 1-2-3, since windows had not been around for long, there was a lot of it about still.

    Our next computer was a laptop costing £2000. It ran windows 3.11 and had a had a x286 processor with 20MB hard drive, I think that was a Compaq. My memory about the exact specs.

    is a little hazy. I remember my father using disk compression on many of our early PC's because of the limited storage.


    As a college student in the 90's learning electronic engineering, one module focussed on programming. We used development boards based on the Z80 processor, coding in both assembly language and machine code, neither of which I ever got the hang of. For anyone who has not coded in assembly language, each line of code carries out just one instruction at processor level, machine code is even worse as all the code is entered in hexadecimal.

    I understand what some commands do, its usually the syntax I get wrong, like forgetting a curly bracket. Unfortunately, assemblers are not too specific when it comes to typos like that.

    My father was still running a lot of DOS based software for work and home finances. I never took much of an interest in computers since the Spectrum, just using my fathers for the occasional college assignment, until I bought my very own PC at a computer fair in 1995, a refurbished Compaq for just over £400. It ran windows 95, had a 486 processor running at 16MHz, 850MB hard drive and it even had a CD ROM drive and 14.4K modem. Soon after I got it, I was online and hooked on the internet, I didn't really have a clue about computers at the time, my father knew more than me!!

    Three years later I got rid of that lump and paid a friend to build a computer for me. This time with a 2.1GB hard drive but still stuck to a 486 processor running at 33MHz and windows 95, I couldn't really afford a high spec. machine back then.

    At that time I was living in a shared house with no internet, so gaming was pretty much all I did.

    I went through a variety of PC's over the next 8 years, always being a couple of versions of windows behind the majority (and that never really changed up until a few years ago)

    Around 2000, I tried red hat Linux for the first time on an old lap top which I kept as back up for the PC I owned at the time.

    It wasn't a great success with the display drivers only managing 16 colours...yes 16 colours, not 16-bit colour. I probably could have found a suitable driver, but at that time I didn't know where to look. I expect there were support forums for Linux back then too, but did not think to search.


    In 2004 I built my own PC. AMD Sempron, 250GB HDD, 2GB DDR RAM, and a very heavy metal case. I installed windows XP and had that for a good few years. I gradually added things and upgraded the hardware over the years, until I had replaced everything but the case. I also tried Ubuntu and Kubuntu for a while (Jaunty Jackalope, if my memory serves me) I had a friend online who knew Linux so he helped me with issues like finding drivers and various other fixes.
    The case was way too heavy and cumbersome though, so I bought myself a laptop 4 years ago which I still have today. AMD A4-5000 processor, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3, Radeon HD8330 graphics, running windows 8.1 and of course now Kubuntu 14.04 side by side. Can't say I'm a real fan of windows 8, Windows 7 was by far a better version in my opinion. I think it may have been Windows 8 that gave me the final push towards Kubuntu.

    To Summarise

    Early 80s: Sinclair ZX Spectrum

    Late 80's/early 90's - Amstrad PC with 8086 processor running one of the first versions of windows, then a Compaq laptop running Win 3.11, 286 CPU.

    Then systems owned by myself...

    Mid 90's - My first Compaq PC running Win 95, 486 CPU, 850MB HDD

    Late 90's - Custom job running Win 95 also with 486 CPU, 2.1GB HDD

    2000 (ish) HP Pavillion, Win XP, 200MHz MMX CPU, 40GB HDD, 512MB RAM

    2004-2013 home made, constantly upgrading, final spec's upon selling: Win XP, AMD Athlon 3200+, 4GB RAM, 500GB + 250GB HDD

    2014 to current- PB laptop AMD A4-5000, 500GB HDD, 4GB DDR3. One of most up to date computers I think I have ever had, at least it was when I bought it.

    Still getting used to Kubuntu, but have to say I'm loving it so far, despite a few teething problems, which are mostly down to my lack of knowledge about the OS. Installing Kubuntu is almost like having a new computer again, after all it is the software that makes the computer.

    #2
    Nice and interesting history! Thanks!

    Yeppers on how my family and I started:

    Sinclair ZX81

    woodlikedthereadsmoke
    sigpic
    Love Thy Neighbor Baby!

    Comment


      #3
      Welcome to KFN, jheron!
      Interesting history!
      Did you complete your degree in electronic (electrical?) engineering?
      "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
      – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

      Comment


        #4
        Hi GreyGeek, It was an HND, yes I did, just, I really struggled with maths though and had to retake the final exam, but just scraped through with a pass.

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          #5
          A pass is a pass! What really counts is what you do afterwards. A college education is no guarantee of success nor is a dropout always a failure.

