tagliatelle
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I was flying back from the US in September'77 when I read an advertisement for an Apple II, from a firm with the same name in California. When I got home I rang to order one, only to be told that it has just appointed its first distributor, Personal Computers in Bishopsgate and that a shipment was already on its way.
A week later, the shipment arrived and, £1,750 the poorer, I proudly took home one of the first Apple II's in the country. It was incredible, with 16K of memory and two paddles, although you had to provide your own tape recorder and TV! I learnt Basic, wrote a program to teach myself to touch type, bought a further 16K of memory the following year in New York for $250, searched everywhere for programs and regarded it as the most fascinating toy.
One day, Visicalc arrived and changed my toy into a tool. It is difficult now to recal the impact of Visicalc: it was the first of all the killer apps. In due course, Wordstar and the database programmes arrived and then the IBM made the PC respectable and ubiquitous.
All that was later, of course, but it was Visicalc that made us all realise that the PC was here to stay.
Lord Young of Graffham
young@youngassoc.com
A week later, the shipment arrived and, £1,750 the poorer, I proudly took home one of the first Apple II's in the country. It was incredible, with 16K of memory and two paddles, although you had to provide your own tape recorder and TV! I learnt Basic, wrote a program to teach myself to touch type, bought a further 16K of memory the following year in New York for $250, searched everywhere for programs and regarded it as the most fascinating toy.
One day, Visicalc arrived and changed my toy into a tool. It is difficult now to recal the impact of Visicalc: it was the first of all the killer apps. In due course, Wordstar and the database programmes arrived and then the IBM made the PC respectable and ubiquitous.
All that was later, of course, but it was Visicalc that made us all realise that the PC was here to stay.
Lord Young of Graffham
young@youngassoc.com