View Full Version : What's your favorite computer of all time?
sanddrag
09-04-2005, 23:44
I really like the Macintosh Color Classic. What computer is your favorite of all time? (stock off the shelf, not custom).
20th Anniversay Macintosh...
If it was good enough for the BatCave, it's good enough for me.
http://tam.axon.net/
-SlimBoJones...
The computer that does not take a half-life to boot up, that has programs that do not crash constantly and are actually helpful with a fast internet connection that blocks out spyware and pop ups without disabling the ability to freely surf the net.
In other words this computer exists in Fantasyland. :rolleyes:
Kevin Sevcik
10-04-2005, 00:55
Dude Koko Ed, that sounds like a Linux computer, really.... Ahem. Politics/Religion aside.... I really liked my first computer. A PCjr, but hey, it was nifty. Then some random 386s, 486s, and Pentiums running DOS. I had way too much fun tweaking things to get my games to run better.
Jeff Rodriguez
10-04-2005, 01:21
Apple IIe
I really like the Macintosh Color Classic. What computer is your favorite of all time? (stock off the shelf, not custom).
Well, if you think about it a custom computer is off the shelf, just many shelves. In that case it'd be my server runs nearly 24/7 with no problems.
But other than that I would say one of our many color computers. turn it on and its on then tell it what to do.
-Mike
OneAngryDaisy
10-04-2005, 05:12
As sucky as it was, and even though it only had one function, I gotta go with the Apple Newton emate 300. So pretty, so bulky, and so... useless? you couldn't do anything but love it.
It would have to be my "Personal Mobile Tool," my Zaurus SL-6000 (http://stonewallcs.com/~jon/summer2k4/Zaurus_6000/). Linux, usb host, built in wifi, VGA screen (viewable in direct sunlight!), 400 Mhz Xscale, CF + SD... it's just so sweet :) With a keyboard it can pretty much replace a laptop!
When I was a Senior in high school, I bought a a South West Technical Products computer kit. I'll never forget the pride and joy of entering the 128 byte boot strap code with toggle switches and ran my first program to add 2 numbers. I threw it out when I moved out of the house. Last year a working kit went for over 10,000$ on Ebay . To bad I'm not a pack rat
JoeXIII'007
10-04-2005, 11:19
Did have an AST Premium Exec Laptop, LCD Ribbon snapped, so now all the hardware is in a shoe box (No kidding). Had 4 MB RAM, 120MB HD, Floppy, removable modem, Windows 3.11, Old MS Office, etc. My most favorite(s) though would have to be either an AppleII (which I never got to play around with much) that was sitting around in a random classroom at a now torn down middle school or an IBM PC (color screen, desktop, Win 3.1, processor speed unknown, RAM unknown). ANY computer with Windows 3.1 is a favorite of mine unless it isn't working.
JamesBrown
10-04-2005, 11:25
I am also going to have to go with the Apple IIe Thats what we had in school till about the 4th grade
Alan Anderson
10-04-2005, 11:53
After much thought, considering all the various computers I have owned and used, I suddenly realized that my favorite computer of all time is the CERL PLATO system at the University of Illinois, circa 1980.
It was a dual mainframe timesharing system, designed for computer-aided instruction. The terminals were 512x512 pixel plasma graphics displays, and the keyboards had unusual keys like BACK, LAB, DATA, MICRO, and an assigment arrow that looks a little like this: <=.
It had personal notes which worked a lot like email, general notes which worked a lot like newsgroups or web forums, and "TERM-TALK" which worked a lot like instant messaging. It had multiplayer games like Empire (based on Star Trek) and Avatar (modeled after Dungeons and Dragons). There were individual terminals in many locations, small clusters of terminals in many more, and a few "classrooms" with dozens of terminals in one place. Most of the terminals were in the Champaign-Urbana area, but there were others at Kennedy-King College, and at the UI Chicago Circle Campus, and at Indiana University in Bloomington. My fiancée and I were at separate colleges and used to chat with each other over the system.
I miss PLATO. PLATO People (http://www.platopeople.com/) were a great bunch to hang around with.
dubious elise
10-04-2005, 13:25
I am also going to have to go with the Apple IIe Thats what we had in school till about the 4th grade
I'll second that, we had Apple IIe's at school until about 5th grade, but I still have mine at home and I love it to bits and pieces, even if it doesn't work. My current darling is a 700mHz eMac, because he just won't die, even after 2 years of general dorm-abuse at UW Madison :D
I guess it's kind of like your first "Significant Other" or first car, but your first computer will always have a special place in your heart. Mine was a Commodore VIC-20. What a great piece of work that was! 3 K of RAM with a 5 K expansion pack, cassette tapes to load programs with; just hook it up to the TV and go.
*sigh* I really miss the good old days.
My first computer was an Apple 2. My favorite was the Apple IIGS. What a sweet machine. Did my first video editing and graphics on it, then copied to vcr. I now own a Mac G4 400, 2 PC's and have started working on my wife for a new dual processor Mac.
team222badbrad
10-04-2005, 14:51
The Commodore!
The Commodore computer is the first computer I can ever remember using. I used to play those cool games such as California Games and Hotwheels and yes they were stored on those super thin/super big floppies which used this drive http://www.commodore.ca/products/128/1571_drive.jpg
I am not sure what model it was, however, the Commodore I had when I was younger is still buried in my dad's garage. :eek:
Some day I may dig it up and have some good old fun!
