The people stuck using ancient Windows computers

Repeater said:
And I have an Apple 2e with all the necessary peripherals on the shelf.
Crap...guess I am old!
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The physics lab I used in college was considered "top tier" with Apple 2e's available for some of us to work with. (Early versions of photoeyes could be connected to do timing experiments, early motor controllers for small DC motors, etc.). The "computer lab" was outfitted with Vic Commodore 64s. My first computer class in college was learning FORTRAN 77 and transitioning from cards to text code. All of it was done with dial up modems to the university system mainframe, dial the number, put the handset in the cups. I think it was a screaming 600 Baud connection!
 
Think about some of the decades old computers NASA has to maintain to communicate with the older space probes still in operation.

Gave in this afternoon and ordered a replacement for my shop computer, it is 13 years old and not Windows 11 capable. Unfortunately I need the Windows security updates that will no longer be available for Windows 10. Still have a Dell laptop that runs perfectly using Windows XP.
 
45Smashemflat said:
TRS 80, TI 99/4A, Commodore 64….. Punchcards and cassette tapes. Yeah, I was impressed with 8" Floppies. I'm old.
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About 40 years ago we were issued TRS80s laptops, quickly became known as TRaSh 80s, in the days of acoustic couplers for phone/modem connection. Many of us came up travel kits of alligator clips, small screw drivers and RJ-11 plugs to work.radio shack trs 80
 
If anyone has an old PC that reads 5 1/2" disks, Dene Grigar, director of the Electronic Literature Lab at Washington State University, Vancouver, would like to hear from you!
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YES!!!!!!!!!! I had one for years! I was so irked when the next computer I bought only read 3.5" floppy disks. Fortunately for me, I uploaded the data from those disks before I wound up with a newer computer that doesn't read anything but CDs.

Ahhhh...............the old days...........DOS only.......................orange letters on a black screen............ dial-ups...........the TI keyboard that connected to your TV, making it a monitor for the limited use of the funny little "cards" you inserted..............mag/punch cards........... :ROFLMAO:
 
I know little about scanners (I do have one but haven't used it for many years). Difficult for me to comprehend why any scanner would cost $50K? What would such an expensive scanner be used for?
 
ISCS Yoda said:
Ahhhh...............the old days...........DOS only.......................orange letters on a black screen............ dial-ups...........the TI keyboard that connected to your TV, making it a monitor for the limited use of the funny little "cards" you inserted..............mag/punch cards........... :ROFLMAO:
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Back in my college days, PCs didn't exist, doubt that they had even been thought of. All they had were IBM mainframes. I had to do all my programming on punch cards. Make up a deck, put a rubber band around it and drop in into a slot in the wall. Some troll would run it, and you picked up your run printout from a bin the next day. Very frustrating. If you made one error on one card, it would not run, and you had to correct the card and repeat the process. Lots of IF…THENs and GOTOs. My first job out of college I was offered the position of setting up a data processing department as no one else in the company knew the first thing about programming. I declined the offer, didn't think I had enough background and experience. I really didn't, as I had taken just two programming courses in college. I probably should have accepted it, as the position I took instead did not work out well as it was a bad fit for me. I despised it and got out.
 
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DWalt said:
I know little about scanners (I do have one but haven't used it for many years). Difficult for me to comprehend why any scanner would cost $50K? What would such an expensive scanner be used for?
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In the color prepress industry, that used to buy you abou a two week timeshare on a 'real' scanner. [....walks away laughing in Linotype-Hell AG]
 
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