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Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 9:43 am
by discordanian
JPG40504 wrote:The floppies WERE 5ΒΌ". If you had a hard drive, they fit in the same space as a floppy and had a whopping capacity of 20 - 30 MB(maybe 40)! By then you were probably using half height drives.
I had a 10M 'hard card' (before hard drive).
Before that, I had a cassette drive. save program, hit record on the cassette deck. Load program, hit play on the cassette deck.
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 10:00 am
by discordanian
I used to use the handle "Chaosopher" and when I picked it, a quick google/yahoo search showed that it wasn't being used. But after 8 years or so, it was showing up regularly. So I opted to change it to something I thought would be a bit more unique but still have a simliar meaning. The numbers in my name come from my social security number and bank account routing information.
Both Chaosopher and Discordanian stem from my love of "The Illuminatus Trilogy".
BTW: This thread was a fun read.
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:39 pm
by JPG
discordanian wrote:I had a 10M 'hard card' (before hard drive).
Before that, I had a cassette drive. save program, hit record on the cassette deck. Load program, hit play on the cassette deck.
That 'hardcard' was a hard drive mounted on a card with the support interface circuitry.
Please don't turn me in Mike!
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:01 pm
by discordanian
JPG40504 wrote:That 'hardcard' was a hard drive mounted on a card with the support interface circuitry.
Please don't turn me in Mike!
Oh. I know what a hard-card is. It's just that so many mother boards at the time didn't support MFM/RLL yet so this was ISA mounted with a controller built in.
My first computer was a TI/99-4A and I loved it. Doesn't everyone love their first computer?
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2009 8:12 pm
by JPG
discordanian wrote:Oh. I know what a hard-card is. It's just that so many mother boards at the time didn't support MFM/RLL yet so this was ISA mounted with a controller built in.
My first computer was a TI/99-4A and I loved it. Doesn't everyone love their first computer?
At least IT was a 16 bit machine(8086) not a pseudo 16 bit(8088)!:eek:
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:38 am
by navycop
I remember when I bought my wife a word process machine (in the 90's). She wanted to write me letters while I was deployed and we couldn't afford a computer...
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 8:40 am
by dusty
JPG40504 wrote:At least IT was a 16 bit machine(8086) not a pseudo 16 bit(8088)!:eek:
I wish I still had my first computer. If I did I might find some interesting info on all those 8" floppies I have in storage.
It was a great machine. A 16 bit processor with 8" drives and 64K of memory. I used it to access the university on a 300 baud modem. The output was fed to a dot matrix printer.
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 1:34 pm
by keakap
JPG40504 wrote:At least IT was a 16 bit machine(8086) not a pseudo 16 bit(8088)!:eek:
Ah, yes, I remember when chips came out. Sure saved a lotta space. Then we had to figure out what to do with the thousands of spare 2N-404 cans we had lying around...
Wow-- modems! Almost forgot about them. What a modern wonder, when they came out.
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 3:33 pm
by mickyd
Soooooo...since we're on the subject....what is the significance of your forum user name?
Posted: Wed Aug 26, 2009 3:42 pm
by dusty
mickyd wrote:Soooooo...since we're on the subject....what is the significance of your forum user name?
It's just that I get awfully dusty doing woodwork. SWMBO makes me change before I come in to eat. She brings snacks and drinks to the shop area so that I won't be tempted to come in the house that way.
Hmmm. Where does all that dust come from. Is the DC3300 turned on?:rolleyes: