First Computers

[mburt]

Okay.

For a while now, I've known this guy, he's about 70, and he's an inventor (a very talented inventor.) He's gotten very rich off of a computer, or something, he made back in the 70's. Although he's a millionair, he lives in a cabin (This is Newfoundland, completely oriented around the woods, logging, etc.), and invents tools for cutting wood. A good example of this was that he made a laser the could cut logs faster then a general saw. He's probably the only person over 70 that actually knows about the internet, in fact, he still programs.

My question is:
Back in the 70's I'm wondering, what kind of computer's where there? I mean, today, we have fully functional operating systems like Linux, Windows, Mac, etc. Back then, were computers like what MS-Dos is now? Sorry if this sounds confusing, but I honestly don't know anything about old computers

[blm126]

http://www.softlord.com/comp/ Hope that helps some

[mburt]

Thanks Brady

[eukhost.com]

hey thanks for that trip in history. and thats some deep s**t man

[tjustleft]

This reminds me of a story on PBS. They were talking about the first computers.

There was an old lady (I forget her name) who came up with the first identifier/driver.
She was telling a story about the history of the term "Bug in the system." She said one day their computer they were building crashed. Actually it shorted out.

This system was something like a mainframe with huge switches. When they looked for the problem they found that a moth had gotten into one of the switches and blew it. Moth was extra crispy.

[djr33]

Punch cards and refrigerated rooms. Awesomeness.

[tjustleft]

Punch cards and refrigerated rooms. Awesomeness.

It was like that turned a player piano into a calculator.

I remember reading that the first hard disk were about 8 feet in diameter and took hoist to move. Now the info says the first used disk were 2 feet in diameter.
Where I live the tweakers and crack heads would steal those and take them to a copper recycler.