The way it was the way it is

[Colin_Fraser]

My first job with computers was back in the 1970's on a DEC PDP/11.
Had a massive 4mb ram and an eight inch floppy drive.

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

In my day's in the Airforce at Amberley ...the main processor ( in the onboard computer ) in the 1st batch of F111-C Fighters ( 1973 ) .. had the same processing power as a 486-DX2 Computer.

Flash ..!!

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

do you get a software failure screen if so just click

http://oldcomputers.net/compaqiii.html

try it without the backslash

Yes that fixed the link and yes that is the computer we bought. I wonder where it is now?

Barry

[Barrykgerdes]

Originally Posted by FlashDrive

In my day's in the Airforce at Amberley ...the main processor ( in the on board computer ) in the 1st batch of F111-C Fighters .. had the same processing power as a 486-DX2 Computer.

Flash ..!!

In my days at Amberley I don't think the word computer had been invented! We had Linclolns and Canberras.

Barry (A214061)

[FlashDrive (Poppy)]

Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes

In my days at Amberley I don't think the word computer had been invented! We had Linclolns and Canberras.

Barry (A214061)

Yes ...I remember the Canberra's .. in fact 2 were still at 3AD ( No 3 Aircraft Depot ) when I was there ..!!
Graceful Aeroplane ... powered by 2 Avon Axial flow Turbines.

Flash ..!! ( A122940 )

[OICURMT]

Originally Posted by Suzy

Gosh, I wonder where we'll be in 50 years.

Probably less than a decade... IBM has been working on this for more than 10 years.

http://domino.research.ibm.com/comm/...torage297.html
http://www.research.ibm.com/topics/p...html/holo.html


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holographic_data_storage

[GraemeT (Graeme)]

When I was at highschool, we were taken to Sydney University to see SILLIAC, their first (I believe) computer. It took up the best part of a room, had something like 3000 valves (vacuum tubes), consumed over 30kW and had about 32k memory. Sometime later, my first business computer, a Microbee, was in a box the size of the Oxford Dictionary, had 64k and a 3.5" disk drive with single sided disks costing $10 each.

[2stroke (Jay)]

Originally Posted by TrevorW

Makes you wonder how come

a 1945 V2 rocket used fundamentally the same propulsion method as a 2011 Dragon

Cause it was the only thing the nazi's got right

[Zhou (Mick)]

Originally Posted by GraemeT

When I was at highschool, we were taken to Sydney University to see SILLIAC, their first (I believe) computer. It took up the best part of a room, had something like 3000 valves (vacuum tubes), consumed over 30kW and had about 32k memory. Sometime later, my first business computer, a Microbee, was in a box the size of the Oxford Dictionary, had 64k and a 3.5" disk drive with single sided disks costing $10 each.

Just last night I was thinking about the Microbee computers our high school had in the early/mid eighties. It is amazing how computers have changed our lives.

[2stroke (Jay)]

Originally Posted by Zhou

Just last night I was thinking about the Microbee computers our high school had in the early/mid eighties. It is amazing how computers have changed our lives.

LOL we had them in grade 2 but also had a few Amiga 500's then by grade 4 it was the mac classics, lol best memories were the c64 and cassette drives haha

[Zhou (Mick)]

The computers at our school were only accesable to the members of the computer club. A mate of mine stole a few blank passes and I was able to bluff my way into the club.

I remember loading programs with cassette too, at the time I thought it was amazing

[Ric]

I still have my first computer.

It is a 486DX100 with a 256mb hard drive and 8mb of ram. It also has windows for workgroups 3.11 on it.

It cost me $3500 so I refuse to get rid of it on principle. I'm not throwing that much money away.

[supernova1965 (Warren)]

Originally Posted by Ric

I still have my first computer.

It is a 486DX100 with a 256mb hard drive and 8mb of ram. It also has windows for workgroups 3.11 on it.

It cost me $3500 so I refuse to get rid of it on principle. I'm not throwing that much money away.

Imagine what a powerhouse you could buy for that money now

[TrevorW]

Ric, do you also have the first car you purchased, cars are an even bigger waste of money

I figure the amount of money I've spent on cars in the last 40 years I could have purchased a good block of land at today's prices

[pluto (Hugh)]

Originally Posted by Ric

I still have my first computer.

It is a 486DX100 with a 256mb hard drive and 8mb of ram. It also has windows for workgroups 3.11 on it.

It cost me $3500 so I refuse to get rid of it on principle. I'm not throwing that much money away.

Just last year I threw out an SGI Octane2 that I got from a mate a few years ago. That cost the original buyer about $250,000 when it was new!!

[OICURMT]

Originally Posted by pluto

Just last year I threw out an SGI Octane2 that I got from a mate a few years ago. That cost the original buyer about $250,000 when it was new!!

I've still got my SGI O2 (as in O2, not Octane2)... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SGI_O2

Love the little thing, can't seem to get rid of it. Haven't started it up in about 5 years... maybe it is time to let go

[Suzy]

Back in 1981 when I was in Business College, they organised a computer to be brought in for the day so we could "see it" and I remember how all our jaws dropped with lots of wow moments. It was all word processors and electric typewriters back then.
Back then I had to learn how to use the plug and cord switchboard, electric switchboard, franking machine, ink duplicating machine (aka photocopier but waaay messier), telex machine (fax's weren't around then or if they were, didn't know about it) etc. I laugh at the memory now at how quickly they became outdated. Boy those telex machines were stressful (you couldn't see what you were typing unless you could read dots, lol)- I had to use one at work as well grrr.

[mithrandir (Andrew)]

Originally Posted by pluto

Just last year I threw out an SGI Octane2 that I got from a mate a few years ago. That cost the original buyer about $250,000 when it was new!!

I still have my Mac IIcx that cost me $8000 new. It was the first computer I paid for myself. I haven't turned it on in more than 10 years.

[TrevorW]

Remember that paperless office hype

[Octane (Humayun)]

My nickname came from the SGI machines.

You can pick them up really cheap on eBay now.

I remember first seeing them at the Sydney Motorshow back in 1995 or 1996? They were worth a packet back then; the guys at the Ford stand were giving Alias|Wavefront demonstrations, and, explaining how the processing they were showing us then, several years ago would have taken an entire week to achieve the same result. Nowadays, we can do that kind of processing on our mobile phones!

I had the pleasure of using SGI systems when I did a short stint at AFTRS assisting a student with an animation he made for his masters degree project.

H