1GB 20 years ago and 1GB now

[Locutus]

I putzed around on Vic20's and Commodore 64's like a lot of people but my first machine that took me online was an old Compaq 486, win 3.1 and a 14.4 modem. I'm amazed that I was amazed by it all back in 1997. :lol:


Here's the progress of 1GB. I wonder where we'll be in another 20 years?

The above pic shows a 20 year old IBM hard drive which looks more like a car's radiator and weighs around 32kgs and next to it is a 1GB SD card.

8O

 

[shadowshiv]

I putzed around on Vic20's and Commodore 64's like a lot of people but my first machine that took me online was an old Compaq 486, win 3.1 and a 14.4 modem. I'm amazed that I was amazed by it all back in 1997. :lol:


Here's the progress of 1GB. I wonder where we'll be in another 20 years?

The above pic shows a 20 year old IBM hard drive which looks more like a car's radiator and weighs around 32kgs and next to it is a 1GB SD card.

8O

I really enjoyed playing games on the C64. There were a lot of good RPG and Adventure games out for it. Thank goodness for the C64 emulator! I just wish I could find a working version of Might & Magic 1 and Might & Magic 2 for it.:-(

 

[Tonington]

Bugaboo!

 

[Just the Facts]

Thank goodness for the C64 emulator!

I'll have to try one of those. I loaded one up once and got a warm and fuzzy seeing the familiar blue Commodore Basic screen, but all my C64 stuff is on 5.25 floppies and I didn't have one installed. I assume it can read the floppies.

 

[Dexter Sinister]

I remember sometime around 1985 convincing my employer we needed a 400Mb disk drive for the computer system I was running. It was an HP removable cartridge drive, state of the art at the time. It cost $25,000 and was the size of a washing machine. The stepper motor in it was bigger than the one in my table saw, and the thing was on wheels and had legs that had to be screwed down onto the floor to lift it off the wheels. If you didn't do that, the vibrations from the stepper motor would make it hop across the floor. The original system I added that drive to had 256Mb of memory, a 65Mb disk drive, and a 24-slot card cage whose cards--one per terminal--were about the size of a sheet of letter paper. It had an operating system--HP's RTE-A--a Fortran compiler, a processor rated at 1 MIPS (million instructions per second, though HP's technical guys always maintained it meant Meaningless Indicator of Processor Speed), a dot matrix printer, and a large drafting plotter, and the whole thing cost over $100,000.

I can buy about 1000 times as much computing power now for $500 in a machine I can carry in a briefcase.

 

[shadowshiv]

I'll have to try one of those. I loaded one up once and got a warm and fuzzy seeing the familiar blue Commodore Basic screen, but all my C64 stuff is on 5.25 floppies and I didn't have one installed. I assume it can read the floppies.

Actually the C64 games are on various sites, and you do not need your floppies. They are tiny little files. They have ones for the regular games and ones for the tapedeck games. I believe the file extensions are .d64 and .t64.

Google C64 and check out the first and the third entries. However, I think those sites only have the games themselves. I do not know where to get the Emulators themselves, nor do I know which one is the best one(there are several different C64 Emulators out there).

I can't believe how many systems of old now have Emulators. I have ones for the old Nintendo, Turbografx, CollecoVision, Atari2600, and Emulator for actual Arcade games, the Intellivision, and one or two systems that I can't remember. My favourite is still the C64 Emulator as the C64 is the one that I played the most when I was a kid.

 

[shadowshiv]

Bugaboo!

That was a fun game but I never got very far in it.

What would you say were your top 10 favourite games of the C64?

 

[snowles]

And just think, the micro-SD cards, and the Sony Micro are only about 1/4 the size of that SD card, and about 10% of its weight!

 

[karrie]

Howdy snowles! Long time no see it seems.

I have a question, because I went out and bought myself a couple jump drives today for school, and I figured the GB thread is as good a place as any to ask....

