Re: Sorry For Not Being Around, I'll Be Back -- Jester_Fermaggio
| Posted by Julias Jaded Jester ® , Sep 25,2003,07:16 | MetroBlab |
Don't get me started on computer nostalgia. I got in the game with an old Panasonic Senior Partner 'suitcase style' portable that a business associate GAVE me.... it was an 8088 with a half meg of ram, no hard drive, a 9 inch green screen and dual 5 and a quarter floppies on it. The thing booted DOS 2 point 1 on the A drive, and you ran your app on the B drive. I managed to get online to Prodigy with it by attaching an external modem, and someone gave me an old Microline 182 printer. The word processor software that came with it was just ancient, and I loved it. The photo below is one similar to mine; I don't recall mine had a printer built into it, though. Then again, seems like it did-- the thing printed on that old flimsy fax paper. Look at this boat anchor!
Yes sir, this the THE MACHINE that the writer started his personal computing on. It screamed along at 4 point 7 mghrtz or somethin' similar to that, just shootin' sparks as she booted up that DOS 2.1 op system.
I maxxed her ram out at like a half meg. Only computer I ever made money on-- I sold her thru the clasified ads of the Commercial Appeal to some dork who taught computers. Or else he claimed he taught computers; I'da never paid a hunnerd 30 for that scrap of junk at the time he bought it from me.
I got a 286 from there, and then put a 386 into the box it came in later on. I think it was a 386, with a sixteen mghrtz processor. I got a 486 60 after that heap was tired, then modified her to take a 100 meghrtz processor. Then I had a K6-200, then a 500 meghrtz pentium with a 7.2 meg HD, and now I'm up to a 2 gig Dell. I've spent tons of time installing modems, hard drives, ram, printers, sound cards and ethernet cards. No formal training. I had the 'pay as you go' plan, complete with hours of frustration and cursing; the biggest nightmare I ever had was a winmodem without dipswitches. Those things were JUNK.
There's an old program called psion chess that'll run on your 386, and an automap program that was pretty cool. I got tons of junk on floppies around here in a closet someplace. An F-15 fly and shoot game, some old submarine game. I think there's an F-117 game that'll run on that old junker. About 5 bucks was all it was worth, that's fer sure. But if you like computer nostalgia, then it was money well spent. You can always use it for a boat anchor when you're finished amusing yerself with its infinite slowness. :)
--modified at Thu, Sep 25, 2003, 07:35:58
here's a good video from digibarn dot com
Re: I had a 386 sixteen once... -- Julias Jaded Jester
| Posted by Julias Jaded Jester ® , Sep 25,2003,08:28 | MetroBlab |
Here's a good little video to watch from the boys at
digibarn dot com.
Them fellers have got whut's known as a computer museum in the hills uh northern California.
In this video, check out the origination of the computer mouse. If you pay attention to the audio you can HEAR how loud this old boat is. To me, nothing was louder than the IBM PS2 (286 were cloned after it, if I recall correctly) in the tower case. The power supply buzzed, and the fan was loud as a freight train headed downhill. My good friend Stevus used to tell me to "cut yer hummers off, Jester" when he'd be sittin' on the couch drinkin' my wine.
Anyway, check out the video...
Which also bring to mind a story idea for Metropulse-- why not call up Digibarn on the phone and get a cool interview? It might make a darned interesting story for your readers-- this old barn in California that has tons of OLD computers that still work! They'd probably email you guys some photos, and make for a good interview.
here's a good video from digibarn dot com
Re: here's a good video from digibarn dot com -- Julias Jaded Jester
| Posted by Jester_Fermaggio ® , Sep 25,2003,20:20 | MetroBlab |
Well, I'm bored with it now, lol. I did what I could. Installed Calmira so it's shell is similar to Win 95. I think it has more ram than BIOS is calling up. Calmira requires a minimum of 4MB but it is only calling up 640K Base and 1408K Extended. I need a bit more to get the thing online. As far as local networking, it will probably ping my XP machine, if I attach a crossover between NICs, but I doubt it will do any effective file or print sharing. So it will reside in the bedroom and will be used for old gaming and word processing. For $5 it ain't a bad deal.
I heard about digibarn a few years back on CNET radio. It's so strange to think how technology has sped up, just in the last 10 years. Seeing those old machines is nostalgic. No one in the late 70's/early 80's could ever dream of how reliant we are on them these days. Except for Gates, I suppose.