#dailyprompt-1835 — Public Fediverse posts

Damals in der IT-Steinzeit

Schreibe über deinen ersten Computer. Das ist #sozusagen der Anknüpfunspunkt, wohl wissend, dass sich die #GedankenZumTag heute nur mit dem Break im privaten Leben und seiner Gestaltung befassen - und die eigene Steinzeit erst dann einsetzen konnte, als die Entwicklung informationstechnischer Systeme schon jahrzehntelang das 20. Jahrhundert zu beherrschen begonnen hatte. Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Mit der Schule waren wir seinerzeit zu IBM nach München gefahren und durften uns […]

https://anwaltsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/damals-in-der-it-steinzeit/

Damals in der IT-Steinzeit

Schreibe über deinen ersten Computer. Das ist #sozusagen der Anknüpfunspunkt, wohl wissend, dass sich die #GedankenZumTag heute nur mit dem Break im privaten Leben und seiner Gestaltung befassen - und die eigene Steinzeit erst dann einsetzen konnte, als die Entwicklung informationstechnischer Systeme schon jahrzehntelang das 20. Jahrhundert zu beherrschen begonnen hatte. Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Mit der Schule waren wir seinerzeit zu IBM nach München gefahren und durften uns […]

https://anwaltsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/damals-in-der-it-steinzeit/

Damals in der IT-Steinzeit

Schreibe über deinen ersten Computer. Das ist #sozusagen der Anknüpfunspunkt, wohl wissend, dass sich die #GedankenZumTag heute nur mit dem Break im privaten Leben und seiner Gestaltung befassen - und die eigene Steinzeit erst dann einsetzen konnte, als die Entwicklung informationstechnischer Systeme schon jahrzehntelang das 20. Jahrhundert zu beherrschen begonnen hatte. Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Mit der Schule waren wir seinerzeit zu IBM nach München gefahren und durften uns […]

https://anwaltsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/damals-in-der-it-steinzeit/

Damals in der IT-Steinzeit

Schreibe über deinen ersten Computer. Das ist #sozusagen der Anknüpfunspunkt, wohl wissend, dass sich die #GedankenZumTag heute nur mit dem Break im privaten Leben und seiner Gestaltung befassen - und die eigene Steinzeit erst dann einsetzen konnte, als die Entwicklung informationstechnischer Systeme schon jahrzehntelang das 20. Jahrhundert zu beherrschen begonnen hatte. Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Mit der Schule waren wir seinerzeit zu IBM nach München gefahren und durften uns […]

https://anwaltsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/damals-in-der-it-steinzeit/

Damals in der IT-Steinzeit

Schreibe über deinen ersten Computer. Das ist #sozusagen der Anknüpfunspunkt, wohl wissend, dass sich die #GedankenZumTag heute nur mit dem Break im privaten Leben und seiner Gestaltung befassen - und die eigene Steinzeit erst dann einsetzen konnte, als die Entwicklung informationstechnischer Systeme schon jahrzehntelang das 20. Jahrhundert zu beherrschen begonnen hatte. Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com Mit der Schule waren wir seinerzeit zu IBM nach München gefahren und durften uns […]

https://anwaltsblog.wordpress.com/2026/02/01/damals-in-der-it-steinzeit/

A Commodore 64 and Zero Adult Supervision

Daily writing promptWrite about your first computer.View all responses Here’s the thing about my first computer. It didn’t coddle me. It didn’t autocomplete my thoughts or ask how I was feeling today. It sat there like a beige brick with delusions of grandeur and dared me to figure it out. It was a Commodore 64. Used. Already scarred. Already suspicious of me. Perfect. I was 13, which is exactly the right age to be given something powerful with no instructions and just enough danger […]

https://ericfoltin.com/2026/02/01/a-commodore-64-and-zero-adult-supervision/

A Commodore 64 and Zero Adult Supervision

Daily writing promptWrite about your first computer.View all responses Here’s the thing about my first computer. It didn’t coddle me. It didn’t autocomplete my thoughts or ask how I was feeling today. It sat there like a beige brick with delusions of grandeur and dared me to figure it out. It was a Commodore 64. Used. Already scarred. Already suspicious of me. Perfect. I was 13, which is exactly the right age to be given something powerful with no instructions and just enough danger […]

