I still own all my 8", 5", and 3.5" floppies, as well as ZIP disks, CDs, Blu-rays, and old hard drives. The oldest hard drive I have that still works is from 1998. I have notebooks of printouts of web pages that no longer exist. Crap tons of data plus a whole library. I even have an engineering book that shows how to repair the old mechanical/electrical phone switching equipment. I wonder if any of that old hardware still exists.
Wow, maybe you should open a computer museum. I remember taking a class where you wire up metal panels sticking wires with jackplugs into holes in the panel. running keypunch cards through a sorter. I believe it had something to do with programming the first computers. Memory gets dim over time.
In my first college chemistry lab (Chapel Hill), we had to use a manual keypuncher to punch our lab results into IBM punch cards. It was like a hole puncher with a dial on it for the characters. Turn the dial, punch, move the card down, repeat. In astronomy class, we used an acoustic modem to dial in to the Research Triangle mainframe.
If I win the lottery, I'll open a museum, but it will have even more than the computer stuff. There will be audio stuff, old books, toys I got in the early 50s, and much more.
I have a rich cousin whose house is a museum of sorts. He actually has the same duplicate of the time machine that was used in an episode of "Big Bang Theory." It has signatures of the actors on it. I haven't been to his mansion since he bought that, as well as the robot from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Lost in Space." That last one is signed by Bill Mumy, Will Robinson. I have a picture of him signing it.
You're old enough to remember Kevin Mitnick as well as the fun that could be had with phone phreaking. Great fun back then, still have my blue box somewhere. I tossed most of my old computer crap few years back, still have some though, like my old 386 gateway that I paid way too much.
I never had any of the "boxes," but I read about Captain Crunch when I was in college in the early 70s. He could whistle the codes after dialing an 800 number to cut off the other end of the call without dropping the toll free line.
I have a whole set of Phrak magazines printed out in my files. I also have 2600 over many years. I have all the old subversive texts in my files, such as "The Anarchist Cookbook." I know better than to try any of their "recipes." I took organic chemistry in college, and they look sketchy to me.
Good times. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I still have a few copies of Alt2600. Loved the days of eLiTe and warez. The anarchist cookbook, have a copy as well, some of the stuff did seem sketchy.
I still own all my 8", 5", and 3.5" floppies, as well as ZIP disks, CDs, Blu-rays, and old hard drives. The oldest hard drive I have that still works is from 1998. I have notebooks of printouts of web pages that no longer exist. Crap tons of data plus a whole library. I even have an engineering book that shows how to repair the old mechanical/electrical phone switching equipment. I wonder if any of that old hardware still exists.
Wow, maybe you should open a computer museum. I remember taking a class where you wire up metal panels sticking wires with jackplugs into holes in the panel. running keypunch cards through a sorter. I believe it had something to do with programming the first computers. Memory gets dim over time.
In my first college chemistry lab (Chapel Hill), we had to use a manual keypuncher to punch our lab results into IBM punch cards. It was like a hole puncher with a dial on it for the characters. Turn the dial, punch, move the card down, repeat. In astronomy class, we used an acoustic modem to dial in to the Research Triangle mainframe.
If I win the lottery, I'll open a museum, but it will have even more than the computer stuff. There will be audio stuff, old books, toys I got in the early 50s, and much more.
I have a rich cousin whose house is a museum of sorts. He actually has the same duplicate of the time machine that was used in an episode of "Big Bang Theory." It has signatures of the actors on it. I haven't been to his mansion since he bought that, as well as the robot from "The Day the Earth Stood Still" and "Lost in Space." That last one is signed by Bill Mumy, Will Robinson. I have a picture of him signing it.
You're old enough to remember Kevin Mitnick as well as the fun that could be had with phone phreaking. Great fun back then, still have my blue box somewhere. I tossed most of my old computer crap few years back, still have some though, like my old 386 gateway that I paid way too much.
I never had any of the "boxes," but I read about Captain Crunch when I was in college in the early 70s. He could whistle the codes after dialing an 800 number to cut off the other end of the call without dropping the toll free line.
I have a whole set of Phrak magazines printed out in my files. I also have 2600 over many years. I have all the old subversive texts in my files, such as "The Anarchist Cookbook." I know better than to try any of their "recipes." I took organic chemistry in college, and they look sketchy to me.
Good times. Thanks for the stroll down memory lane. I still have a few copies of Alt2600. Loved the days of eLiTe and warez. The anarchist cookbook, have a copy as well, some of the stuff did seem sketchy.
I also have old computer magazines. I had a Radio Shack Color Computer, so I have "Rainbow Magazine" and "Hot CoCo," as well as others.