[avocollector]

I bought a ZX 81 when they came out to try my hand at programming after getting some idea from my 1969 maths master who really had some advanced ideas on it. The value I saw in it was as an advanced calculating machine you could put a set of figures into a general formula and solve a problem - then there was the games which were fun and never loaded properly from the cassette player half the time and well as the wobbly picture on a B & W TV. But later I started hearing about things like bulletin boards and word processing from my Electrical Engineer wife. Next they appeared at work and we were encouraged to get used to them - previously there were just terminals to a mainframe you just logged into but we'd found out that you could use the terminals as typewriters when not logged in plus they had a printer - ooh great fun. Anyway then a change of career saw me writing a thesis for Uni and I had to have my own one - think it was close on $3000 at the time (early 90's) 386 DX I recall with Windows 3.2, Word, Borland paradox and a HP printer. The original ZX 81 languishes up in the attic somewhere.