A question for those alive in the 80's, how did you perceive computers at the time? Did you think they'd control the world like they do know? Did you have any interest in the technology? Did you have any idea about email and the internet?

https://www.simplyeighties.com/resources/772px-Amiga500_system.jpg

I don't think many people had computers in their homes back then. And if they did they must have been doctors or lawyers. I do remember seeing them in clinics. Probably used to keep patient information. My family never owned a computer in the 80s, so we knew nothing about the internet or emails.

I knew very little about computers during the 1980's but no one I knew had emails back then or no one knew anything about them, they were just used for other things.

Our family bought an Apple II computer in 1983. We had a few games for it, like Wavy Navy and the GI Joe game (which I never understood how to play lol).

My parents sent us all for computer lessons at a special learning centre in the early 80s, so they must've known they were going to be big. I have a certificate from there and everything. We learnt very basic stuff - mostly how to draw boxes and shapes. I remember typing in RT50 (right 50 spaces - which drew a line to the right).

In 1988 my school began proper computer lessons once a week. Can't remember what we did in those as I was always goofing off at the back.

Here's a photo taken in maybe '85. I cut my brother's head out lol. Our computer is there,as are loads of floppy discs. Also note the BMX poster, my GI Joe calender / poster and a load of Smurfs lol.

https://image.ibb.co/gMKnkS/apple2.png

Here's a photo taken in maybe '85. I cut my brother's head out lol. Our computer is there,as are loads of floppy discs. Also note the BMX poster, my GI Joe calender / poster and a load of Smurfs lol.

https://image.ibb.co/gMKnkS/apple2.png


What is shown on the screen?

What is shown on the screen?


Gosh - no idea - it was so long ago. My brother loved / loves computers. I had no interest really. I preferred my action figures and tv shows.

We had a Commodore C64 (for my sister and me...well, mainly me :D), a Commodore +4 (my father programmed that thing for fun) and a ZX81 (which we never used for some reason...I think we had no software or whatever).
I played plenty of video games on the C64 and the +4 had a very basic writing program. I was aware of the possibility to hook a computer up with others using a telephone adapter from a C64 magazine that my father was reading but we never did that.
I did not anticipate computers to become that much of a thing as they are today. For me it was more of a toy back then but since I was born in 1981 I was probably too young to think of any other uses.

...I was a college student in 1978 and had a programming class.  We programmed in Fortran and created programs on punch card decks - a whole experience in itself - which we handed in over what I call an "order window" where staff fed the punch cards into a room-filling IBM - and after waiting for about 15 minutes (more if it was busy) we could then find out whether our programs worked.  Of course if they didn't work we'd start over.  Sheesh!  It's a wonder I pursued computer programming in that atmosphere...

In 1980 I had quit college (momentarily) taking a government job.  My computer exposure there was a link into the nationwide law enforcement network we had available to us.  I gained a reputation as being a 'whiz' on accessing that network among colleagues.  It was in doing so that my interest in returning to school to study computers was kindled.  While there ('82ish), one of the office secretaries I chatted with was giddy over the new "Word Processor" she just got at the office and how much it improved over the typewriter.  This piqued my curiosity, although I never got to use it.  I remembered her saying it was based on a computer - but all it did was work on documents.  Interesting...

In 1983 after returning to college I landed my dream co-op position (basically a paid hyper internship, repeated throughout the rest of school) at Digital Equipment Corporation.  I loved working there.  At the time we had PDP-11 and VAX computers - both made by the company - and I quickly learned leading edge (at the time) computer skills.  In 1984 the VAX had become extremely popular both in the academic and business worlds.  Now a VAX was a network-centric computer - there was a main VAX server computer and a series of hardwired "dumb" terminals - each one connected to the same VAX computer.  Users could also network together multiple VAX servers which talked together nicely.  IMO the VAX network took computing to new levels and made it accessible to more people.  At the same time there were other computer businesses who also had network-centric systems, made by the likes of IBM, Wang (who remembers them) and a host of smaller players.  That was 80's style computing in a nutshell.

