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Uncle Jack

Jan 21, 2005, 10:35 AM

Post #1 of 12 (1303 views)

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300 Baud

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How many have been around long enough to remember 300 Baud modems and Bulletin Boards?

http://www22.verizon.com/...,1727,1030z1,00.html

uj

jshrall

Jan 21, 2005, 1:22 PM

Post #2 of 12 (1289 views)

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Re: [Uncle Jack] 300 Baud

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But of course. The 300 baud modem was a real breakthrough on my first PC, a Radio Shack Model III with 32K of memory and 2 of those 5 1/4 floppies. I remember using VisiCalc as a spreadsheet and dBase II to write some cutting edge applications. My how times change. Anyone remember the RS Model II that had the 8 inch floppy?

Sometime around 1985 I got my first hard drive. Seems to me 5 meg cost about $1,500. What a bargain.

However, as recently as a year ago I was working with a banking client still transferring data from mainframe to mainframe at 4800 baud. Some ancient legacy IBM software someone was probably too terrified to scrap.

Uncle Jack

Jan 21, 2005, 2:11 PM

Post #3 of 12 (1286 views)

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Re: [jshrall] 300 Baud

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I think the first hard drives I had were called "Winchesters" (30-30s) because they processsed 30Mb at 30 millisecond access time.

Did you ever use a Wang word processor?

johanson / Moderator

Jan 21, 2005, 6:47 PM

Post #4 of 12 (1269 views)

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Re: [Uncle Jack] 300 Baud

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In about 1971 I worked for Buroughs Corp and sold computers. As I recollect the smallest COMPUTER went for $399 and the largest $499. Do you remember the nixy (spelling) tubes?

Today one would call this computer a hand held calculator with one or two memories and the cost would be closer to $5 to $10 US dollars

Uncle Jack

Jan 22, 2005, 4:15 AM

Post #5 of 12 (1252 views)

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Re: [johanson] 300 Baud

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Like one of theses?

http://www.tonh.net/...um/nixystanding.html

uj

johanson / Moderator

Jan 22, 2005, 2:57 PM

Post #6 of 12 (1231 views)

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Re: [Uncle Jack] 300 Baud

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Hey this morning I answered your post stating, yet, those are the NIXY tubes I remember. The trouble is the post doesn't show up. So I shall try again

here goes

YEP, THOSE ARE THE NIXY TUBES I REMEMBER.

king1522

Jan 22, 2005, 3:45 PM

Post #7 of 12 (1223 views)

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Re: [johanson] 300 Baud

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It is hard to believe NIXY tubes are in a museum! My first electronic calculator had NIXY tubes. Man, I was the envy of the entire firm. I had a machine that could multiply and divide quickly. Multipying on a manual adding machine took practially forever!

Life is like a roll of toilet paper. The more paper that
is rolled off, the faster it goes.

Rolly

Jan 22, 2005, 4:35 PM

Post #8 of 12 (1219 views)

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Re: [king1522] 300 Baud

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My first computer experience back in the mid 70's was while I lived a 'burb of Chicago and connected to my company's mainframe in Boston using a dumb terminal with an acoustical coupler (anybody know what that is?) and a thermal printer (no screen). "Slow" makes it sound faster than it was.

I had an engineering problem that was bigger than my brand new Texas Instruments TI-99 programmable calculator could handle (remember them?), and the PC had not been invented. Nobody in my office knew anything about computers or programming, so I went K&B bookstore downtown and looked through programming books until I found one that I thought I could understand. When home and taught myself to program in Basic. I later added several other languages, but I still think in Basic.

Maybe we should form an old hackers club.

Rolly Pirate

Papirex

Jan 22, 2005, 6:09 PM

Post #9 of 12 (1214 views)

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Re: [johanson] 300 Baud

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Pete, The next time a post Won't show up, you might want to send it via TELEX :-)
"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

sfmacaws

Jan 23, 2005, 4:25 PM

Post #10 of 12 (1192 views)

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Re: [Uncle Jack] 300 Baud

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I used a Wang for years where I worked. They were still using them as short as 10 or 12 years ago, proprietary software that no one wanted to port. It would go down occasionally and I'd have to go into the 'computer room' and re-boot it. It was a 15 step procedure and the Wang took up most of the room. The disks were the size of old 78's and there were 6 of them stacked on top of each other in a jukebox type of holder, we had 2 holders.

I found an old manual and got fairly good at poking around the system, mainly troubleshooting but also snooping. Came with the night shift I guess. I'll bet they are still there although they did stop using them while I was still working.

Jonna - Mérida, Yucatán

johanson / Moderator

Jan 23, 2005, 7:02 PM

Post #11 of 12 (1184 views)

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Re: [RexC] 300 Baud

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Thanks for the suggestion, Rex. For those of you up North, things are not all that different down here. I just finished watching the two football games in High Definition (thank you Star Choice), it rained this evening, 1/4 of an inch so far, and the temperature out at 9 PM is in the mid 50's. No I am not back in Seattle, rather I am here in Ajijic, about to drive to the airport to pick up late arriving passengers, darn it.

DonaldEug44

Jan 25, 2005, 6:43 AM

Post #12 of 12 (1158 views)

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Re: [johanson] 300 Baud

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My first computer was the old Commadore 64 with 5-1/4 floppies. I used a data tape recorder for a "hard drive". Dos 3.1 if I remember right. I also remember when all of the graphics I did were done on a Hewlett-Packard 9 pen plotter.

Too bad you are not up here in Seattle Johanson. It is shirtsleeve weather, very little rain the past few days, and I think I got a sunburn yesterday. Of course we will pay this summer with no snow pack.

Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe. - Albert Einstein

(This post was edited by DonaldEug44 on Jan 25, 2005, 7:35 AM)