Not sure whether to post this here or in Computer problems - not really a problem though.
With all the talk about Windows 10 - a breath of fresh air - my mind was wandering (as it often does!!) to my early exposure to computers.
I was an Electronics Design Manager and Project leader and my team were working on Z80 and 8080/8086 applications using Machine code and Zilog development systems.
Being a mainly analogue man at the time (late 70's I think) I decided I needed to learn more about all this new magic so a bought myself a NASCOM Z80 based computer kit (PCB, components, keyboard and tape recorder) with results reviewed on a TV at low (very) resolution. Took me a week or two to get it going but you wouldn't believe the satisfaction of getting this relatively simple system to do something useful. It had a machine code compiler and you had to type every command in in hexadecimal and then record the program to tape. Later I had a BASIC interpreter to allow simple programming and programs saved on tape.
I seem to recall the kit had 8k of RAM and I doubled this to 16K at a cost of about £25 or so - a lot of money then. The tape recorder ran at 300 Baud (thats 300 bits per second) and now even average broadband works at 6 megabits per second!!.
Things have obviously moved on now but it would be nice to know (nostalgia interlude) others initial computer exposure.
:beers:
My first computer was a Tandy Model 1, with a separate floppy disk drive (that could hold a massive 128K!) and expansion unit. I used it for word processing for my translation work, with a NEC dot matrix printer that cost the equivalent of 500 euros. Initially, if I wanted to make any text bold, italic etc. I had to embed the on-off codes in the text, so the line of text was shortened. Then along came the LeScript word processing program, which was able to take that into account and print correctly.
From there I moved on to a Model 3, which had two built-in floppy drives and didn't need an expansion unit.
As PCs became affordable I managed to skip the dreadful XT and move straight on to a dinky little AT with a small monitor - a black and white display at last, after the green displays of the Tandys.
All those using various flavours of DOS.
That Model 1 was able to do a lot more with its tiny memory than the PC. It had a parallel keyboard interface, so it could detect _any_ combination of keys (JKL, for instance), not just the small set permitted by the IBM configuration with the serial keyboards we're now stuck with.
I started with a Sinclair Z80 or Z81 kit, then moved over to a MSX machine, I have always enjoyed computers, but programming seemed lik a mine field tried basic but I never could get the hang of it.
Next I bought a computer with windows 3.11 onboard and I think it cost me £1500. And that was the start of one expensive hobby, but an enjoyable one going on to build my own computers, I still build computers for my lads.
Hi
Started with the ZX81 and prgressed to the Spectrum. I then bought the Opus Discovery disk drive and proceeded to rewrite its operating system.
Since then I have been working as an Analyst Programmer originally on an AS400 but now on PCs using either C++ or VB.Net.
I'm also halfway through my MSc in Computer Science which I am doing part time.
Cheers
Paul
Hi,
My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI59 about 1979. It had 1k of memory but had the ability to store your programs on magnetic cards. I taught myself programming on it!
Soon after, I bought a Sharp MZ80k which was a Z80 and had a BASIC interpreter on tape which I had to load before each programming session. I recollect it cost about £800.00 which was a small fortune in those days.
But what changed the face of computing in this country was the Sinclair Spectrum and, equally important, the disassembly of the BASIC interpreter was published as a book. This meant that thousands of youngsters suddenly found themselves able to follow the workings of the BASIC and write their own games which were extremely sophisticated. I believe that is was this disassembly that resulted in the computer/programming revolution in this country.
Happy days
As an aside I wonder how many people remember what BASIC means?
After I finished with the NASCOM I bought (don't laugh) an Intertec SUPERBRAIN computer. Again it was a Z80 based system with two 180k floppy disk drives and built in keyboard and 9" monitor. It ran the CPM operating system. I used the original Microsoft Basic on it as well as a basic word processor.
Here is a link http://www.oldcomputers.net/intertec-superbrain.html (http://www.oldcomputers.net/intertec-superbrain.html)
I seem to recall this cost me around £1700 with a dot matrix printer in the late seventies or early eighties.
I use to have so much fun with this, except when the monthly repayment bill came in!!
:D
Quote from: PaulCheffus on September 10, 2015, 08:42:37 PM
Hi
Started with the ZX81 and prgressed to the Spectrum. I then bought the Opus Discovery disk drive and proceeded to rewrite its operating system.
Since then I have been working as an Analyst Programmer originally on an AS400 but now on PCs using either C++ or VB.Net.
I'm also halfway through my MSc in Computer Science which I am doing part time.
Cheers
Paul
When I was working for Thorn EMI in Feltham we used to build the Spectrums and QL's (I think that's what they were called) as a contractor for Sinclair. You wouldn't guess the problems we had getting some of those to work. Those tiny endless loop Microdrive tape drives were a nightmare!!
:'(
Quote from: Geoff on September 10, 2015, 08:36:45 PM
Next I bought a computer with windows 3.11 onboard and I think it cost me £1500. And that was the start of one expensive hobby, but an enjoyable one going on to build my own computers, I still build computers for my lads.
Do you know Geoff - I think every computer I've bought since the early 80's has cost me about £1500. Shows you how much prices have really come down and... how much it really cost us all those years ago!!
:doh:
Mine would be mainframe exposure at the local Poly, accessed via a teletype from school ... never particularly liked that ...
A year or so later, started using Commodore PETs at school as my proper exposure to computers; they were pretty good for the day ! Around that time, I got a ZX81 (with RAM-pack), while the school got some Zeniths and Tandys (they weren't as good as the PETs though), and some BBCs; they also got a mini - an honest-to-god mini-computer with iron-core memory :o 8k I think, I can certainly recall 8 sheets of the cores and I
think each was 1k ... could have been less. The IT teacher was an utter geek ::) His advanced class worked in machine-code only ::) I never did find out if he restored the mini back to working order ... By then, I'd moved to the Spectrum (with a Microdrive !) which lasted me a while.
At college was when I had my first exposure to PCs - XT machines with 5" single-sided floppy drives; the OS (early version of DOS) would boot off one, and you'd then swap to an apps diskette (word processing or a spread sheet; think they also had an early graphics app ? Extremely primitive by todays standards). They also had luggables - suitcase-sized beasts that had the top-edge folding down to show it was a keyboard, covering a small amber screen & a pair of 5" diskette drives ... weighed a ton ! A bit after that, I was using BBCs before being exposed to the Amiga 1000 (pre-Commodore); and that's when I just had to get a proper computer - the Commodore Amiga 500 :heart2: :heart2: :heart2: Had about 4 of the variants across the years ... including an Amiga 4000 with a massive 320MB hard drive :heart2: - still have it in the garage :thumbsup:
Wasn't until I entered the (un)Civil Service (in ITSA) that I started using PCs more (ATs by then of course), although the main kit I used was the ICL DRS300 modular systems running C-DOS ::) Part of my job then was building these as multi-user systems for accessing the DHSS mainframes (you could connect up to 16 terminals to a single host), as well as building them as direct interfaces between the mainframes themselves & the wider user-base. Moved from there onto PCs and NetWare (again mainly on ICL kit, some IBM, some Seimens) ... lovely server OS that was :heart2:
But speaking of ICL ...