https://ericfoltin.com/2026/02/01/a-commodore-64-and-zero-adult-supervision/

A Commodore 64 and Zero Adult Supervision

Daily writing promptWrite about your first computer.View all responses Here’s the thing about my first computer. It didn’t coddle me. It didn’t autocomplete my thoughts or ask how I was feeling today. It sat there like a beige brick with delusions of grandeur and dared me to figure it out. It was a Commodore 64. Used. Already scarred. Already suspicious of me. Perfect. I was 13, which is exactly the right age to be given something powerful with no instructions and just enough danger […]

https://ericfoltin.com/2026/02/01/a-commodore-64-and-zero-adult-supervision/

A Commodore 64 and Zero Adult Supervision

Daily writing promptWrite about your first computer.View all responses Here’s the thing about my first computer. It didn’t coddle me. It didn’t autocomplete my thoughts or ask how I was feeling today. It sat there like a beige brick with delusions of grandeur and dared me to figure it out. It was a Commodore 64. Used. Already scarred. Already suspicious of me. Perfect. I was 13, which is exactly the right age to be given something powerful with no instructions and just enough danger […]

https://ericfoltin.com/2026/02/01/a-commodore-64-and-zero-adult-supervision/

A Commodore 64 and Zero Adult Supervision

Daily writing promptWrite about your first computer.View all responses Here’s the thing about my first computer. It didn’t coddle me. It didn’t autocomplete my thoughts or ask how I was feeling today. It sat there like a beige brick with delusions of grandeur and dared me to figure it out. It was a Commodore 64. Used. Already scarred. Already suspicious of me. Perfect. I was 13, which is exactly the right age to be given something powerful with no instructions and just enough danger […]

https://ericfoltin.com/2026/02/01/a-commodore-64-and-zero-adult-supervision/

I am absolutely running that joke into the ground. Daily writing prompt Write about your first computer. View all responses

Bloganuary is over, but I couldn’t resist this prompt!

My dad bought an AST Advantage! computer[1] from a coworker and we settled it on the desk in my bedroom. We were pretty excited, both of us being electronic gadget nerds in our own ways: I was into everything computers, while my dad’s forte was audio and video setups. We were both content in a RadioShack, back in the day.

It was a beige thing with a horizontal tower (vertical wasn’t all the rage yet) and came with CRT monitor, keyboard, mouse, a desk microphone, a manual, and a whole sleeve of CD software (s/o to Encarta, always coming in clutch when I needed additional research for school essays). The speakers were passable, nothing to write home about.

It was running Windows 95. A solid operating system– a opinion I hold to this day– but it felt a little dated compared to the Win98 (or 2000?) installed on computers elsewhere. But, that was no biggie. It also lacked adequate Internet access for its modem wasn’t quite up to snuff, if I recall correctly. But, still, it was pretty cool. When it wasn’t a word processor, it played music and we played a few MS-DOS games on it.

The Advantage! stayed in my room. From what I remember, the computer became my domain and thus, unofficially tasked with taking care of the thing. That included, in my assumption, that I was to do upkeep and remove any unnecessary files or programs. I took it pretty seriously.

From the Windows 95 desktop I dragged photos and irrelevant documents from Explorer to the recycling bin. You can guess where this is going. No, I did not delete the System32 folder, but I did something just as hilarious:

I deleted desktop.exe.

In my defense, I made sure to at least open programs before I made my decision to chuck ’em. And this particular executable was the AST-branded desktop environment with a distinct Windows 3.1 flavor. I thought it was safe to get rid of, because we already had a desktop environment– and a modern one, to boot! I thought I was safe.

The instant I banished it to the Bin, I got an error message. You were instructed to reboot the computer in hopes of the OS finding desktop.exe again. But it was in the Bin, untouchable, so you were effectively boot looped.

