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Oh the memories. I bought my Timex Sinclair with Paper Route Money, had it for 1 week, and returned it to Kmart! Went for the TI/94-A eventually with a PEB. I worked with my buddy who was into music, and I wrote software that played Christmas songs. I learned enough about music that I could setup the DATA to be (Note,time) pairs so I could READ It out loud and he could match it to the sheet music, and vice versa (I could type as he read). We must have done his entire book of Christmas songs...
I had a Radio Shack Model I (That I bought used, and the seller ripped me off, selling me a broken floppy drive... I was just a kid... Who does that to a kid?).
The TRS-80 Came out, and we learned to forcibly change the master password on ANY Floppy:
- Insert your disk, choose change master password
- Enter your current password <confirms password="" is="" correct="">
- Prompt for new password
- Swap disks with the TARGET disk
- Type new password, press enter: Writes password over other password without checking. LOL.
My buddy got a PC (with a floppy only). HDs wire like 5MB back then... Too expensive.
We wired up an Analog to Digital Converter to the serial port, from the HAM Radio output he had.
And in the course of a day, we wrote code that converted the Morse Code to text on the screen, adapting for speed dynamically!
This was all in High School, Circa 1982-1985...
Then we got into the DEC PDP/11 running RSTS/E and BASIC-PLUS running the main Runtime/OS.
(Most programs for the entire operating system were written in BASIC PLUS!).
We also had COBOL and Fortran to learn, as well as Assembler (which matched the C syntax wonderfully, I would learn later on when I took to C like a fish to water!)
I spent 8-10hrs/day, 6 days a week at school, in the computer room my Junior and Senior year.
When I found out that they PAID PEOPLE to do this (as I was getting brought in to install and fix things), I was blown away. When I found out they PAID WELL for these skills... I grew a perma grin!
There is a certain amount of empowerment knowing at a young age (15-16) what you want to do for the rest of your life! I feel bad for people who are still looking AFTER college!
Find something you LOVE doing, and then find someone stupid enough to pay you to do it! LOL
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That's it. Was trying to find the words and you nailed it. I have a similar story at about the same time. Mine though had to do with the TRS-80, a model III mind you (CLOAD, baby!). Writing code is just awesome.
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I had a 99. Still have the BASIC manual as a keepsake. In its day it was a great gaming machine.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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I had one of those and I rewrote the operating system in hand coded assembly and used Forth as an operating system. and networked it with my Radio Shack TRS 80 Model I, also with a rewritten operating system. That was a lot of fun! That
TI chip had pretty neat CPU aechetecture!
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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1978 for me. I took up the trade because I wasn't required to talk to people that annoy me.
".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010 ----- You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010 ----- When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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John Simmons / outlaw programmer wrote: to talk to people that annoy me. Little did you know then that you'd be an active participant of CP.
Everyone is born right handed. Only the strongest overcome it.
Fight for left-handed rights and hand equality.
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".45 ACP - because shooting twice is just silly" - JSOP, 2010 ----- You can never have too much ammo - unless you're swimming, or on fire. - JSOP, 2010 ----- When you pry the gun from my cold dead hands, be careful - the barrel will be very hot. - JSOP, 2013
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Ditto, except I found out that stupid has no boundaries or limitations...
Don't let your mind wander too far.
It's too small to be let out alone.
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But you get to cuss at compilers and machines because they do what you instruct rather than what you want!And shooting com[puteers isn't illegal.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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I've usually been on the anoyying end of things,
I usually laugh at people who annoy me, but that appears to be more annoying than ignoring them.
CQ de W5ALT
Walt Fair, Jr., P. E.
Comport Computing
Specializing in Technical Engineering Software
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The first computer I laid my hands on was a Sinclair ZX81 (black and white), I was fascinated and got hooked on Basic programming. Did not think I would be doing this as a profession later on in life, evolved from Basic to VB, VB.NET and finally C#.
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I went the same path but started with a commodore 64 and went via SuperBase before I got into VB.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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SuperBase rings a bell with me, I had that on my Atari 1040ST but never did anything useful with it.
Later on I thought DbaseIII+ was more interesting because of job opportunities, and to my amazement I got a job as a database programmer pretty quick !
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Guess that's why I never had a Commodore
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When: Sometimes in 1981,82,83-ish (sinclair, Apple II...). and after that, university by the start of the 90's
Why: Because it was supposed to be the thing of the future, and I (well, my parents helped a bit) had to start learning it.
I'd rather be phishing!
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When: 1983-4.
Why: Because you can't do much else with a Commodore 64, its programming manual and a tape drive.
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When? Back in the late '70s at University.
Why? "It's indoor work with no heavy lifting".
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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OriginalGriff wrote: with no heavy lifting
Unless you had one of those "boat anchor" portable computers.
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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Hah! In those days you needed a crane to change the disk!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
AntiTwitter: @DalekDave is now a follower!
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I remember the Kaypro!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
RAH
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Mycroft Holmes wrote: Kaypro
Yes! And the Osborne!
The difficult we do right away...
...the impossible takes slightly longer.
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The Osborn was portable. If you had a forklift.
Sometimes the true reward for completing a task is not the money, but instead the satisfaction of a job well done. But it's usually the money.
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