Ancient Computer Geek

[Sandy & Shirley]

I quit college in 1967 after two years as a math major because I wanted to learn about those computer things and there were no non-grad level courses available. So, I join the Army and started my life as a computer geek.

I am now 69 and living with a 60 year old widow for the last 14 years. I made a lot of financial mistakes when I retired at 66.5 and have made it my goal in life to learn what I can to make sure my OGDP does not make the same mistakes.

PS: Per my Citi Group pension, Shirley is defined as my OGDP, Opposite Gender Domestic Partner. Don’t you just love political correctness?

 

[Exilarch]

PS: Per my Citi Group pension, Shirley is defined as my OGDP, Opposite Gender Domestic Partner. Don’t you just love political correctness?

No, if I could I would burn it all in a giant fire along with each and every single individual who ever promoted it.

I can only imagine what it's like to be your age, primarily because the world has gotten so much worse in your lifetime. You must've grown up in the 50s the way I grew up in the 90s. It must've been nothing but nonstop decay for your entire life, I'm so sorry.

 

[splitwdw]

PaPaGeek, This is a great place to learn. I'm not ready to retire yet but I'm learning so much here.

Exilarch, Wow, did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed!

 

[target2019]

Hmmm. In more ways than not, the world has grown better for us over the last sixty years. It is not a straight line of incremental, positive changes, though.

Some diseases in control, new ones seem to arise on weekly basis.

PC? It matters little to me. I am trying in my last quarter life to not dwell on what I cannot change.

I learned about computer things by doing, reading, and doing some more. That period was 1990-2015. Did it on my own.

There are many people who will share and teach on this forum.

Take care.

 

[Nodak]

Welcome, I am also a 69 year old computer geek.

 

[Walt34]

I can only imagine what it's like to be your age, primarily because the world has gotten so much worse in your lifetime. You must've grown up in the 50s the way I grew up in the 90s. It must've been nothing but nonstop decay for your entire life, I'm so sorry.

It's been terrible, I tell ya, enough to turn a guy into a curmudgeon. The decline started with Elvis and then the Beatles brought down proper Western Civilization. In contrast, these guys are proper musicians:

 

[ziggy29]

Welcome! I thought the title would take me to someone who confessed a love (like mine) for keeping ancient computers running. I have an Apple IIe, an Atari 800XL and an Commodore 64, with a lot of software and peripherals, and I'm not afraid to use them!

Heck, my first sojourn into programming, and what led me toward a computer science degree, was the old Trash-80 color computer (the expanded one with 16K of RAM!) we got when I was a sophomore in high school. I spent a lot of spare time writing games and such for it!

 

[Souschef]

My first experience was with the GE Tymeshare. You had a telephone modem and the programs I wrote were on punched paper tape.
My first PC was a Corona that I expanded to 640K of memory. It had a blazing CPU of 4.77 MHz!

 

[RE2Boys]

My first experience was with the GE Tymeshare. You had a telephone modem and the programs I wrote were on punched paper tape.
My first PC was a Corona that I expanded to 640K of memory. It had a blazing CPU of 4.77 MHz!

I spent a summer as an intern at a GE plant, and I remember the Tymeshare and punched paper tapes. The engineers had a simulation program and when they made modifications or tried a new dataset, my job was to re-punch the entire tape. Used an acoustic coupler modem where the telephone handset fit on top of the modem. Probably 300bps at that time.

 

[RE2Boys]

It's been terrible, I tell ya, enough to turn a guy into a curmudgeon. The decline started with Elvis and then the Beatles brought down proper Western Civilization. In contrast, these guys are proper musicians:

Oh does this bring back memories of high school formal dances!!

Notice that there are no female musicians!

 

[ejman]

My first personal computer was a Commodore VIC-20. If memory serves it came with a massive memory allotment of 3k bytes and it worked just fine with an old TV as a monitor displaying 20 characters across the screen. Fun times!

To Exilarch: Decay? what Decay? (except for my knees I'll grant that) we have it so much better today! no comparison...

 

[dixonge]

One man's decay is another man's improvement. I'll stop there to stay as un-political as possible.

 

[wmc1000]

J*b provided me an IBM Personal Computer XT - 8088 in 1986 - taught myself to operate it. Learned Lotus 123 mainly for w*rk use and got them, to spring $125 for an upgrade board to x286! The good old days indeed.

 

[MRG]

Welcome Papa geek. I'm sure you have some great legacy stories. I didn't start it till 84, wish I'd gone in sooner.

 

[FIREmenow]

Freshman computer engineering in college, circa 1979.

Used paper tape punch to make 4-bit assembly language instructions in long rolls of paper tape. Tape was fed through an exposed optical read head on the front of a 19" rack with an Intel 8080 inside.

In order to make a software loop happen in, one had to:

1. Run the initialization/setup tape through, stop tape feed at the right place.
2. Get your short tape of loop software and use scotch tape to connect the paper tape ends together in a circle
3. Put that circular tape in the reader/head and let it run over and over the number of times you wanted the loop.
4. Remove the "loop" and run the rest of your "linear" tape instructions through.

Fun memories.....

 

[jonat]

This was my first computer (ca 1964)...

(Not the same one I had then, but one I found on eBay for a LOT more money!)

 

[GalaxyBoy]

Dear old Dad started computers back in '64. He wrote the company's (a Class I Railroad) payroll program from scratch as there was no such thing as commercial software. He claims the mainframe computer that occupied a large room had all of 4 kB of RAM. Says they assembled the code by hand at their desks and entered the program in hexadecimal.

This is sounding like the Four Yorkshiremen Sketch.

 

[wmc1000]

found a Digi-Comp1 v2.0 $49 plus $10 shipping is being made - Minds-On Toys - Kits

 

[gauss]

Built my own Apple ][ clone from a somewhat shady "grab bag" kit.

Soldered all the components to the PC board. Had to copy/bootleg the PROMs for a genuine Apple. Built a wood box to mount it in. Friend's Dad who had a tool and die shop punched out a nice metal plate to mount the keyboard.

When I went off to the University the following fall, I was very popular in the dorm (ie early computer gaming available in my room).

-gauss

 

[Nodak]

In my junior year of teachers college the school got a surplus Bendix G-15 computer with about 500 tubes in it in 1967. I was on work-study and got to help set it up. Was so interested that after college I moved to Minneapolis to attend a computer programming school (Electronic Computer Programming Institute) and wound up putting 40 years into the computer industry.

 

[jonat]

found a Digi-Comp1 v2.0 $49 plus $10 shipping is being made - Minds-On Toys - Kits

Not the same thing at all... Only the original held interest for me.

 

[ERD50]

...

This is sounding like the Four Yorkshiremen Sketch.

Leave it to Dilbert to adapt this old story:

-ERD50

 

[Amethyst]

Well, this is a new take! I thought everybody who grew up in the 90's believes that the 1970's and before were Paradise, and that back then, they were handing out jobs and houses in return for rocks you picked up in the street. (As for nonstop decay...that happens to everyone, you know).

You must've grown up in the 50s the way I grew up in the 90s. It must've been nothing but nonstop decay for your entire life, I'm so sorry.