I panicked. Not because I’d get in trouble (and I probably did), but because we didn’t have the install discs for the operating system! So there was no way for me to fix it until we got them. A few weeks later I was able to repair the damage, and got a surprise. The install discs were for Windows 3.1! The Windows 95 install turned out to be a delicate patch job that I wrecked in my error.

But hey, the computer was usable again! So I got on with it with no complaint. I screwed up, after all. Armed with the Flatten-and-Rebuild option, I got to learning and making more mistakes. I hadn’t done any blunders of that magnitude since, but I kept those discs close!

I became real familiar with using the ALT key to access menu items– especially ALT + SPACE, for when a window got nudged off-screen and I could not see it. That happened a lot in 3.1, at least in my use case. I learned how Batch files did their thing and customized a whole startup routine pointing to different programs and Windows proper– including an NES emulator to play Mega Man II. I played with its audio programs, listening to my Final Fantasy MIDIs when I wasn’t creating silly audio skits. Imagine my delight when I saw it could’ve been used as an answering machine and phone! Stones.Exe was my favorite time-waster, when we weren’t playing MS-DOS games. And lastly: it was just pretty fascinating to interact with That Older OS, to see how far along its come.

Common objects I’ve ferreted to and from home via floppy discs were

• MIDIs and images
• ROMs
• work-in-progress PBRUSH drawings
• poems
• QBASIC programs (like Gorillas!)
• downloaded Web pages
• fanfiction
• and homework, of course.

Eventually, we did get our Technically-Second computer: A Gateway with Windows Millennial Edition. It was the family computer, chilling in my parent’s bedroom before it was moved to the corner of the dining room. We loved ourselves some Bejeweled, 3D Pinball Space Cadet, and That Game Where You Shoot Dial-Up Modems (was free with our DSL provider).

I thoroughly enjoyed browsing the Internet, sending emails, browsing GameFAQs, and putting together my fansites for Chrono Cross and Kingdom Hearts. I downloaded mp3s from OverClocked Remix— it took twenty minutes for one file, so I typically busied myself with something else– and the entire time I’d hope no one would call.

There was also this program that snitched on everything you did on the computer. Of course, it was installed! I was called out for the habit of deleting my browsing history (because they could see it anyway), but I just shrugged. I wasn’t doing anything out of line and to be frank, the real saucy stuff was regulated to the library computers, out of their reach. This Nanny program promptly disappeared when I exploited WinME’s login bug, snooped, and found a certain folder with certain images not under my account. That deeply amused me.

We had a year free of for Norton, when they were still reliable. All of us clicked on our fair share of dodgy sites (and yes, we used Limewire), and were super concerned with the worms and viruses. When Sasser was making the rounds I couldn’t help but feel smug– it didn’t target WinME systems (but it did get the last laugh when I finally upgraded to XP without reformatting– another lesson learned).

The era of Family Computers was a pretty special time. There was nothing like it. It was communal, whether we crowded around the screen or we took turns doing Important Things. We burned CDs, used the scanner, printed out photos, and bookmarked cool things for us to peruse. I have a family photo of all of us at the table, taken by our first digital camera, processed on our first computer, and printed out on our first printer.

I kept the AST for a few years, and eventually inherited the Gateway when it was usurped from the Family Computer crown. After that, I upgraded to a HP Media Center Edition for school (I needed all the horsepower for Photoshop and video editing– the TV watching was a bonus). And beyond that, I’ve had my run-ins with more HPs, Acers, and Dells.

But the AST Advantage! was first, and I’ll fondly look back on it always.

—

[1] LGR did a video of this same computer not too long ago; you can view it here for a more in-depth analysis.

https://raintreeruckus.wordpress.com/2024/02/22/first-computer/

#astAdvantage #blogging #computers #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835 #retroComputing #technology #writing

Write about your first computer.