Quote from: austinbob on September 10, 2015, 08:53:36 PM
we used to build the Spectrums and QL's (I think that's what they were called) as a contractor for Sinclair. You wouldn't guess the problems we had getting some of those to work. Those tiny endless loop Microdrive tape drives were a nightmare!!
Oh, the QLs were fun ::) ICL bought them all out (we were told) when Sinclair finally admitted they were :poop: , and retro-fitted them with a phone; called them the One-Per-Desk (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Per_Desk)... we kept as far away as possible from those things ! One per building was bad enough :P
Build my own these days; I never find the mfrs put together a spec I like, so this is the only way I get what I require :angel: Although sadly my hands-on @ work is much rarer these days as I now design/architect the infrastructure systems for others to put together.
Computer at home zx81 in kit form.
Then graduated to a Commodore.
In 1974 I think it was I was working as a computer operator using an ICL 1901A card based mainframe.
Later in life graduated to Windows 3.1 using a Toshiba laptop, then 98, and onto XP which I stuck with until early this year.
Quote from: MikeDunn on September 10, 2015, 09:12:40 PM
Build my own these days; I never find the mfrs put together a spec I like, so this is the only way I get what I require :angel: Although sadly my hands-on @ work is much rarer these days as I now design/architect the infrastructure systems for others to put together.
Often thought about building my own but have to say I've been a Dell fan for years now. Before you say anything Mike!! I've never had a problem with any computer I've bought from them - 100 percent reliable - and I've always waited until they have some great deal before I bought from them.
I suppose now I've said that my current XPS system will crash just after I post this!!
:D
Senile memory kicking in now!!
After Superbrain - I had an Amstrad 1640 (black and white monitor). That had the GEM GUI - early predecessor to Windows by Digital Research - with desktop Icons, low res graphics etc. and... guess what... a 20MB hard disk. That was a real breath of fresh air (forget Windows 10)
:D
Quote from: austinbob on September 10, 2015, 09:22:54 PM
I've been a Dell fan for years now. Before you say anything Mike!! I've never had a problem
Moi ? :angel:
I've quite disliked some of their product in the past; I'm certainly
not a fan of the way the current BIOS cripples the Precision series if you have a lower-spec PSU attached, for example ! However, they have some good units (my M4800 (apart from that BIOS bit) is a decent (albeit heavy !) laptop), and I like their rack-mount servers.
They aren't perfect; no kit is ::) And they've managed to screw up some orders for me in the past (but have fixed the issue when I've pointed out the order vs the received ::)). One part I'm unimpressed with, though, is their 4-hour support fine-print. Yes, they'll come out & attend, but if they have to replace something then god knows when you'll get that done ! Had arguments with them on that front, when one of the servers went wrong within 2 weeks of receipt ... motherboard fault, after 2 days of wrangling I ended up telling them to replace the entire server within 24 hours or we'd escalate the issue to board-level @ HQ - theirs & ours - and cancel all our outstanding orders :P We had a new board fitted the next day. Don't like having to play the heavy, but a 4-hour fix is a 4-hour fix - and if they can't do it that's their problem for selling what they can't deliver, and not mine.
Quote from: MikeDunn on September 10, 2015, 09:50:00 PM
Quote from: austinbob on September 10, 2015, 09:22:54 PM
I've been a Dell fan for years now. Before you say anything Mike!! I've never had a problem
Moi ? :angel:
I've quite disliked some of their product in the past; I'm certainly not a fan of the way the current BIOS cripples the Precision series if you have a lower-spec PSU attached, for example ! However, they have some good units (my M4800 (apart from that BIOS bit) is a decent (albeit heavy !) laptop), and I like their rack-mount servers.
They aren't perfect; no kit is ::) And they've managed to screw up some orders for me in the past (but have fixed the issue when I've pointed out the order vs the received ::)). One part I'm unimpressed with, though, is their 4-hour support fine-print. Yes, they'll come out & attend, but if they have to replace something then god knows when you'll get that done ! Had arguments with them on that front, when one of the servers went wrong within 2 weeks of receipt ... motherboard fault, after 2 days of wrangling I ended up telling them to replace the entire server within 24 hours or we'd escalate the issue to board-level @ HQ - theirs & ours - and cancel all our outstanding orders :P We had a new board fitted the next day. Don't like having to play the heavy, but a 4-hour fix is a 4-hour fix - and if they can't do it that's their problem for selling what they can't deliver, and not mine.
I'm just a single private user of Dell stuff and I have to say I've never had to contact Dell about a problem because I've never had one (now that really is tempting fate). I don't know your background Mike but I guess computers are your business and you have to deal with problems all the time so it must be a completely different deal for you.
:beers:
Now you are going back a bit - my first job was in a Bank, then I moved to a Manufacturing Company as a trainee Cost Accountant then using my little grey cells and mechanical adding machines to calculate cost figures.
The Chorley based firm I worked for used a Power Samus 40 column card machine for certain jobs, but the Chairman & MD decided to invest in a new fangled Mainframe Computer from ICT (a 1901 model), to replace the Power Samus and use it to help modernise his Company.
An Aptitude Test was held for a select number of employees within the Firm to program and write Systems for the new Computer, and I came out top and was told I was being send on a 2 weeks Systems Analyst course to Bradenham Manor in High Wickham, followed by a 4 week "Plan" Programming course in Central London.
To further my career I eventually left the Chorley Manufacturing Company and got a job as a Senior Analyst/Programmer at the Fylde Water Board in Blackpool, but after Water Authority Re-organisation in England & Wales I became Financial Systems Manager at the North West Water Authority's HQ near Warrington - a job I didn't enjoy.
After 18 months with the NWWA I moved to the Wyre Borough Council in Fleetwood to take charge of a new Computer Installation there, but eventually left when I was offered a Computer Manager postion at Halton Borough Council in Widnes.
After a number of years there I then moved to North wales when I was offered a better paid Computer Manager's position at Aberconwy Borough Council in Llandudno.
More re-organisation saw Aberconwy merge with Colwyn Council to form Conwy County Borough Council in 1994, and I was offered an Early Retirement/Redundancy package that was simply too good to turn down so I retired from all I.T. work except Home Computing.
