Computers & Me

July 2008
I've never worked with 9-track tape, but I have used 8" floppy disks and a standard 1/4" audio cassette deck as a tape drive (though only for the Timex/Sinclair 1000). Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to take a look into my technological past.

After looking through old MacUser and MacWorld magazines, I started to think about all of the systems I've used over the years. I've never worked with 9-track tape, but I have used 8" floppy disks and a standard 1/4" audio cassette deck as a tape drive (though only for the Timex/Sinclair 1000). Anyhow, I thought it might be fun to take a look into my technological past. All of the systems listed below I have personally owned, used as a family system, worked with at school or was responsible for at work.
  • Timex/Sinclair 1000
  • Commodore 64
  • Texas Instruments TI-99/4A
  • Radio Shack/Tandy TRS-80
  • Leading Edge Model D (early PC clone)
  • Apple Macintosh Plus
  • Apple II+
  • Apple IIe
  • Apple Macintosh II
  • Apple Macintosh IIcx
  • Apple IIgs
  • Apple Macintosh SE/30 (an absolutely incredible machine)
  • Apple Macintosh IIci
  • Apple Macintosh IIfx (“wicked fast”)
  • Apple Macintosh 512 (“Fat Mac”)
  • Apple Macintosh XL (Macintosh in an Apple Lisa case)
  • Apple Macintosh LC
  • Some obscure mini computer for newspaper typesetting
  • Apple Macintosh SE
  • Apple Macintosh Classic
  • Apple Macintosh Quadra 700
  • Apple Macintosh Quadra 950
  • Silicon Graphics (SGI) IRIS Indigo XZ (my first workstation)
  • Apple Macintosh Quadra 840av
  • Apple Macintosh Quadra 800
  • IBM RS/6000 G30
  • Apple Macintosh LCII
  • Silicon Graphics (SGI) O2
  • Apple Macintosh LCIII
  • Apple Power Macintosh 7100
  • Apple Power Macintosh 8100
  • IBM RS/6000 G40
  • Apple Power Macintosh 8600
  • Apple Power Macintosh G3 (Platinum)
  • Apple iMac (Grape G3)
  • Apple Power Macintosh G5 Single 1.8GHz
  • Apple Power Macintosh G5 Twin 2GHz
  • Apple Macintosh Intel ADC System
  • Apple iMac (Intel Core Duo)
  • Apple iMac (Intel Core2 Duo)
My first personal computer was a Timex/Sinclair 1000, a tiny (not much larger than an unfolded airline drink napkin) highly portable computer. Although I didn’t realize it at the time, the physical size of the hardware had a profound impact on my views of computing. That tiny device demonstrated that computation did not have to be bound to a specific location: computers could be small and mobile.

When I went to college, I challenged the idea of the desktop with my Macintosh Plus and later, SE/30, by taking full advantage of the integrated handle at the top of the machine. I took them to work and to campus; I took them to airports and to friends’ homes; I took those machines everywhere I could. Those two computers were truly portable machines in my eyes as whenever I had the machine with me and I was near a power outlet, I’d crack open my MacSack, pull out the machine, plug in the keyboard and mouse, and compute. I used to regularly attract crowds in airports as I sat on the floor playing Lode Runner or developing software in HyperCard (and when I wasn’t doing that, I used the machine as a stool if the departure gate area was overcrowded -- do that with a notebook!). Then in 1991, Apple released their first Powerbook and I never looked back as notebooks have been my primary workstations ever since. All other desktop systems, both personal and work-related, are secondary workstations. The history goes like this:
  • Apple PowerBook 170 (my first laptop and the first computer I ever had stolen)
  • Apple PowerBook Duo 210 (flimsy, but a great machine)
  • Apple PowerBook 5300cs
  • Dell Latitude Notebook (early model designed by former Apple employees)
  • Apple PowerBook G4 (15") Titanium
  • IBM ThinkPad 750 (?)
  • Apple iBook (Gray Clamshell)
  • Sony VAIO SR (smallest one)
  • Sony VAIO SR-505
  • Sony VAIO SRX-77
  • Motion Computing M1400 TabletPC
  • Apple PowerBook G4 (12")
  • IBM ThinkPad X41 Tablet PC
  • Apple MacBook
  • Apple MacBook Air
And then we come to personal devices. The list below is more or less in chronological order and yes, I was a Newton user.
  • HP-15C RPN Calculator (bought in 1986 and still in use today)
  • Apple Newton MessagePad 120
  • Apple Newton MessagePad 2000
  • Philips Nino
  • Palm III
  • Handspring Visor Platinum
  • Handspring Visor Prism
  • Nokia 3650 Mobile Phone
  • Sony CLIE NV-70
  • Sony CLIE NX-73
  • HP 540C
  • Motorola A630 Mobile Phone
  • Motorola RAZR Mobile Phone
  • Samsung Blackjack
  • Apple iPhone
The operating systems listed below are those that I have had regular experience with. Please don't expect me to remember specific commands or how to do things in every one -- I am a hands-on kind of guy, so I need to be actually using the OS to remember it (hence the reason I've never been good at telephone technical support).
  • AIX (IBM Unix)
  • Apple DOS
  • Atari DOS
  • CP/M
  • Commodore OS
  • IRIX (Silicon Graphics/SGI Unix)
  • Linux (Debian, Red Hat)
  • MacOS 3 through 9.x
  • MacOS X
  • Newton OS
  • OS/1 - Presentation Manager (IBM)?
  • OS/2 (IBM)
  • PC-DOS (Microsoft, IBM, Digital Research)
  • PalmOS
  • Solaris (Sun Microsystems)
  • SunOS (Sun Microsystems)
  • TI-99/4A DOS
  • TRS-80 DOS
  • Timex/Sinclair OS
  • Windows 2000, XP
  • Windows 3.x, 95, 98
  • Windows CE
  • Windows Mobile
  • Windows NT 3.x, 4

Tags: |