I was trying to remember my first computer back in the day when we had a dial-up modem. Ha! I remember my experiences began with the computer at the RCCC. As students, we would learn how to command this machine in a box style to do things for us, such as to type a document. If only I was back to that moment when I scanned the card catalog for research books. I walked the rows of the library aisles of books to find that perfect book to do my research. Oh, that’s where it all started. My growing love for all the words that would jump off paper and into my brain. This began, my love for learning. Well, my high-school biology teacher, Mrs Allen, began my excitement for learning. College days at RCCC developed my appreciation for knowledge.

https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/learning-quotes.

Albert Einstein

My prayer for us today begins with what I was thinking about when I woke up this morning. My first thought was that God shut the mouths of the lions for Daniel. The dude walked around in the presence of lions, and you know what they were doing? They were sleeping. The Lord is gonna calm your lions, too. So Lord, I want to be careful how I handle my lions. Those seeds that turn into full blown beast sent to devour me. I pray for my friends and family and their lions they face in life. Lord, make those lions sleep. In Jesus’ name, I pray, Amen.

Until Next Time,

Heidi

https://heididare4u2cbananacat.wordpress.com/2024/02/01/what-is-a-lifetime-of-joy/

#dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835

Daily writing prompt Write about your first computer. View all responses

My father bought our first computer from what was probably the only computer store in Tewksbury, MA. It was on Main street sort of near the intersection with Chandler street. I’m not sure what is there now. It had a monitor, a keyboard, and two floppy drives. I believe it was 1983. 

It looked like this:

I found this image on Flickr. Click to view the original post.*

I don’t recall the specs beyond that. Maybe before I click publish I’ll ask the stupid AI Assistant if it knows. I do remember we had a joystick but it didn’t work very well. We also had a modem wired into our telephone. We could plug a phone line into the computer, connect it to the phone, and dial out direct. We used it to call some old bulletin board services. It was completely epic, like the movie War Games but without the treason or the nukes. Unfortunately the modem was so slow it made the whole experience useless. We did have a text chat with some random person once. That was ground breaking, indeed.

I used it for school to write papers and essays. We had a word processor program that worked pretty well. I also played a lot of games, but that experience wasn’t quite as good as what we had over at Mike the (future) Bass Player’s house as he had a Commodore 64 which was a better gaming platform. We had a great baseball game and an olympic decathlon game that was really fun but difficult. We had a text based game that I think was a Zork knock off that I seem to remember was called Mobius.

It was a great computer. Eventually, at some point in the 90’s, my father had a friend who built IBM clones and we moved on to Windows 3.1. I messed with Macs for the first time when I was at Northeast Broadcasting School in ’93 (I think?), and then when I went to Middlesex Community College I took a class called Intro to Computers that covered an office suite called Claris Works that also used a Mac. Later, while at UMass Lowell (for my second time around) I got a job at a computer lab where I was tasked with putting a tech focused talk show onto the radio station. My desk had a Mac Quadra that I used for editing audio. I also used a program called Nifty Telnet that let me connect to the university’s Unix system so I could do my programming homework. That machine was epic. I didn’t become a Mac owner until years later, after I moved in with Jen. I got a MacBook Pro and have literally never looked back. I am 100% invested in the Apple echo system now. MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch, HomePods all over the house. How long until they pull me into the new Vision Pro? Someday.

There you have it, my first computer was an Apple iie and it made me the computer nerd I am today. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

Hey, AI Assistant, what were the specs for an apple iie?

The Apple IIe, released in 1983, featured a 1.023 MHz 65C02 processor, 64 KB RAM, and used 5.25-inch floppy disks for storage. It also supported a lowercase character set, which was an improvement over its predecessors. The computer sported a sleek design and was compatible with a wide range of peripherals, making it a popular choice for educational and personal use.

* I was going to send the owner of the Flickr account a request to use the image on my page but it hasn’t been active for 12 years. Fortunately, it did have a license listed on the page which allows for use of the image for non-commercial purposes so long as I credit the owner. The link in the caption should suffice as a credit. Click it, please. That means I can never monetize this post. That’s fine as I have no plans to monetize this site ever. Thanks, mysterious Flickr account!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/01/apple-iie/

#dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835

Daily writing prompt Write about your first computer. View all responses

My father bought our first computer from what was probably the only computer store in Tewksbury, MA. It was on Main street sort of near the intersection with Chandler street. I’m not sure what is there now. It had a monitor, a keyboard, and two floppy drives. I believe it was 1983. 