          In today's world a person will change jobs/disciplines several times during their working life.


          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
          "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
          – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

          Comment


            #6
            TUP.
            woodsmoke
            sigpic
            Love Thy Neighbor Baby!

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by jheron View Post
              I thought it would be interesting to read what other peoples experiences were too.
              http://hackerpublicradio.org/series.php?id=29

              it was nice to read yours.
              community is what will save us

              Comment


                #8
                My first experience with computers was in an evening college Maths course, when the teacher brought in his portable computer (CPU plus typewriter, which served as a keyboard and 'monitor') and taught the class to program simple BASIC programs. A year later, an astronomy teacher did the same, but using a terminal. In the 1970s, I worked with various computers in two Computer Output Microfilm companies (now obsolete) and learned to program the machines for different customer specifications. My first computer was a ZX-81, and my crowning achievement with that machine was to translate an Apple BASIC program for observing Halley's comet to Sinclair BASIC. I learned a lot from that little machine. After a brief fling with Spectrum I bought an Atari 800 XL which I actually used as a work machine and expanded the memory from 64K to 256K and used Sparta DOS as the operating system. After that I got a 486 PC clone which I kept upgrading until I have what I've got now. I started with Windows 3.2 then kept upgrading up to Windows 10 (skipping Windows 8, which I did not like at all). My first experience with Linux was with the old Ubuntu (now resuscitated as Mate) which I liked. After Ubuntu went to Unity, I tried Kubuntu and have stuck with it since, although I've added the Neon repositories to 16.04 and now have a hybrid OS which works very well. I like Linux and don't plan to return to Windows.

                I also like the support available, especially from this forum, which has given me a lot of help with the problems I've had.

                Comment


                  #9
                  After HS in 1959 I went to Barns School of Business and learned to run IBM 540 Gangpunch and bread board IBM 402 Tabulators to process the holes punched in Hollerith punch cards. I looked like I was 14 and couldn't get a job so I went to college when an opportunity arose. In grad school in 1967 I took Numerical Analysis. It included using a KSR-133 keyboard to punch holes in yellow paper tape in order to encode Fortran IV code that solved quadratic equations and other math and physics problems. Ten years later I built a HeathKit EC-1 analog computer, circa 1975, which used resistance and capacitance to emulate integration and differentiation to solve problems.



                  In addition to the analog computer, I also built the scanner shown in the later half of the video.

                  In the summer of 1978 Apple ][ computers appeared at Team Electronics in Grand Island, NE, and during the weekends I would go to that store and teach myself Apple ][ BASIC on the demo Apple on display at the front of the store. A crowd usually gathered around to watch. I used that opportunity to program and test educational software for my personal use as a HS science and math teacher. The three most important programs were a grade book, a math practice program and a graphical simulation of the torque curve of a Datasun 210 pickup truck as one shifted through its gears.

                  The store manager agreed to sell me an Apple ][ computer if I would demonstrate and sell them on weekends. My first sale was an Apple ][ with 48Kb of RAM, a color TV as a monitor, two Disk ][ drives and a Centronics 749 line printer. Total cost: $5,000. Profit was $2,500. My cut was half of the profit. At the time I was the highest paid teacher in the school I taught in, taking home $700/mo. I wrote the software that customers used until Visicalc came out and people learned to use that program for the accounting and record keeping.

                  During the 1979-1980 wrestling season the coach asked me to write a program to keep track of 16 teams in all weight classes and to score and rank them and print out the new parings based on the previous results. I did that. A state official came to witness the Clarks Invitational Tournament (Clarks was a Class D wrestling power house at the time) and ended up behind me watching me run the software. At the end of the tournament he invited me to run the software at the Nebraska State Wrestling Championship Tournament. My 9th grade son ran the program. NE Public TV put a camera on the printout and later interviewed me. My phone started ringing off the hook and three months later I resigned from teaching and began my computer consulting business.

                  Between 1980 and 1997 I used several kinds of computers and nearly a dozen languages to write all kinds of software for all kinds of clients. My two favorite languages were Forth and AREV, a flavor of BASIC that was integrated into a Pick DB. It ran in DOS. In late 2003 I found Qt3 and tried it out. I almost quite it because it used the Designer to write software and that made software development very clumsy. I almost quite it when Qt4 came out. It was a world of difference and a breeze to program so I adopted it and programs that I wrote with it at the NE Dept of Revenue are still running to this day, 13 years later.
                  Last edited by GreyGeek; Aug 24, 2017, 09:23 AM.
                  "A nation that is afraid to let its people judge the truth and falsehood in an open market is a nation that is afraid of its people.”
                  – John F. Kennedy, February 26, 1962.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Interesting to read all the responses, thanks guys

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