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    <title><![CDATA[Discussion on Dinosaur Sightings: Computers from the 1970s ]]></title>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Cromemco?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3698193]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Why do I never see Cromemco mentioned in these stories.I had a Cromemco System III.  It must have weighed 150 lbs.  I financed it at the bank using the computer as colateral, just like an automobile.  The bank had never done this with a computer before.I couldn't afford any software other than a $100 version of C programming language.  My son sold it many years later at a flea market for $5 and he had to carry it for the old gentleman who bought it.]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[john.vinton@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Tue, 04 Sep 2012 16:28:45 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Suitcase]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697152]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I still have my 1972 Compaq &quot;suitcase&quot;. It even has a handle on top to carry it. About the size (and weight), of a portable sewing machine! Laid down, open the catches, and the base is the keyboard. This also uncovers a storage compartment where the mouse is stored. 9&quot; green screen, with dual 360 floppys. And yes - it still works! Will your laptop still function in 40 years???]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697152]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[micker377@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 20:17:34 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[I found a picture of MY first computer!]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697039]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[It was the TRS-80 with an audio tape player to store programs! MAN! It took forever to find the program I wanted, since you can't listen to the tape, or have it indexed.http://oldcomputers.net/trs80i.html]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697039]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[stevenscottoddballz]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 12:48:22 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Was one of the first computers I recall actually getting my hands on...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697004]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[...programmed via paper tape.  It was a massive achievement to get it to flash numbers in binary.  It certainly looked like we thought a computer was supposed to.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697004]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[JohnMcGrew@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 10:02:08 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[The Bell &amp; Howell was really an Apple ][...]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697003]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[...with a slightly modified case with an extension on the back with a handle so the unit could be easily carried, and with extra power outlets and designed so you could wrap the power cord about it for transport and storage.  These features made it much more practical for institutional settings.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3697003]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[JohnMcGrew@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:59:20 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[&quot;Dinosaurs&quot;]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3696986]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Looks to me that these were not &quot;Dinosaurs&quot; but the little mammals waiting in the dark to replace the big IBMsaurus, ControlDatasaurus on their way out...]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3696986]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[maximejacquet@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 09:24:17 -0700</pubDate>
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        <title><![CDATA[Heathkit H89]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3696944]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[Had one of these also!  The thing had TWO Z80 processors!  Running at 1 Mhz, it was a &quot;screamer.&quot;  I went &quot;all-out&quot; and bought the dual-floppy version.  The 5.25&quot; floppys were 160kb hard-sectored.  I only was able to afford 48kb memory instead of the fully loaded 64kb.  Amazingly enough, I was able to write a rudimentary word processor and a spreadsheet program using &quot;Benton Harbor Basic!&quot;]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3696944]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[willis0966@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:18:51 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[KIM-1]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3696939]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I had a KIM-1 - wish I had hung onto it.  It was a &quot;marvel&quot; at the time.  It's hard to remember back that far but it seems like it was more suited to machine control rather than &quot;personal computing.&quot;  I can remember having to program everything in hex - pain in the rear - sorta' like using assembly language but worse...]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[willis0966@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 30 Aug 2012 08:09:00 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[IMSAI 8080]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3690062]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[I always liked the IMSAI 8080 though-- the movie WARGAMES made it popular. It definitely had a cool factor.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3690062]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[bratwizard@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:42:42 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Altair 8080A]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3690061]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[What about the Altair? It came out before the IMSAI, although the IMSAI certainly did look cooler. Lessee... in my personal arsenal I had two of the Altairs, a US Micro (generic S-100/CPM), a Sinclair, Commodore64, IBM-PC, several Masscomp 5700's &amp;  Silicon Graphics IRIS 3130' which were 68020-based multibus systems. And I got to work on a lot of the other computers you mention-- the IMSAI, the SOL, a Comemco something-or-other that ran M/PM, numerous no-name Z80-based systems, IBM system 23 (a cute little thing). The Apple II, the VIC-20. And other fun toys such as the Perkin-Elmer 7/32 and 3200-series mini-mainframes. Nowadays, its all just boring PC's and laptops. No more massive cases, no more spinning tape reels, no more deafening Centronics line-printers, no more walking your Data-General Nova 3C across the computer room floor by moving the heads on the 14-inch hard drive (snicker). Oh-- and I almost forgot my Atari ST's-- 520's and 1040's-- those were a lot of fun too. Especially &quot;Dungeon Master&quot;. Anybody remember Dungeon Master? Or &quot;Kill a Happy Face&quot;, one of the early &quot;networked&quot; games?Oh nostalgia... (sigh)]]></description>
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        <dc:creator><![CDATA[bratwizard@...]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Wed, 01 Aug 2012 04:40:58 -0700</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[DEC Trivia: When you care enough to steal the very best]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3526899]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[When Soviet engineers were stealing DEC intellectual property, on the CVAX processor the DEC chip-designers etched the words: &quot;when you care enough to steal the very best&quot; in Russian as a message to the Soviet engineers who were known to be both purloining DEC computers for military applications, along with reverse engineering their chip design.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3526899]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[robo_dev]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 11:38:59 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[Where are the DEC systems?]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3526887]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[The vast majority of these systems, as well as those in the 1980-1983 display, are systems targeted at the home / hobby user, with the exception of some of the IBM models.There are some serious omisisons.  In 1979 Digital Equipment Corporation, then the world's second largest computer company, launched a line of desktop computers based on its industry-leading LSI-11 microprocessor and its single-user operating system, RT-11.  The top of the line was the PDT-150, which had dual floppy diskettes and a VT100 terminal.  It could run not only BASIC, but also FORTRAN and DIBOL (a DEC derivative of COBOL).  However, through a quirk of DEC internal politics, the PDT-150 had been funded by the marketing group whose charter restricted them to selling the product to OEMs in lots of ten or more, so it could not be marketed to individuals.  This proved near-tragic, according to DEC folklore, when a guy in a plaid shirt and a ponytail showed up at the OEM group's headquarters in Marlboro, Mass. and wanted to buy a unit to develop an application that he had in mind.  The suits in the OEM group blew him off, since he wasn't going to buy ten of them and re-sell them, and he didn't  look  like a serious businessman.  It turns out that the guy's name was Dan Bricklin, and he ended up calling his program Visicalc - the firt &quot;killer app&quot; for PCs.  Had this gone the other way, and the PDT-150 not been a political prisoner, the PC revolution might have run on PDP-11s and RT-11 instead of Intel and CP/M, then MS-DOS.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3526887]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[BNusbaum]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Mon, 28 Nov 2011 10:36:30 -0800</pubDate>
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    <item>
        <title><![CDATA[HeathKit Computer]]></title>
        <link><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3525228]]></link>
        <description><![CDATA[HeathKit released this computer in conjunction with Zenith in 1978 as I remember. I ordered one that had two 7&quot; floppy disk drives. I remember the model as a HZ89 (Heath Zenith model 89). The processor was an 8088 and the memory board came pre-assembled with either 64 or 128K of memory. This computer was in my hands at least two years before the IBM PC came out. At that time it was part of a mail order training program that walked a person thru all of the logic theory first. The training came with a breadboarding system and a series of logic chips. When the logic training was finished, you could order the computer for assembly. The logic board and high voltage module were pre-built, but everything else was assembled and soldered by hand.]]></description>
        <guid><![CDATA[http://www.techrepublic.com/forum/discussions/102-351053-3525228]]></guid>
        <dc:creator><![CDATA[PhysicsTech2]]></dc:creator>
        <pubDate>Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:03:32 -0800</pubDate>
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