It looked like this:

I found this image on Flickr. Click to view the original post.*

I don’t recall the specs beyond that. Maybe before I click publish I’ll ask the stupid AI Assistant if it knows. I do remember we had a joystick but it didn’t work very well. We also had a modem wired into our telephone. We could plug a phone line into the computer, connect it to the phone, and dial out direct. We used it to call some old bulletin board services. It was completely epic, like the movie War Games but without the treason or the nukes. Unfortunately the modem was so slow it made the whole experience useless. We did have a text chat with some random person once. That was ground breaking, indeed.

I used it for school to write papers and essays. We had a word processor program that worked pretty well. I also played a lot of games, but that experience wasn’t quite as good as what we had over at Mike the (future) Bass Player’s house as he had a Commodore 64 which was a better gaming platform. We had a great baseball game and an olympic decathlon game that was really fun but difficult. We had a text based game that I think was a Zork knock off that I seem to remember was called Mobius.

It was a great computer. Eventually, at some point in the 90’s, my father had a friend who built IBM clones and we moved on to Windows 3.1. I messed with Macs for the first time when I was at Northeast Broadcasting School in ’93 (I think?), and then when I went to Middlesex Community College I took a class called Intro to Computers that covered an office suite called Claris Works that also used a Mac. Later, while at UMass Lowell (for my second time around) I got a job at a computer lab where I was tasked with putting a tech focused talk show onto the radio station. My desk had a Mac Quadra that I used for editing audio. I also used a program called Nifty Telnet that let me connect to the university’s Unix system so I could do my programming homework. That machine was epic. I didn’t become a Mac owner until years later, after I moved in with Jen. I got a MacBook Pro and have literally never looked back. I am 100% invested in the Apple echo system now. MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch, HomePods all over the house. How long until they pull me into the new Vision Pro? Someday.

There you have it, my first computer was an Apple iie and it made me the computer nerd I am today. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

Hey, AI Assistant, what were the specs for an apple iie?

The Apple IIe, released in 1983, featured a 1.023 MHz 65C02 processor, 64 KB RAM, and used 5.25-inch floppy disks for storage. It also supported a lowercase character set, which was an improvement over its predecessors. The computer sported a sleek design and was compatible with a wide range of peripherals, making it a popular choice for educational and personal use.

* I was going to send the owner of the Flickr account a request to use the image on my page but it hasn’t been active for 12 years. Fortunately, it did have a license listed on the page which allows for use of the image for non-commercial purposes so long as I credit the owner. The link in the caption should suffice as a credit. Click it, please. That means I can never monetize this post. That’s fine as I have no plans to monetize this site ever. Thanks, mysterious Flickr account!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/01/apple-iie/

#Apple #computer #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835 #Mac #macintosh #technology

Daily writing prompt Write about your first computer. View all responses

My father bought our first computer from what was probably the only computer store in Tewksbury, MA. It was on Main street sort of near the intersection with Chandler street. I’m not sure what is there now. It had a monitor, a keyboard, and two floppy drives. I believe it was 1983. 

It looked like this:

I found this image on Flickr. Click to view the original post.*

I don’t recall the specs beyond that. Maybe before I click publish I’ll ask the stupid AI Assistant if it knows. I do remember we had a joystick but it didn’t work very well. We also had a modem wired into our telephone. We could plug a phone line into the computer, connect it to the phone, and dial out direct. We used it to call some old bulletin board services. It was completely epic, like the movie War Games but without the treason or the nukes. Unfortunately the modem was so slow it made the whole experience useless. We did have a text chat with some random person once. That was ground breaking, indeed.

I used it for school to write papers and essays. We had a word processor program that worked pretty well. I also played a lot of games, but that experience wasn’t quite as good as what we had over at Mike the (future) Bass Player’s house as he had a Commodore 64 which was a better gaming platform. We had a great baseball game and an olympic decathlon game that was really fun but difficult. We had a text based game that I think was a Zork knock off that I seem to remember was called Mobius.

