It’s always fun to reminisce about some of the technology that got us to where we are today. The “state of the art” computers we used as kids that had less computing power than today’s toaster ovens. Compared with current computers it’s a wonder that anything was ever accomplished, but the jobs still always seemed to get done. Of course it turns out that some of that old tech junk you have sitting in your attic or basement may be worth a couple bucks. There is a whole industry springing up around vintage tech and computers. Check out the collectible PCs slideshow and be prepared for that undeniable reality that, yes, you’re getting old.
Marc Esslinger’s father, Hartmut Esslinger, designed the Apple IIc that was Apple’s first portable computer in 1984. Fudder presents “Marc’s personal Apple-Story and a Photo-Gallery with partly never before seen Apple-Designs of the early 80s. For example: The very first iPhone from 1983.”
Yay! What we know as the “computer virus” is now 25 years old. It all started in 1981 with an Apple II and 9th-grader named Richard Skrenta. He began by tricking his friends with pirated games they’d play. “I’d give out a new game, they’d get hooked, but then the game would stop working with a snickering comment from me on the screen.” says Skrenta. An interesting beginning to the problem child of our modern digital age.
After Skenta’s friends banned him from their computers, he started infecting the school computers. Rigging it so the program could copy itself onto floppy disks the students used on the system. And that’s how ‘Elk Cloner’ came to be, the world’s first actual computer virus to spread itself. It wasn’t a mean virus, just popped a funny message up on the screen. Read [Machinist]
If this isn’t hilarious, then I don’t know what is… “What the heck is Electronic Mail?” Then in the side column it says “Simply put, it means high-speed information transportation.” This obviously an ad to promote how advanced they were back then - Honeywell boasts, “Tomorrow’s automated office will clearly include Electronic Mail. But like the rest of the Office of the Future, it’s available at Honeywell today.”
Wow, this is pretty interesting, they were all made by the same brand too!
“Different in size, colour and functions but all from one brand “Electronicaâ€. There were no another brand of calculators at that time in Soviet Union - all had to buy and use only Electronika things.” 72 Old Soviet Calculators
The FACOM 128B (shown above) was made in 1959 and is thought to be the world’s oldest operating computer.
According to Digital World Tokyo, “The FACOM — or Fujitsu Automatic COMputer is currently receiving a tune-up to give it a few more years’ useful life. The company’s goal is to push it to 2016, when it will complete 60 years of operation. To that end, retired FACOM experts are returning to Fujitsu to teach the firm’s tyros how to make it tick.”
The 128B takes up 65 square meters of Fujitsu’s factory floor in Japan and was used to develop and design the YS-11, Japan’s first passenger airplane. More at the Computer Museum
That’s right, on November 11, 2001 the first ever iPod went on sale, although it was actually introduced on October 23, 2001. Oh yes, how could we forget the 2″ monochrome display and moving scroll wheel control? A 5GB iPod was retailing at a brutal $399. Then, a 10 GB model was introduced on March 21, 2002 for $499. The esitmated current price for one of these now is between $70 and $120.
Wow, has this device come a long way or what? Take a look at the first iPod commercial below. Get more info at EveryMac.com
David Bradley describes how he invented the infamous ‘Ctrl+Alt+Del’ command, a signature of Windows. The combination is also known as a three-finger salute, Three Fingered Death Grip or, more esoterically, as a Vulcan nerve pinch
Bradley originally designed Control-Alt-Escape to trigger a soft reboot, but he found it was too easy to bump the left side of the keyboard and reboot the computer accidentally. He switched the key combination to Control-Alt-Delete, a combination impossible to press with just one hand.
Bill Healy, executive vice president at Hitachi, holds up a platter from a 1-inch microdrive in his right hand. In his left is a 24-inch platter from IBM’s RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), which came out 50 years ago. A 1-inch 8GB platter holds more than 80,000 times as much data as a single 24-inch RAMAC platter. An 8GB 1-inch drive holds 1,600 times as much data as RAMAC. More via CNET
Just try and remember, if you can, what you were doing around this time. This clip, courtesy of CBC, is a report from 1993 about the Internet and what it is. It’s interesting to watch this realizing what we know now and how far we have come in developing this massive global network.
‘A computer network called internet’
Broadcast Date: Oct. 8, 1993 Host: Peter Mansbridge, Reporter: Bill Cameron, Guest: John Allen Source: Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) Prime Time News
Yay! What we know as the “computer virus” is now 25 years old. It all started in 1981 with an Apple II and 9th-grader named Richard Skrenta. He began by tricking his friends with pirated games they’d play. “I’d give out a new game, they’d get hooked, but then the game would stop working with a snickering comment from me on the screen.” says Skrenta. An interesting beginning to the problem child of our modern digital age. 
