3 ms·

Loved the story, thanks for sharing. That SGI box must've set you back a goodly amount, but worth it to get using IRIX. I've a few memories of 3.x too (none of

Loved the story, thanks for sharing. That SGI box must've set you back a goodly amount, but worth it to get using IRIX. I've a few memories of 3.x too (none of SGI alas). My experience of Windows 3.1 was retroactive. I began with Windows 98, but my neighbour was given an old Mitac 486 that ran Windows 3.1. My ten year old self initially found it strange that there was no start menu, but I quickly found my way around. It was enough to have fun with the DOS games and the few rudimentary Windows 3.1 games, something called the "funpak" with slapdash clones of arcade classics. Sadly, it never went online. But I upgraded the HDD to a 256MB IDE job that someone else gave me (Quantum Maverick Prodrive, I still remember that). Good times indeed.

ddingus 5y ago
That GUI was probably a good exposure for 10 year old you! The early system diversity was a very good thing. Forced people to understand more about all the parts where a more rote homogeneous environment is not as beneficial. I was in my early 20's running Win 3.1. Actually got to run time share systems via modem and teletype at around 10. Loud, but cool! And I had a few retroactive experiences myself. The most notable one that impacted me was... Using the Tektronix storage tube computers! They had a 6800 running at 1Mhz and a basic OS and BASIC in ROM, with tape and paper tape as primary common storage, and could use disk drives, but I never had the opportunity to do that. Check this out: https://youtu.be/aFfp8JHmFjA https://youtu.be/aFfp8JHmFjA https://youtu.be/dcoL5lT3tbY https://youtu.be/dcoL5lT3tbY 1024x1024 vector storage CRT! In a room with the right kind of dim, indirect lighting, running one of these was super cool! Basically, it worked a lot like a pen plotter for a CRT. One could keep drawing to the screen and the phosphors would keep glowing. Or, refresh to a clean screen. Etch a Sketch is another pretty good analog to understand how it worked. In my case, I would run some CNC programming software off the tape drive, then use paper tape to either store a completed G-code program for a CNC machine and or read one in so it could be modified or maybe just backplotted to understand what the program was going to do and whether that was intended! After a time, I realized I could put other things on the paper tape and later on, understanding paper tape meant having similar fun on a PC some few years later. At one point I had written invaders.com to a tape to read in as a curio for others wanting to experience it. And yes, sadly I have no idea where my small stash of paper tapes ended up. Today, I could make a reader and check them out, or worst case, just read the tape visually! That was no joke. I did that a number of times to edit a program on the shop floor late nights, also using a little hand punch machine to put a few characters on a small piece of tape to be spliced in! Literal, physical patch! https://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/repair/ https://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/repair/ Another fun thing was making a physical program loop. One literally taped the ends of the program tape together, checked to make sure it moved smoothly through the reader on the machine, and then have it run the program over and over for production. That CNC machine had no full program storage and literally read the tape in real time as it made parts! This was very late 80's through early 90's. Anyhoo, I really loved the Tek storage tube computers. The one I got to use had the bigger screen, and a joystick input right on the keyboard. Nice analog type, and I forget how many bits of resolution it had. Probably 8. It had a pretty powerful BASIC like language that ran fairly fast and that included sophisticated graphics, math, transforms and other goodies one would need for graphical, technical computing. https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/4051 https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/4051 http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/tektronix/405x/ http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/tektronix/405x/ One thing that struck me was how having a cassette tape type storage (cartridge, not a literal music cassette) and paper tape, was how the main program, or sets of programs were on the tape, and where a user might have a home directory on a mainframe / unix / time share computer, or floppy and or hard disk on a mini or micro computer, user data ended up on paper tapes! My "home" directory, or "data disk" was a cabinet with all these little pop top containers with paper tape in them! Those tapes could hold G-code CNC programs, or "source code" to generate G-code for various machines, BASIC programs, data to be plotted, compute results, each one like a file is to us today. The machines were created in the 70's and I used them late 80's and early 90's. Using these was one of the most fun computing experiences. Was also quite productive and capable too. 8 bit technical computing!
- HeckFeck 5y ago
  Hi man, thanks very much for the stories and the links. Love the passion! Wasn't expecting it at all. Will take a look through these over the weekend. Best wishes.
  - ddingus 5y ago
    Right back at you. Well, hope you enjoy. Checking out how computing was done, or is done in the case of something really new I happen to get hold of or get to use, is interesting and fun for me.
ddingus 5y ago
I worked my ass off for the Indy. Actual cash out was not too painful. Modeled some projects. Fast! I have to tell you Iris was a real treat. Best Computing experience I've had frankly.

