I thought he said similar to Bestbuy not Radio Shack but then I don’t really know what Best Buy sells anyway.
One way or another I don’t remember Tempo or Tandy doing free internet. Dixon’s had Freeseve around then so possible either copied.
Well started with slide rule, then when at Uni a TRS 80, added memory and hard drive board by soldering the components to purchased circuit board: Pineapple (Apple II clone) added Z80 board. Next was Superbrain a CPM Z80 machine. Then the Circuit Cellar Hitachi Z180 single board. Then 286, 386SX and on and on 
Ah, a ‘slip stick’, now your talking! Were they mostly pocket ones, or did you also use the longer ones? I’m looking at a foot long one and a round one on my desk right now. I liked the round ones, more compact yet better resolution than a pocket one. Years ago, I started a CAM program to make a 2ft diameter slide rule out of aluminum, but kind of forgot all about it. That would have given the resolution of one over 6 feet long! It wouldn’t be a bad idea to teach the use of slide rules just in case of the great solar flare EMP! 
I’ve heard the navy is teaching the use of the sextant again just in case the gps system goes out. Many may not realize that man got into space with the use of these instruments (slide rules).
And, by the way, does a calculator the size of an oversized brick count in this?
Unfortunately, it won’t be long before you are saying things like “when I was a kid” or “back in the day”. Being hit by the ‘old truck’ waits for no one.
I’m of an age with sil so haven’t got much of a leg to stand on with regards my comment.
Most of the people I work with are half my age, I’m used to feeling a bit old 
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[quote=“bobsobol, post:27, topic:11214, full:true”]
So do explain your reasoning…
I’m not sure about “other Commadore”, [/quote]
COMMODORE! 
I do consider my +3 to be an Amstrad. For one thing, it says “(c) Amstrad” whenever you switch it on. It has the same form factor as the CPC. It used a 3" FDD because Amstrad had bought so bloody many drives and disks for the CPC and the Joyce (PCW). It also, rather tellingly, has a massive AMSTRAD logo on the circuit board (twice!).
Amstrad did quite a lot to create the +3, it’s the grey +2 that was essentially a 128K board with a cassette interface daughterboard attached (and yes, AMSTRAD stencilled on the main board).
(My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81. My second was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K+. My third was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum +3. Does it show?)
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Stop it, you’re making me drool! I remember lusting over the Coupé brochure after the Sinclair Loki was revealed to be complete vapourware. I’ve still never seen a Coupé in the flesh.
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WHEN I WERE A KID, BACK IN THE DAY, WE ONLY HAD 8 BITS, AND WE BLOODY WELL GOT ON WITH IT!
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No, not found in my basement, but I thought that finding an old NASA computer in some guys basement was interesting. Too bad the tapes were ruined.
The first computer that was actually mine was a cobbled together Pentium II that I loved dearly. However before that I used various Windows PCs back to about 3.1. I also spent a lot of time on a friend’s Amiga 500 (presumably - might have been a different model). It was powered by alien technology compared to the Windows machine I used at home.
At school we had some variety of Acorn, presumably Archimedes. I recall being taught to use Logo for a brief period and being baffled as to why. We also had some other, older computers in various classrooms. I recall using a BBC Micro but the other machines I’m not so sure on. Power-wise I feel like it was between an Archimedes and a BBC Micro but who can say what it was? I recall playing some medieval-themed game on it briefly that had an arm-wrestling minigame. Any takers on what that was?
In general though I feel like the whole programming initiative passed me by. It wasn’t long before teachers were trying to teach me the rudiments of Microsoft Office and little else.
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You guys are old. 
My first computer came with a Pentium P5 processor, 8MBs of EDO RAM (later upgraded to 40MBs), and Windows 95. We bought it in 1996 with an amazing 14 (or maybe it was 13) inch color monitor. The machine was epic, it worked better than a tractor, although the Windows crashes were not fun. I think it’s still somewhere in storage at home, my mom kept using it up until very recently because of attachment issues.
Good GRIEF, my first computer with a Pentium on board was like my sixth (a custom-build dual-CPU Pentium Pro full tower). Old isn’t the word!
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Hi, I’m Picky Bastard, you may know me from other posts like “that’s not the real history of the Amiga”, “God? pffffff”, and “I love to quote Montgomery Scott”.
I think you’ll find (read this in a Comic Book Guy voice if you like) that the “computers” are actually tape readers.
You may go about your business. Carry on.
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4th here (CPC464, Atari STe, 386DX40, then P100). Funnily enough it was an Escom one as mentioned in the Amiga story.
Biggest heap of turd ever, that exercised the W95 bluescreen code excessively.
Glad they went bust.
Fixed by binning the 100MHz mobo/CPU and replacing with a Pentium 233MHz, which was my first ever online purchase.
Really? Haven’t noticed.
I’m hearing it more in the narrator’s voice of a 1960’s documentary!(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJPLVa7q410)
I started out with the Commodore VIC20, then moved on to the ZX Spectrum128K and later a Sam Coupe’.
x86? Windows 3.1? Pansies.
I had to program these real computers for real men in the mid-80s in machine language, in octal.
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I support for DOS being the most initial operating system.
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