Remember remember...

Here's a guest post by Flo

As far as I remember, we haven't always had these computers around. I'm not going to write about the abacus or the first giant computers, but rather about the first PC’s I had my hand on…

My first computer was a small box and a huge keyboard. It was an Ice-Felix HC-85 computer built in Romania, but it actually was a ZX Spectrum Clone. It was faster than the speed of light, with a mind-blowing 3.5 MHz. Its internal memory was even more negligible, but it was enough for the BASIC operating system.

The rest of the computer was improvised: the monitor was my everyday TV and the “CD-ROM” was my brother’s walkman. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, a walkman! The programs and games were written on magnetic tape.
Of course, the graphic capabilities were limited, but it was good enough for puzzle games.

Next, I got my hands on an Intel 486. The magnetic tape was obsolete now, so it was equipped with a 3 ½” floppy disk and a monitor that was as wide as 10 inches.

15 years later I got to play with a 286 Compaq laptop. It was operated with Windows 3.1 and its hardware was something like 8 Mb RAM, 100 Mb HDD and so on. The amazing part is that it still works (except for the charger) and the battery can still run for up to 2 hours.

Next time your computer crashes, before cursing and punching it think about the computers I wrote about and you’ll probably change your mind.

PS: If you have experienced working on any old computer, feel free to comment here. Maybe even write a couple of follow-up posts…

Happy surfing, Flo