In case anyone is curious, and if my memory serves, Internet Direct did something of a hostile takeover (though I never got full details of what went down) of Uniserve Online around 2001/2002. At the time I worked for Uniserve and we were told that Direct was being acquired (as we had acquired many other local ISPs). A months or two later, most of the staff in Aldergrove were laid off and operations moved to Victoria. A few years later Uniserve ended up back in the GVRD; not sure what happened there.
To join the party, the first computer I had regular access to was an Apple ][, fitted with a MIDI card and attached to a synthesizer my dad used as a gigging musician. Learned a bit of BASIC and played with the sequencer. Iām not sure of the exact model, but if memory serves it used cassettes for data storage.
We then āupgradedā to a Commodore 8086-based PC with 640K RAM and dual 720KB 5-1/4" floppy drives. CGA graphics. Mostly played digger on it (in monochrome amber):
After a few minor upgrades (hard disk, mostly), that was our only PC for many years, until the release of the Pentium, when we got a Pentium 60Mhz (an early one with the divide bugā¦) and 14.4K modem. My mom was unable to use the phone for quite a few years, until Rogers@HOME came aroundā¦
First used an original British Sinclair? while over in the UK in the very early 80ās as a child.
My great uncle showed it to us, we played Golf IIRC.
A few years late another uncle built us an Apple ][+ clone for christmas. No fancy floppy diskette drive, only audio tape, fast hands, and lots of patience (Night Mission Pinball, a 5-minute load if it worked the first time, was the longest regular load I can remember). It didnāt even have a case. In the beginning it was a bare motherboard on the TV table with a keyboard an a tape player and power supply. My Dad built the case the first summer (yes I still have it in storage, and yes it still worked last I checked.). That got upgraded over the years with floppy drives, printers and a 300 baud modem. IN#2 IIRC.
BBSed around the few local-to-call BBSes in the small town I grew up in, even called Belleville (Long Distance, OMG!), probably enough to get in trouble but not enough trouble to remember.
We went to a 386 next, which IIRC I took with me when I moved out at 18, but it may have been a 486. I remember not being able to afford a Pentium for Ages!
Are people down for an old school show-off/fix up/tinkering night for computers, gadgets, tools, etc? If so I will organize. Stuff must be made before 1990.
Iād be up for this. I have an original UK BBC Micro from 1982 thatās been sitting on my desk for 2 years. I got it workingā¦ and then it died when I tried to install the sideways RAM board
I have the service manual too.
Ian
(Sent from a mobile device. I apologize for the brevity.)
I have my Amiga 1000 under my bed. It might not like the light of day
anymore though. Not the first computer I ever used. But the first one I
ever bought for myself.