From 1999 to 2004 I worked as a North Wales Rural Postman as I was bored, and I really enjoyed it, and only once crashed my little red Postvan. I only gave up being a Postman when we decided to Emigrate to Tenerife in the Summer of 2004.
Languages I was familiar with include :- Plan, Cobol, Fortan, Algol, Querymaster, Nicol, QPG, and a little bit of Unix, besides PC based CP/M and MsDos.
The original ICT 1901 Computer I was brought up with occupied a large Air-Conditioned room, and had a memory of less than 1GB, and used 80 column punched cards for Input
and all output was produced on a Line Printer.
It was only later that first Paper Tape was used instead of Punched Cards, and then Direct Data Entry Devices prior to all Input and most Output being on-line via PCs and dumb terminals.
How things have changed.
My first exposure to computing was a PDP9 mini. Punched cards and tapes. I built a 6502 machine from bits, I with a massive 8k of ram and a CUTS tape interface that did 1200 baud. It has a basic interpreter (beginners all purpose symbolic instruction code - someone asked), so I wrote a disassembler and assembler so I could write a disk interface. The disk OS nearly worked. However the BBC model b was released, so I bought one of those. Then an Atari, an Amiga with hard drive and a PC, a 286, then a 386sx with a maths co processor to run autocad. You could make and drink a cup of tea waiting for the screen to redraw. Now trying Windows 10 and Linux.
Quote from: terrysoham on September 10, 2015, 08:44:04 PM
Hi,
My first computer was a Texas Instruments TI59 about 1979. It had 1k of memory but had the ability to store your programs on magnetic cards. I taught myself programming on it!
Soon after, I bought a Sharp MZ80k which was a Z80 and had a BASIC interpreter on tape which I had to load before each programming session. I recollect it cost about £800.00 which was a small fortune in those days.
But what changed the face of computing in this country was the Sinclair Spectrum and, equally important, the disassembly of the BASIC interpreter was published as a book. This meant that thousands of youngsters suddenly found themselves able to follow the workings of the BASIC and write their own games which were extremely sophisticated. I believe that is was this disassembly that resulted in the computer/programming revolution in this country.
Happy days
As an aside I wonder how many people remember what BASIC means?
Beginners All - purpose Symbolic Instructional Code?
Taught mtself to program in basic, on a Commodore PET, tape drive program loading. Some of the programs could take 30 minutes to load from tape.
My manager bought the machine and wrote 2 programs, to help our department to do design calculations quicker and with more accuracy. One was to help me in my job, but it only worked for about 50% of the requirements. I sat down and wrote my own version, which was good for about 90%, because I put a couple of 'human' elements in. ie it asked for input of additional info if it could not make the calculation work.
Was using my version for about 3 months before the manager found out. I was designing electric heating element windings. The ladies who did the physical windings, based on my designs, were known to be very 'difficult'. I managed to work well with them, because I used to ask them for advice.
Being of school age through the 1980s, I was a beneficiary or victim (depending on your point of view!) of the BBC programme to 'put a computer in every classroom'. Starting on Model 'B's, then when they added the second computer room there were some 'Masters' in there ...
I can remember one 'programming' exercise from those days - we had to write code to display a stick-man to run across the screen. Having achieved that in about a quarter of the time allowed, added a loco following at twice the speed with a suitable effect when their location on the screen coincided!
Around 1987/8 the school upgraded to their first networked DOS based machines (RMs IIRC) and then to university where the 'revolutionary' Windows GUI was being rolled out as I arrived...
My father ordered a ZX81 in 1981 thinking it might somehow be useful for managing the household finances... This turned out to be a somewhat optimistic idea, as after connecting it to the TV all it displayed was a mysterious "K". Turned out the only way to derive any use from it was by typing in programs, a task which somehow fell to yours truly, which turned out to be very useful vocational training for my future career.
A Spectrum arrived a year or so later (after a long agonizing wait due to high demand), first really useful household computer was an Amstrad PCW, on which I learnt to program CP/M in Z80 assembler (due to my age I can't make boasts about walking uphill both ways in the dark to program with punch cards on room-filling beasts with ferrous core memory, but the CP/M stuff gives me some "street cred" among the younger people who seem to be increasing in number who never experienced a computer without a hard disk), then a PC (Atari, XT, dual 5.25in floppies, luxury!), then a 386 which I put together myself and upgraded as finances allowed (the keyboard from that I was still using as late as 2009), now another self-built PC which I don't need to upgrade as often, and also using MacBooks for my portable computing need since 2006. (Fun fact: until a couple of years ago you could find my name and email address embedded somewhere in the depths of OS X).
I started out on a IBM 1130 main frame at college it was the size of a small house used punch cards and printed out using a printer the size of a small car, my first personal computer was a Dragon 32 which was later updated to a 64 then I got a pc a 386 with 100 meg hard drive and twin discs 3.5 and 5.25 it had 2meg memory and a 16 colour graphics card and ran on DOS I think 4 with a early version of windows I think it was version 3.
Wow big thread already, lots of nostalgia ! :)
Anyone else here used an analog computer ( no not a DC vs DCC thread diversion !)
in the days of yore, just before 6502 and Z80 micro chips became available I had an EAI 100v analog computer controled by an EAI digital, with a PDP11/45 and a PDP11/10 to do the maths and display,,
-that was at my place of work ! ( hint : it was also used to design the 'barn doors' that enabled the Olympus engines to to efficiently power the Concord(-e) )
EDIT
Typing at the same time as Di, ah yes IBM 360, others would have to punch their maths into cards, send them off to a big room and await the tomorrow for the results. But could not achieve (at that time) the precision and turnround of the analog.
Then a few short years later I could write my own 4096 point FFT on a home BeebB in a couple of minutes that had previously taken a couple of hours to do a 256 one on the PDP (with its 32k ferrite core store that cost a fortune)
a time of transition !!
We had a BBC acorns and RM nimbus at primary school, though vary rarely got to touch them - my first experience of programming would have been the "turtle" robot that you would program a route into as a series of instructions, at the time it felt like I was getting too play with something out of Star Trek :D.
My grandad had an Amstrad CPC donated from work (it was out of date by the time he retired and wasn't worth shipping back to head office!) that I used to spend hours and hours on in the school holidays running through the basic programs in the user manual, I remember it had a proprietary 3 inch floppy drive that you had to manually flip from the A to B side and the only game my grandad had for it was a very early computerised trivial pursuit complete with animations of a Mr chips type character who would walk around the board "asking" the questions in a speech bubble - ah - memories!
