FReeper Canteen ~ The Personal Computer Makes History! ~ 05 JUN 08

My Wee Widdle Bwain | 05 JUN 08 | Old Sarge

[HiJinx]

In Augsburg, we had the Mod 40 circuit back to the World. That was basically a teletype. We also had...get ready...E-MAIL!!! This was in ‘84/’85, about the time the mission ‘puters were being switched to AT&T models with 8088 processors and 40 Meg hard drives.

We used an IBM office productivity suite that gave us e-mail back to Meade. It was interesting to watch the guys who were used to message traffic on flimsies trying to wrap their minds around getting the same traffic on their desktop. They didn’t trust the e-mail - it couldn’t be authentic - it wasn’t even on paper, for crying out loud!

[mylife]

I worked mod 40 and the old stuff before it with clutches and springs and paper tape L0L

[ConorMacNessa]

Good evening, MEG - hope everything is going well with you tonite!

[2111USMC]

Our first was a local vendor built XT clone. 8088 processor, 64K of RAM, and a 20 MB hard drive. It came “bundled” with DOS and an application package called “Eight-In-One”.

(I can remember my brother in-law saying “that's all the computer you will ever need”!)

[HAL9000]

My Apple II computer will be 30 years old next month. I’m going to plug it in and run a couple of programs to make sure it still works.

A recreation of the historic Apple “Red Book” is now available online -

http://apple2history.org/dl/redbook.pdf

[2111USMC]

Back when we had to memorize DOS commands .... and we liked it!

[KarlInOhio]

The original retail price of the computer was $1,298 (with 4 KB of RAM) and $2,638 (with the maximum 48 KB of RAM).

According to http://www.westegg.com/inflation/ those prices are $4,679 and $9,510 in 2007 prices. From my last computer purchase, one 48 kB Apple II is worth about 10 Dell laptops with 2 GB RAM and 250 GB hard drives each. Yikes!

[ConorMacNessa]

"This was in ‘84/’85, about the time the mission ‘puters were being switched to AT&T models with 8088 processors and 40 Meg hard drives."

My first computer was an ATT model with exactly those specs - that was in late 1987 and we had dBase III on it. That all seems so primitive now!

[HopeandGlory]

You’re very welcome!!!

[Billthedrill]

Computers? Bah! The average citizen has no need to "compute" anything. Silly passing fad. Those punks Jobs and Gates are gonna go broke, mark my words. Computers.

Some kid was trying to tell me the other day that heavier-than-air flight was possible, too. Smacked him upside the head with my laptop. That'll larn 'im.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Sarge, for today's The Personal Computer Makes History!

[mylife]

Remember these?

[gpapa]

This day in U. S. History

1943 - The L.A. Zoot Suit Riot continues with attacks on all "pachuco"-looking males.

A group of musicians leaving the Aztec Recording Company on Third and Main Streets are attacked. Attorney Manuel Ruíz and other Mexican American professionals meet with city officials. Carey McWilliams calls California Attorney General Robert Kenny to encourage Governor Earl Warren to appoint an investigatory commission.

The Zoot Suit Riots were a series of riots that erupted in Los Angeles, California during World War II, between sailors and soldiers stationed in the city and Hispanic youths, who were recognizable by the zoot suits they favored. While Mexican Americans were mostly beaten, African American and Filipino/Filipino American youth were also targeted.

NEW YORK TIMES, JUNE 7, 1943

28 ZOOT SUITERS SEIZED ON COAST AFTER CLASHES WITH SERVICE MEN

Subdued and no longer ready to do battle, twenty-eight zoot-suiters, stripped of their garish clothing and with county jail barbers hopefully eyeing their flowing duck-tail haircuts, languished behind bars today after a second night of battle with of fleers and service men.

The arrests came after a "war" declared by service men, mostly sailors, on zoos-suit gangs which have been preying on the East Side as well as molesting civilians. Impetus was given to the clean-up campaign when the wives of two sailors were criminally attacked by the youths.

Cruising in taxicabs and cars, and occasionally spearing into enemy territory on foot in precise platoon drill, the service men routed the gangs, depriving them of crude weapons.

Favored for fighting by the youths were lengths of rope weighted with wire and lead, tire chains and wrenches, hammers and heavy bottles, some with the tops broken off.

Deputy sheriffs and police riot squads patrolled the "No Man's Land," breaking up fights where possible.

Sixteen Mexican youths, all armed with some sort of bludgeon, were arrest-ed. They were said to have tried to keep Deputy Sheriffs Foster Kellogg and E. N. Smith from arresting one of their number.

The entire lot was booked in the county jail on riot charges after flying squadrons of officers arrived on the scene.

The suspects, who were in a truck, said they were on their way to "have it out" with a bunch of sailors who had sent word they would be at California and Temple Streets to accommodate any of the zoot-suiters who thought Uncle Sam's fighting men were not just that.

[MEG33]

All is well...Thank you, Conor.

[Kathy in Alaska]

My very first computer....cute and fun and easy.

[Kathy in Alaska]

Thanks, Families, for your service to our country.

Thanks, unique, for the perfect woohoo.

John Conlee ~ They Also Serve

[Kathy in Alaska]

And coming in first.....Mac grabs the gold!

Thanks, unique, for the WooHoo!

[ConorMacNessa]

Good evening, gpapa - thanks for the history lesson.

[Kathy in Alaska]

And here comes Hope....snagging the silver!!

[Old Sarge]