ScuzzBlog: Diaries October 2019
Entry 16th October 2019: Post 01: The Colossus Computer - My Windows 95 Era.
The Colossus Computer - My Windows 95 Era.
The Windows 95 era started in July 1996 and lasted until Jan 2000
a period of some three and a half years. Interesting when you also
reflect on my Amiga 1200 era which lasted from November 1993 up
until July 1996 a period of less than three years. So go figure.
True, I have been using the Amiga as a hobby since that date to
this very day, but given that the Win98 era lasted from Jan 2000
until April 2008 and the XP from April 2008 to Feb 2011 and my
Win 7 era from Feb 2011 up until this very day and beyond it is
easy to forget just how much time I have been using a Windows
computer. And in truth it all started with the Windows 95 machine.
At first I was none too impressed with the Windows 95 machine and
actually did spend a lot of time back on the A1200. I was most
angry that a 1GB hard drive was almost full with just the OS and
left very little space to do anything. I had been promised the
internet but it was so slow it took all night to download one pic.
The CD was slow and the software provided just junk. Most of what
I tried to do on the computer needed to be installed through DOS.
I wasn't happy.... until I decided to throw caution to the wind and
break open the box and do it my way. So I installed a SWAP drive
that gave me 3.1 GB extra capacity. I purchased a ZIP drive. Next
I expanded the 8MB RAM to 32MB RAM. I installed SCSI and connected
a scanner. Fitted my own modem and moved to PIPEX. And I installed
a Quickshot card and software from the home of VideoAmiga Rombo.
Soon I was flying and things improved dramatically.
The SWAP drive was really clever cus next up I got a 6.1GB drive.
I sweet talked the makers of the drive into sending me the special
tools to open the case so I could install my own drives.
Eventually I fit a network card and at first used a cross over and
NETBUI to peer to peer with another computer for extra storage. And
finally I connected a much bigger monitor as seen from the pics.
The computer is a Colossus from TIME computing family. In the day
it cost me £2000 which also in the day that was a lot of money.
From the get-go the fan just howled and I had to send it away to
get it fixed. In the 24 years I have had her I have literally only
had the C drive play up. I reinstalled Win95 and all was fine. And
from the pics you can see she is still working today. She is full
of Amiga files and I can access the computer from any location in
the house. She has been a little treasure. She was the first on
the web and got hammered every single night.
Before you ask the girl on my wallpaper is Olivia Paige who was
Miss September 2010 from the pages of Playboy. She featured in an
art magazine that was discussing the process of body paint, given
that the stuff she wore was painted on. So its a fantasy art image.
[ And if you believe that you'll believe anything ].
It is incredible just how much of the software and drivers for the
kit needed to be installed with DOS. Even with the Amiga I had
been spoilt rotten with auto installs. I was using DOS so much in
the early days I had to buy a book about it. In truth with so little
available in terms of technical literature I finished up buying a
ton of books. It certainly helped a lot.
Sadly, the P120 processor speed and limitations of the hardware
started to frustrate me and so in Jan 2000 I purchased a Win98 PC
which was probably one of the best computers I have ever had. This
may come as a surprise but if you care for your Windows machines
and not install loads of junk, keep oodles of empty space on the
hard drive for 'virtual sturff ' that MS needs, and keep the data
on a second drive and so not trouble the OS partition, you would
be surprised at how quick and efficient they really are. However
if you fragment the drive and extend the registry and fill with
junk software, man they are so slow.
Anyway that's Part I of this blog. Next I demonstrate how to have
fun the right way on a Windows machine.
PS I used two essential bits of software with the Win 95 machine.
The very wonderful Norton Utilities, which in its day could make
a back up copy of you entire OS onto a single ZIP disc and the
very splendid CleanSweep. Once a month I would remove all of
the junk from the computer and clean up the registry. In addition
I would Optimise the drive which basically put the OS into order.
DiscDoctor and WinDoctor were the best.
So was she better than the Amiga. Listen ! If your new computer
isn't better than your last then you are doing something very wrong.
And when you reflect on that it was a bloody stupid question.
The Colossus Computer - My Windows 95 Era.
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