It was a great computer. Eventually, at some point in the 90’s, my father had a friend who built IBM clones and we moved on to Windows 3.1. I messed with Macs for the first time when I was at Northeast Broadcasting School in ’93 (I think?), and then when I went to Middlesex Community College I took a class called Intro to Computers that covered an office suite called Claris Works that also used a Mac. Later, while at UMass Lowell (for my second time around) I got a job at a computer lab where I was tasked with putting a tech focused talk show onto the radio station. My desk had a Mac Quadra that I used for editing audio. I also used a program called Nifty Telnet that let me connect to the university’s Unix system so I could do my programming homework. That machine was epic. I didn’t become a Mac owner until years later, after I moved in with Jen. I got a MacBook Pro and have literally never looked back. I am 100% invested in the Apple echo system now. MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch, HomePods all over the house. How long until they pull me into the new Vision Pro? Someday.

There you have it, my first computer was an Apple iie and it made me the computer nerd I am today. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

Hey, AI Assistant, what were the specs for an apple iie?

The Apple IIe, released in 1983, featured a 1.023 MHz 65C02 processor, 64 KB RAM, and used 5.25-inch floppy disks for storage. It also supported a lowercase character set, which was an improvement over its predecessors. The computer sported a sleek design and was compatible with a wide range of peripherals, making it a popular choice for educational and personal use.

* I was going to send the owner of the Flickr account a request to use the image on my page but it hasn’t been active for 12 years. Fortunately, it did have a license listed on the page which allows for use of the image for non-commercial purposes so long as I credit the owner. The link in the caption should suffice as a credit. Click it, please. That means I can never monetize this post. That’s fine as I have no plans to monetize this site ever. Thanks, mysterious Flickr account!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/01/apple-iie/

#Apple #computer #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835 #Mac #macintosh #technology

Daily writing prompt Write about your first computer. View all responses

My father bought our first computer from what was probably the only computer store in Tewksbury, MA. It was on Main street sort of near the intersection with Chandler street. I’m not sure what is there now. It had a monitor, a keyboard, and two floppy drives. I believe it was 1983. 

It looked like this:

I found this image on Flickr. Click to view the original post.*

I don’t recall the specs beyond that. Maybe before I click publish I’ll ask the stupid AI Assistant if it knows. I do remember we had a joystick but it didn’t work very well. We also had a modem wired into our telephone. We could plug a phone line into the computer, connect it to the phone, and dial out direct. We used it to call some old bulletin board services. It was completely epic, like the movie War Games but without the treason or the nukes. Unfortunately the modem was so slow it made the whole experience useless. We did have a text chat with some random person once. That was ground breaking, indeed.

I used it for school to write papers and essays. We had a word processor program that worked pretty well. I also played a lot of games, but that experience wasn’t quite as good as what we had over at Mike the (future) Bass Player’s house as he had a Commodore 64 which was a better gaming platform. We had a great baseball game and an olympic decathlon game that was really fun but difficult. We had a text based game that I think was a Zork knock off that I seem to remember was called Mobius.

It was a great computer. Eventually, at some point in the 90’s, my father had a friend who built IBM clones and we moved on to Windows 3.1. I messed with Macs for the first time when I was at Northeast Broadcasting School in ’93 (I think?), and then when I went to Middlesex Community College I took a class called Intro to Computers that covered an office suite called Claris Works that also used a Mac. Later, while at UMass Lowell (for my second time around) I got a job at a computer lab where I was tasked with putting a tech focused talk show onto the radio station. My desk had a Mac Quadra that I used for editing audio. I also used a program called Nifty Telnet that let me connect to the university’s Unix system so I could do my programming homework. That machine was epic. I didn’t become a Mac owner until years later, after I moved in with Jen. I got a MacBook Pro and have literally never looked back. I am 100% invested in the Apple echo system now. MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch, HomePods all over the house. How long until they pull me into the new Vision Pro? Someday.

