Who got the oldest computer-contest! ;-)

[ScionPI2005]

I have an old Mac Color Classic in storage, which is my oldest computer right now. However, my main computer is a 2013 iMac.

 

[GHT]

View attachment 47532

You can't beat a good old Abacus, but I'm confused. The bottom pairs are obviously a binary abacus, the top, however, are in stacks of five, not ten. They could be in pairs but there's an odd number of stacks. Is this a fiendish take on Charles Babbage? Would the famous question asked of him still have bearing?
"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"

 

[KILO NOVEMBER]

You can't beat a good old Abacus, but I'm confused. The bottom pairs are obviously a binary abacus, the top, however, are in stacks of five, not ten. They could be in pairs but there's an odd number of stacks. Is this a fiendish take on Charles Babbage? Would the famous question asked of him still have bearing?
"Pray, Mr. Babbage, if you put into the machine wrong figures, will the right answers come out?"

I was holding it upside down.
The pairs of beads count as "5", while the lower ones count as "1", or so says the accompanying manual. I thought you folks might enjoy another venerable computer, one I made acquaintance with in high school many decades back.

I have the scabbard, too.

 

[GHT]

The slide rule, I still use the expression: "Run the slide rule over that!"

 

[MisterCairo]

My first computer was a 386SX given to me for Christmas by my mother in 1991 as I'd started university that fall.

I still have it, though not the dot matrix printer (four-colour ribbon!). I am trying to set it up to see if it still works.

It has all the mod-cons, including BOTH 3.5 and 5.25 disk drives!

 

[PABLOCRAVIOTO]

Pentium 2 computer /autocad 14 /photoshop 7 /office xp / and working smooth

 

[MisterCairo]

Pentium 2 computer /autocad 14 /photoshop 7 /office xp / and working smooth

Lor', I'd forgotten the term Pentium! Now I recall getting a Pentium and then (shudders with excitement) a P2!

 

[Trenchfriend]

The Compaq Presario with Pentium III/500 MHz becomes 19 years old, this year. Still doing usual tasks and playing Tropico 1, since 2003. Best game ever.

PS:
My original XP Home Edition and 384 (3x128) MB SD-RAM.

 

[Michael R.]

I use a 2008 iMac , I think I just learned how to turn a computer on in 2009 , got my first cell phone in 2004 . I threaten to get rid of all the technology , and one day I will . @Trenchfriend you're doing good , you've gotten the value out of that Compaq ! It might be free of spyware . I must say I did have the ram tripled on the Mac a couple of years ago .

 

[LizzieMaine]

Since this thread last appeared, my PowerBook G4 laptop incinerated another logic board, just about a year ago. I found a replacement on eBay for about $20 and replaced it on my kitchen table in about two hours. I should be a sucker and pay $500+ for a job like that. I think that's the third or fourth I've gone thru in the thirteen years I've owned it. I also took the time to epoxy the cracked inner framework from when the cat knocked it off the coffee table, and replaced the duct tape on the casing. Good as new.

Someone at work got a new Mac laptop recently, and I was appalled by it -- no ports, no outlets, no CD/DVD drive? What good is that for the kind of work I do? No thanks.

 

[triple-d]

Since this thread last appeared, my PowerBook G4 laptop incinerated another logic board, just about a year ago. I found a replacement on eBay for about $20 and replaced it on my kitchen table in about two hours. I should be a sucker and pay $500+ for a job like that. I think that's the third or fourth I've gone thru in the thirteen years I've owned it. I also took the time to epoxy the cracked inner framework from when the cat knocked it off the coffee table, and replaced the duct tape on the casing. Good as new.

Someone at work got a new Mac laptop recently, and I was appalled by it -- no ports, no outlets, no CD/DVD drive? What good is that for the kind of work I do? No thanks.

 

[bluesmandan]

I’ve got a 2000/2001 iMac — the one that looks like an old timey [emoji342] television. It still works but I don’t use it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Just Jim]

In one of my parts drawers I have a breadboarded "computer" from about '77-788: a Cosmac Elf, built from a series of articles in Pop. Electronics. If I remember right, before I "upgraded" it had 256 bytes of RAM, a 2-character display, 8 switches for input, and what in retrospect seems like a truly bizarre hexidecimal OS. (I think the upgrades took it to 1024 bytes of memory.)

Just thinking about hex coding gives me a headache these days.

 

[Bugguy]

Closest I have to a computer are some of the IBM punch cards we used for inputing statistical data into an ancient DEC mainframe. We used either COBOL or Fortran to program. My son-in-law the software engineer never saw an IBM card like my daughter never saw a rotary telephone.

 

[GHT]

The pairs of beads count as "5", while the lower ones count as "1", or so says the accompanying manual.

That's right, it's a Chinese suan pan.