Eventually (probably about 1995) we got a windows3.11 based "386", followed quickly by "486" running windows 95 then eventually one of the original 95mhz pentium based PC's by which point we had the house cabled up for home networking so we could share a 36.6kbps dial up connection and play networked games - to think of the hours spent battling my brother on command and conquer red alert! ;D
By that point I well and truly had the bug and started to save paper round money for my first new, self built machine, which I based on an AMD K6 350mhz processor!
Quote from: Ditape on September 10, 2015, 11:56:27 PMa pc a 386 with 100 meg hard drive
In my case a 286 with a 10Mb MFM hd, which I later upgraded by adding a 20Mb MFM vast !!!
Quote from: MalcolmAL on September 11, 2015, 12:22:48 AM
Quote from: Ditape on September 10, 2015, 11:56:27 PMa pc a 386 with 100 meg hard drive
In my case a 286 with a 10Mb MFM hd, which I later upgraded by adding a 20Mb MFM vast !!!
I used to dream of a hard disk for my XT... 5Mb would have done me fine, 10Mb would have been nice, 20Mb - luxury!
(Talking of that kind of size, the in-laws recently gave me an SD card they didn't need, I was most appreciative after seeing the "16" on the front... only after trying to use it did I notice it was "Mb", not "Gb"... space for about 5 photos max).
My first computer was a small main frame that had a series of little balls on rods.With no key pad to make spelling mistakes for you. It never froze or logged itself off never closed down for updates either. All in all a very reliable computer. As we all know computers evolve , It's just a shame that their speed of evolving is about 50 times greater than mine. Ho hum!
Unfortunately, I was never able to master the abacus - too complicated for me.
Quote from: MalcolmAL on September 11, 2015, 12:08:46 AM
Wow big thread already, lots of nostalgia ! :)
Anyone else here used an analog computer ( no not a DC vs DCC thread diversion !)
in the days of yore, just before 6502 and Z80 micro chips became available I had an EAI 100v analog computer controled by an EAI digital, with a PDP11/45 and a PDP11/10 to do the maths and display,,
-that was at my place of work ! ( hint : it was also used to design the 'barn doors' that enabled the Olympus engines to to efficiently power the Concord(-e) )
EDIT
Typing at the same time as Di, ah yes IBM 360, others would have to punch their maths into cards, send them off to a big room and await the tomorrow for the results. But could not achieve (at that time) the precision and turnround of the analog.
Then a few short years later I could write my own 4096 point FFT on a home BeebB in a couple of minutes that had previously taken a couple of hours to do a 256 one on the PDP (with its 32k ferrite core store that cost a fortune)
a time of transition !!
Malcolm's post rings a bell with me. My first experience of a computer was also an IBM 360 mainframe which featured something like 100Kbytes of RAM in 1968 (yes kilobytes, not megabytes). My first program on it was a small FORTRAN program on punched cards which solved for the length of the hypotenuse of a triangle using Pythagoras's theorem. My first attempt failed because I had punched a fullstop instead of an asterisk on one of the cards. All programs had to be handed into the system over a counter and output provided a couple of hours later.
I too learned to use an analogue computer as a postgraduate student. Most people nowadays would have no idea what an analogue computer is or was I would guess. Since my start in computing, scientific computing has been an integral and everyday part of my professional life in the analyses of data and in the simulation of the hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, and biogeochemistry of natural water bodies.
Webbo
Quote from: camelback on September 11, 2015, 01:25:03 AM
My first computer was a small main frame that had a series of little balls on rods.With no key pad to make spelling mistakes for you. It never froze or logged itself off never closed down for updates either. All in all a very reliable computer. As we all know computers evolve , It's just a shame that their speed of evolving is about 50 times greater than mine. Ho hum!
The hardware gets better... the software... sometimes I wonder... especially the way established workflows keep getting redesigned because somehow it's better to have light-grey on white and oodles of whitespace ... grrppmph.
Quote from: Webbo link=topic=29569.msg331191#msg331191 date=1441931
691My first program on it was a small FORTRAN program on punched cards which solved for the length of the hypotenuse of a triangle using Pythagoras's theorem. My first attempt failed because I had punched a fullstop instead of an asterisk on one of the cards.
Eeek Fortran shhhh ! Ah yes, syntax is everything, even now they talk about AI, yet clever though C++AI may be it cant tell when you mean a this from a that :) !!
There is another computer (other than the abacus, nice one ! ) that we often used,,,
the slide rule ! which enabled me to demonstrate that a mission to Comet Halley was feasible and could return usefull data given antenna size and power available
Giotto :
that's my bit :- the big dish on the despun platform and the gubbins behind it
your homework :- it's so long ago can you find the pics :) !
Slide rule - a wonderful piece of gear and innovative thinking. Soon will disappear from the lexicon I'm afraid as its practitioners gradually drop off their perches. I started university using a slide rule, but by 4 years later they had been pretty much supplanted by the pocket calculator (an HP 25 in my case).
Webbo
Quote from: Webbo on September 11, 2015, 02:19:10 AM
Slide rule - a wonderful piece of gear and innovative thinking. Soon will disappear from the lexicon I'm afraid as its practitioners gradually drop off their perches. I started university using a slide rule, but by 4 years later they had been pretty much supplanted by the pocket calculator (an HP 25 in my case).
I inherited one from my grandfather; not sure what use he had for it, it was in pretty pristine condition. Unfortunately it got lost in the course of many many moves.
First computer exposure - IBM 1100 main frame. We (the company I worked for) used it, at an agency, to process calculations relating to three dimensional structural design. I became more interested in the computing than I was in the structural design so it was back to school for me. I did a new qualification in electronics and computing. They were seen as the same thing in those days.
Worked in the field (very early stuff) of robotics with Commodore PETs for a while, then, mainly with HP equipment in the hydrographic industry. While doing that I got hold of a couple of the early Sinclair beasties. ZX80, then a Spectrum (48k). Remember that, back then, the PC was NOT considered to be a home computer. I soon realised that the Spectrum was basically just a board that could be accessed in loads of different ways and I ended up designing a piece of kit that displayed the output of a particular piece of EXPENSIVE underwater acoustic measuring equipment in a way that was much more usable than the manufacturers version was capable of. I showed this at an exhibition in Southampton University that same year and was approached by a gentleman with a heavy duty foreign accent. He ended up ordering six of my units for near immediate delivery. A couple of adverts in local papers let me procure around ten Spectrums. They were actually well out of production by then. I had intended to rent out the only three of my units in existence at the time But Mr ForeignChap had such a big budget. It would have been rude to say no wouldn't it? I was able to deliver the six that he wanted and only then discovered that they were destined for installing in the war ships of a certain foreign navy. I don't suppose that they still exist there but I can say that, for a while, that navy's ships were, to a degree, running with a disguised Spectrum and a turnkey program written in a mix of Sinclair BASIC and Z80 assembler...
