I'm not that old??

[erick (Eric)]

Took my visiting sister to the Melbourne Museum yesterday. Had a great time -I haven't been for a few years. Looking through the CSIRAC computer exhibit I came across - an Ericsson GH337 mobile phone with attached DC12 PCMCIA card on display in the history of computing. Oh No! That's my first mobile phone - in a MUSEUM!! I'm not that old am I?

[radu5er]

Hey Pal...at least YOU are still mostly functional and not in a display case...at least not yet!

[Ric]

Hi Eric, I'm still using a Nokia 1610 . The first of the digitals, it works fine allthough finding batteries can be a hassle.
I love it, nice big buttons so I can actually dial the right number.

Cheers

[avandonk]

You are only as old as the technological marvel you are playing with. You are only a youngster. I will not go into detail but it has something to do with ...
Unless you have struggled with limited memory and machine code with a PDP8 you have not lived!

Bert

[taminga16 (Greg)]

Never regret growing old, it's a privilege denied to many.
Greg.

[Glenhuon (Bill)]

I don't go back quite that far Avandok, but the first one I played with was a Sinclair Z80 and the first one I owned was a Commodore 64, with tape drive. Used to set it loading a program and go have Tea, hoping it would be ready when I finished.

[duncan]

HA ha ha! the old commodore 64. Memories of playing around with sprites!
Nah! i'm not old-----------------------YET,LOL.
Cheers all,
Duncan

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Eric,
I took the kids to the Melbourne Museum last year and we were suprised to see items only 2 - 3 years old in the technology section. Some of the people we overheard said that they were carrying mobile phones older than the ones on display

So was I

P.S. There is a Computer Museum about 10 minutes from here, at Smythesdale!

[matt]

Originally Posted by Glenhuon

I don't go back quite that far Avandok, but the first one I played with was a Sinclair Z80 and the first one I owned was a Commodore 64, with tape drive. Used to set it loading a program and go have Tea, hoping it would be ready when I finished.

Yep. My first PC was a Sinclair ZX-81.

From memory, it came with 1K of on-board memory.

You could splash out and buy a 16K plug-in memory pack the size of a cigarette pack!!!

[erick (Eric)]

Originally Posted by avandonk

You are only as old as the technological marvel you are playing with. You are only a youngster. I will not go into detail but it has something to do with ...
Unless you have struggled with limited memory and machine code with a PDP8 you have not lived!

Bert

I think I've lived since I did use a PDP8e at some stage - I just cannot remember when - but I didn't have to program it. But earlier (1973) I used a Data General Nova - it may have been a SuperNova - 4k of memory - and in this case I did have to write machine code. I had the dubious honor of accidentally ripping the last copy of the BASIC interpreter (paper tape!) - Woops!

[Louwai (Bryan)]

I don't go back quite as far as some of you, But I do remember buying 12mb of RAM once for $785.00

Man that was a long time ago.

[JimmyH155]

That's nothing, guys Recently I took the lad to Caloundra and dropped in at the Air museum - wow!! There sitting in a hangar in all (or most ) of its splendour was Sea Vixen No 125 with the letter E on the tail. I rushed back home, got out my old slides, and there she was , loaded up with missiles on HMS Eagle as we were steaming up the Mozambique Channel - waiting to go into Rhodesia (Remember Ian Smith??) . I couldnt believe that a plane I used go up to and take photos of was now a museum piece I was a Mdshipman then, and we spent 5 months on the Eagle on what I can only describe as a "paid holiday"

[ving (David)]

you are only as old as the blonde sitting next to you in the passenger seat of your red convertable...

i am so old i had the predecessor to the commodor 64... the vic20

[JimmyH155]

I can beat that - I was given a Dragon 32

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

I can remember being amazed when the calculator first came out! I had to have one in my 1st year of Tech and that's the year they became available.
All it did was add, subtract, multiply and divide, and yet it was 'The Jetsons' in your pocket!!!!

It was incredible!

It was expensive though. It cost my parents almost a weeks wages!!!!!!!!!!!!

Now you can get one that does all sorts of calculus for about $5

[erick (Eric)]

Yes, I remember a special deal on my first calculator which was still expensive - about the size of half a house brick - 4 AA batteries and it chewed them up quickly. Had that green tube display (LEDs - what are they?). But I had a fancy one - it would do percentage as well as +, -, / & *!

[Dujon]

You're OK, erick, the Nixie tube came before that so you're not that old.

[ballaratdragons (Ken)]

Originally Posted by erick

Yes, I remember a special deal on my first calculator which was still expensive - about the size of half a house brick - 4 AA batteries and it chewed them up quickly. Had that green tube display (LEDs - what are they?). But I had a fancy one - it would do percentage as well as +, -, / & *!

Yep, mine was huge too. Gee, you had the luxury model if it had +, -, / * & %.
They didn't come out for another year or two.

[merlin8r]

My first computer was the awful Dick Smith VZ200. It relied on a tape recorder to load programs too. Problem was, the volume had to be set exactly right, or it wouldn't load. But just to complicate things, that required volume setting was never the same twice. Always had to fiddle a bit with the knob.

[middy]

Originally Posted by erick

But I had a fancy one - it would do percentage as well as +, -, / & *!

Yuppy!!