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!"

Comments

Made in USA?

[Bryan Ischo]

One thing I notice is that 20+ years ago alot more high tech development seemed to have been happening all over the USA, instead of being highly concentrated in just a few places as seems to be the case now. Printers from Florida? Word Processors from Oklahoma? I remember reading the the original MOS chips were manufactured in PA in the 1970s! If I bought a printer today and the box said that it was manufactured anywhere other than Taiwan or China, let alone Florida or Oklahoma, I'd be shocked!

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.....

1981? Not Later?

[angst_ridden_hipster]

I suspect that was actually from later than 1981.

In 1980, I spent $269 for 16k RAM for my TRS-80.

That was 4116s, too. I can't believe I spent nearly an order of magnitude too much, since I watched prices in 80-Micro and Byte like a hawk.

My (ahem) memory could be failing, but I think this may have been more recent than 1981...

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..

Too Pricey

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Phone number

[kavachameleon]

The phone number given is now the phone number for Upperspace. They make CAD software.

Re:Phone number

[zjbs14]

Same company, different products. Back in the later 1980's they released Design CAD as a low-cost alternative to AutoCAD. My parents' company actually used to by Corvus stuff from these guys.

If you've ever been to Pryor, OK, you'd be amazed that anything technical would have come from a town like that.

Check out those hairdos and moustaches...

[isny]

What do you think? 1970s Pr0n stars or computer salesmen? You be the judge!

Re:Here I sit

[DrunkenTerror]

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

Mirror...

[Copperhead]

I mirrored the site here since his site doesn't seem to be weathering the storm. If you see broken images, it's because I'm still wgetting it.

I'll take it down if he wants me to, of course, but I thought it would help.

Re:1981? Not Later? (geezing!)

[Rick Zeman]

n 1980, I spent $269 for 16k RAM for my TRS-80.

Ugh, that's way worse than me first populating my Apple II 1mb RAM card at about $100 per 128k with those silly bank of 8 chips. I was forever bending those little feet. I almost got a woody when Macs with SIMMS came along. :)

Re:ah, the trs-80 color computer

[Anonymous Coward]

Er...that would be John Conway's Game of Life. Less fragging.

Slashdot effect

[JustinXB]

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

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...

Oblig. Apollo 13 quote

[Wheaty18]

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

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

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?

Bah, Cash only makes "the perfect budget"...

[brunes69]

.. for people who don't have enough sense to manage their money.

I have had a credit card since I was 18, I charge over $1000 on my cards a month.. I buy everything on credit card, including pay my bills. This way I maximize the free "points" my credit card gives me.

Guess how much I have paid in finance charges the past 6 years? I would say a max of 25 dollars *total*??? ( and that was only due to purposeful "letting it ride" for a few weeks since I was on vacation ).

50 dollars in finances for well over 600 dollars in rewards.

Seriously, credit cards are only "the devil" to people who have no will power. Just because I have thousands worth of credit in my pocket, doesn't mean I am about to go buy a car on my visa.

Not to mention if you charge something and you break it or it is stolen in the first 3 months, you can usually get a free replacement.. or if you get ripped off you can contest the charges. Try that with cash.

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...

Something similar

[danuary]

Check out this unix ad, also from 1981 (hi Bob! -dp). Brought to you by Bell Labs. It's amazing how times have changed......

Re:Here I sit

[GlassUser]

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