Since then, various flavours of PC and now, Arduino's added into the mix... These days, all of my programming, or as it's now called - coding, is in Visual BASIC and in the subset of 'C' that Arduino is controlled with.
Here I go, once more quoting myself!
Quote from: Zogbert Splod on September 11, 2015, 02:37:21 AM
First computer exposure - IBM 1100 main frame. We (the company I worked for) used it, at an agency, to process calculations relating to three dimensional structural design...
I see mention of the slide rule, just wanted to say, before we started in with the agency IBM, all of our work was done with slide rules. It was quicker than using the agency but our clients were starting to ask for 'computer designed' structures and we sort of had to make the move. Considering the travel to and from the agency with boxes of punch cards and the wait while the stuff was processed, the work took three times as long as the designs done in the office with the slip stick but the customer is always right as they say.....
Quote from: Zogbert Splod on September 11, 2015, 02:37:21 AMI soon realised that the Spectrum was basically just a board that could be accessed in loads of different ways and I ended up designing a piece of kit that displayed the output of a particular piece of EXPENSIVE underwater acoustic measuring equipment in a way that was much more usable than the manufacturers version was capable of. I showed this at an exhibition in Southampton University that same year and was approached by a gentleman with a heavy duty foreign accent. He ended up ordering six of my units for near immediate delivery. A couple of adverts in local papers let me procure around ten Spectrums. They were actually well out of production by then. I had intended to rent out the only three of my units in existence at the time But Mr ForeignChap had such a big budget. It would have been rude to say no wouldn't it? I was able to deliver the six that he wanted and only then discovered that they were destined for installing in the war ships of a certain foreign navy. I don't suppose that they still exist there but I can say that, for a while, that navy's ships were, to a degree, running with a disguised Spectrum and a turnkey program written in a mix of Sinclair BASIC and Z80 assembler...
Not implying anything, but just noting that the Spectrum was widely cloned in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as late as the mid 90s:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_ZX_Spectrum_clones#Unofficial_clones
Is Clive Sinclair still with us? :hmmm:
My first computer experience was an Elliot 803B... 4K of core store and punched paper tape input and output
Cold boot took 30 hours and a warm reboot 4 hours. Ran Elliot Autocode or with not much free memory left after loading it, Fortran.
Boot up was using switches to program in a boot loader to read the paper tape. Load memory diagnostics from paper tape and run for 24 hrs for the core store to warm up and the memory stabalize so there where no errors. Then load the operating libraries from paper tape and finally load the language. Run a few test programs to make sure all was well and you were off !
Special typewriters that punched the tape holes to write your programs. Output also on punched tape that you then reeled off and took over to a paper tape teletypewriter to print out your answers.
First computer experience - PDP 11 via a teletype and acoustic coupler.
First work experience - COBOL programming by punched card. One program was produced on a hand punch as the data prep girls were busy. We were very excited when we got our first VDUs.
Then we got into PCs - the first ones were double floppy disc units that came as a kit of parts that we had to assemble. The XT with a 10 Mb hard disk (640Kb of memory) was very high tech.
My first computer was an Amstrad CPC464 - mono.
In 1970 I left University & joined British Leyland as a PL/1 Programmer on their newly acquired IBM 360 Mainframe at the Transmissions Plant in Drews Lane in Birmingham. I had done some Fortran Programming at University but we never actually got to see the computer. I still have a few punched cards & when I show them to anyone born after 1970 they think that I am pulling their leg.
David
Quote from: Thorpe Parva on September 11, 2015, 09:22:48 AM
I still have a few punched cards & when I show them to anyone born after 1970 they think that I am pulling their leg.
David
They were great for protecting the carpet when painting skirting boards.
Quote from: railsquid on September 11, 2015, 02:58:38 AM
Not implying anything, but just noting that the Spectrum was widely cloned in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe as late as the mid 90s:
I was not aware of that. Fascinating stuff... Thanks for the link.
Ummm, can't really say but don't look East for my Speccy based boxes... ;) ;) ;)
Quote from: Steve Brassett on September 11, 2015, 11:50:37 AM
Quote from: Thorpe Parva on September 11, 2015, 09:22:48 AM
I still have a few punched cards & when I show them to anyone born after 1970 they think that I am pulling their leg.
David
They were great for protecting the carpet when painting skirting boards.
The bits removed by punching ("chads" ?) have been used for modeling brickwork in OO gauge.
Best regards,
Joe
My friends wife spent a few hours in hospital A&E having those bits, and the equivalent from a paper punch machine washed out of her eyes when her work mates (from the data entry room of a large organisation) used them as confetti at her hen party. They thought it was kind of appropriate but due to, I guess static(?), they stuck to her face and the surface of her eyes.
Quote from: railsquid on September 11, 2015, 03:17:38 AM
Quote from: Bealman on September 11, 2015, 03:14:10 AM
Is Clive Sinclair still with us? :hmmm:
Very much so.
...and, check this out too:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066824/Spectrum-gets-reboot-Classic-1980s-computer-set-revived-inventor-Sir-Clive-Sinclair-raises-150-000-just-48-hours.html (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066824/Spectrum-gets-reboot-Classic-1980s-computer-set-revived-inventor-Sir-Clive-Sinclair-raises-150-000-just-48-hours.html)
ZX 81....
with detachable RAM.. which did.. halfway through any operation..
abs loved writing simple programs for it!!
yer don't get the 'GO SUB' routine on Windows 7...
(well I don't)
Quote from: fisherman on September 11, 2015, 04:27:27 PM
ZX 81....
with detachable RAM.. which did.. halfway through any operation..
abs loved writing simple programs for it!!
yer don't get the 'GO SUB' routine on Windows 7...
(well I don't)
Get yourself an emulator: http://www.zx81.nl/ (http://www.zx81.nl/)
We suffered no RAM pack wobble with one of these: http://www.zx81.de/memotech/_frame_e.htm (http://www.zx81.de/memotech/_frame_e.htm) :D
Was talked into getting a BBC B when the kids were young, many moons ago ::) ::).
My god it was slow, stick a tape in ok fine, starts loading yup fine, gets halfway, yup fine THEN wallop it all crashes and its start again :o
Kids enjoyed it WHEN it all went as it should :)
Quote from: chub1 on September 11, 2015, 07:37:43 PM
Was talked into getting a BBC B when the kids were young, many moons ago ::) ::).
My god it was slow, stick a tape in ok fine, starts loading yup fine, gets halfway, yup fine THEN wallop it all crashes and its start again :o
Kids enjoyed it WHEN it all went as it should :)
If you ever used a Sinclair QL with a Microdrive, you'd be lucky if you got to load a program once before the Microdrive tape turned itself into a knotted work of art (or brown curly wart depending on your perspective!!)
