First Computer You've Owned?

DeathMagus · Apr 2, 2011

WalksWithChrist said:
I wish there was a way to disable that sound. Sometimes, like if you have a roommate, you want to power on quietly.

I don't have a mac, but I keep a 3.5 mm (headphone) plug with the cord snipped off from a broken, cheap headphone set in my laptop bag. If I turned my laptop off with the volume up, but need to turn it on without sound, I just plug it into the headphone jack.

WalksWithChrist · Apr 2, 2011

Willtor said:
I had that problem as an underclassman, too. But my sophomore year, I roomed with a guy with 9 computers, so the place sounded like a machine room, anyway. So I didn't worry about it.

9 computers?? I'm sorry. Unless you're working on a cluster or something, you do not NEED 9 computers!

DeathMagus said:
I don't have a mac, but I keep a 3.5 mm (headphone) plug with the cord snipped off from a broken, cheap headphone set in my laptop bag. If I turned my laptop off with the volume up, but need to turn it on without sound, I just plug it into the headphone jack.

These are the types of tips I live for! One I love is how you can test a power supply with just a paperclip.

How To: Jump Start A Power Supply (PSU) / Test A Power Supply And Components - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net

I was at a guy's house once and suspected his PSU was dead. So I asked him if he had a paper clip. He was quite impressed!

Blind As A Bat · Apr 2, 2011

WalksWithChrist said:
9 computers?? I'm sorry. Unless you're working on a cluster or something, you do not NEED 9 computers!

I don't!?

~Tuesday~ · Apr 2, 2011

WalksWithChrist said:
I wish there was a way to disable that sound. Sometimes, like if you have a roommate, you want to power on quietly.

You can! Either mute the sound before you shut down or, download this. Download StartupSound.prefPane for Mac - Control the volume of the startup chime. MacUpdate.com

I do not use it but I tried it and it works. Most of the time I like the start up sound because it lets me know the computer is working fine.

WalksWithChrist · Apr 2, 2011

~Tuesday~ said:
You can! Either mute the sound before you shut down or, download this. Download StartupSound.prefPane for Mac - Control the volume of the startup chime. MacUpdate.com

I do not use it but I tried it and it works. Most of the time I like the start up sound because it lets me know the computer is working fine.

I wonder if that works for old PowerBooks...that's what I have. Maybe I'll check when I get home.

WalksWithChrist · Apr 2, 2011

ComeDancing said:
I don't!?

cyberlizard · Apr 3, 2011

JustMeSee said:
Wow! This bring back memories. Atari BASIC was my first programming language. Poke and Peek, Sound, Goto, and GoSub bring back memories of keying in programs from magazines.

I remember that you had to power up the external floppy drive before the computer. I learned this the hard way. I spend an entire day coding a buket load of assembler and then went to save it. Needless to say I was gutted.

Strangely enough I still have the old book 'mapping the Atari' which was so useful in its time.

Steve

Willtor · Apr 4, 2011

WalksWithChrist said:
9 computers?? I'm sorry. Unless you're working on a cluster or something, you do not NEED 9 computers!

...

Hey! You're barking up the wrong tree!

In reality, though, my wife and I have 7 computers between us that we use on a regular basis, and she isn't even a techie.

Dark_Lite · Apr 4, 2011

Willtor said:
Hey! You're barking up the wrong tree!

In reality, though, my wife and I have 7 computers between us that we use on a regular basis, and she isn't even a techie.

Let's see.. how many do I have? Guess it really depends on what you count as a "computer."

My three main machines are my desktop, laptop, and server. The server was originally a media center before I bought a media streamer and set that box up to serve media to it. My desktop was the server before that. I was using my laptop as a desktop, but since switching back to my actual desktop, I use it less.

Then I have my Xoom tablet and my phone, both which I use regularly. I think the Xoom is why I don't use my laptop as much anymore. I have an iPod Touch as well, but I don't use it very much.

I also have a VPS on Rackspace to host one of my websites. Just recently set that up. Pretty good if you want a cheap VPS to play around with.

So, in total, I have 7 computers/computing devices. I use five on a regular basis (desktop, server, tablet, VPS, phone) and the other two (laptop, iPod Touch) on a less regular basis.

I'm also thinking about upgrading my desktop, which might give me yet another server box. Not sure what I'd do with it though.

Willtor · Apr 4, 2011

Don't forget any video game systems you use on a regular basis.

WalksWithChrist · Apr 4, 2011

Willtor said:
Hey! You're barking up the wrong tree!

In reality, though, my wife and I have 7 computers between us that we use on a regular basis, and she isn't even a techie.

Ok, 7 is fine.

I usually run two at once. One for gaming and a laptop open for the wiki of whatever game I'm playing. We actually decommissioned my wife's tower last year. She was using her laptop almost exclusively and the tower was only used when she needed to print. So I got a parallel/USB adapter (printer is that old!) so she can print from the laptop. So goodbye one tower...and desk! Salvation Army is coming by this week to pickup the desk.