ddingus 5y ago

That GUI was probably a good exposure for 10 year old you! The early system diversity was a very good thing. Forced people to understand more about all the parts where a more rote homogeneous environment is not as beneficial. I was in my early 20's running Win 3.1. Actually got to run time share systems via modem and teletype at around 10. Loud, but cool! And I had a few retroactive experiences myself. The most notable one that impacted me was... Using the Tektronix storage tube computers! They had a 6800 running at 1Mhz and a basic OS and BASIC in ROM, with tape and paper tape as primary common storage, and could use disk drives, but I never had the opportunity to do that. Check this out: https://youtu.be/aFfp8JHmFjA https://youtu.be/aFfp8JHmFjA https://youtu.be/dcoL5lT3tbY https://youtu.be/dcoL5lT3tbY 1024x1024 vector storage CRT! In a room with the right kind of dim, indirect lighting, running one of these was super cool! Basically, it worked a lot like a pen plotter for a CRT. One could keep drawing to the screen and the phosphors would keep glowing. Or, refresh to a clean screen. Etch a Sketch is another pretty good analog to understand how it worked. In my case, I would run some CNC programming software off the tape drive, then use paper tape to either store a completed G-code program for a CNC machine and or read one in so it could be modified or maybe just backplotted to understand what the program was going to do and whether that was intended! After a time, I realized I could put other things on the paper tape and later on, understanding paper tape meant having similar fun on a PC some few years later. At one point I had written invaders.com to a tape to read in as a curio for others wanting to experience it. And yes, sadly I have no idea where my small stash of paper tapes ended up. Today, I could make a reader and check them out, or worst case, just read the tape visually! That was no joke. I did that a number of times to edit a program on the shop floor late nights, also using a little hand punch machine to put a few characters on a small piece of tape to be spliced in! Literal, physical patch! https://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/repair/ https://www.cryptomuseum.com/telex/repair/ Another fun thing was making a physical program loop. One literally taped the ends of the program tape together, checked to make sure it moved smoothly through the reader on the machine, and then have it run the program over and over for production. That CNC machine had no full program storage and literally read the tape in real time as it made parts! This was very late 80's through early 90's. Anyhoo, I really loved the Tek storage tube computers. The one I got to use had the bigger screen, and a joystick input right on the keyboard. Nice analog type, and I forget how many bits of resolution it had. Probably 8. It had a pretty powerful BASIC like language that ran fairly fast and that included sophisticated graphics, math, transforms and other goodies one would need for graphical, technical computing. https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/4051 https://w140.com/tekwiki/wiki/4051 http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/tektronix/405x/ http://bitsavers.trailing-edge.com/pdf/tektronix/405x/ One thing that struck me was how having a cassette tape type storage (cartridge, not a literal music cassette) and paper tape, was how the main program, or sets of programs were on the tape, and where a user might have a home directory on a mainframe / unix / time share computer, or floppy and or hard disk on a mini or micro computer, user data ended up on paper tapes! My "home" directory, or "data disk" was a cabinet with all these little pop top containers with paper tape in them! Those tapes could hold G-code CNC programs, or "source code" to generate G-code for various machines, BASIC programs, data to be plotted, compute results, each one like a file is to us today. The machines were created in the 70's and I used them late 80's and early 90's. Using these was one of the most fun computing experiences. Was also quite productive and capable too. 8 bit technical computing!

HeckFeck 5y ago
Hi man, thanks very much for the stories and the links. Love the passion! Wasn't expecting it at all. Will take a look through these over the weekend. Best wishes.
- ddingus 5y ago
  Right back at you. Well, hope you enjoy. Checking out how computing was done, or is done in the case of something really new I happen to get hold of or get to use, is interesting and fun for me.

ddingus 5y ago

I worked my ass off for the Indy. Actual cash out was not too painful. Modeled some projects. Fast! I have to tell you Iris was a real treat. Best Computing experience I've had frankly.