:D
My first experience of computers was at Exeter university, 1978-1981, where I studied chemistry.
I opted for a FORTRAN programming course, where we filled in some forms and if we lucky were given a packet of punched cards as a reward but we never saw the computer.
Then I participated in a short research project where I had to enter data into a CBM Commodore that calculated curves to fit the data by a process of iteration (?).
Data was stored on a music cassette and there was a printer that printed on till rolls (?) a couple of inches wide that made a hell of a noise.
I still had to plot the curves by hand.
One of the "campus characters" while I was there was an Australian hippy computer science lecturer called Simon (?) who used to go bare foot in all weathers.
Happy days !
Joe
Quote from: austinbob on September 11, 2015, 07:56:45 PM
If you ever used a Sinclair QL with a Microdrive, you'd be lucky if you got to load a program once before the Microdrive tape turned itself into a knotted work of art (or brown curly wart depending on your perspective!!)
:D
Can't comment on the QL & Microdrive, but the Spectrum I had with one was fine - never lost a tape ...
A Commodore Pet at senior school that was funded by collecting/selling waste paper - this was stored in an old railway van body :)
By 6th Form the school had a Research Machines 380Z which I did O' Level Computer Studies on.
For my 18th Birthday (well it arrived several months after...) a 16K Sinclair Spectrum and Rodney Zac's Z80 book. I wrote a space invaders using self modifying machine code. Despite having no musical talent my Spectrum + sound card and I provided special effects for my friend's band which he called Spectrum!!
During my first two years at Thames Poly doing Computer and Communication Systems I used a typewriter to produce my essays on!
My third year was spent in industry programming bespoke automatic test equipment in a language called Mediator. Towards the end of that year first gen Apple Macs appeared for writing reports on. I haven't used an Apple product since! lol
In my final year I splashed out on a Sinclair QL - a dual processor machine! I used it for my final year project and built an I/O card for it. The QL was also used for my final year report - it was ok if you saved every minute before it crashed! Early software purchase was a recovery program for the micro-drives!
I then spent 7 years programming various types automatic test equipment for various military projects.
Career-wise I then hit the jackpot and moved to a company nobody had heard of - Nokia! I spent 13 happy years working on loads of different phones. Got pushed into management which I sucked at - I wouldn't tow the line and challenged too many things!
I'm now a software contractor and have been moving to and fro between General Dynamics and GE Aviation for the last 5 years working on various PC and embedded systems.
Best regards
Mchael
Ah! Just remembered another wild stunt that was often carried out with the ZX80/81 machines... If you added the memory extension card, they used to overheat and just stop working till they cooled down again. The common fix was to lay a carton of milk on top of the stoopid thing as a heat sink.
Did we REALLY go through all that stuff back then? Oh yeah - and loved every minute of it too.....
Started with a Sinclair ZX81 that I bought from Curry's for £49.95. This started me off and I have worked in the software industry all my professional life. What a great investment that proved to be.
Thank you Uncle Clive - I owe you a great deal.
Paddy
Quote from: Paddy on September 11, 2015, 10:11:13 PM
Started with a Sinclair ZX81 that I bought from Curry's for £49.95. This started me off and I have worked in the software industry all my professional life. What a great investment that proved to be.
Thank you Uncle Clive - I owe you a great deal.
Ditto. I never intended to go into IT (master in a humanities subject, nary a technical qualification to my name) but while working as a translator in an internet-orientated startup I found myself wheedling access to various systems to do stuff the Professional IT People felt was below their pay grade. Anyway the user/payment/website management system I ended up writing is still in use some 15 years after I first started it.
Commodore PET 2001 and 4032 at school along with a TRS80 model 1. PET had a mean game of space invaders with sound if you built the right add on board.
First computer that was actually "mine" was a ZX81, then a spectrum. That got me into the games industry for a while working for Adventure International/AdventureSoft on stuff from German Gremlins to Elvira. Then I escaped back to sanity.
I still fiddle with old boxes. I've been soldering up 8bit IDE controllers for my Amstrad 1640, as well as getting networking working on it. That and writing a tiny Unix clone for 8bit machines. There's something nice about running the genuine Bourne shell on a Spectrum 128, or a Dragon 32 with a memory expansion cartridge, although Microdrives really really suck for running Unix 8).
Once life is a bit more back to normal I'll finally have time to finish debugging it on my PCW8256 next, that and finish debugging the Scott Adams game player for the Tandy MC10 / Matra Alice....
Alan
Quote from: EtchedPixels on September 11, 2015, 11:34:51 PM
Commodore PET 2001 and 4032 at school along with a TRS80 model 1. PET had a mean game of space invaders with sound if you built the right add on board.
First computer that was actually "mine" was a ZX81, then a spectrum. That got me into the games industry for a while working for Adventure International/AdventureSoft on stuff from German Gremlins to Elvira. Then I escaped back to sanity.
I still fiddle with old boxes. I've been soldering up 8bit IDE controllers for my Amstrad 1640, as well as getting networking working on it. That and writing a tiny Unix clone for 8bit machines. There's something nice about running the genuine Bourne shell on a Spectrum 128, or a Dragon 32 with a memory expansion cartridge, although Microdrives really really suck for running Unix 8).
Once life is a bit more back to normal I'll finally have time to finish debugging it on my PCW8256 next, that and finish debugging the Scott Adams game player for the Tandy MC10 / Matra Alice....
First time I've heard someone describe Linux kernel development as sanity...;)
Quote from: railsquid on September 11, 2015, 11:49:07 PM
First time I've heard someone describe Linux kernel development as sanity...;)
It's all relative.
The games industry mostly consisted of a cross between the people who didn't quite make it in the music industry as they paused before selling their grandmother and Arthur Daley . There were some nice folks.. but they were in short supply.
From what I've seen much of the industry has not vastly improved, just they now try and pick off clueless masters students with maths/computing qualifications as they can be duped into working stupid hours for pennies and promises for a long time before they realise they could get a real job instead.
Alan
Aside from HAL in Arthur C. Clark's 2001 a Space Odyssey, which highlighted all the potential for 'wrong' that a'self-thinking' computer could do and gave us lots to think about, my first exposure to computers was with my first job at the head office of a large, international, insurance company, where the word 'computer' was used in awe and reverence. The company had a large IBM mainframe. which lurked in a dust-free room in the centre of the building and was attended-to by men in white coats (seriously)!!! For those of us who were deemed to be of the 'lesser orders' there was absolutely and definitely NO admission to this hallowed sanctum and if any of the 'junior' staff were curious-enough to want to enquire more, then gaining 'permission to inspect' had to run the gauntlet of the company's chain of command, with the CEO having the final say. AFAIK, no-one was ever able to access 'THE COMPUTER' by such means; we largely gave up-it was simply tooo difficult.
