Re: [Nolug] Hard disks

From: Alex McKenzie <alex_at_boxchain.com>
Date: Fri, 31 Oct 2003 09:45:25 -0600 (CST)
Message-ID: <3351.137.30.117.136.1067615125.squirrel@boxchain.com>

I had a cassette drive for my VIC-20, my first computer.

I paid $450 for a 40MB external HD (SCSI) for my Mac SE (8 MHz! 68000!),
the aquarium one. I think I still have it, too...this was about 12 years
ago... < $11/MB. Had the RAM upgraded from 256K to 4MB, so I could run
Photoshop 1.0, do graphic layouts for a magazine and the University
newspaper.

Whoever said they felt sorry for people who had to use the old
machines...don't. They were a joy to work on. We didn't have to worry
about viruses (on our home computers, anyway, I had my VAX account hacked
in '83) and the software that you bought did worked as advertised. It
wasn't pretty, but that wasn't an issue at the time. There were few
expectations about computing, so anything that they did was amazing.

I remember getting a copy of SAM, a speech synthesis program for the
Commodore. Hours of fun.

-- 
Alex McKenzie    alex@boxchain.com     http://boxchain.com
<quote who="integral@integralsecurity.com">
> Greetings from Texas,
>
> Hard drives???  How about storing information on cassette tapes?  Or only
> having 3k of memory and not 6 meg.  We are definitely spoiled today.
>
> The first computer I owned was a Commodore Vic-20.  That was a step up
> from
> the terminal we used at school that used paper and could make a bell
> sound.
> The vic had color, and sound.  I had got tired of having to reenter all
> the
> code for the programs I have written.  That first tape drive cost $100.
> That was in early 80's dollars while I was in middle school.  I did hate
> those dreaded out of memory error messages.
>
> Thanks,
>
> Jonathan Hutchins
> CEO
> Integral Security Inc.
> (254) 541-4225
> jhutchins@integralsecurity.com
> www.integralsecurity.com
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Ron Johnson" <ronjohnsonjr@yahoo.com>
> To: <nolug@joeykelly.net>
> Sent: Friday, October 31, 2003 2:17 AM
> Subject: [Nolug] Hard disks
>
>
>> Ok,
>>
>> Who here remembers when hard disks were measured in dollars per
>> megabyte?  How about hundreds of dollars per megabyte?  Joey and I
>> are old enough.  Scott?  Who else?
>>
>> Machines are so fast today, and yet, in the early 80s, IBM was able
>> to build a system with 1.9 MIPS & 6MB RAM that delivered sub-second
>> response time to 70 on-line users.
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