"M.I.5¾" <no.one.DeleteThis@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge and
> impossible to fill.

Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can still
remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!

"Mike C#" <xyz DeleteThis @xyz.com> wrote in message
news:%23QGCs2ygIHA.4536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one DeleteThis @no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge and
>> impossible to fill.
>
> Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
> need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
> wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can still
> remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!

640k of memory. Luxury. I was talking about the days when 4kb of memory
was adequate and a 4k expansion card (costing £~100) gave so much elbow room
as to be unbelievable*. A 78k floppy drive took some filling, but a 10Mb
winchester hard disk (and this was the top end of the size range!) was
positively unfillable. And to run that hard disk, you had to modify the ROM
code yourself to access it.

*And required another 3 Amps of power capability to power it.

"Mike C#" <xyz DeleteThis @xyz.com> wrote in message
news:%23QGCs2ygIHA.4536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one DeleteThis @no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge and
>> impossible to fill.
>
> Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
> need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
> wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can still
> remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!

640k of memory. Luxury. I was talking about the days when 4kb of memory
was adequate and a 4k expansion card (costing £~100) gave so much elbow room
as to be unbelievable*. A 78k floppy drive took some filling, but a 10Mb
winchester hard disk (and this was the top end of the size range!) was
positively unfillable. And to run that hard disk, you had to modify the ROM
code yourself to access it.

*And required another 3 Amps of power capability to power it.

"Mike C#" <xyz RemoveThis @xyz.com> wrote in message
news:%23QGCs2ygIHA.4536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one RemoveThis @no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge and
>> impossible to fill.
>
> Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
> need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
> wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can still
> remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!

Imagine my thrill in 1990 when I ran across a 300 MB ESDI drive and its
controller in a cabinet that came from ZDS when we moved out...it wasn't
new, but it was pretty darn fast and a lot more space than I needed. Today,
I got 300 MB chunks in my stool. (to paraphrase a famous movie quote.)

And before that, I once upgraded the RAM in my computer from 4k to 16k.
Soldered the chips on piggyback style.

-John O

"Mike C#" <xyz.DeleteThis@xyz.com> wrote in message
news:%23QGCs2ygIHA.4536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one.DeleteThis@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge and
>> impossible to fill.
>
> Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
> need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
> wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can still
> remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!

Imagine my thrill in 1990 when I ran across a 300 MB ESDI drive and its
controller in a cabinet that came from ZDS when we moved out...it wasn't
new, but it was pretty darn fast and a lot more space than I needed. Today,
I got 300 MB chunks in my stool. (to paraphrase a famous movie quote.)

And before that, I once upgraded the RAM in my computer from 4k to 16k.
Soldered the chips on piggyback style.

-John O

"JohnO" <johno@!NOOSPAM!heathkit.com> wrote in message
news:%23ANbt%232gIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "Mike C#" <xyz.RemoveThis@xyz.com> wrote in message
> news:%23QGCs2ygIHA.4536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "M.I.5¾" <no.one.RemoveThis@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>>> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge
>>> and impossible to fill.
>>
>> Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
>> need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
>> wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can
>> still remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!
>
> Imagine my thrill in 1990 when I ran across a 300 MB ESDI drive and its
> controller in a cabinet that came from ZDS when we moved out...it wasn't
> new, but it was pretty darn fast and a lot more space than I needed.
> Today, I got 300 MB chunks in my stool. (to paraphrase a famous movie
> quote.)
>
> And before that, I once upgraded the RAM in my computer from 4k to 16k.
> Soldered the chips on piggyback style.
>
> -John O
>

Really want to go back in time, my first job entailed programming an IBM
1401 mainframe in machine language, SPS or Autocoder. The machine had a
whopping 4K of Core memory and with very expensive add-ons could go to 16K.
Was a lot of fun back then. When I graduated to a TI-994A as my first
personal computer I thought I was in heaven with speech, basic and a color
TV for a monitor. Bought the floppy disk drive enclosure and it was bigger
than the computer. Did a lot of programming with that machine. Eventually
sold it for the same amount I paid for it about 3 years later.

Went on to purchase the KayPro. Now, I am sitting at a laptop with 2 GB
RAM, 120 GB internal HDD and USB attached another 3 drives with total of 1
TB of space, hooked to a 22" widescreen display, and am working wirelessly
60 feet away from my router and cable modem using my new Wireless N router
and USB network card. The whole rig cost less than the upgraded KayPro.

