Something fun
- Thread starter APTI
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Although i didn't have a C64 your 2nd picture reminds me of relying on cassette tapes, which i actually also used with my HP-48S calculator through an interface i had to build myself, so to get an automated pause control as well... The bit rate was 9600 but i had to "hammer" my data many times to make sure a recording survived playback drop-outs, so the final rate was even slower!
Ain't this an european plug?
Don't know it is just a picture we had an old candlestick phone until about 1965 or so before upgrading to a rotary dial phone that was mounted on the wall
No, the standard european plug (EU) has only 2 pins.
My memory is failing, now i think i seen this 4 pins bloc in RadioShack catalogs, before the modular deploy... Ah, there it is:
The "4-prong" 404A jack & 283A plug.
There's mention of AllenTel and Western Electric, one goes back to 1960 and another 1931...
At least Google Images can help us remember better about what's long forgotten! Somewhat...
The "4-prong" 404A jack & 283A plug.
There's mention of AllenTel and Western Electric, one goes back to 1960 and another 1931...
At least Google Images can help us remember better about what's long forgotten! Somewhat...
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Unless, of course, you're in the UK. Here, we've always had a 3rd, earth pin.....well, since around the early 1920s, shortly after the Great War.
Too many folks were getting shocks via the older 2-pin system...
Mike.
Seems many of us hail from around the same time period with regard to computing.
I, too, started off with a Commodore 64, courtesy of the old man buying one for me AND my younger brother in early '82. Younger bro, however, had just discovered GURLS (and had precious little time for anything else), so I pretty much had it to myself.
Unlike many, I didn't use it for games. I played around with the in-built Commodore BASIC, and became quite proficient with it.....writing several simple versions of popular board games & stuff. Yes, I'd initially looked at the ZX80/81 - had a play with a couple belonging to a mate - but gawd; that horrible membrane keyboard was a real killer. I much preferred the proper keyboard the C64 was blessed with.
This was probably a carry-over from the Commodore PET the school's science lab had taken delivery of in '78, the year before I left. OK, strictly speaking it was a 'chiclet' keyboard.....but at least you could feel what you were doing with it!
I tried to talk the old man into buying us the 1541 the following Xmas, but he put his foot down at that; wasn't having none of it. "Too expensive", he said. So I carried on with the trusty old Datasette.....at least there was no messing around with a volume control to get the thing functional. You just plugged it in, and it worked immediately. Which in the early days of the "home computing revolution", was quite an eye-opener!
Happy days...
Mike.
I, too, started off with a Commodore 64, courtesy of the old man buying one for me AND my younger brother in early '82. Younger bro, however, had just discovered GURLS (and had precious little time for anything else), so I pretty much had it to myself.
Unlike many, I didn't use it for games. I played around with the in-built Commodore BASIC, and became quite proficient with it.....writing several simple versions of popular board games & stuff. Yes, I'd initially looked at the ZX80/81 - had a play with a couple belonging to a mate - but gawd; that horrible membrane keyboard was a real killer. I much preferred the proper keyboard the C64 was blessed with.
This was probably a carry-over from the Commodore PET the school's science lab had taken delivery of in '78, the year before I left. OK, strictly speaking it was a 'chiclet' keyboard.....but at least you could feel what you were doing with it!
I tried to talk the old man into buying us the 1541 the following Xmas, but he put his foot down at that; wasn't having none of it. "Too expensive", he said. So I carried on with the trusty old Datasette.....at least there was no messing around with a volume control to get the thing functional. You just plugged it in, and it worked immediately. Which in the early days of the "home computing revolution", was quite an eye-opener!
Happy days...
Mike.
You know what had a really nice keyboard was the VT220 terminal from DEC. I used those back in my college days. They were quiet and smooth and had plenty of room. I really miss those old 220s. I remember using TPU (Text Processing Unit) on VAX/VMS. I don't miss VMS though. We used an Ultrix too which was so much better. Back then when I was introduced to Linux is was SLS. I eventually moved to Slackware. Then I picked up Debian almost two decades later.
Signed,
Matthew Campbell
Signed,
Matthew Campbell
No no no... That wasn't a "cell phone", it was a "self phone" because instead of talking to the operator you had to "dial it yourself".
There's still something to be said for the Timex's keyboard... Yeah, it was undersized and completely devoid of "tactile feedback", but it did actually work and, considering how inexpensive that thing must have been to produce, that's pretty amazing! But the more amazing thing, to my way of thinking, was how well it was integrated with the built-in BASIC interpreter that knew pretty reliably when to expect a keyword vs when to expect text, etc - in those days, that was pretty impressive and was the main thing that made the Timex at all usable.Seems many of us hail from around the same time period with regard to computing.
I, too, started off with a Commodore 64, courtesy of the old man buying one for me AND my younger brother in early '82. Younger bro, however, had just discovered GURLS (and had precious little time for anything else), so I pretty much had it to myself.
Unlike many, I didn't use it for games. I played around with the in-built Commodore BASIC, and became quite proficient with it.....writing several simple versions of popular board games & stuff. Yes, I'd initially looked at the ZX80/81 - had a play with a couple belonging to a mate - but gawd; that horrible membrane keyboard was a real killer. I much preferred the proper keyboard the C64 was blessed with.
This was probably a carry-over from the Commodore PET the school's science lab had taken delivery of in '78, the year before I left. OK, strictly speaking it was a 'chiclet' keyboard.....but at least you could feel what you were doing with it!
I tried to talk the old man into buying us the 1541 the following Xmas, but he put his foot down at that; wasn't having none of it. "Too expensive", he said. So I carried on with the trusty old Datasette.....at least there was no messing around with a volume control to get the thing functional. You just plugged it in, and it worked immediately. Which in the early days of the "home computing revolution", was quite an eye-opener!
Happy days...
Mike.
Having said all that, the C64 keyboard was such a relief to use just because it had actual keys that actually moved - even though it, too, had some room for improvement.
In between my "Timex" era and my "C64" era, I dabbled with an Atari 400. Not withstanding that it was more or less "full sized", -that- was an atrocious keyboard.
I remeber local user groups. They had to be local because who could afford long distance charges for your 300 baud modem?
I also remember Compuserve, there was another, but I can't recall the name. Delphi? Delphus? Argh.
I also remember Compuserve, there was another, but I can't recall the name. Delphi? Delphus? Argh.
I probably won't get into details but I once lived above a bar. The reason it was so great was because they had a couple of pay phones. I could access the wires through the crawl space.
In my defense, I was a poor college student at the time. I was also able to augment my income at the pool tables. So, there was that...
Hillbilly H
Well-Known Member
Phone phreak?
