Your first experiences of computers??

[railsquid]

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.

[Zogbert Splod]

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.

[Zogbert Splod]

Here I go, once more quoting myself!

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.....

[railsquid]

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...

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

[Bealman]

Is Clive Sinclair still with us? 

[railsquid]

Is Clive Sinclair still with us? 

Very much so.

[Westbury]

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. 

[Steve Brassett]

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.

[Thorpe Parva]

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

[Steve Brassett]

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.

[Zogbert Splod]

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... 

[joe cassidy]

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

[Zogbert Splod]

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.

[Zogbert Splod]

Is Clive Sinclair still with us? 

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

[fisherman]

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)