Anyone ever use a 300/1200 baud modem using 5 1/4" floppies

[flyerdan]

I've got a functioning 8088 machine out in the shop. Bought a pallet of old computers from the state surplus many years ago, wanted one for a database out there. Sold most of the others after mixing and matching, still have these three old original IBM machines tucked away. Also have a functioning Vic-20 with tape drive stored away in the shop attic. I also ran a BBS on a C-64 for a while in the mid 80's, 300 baud modem. Remember the disk notcher that would let you write to both sides of a 5.25"?

 

[Larry Caldwell]

The first computer I ever used was an ALWAC IIIe at Oregon State. It used vacuum tube logic, and a rotating magnetic drum about 3' tall for memory. Program input was by punch tape. My lab partner and I entered the program independently, then held the two tapes together to the light to make sure they were identical. A typo meant flunking the lab.

History of Computing in Turku

My first home computer was a Reynolds and Reynolds TC-1000. Z80 cpu, CP/M OS, 5" screen, dual single sided floppies and a built in 300 baud modem. It was originally a smart terminal for a PDP-11. Besides word processing and database (no spreadsheets in those days), it had a copy of Microsoft MBasic. I loved that program. I should have bought Microsoft stock.

Speaking of spreadsheets, Steve Jobs wasn't the genius that put Apple on the map. It was Dan Bricklin, who sat down and invented the spreadsheet for the Apple II. For a couple years, if you wanted a spreadsheet you had to buy an Apple II, which sold all their computers for them.

 

[Soundguy]

Try a Timex Sinclair 1000 - look it up! Apple ][ (not +, not E, nor C!) .. Hayes Smartmodems and US Robotics modems.. ahh, the good old days when you actually had to be smart to get online!

i had a timex sinclair as well. had the 16k ram pack.. and a cassette drive..

trs 80 slant 4

coco

all them old things.

still have an old CPM machine

 

[mostly_gas]

9 in floppies (TRS80), cassette tapes(TI99) punch cards (main frame HP,IBM), 300 baud modem with acoustical coupler.

 

[Soundguy]

i got a set of 8" flopies I ran on a NEC laptop using driveparam as a driver and a custom built external drive cable..

 

[caps]

My first computer was a Heath H8, then upgraded to a Heathkit H89 with an actual 5 1/2 in hard sectored floppy and a built-in monitor. Then the ultimate computer - a Kaypro IV with dual floppies running CPM. The H8 didn't have a monitor - output was in octal via the lights on the front. Programs were loaded from a cassette player or tape drive on a teletype. The 300 baud modem was considered fast.

 

[Soundguy]

oh wow.. mainframes. the supermarket in town had a ibm 360 and a buddy of mine was a manager there and we worked on it. another place downthe street had a wang. I remember repalcing a memory card in that one time. was almost the size of a legal sizewd sheet of paper

 

[The kid]

Yup, and single sided floppies on an Apple II.

Never owned an apple anything till I bought an iPad. I had a Apple clone that ran ProDOS. You remember that?

 

[The kid]

The first modems I used were 2400 baud and I always limited the login access on the BB's I ran to 15 minutes once a day...had 4 hard lines one of which was dedicated for 'CompuServe'...
later I ran an ELM and later yet a PINE (where my moniker came from) server via a leased shell account...

My son and I ran a BBS called the "Borg". I guess you can figure the theme for it. We had hundreds of trek pictures. A bunch of online games. US Robotics offered Sysops a discount on their high end external modem. I got one of those 33.6 which was flash upgradable. Our phone line maxed at a little above that. We had message forums linked thru the Fido network. It was a lot of fun. -kid

 

[crazyal]

When I was in high school we had an IBM something that had iron core memory and reel tape storage. Every so often you would have to blow the memory off, lol. I still can remember the replacement system had green screen monitors that faced straight up and had mirrors that would reflect half the image to one side and the other half to the other side so two people could work off of one monitor. That and a 8" floppy.