TimCraig
10-04-2005, 18:53
Probably the computer I had the most fun with is my Apple II, Serial Number 28, btw. I got to tell Woz I had it at Las Vegas. The Rev 0 cases didn't have the cooling slots so when I finally loaded it with enough stuff, it would overheat and stop. I'd then have to take off the cover, put my thumb on the processor and act like a human heat sink until it cooled down. Then I could do a warm boot and get on with my project. The first time it happened it scared the crap out of me, I thought it had coughed up its toenails and died. :yikes:
KenWittlief
10-04-2005, 19:10
my personal favorite? this one:
and these were my lab assistants:
(real engineers use tubes!)
The Commodore!
DUH! That was a great computer! Why did it take so long to bring that one up!! Favorite HOME computer. I think I was also impressed with the programmers who wrote software for that machine than the machine it's self. They crammed more stuff into 64K of memory... always amazing. Microsoft couldn't even write notepad for 64K. In fact, I just looked it up. 68KB. Geez...
Best computer ever (that I used but could never have purchased):
"My" Sun Sparc 30 Unix Box I used in Gradschool. I'm a mechE, and I could have that thing do ANYTHING for me. When the HP's (not know what kind) would crash out because my code was too big (poorly written) the Sparc 30 would eat it up. (I was reading in black and white CAT scaned images of a transmission case, .75mm a slice, and rebuliding a solid CAD model. Talk about reverse engineering...)
my personal favorite? this one:
and these were my lab assistants:
(real engineers use tubes!)
Boy Ken, you really had assistants that much younger than you were?
Sean Schuff
10-04-2005, 20:12
I'd have to go with the Silicon Graphics (Silly G) Indy. I used it in a college CAD course around 1993. It ran AutoCAD R12 and ran it well! Unix based, sweet looking blue case, and the school (UW-Stout) sprang for 19" monitors. In 1993 that was HUGE for a college student.
Ian Curtis
10-04-2005, 20:20
Come on guys lets here it for the Tandy!
I keep trying to buy one off my friend. How can you beat such classic games as Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy and Commander Keene.
I have to split my vote between the DEC LSI-11 (the younger nephew of the PDP-11, a great little 16-bit microprocessor that was the first machine that I ever used to develop hardware interfaces between the computer bus and external proto-boards [my first great success was when I built my first digital-to-analog converter and made it draw a picture of Snoopy on an oscilloscope] all as part of a Chemistry class of all things!) and the Macintosh G-5 2.5Ghz dual processor machine (it's my other favorite right now, just because it is what I have right now - it will soon be replaced by a new favorite when I upgrade to the 3GHz Macs that are coming; I may be sincere, but I am fickle!).
-dave
Rick TYler
10-04-2005, 21:43
My first was a Honeywell 6040 running Dartmouth BASIC in timeshare mode. I had a 300-baud Teletype terminal and a BASIC manual. I was in heaven. I wrote my own craps game program that must have taken me three months. With some help I like to think it might have been faster. We also loaded a 450-line BASIC program called "Star Trek" that might have been one of the earliest space-shooter games.
A TRS-80 Model IV running Visicalc helped me to an "A" in Finance in grad school. That might have been my second-favorite computer. No one else submitted spreadsheets as homework.
I really like my current Dell 4600 Windows machine. I'm sure a lot of you 14-year-olds have faster hardware, but I so enjoyed taking a computer out of the box, plugging it in, and having it magically work. Not being a video hound I haven't come close to filling my mirrored 120GB drive, and Windows XP Pro finally delivers the promise made with Windows 3.
sanddrag
10-04-2005, 21:47
Windows XP Pro finally delivers the promise made with Windows 3.Which was? I'm just curious as to what you are referring.
Now that I look back at old computers, I think Windows 3.1 was totally hideous. I believe for the time, the Macintosh System was far superior.
Bill Moore
10-04-2005, 21:51
Favorite computer was a Mac Powerbook 520c. It was the first laptop that could truly function as a desktop -- just connect an ethernet cable, mouse, keyboard and monitor. It provided a vision of just how capable laptops were going to be, and now are.
Rick TYler
10-04-2005, 22:57
Which was? I'm just curious as to what you are referring.
Heh. Windows that worked. Heh.
As much "fun" as it was to toggle machine code into the boat anchors* many of my peers are romantically reminiscing about, I'll have to go with my current: a 1 GHz Titanium Powerbook. It has been rock-solid since I bought it two years ago and continues to meet my computing and communications needs. And with it I can watch FIRST matches or Kill Bill wherever I am.
* My first boat anchor was a DEC PDP-8 we did "high-speed" data acquistion with at duPont in the early 80's. I think we were getting at least ten A/D samples per second! And was it ever sweet when we upgraded to an ASR-11 teletype user interface and read/write paper tape. Ahh, those were the days!
Microsoft couldn't even write notepad for 64K. In fact, I just looked it up. 68KB. Geez...
Keep in mind Microsoft also had to make Notepad more than a cursor on a black screen... it has a close button (which has to include a close function, which has to make a prompt that will ask if you if you want to save, which in turn will have to make a window to browse to where you want to save, etc.), a minimize button (which has to have a minimize animation), and an expand button (with correlating animation). It also has to have a print screen, and code to communicate with the printer.
When you take it apart, its so much more than the commodore editor.
Josh Hambright
13-04-2005, 20:20
This is a tuffy, I'd have to say some of favorite include the tried and tested Comadore family, and the TRS-80. Old school apples and macs also hold a special place in my heart.
Oh this thread brings back fond memories of playing Choplifter, Montezuma's Revenge, and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiago on our Apple IIe... with it's small green and black screen.
[hmm... do you think that is why i am so obsessed with green and black now?]
2nd Favorite computer ever is probably my 2000 iMac which i still have. [A Lime iMac... what a surprise] I've especially enjoyed it since my brother installed a larger HD.
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