My MIL once asked why anyone needs more than one computer. My reply was do you know any cooks that have just one pot?

pgp_protector · Apr 4, 2011

Willtor said:
Hey! You're barking up the wrong tree!

In reality, though, my wife and I have 7 computers between us that we use on a regular basis, and she isn't even a techie.

LOL that's all

3 Desktops (One for each of us)
1 Older desktop used for playing with (Linux, Windows Server, whatever OS I wish to try)
4 Laptops (1 Work, 1 Work Replaced, Wifes, and 1 Ancient Laptop)
1 Tablet (Viewsonic G Tab, Love it)
2 Android Phones
Not counting a few older Windows Phones that aren't used after being replaced.

And now I'm tempted on getting a "New" commodore 64
http://www.christianforums.com/t7549573/

pgp_protector · Apr 4, 2011

WalksWithChrist said:
Ok, 7 is fine.

I usually run two at once. One for gaming and a laptop open for the wiki of whatever game I'm playing. We actually decommissioned my wife's tower last year. She was using her laptop almost exclusively and the tower was only used when she needed to print. So I got a parallel/USB adapter (printer is that old!) so she can print from the laptop. So goodbye one tower...and desk! Salvation Army is coming by this week to pickup the desk.

My MIL once asked why anyone needs more than one computer. My reply was do you know any cooks that have just one pot?

Forget the desk, what are you doing with the old Tower system?

WalksWithChrist · Apr 6, 2011

I actually donated it (it's a tower I've rebuilt myself *many* times...it was basically the "graveyard" for all the castoff parts from my gaming machine) to our martial arts school. We use it there for watching our instructional DVDs during class mostly.
I do have the old dojo computer that was replaced by my wife's that's collecting dust! lol But I do plan on using that one for training/experimenting purposes. I cleaned it up (it was in a right state when I got it home) and it's pretty much in working order...aside from the fact that it's an old HP piece of garbage.

Let's see how many computers we do have in the house. My tower, my Compaq laptop (about five years old and is getting used less and less), my Apple PowerBook G4 (mostly used for playing kiddie movies and Internet), my wife's new Compaq laptop (which is SWEET btw!), my wife's old laptop almost identical to my old Compaq (this one may be up for grabs in a month or so after we are convinced we've *really* got all my wife's files off it), a fairly new Dell tower I recently inherited that I'm lugging back and forth to work over the weekends for gaming (I can do what I want on the weekends, work mostly alone or with one other guy who is also a gamer!, as long as I take my calls), an Apple Mac Classic that STILL WORKS...and I think that's it. So seven total.
Wait! I think I still have this ancient Compaq laptop...it's an LTE I think. It has "Windows 92" on it! A version of Caldera that makes everything look like Windows 95...but says "Windows 92" if you hit the Start button. It's missing the docking station which has the CD-ROM, so you can't do anything with it.
And a working Apple Newton my friend got for me from an auction.

Yeah, my geek card is old and dog-eared and has lots of punches.

NightShadow · Apr 6, 2011

First computer we owned was a C64 With a tape drive - Those tapes took forever to load.

skcin7 · Apr 15, 2011

It was an old Packard Bell machine which had Windows 95 installed on it. I think it had about 1.4GB total of system memory. LOL.

Cute Tink · Apr 15, 2011

My family's first computer ran from a floppy boot disk and ran DOS. We had a flashy monochrome monitor and a screaming 512 KB of RAM. No hard drive of course. The computer was built into the keyboard. EDIT: I just remembered it was a Tandy 1000.

Most of the games we played had to be run from two disks until we got the cool 3 1/2" floppy drive. Then we could fit a cool game on a single disk and it rocked!

The best thing I ever did with that was plug it in to the TV and I had 16 awesome colors for the first time on a computer. That was a special day for me. I bet that computer would still run today. Not a lot of moving parts.

Then we got a Windows 98 machine with a 75 Mhz processor. I thought it was super speedy back then.

DeathMagus · Apr 15, 2011

Cute Tink said:
Not a lot of moving parts.

As opposed to today?

Cute Tink · Apr 15, 2011

DeathMagus said:
As opposed to today?

Hard drives spin (excluding SSD). There was only one fan. I don't know about you, but my PC has a fan on the power supply, a tower fan, processor fan and a video card fan. If one of those fails, something will probably fry.

DeathMagus · Apr 15, 2011

Cute Tink said:
Hard drives spin (excluding SSD).

So did floppies - and those things were fragile as hell.

There was only one fan. I don't know about you, but my PC has a fan on the power supply, a tower fan, processor fan and a video card fan. If one of those fails, something will probably fry.

Eh. Fans are cheap and don't change in design frequently. I hardly consider them a part of the computer - more an accessory like a power cord or a network cable.

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