Guest richard Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used to have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer as word processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could have a couple of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. Richard,of ages long gone.
Guest Joan Archer Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane <lol> Well I'm probably older than Heirloom but I haven't even heard of them <g> but then the first what you could call proper computer to be installed in this house was in 1998 running Windows 98 First Edition, with a massive 2.1 GB hard drive and all of 32 MB RAM or was it 64 GB can't quite remember <g> and that had Lotus SmartSuite installed. Joan richard wrote: > Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used > to have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer > as word processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could > have a couple of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. > > Richard,of ages long gone.
Guest Mike M Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane richard <rmk@wonderland.net> wrote: > Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used > to have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer > as word processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could > have a couple of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. > > Richard,of ages long gone. I remember such waits having started with computers forty years ago using punched paper tape and punched cards. Not that today is much different although the work has changed somewhat, for example saving a 200MB graphic after editing can on occasion take some time depending on how it is being saved. -- Mike Maltby mike.maltby@gmail.com
Guest philo Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane "Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message news:OXweDuB6HHA.5984@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > richard <rmk@wonderland.net> wrote: > > > Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used > > to have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer > > as word processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could > > have a couple of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. > > > > Richard,of ages long gone. > > I remember such waits having started with computers forty years ago using > punched paper tape and punched cards. Not that today is much different > although the work has changed somewhat, for example saving a 200MB graphic > after editing can on occasion take some time depending on how it is being > saved. LOL! I took a Fortran course back in 1968 with punch cards. Was that a horrible experience! I swore I'd never touch a computer again...and as a matter of fact never even owned a computer until I got a TI-99 in 1982. When the game port died...I put it away and stayed away from computers until 1999... when I got a pentium-1 and got hooked for good. I then had to see what I had missed and ended up collecting older machines...including a 486, 386, 286, 8088...and even a working Kaypro!!! I enjoyed fooling around with CP/M !!! After using nothing but discarded junk for all my machines...I am now finally doing some serious work...and was forced into getting some pretty high end discarded junk ( an AMD 2400 with 1.5 gigs of RAM) I think it could handle a 200meg graphic OK...but the Publisher document I'm working on is getting pretty close to 1 gig. I takes up to a minute to perform a save!
Guest Rocky T Squirrel Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane yea MikeM, I remember the ASC and ASCII on 5 punch paper tape.. :o) a real joy to work with.. (even had the little cheater 1 hole punch to change a mistake) I also remember the 2k memory limit, that was a lot of fun... remember the internet when you had to route the messages yourself via the number groups..? RTS "Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message news:OXweDuB6HHA.5984@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > richard <rmk@wonderland.net> wrote: > > > Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used > > to have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer > > as word processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could > > have a couple of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. > > > > Richard,of ages long gone. > > I remember such waits having started with computers forty years ago using > punched paper tape and punched cards. Not that today is much different > although the work has changed somewhat, for example saving a 200MB graphic > after editing can on occasion take some time depending on how it is being > saved. > -- > Mike Maltby > mike.maltby@gmail.com > >
