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25th Anniversary of PC Virus 4

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actually, that is a faulty statement, actually it should be a 40th anniversary...

the Creeper Virus was one of the first, that spread itself over the ARPANET, back in 1971...

then there was also the "Elk Cloner", on the Apple DOS, back in 1981, that spread in the wild...

now it is a true statement, if PC means IBM compatible, but to old timers like me, PC stands for Personal Computer, which incorporates the Commodore line, the Amiga Line, the Apples, the Sinclairs, the Schneiders, Acorns, TRS-80, Ataris, etc.... ;-)


Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
5.25" floppies - for the win!!! Mind bending that we used them.
 
Hey Ben, thanks for the history lesson.
I've probably been around as long as you, but I sure don't have your memory!

Hey, Goom. If you ever used paper tape or an audio cassette to load a program you would be thankful for floppies!


 
<shiver>

I can't imagine having to deal with a tape or PAPER tape!

Was the PAPER tape related to the punch cards, or was that after punch cards?
 
Looks like we're hijacking the thread.

What's a cassette?? Kidding. I do remember someone loading a program off a cassette tape. I think it was to a TRS-80.

I remember using those 5.25" floppies in the TRS-80 in my middle school to play games. The moderator didn't like people playing games. So, punishment was that he put a staple through your floppy if he caught you playing games.

So, I used to get the game loaded and the put the floppy under my arm pit. If the moderator came in, he always looked for my floppy, but he couldn't see it with my coat on. I told him somebody else loaded the game for me and left. Floppy saved.

Good times.
 
Was the PAPER tape related to the punch cards, or was that after punch cards?
Paper tape was long strip of paper in which holes were punched to represent the data (similar to but not the same as "punched cards").

An organization might use one, the other, or both but they were not interchangable.
 
Thanks, guys, for the 'puter history today. [wink]
 
I remember 1/4" cassette tapes were popular with the Sinclair computers, just before Clive brought out the Microdrive. Used to use a cassette regularly to load up a Radio Teletype programme, RTTY for those in the know. Great fun! Happy days...

ROGER - G0AOZ.
 
Goom,

5 1/4" floppies, way advanced... I started out with 8" floppies (C3 DataSystem, a whopping 32kB mem shared to 11 terminals all nice and amsll, imagine a big two door refrigerator), and at home with the cassettes and then those 5 1/4" (CBM VIC20 & C64)...

Jim,

when the "Elk Cloner" hit, that is when I became interested in computers (about 15 yrs. old then)... and about the memory, well I doubt that yours is worse then mine, I tend to remember tidbits here and there, of what I thought was important at the time... ;)

Ben
"If it works don't fix it! If it doesn't use a sledgehammer..."
How to ask a question, when posting them to a professional forum.
Only ask questions with yes/no answers if you want "yes" or "no"
 
Ohh, paper tape - thanks for reminding me. When I was in high school we were connected to a statewide timeshare system. Good old fashioned 110 baud TTY, with a big roll of yellow "toilet paper" and a paper tape reader. Had to pick up the phone, dial the access number, wait for the whistle and set the handset into the acoustic coupler. All awesomely high tech.

Jeff
[small][purple]It's never too early to begin preparing for [/purple]International Talk Like a Pirate Day
"The software I buy sucks, The software I write sucks. It's time to give up and have a beer..." - Me[/small]
 
Luxury O used to live in cardbord box in middle t road...

you fill in the rest

I do not Have A.D.D. im just easily, Hey look a Squirrel!
 
Here's some more 25th anniversaries from Network World


James P. Cottingham
I'm number 1,229!
I'm number 1,229!
 
My school had a teletext printer/keyboard attached to a BBC micro (their first school computer), which had a paper-tape reader. Its biggest achievement was when one of the geekiest in the form above me managed to get it writing patterns of holes that could be read as real letters. Very cute. The rest of us just liked the bell character, which of course was a real bell. It was several years (and many cassettes) before the school BBC got a proper floppy drive.

Later, when we had a room full of computers (I forget what sort) we got a proper computing teacher. It was the maths teacher, though (a formidable lady and superb teacher) who policed the no-games policy. She never used a stapler, but was paranoid about the way every time she went in the room there would be a collective "BEEP" as everyone hit the break key simultaneously (remember, in those days the break-key was hard wired to the reset pin of every chip in the computer, and caused an instant reboot, getting you out of trouble if you were in mid game; remember the days when booting took a microsecond?).

The computer teacher spent hours trying to get us to draw a simple rectangle. I got so bored. I remember my rectangle flashed on and off, but I was completely out-classed by our form's greatest geek: his was set up to wait for a couple of seconds while the teacher appreciated it, before starting to bounce gently round the screen.
 
Fortran with punch cards and greenbar for me. Punched your cards, turned your program in, and got your printout and cards back the next day.

You tried not to do things by trial and error.


 
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