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I don't know the model of the first computer I used, in about 1979, but it had a teletype interface. |
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I think it was in 1980 that a friend was doing a science fair project on artificial intelligence. He wrote a program that generated a random maze and then had the computer compute the most direct path through the maze. I don't remember exactly what awards he won, but I know he reached the national level. I didn't do any work on his project, but he did let me use his Radio Shack TRS-80 once in a while. |
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Summer of 1982, another friend bought a Timex Sinclair 1000. He moved later that year so I didn't get to really use it a lot. |
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October 1982 I moved to a different school district where I enrolled in a computer class that used the Commodore PET. To save programs we used a cassette tape. |
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Christmas 1982 I got my first computer, the Commodore VIC 20, with a whopping 3.5K of RAM. |
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I think it was in late 1983 that I got the Commodore 64. I continued to use it until early 1985. |
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1983 - 1984 I used a Commodore SuperPET at college with a Waterloo interface that let us choose the language we would be programming in. It supported FORTRAN, COBOL, BASIC, Pascal, C and APL. All of my programming on this machine was done using either Pascal or BASIC. |
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1984, the day after it's initial release, I was using an Apple Macintosh. |
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From 1985 through early 1987 I was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. While in California I used an Apple III. |
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Still on my mission in 1986 I helped to automate the mission office using an IBM PC. We used dBase and Wordstar. |
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Back from my mission and back to college. Things had changed some during those two years. Now the personal computers in use were the IBM XT |
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and the IBM AT. |
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At this point I was also starting to get more into main frame use with IBM punch cards, running programs through |
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the IBM 4341 in a batch process mode. |
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I was writing in FORTRAN for this, on a punch machine. |
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About this time I got a new computer. I don't remember who made it, but it was an Intel 386-20 with 2meg RAM, a 512k video card, a 40meg hard drive and monitor (all for $2700). It came with a 2400 baud modem that I later replaced with a 14400. Less than a year later when I decided to put up a BBS I spent $700 for an additional 100meg hard drive. |
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Somewhere in here the school upgraded to an IBM 4381 and I did some work with VMS and COBOL. |
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Nearing graduation I got a job at a local bank as a system operator managing the IBM 4361. |
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Last semester at college I took a Mini-Computer class and worked with an IBM System/36. |
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Out of college and changed jobs. Now working at a local retail computer store I have worked with just about every type and model of personal computer that has come out since 1991. Instead of pictures, I'll just give the list. I will also include some of the older ones that I have worked with.
This list is strictly the Intel lineup. I have also had or worked with AMD systems as well as Apple. As of this writing I own an Intel Dual Core system, an AOpen AMD netbook and an Apple PowerBook G4.
Operating Systems:
- IBM DOS 1
- MS DOS 2-6
- DR DOS 7
- Concurrent DOS
- Windows 1, 2.0, 3.0, 3.1, 3.11
- Windows for Workgroups 3.11
- Windows NT
- Windows 95, 98, Millennium (ME)
- Windows 2000, XP, Vista, 7, 8
- etc.
Networks:
- Novel NetWare 3 & 4
- Novell NetWare Lite
- LANtastic
- Windows peer-to-peer
- Windows dedicated server
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CPUs:
- 8086
- 8088
- 80286
- 80386
- 80486
- Pentium
- Pentium II
- Celeron
- Pentium III
- Pentium 4
- Pentium D
- etc.
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Manufacturers:
- IBM
- Zenith
- Packard Bell
- Gateway
- Hewlett Packard
- Compaq
- Dell
- Acer
- AOpen
- eMachine
- Alienware
- Lenovo
- Asus
- multiple clones
- etc.
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In no particular order, either because I don't remember the time frame or because I really don't consider them significant in my history, here are some other systems that I have worked with. |
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TI-99/4A |
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Mattel Aquarius |
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IBM PCjr |
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Commodore 128 |
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Commodore Amiga |
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Commodore SX-64 - It was installed with GeoWorks GEOS, which was a very impressive GUI for it's time. |
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Tandy 1000 |
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Atari 520ST |
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Compaq Portable - I had to include an image of the case because it always reminds me of a sewing machine. |
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IBM AS400 |
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IBM Personal System/2 |
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