 

[Zachary]

My family’s first computer was a 486 machine running Windows 3.1, acquired in late 1994. Since 2007, we are Mac guys. The oldest computer currently in my portfolio is a Power Macintosh 9600 (200 MHz) running Mac OS 8. However, I also own some other Macs, for example an iMac G3 “Strawberry” and a Power Macintosh G4.

 

[Edward]

I tend to replace my tech fairly quickly. Work stuff usually goes on a three year cycle, though since I spent a chunk of my research budget on a Surface Pro (the Mark One Version, when it was released in 2013), I've not bothered with anything else for work. Jinkies, I have a Dell laptop (somewhere) that the university issued me in 2014/5, which I've never so much as switched on. (Their waste..... I asked if I could have an updated Surface instead, but they've gone over to some sort of arrangement with Dell, so I had to have one of those. The hipsters who insist on using Apple get pandered to, but the powers that be seem to think a windows box is a windows box is a windows box.....). Planning to pick up another one this year, maybe, though I've been putting it off because I would rather stick with the size of the original (they switched up the Pro to 12" from the Mk2 onwards). If they weren't so damn expensive (almost Apple money, like for like!), I'd have one of these at home as well. As it sits, I'll probably use this one at home while it lives once I replace it for work.

At home, I have two or three little EEE PCs, 7" laptops that were the forerunners of tablets. Also have a 2011 laptop with Windows 7, an HP. Decent machin,e only very rarely wish it was touch screen (I tend to prefer a moused anyhow when not on the go). I go online with my phone more than anything else at home now.

I'm not working on it now, but I have one of these:

I think it has 512K of memory and a 20MB hard drive.

I have one of those in a Rubbermaid bin down cellar. Belonged to my ex, and I haven't looked at it in at least fourteen years. What am I bid?

If it's still working, you could likely shift it for a few hundred dollars.

I got one of those too. It's in the box it came in new. It still works, but it makes noises and runs reeeeaaaallll slow. I took the advice of people with nothing to gain by it that I ought to back up everything on that machine I cared about and either get it overhauled at greater cost than it likely warranted or to replace the thing. I did the latter, four or five years ago.

The boxes sell pretty well, I remember reading, because they're now so rare.

Always liked the way those bowling ball iMacs looked, though. And I liked the easy and extensive adjustability of the monitor. You can show the person seated alongside what you are working on without either of you having to get out of your chair.


Hell, maybe I will get it overhauled.

Shouldn't be too hard to set it up as a monitor screen for an ipad or equivalent?

I've got a 2002 eMac in the cellar and it still works. My first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 but I sold that many years ago. The first proper computer I used was a Goldstar pc that worked on DOS - no windows and as a teacher I used a BBC computer I remember I used to tell kids how to use its *anagram feature - it would generate anagrams of words - one wise guy grinned and typed in NEWARK much to our embarrassment and amusement.

I remember the BBC B well. In 1986, I move to Grammar school; my primary school had two of them in 1985, which was well flash; the Grammar had a whole room full of them. When I left school in 1993, they were considered so archaic they weren't even worth selling....

Lor', I'd forgotten the term Pentium! Now I recall getting a Pentium and then (shudders with excitement) a P2!

Funny how they went from dominating the market to being rarely heard of.... Bit like Nokia.

Someone at work got a new Mac laptop recently, and I was appalled by it -- no ports, no outlets, no CD/DVD drive? What good is that for the kind of work I do? No thanks.

It's interesting how machines have changed. I remember not thinking the iMac would make sense when it had no A drive; by a year later, USB keys had almost entirely replaced 4" diskettes. I can't imagine living without a USB socket at least, but with Netflix and such I don't miss the disk player the way I thought I would. I imagine blutooth and such will eventually obviate the need for a usb socket entirely. Apple, of course, will find it in their interest to cut off all outboard options as it make it easier for them to steer your content acquisition to there own channels. All part of the walled garden approach.

 

[scottyrocks]

Pre-abacus . . .

 

[OldStrummer]

I'm not working on it now, but I have one of these:

I think it has 512K of memory and a 20MB hard drive.

I had one of those brand new (128k memory, no HD) that I sold and replace with a 1986 Mac SE, that I still own. Over the years I replaced everything except the monitor and the power supply. Effectively, I turned it into a Mac SE30, with 4Mb RAM (and RAMDoubler, which made it seem as if it has 16Mb), a Rodime 45Mb hard disk, and I filled its one slot with a NIC that let me get on an Ethernet network rather than having to use AppleTalk for everything.

The last time I booted it (about four years ago, it still worked, and I could navigate (barely!) the 'Net with Netscape 4 browser.

I think the power supply needs replacing now. I'm not really in a hurry to do so, though.

 

[Trenchfriend]

My still working Playstation 1, quality-device, bought in 1998.