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Blog Thursday, August 21, 2008 // Blog home »
Fun on Friday: Your computing past »



Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is preparing to enter retirement, signaling the end of an era for the corporation that brought us the Windows operating system. After 33 years with Microsoft, Gates is an icon of the technology world he helped to nurture. Remember your first computer? When floppy disks were enough to load programs on an old MS-DOS machine?

Now is a great time to look back on the computing past, before Windows Vista came about or Apple had operating systems named after cats. SirNigel shared a photo of himself as a child in 1970 and went on to say that the punch card computer his mother used is now on display in the British Museum. He used to doodle on the cards and play with a 10-key machine. Do you have a similar story? Tell us how your computing use has changed and how you think Gates affected the technology world. (Hey, maybe you have an offbeat take on Gates, like sherifosman.) Take a minute and share your story on iReport.com.

Posted by nsaidi // 1 month ago
Category: computer, technology, fun_on_friday
4 Comments

June 27, 2008

1 month ago

The kids today wouldn't know what to do if they had to work on the big computers of the 80s like the Commodore 64. lol I still have mine somewhere believe it or not. Good story!

July 01, 2008

1 month ago

Oh boy, over 23 years of computing. My first home PC was an Apple II. It had 64 k of ram, I used an old TV for a monitor and the only drive was a 5 1/4" floppy. On my first job I used a Digital PDT 1123. The only disk drives were removable platters that looked like cake dishes. The two big ones held 10 meg and the small one was 5 meg. This ran a business with 10 users! I remember when I upgraded to a hard drive with 80 meg. Big deal back then!

July 12, 2008

1 month ago

I could right a book, but I'll be real short. I still have 2 TI99/4A computers (retail price $1000, Bill Cosby was their spokesman. I got a closeout price in 1978 of $49 a piece. I also had a Commodore 64 wth a printer and disk drive. Atari, Coleco, Intellivision... I had them all. I then bought a real computer... an XP with dual 5 1/4 floppies, no hard drive. And then there was the AT. Oh the 286, the 386, the 486, Pentium 90...Ok enough... At first I just played video games. nothing productive. I did take code out of magazine and for 3 hours played with getting it right... I couldn't type 10 words a minute...I gave up. Oh but 1991, all hell broke looose in my life. I jumped into learning how to use utilities and write batch files. PC Magazine had a book that included a disk of applications and utilities freeware and shareware (about $15) and I went nuts playing with it all. I learned of the Online stuff...Prodegy, GE, Compuserve... even bought groceries through Prodigy and picked them all packed and ready to go at Kroger. I worked my online skills and my 2800 baud modem technology into becoming a SYSOP of a BBS for the Atlanta PC Users Group (they had those terrific US Robotics 14,400 modems)... a year later I was President. of the 1800 member Atlanta PC Users Group, had written a book, and even created a new users disk for them. I had meals with Dvorak, Norton, Hayes...John Peter and Dennis; stood in a hall way talking to Bill Gates about books... I knew Sparky, Marshall McGee, and Ward Christenson... all pioneers of this community... I went to every Comdex I could, thankfully many were in Atlanta. I still have a wardrobe of T-Shirts and and bookshelf full of unused software. There were great party's and some really wild stories. I took vacation from my real job just to go... It was fun times I'll never forget. I am now leaving DOS and returning to Windows..."exit"

August 05, 2008

2 weeks ago

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