UVA Computer Science Museum

Cryptographrix writes "Just came across this site, thought slashdot users should check it out, definately worth a read, has everything from the original Osborne portable computer to such memorables as the Altair...supposedly from the UVA staff's personal collection. Even has old (1950's and another board that looks like ESS3, maybe) telephone switching equipment."

Who would have thought...

[NetRanger]

...that we'd be so happy to see things we never want to have to use again. :-)

Re:Historical computer items

[bovril]

I can just see a programmer walk up to a dropped pile of punchcards all scattered around... no way to rewrite the program... Now THAT'S a nightmare!

Pick up the cards and put them in the bin. That's called garbage collection, isn't it?

Geddit? Geddit?!

*sigh*

Punch cards

[prockcore]

Wow, every time I see a punch card I'm simply amazed that people used to do anything useful with them.. I find punch cards more amazing that any new technology.

I tried to write a program using punch cards once, but instead of a nice sort routine, I accidentally voted for Pat Buchannen.

Figures

[vthokie69]

Leave it to UVA to put all that information on one long page with lots of graphics. It's really great for modem users. GO HOKIES!!!!!!!

AST SixPak

[Kris_J]

I'm sure my first PC had an AST SixPak at one time or another. I also remember it taking two and a half minutes to load Win3.0 (from the C: prompt, not from switch-on) on my 19MHz XT with 512k of disk cache in Expanded memory. How things have changed. Now it takes ten minutes to load Windows XP on my 1+GHz P3.

ahh, the bad old days

[Anonymous Coward]

I had an Osborne 1; as a matter o' fact, I had two of 'em. The second one had a *hard drive* - an external device the size of a shoebox, containing a bottomless pit into which one could pour data without ever filling it up. 11 MB, $1400 - eat yer hearts out! I had the external monitor adapter, too, a handy device that gave you a composite video out so you didn't die from eyestrain.

It's not entirely true that you had to use a particular manufacturer's disks - CP/M warez for the DEC Z80 micros (Rainbow?) worked great in the Osborne, and often cost less. Does anyone remember "CP/M Power", with the original undelete? ;)

The jar of punch card chad brought back a few memories, too . . . my roomdog and I collected the stuff for a month by surreptitiously emptying the university's card punches until we had a garbage can full, which was used to inundate the front seat of an enemy's car one night . . . heh heh heh. I wish I still had a jug; you could also make dandy simulated bird poop from a mixture of chad (called Numer-Bits by us), flour, and water.