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Old computers
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Jul 7, 2013 14:31:45   #
marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL
 
EdJ0307 wrote:
This was mine also. Bought it about 1980 on sale at Thrifty Drugs for $50. No hard drive and storage media was a cassette tape recorder. Wrote you own programs in Basic. Fun times.


Good deal! 50% off I believe.

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Jul 7, 2013 14:38:26   #
marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL
 
Tarfun wrote:
This is testing the limits of my rusty memory.

Yes. TRS stood for Tandy/Radio Shack (the companies merged). In that process we eventually lost access to a host of leather goods sold in Tandy stores.

They marketed their computer as "Radio Shack Color Computer," or "Rainbow Computer." Those of us in the baby computer fraternity referred to them TRS-80 (or Trash80) computers. Its CPU was a Motorola 6809 (a prototype for Motorola's later 68000 series of chips).

It was my first computer. Radio Shack Basic provided me an opportunity to learn something about programming.

Somewhere along the line I encountered the Mandelbrot Fractal, and related articles in Scientific American. Using that little computer coupled to a 5-inch floppy, I managed to create a program to render the Mandelbrot Fractal. The deeper one probed into the fractal, the longer it took to render an image; sometimes several weeks! The 6809 was not a fast chip.

One little known fact about the TRS80 was that it could run multiple windows. It was neat to switch between them to see what was happening, even if only inconsequential.

Many TRS80 users at the time regretted that the Color Computer was marketed solely as a game machine. We thought that if T/RS had promoted its technical capabilities, and kept developing the machine in that direction, they might have emerged as a name brand PC manufacturer.
This is testing the limits of my rusty memory. br ... (show quote)


Since Radio Shack doesn't manufacturer anything itself, it probably WAS a name brand PC manufacturer making it for them. Radio Shack had a very closer relationship with Texas Instruments over the years and used TI chips in a lot of stuff, sold TI chips and transistors in the parts department, and was one of the first retailers to carry the TI scientific handheld calculator that sold for something like $450 - so I'd just about bet the TRS-80 was made by TI for Radio Shack.

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Jul 7, 2013 14:39:56   #
RixPix Loc: Miami, Florida
 
marcomarks wrote:
Whatever happened to him? The move from Commodore to Atari seemed smooth but then it didn't work out but I didn't hear where he moved to next.


He died last April. Check online for his biography he was an industry leader in his day. I ended up working for him by default as he bought my then-employer in California to sell his Atari computers sometime after 1985.

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Jul 7, 2013 14:45:02   #
marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL
 
marty wild wrote:
I went the other way AM CB radio in the UK which was illegal they was all on import form U.S.A. The importers must have made a killing. (LOL) But I remember my mates having all the computers stated. A trip down memory lane quality.


AM CB radio is where I missed my rainbow to my pot of gold. I knew AM 23-channel CB radio was about to explode as a fad market as soon as they let 14 year olds get licenses (eventually no license was required at all). An investor and I talked about opening a CB radio store in Toledo OH but because he didn't know electronics he bowed out and created a wine store instead. A year later he started kicking himself for not going with our original plan because the fad kept climbing in popularity with all the CB trucker movies. Then again... CB radio fell out of fashion very quickly and almost all the stores are gone now. He sold his two wine stores 10 years later for a profit after 10 years of mediocre but profitable sales. So maybe he did the right thing.

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Jul 7, 2013 14:48:48   #
marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL
 
Murray wrote:
Me too. I did my first online legal research on that. Took till 3 a.m., but worked out well!


Online research with a TI 99/4a? There weren't any modems, browsers, or Internet in 1976. It had no ports to connect a modem. How'd you do that?

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Jul 7, 2013 14:50:26   #
marcomarks Loc: Ft. Myers, FL
 
RixPix wrote:
He died last April. Check online for his biography he was an industry leader in his day. I ended up working for him by default as he bought my then-employer in California to sell his Atari computers sometime after 1985.


Sorry to hear that. I remember him being an innovator. I'll look up his bio on Wikipeida.

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Jul 7, 2013 14:53:52   #
Drigby1 Loc: American Fork, UT
 
Carl A wrote:
Anyone remember the Commodre 64 of the 80's
What do you have now


I had an "progressive principal over me in my first few years of teaching. We had our elementary kids doing basic and turtle graphics on Apple 2II.

I now have an iMac and various mobile devices.

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Jul 7, 2013 15:00:16   #
pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"
 
dirtball140 wrote:
I started writing code in the late 60's for the phone company. The code was all machine language, when BAL came along it was a jump forward as it had macros that you could use. The IBM1401 mainframe had a capacity of 8k, and the programs were carried in a long card shaped box that looked like a gun case. The program would read in in stages, perform a specific task to the whole universe of files then read in the next bit of the program to perform, rewind the magnetic tape and apply the next bit of logic. Has sure come a long way.
I started writing code in the late 60's for the p... (show quote)


I think the IRS still uses that for refunds. Not collections, just refunds. :roll: :lol:

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Jul 7, 2013 15:06:32   #
pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"
 
TrainNut wrote:
I was actually born with a computer, it can count up to 10. :roll: :-D


I have the expanded version. It counts to 20 with my shoes off. :thumbup:

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Jul 7, 2013 15:08:42   #
singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines
 
pounder35 wrote:
I have the expanded version. It counts to 20 with my shoes off. :thumbup:


Sorry to hear you can't count to 21. LOL

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Jul 7, 2013 15:09:34   #
Pepsiman Loc: New York City
 
Didn't have the 64, had a Vic 20... Still have 2 Ataries. the 800 with a basic cartridge and tape drive...A 800XL with flpppy drive and a 300 baud modem...

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Jul 7, 2013 15:20:05   #
pounder35 Loc: "Southeast of Disorder"
 
singleviking wrote:
Sorry to hear you can't count to 21. LOL


Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! Got me. :lol: :thumbup:

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Jul 7, 2013 15:36:03   #
Murray Loc: New Westminster
 
marcomarks wrote:
Online research with a TI 99/4a? There weren't any modems, browsers, or Internet in 1976. It had no ports to connect a modem. How'd you do that?


You were able to buy an accessory modem (large) that went onto the phone.

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Jul 7, 2013 15:38:30   #
Murray Loc: New Westminster
 
Murray wrote:
You were able to buy an accessory modem (large) that went onto the phone.


The site? Was government and university operated. You are right there sure wasn't a web, it was direct to a phone #

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Jul 7, 2013 16:23:09   #
singleviking Loc: Lake Sebu Eco Park, Philippines
 
Murray wrote:
The site? Was government and university operated. You are right there sure wasn't a web, it was direct to a phone #


You must have been on the original DARPANET or a university mainframe that connected through a wired modem to modem connection. Bell Labs allowed us to connect to the mainframe in a similar method. Real slow at 12 baud at first but it eventually got up to 56 baud. Still snails pace in comparison to today data rates but it did the trick at that time.

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