Guest Mike M Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane philo <philo@privacy.net> wrote: > LOL! > > I took a Fortran course back in 1968 with punch cards. Was that a > horrible experience! > I swore I'd never touch a computer again...and as a matter of fact > never even owned a computer > until I got a TI-99 in 1982. When the game port died...I put it away > and stayed away from computers until 1999... > when I got a pentium-1 and got hooked for good. > > I then had to see what I had missed and ended up collecting older > machines...including a 486, 386, 286, 8088...and even a working > Kaypro!!! I enjoyed fooling around with CP/M !!! > > After using nothing but discarded junk for all my machines...I am now > finally doing some serious work...and was forced into getting some > pretty high > end discarded junk ( an AMD 2400 with 1.5 gigs of RAM) I think it > could handle a 200meg graphic OK...but the Publisher document I'm > working > on is getting pretty close to 1 gig. I takes up to a minute to > perform a save! In my case FORTRAN IV on an IBM 350/65 in 1967 (plus using a tape punch for data capture to punched tape) although my first use of a computer was some months earlier whilst still an undergrad where I fed x-ray diffraction data I had obtained as part of a final year project into a valve (tube) driven Ferranti Pegasus. That actual Pegasus was restored to working order in the 1990s and now forms part of the computer collection of the Science Museum in London (as does the drum from the 360/65). -- Mike Maltby mike.maltby@gmail.com
Guest philo Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane "Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message news:%232cCM4C6HHA.2752@TK2MSFTNGP06.phx.gbl... > philo <philo@privacy.net> wrote: > > > LOL! > > > > I took a Fortran course back in 1968 with punch cards. Was that a > > horrible experience! > > I swore I'd never touch a computer again...and as a matter of fact > > never even owned a computer > > until I got a TI-99 in 1982. When the game port died...I put it away > > and stayed away from computers until 1999... > > when I got a pentium-1 and got hooked for good. > > > > I then had to see what I had missed and ended up collecting older > > machines...including a 486, 386, 286, 8088...and even a working > > Kaypro!!! I enjoyed fooling around with CP/M !!! > > > > After using nothing but discarded junk for all my machines...I am now > > finally doing some serious work...and was forced into getting some > > pretty high > > end discarded junk ( an AMD 2400 with 1.5 gigs of RAM) I think it > > could handle a 200meg graphic OK...but the Publisher document I'm > > working > > on is getting pretty close to 1 gig. I takes up to a minute to > > perform a save! > > In my case FORTRAN IV on an IBM 350/65 in 1967 (plus using a tape punch > for data capture to punched tape) although my first use of a computer was > some months earlier whilst still an undergrad where I fed x-ray > diffraction data I had obtained as part of a final year project into a > valve (tube) driven Ferranti Pegasus. That actual Pegasus was restored to > working order in the 1990s and now forms part of the computer collection > of the Science Museum in London (as does the drum from the 360/65). Wow...the last time I was in London was around 1990...so I'll have to return some day! All I could think when I was punching those cards was," This is the year 1968...we are about to put a man on the moon... and computers are still using punch cards...this is beyond belief." If I recall, there was *one* actual terminal on campus but it was reserved only for select upper classmen. (To the youngsters here: Back then a terminal was a teletype machine using a paper print out...not by any means a CRT !) I think it took until 1978 to finally get rid of punch cards!
Guest Mike M Posted August 26, 2007 Posted August 26, 2007 Re: memory lane Rocky T Squirrel <gafa_usa@(nospam)hotmail.com> wrote: > yea MikeM, I remember the ASC and ASCII on 5 punch paper tape.. >> o) a real joy to work with.. (even had the little cheater 1 hole >> punch to change a mistake) > > I also remember the 2k memory limit, that was a lot of fun... > > remember the internet when you had to route the messages yourself via > the number groups..? UCL where I was a student and then member of staff was the initial (1973) European node for ARPAnet. For more details see Peter Kirstein's article at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/darpa/internet-history.html. Although I got to use JANet occasionally it wasn't until the mid 80s that I started to use what we now know as the internet. -- Mike Maltby mike.maltby@gmail.com
Guest Eric Posted August 27, 2007 Posted August 27, 2007 Re: memory lane The internet wasn't developed (or wasn't in widespread use?) until the '90s. In the mid to late 80s we had mini webs, or bulletin board systems, where we had to use a modem to dial up our friends' computers for messaging, little text based games, and some file downloading. They had dedicated phone lines for the bulletin boards and you had to have a seperate phone line to call them for any significant file transfers (unless you wanted call waiting to kick you off), back when 14400 bps was really fast. The 2400 speed connections are almost unimaginable today. I believe the 8088 was about the first machine that could be considered a PC. They ran about 8 MHz and had about 64K RAM. Those days were tedious, when we got to 386 machines with 256K RAM and had to actually configure RAM with the DOS MEM commands. Today we can cringe when we think about