First personal computer nostalgia

From: Marvin <marvin_at_rain.org>
Date: Thu Nov 16 11:30:33 2000

I started in computers back at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo in 1967 with a
Fortran IV class and continued on with 360 Assembly and Cobol. After
graduation, I went to work for Nabisco. After being transferred to the head
offices in NYC, I managed to get transferred to Richmond, VA where a new
state of the art plant was being constructed. During that time, I attended a
number of DEC training classes up in Maynard at the new (at that time)
training facility. While in Richmond, I worked mainly on the PDP16 and 11/05
with a small amount of work on the 11/45. From there:

1979 or so - bought a Vector I (which I still have).
1979 or so - bought an Atari 400 and peripherals (which I still have.)
1980 or so - traded a milling machine for a Northstar Horizon (which I still
have)
1984 or so - bought a Corona 400 luggable
1985 onwards - People started giving me the old S-100 computers they were
throwing away

It was about this time I began thinking of saving this stuff because of the
historical value.

Things get mixed up from this point onwards, but I ended up not wanting to
see these things just thown away and ended up with a wide array of computers
including a couple of Altairs used at Raytheon that were going to be tossed
with the guy was leaving Santa Barbara. And things just went from there. By
1991, I probably had about 100 computers or so. Documentation is something I
am always looking for. I had built up a network of friends who kept an eye
open for stuff being tossed or sold they thought I would be interested in.
One of the few times I actually bought something for more than a couple of
dollars for the collection was from someone in the LA area who was selling a
Heathkit H-8 system for $100. Turned out to be a good buy as it included the
processor, 5 1/4" floppy drives, 8" drives, spare cards, and boxes of
documentation and software totalling some 10 - 15 cubic feet of stuff.

Somewhere around 1996, I found out about this listserver and joined. Sellam
was one of the people who had a vision of a classic computer show and
started VCF from conversations started on this listserver. We have a lot of
people on this list with a wealth of knowledge who are more than willing to
share and I have referred a number of people to this list. Ah, life is good!
Received on Thu Nov 16 2000 - 11:30:33 GMT