The ironic thing of course, is that the mainframe probably had less capability than a modern calculator, although, not being part of the 'inner circle' we did not of course know such things.
It was all a rather long time ago; thanks for posing the question.. :)
Quote from: EtchedPixels on September 11, 2015, 11:34:51 PM
Commodore PET 2001 and 4032 at school along with a TRS80 model 1. PET had a mean game of space invaders with sound if you built the right add on board.
First computer that was actually "mine" was a ZX81, then a spectrum. That got me into the games industry for a while working for Adventure International/AdventureSoft on stuff from German Gremlins to Elvira. Then I escaped back to sanity.
I still fiddle with old boxes. I've been soldering up 8bit IDE controllers for my Amstrad 1640, as well as getting networking working on it. That and writing a tiny Unix clone for 8bit machines. There's something nice about running the genuine Bourne shell on a Spectrum 128, or a Dragon 32 with a memory expansion cartridge, although Microdrives really really suck for running Unix 8).
Once life is a bit more back to normal I'll finally have time to finish debugging it on my PCW8256 next, that and finish debugging the Scott Adams game player for the Tandy MC10 / Matra Alice....
Alan
Respect mate! you have my full respect! When computing was fun... I started with a Spectrum 16k back in 1984... they were late to arrive to Spain and I´m kindda ..."young". 30 years after I´m in the business after a Spectrum + and +3, an Amiga 500, a 386, a 486 y built from parts and from then... several windows machines that are NOT FUN ar all.
Just stumbled across a set of six TV programmes in the BBC archives, "Back to BASIC". For anyone watching this thread it's probably worth checking out. I got it through the BBC app on my tablet, so sorry, no link. Should be easy enough to find though.....
I actually watched those crap shows. They were shown here in Australia.
Quote from: Bealman on September 12, 2015, 01:52:37 PM
I actually watched those crap shows. They were shown here in Australia.
Oh!!! You liked them then.... ;)
What were they about anyway?
:beers:
I think they were a vehicle for selling the BBC machines.
My first experience with computers? How about this cool critter here which I built in 1970, but it's not with me now, and I really don't recall what happened to it..... a NOUGHTS & CROSSES MACHINE!!
[smg id=29042 type=preview align=center width=400]
... which cost me seven quid - all me pocket money!
[smg id=29043 type=preview align=center width=400]
Totally hard wired - forget Arduino!
[smg id=29044 type=preview align=center width=400]
.....with a great rat's nest of wiring behind it (a bit like under my layout)
[smg id=29046 type=preview align=center width=400]
.....from The Planet Instrument Company in Leeds - wonder if they still exist!
[smg id=29048 type=preview align=center width=400]
Quote from: Bealman on September 13, 2015, 04:51:09 AM
My first experience with computers? How about this cool critter here which I built in 1970, but it's not with me now, and I really don't recall what happened to it..... a NOUGHTS & CROSSES MACHINE!!
Nice to see real hardware... I still think, sometimes, that all this software stuff is a bit black magic!!
Are those the original bits of paper for your noughts and crosses machine that you've kept for all these years?
:beers:
Yes indeed.... in the original envelope dated 20 March 1970.
I'm half thinking of building one again for a laugh... all those parts are still available - even the bulbs and MES holders!
Problem is I've discovered Arduino which I'm finding kinda addictive.
Quote from: Bealman on September 13, 2015, 08:29:33 AM
Yes indeed.... in the original envelope dated 20 March 1970.
I'm half thinking of building one again for a laugh... all those parts are still available - even the bulbs and MES holders!
Problem is I've discovered Arduino which I'm finding kinda addictive.
Wow!! What other interesting historic information have you got squirreled away there Bealman?
:o
I built a thing that played NIM which utilised 3 'fairy light' bulbs which I procured from a 240V set that was wired in series. I combined them with three switches and an ex-post office bank of relays I got from a local surplus shop for a quid.
I ran the whole shabang off the same Triang power unit that supplies part of my current layout!
I actually wrote a manual for it and took a photo of it. I know I have those here in Oz and am currently searching for them.
Stay tuned! :thumbsup: :beers:
George
1961 in the RAF an analogue bombing and navigation computer integrated with a radar system, decidedly analogue and mechanical in parts, including a triangle solver which took height from radar first ground returns converted to an analogue of 1 volt per 1000 feet, and slant range to target again derived from radar returns also 1V/1000' and used those values to drive servos positioning sliders on long linear potentiometers which were connected by a metal tape to position the slider on a third pot to give distance over the ground, plan range. Other bits of the system took inputs of airspeed and was able to compute wind speed and ground speed by manually correcting "drift" of the radar display.
That was designed back in the late 1940s early 50s for the V bombers.
When I left the RAF I worked for Plessey teaching engineers how to repair traffic controllers, the older ones used relays sand a few valves, I managed to avoid those, the mainstay were transistorised, and the newest used TTL chips. Area control for towns was just taking off using PDP 11s, then along came nicroprocessors, our first exposure was the 4004 and 4040, then the 8080 and 8086.
I bought a Colour Genie home computer mainly because it had a Z80 processor which used the 8080 instruction set with a few enhancements, started writing in basic and machine code, and due to this "expertise" got lumbered with teaching microprocessor techniques as well as basic electronics and digital techniques. I even went as far as writing a disassembler in a mix of basic and machine code,.
On the home front I moved on to an Amstrad 1512 which I upgraded with the addition of a 3'5" floppy drive and an extra 128K RAM, later upgraded to an Amstrad 1640 in which I fitted a 32Mb hard drive on an extension card; I discovered DR-DOS and used that in preference to MS-DOS, it was usually an issue ahead of MS-DOS which seemed to always be playing catch up. By the late 1980s I was no longer happy with the 8086 based machines and built my own 386; at the same time I was buillding a 25'x17' loft layout in N gauge.
Since then I have been following the typical upgrade route, and also getting a second machine for my late wife who had been a shift supervisor/operator on !BM system 34 machines, had to teach her how to use a desktop. Finally went on line about 2001, dial up, sooooooooo sloooooooooooooow compared to nowadays, 56K as against 100M.
Now that is impressive. :thumbsup:
George
Twas in the days when computers fully occupied air conditions rooms
A firm of watch and clock manufacturers with the same name as a well known salt flavoured potato crisps decided to install one to control all their ordering and stock control.
My father had an count with them and returned a faulty item of stock he had received. He was credited with the sum of 4shillings and six pence which showed up on his next statement.
