[SunRescue] Re: First Computers (was Re: Yay, I don't feel...)

[Robert Novak]

I thought I heard a "Jeff Workman" say:
> 
> My first computer was a Coleco ADAM.  The version that was an "Expansion 
> Module" for the ColecoVision game console.  Boy! that was a waste of money. 
> Difficult to find software for, proprietary tape drive storage, and what 
> turned out to be a pretty short product cycle.  After that became obsolete, 
> I got a shiny new Apple //c.  Not much better than the ADAM, 

I have a //c clone (Laser 128) here. Much better than the ADAM, you can 
run Appleworks on it and (I think) use a laser printer with it.

But the cool thing about ADAM was they advertised the printer speed in
WORDS per MINUTE whereas everything else was CHARACTERS per SECOND. I
think it was the slowest printer ever sold at retail. 16wpm, if memory
serves, which is 80cpm or 1.3cps.

My first computer, and actually the only one I owned until 1995, was a
Timex-Sinclair 1000 with 16KB add-on and a 12" KMC monochrome display
(read: K-Mart b&w tv). The memory card was roughly $6400/MB. 

In 1995, after getting a job and an apartment and a car of my own (moved
out of ex-fiancee's life--not computer-releated), I bought a Gateway 2000
386DX33 motherboard with 386 cpu, 387 coprocessor, and 385 cache
processor, with a 16MB DIP RAM daughterboard. Cost was $100, and a month
later I got 3 386DX25 boards with 8MB DIP RAM each for $100 total, still
with mathco and cache. That 33MHz board handled Indyramp.com for a few
months, with 500MB of disk and probably a 1.2 kernel of Linux, dual
booting with Windows 95 beta and Office 95 beta. 

A few months later, I got a $10 EISA 486/66 board, with 16 30pin simm
slots and 4 4meg simms (my boss gave me the memory for the price of 72pin,
which saved me a few bucks... $30 per simm or $7.50/MB). I think I had a
800MB hard drive then, dedicated to Linux, and I upgraded my
lightning-fried Hayes Optima pocketmodem (14.4) to a boat brand 28.8
external and hit my record of about 940,000 hits to my web site, plus a
dozen or so mailing lists running normal traffic, on the 16MB 486/66.

> Now I own everything under the Sun (no 
> pun intended) and do this stuff for a living.  Who'da thunk it?

Same here. :)

-- 
Robert Novak, Indyramp Consulting * rnovak at indyramp.com * indyramp.com/~rnovak
        "And it's been a long December and there's reason to believe
           Maybe this year will be better than the last...." -- counting crows