<p>I remember my first computer. It was 2 mhz (though you could boot it in turbo - 4 mhz!), did not have a hard drive, and ran dos off a disk as the operating system.</p>
<p>2nd computer was a 75 mhz computer with an 800 gig hard drive and 8 mb ram running windows 95.</p>
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<p>Wasn’t an issue as I used to download large files…sometimes as much as 10-20 MB each through a 2400 baud modem in Xmodem with error correction because my college’s telephone lines were really noisy. </p>
<p>Way I coped was to plan out my downloads in advance and start them at night right before going to sleep at night. Since I wasn’t going to be using the phone while in la la land and don’t want anyone to call me in the middle of the night…worked out beautifully. </p>
<p>As for browsing the web…wasn’t an issue using lynx text-based web browser through my college vax and unix accounts. </p>
<p>When I upgraded to a Toshiba notebook(p166mmx/48MB RAM/2.1 GB HDD) with a built-in 33.6 modem after the first notebook died, it was like going from a horse and buggy to an F-15 fighter jet. :D</p>
<p>Ok, I just remembered…</p>
<p>When I was a kid (late 60’s) I had a Digi-Comp 1, a 3-bit mechanical computer made of plastic and wire. You “programmed” it by using plastic tubes to control the movement of the gates.</p>
<p>[Digi-Comp</a> I - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digi-Comp_I]Digi-Comp”>Digi-Comp I - Wikipedia)</p>
<p>[Digi-Comp1</a> Plastic Computer - YouTube](<a href=“Digi-Comp1 Plastic Computer - YouTube”>Digi-Comp1 Plastic Computer - YouTube)</p>
<p>Wanna feel ancient? Go to the Smithsonian American History museum and see Commodore 64’s, early Macs, etc, displayed as if they were rescued from ancient pyramids!!!</p>
<p>Even my first calculator, a Bowmar Brain from 1973, is represented on display. Add/subtract/multily/divide, nothing else, about $80, the cost of a HP graphing calculator today. If you wanted a square root key, it doubled the price. Red LCD display, batteries lasted maybe 2 hrs if lucky. Remember a kid came to a chem exam with about 100 ft of extenstion corld slug over his shoulder.</p>
<p>I had a commodore when I was a kid too. Check this out.</p>
<p>[Commodore</a> 64x](<a href=“http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx]Commodore”>http://www.commodoreusa.net/CUSA_C64.aspx)</p>
<p>First CS programs: Cambridge in the 50s and Purdue in 1962.</p>
<p>Even better you can go here: [Computer</a> History Museum - Timeline of Computer History](<a href=“Welcome | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum”>1939 | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum)</p>
<p>That’s a great link! Anyone interested in an alternative history and haven’t read it: The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling.</p>
<p>I learned my first programming on a PDP 8. It may have been a PDP 6. Punch cards and printout tape. Had a run start/stop switch and that was about it. Turned me off computers for years. These were “minicomputers” from DEC, made in the 60’s. If I remember right, the innovation was they reduced the huge boxes to smaller, though they also reduced the available instruction set so much programming was a pain. First computer I bought for myself was a Mac Plus. I loved the bit mapped screen versus the hideous character based displays at work. I soldered extra memory on. It may still be in a box in the basement.</p>
<p>^To make a connection to today, Unix first ran on a PDP-7. Descendants of Unix now run Google, Amazon, iPhones, iPads, Android phones, TiVos, and more. So don’t hate those old text displays too much :)</p>