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10 IT relics I really miss

The first pc I ever had was "Frankensteined" together. A mother board from here, a case from there, a floppy from a friend, etc. I miss building my own pc's. Sure you can still do it today, but it isn't quite the same.

I remember the CoCo computer's external disk drive. The whiring, clicking and grinding.
The other thing I miss was upgrading my Tandy 1000 EX computer. I unsoldered the 8088 processor, and installed an NEC V20 chip. It went from an 8 megahert workhorse to a 12 MEGAHERTZ POWERSE. LOLOLOL. I also bought an upgrade memory card. that upgraded it to 640k of memory and installed an external 20 megabyte hard drive. with my 640x480 CGA monitor, I was BIG CITY for a few months... the the next series came out. THE 286.

One of the guys who worked for me way back then bought a "Trash 80" and loaned it to me for the week-end. It was fun to play with. My first computer though was a Compaq "Portable". It was about the same size and weight as a portable sewing machine, and I actually carried it on planes. I was later able to buy a used 20MB hard drive. It squeaked, but I loved it. I paid $100.00 for it and when I first got it I remember thinking, "Man I can store the world on this thing!"

I live in an area that has multiple computer stores that sell multiple versions of 'real' computer cases and video cards and RAM and storage devices. Building my own systems is always more satisfying and less aggravating than trying to customize a Dell or HP.
Dial up BBS are a hassle. There are still tight groups of loners around to converse with on-line if necessary. There's still plenty of software that I run off of a USB drive with no install.

I do very much miss typing in pages of source code, but not saving to cassette. There are some good, free, on-line tutorials for python and other languages that are very satisfying, though, and it's a rewarding learning experience.

Today's keyboards kind of suck, but at lest they're cheap and abundant. Can't beat the true clicky keys for feel and durability.

What I miss most about the 80's computer experience is the absolute lack of bloatware that came with those machines or the paid or 'free' software.

Maximum CoCo Ram was initially 32kB and the chips were marked A or B and there was a jumper on the motherboard that you had to set for A or B!

It turned out that the chips were 64kB chips but due to manufacturing problems they normally only had 32kb "Certified" - hence the A or B!

As production became more reliable, one could plug in a full (set of 8 or was it nine for parity?) 64kB chip and leave the jumper off and.... Voila!! you had 64kB of RAM!!!

GREAT STUFF!!! The Future has Arrived!!!

This might be Urban Legend - I doubt if it will feature in Snopes BUT....

At the time that ram chips were developing 4k, 8k, 16k, etc a statement was made by one of the leading manufacturers about the difficulty of ever making a 64k chip followed by a 64k (might have been another k thought impossible at the time) actually being released and if one broke open the chip, there was a heart with a bite out of it (eat your heart out) etched in the chip wafer!

There were actually hidden(?) graphics in many chips at one time!

Florida State U has a "Silicon Zoo" of chip art at http://micro.magnet.fsu.edu/creatures/index.html. Chipworks also has a gallery of chip art: http://www.chipworks.com/en/newsroom/media-resources/silicon-art-library

They even found Waldo! http://www.chipworks.com/images/content-images/galleries/silicon-art-4/waldo_l.jpg

I remember telecoms saying speeds higher than 56k were not possible because telephone wires couldn't handle it. I wonder if they actually believed that or was it used to create this tiered system of very slow Internet plans we currently "enjoy".

Yep, I know cuz I paid $440 for a used 40 MB HD. Quality is up and price is down!!

I paid $500 for 16MB (that's 16 MEGAbytes) of RAM at one point so I could try this new operating system Microsoft was putting out called 'Windows NT'.

Has anyone mentioned expanded memory yet? You had to swap things in and out of it into the 1 MB system RAM. IIRC it was "translated" rather than "mapped" as extended memory is to this day.

It was expensive in both $$ and processing overhead, but a lot cheaper than the newfangled 80386.

Lord, I remember that crap.

Now I'm going to have nightmares!

I used to work with a fellow who has a sense of humor that spans the gamut, he comes up with the perfect crack in every circumstance, it seems effortless.

He had a customer that he swore was trying to find some way to sue my coworker for screwing up his computer, eg losing his data. The guy would haul the computer to the shop 2-3 time a month complaining about something, and warning us he had very important data!

We normally didn't look at people's data but this guy was always threatening us. We were stunned, he only had a dozen or so documents, but all of them were threats to various businesses that he was going to sue them! My buddy has a good sense of people, I don't doubt he was right, the guy was probably stumping for a lawsuit.

I set this up so as not to indict my friend for professional malpractice, but this day when the fellow showed up my friend explained how he "fixed" the guy's computer:

"...you had a problem with your REM lines again."

I of course waited for the guy to leave before I asked. My buddy told the guy that there were these special lines in autoexec.bat that were critical for proper operation of the machine, that all began with the "REM command."

The guy, in an effort to try to "safely" break his computer for another shot at a lawsuit would tinker with autoexec, altering or removing one or more of those ever-important "REM lines."

I don't know how long this went on, but the guy did pay the full shop rate (one hour minimum) every time. I saw him at least 3 times during my stint in that shop.

I remember jabbing newbies with the "REM lines" joke, but they'd get it pretty much right away and we'd have a modest laugh over it. But this guy was a major rube, I suppose he got what he deserved.

Every time!!!!

I was up for a promotion, and my boss went and hired a guy younger than me, he had lots of mainframe experience, but had NO PC or Microcomputer background at ALL!! My boss told him to modify a particular PC for a specific software package, and first he had to learn how to use the EDIT program, then he "butchered" the Autoexec.bat, after taking forever trying, my boss finally told me "could you please go help him" I was so MAD, this guy that was earning at least twice more than me, had no idea how to EDIT a batch file! It came up to be that he had removed a CLS line, and now the batch file would show all the lines and stay on the screen or something, All I had to do was write the CLS line and add a couple of REMs at the beginning of a couple of lines. For some reason he did not like those REM statements, or maybe someone told him to remove the REMs and maybe he thought just removing the word will do??
Another time I got called to a location where he had totally disabled a processing plant!! He was trying to make room for more software on the hard drive, and he removed the folder(directory) that contained the Ethernet drivers, because he claimed he did not know what it was for. The PC hang, and then on restart(reboot) all kind of errors came up and the PC could not connect to the network to control the plant... GEEZZZ!! I ran the UNDELETE command and restored the folder... Back in business. This guy was dangerous, but was my boss's pet... go figure!

I once had an NCOIC, that I suspect was jealous of my PC, skills put a combat boot through my laptop keyboard, and declared it an "accident"! Yeah right!

In hind sight, I guess I can't blame him really - when I toured out - I declared that the PC had replaced me - and I was right - it replaced him too! HA!

Was this guy a threat to flesh and blood, too? I've dealt with some pissed off people before but never to the point of physical damage!

Solder! The first three computers I built, I soldered individual components onto PCBs. Two SWTPCo 6800s which belonged to my then employer: the Polytechnic of North London, and the third was the property of the North London Hobby Computer Club. That last was an 1802 COSMAC Elf2. I still have that one, but am going to donate it to the National Computer Museum http://www.tnmoc.org/

And what about wire wrap? And computer clubs, for that matter?