1981 Personal Computer Catalog

edibobb writes "I just fired up my scanner and uploaded the 35-page 1981 (+/- 1 year) personal computer catalog from American Small Business Computers. 16K RAM for $22; 10 megabyte hard drive, 5 meg fixed and 5 removeable, with 14-inch platters; 25-character per second printer. Things have changed a bit since then!"

Blast from the Past

[General Sherman]

I don't see what's so special, it's just like taking the tour inside NASA.

Oh the hair and the suits.

[nlinecomputers]

Those guys in those suits. Did we really dress like that? Fuck I'm old.....

spot the geek

[ksheff]

In this picture [xpda.com] which one do you think is the compsci geek and which one is in league with the devil (aka the Marketing guy)?

Remember Bill Gate's quote?

[spangineer]

Yes, I'm quoting Bill Gates. It won't happen again. But it's relevant and interesting:

"No one will need more than 637 kb of memory for a personal computer." (SaidWhat [saidwhat.co.uk])
(early 1970s)

Too Pricey

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm not upgrading my memory until it drops to a buck per K, a few months from now.

Check out those hairdos and moustaches...

[isny]

What do you think? [xpda.com] 1970s Pr0n stars or computer salesmen? You be the judge!

a blast from the present

[ChipMonk]

Things have changed a bit since then!

Yeah, the Slashdot effect hadn't been invented yet.

Wow

[krray]

You did all that ... and then posted it on /. ?

I will say ... you have a bigger set (or more bandwidth) than me!

Definition of server masochism (n):

[ErikTheRed]

A desire to cause pain to one's server, primarily though the Slashdot linking of an article that consists of nothing but large .jpg images. This condition should be treated immediately with extensive psychiatric care (the glowing and smoking remains of the server can be hosed down once the heat dies down enough to allow approach).

Re:Here I sit

[DrunkenTerror]

Nice mailto, Ass In Gap. That's your Indian name from now on.

Re:Made in USA?

[xs650]

As soon as they made some money, they left those places.

Coincidentally...

[griffitts]

The gear shown in this catalog is the only equipment that current Corel products will run flawlessly on.

Re:Oh the hair and the suits.

[FuzzyBad-Mofo]

If it's any consolation, it's not so much their clothing as the dorky mustaches.. ^_^

Joke I played

[Bryan Ischo]

I found an old Fry's Electronics San Jose Mercury News ad section in a box of old papers at my father-in-law's house once a couple of moths ago. As a joke I replaced the ad in that day's newspaper with it. It was funny seeing his reaction later that evening when he browsed to the Fry's section to check out the day's deals as he normally does. It took a little while before he realized what was going on. Fry's ads from 1989 look almost identical to those of today, but the 386's listed for $2500 and dot matrix printers for $500 eventually tipped him off to the joke.

It's a stupid story, but I thought it was funny.

Re:Oh, that'll last.

[Anonymous Coward]

The site is /.ed with only 5 comments

No, it's not, actually. Peforming fairly well at the moment.

Would the next person who plans to comment about a site being /.ed please suck on the business end of a shotgun... and also ask someone to check to see if it really is /.ed, and shoot you again for good measure if it's not?

THINGS HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL.

[Peter Cooper]

Things have changed a bit since then!

SOME OF US DO NOT HAVE THE FANCY MONEY TO SPEND ON 300 BAUD MODEMS AND EGA SCREENS AND HAVE TO MAKE DO WITH WHAT WE HAVE GOT. I RECENTLY SAVED UP TEN BUCKS TO BUY A 32K EXPANSION PACK FOR MY COMMODORE PET. IT IS NOT PRETTY BUT IT WORKS.

BEFORE YOU ASK HOW I AM ON THE ARPANET, I AM ACCESSING VIA PACKET RADIO SERVICE. MY NEAREST REPEATER IS 25 MILES AWAY AND THEN THE NEXT REPEATER ON HAS A FOURTEEN POINT FOUR KILOBIT MODEM CONNECTION TO THE ARPANET. I WAS SENT THIS MAIL BY A FRIEND OF A FRIEND WHO HAS WINDOWS AND HAVE READ IT AND AM WRITING THIS REPLY ON MY COMMODORE PET USING KA9Q AND PINE.

BEST REGARDS AND 73S
PETER COOPER
STATION WS47X

The hair in the pic..

[api_syurga]

Oh my Gawd!!The hair!!Noo!!!

Slashdot effect

[JustinXB]

Thanks to the Slashdot effect, you get to see the catalog at 1981 speeds!!!

Re:A link on swbell.net? Oh, that'll last.

[NsinR8R]

Catalog19.jpg on the skittlebrau mirror was "wholly" unexpected....

My ENIAC boasts unbreakable security!

[rice_burners_suck]

16K RAM for $22; 10 megabyte hard drive, 5 meg fixed and 5 removeable, with 14- inch platters; 25-character per second printer.