"JohnO" <johno@!NOOSPAM!heathkit.com> wrote in message
news:%23ANbt%232gIHA.4140@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "Mike C#" <xyz.RemoveThis@xyz.com> wrote in message
> news:%23QGCs2ygIHA.4536@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl...
>>
>> "M.I.5¾" <no.one.RemoveThis@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
>> news:47d53195$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>>> You mean the days when a 10 *Megabyte* hard disk was regarded as huge
>>> and impossible to fill.
>>
>> Yeah, back when 640KB was considered more memory than "anyone would ever
>> need" =) I was actually thinking about the old 10 MB hard drives when I
>> wrote that, just didn't want to date myself too much =) Geez, I can
>> still remember the thrill when I moved up to 20 MB!
>
> Imagine my thrill in 1990 when I ran across a 300 MB ESDI drive and its
> controller in a cabinet that came from ZDS when we moved out...it wasn't
> new, but it was pretty darn fast and a lot more space than I needed.
> Today, I got 300 MB chunks in my stool. (to paraphrase a famous movie
> quote.)
>
> And before that, I once upgraded the RAM in my computer from 4k to 16k.
> Soldered the chips on piggyback style.
>
> -John O
>

Really want to go back in time, my first job entailed programming an IBM
1401 mainframe in machine language, SPS or Autocoder. The machine had a
whopping 4K of Core memory and with very expensive add-ons could go to 16K.
Was a lot of fun back then. When I graduated to a TI-994A as my first
personal computer I thought I was in heaven with speech, basic and a color
TV for a monitor. Bought the floppy disk drive enclosure and it was bigger
than the computer. Did a lot of programming with that machine. Eventually
sold it for the same amount I paid for it about 3 years later.

Went on to purchase the KayPro. Now, I am sitting at a laptop with 2 GB
RAM, 120 GB internal HDD and USB attached another 3 drives with total of 1
TB of space, hooked to a 22" widescreen display, and am working wirelessly
60 feet away from my router and cable modem using my new Wireless N router
and USB network card. The whole rig cost less than the upgraded KayPro.

"M.I.5¾" <no.one.RemoveThis@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
news:47d6378c$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>
> 640k of memory. Luxury. I was talking about the days when 4kb of memory
> was adequate and a 4k expansion card (costing £~100) gave so much elbow
> room as to be unbelievable*. A 78k floppy drive took some filling, but a
> 10Mb winchester hard disk (and this was the top end of the size range!)
> was positively unfillable. And to run that hard disk, you had to modify
> the ROM code yourself to access it.
>
> *And required another 3 Amps of power capability to power it.
>

Oh you wanna trade war stories? LOL. OK, I'm game - I used to have a
Commodore Vic-20 with 2K of RAM and no tape drive/floppy drive. I remember
spending hours typing in programs from the back of Compute!'s Gazette
magazine and then leaving the computer running for days on end, since I'd
lose the program as soon as I turned the power off =) Hehe =)

"M.I.5¾" <no.one RemoveThis @no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
news:47d6378c$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>
> 640k of memory. Luxury. I was talking about the days when 4kb of memory
> was adequate and a 4k expansion card (costing £~100) gave so much elbow
> room as to be unbelievable*. A 78k floppy drive took some filling, but a
> 10Mb winchester hard disk (and this was the top end of the size range!)
> was positively unfillable. And to run that hard disk, you had to modify
> the ROM code yourself to access it.
>
> *And required another 3 Amps of power capability to power it.
>

Oh you wanna trade war stories? LOL. OK, I'm game - I used to have a
Commodore Vic-20 with 2K of RAM and no tape drive/floppy drive. I remember
spending hours typing in programs from the back of Compute!'s Gazette
magazine and then leaving the computer running for days on end, since I'd
lose the program as soon as I turned the power off =) Hehe =)