A month later the next statement arrived and showed another credit of 4/9d making his credit 9/6d with each following statement adding a further 4/9d
Letters to the firm failed to cancel the error and the credit kept growing. In the end following errors in just about every customers account
Finally the firm went back to hand typed statements and the whole commuter was ripped out
Put me off buying/getting involved with computers for years
Quote from: Bealman on September 13, 2015, 04:51:09 AM
I think they were a vehicle for selling the BBC machines.
This is not the 'BBC computer' series of programs. That OTT machine gets a mention but not as the main focus. The archive is a set of programs from a variety of odd sources.
Allan.....
must have been when I worked in the Met Office at Bracknell in about 1963.
I didn't actually have any hands on on the computer, but the data we extracted from weather obs was input IIRC onto punch cards, and these in turn were used to produce punched tape which was then input into the computer, which consisted of loads of metal cabinets in a long room.
probably had the same computing power as my laptop, but we did manage one day, 5 day and 30 day forecasts, which through my rose coloured specs were more accurate than todays.
fed up with checking the forecast on line to be told its sunny, while watching the rain bouncing off the windows :censored:
guess that's progress :hmmm:
1963 would I believe have been a Ferranti Mercury at the met office. 5K of RAM, 20K of "disk" and probably less powerful than your fridge. It was replaced in 1965 with an English Electric KDF9 - which went up to a whopping 192K RAM !
When I was at school in the mid 1960s we had an arrangement with Imperial College. We wrote our Fortran programs and created the punched cards for the program and data. These were posted off to Imperial who ran the program and posted everything back to us including the reams of paper output. Worked well.
I meant to post the picture below earlier - but my 1st attempt at using MS Digital Editor post the W10 upgrade meant it would no longer work as it used to. However I now seem to have overcome the problem as the application is loading normally again, so I have put together a composite showing some of the Computer equipment I used to work with back in the 60's.
The 1901 was my 1st Mainframe experience and having written a Program for it in "PLAN" language I had to use a 80 column hand punch (as shown in the pic) to punch it up for feeding it into the machine to have it compiled so it could run.
I became quite an expert in using the handpunch (using 3 or 4 fingers at a time), before the next mainframe I used had paper tape as Input, and the data prep girls would then punch up my programs for me on one of their machines, and gradually COBOL replaced PLAN as the main programming language for "commercial" programs (with Fortan & Algol being used for more scientific programs).
(http://i379.photobucket.com/albums/oo231/Tdmak/Sundry%20and%20Miscellaneous/Old%20IT%20Equipment.jpg) (http://s379.photobucket.com/user/Tdmak/media/Sundry%20and%20Miscellaneous/Old%20IT%20Equipment.jpg.html)
I got a very secondhand Atari 2600 when I was about 6 (circa 1989) which introduced me to the world of playing video games at home - this year also saw me lining up with other children to play Tetris on the newly released Game Boy in Gamleys in Bognor Regis.
We then went on to get a BBC which we didn't really get much play value out of due to not having much patience and it being too tricky to do anything on, it was easier to go out and play!! When we got an Amiga it all changed - endless copied games and hours of fun. There was an Acorn computer at my primary school which everyone had saved loads of tokens for under Tesco's 'Computers for Schools' scheme. It was a heap of trouble and wouldn't play my Amiga's games despite them being on 3.5" disc (I didn't understand different file formats then!)
My lifelong friend and neighbour Paul got a 386 around 1994/95 followed by a 486 and we played endless games of Transport Tycoon, Command and Conquer, Frontier Elite, Privateer and Civilization on them. Later, his mum had a job where she got a chunky laptop and a 28.8k modem which she brought home; Paul managed to make it all work together and we got on the Internet. Like my earlier experience with the BBC, it was complicated and boring so we went out and played instead...
Then the Internet moved on a bit and we discovered chat rooms and that girls could also be in these chat rooms - we used to go and meet up with them, in fact, there is one girl who I am still mates with after all these years! At the time, no-one seemed to have a problem with it, but if the same were happening today, you'd hope that the teenager in question would be savvy enough to realise how potentially dangerous it is or that there would be a whole bunch of concerned parents putting a stop to their teenager meeting strangers off the Internet!
Quote from: Bealman on September 13, 2015, 10:33:18 AM
I built a thing that played NIM which utilised 3 'fairy light' bulbs which I procured from a 240V set that was wired in series. I combined them with three switches and an ex-post office bank of relays I got from a local surplus shop for a quid.
I ran the whole shabang off the same Triang power unit that supplies part of my current layout!
I actually wrote a manual for it and took a photo of it. I know I have those here in Oz and am currently searching for them.
Stay tuned! :thumbsup: :beers:
George
Just spent the better half of a morning searching for the manual of that NIM computer I designed and built, but to no avail. I did, however find a pretty crappy picture of a young Bealman next to the computer:
[smg id=29356 type=preview align=center width=400]
The phone was an old army surplus handset connected to me mate's place 4 doors over. Seeing I live in Aus now and he lives in NZ, I'd need a couple of very long wires to do that these days!
The actual NIM playing machine is the white sloping panel on the right. It is resting on a bank of relays, and the Triang power supply can be seen sitting on a white box to the left.
The white box is a home-made audio oscillator, if I recall, and there is a reel-to-reel tape recorder standing up in the corner. I still have that tape recorder here in Australia, as I do the tiny little analogue multimeter that can be just made out on the right. I have no idea what those two silver boxes with meters on them are, even though I would have made them!
Up until 1968, the bench it all stands upon was home to a 00 gauge quarry layout (Triang Super 4 track)!!
Quote from: Bealman on September 15, 2015, 01:27:24 AM
Quote from: Bealman on September 13, 2015, 10:33:18 AM
I built a thing that played NIM which utilised 3 'fairy light' bulbs which I procured from a 240V set that was wired in series. I combined them with three switches and an ex-post office bank of relays I got from a local surplus shop for a quid.
I ran the whole shabang off the same Triang power unit that supplies part of my current layout!
I actually wrote a manual for it and took a photo of it. I know I have those here in Oz and am currently searching for them.
Stay tuned! :thumbsup: :beers:
George
Just spent the better half of a morning searching for the manual of that NIM computer I designed and built, but to no avail. I did, however find a pretty crappy picture of a young Bealman next to the computer:
[smg id=29356 type=preview align=center width=400]
Looks like a still from an early BBC scifi drama.
"
The radar is detecting that the Daleks have traversed the reverse loop without changing polarity and are now joining forces with the Cybermen in the fiddle yard! Doctor, are you there Doctor?!"
:D
:laughabovepost: :laughabovepost: :laughabovepost: