Subj : Re: My First Computers
To   : Michael Knapp
From : Ron Lauzon
Date : Fri Jan 15 2021 09:30:00

-=> Michael Knapp wrote to Ron Lauzon <=-

 MK> That's cool!  I had no idea that Sperry made PC compatibles.  I Googled
 MK> it and checked it out.  Would have been pretty neat to own a personal
 MK> computer with the Sperry name on it.

I liked it.  I'm still looking for one (or at least the box to make into
something but they are RARE).

But in college, our Sperry/Univac did not have a good reputation.  During
crunch week, your FORTRAN program would lose its parameters.  If you did
something like CALL FUNC(1,2,3), what FUNC got was 1, 2 and nothing that had
anything to do with "3".

 MK> My first computer experience was on a TRS-80 Model III.  But the first
 MK> computer I owned was an IBM PCjr.  Worst of both worlds: not as good at
 MK> business software as the IBM PC, and not as good as games as a
 MK> Commodore or Atari.  But I learned a lot by trying to make things work.

A lot of us had the same.  I had to beg and borrow computer time when I
was in high school.  Luckily we had some good teachers and when they got tired
of us pushing the Commodore PETs in the computer "lab" to their limits,
they got us an account on the school's IBM mainframe doing FORTRAN.
(Until we got kicked off for trying to print out some "proprietary" program
listings - not trying to change our grades or anything.)


.... Got my Uzi, got some Scotch...let's go to Disneyland!
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