There you have it, my first computer was an Apple iie and it made me the computer nerd I am today. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

Hey, AI Assistant, what were the specs for an apple iie?

The Apple IIe, released in 1983, featured a 1.023 MHz 65C02 processor, 64 KB RAM, and used 5.25-inch floppy disks for storage. It also supported a lowercase character set, which was an improvement over its predecessors. The computer sported a sleek design and was compatible with a wide range of peripherals, making it a popular choice for educational and personal use.

* I was going to send the owner of the Flickr account a request to use the image on my page but it hasn’t been active for 12 years. Fortunately, it did have a license listed on the page which allows for use of the image for non-commercial purposes so long as I credit the owner. The link in the caption should suffice as a credit. Click it, please. That means I can never monetize this post. That’s fine as I have no plans to monetize this site ever. Thanks, mysterious Flickr account!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/01/apple-iie/

#Apple #computer #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835 #Mac #macintosh #technology

Daily writing prompt Write about your first computer. View all responses

My father bought our first computer from what was probably the only computer store in Tewksbury, MA. It was on Main street sort of near the intersection with Chandler street. I’m not sure what is there now. It had a monitor, a keyboard, and two floppy drives. I believe it was 1983. 

It looked like this:

I found this image on Flickr. Click to view the original post.*

I don’t recall the specs beyond that. Maybe before I click publish I’ll ask the stupid AI Assistant if it knows. I do remember we had a joystick but it didn’t work very well. We also had a modem wired into our telephone. We could plug a phone line into the computer, connect it to the phone, and dial out direct. We used it to call some old bulletin board services. It was completely epic, like the movie War Games but without the treason or the nukes. Unfortunately the modem was so slow it made the whole experience useless. We did have a text chat with some random person once. That was ground breaking, indeed.

I used it for school to write papers and essays. We had a word processor program that worked pretty well. I also played a lot of games, but that experience wasn’t quite as good as what we had over at Mike the (future) Bass Player’s house as he had a Commodore 64 which was a better gaming platform. We had a great baseball game and an olympic decathlon game that was really fun but difficult. We had a text based game that I think was a Zork knock off that I seem to remember was called Mobius.

It was a great computer. Eventually, at some point in the 90’s, my father had a friend who built IBM clones and we moved on to Windows 3.1. I messed with Macs for the first time when I was at Northeast Broadcasting School in ’93 (I think?), and then when I went to Middlesex Community College I took a class called Intro to Computers that covered an office suite called Claris Works that also used a Mac. Later, while at UMass Lowell (for my second time around) I got a job at a computer lab where I was tasked with putting a tech focused talk show onto the radio station. My desk had a Mac Quadra that I used for editing audio. I also used a program called Nifty Telnet that let me connect to the university’s Unix system so I could do my programming homework. That machine was epic. I didn’t become a Mac owner until years later, after I moved in with Jen. I got a MacBook Pro and have literally never looked back. I am 100% invested in the Apple echo system now. MacBook Pro, iPhone, iPad, AppleWatch, HomePods all over the house. How long until they pull me into the new Vision Pro? Someday.

There you have it, my first computer was an Apple iie and it made me the computer nerd I am today. Thanks for listening to my Ted Talk.

Hey, AI Assistant, what were the specs for an apple iie?

The Apple IIe, released in 1983, featured a 1.023 MHz 65C02 processor, 64 KB RAM, and used 5.25-inch floppy disks for storage. It also supported a lowercase character set, which was an improvement over its predecessors. The computer sported a sleek design and was compatible with a wide range of peripherals, making it a popular choice for educational and personal use.

* I was going to send the owner of the Flickr account a request to use the image on my page but it hasn’t been active for 12 years. Fortunately, it did have a license listed on the page which allows for use of the image for non-commercial purposes so long as I credit the owner. The link in the caption should suffice as a credit. Click it, please. That means I can never monetize this post. That’s fine as I have no plans to monetize this site ever. Thanks, mysterious Flickr account!

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/02/01/apple-iie/

#Apple #computer #dailyprompt #dailyprompt1835 #Mac #macintosh #technology