The First Computer

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Chris Pirillo – When you ask me about my first computer, I require clarification. I’ve had many “first computers” in my life… read more

You were on ISCABBS? That completely shaped my early internet life…

First computer, Atari 400. Followed by Vic20 and C64, Apple //e, maybe an Osborne? Then I fell in love with the first Mac and it was all over. :-)

My first computer… Hmm depends on if you mean the first one I owned (A Mac 512+ bought in the Fall of 1984), the first one I helped build (A Heathkit thing done in 1978), or the first one I programmed for real (An Ohio Scientific Machine in 1979/1980).

May have to resurect this as a blog topic myself… Been quite a while since I did a computer history post anywhere….

u ever play with punchcards? i got too once b4 i got my trs80. love those good ole days. got bbs #s?

My first household computer was the KIM-1 that my dad built. A few years later, my little sister (at 3 or 4 years old) painted it with White-Out. I don’t remember if my dad ever got it working again after that.

Later, in 1977, my parents sent me to computer camp at Washtenaw Community College, where they had Commodore PETs, Apple IIs, and Atari 400s and 800s.

My first self-owned computer was a VIC-20 (VIC stood for Video Interface Chip, and 20 referred to the 22 column display, rounded to 20 for marketing reasons). My dad’s boss at Wang had upgraded from a VIC-20 to a C-64. I painted his white picket fence to pay for the used VIC-20. He had the coolest gadgets! He built a digital clock from a kit (red LEDs) to put in his Escort, and he had SAM (Software Automatic Mouth), a speech synthesizer, for his C-64! :-)

Later, I upgraded to an Amiga 2000. At that time I worked for a year selling Commodores and PC clones at ComputerWorks in Middleton, MA. The store owner was a character, and still in high school. In addition to selling computers, I did an occasional paper for my bosses homework and socialized a lot with the customers. I took a lot of hardware and software in lieu of pay. :-/ The owner’s father owned the carpet store next door, employed the bustiest receptionists, and often backed his cube van into things. The owner’s mother spent a lot of time in the computer store playing mah-jong, and she loved Neil Diamond.

My first PC was a 386DX40 built by Ayer Computer Surplus. I never bought another complete PC, instead buying components and upgrading, or building my own PCs, culminating with an Athlon XP 2500+-powered rig. Then a friend gave me my first Mac: A 400MHz G4 Gigabit Ethernet that he thought had a toasted CPU. He also gave me a spare CPU that I plugged into it. It worked for about a week before dying again. It turned out to be a flaky motherboard; the CPUs were fine. I made a few upgrades to that and then sent it to my sister (she’s had nothing but problems with it since). Then I bought Mac components off eBay, eventually building my current rig, a 933MHz G4 Quicksilver 2002.

I’m planning to build another PC, but I’ve got my eye on an Intel 5000X-based workstation that’ll cost me around $3000, so I’m just browsing at this point. By the time I start buying parts, the 5000X will probably be obsolete.

1st family computer was an Apple ][ in the late 70’s. But my dad, a phd engineering student, had a programmable HP calculator too, which should count. My first personal machine was a Laser 128!

> My first family computer was a Commodore Vic20.

Me too. I wrote a little Basic program for my baby daughter. She’d hit the E key (her initial) and the screen would fill up with her name ane hearts. Now she’s doing CAD for Stanford.

But my first “real” computer with floppy drives and a printer was a Kaypro. I still have it and all the software and documentation.

The First Computer(Chris Pirillo)

My history follows closely with yours. Apple at school, then Commodore 64. When I got to college, I bought a Packard Bell 386. Surprisingly, that PC and the next Packard Bell I bought, a Pentium I, gave me only one minor problem in 7 years.

First computer programmed: Ohio Scientific, 1980. I was working on this missile base in Germany and one of my co-workers mail ordered it. He got some BASIC games on cassette and they were buggy. I fixed them.

First computer owned: IBM PC, second release (8088, 4.77 MHz, 256k on the mobo) I got two half-height TEAC drives at $260 each for it, rather than the full height drives. Woot!

First Mac: Mac SE 20, 1986. I miss that little 9 inch screen.

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