"LVTravel" <noone.DeleteThis@nothere.com> wrote in message
news:emWFkv5gIHA.1164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Really want to go back in time, my first job entailed programming an IBM
> 1401 mainframe in machine language, SPS or Autocoder. The machine had a
> whopping 4K of Core memory and with very expensive add-ons could go to
> 16K. Was a lot of fun back then. When I graduated to a TI-994A as my
> first personal computer I thought I was in heaven with speech, basic and a
> color TV for a monitor. Bought the floppy disk drive enclosure and it was
> bigger than the computer. Did a lot of programming with that machine.
> Eventually sold it for the same amount I paid for it about 3 years later.
>
> Went on to purchase the KayPro. Now, I am sitting at a laptop with 2 GB
> RAM, 120 GB internal HDD and USB attached another 3 drives with total of 1
> TB of space, hooked to a 22" widescreen display, and am working wirelessly
> 60 feet away from my router and cable modem using my new Wireless N router
> and USB network card. The whole rig cost less than the upgraded KayPro.
>

OK, I got one more good one for you since you guys wanna roll it wayyyy
back. Back in the late 70s I got to see my first "computer" (no not the
Pong game console) =) My stepdad was a Chemistry professor at the local
university and he showed me a massive "analog computer" (I still have no
idea how the heck that thing worked) as well as the newest sensation on
campus - a digital computer with memory configured as 12-bit bytes =)
Apparently the 8-bit byte was still competing with various other
configurations in a sort of VHS-vs.-Betamax showdown. Guess which one
turned out to be "Betamax"?

"LVTravel" <noone DeleteThis @nothere.com> wrote in message
news:emWFkv5gIHA.1164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> Really want to go back in time, my first job entailed programming an IBM
> 1401 mainframe in machine language, SPS or Autocoder. The machine had a
> whopping 4K of Core memory and with very expensive add-ons could go to
> 16K. Was a lot of fun back then. When I graduated to a TI-994A as my
> first personal computer I thought I was in heaven with speech, basic and a
> color TV for a monitor. Bought the floppy disk drive enclosure and it was
> bigger than the computer. Did a lot of programming with that machine.
> Eventually sold it for the same amount I paid for it about 3 years later.
>
> Went on to purchase the KayPro. Now, I am sitting at a laptop with 2 GB
> RAM, 120 GB internal HDD and USB attached another 3 drives with total of 1
> TB of space, hooked to a 22" widescreen display, and am working wirelessly
> 60 feet away from my router and cable modem using my new Wireless N router
> and USB network card. The whole rig cost less than the upgraded KayPro.
>

OK, I got one more good one for you since you guys wanna roll it wayyyy
back. Back in the late 70s I got to see my first "computer" (no not the
Pong game console) =) My stepdad was a Chemistry professor at the local
university and he showed me a massive "analog computer" (I still have no
idea how the heck that thing worked) as well as the newest sensation on
campus - a digital computer with memory configured as 12-bit bytes =)
Apparently the 8-bit byte was still competing with various other
configurations in a sort of VHS-vs.-Betamax showdown. Guess which one
turned out to be "Betamax"?

"Mike C#" <xyz RemoveThis @xyz.com> wrote in message
news:es$2sG%23gIHA.1188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one RemoveThis @no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:47d6378c$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>>
>> 640k of memory. Luxury. I was talking about the days when 4kb of memory
>> was adequate and a 4k expansion card (costing £~100) gave so much elbow
>> room as to be unbelievable*. A 78k floppy drive took some filling, but a
>> 10Mb winchester hard disk (and this was the top end of the size range!)
>> was positively unfillable. And to run that hard disk, you had to modify
>> the ROM code yourself to access it.
>>
>> *And required another 3 Amps of power capability to power it.
>>
>
> Oh you wanna trade war stories? LOL. OK, I'm game - I used to have a
> Commodore Vic-20 with 2K of RAM and no tape drive/floppy drive. I
> remember spending hours typing in programs from the back of Compute!'s
> Gazette magazine and then leaving the computer running for days on end,
> since I'd lose the program as soon as I turned the power off =) Hehe =)

VIC-20? That was donkey's years after the era, I'm talking about.

"Mike C#" <xyz.DeleteThis@xyz.com> wrote in message
news:es$2sG%23gIHA.1188@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
>
> "M.I.5¾" <no.one.DeleteThis@no.where.NO_SPAM.co.uk> wrote in message
> news:47d6378c$1_1@glkas0286.greenlnk.net...
>>
>> 640k of memory. Luxury. I was talking about the days when 4kb of memory
>> was adequate and a 4k expansion card (costing £~100) gave so much elbow
>> room as to be unbelievable*. A 78k floppy drive took some filling, but a
>> 10Mb winchester hard disk (and this was the top end of the size range!)
>> was positively unfillable. And to run that hard disk, you had to modify
>> the ROM code yourself to access it.
>>
>> *And required another 3 Amps of power capability to power it.
>>
>
> Oh you wanna trade war stories? LOL. OK, I'm game - I used to have a
> Commodore Vic-20 with 2K of RAM and no tape drive/floppy drive. I
> remember spending hours typing in programs from the back of Compute!'s
> Gazette magazine and then leaving the computer running for days on end,
> since I'd lose the program as soon as I turned the power off =) Hehe =)

VIC-20? That was donkey's years after the era, I'm talking about.

