Packrat genome project questions

--- Mike Ford <mikeford(a)socal.rr.com> wrote: The first computer I spent any length of time in front of (not counting school/boy scout trips to places that had computers) was something owned by the Columbus Public Schools. It used mark-sense cards and had a single-line alphanumeric display, possibly a 14-segment per character amber flourescent display, with a "lazy T" prompt. The prompt was distinctive - it had the right most segments set and the middle segment set - like a 7-segment "3" missing the top and bottom horizontal segments. It didn't do much. I have no idea who the vendor was, but it was no larger than a desk-top calculator on a pedestal card. They took it The next one I played with was a Plato terminal at OSU, and a DECwriter II with acoustic coupler, dialed into a (I think) RSTS machine to play BASIC games. The first one I had unlimited access to was a 4K PET at the downtown public library, circa 1977. The first one I owned was a 32K PET 2001 w/BASIC 2.0, white phosphor, and a single C2N - $1,100 slightly used (less than a fortnight before it was returned to the dealer by the initial purchaser), in 1978 or 1979. The second one I owned was a Quest Elf kit. Third was a C-64 that I got at my first-ever job, programming it for money six months before it was released (my employer got one direct from C= as a freebie for development). I was 15 when I started using it, 17 when they gave it to me. My first mini was a PDP-8/L - $35 plus some trade goods (the contents of my pockets and everything in my arms at the time) at the Dayton Hamvention in 1982. I didn't see any docs until 1984. I'd mostly fixed it, but I got one M111 out of place near the A40 spot (by the power- fail/restart card) and it didn't *exactly* work until I saw the prints, spotted the gap and moved the right card over one spot to the right place. It's now the one I show off to guests, complete with ASR-33 and high-speed punch and reader. I have, more or less, those first computers and beyond. I say more or less because that first C-64 was replaced under warranty and I don't have that precise one... pity, really... it was S/N 000002007. I _do_ have the replacement, S/N 000002354. The reason it was replaced was that initial VIC chip had a bug that caused it to generate a light-pen interrupt when it got hot (3-4 hours of use in an un-airconditioned room). Since there was no IRQ handler, it went to the blue-on-blue screen with "READY.", as if you hit the RUN-STOP/RESTORE keys. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Great stuff seeking new owners in Yahoo! Auctions! http://auctions.yahoo.com