© Mark Ollig
If the Novel Coronavirus Disease 2019, commonly known as COVID-19, had occurred during the 1970s, working from home would not have been an option for many of us.
Of course, we could have played a lot of Pong back in 1972.
In 1975, as far as one having a home computer, there was always the Altair 8800 microcomputer.
Computer hobbyists were putting Altair 8800’s kits together, ordered through Popular Electronics magazine.
The build-it-yourself kit sold for $439, while the fully assembled Altair 8800 sold for $621.
Ed Roberts created the Altair 8800 and worked at MIT.
The Altair 8800 used an Intel 8080 8-bit microprocessor, 4K of RAM operated using Beginner’s All-purpose Symbolic Instruction Code (BASIC) programming language.
The software programs written for it were stored on a cassette tape.
The Altair 8800 input/output interface consisted of toggle switches and binary lights.
The BASIC program for the Altair 8800 was written by Bill Gates, who co-founded Microsoft.
The internet of the 1970s was called the Advanced Research Projects Agency Network, or ARPANET. This packet-switching network was used mostly by the military, research institutions, and universities.
The world’s first websites would not appear on the internet until 1991.
By 1993, there were 623 websites. Today, there are nearly 1.8 billion.
But, I digress.
In 1971, Ray Tomlinson wrote the first electronic mail program, which allowed ARPANET users to quickly, digitally communicate with each other.
Tomlinson also decided to use the @ symbol used in email addresses.
The first ARPANET email message was “QWERTYUIOP.”
In 1974, TCP (transmission control protocol) used with today’s IP (internet protocol) was created by Robert Kahn and Vinton Cerf. Today’s internet uses TCP/IP.
By 1975, there were 61 nodes (mainframe computers and other devices, like teletype printers) connected to ARPANET. Today, the internet has some 50 billion nodes.
Aug. 3,1977, Radio Shack, a subsidiary of the Tandy Corporation, began selling the TRS-80 personal computer for the home.
T-R-S stands for Tandy Radio Shack.
The 80 at the end of TRS-80 stands for the Z80 microprocessor used in the computer.
The Z80 microprocessor had an original clock speed of 1.78 MHz.
The TRS-80 was a home computer system that included a keyboard and a display monitor.
The computer processing and associated electronic components are inside of the keyboard housing.
In August 1977, I stopped at the Radio Shack store in Brainerd to purchase a new stereo player.
I recall seeing the TRS-80 on display and seriously considered buying it.
When I learned it cost $600 ($2,561 in 2020 dollars), I decided to hold off on purchasing it.
“There was limited software on it, you could play a few games, but word processing was rudimentary and had a lot of codes that you had to learn,” said David Allison, technology curator at the National Museum of American History.
The National Museum of American History collection contains an original TRS-80 computer.
In 1977, I considered computers as being used by the military, weather forecasters, NASA, and for predicting and processing election results, or tabulating the US Census.
I did not see the immediate advantages of owning one.
Instead, I bought a new Panasonic PLL Multiplex Circuit stereo with cassette, AM/FM radio, and record player. It included a pair of “Thruster Speakers,” which provided a great sound. I miss that stereo.
During the ‘70s, a growing band of computer hobbyists were building their own home computers and sharing information through computing clubs and other grass-roots organizations.
In June 1977, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak introduced the world to the Apple computer.
A major blizzard hit Chicago in January 1978. Ward Christianson and Randy Suess, members of the Chicago Area Computer Hobbyists’ Exchange, better known as CACHE, wanted to exchange computer software disk files and were unable to because of the snowstorm.
Not to be deterred, they came up with a way to directly exchange software files from one computer to another.
Both developed a new software program and configured the hardware needed to exchange computer data files using a file transfer protocol from one home computer to another computer over a phone line.
The software program they wrote was named CBBS (Computerized Bulletin Board System).
A computer using CBBS software later became commonly known as a BBS.
They used a North Star Horizon computer with a Zilog Z80A microprocessor, and a CP/M (Control Program for Microcomputers) operating system.
A computer would need to have installed a client software and have a modem to access the BBS.
The person operating a multi-user BBS came to be called the computer System Operator or SysOp.
To connect to a BBS, you needed your username and password (which the operator of the BBS mailed to you).
Once accessing the BBS, you could engage in various text-chat forums, play simple graphical games, use email, and upload or download utility and gaming files shared among users within the BBS.
It was the start of the virtual online community; nearly 20 years before there was Twitter, Facebook, or even MySpace (for those of you who remember that).
As some of you may know, I once operated a dialup BBS back in the day called WBBS: OnLine! (Winsted Bulletin Board Service).
Yup, those were the good old days.Stay safe out there.
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| Altair 8800 |
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| TRS-80 |
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| TRS-80 |
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| Apple II |
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| APPLE II |
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| Brochure from WBBS:OnLine |
