On 2021-03-16 12:58 p.m., Dave Smith wrote:
> On 2021-03-16 2:37 p.m., Graham wrote:
>> On 2021-03-16 8:38 a.m., Dave Smith wrote:
> three laptops.
>>>
>> I have kept all the old computers as they were replaced by newer
>> technology. Thus I have one desktop in use and 3 old ones in the
>> basement. The oldest is a 486!!
>> I'm glad I kept them as the government wanted data and charts that
>> were prepared for them and saved originally on 5.25" floppies. I used
>> 2 of those old machines to transfer the data to memory sticks and
>> subsequently updated the charts using specialist software.
>> I have a 17" XP laptop which cannot be updated and the battery doesn't
>> hold a charge for long. However, the software it runs for my Garmin is
>> obsolete and can't be updated so I keep it going just to record my
>> biking activities.
>
> Sometimes I wish I had kept my old ones. I started off with a COCO II,
> then an XT. I upgraded the XT to and AT. The next one was a Pentium, and
> now I am on my third one.
>
> As for laptops, I got my first one, an HP about 10 1/2 years ago. It
> died after few years ago and was replaced by a refurbished HP, After a
> couple years the Wifi on that crapped out so bought a Toshiba. It was
> getting pretty slow and Wifi performance wasÂ* getting intolerable so I
> replaced that one.
>
> One thing I did keep was an unopened box of single sided single density
> 360K 5 1/4" floppy discs. IIRC they were $10.99, about the same price as
> a 16 gig USB stick.
>
> I remember that the 20 meg HD on the XT was $420,Â*Â*Â* My latest desktop
> with a 480gig SSD was $425.

50 years ago I was working for an oil company and was shown the computer
system that took up half of one floor of the office tower. The memory
was a 15" metal disk and we all oohed and aahd when told that the
capacity was 112k.
Within 3 years, the economic geologist had a handheld calculator with
more memory.
Now it's 16gig on a 1/2" long stick.