Saturday, September 02, 2006

Barnhart Household Sees Gross Computing Power Rise by 4 mhz, Memory Increase of over 500 kilobytes

Harnessing the sheer, brute manlihood of a souped-out 8086 is not for the faint-of-heart. Nor, do I now realize, is it for those without a copy of DOS sitting around on a 320kb floppy. I confess that I did not anticipate so soon the day when I cursed my big 1.2mb floppy disks for being so advanced and so incompatible.


Yes, that's right. Another computer has been placed under my charitable auspices. I found it abandoned at a local Salvation Army earlier this week. Ironically enough, I had intended to visit my local branch to present them with a $30 cash donation. Once I was there and my heart was burdened by the neglected IBM PC, I offered both my cash donation and my sponsorship of the machinery's adoption.

In case anyone happens to need a little more processing power these days, I will be graciously connecting my newly-purchased IBM 5150 to the outside world via a bulletin-board system. It will be accessible in minute or half-minute units. I will consider waiving the $4.00/minute connection rate for close family members. "Close" applies only to those still living at home. And "connection" is defined by physically walking downstairs to the basement. And "connection rate" is defined as any of the following: turning the computer on, placing a disk in the drive (double rates for using both floppy drives), appreciating the sleek design of the computer as one is walking past, or walking past it, even if only to get to the bathroom.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Very good, David! What fun, to read the creative writings of my children. How very generous of you to have been both willing to make a cash donation to the local branch, AND with burdened heart, to adopt the neglected PC. I am touched by your sincere caring for this piece of equipment, and for rescuing it. I will say, however, I hope I don't have occasion to have to use the basement bathroom very often. I'm afraid the fee would not be waved for me!

Andy said...

I'm impressed that you wrote such a good post using that PC. Did you upload the digital photo w/ it's USB port? Or the memory card reader? In any case, I'm sure you have it saved on the hard drive.

Mike said...

Don't let the fancy words fool you, Now that Daniel holds total control over the Mac, and David souped up the old basement PC for his music and has it locked down in his room, this Model T was purchased to keep old Dad out of the way, and off the super computer highway. But as you can see, I have started the Mac up and have taken it for a spin, Daniel is in school and the processor has finally cooled down enough to allow me to log on as a user. As for the antique computer in the basement, quaint but not enough horsepower to satisfy a man of my technological prowess.