You think that's advanced technology, eh? You should come to my place sometime and check out my ENIAC. You have to be the 1337est of the '1337 to operate this thing. No hard drive. No mouse. No graphics... hell, there ain't even a CLI for cryin' out loud! (Real Programmers don't need no stinkin' user interface.) To enter commands into this baby, you gotta connect hundreds upon hundreds of wires, kind of like they did in the old telephone switchboards, where a human operator connected your call.

And best of all, this computer does it all.

• Want to multiply two numbers in just 3 milliseconds? Done.
• Want security even the likes of OpenBSD can't beat? Done.

The designers of this system knew what they were doing. The inability to store a program means that this system CANNOT get a virus, ever, period. Of course, then Von Neumann had to come along and invent stored programs, and the next thing you know, Outlook automatically executes email attachments...

Re:1981? Not Later?

[Mr. Troll]

Check out the MTBF on the printer:

1 year at 75% duty cycle. That's AWFUL....unlike my modern Lexmark, which only cost me $40, I mean that thing lasted.....oh wait

At least todays crappy printers don't weigh 44 freakin pounds..

Apple

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey, it's the price list from the Apple on-line store!

mirror anyone?

[netnerd.caffinated]

it looks like the webhost is actually running the hardware from the catalogue

Some things haven't..

[opusman]

The pictures are loading about as fast as they would have from a BBS in 1981!

Oblig. Apollo 13 quote

[Wheaty18]

"We even have computers that can fit inside a single room!"

whithe rthe MX-70

[Spatula Sam]

So I've been scouring Epson's site, and I can't seem to find the driver software for the MX-70 printer anywhere. And office depo doesn't even have the print heads in stock. What gives?

seriously though, I wonder what would happen if you were to call Epson tech support about a problem with your TRS-80 and the MX-70 printer.

you had catalogs!?!

[pyrrho]

when I was young we had to signal our computer orders (usally replacement beads for the abacus) with damp blankets using smoke signals.

And we liked it.

Re:Here I sit

[the_mad_poster]

Holy shit

That is the FUNNIEST fucking comment EVER. I have preserved a screenshot in case it ever changes at http://www.simple-sam.com/ass_in_gap.png [simple-sam.com]

I am so drunk..... (because I took off work tomorrow). WAIT! I'm not drunk enough to not qualify my statement.... and I made the link into a link.... so I'm... uh... not drunk?

Save time - read the obligatory Slashdot comments

[mrklin]

"Is the site hosted on a the original server with 16K RAM and a 10 megabyte hard drive becase it is Slashdotted!!!!!"

"Yes, but does it run Linux?"

"Bill Gates said 640K ought to be enough for everyone." which is then followed by 10 variations of "Actually, Gates never said that."

"I actually owned one of those (insert archaic by modern standards technology here)" which is followed by another 10 variations of "That's nothing. We didn't even have those abovementioned technology because Big Bang just occurred and we only had hydoren and helium available, you insensitive clod!!"

Snooze...

No. This would be an idiot.

[craXORjack]

Posted by michael on Thursday April 29, @09:44PM
from the never-attended-skool dept.
idiotbob writes "I just fired up my scanner and uploaded the 1650-page (+/- 100 pages) 1998 Fall/Winter catalog from Sear and Roebuck in 300dpi, 24bit color, even the b&w pages! 100% Cotton V neck T-shirts (3 pack) for $12; Black and Decker cordless screwdriver, 40" Big screen Color TV, with remote control; Kingsize polyester bedspread ensembles in solid or floral pattern! Hosted on my home ISDN connection. Wow, things were different back then!

Re:THINGS HAVEN'T CHANGED AT ALL.

[Kufat]

When I saw this many caps in one place, I thought I was going to be seeing a request for my assistance in helping money leave a small country.

Re:Slashdot effect

[Geekbot]

How long until his server gets the Zmodem protocol so I can at least resume my failed download?

That's Speedy RAM

[DJ Super Dulce]

Man, things have changed. I can't believe RAM back then had an access speed of 200ms. You might as well remember the damn information yourself with speeds like that.

I got it... 1...01...1...

Re:Here I sit

[GlassUser]

I have modified my sig for the first time in forever, to honor this.

ObPython

[The Wicked Priest]

Helium! Such luxury!

1989 RadioShack PC for under $9000 sans monitor

[adrianhensler]

Check out this picture at HardOCP [hardocp.com] that I actually uploaded awhile back (they spelt my name wrong damnit!)

For a paltry $8499 in 1989 at RadioShack (Canadian dollars in 1989?) you got:
20 Mhz 80386
VGA graphics
2 MB RAM (up to 16MB capacity)
Cache memory.
Monitor and mouse not included.

I may actually still have that piece of paper somewhere. Not sure what that says about me.

Re:ah, the trs-80 color computer

[Jerf]

Eh? With modern computers, I can attain a frag rate of millions per second with Conway's Life running at full tilt. You must play a mean game of Quake.

Re:$22 for 16k of RAM...

[BESTouff]

Well, I'm sure that with such a quantity you could deal a bit and pay only $1000000 or something like that.

Re:Oblig. Princess Bride quote

[DarcSeed]

Inconceivable!!