I couldn't afford the Heathkits.

1). Teletype connected to University of MN
2). Univac AN/YUK ... can't remember anymore. US Navy, CRPI (Card
Read/Punch/Interpreter), reel to reel tapes.
3). IBM CE training on the EAM equipment (029 keypunch, 402 accounting
machine)
4). Burroughs L8200 - First in the Navy, 12k RAM, 3 cassette tape drives
- ones you didn't have to press "play" to make work.
5). IBM 360/40, with Memorex's version of the 2314 what was it? 29mb
removable packs. The Ops manager was so excited as they were the first
voice-coil activated drives to replace the hydraulic actuators. The
venerable 1403-N1 printer.
6). Brief encounter with IBM 1401, and I think 10mb removable disk
packs. To reproduce a deck of cards you had to interleave blank cards
with the source. And the printer included some kind of inverted comb.
7). Commodore Vic-20, 4kb of ram, and sprites!
8). Commodore 64
9). PC Junior, stacked with expansion jazz
10). Dual-processor Compaq "luggable" with 80186 daughter board, there
wasn't enough oomph left in the power supply to run a 20mb HDD.
....

Joe Gorman said the following on 1/6/2005 7:34 AM:
wrote:

On Wed, 05 Jan 2005 11:07:50 -0500, Silvan
wrote:


Jim Warman wrote:


HOWEVER.... I can still vaguely recall single side, low density that
couldn't hold what is now a smallish *,gif....

While we're at it... how many can remember when a 44Meg HDD was HUGE!!!



I can remember when IBM maintained no one would ever need a hard drive
larger than 10Meg.


I think the huge drive Dad used to have at work was only 32 MB or
so. It
was the size of a dormitory refrigerator.



Was it the kind with the removable disk packs that you loaded and
unloaded through the top of the machine?

We had an incident once where the brake mechanism on one of those
broke and the disks didn't stop spinning when it was shut down to
change disk packs. The operator lifted out the disks without realizing
they were still spinning -- until he tried to turn and the gryoscopic
forces slammed him into the wall!

Ah, memories!

--RC

"Sometimes history doesn't repeat itself. It just yells
'can't you remember anything I've told you?' and lets
fly with a club.
-- John W. Cambell Jr.



Yes, we were the first navy class for the new HD with a removable disk
pack, with enclosed heads with the pack. It was replacing the
hydraulicly operated head HD we had just finished class on. If you
overrode one or more interlocks, you could remove the pack while it was
still spinning. since it was a training situation we all got to do
that. Interesting to do, more fun to watch the smaller class members
wrestle with it.
Joe