Lucky schrieb:

*Volker* #corrected ;-)# my first computer was a Sinclair ZX81 that I built from scratch. You needed to enter like 20 pages of code to get it to do something! Then I got a Commodore 64 and all the goodies for it. I also used it for a very small
state to state internet connection called Q-Link.


I went into "computing" in 1984 with a C64. I was already aged 24 when I
saw all the kids in the malls playing around with DOS-code routines on
the C64s... I couldn't beleive.... went into "peek'ing and poke'ing"
very soon for myself then :-)
I got really all stuff available for this neat machine -except those
acoustic-couplers for data transfer over telephone line. I had a
highgrade freezing module and a EPROM-burner and a biiiig EPROM
-extension card in 1985 wih 1(!!!) megabyte(!!!) full of 27512 EPROMs
and a bunch of "biiiig" programs runnig just from the card menue. Loaded
50kb in just 2 seconds... ;-). Also had running up to 3 FDDs with
speeddos-plus and a very early 7-needle graphics printer from 'seikosha'
wich could already(!) print some underlined text out of 'Vizawrite' and
'dBase' in graphics mode using a special text 2graphics transfer
program.....
Sold all the stuff in 1988 when price for C64 equipment went down rather
quickly and the IBM 8086/ 88-PC and clones entered the consumer market.

I was spending like $88 a month for it. You were charged by the hour. They
got bought out by a company called "America online" when the stock wasn't
even listed yet.


I went into telephone data transfer with the PC in 1993 with a 1200/75
modem. My wife was beta-tester for AOL(!)-Germany in 1994.... Had
telephone bills up to 350DM wich was app. US$200 per month..
Those were the days... :-)
Now I have a 2Mbit DSL-flat for 10EUR (app12US$)/ month.
Cant't believe having been without a computer for 4 years. OK, my 2 sons
were born in this time... ;-))
Nice talk...

Volker

"Michael A. Terrell" wrote in message
...
Lucky wrote:

Well it sure made life easier. I think the whole idea now is to confuse
the
end user and make it hard for him/her to solve the problem yourself. This
way you have to have pay for tech support to get it "fixed" and it makes
a
simple computer "hard"

Lucky


Those addresses and IRQs haven't changed from the first PC, but the
info used to come in the manulas for the serial cards or motherboards.
When was the last time you bought a computer and you got any
documentation on the hardware?

--
Former professional electron wrangler.

Michael A. Terrell
Central Florida

I usually never have to fool around with com port sereting except for
perhaps baud rate etc. I build my own computers like the one I'm on and
never had this problem before. This mobo seems to use the Com 1 port
internally. I had to do what I did.

Lucky