[Clint Williams]

ping

[AndrewB]

[ejonesie22]

Dear lord I am getting old....

[sionnsar]

Geezer Geek ping.

This is a very low-volume ping list (typically days to weeks between pings).
FReepmail sionnsar if you want on or off this list.

[Nervous Tick]

I lusted after one of those. I never got it. It left me emotionally scarred, unable to get pleasure from any computer.

[mad_as_he$$]

Damn, I remember it like yesterday.

[SC Swamp Fox]

My brother in-law had one, I remember being so envious. I wondered how he ever talked my sister into letting him buy it.

[ShadowAce]

[JMJJR]

I remember.

The Osborne was an up grade from the Sinclair I was using.

[OCC]

The first issue of Osborne's magazine, The Portable Companion. The photo, shot in Afghanistan, shows reporter David Kline, his Osborne 1, and a bunch of Mujahideen

[NonValueAdded]

Ah, yes

[martin_fierro]

Marty's first PC (1986):

SPECIFICATIONS:

NAME	Visual Commuter Computer
MANUFACTURER	Visual Technology
TYPE	Luggable Business Computer
ORIGIN	USA
YEAR	1983
LAST RUN	1986
QUANTITY BUILT
OPERATING SYSTEM	MS-DOS 2.11
CPU	8088
SPEED
RAM	512Kb
ROM
TEXT MODES	16 or 15 line LCD display
GRAPHIC MODES	CGA Color Graphics, Composite video
I/O PORTS	(2) serial, parallel, IBM port
POWER SUPPLY
PRICE	$999.00, when bundled with monochrome (amber) CRT monitor and Silver-Reed daisywheel printer

[Mike Darancette]

I used a Kaypro. Supported my customers remotely.

[raybbr]

While not a PC I still had to carry on the TI VPU 200 on a couple of flights to Texas, MI, etc.

[NerdDad]

The Osborne was my first computer. Tied it to a Royal electronic typewriter with a custom-built RS-232 connection. I was an admin clerk in the USAF then. It was the first computer system at the squadron level that inspectors had ever seen. They would come to my office, watch me work and ask questions about it. I never stood a real inspection after I got that computer.

[Keen-Minded]

I still have my PCjr. with monitor and memory sidecard, along with games. Maybe I could get some $$$$ for it?

[null and void]

...and it still mumbles incoherently...

[jwparkerjr]

My main memory of the Osborne was the fact the power supply was only barely up to the job. Every time you accessed a floppy drive the screen would shrink for a moment.

I was working for Computerland at the time and recall what a great hit the Osborne was, as was the Kaypro when it came along. I recall vividly when the IBM PC came out and we were the official provider for IBM employees. The flocked to the store and bought up every one we could get for several months.

My first computer was the Sol 32 from Processor Technology. It came only as a kit. That was, I think, 1978, or maybe late 1977. About the time Radio Shack came out with the TRS-80. Ah, those were the days!

In late 1979 I got my first multi-user, multi-tasking machine, the Alpha Micro. I used their products for the next 15 years or so.

[goldbux]

Still have a mint-condition Victor 9000 in my garage with a 10MB hard disk!

Still have fanfold paper tapes for booting up DG Nova 840 boxes.

Make me an offer!

Still remember coding (in assembler) parts of a hospital information system on an EMR 6135. Now there is a obscure computer for you aficionados.

Still remember punching Fortran IV & V programs into cards, compiling 'em, & feeding the object decks into a Control Data 6600 beast, prior to the advent of uninterruptible power supplies. When the power went down, the hydraulic lines used for coolant went down, too, taking out plumbing for the entire top-secret building. Also programmed a Univac 1108 there.

Still remember the assembly instruction for erasing all the memory of an IBM 1620 machine, with its archaic 4 sense switches on the front panel.

Still remember programming a Univac 1105 in Basic Assembly Language -- a massive machine with vacuum-tube memory that required an air-conditioned room & raised floor for all the thick cables. When I tell this to some punk kid, I just get back a blank stare: "uh . . ., is that like a vacuum cleaner?"

[ADemocratNoMore]

Real good appreciation here...

http://technologizer.com/2011/04/01/osborne-computer/

Sigh, CP/M.