New subject: Cheapest IMSAI I've seen

16 Nov 2000

If you include programming on larger machines "for fun" as contrasted with
"working," then

(all dates approximate +/- a year!)

1965 - learned 1401 AutoCoder to solve quadratic equations; learned FORTRAN
to check for legal moves in checkers

1967 - used FORTRAN to compute the exact answer to 37**37 (don't ask why -
it was "fun")

1976 - saw a friend play StarTrek and Adventure on a timeshare system; had
seen the article on the Altair, but I wasn't interested in bit-twiddling and
switch-flipping at the time.

1977 - purchased a ProcTech Sol-20, cassette based, to learn BASIC and write
my own programs.  Two weeks to solder - 6 weeks to get working!  My wife
became a computer widow.

1978 - added a NorthStar SSSD drive (90K storage!) - needed a Univ. of
Waterloo CS grad to help me do the I/O routines!  Co-founded Regina Owners
of Microcomputer Systems (ROMS).

1979 - got into CP/M as well as N* DOS, added a N* Horizon and Hazeltine
1500 terminal. Also added 8" disk drives which I had my parents smuggle into
Canada on their vacation so I could avoid the import tax!  Started attending
WCCF in SF. Started writing articles for SOLUS News.  Became a Z80 / CP/M
"snob" - the Apple wasn't a "serious" computer, so I wasn't
interested in
meeting Wozniak when I had a chance. Wrote a program to test for ESP on the
Radio Shack Model I - became one of the first programs to be rejected by
Wayne Green's Kilobaud program publishing venture!

1980 - helped found the International NorthStar User's Association (INSUA)
in SF. (trivia - John Dvorak was another founding member.  He sold N*
software mail order thru his "newsletter" The Software Review). REALLY got
into BASIC to create real estate multiple listing index program for local
realtor.

1981 - founded Interactive Systems, Inc. in Regina, Saskatchewan with 2
partners.  Sold small business systems - NorthStar and KayPro.  Paid $1333
for a 10MB HD sub-system.  Wrote articles for INSUA. Taught multiple
"Intoduction to Personal Computing" classes through University extension
division.

1982 - Got a Morrow Decision I (which could read both N* hard-sectored
formats as well as soft sectored formats).  Wrote articles for Sol Libes'
MicroSystems magazine.  Taught "Introduction to Data Processing" for U of R
CS Department.

1983 - Created Docu-Power - a generic boilerplate document processor which
worked with any wordprocessor.  Became Canadian distributor for Micro-MUMPS
for Disk Walters (at UC Davis ?)

1984 - Moved back to the US and reluctantly bought a PC clone, converted
Docu-Power to MS-DOS (which added scores of sales to already impressive
sales in the low 100's <g> - that's # of units, not $'s).  Hooked up
with
Steve Ciarcia through the Connecticut Computer Club and became an "Ask BYTE"
researcher - Steve paid club members $5 for each letter they could answer.
Wrote the manual for Steve's Home Control System.

1985 - Reluctantly bought an AT from IBM (but only because I finagled a
UCONN faculty discount through a prof I knew there).  Co-authored (under
Ciarcia's name) the HAL-4 brainwave processor construction articles in BYTE.

... and after that it starts to get too modern.  But micros's have always
been a passion - even though I am a clinincal psychologist by training, and
I work in program evaluation in health care.

Bob Stek
Saver of Lost Sols

First personal computer nostalgia