Interesting anecdote, Jan. Around that same time, I purchased my first personal computer, an IBM clone made by Texas Instruments ("the PC that IBM shoudl have invented," according to PC Magazine. Still the best keyboard I ever used). I paid $4,200 for it; at the time, I was driving a Dodge Omni that cost exactly the same. Imagine the computing power one could purchase today for the price of a compact car. Of course, then you'd have to purchase gasoline. Ed ----- Original Message ----- From: "Jan Werner" <jwerner at jwdp.com> To: "Rikk Desgres" <all at pinehurstpictures.com> Cc: <hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net> Sent: Thursday, June 12, 2008 5:10 PM Subject: Re: [Hidden-tech] More packrat stuff... files off an ms-dos system? > > In the mid 1980's I set up some data collection systems on AT clones using > full height 5" 72MB hard drives. These cost about $7,500 at the time and > came with dedicated controller cards and a patched version of MS-DOS to > allow accessing more than 32MB. > > Jan Werner