"Mike C#" <xyz.DeleteThis@xyz.com> wrote in message
news:e%23IEVK%23gIHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> "LVTravel" <noone.DeleteThis@nothere.com> wrote in message
> news:emWFkv5gIHA.1164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Really want to go back in time, my first job entailed programming an IBM
>> 1401 mainframe in machine language, SPS or Autocoder. The machine had a
>> whopping 4K of Core memory and with very expensive add-ons could go to
>> 16K. Was a lot of fun back then. When I graduated to a TI-994A as my
>> first personal computer I thought I was in heaven with speech, basic and
>> a color TV for a monitor. Bought the floppy disk drive enclosure and it
>> was bigger than the computer. Did a lot of programming with that
>> machine. Eventually sold it for the same amount I paid for it about 3
>> years later.
>>
>> Went on to purchase the KayPro. Now, I am sitting at a laptop with 2 GB
>> RAM, 120 GB internal HDD and USB attached another 3 drives with total of
>> 1 TB of space, hooked to a 22" widescreen display, and am working
>> wirelessly 60 feet away from my router and cable modem using my new
>> Wireless N router and USB network card. The whole rig cost less than the
>> upgraded KayPro.
>>
>
> OK, I got one more good one for you since you guys wanna roll it wayyyy
> back. Back in the late 70s I got to see my first "computer" (no not the
> Pong game console) =) My stepdad was a Chemistry professor at the local
> university and he showed me a massive "analog computer" (I still have no
> idea how the heck that thing worked) as well as the newest sensation on
> campus - a digital computer with memory configured as 12-bit bytes =)
> Apparently the 8-bit byte was still competing with various other
> configurations in a sort of VHS-vs.-Betamax showdown. Guess which one
> turned out to be "Betamax"?

Pah! Luxury. You haven't even lived until you have had to progam a
Schlumberger Valve analogue computer built in the early 1970's.

"Mike C#" <xyz.RemoveThis@xyz.com> wrote in message
news:e%23IEVK%23gIHA.2268@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
> "LVTravel" <noone.RemoveThis@nothere.com> wrote in message
> news:emWFkv5gIHA.1164@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>> Really want to go back in time, my first job entailed programming an IBM
>> 1401 mainframe in machine language, SPS or Autocoder. The machine had a
>> whopping 4K of Core memory and with very expensive add-ons could go to
>> 16K. Was a lot of fun back then. When I graduated to a TI-994A as my
>> first personal computer I thought I was in heaven with speech, basic and
>> a color TV for a monitor. Bought the floppy disk drive enclosure and it
>> was bigger than the computer. Did a lot of programming with that
>> machine. Eventually sold it for the same amount I paid for it about 3
>> years later.
>>
>> Went on to purchase the KayPro. Now, I am sitting at a laptop with 2 GB
>> RAM, 120 GB internal HDD and USB attached another 3 drives with total of
>> 1 TB of space, hooked to a 22" widescreen display, and am working
>> wirelessly 60 feet away from my router and cable modem using my new
>> Wireless N router and USB network card. The whole rig cost less than the
>> upgraded KayPro.
>>
>
> OK, I got one more good one for you since you guys wanna roll it wayyyy
> back. Back in the late 70s I got to see my first "computer" (no not the
> Pong game console) =) My stepdad was a Chemistry professor at the local
> university and he showed me a massive "analog computer" (I still have no
> idea how the heck that thing worked) as well as the newest sensation on
> campus - a digital computer with memory configured as 12-bit bytes =)
> Apparently the 8-bit byte was still competing with various other
> configurations in a sort of VHS-vs.-Betamax showdown. Guess which one
> turned out to be "Betamax"?

Pah! Luxury. You haven't even lived until you have had to progam a
Schlumberger Valve analogue computer built in the early 1970's.