In 1986 I took my permanent job (where I still work) and at the time we used VAX computers.  During this time I'd interact with some of the secretaries - who began using this strange contraption made by IBM that we called a "PC".  Now this "PC" used those big 5 inch floppy disks and had little or no hard drive space - and memory to match.  We techies laughed at the "PC" as little more than a toy - it was mostly used for word processing and very light computing (small spreadsheets, etc.).  On the other hand, my first supervisor brought his personal "Apple Macintosh" computer to work.  Contrary to the "PC", this computer was a thing of beauty.  We used it to draw some diagrams.  Now at this time none of the dissimilar computers talked to each other - a characteristic we were used to.  But I remember thinking the Macintosh was a pretty cool little computer.

This is pretty much how the 80's went.  We personally (at home) went through our "toy" PC phase (Commodore 64, etc.) like everyone else.  The PC didn't catch on in a major way until around the end of the decade, when Windows 3.1 surfaced.  Windows 3.1 was really the first operating system that made PCs useful for the masses and not strictly a toy.  However it wasn't really widespread until the early 1990s.


Ah, instead of retyping, I thought I'd dredge up this oldie  ;D

Here's a link: http://www.inthe00s.com/index.php?topic=52684.msg3324593#msg3324593

I just realized that I still have that old Sinclair ZX-81. :o

It comes with an extra ram pack and some goofy foam feet that my father glued to it:
https://s6.postimg.org/69o56nvfl/WP_20180401_16_09_46_Pro.jpg

https://s6.postimg.org/j12bd5xht/WP_20180401_16_09_57_Pro.jpg

https://s6.postimg.org/tnw4ikq7l/WP_20180401_16_10_05_Pro.jpg

https://s6.postimg.org/r6kdbbe0x/WP_20180401_16_10_14_Pro.jpg

^ Wow, cool!  :D

I just realized that I still have that old Sinclair ZX-81. :o

It comes with an extra ram pack and some goofy foam feet that my father glued to it:
https://s6.postimg.org/69o56nvfl/WP_20180401_16_09_46_Pro.jpg

https://s6.postimg.org/j12bd5xht/WP_20180401_16_09_57_Pro.jpg

https://s6.postimg.org/tnw4ikq7l/WP_20180401_16_10_05_Pro.jpg

https://s6.postimg.org/r6kdbbe0x/WP_20180401_16_10_14_Pro.jpg


So this thing is 37 years old? :o

^Pretty much. At least it entered the market in 1981, no idea when we got it. I also don't remember anyone ever using it so maybe it was already not used anymore by our family when I was old enough to create memories that I can still recall.

^Pretty much. At least it entered the market in 1981, no idea when we got it. I also don't remember anyone ever using it so maybe it was already not used anymore by our family when I was old enough to create memories that I can still recall.


Does it work by the way? ???

Back then I perceived computers will be the future, and now computers are taken jobs away from the people!

Does it work by the way? ???
I honestly don't know. But I also don't feel like hooking it up right now. :-\\

Pop group Five Star knew how big computers would be way back in 1985!

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My older brother had a ZX-81 and so my early perception of computers were that they took a lot of work to get them to do not very much.  This is mainly from helping my brother type in various machine code based programs which had things like 57 x's typed in a row, you'd lose count, mum would call you for dinner, start again later!

I did a short computing course at secondary school and we went to visit the town council offices to see their computer systems.  The data storage was a whole room full of tape machines. A friend had a Sinclair Spectrum and played endless games of Chucky Egg on it.

By the time I started work we had word processors and I used a program called Wordstar to write documents.  I had to work out if we could insert scientific formula into the document - at first I left a blank space and then hand wrote the formula in afterwards!

I could definitely see the advantages of using word processors at least, because you could store the document and easily edit it without having to retype the whole thing

What was the first show to use a computer during the 80's? ???

What was the first show to use a computer during the 80's? ???


Computers were seen on TV well before the 80's. Star Trek comes to mind, along with the Jetsons. Before the '80s began even, most people did see them as huge in the future, and the 80's were the first decade in which an everyman used one, whether an ATM or at a museum, even if very basic compared to their functions in the decades since. And let's not forget that video games themselves are computers of course. The synthesized pop music of the decade reflects this "future is here" mood.

My dad bought his first computer a Trs80 in 1982 he was very excited about it

When we had our first computer back in 1986, I purchased iit to learn more on computer programming, my son liked it, but enjoyed games more, and my wife could not be bothered.