Wow! I started researching ubuntu on wikipedia and ended up reminscing here like the rest of you how I got my start in computers.

At school I got excelled math classes and learned Basic on the U of M''s mainframe (even though I was only in 7th grade, mind you) and the next year bought my first TRS-80 CoCo after saving my 3 paper route monies for a year just to get the computer. Took me more years to buy the disk $ controller, then printer and speech card.

It is so funny and cool to see so many other people reminscing about their past CoCo''s. I built the single transistor driver provided in Rainbow magazine so I could use a reall greenscreen monitor for BBSing purposes which were very active here. Yes, Rainbow was a pricey magazine for its time. I met hundreds of local techies that way. Went to a couple of CoCo meetings where guys had ''supercharged'' their comps with 10 meg hds which was almost unfathomable at the time

What''s sad is not too long ago I moved and threw some of my equipment out because until this minute I never knew there existed this kind of support for it. A friend gave me a few more and I bought another one which had a custom ram bank to 512K which ran so hot it was mounted by the previous guy ON TOP of the grey case to help keep it cool. During hot weather I babied it by putting a small fan on low to run over it and it still worked last I disconnected it.

Too bad I threw away so many magazines, maybe the multipak and all kinds of other items. But you can''t store everything forever you know. I''ve got enough of my dad and his dad''s tools I keep derusting and sharp to prove that....Stanley Saws and planes and a that go back to their first house built near Staten Island when they immigrated in 1911 or so. I still use some of them, too.

Well, I''m digressing but reading all of your messages is really bringing back memories and that I should go through that stuff and see what I have and maybe even try to put it to use as a security system or home automation center with the X-10 units or find some use for it. It was an incredible machine for its day.

Coincidentally enough the movie WARGAMES is playing and that is bringing back memories, too. I spent a lot of hours programming back then. And conquering the Tape Game Madness and the Minotaur before I got a few of the cartridges.

If it''d be possible to link it to this computer it might be worth putzing with. I always wondered if this would make the ideal solar powered computer due to its easy, and minimal, voltage requirements. With no inverters needed.

Soon I have to move all of that stuff to another, smaller, more compact storage space. I''ll have a chance to go through it then. I always had bad luck with the printers.

Actually my mother would probably be more comfortable using it as a WP than any IBM machine. Any suggestions what printer might work well with it? Quiet a must. My DMP-250 was so noisy I soldered together an extension cord using a 25 foot telephone cord for the serial port connector and bought the connectors from RS. Then I put the DMP-250 on another floor in the closet. Making paper, for school reports and papers, was one of the most important things back then. Now we''re trying to go paperlless! LOL

ahh, the coco, the reason I got into computers...

Couple notes that are worthy here...

The coco, when used with OS9 Level II, was way ahead of it's time. It was one of the only computers that could share memory between processes... of course it was completely multiuser...

At one time, I had a 20MB Hard Drive, 4 rs232 ports, TRUE parallel port, all modded into an IBM case, complete with an IBM keyboard adapter.. Of course this wasn't the standard defacto... hehe

reusing memory between processes meant it utilitized memory extremely well, if two terminals loaded the same app, only 1 instance of that app would remain in memory..

we had an active CCUG here in Calgary, can't remember everyone's name...

Specifically the gentleman who designed and manufactured the IO controller for the HD..

I remember it was an INTERFACE, attached to a MFM or RLL controller, then attached to the hard drive... remember MFM & RLL? Had to set the interleave to 3:1 for optimum performance..

We ran quite a few BBS's on cocos.. even through the bit banger port... At the time, I only had a 300 baud MANUAL modem (DCM 101 I think, with the red button on the front to turn it on and off).. we made an auto-answer circuit, sensing ring voltages off the phone line, triggering a relay, causing the modem to turn on...

My long time friend, even to this day, Ken Johnston wrote Inteleterm...

Does anyone recall the ad to learn 6809 assembly language with a cartoon character in suspenders saying "I'll Teach You a Lesson!". I've always liked that emblem, and want to make it into a patch.