living with the technology we had just 15 years ago, and just imagine what could be in another 15 years. "Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message news:ua0qXYD6HHA.4436@TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl... > Rocky T Squirrel <gafa_usa@(nospam)hotmail.com> wrote: > >> yea MikeM, I remember the ASC and ASCII on 5 punch paper tape.. >>> o) a real joy to work with.. (even had the little cheater 1 hole >>> punch to change a mistake) >> >> I also remember the 2k memory limit, that was a lot of fun... >> >> remember the internet when you had to route the messages yourself via >> the number groups..? > > UCL where I was a student and then member of staff was the initial (1973) > European node for ARPAnet. For more details see Peter Kirstein's article > at http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/research/darpa/internet-history.html. Although > I got to use JANet occasionally it wasn't until the mid 80s that I started > to use what we now know as the internet. > -- > Mike Maltby > mike.maltby@gmail.com > >
Guest Heirloom Posted August 27, 2007 Posted August 27, 2007 Re: memory lane You're all a bunch of puppies........I still remember the stone tablets that would only hold about 100 bits....+ or - depending on how small you could chisel the characters. Heirloom, old and still have my chisels P.S. seriously, worked with a lot of oiled paper punch tape, the punch cards were modern~!!!!! "Rocky T Squirrel" <gafa_usa@(nospam)hotmail.com> wrote in message news:aL6dnTZH4fwSZ0zbnZ2dnUVZ_saknZ2d@vci.net... > yea MikeM, I remember the ASC and ASCII on 5 punch paper tape.. > :o) a real joy to work with.. (even had the little cheater 1 hole punch > to > change a mistake) > > I also remember the 2k memory limit, that was a lot of fun... > > remember the internet when you had to route the messages yourself via the > number groups..? > > RTS > > > > "Mike M" <No_Spam@Corned_Beef.Only> wrote in message > news:OXweDuB6HHA.5984@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... >> richard <rmk@wonderland.net> wrote: >> >> > Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used >> > to have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer >> > as word processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could >> > have a couple of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. >> > >> > Richard,of ages long gone. >> >> I remember such waits having started with computers forty years ago using >> punched paper tape and punched cards. Not that today is much different >> although the work has changed somewhat, for example saving a 200MB >> graphic >> after editing can on occasion take some time depending on how it is being >> saved. >> -- >> Mike Maltby >> mike.maltby@gmail.com >> >> > >
Guest Godfrey Wilkes Posted August 28, 2007 Posted August 28, 2007 Re: memory lane "richard" <rmk@wonderland.net> wrote in message news:uA0ClCB6HHA.5424@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl... > Anybody here old enough (Heirloom?) to remember running CP-M? I used to > have a Kaypro with it, and ran WordStar and later Perfect Writer as word > processors. When I hit Save on a 30 page document, I could have a couple > of cups of coffee before the pages were all saved. > > Richard,of ages long gone. Oh yes indeed, I'm old enough to remember CP/M very well. I had a Memotech MTX/FDX 512 (anyone remember them?) with twin 5 1/4" floppies running CP/M. Was a very nice piece of kit in its black anodised aluminium case, quite fast, and an 80 column colour display too. Came supplied with SuperCalc and NewWord. Also messed around with a Commodore 64 plus single 5 1/4" floppy and a CP/M add-on. Was hopelessly slow for any serious work. Godfrey
Guest Eric Posted August 28, 2007 Posted August 28, 2007 Re: memory lane "Heirloom" <roland58XX@suddenlink.net> wrote in message news:ep3I7SP6HHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl... > Heirloom, old and still have my chisels > P.S. seriously, worked with a lot of oiled paper punch tape, > the punch cards were modern~!!!!! > That was before PCs. My college professors used to love to tell stories of when they were in college and had to "write" programs on punch cards, then carry a stack of cards to a central machine to print out their program, and if they dropped the cards it was such a pain to get them back in order. Those dinosaur machines would seem quite ridiculous today. I once saw a 10MB hard drive the size of a washing machine. It's like Back to the Future, where they go to the future and kids scoff at an ancient video game that requires you to use your hands. Fortunately we've steered away from the games that would encourage more brain activity while discouraging physical activity, with games like the Wii, and laws now in China attempting to cut back on video game addiction. They said about 6% of kids were actually gaming for more than 40 hours per week. Now they have software attempting to force them to take a break after 3 hours, and school age kids are required to have at least 3 hours of physical activity per week... (a far cry from the daily games of kick the can)
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