What's a 'good' price for a 2GB jump drive/flashdisk/whateveryouwanttocallit? I figured I'd ask you guys before I open the package. lol.

 

[#juan]

I just bought a 2 gig flash chip from Staples for $39.00. You shouldn't be paying much more than that.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Howdy snowles! Long time no see it seems.

I have a question, because I went out and bought myself a couple jump drives today for school, and I figured the GB thread is as good a place as any to ask....

What's a 'good' price for a 2GB jump drive/flashdisk/whateveryouwanttocallit? I figured I'd ask you guys before I open the package. lol.

$50 or so
http://canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProdList&cmd=pl&id=990.190

 

[karrie]

I just bought a 2 gig flash chip from Staples for $39.00. You shouldn't be paying much more than that.

okay cool. I got a two pack for $50. I tend to generally distrust Staples pricing, so I wasn't sure if it was reasonable or not. I've never had to buy one of these things, I've always seen them (smaller ones of course) as giveaways, so I wasn't sure if that price was decent for something I've seen as a freebie.

 

[#juan]

okay cool. I got a two pack for $50. I tend to generally distrust Staples pricing, so I wasn't sure if it was reasonable or not. I've never had to buy one of these things, I've always seen them (smaller ones of course) as giveaways, so I wasn't sure if that price was decent for something I've seen as a freebie.

Yeah you have to watch Staple's adds. They often have a tiny little note that tells you about a mail-in rebate..

 

[karrie]

Yeah you have to watch Staple's adds. They often have a tiny little note that tells you about a mail-in rebate..

well the major thing with this was a case of the 'too good to be true's. Staples had them listed at $119 for the two jump drives, on sale for $49. That's $70 bucks off. My brain kind of called bull___ on the whole thing. I figured I was either being ripped off, or JUST given a half decent price.

 

[#juan]

well the major thing with this was a case of the 'too good to be true's. Staples had them listed at $119 for the two jump drives, on sale for $49. That's $70 bucks off. My brain kind of called bull___ on the whole thing. I figured I was either being ripped off, or JUST given a half decent price.

That is certainly a good price. Those things are phenomenal. I've had a good number of hard drives that were less than two gigs.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Go to an actual computer store, 99% of the time you will get a better quality product and for a lot cheaper too.

 

[karrie]

that's why I tend to distrust Staples Durka.... charging for conveneince. I needed binders, a new house phone, paper, jump drives, and dividers.

Getting it all in one spot makes you seriously doubt the price you're paying. lol.

 

[DurkaDurka]

I tend to avoid buying anything that comes with a "mail in rebate"... scams

 

[eh1eh]

I tend to avoid buying anything that comes with a "mail in rebate"... scams

I've actualy got the mail in rebate on two Lynksys air cards. $15.00 each time.

 

[snowles]

Thanks, it's been a busy time for me; just bought a house, started a new job, moved back to my old stomping ground, and have a baby on the way. That, coupled with the idiotic discourse coming from a few of the peanut gallery here (most of which have luckily since been banned or banished) sent me in other directions. I'm sporadic, but such is my nature I`ll prolly just linger around the technology section from time to time, as the political threads just get me riled up.

$40 or less for 2gB seems alright. Though with school in, you can get them much cheaper around, I've seen the Kingston ones (pretty cheap but work alright) for $20 for 2gB at Future Shop, and $9.99 for 1gB. My mum bought a Sandisk for about $40 for a 4gB, which seems alright.

Though I would say the best place to buy them is off of somewhere like ncix. They go no sale there for much better prices, and because they're so lightweight, the shipping is next to nothing. You could probably pay less than $30 for 2gB, and $12 of that would be shipping and taxes.

I have to say, despite the majority of the stuff Radioshack (or the Source) sells being poor quality, the Dan-Elec usb keys are surprisingly well built and sturdy because of their stubbiness. It's about $50 for a 2gB, but often go on sale for $30-$35.