My first computer, a Philips P2000T

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

My first "computer" was a Philips P2000T, connected to a TV set.

Tisniewaar!

Ok that was my claim to fame ... that one started it all. I blame it for everything. The thing was so eminently hackable (both hardware and firmware and software, everything) that it ruined my whole life.   :-)

[B747-400]

True words, and remember the huge storage 

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

I have zero screen shots and software and hardware (all went to the dump when we migrated across the ocean... that hurted) but still keep a hardcopy of the manuals of all software I wrote for the thing. That was a LOT. Learned a lot those years, 1985-1990 more or less. Ended with building my own interface cards... MIDI, mouse, graphics, ...

[B747-400]

Oh, that's a shame! I should have kept mine too.

Apparently, the P2000 hasn't been forgotten. There are at least two interesting websites, including an emulator, etc.

https://philips-p2000t.nl/index.html#

https://retrospace.nl/Philips_P2000T_homecomputer.html

[Jeroen Hoppenbrouwers]

And this ... zOMG I wrote so much ... and not everything I'm proud of ...

https://github.com/p2000t/documentation/tree/main/TRON

[B747-400]

Wow, what a resource... a window into my early IT days!

Back then, I was in the PMCC (Philips Micro Computer Club) here in Vienna. We occasionally saw a Nieuwsbrief. Lacking Dutch language skills, it was difficult. This reminds me of an unpleasant experience:

We received a Dutch Interpreter Module along with a cassette containing what appeared to be important data. The program asked us, "Cassette wissen?". In our language "wissen" means "to know" ... so, since we wanted to know what was on the cassette, we answered "yes" and waited patiently for a table of contents that never appeared.

Instead, you guessed it, all the data was subsequently deleted. This caused us considerable trouble 

However, in retrospect, it was an important lesson for my subsequent work in the IT biz.

[voipmeister]

Nice to read about experiences with computers...! 

And this ... zOMG I wrote so much ... and not everything I'm proud of ...

https://github.com/p2000t/documentation/tree/main/TRON

Very cool to read about 'Hoppie's extended basic'!! Quite modern, with subroutines and all!

We received a Dutch Interpreter Module along with a cassette containing what appeared to be important data. The program asked us, "Cassette wissen?". In our language "wissen" means "to know" ... so, since we wanted to know what was on the cassette, we answered "yes" and waited patiently for a table of contents that never appeared.

Instead, you guessed it, all the data was subsequently deleted. This caused us considerable trouble 

However, in retrospect, it was an important lesson for my subsequent work in the IT biz.

That's nice anecdote Hans, thanks for sharing! I bet it was quite disappointing back then though. You're totally right about lessons like that - very early in my career I once zapped the home directory access rights of all the users in a large company. Fixed in < 15 minutes, but that made me pivot to a 'trust, but verify' attitude     

[B747-400]

I think we've all made mistakes like that. Luckily, we learned from them, and luckily, we made those mistakes in IT. It's more forgiving of errors than aviation. There, unfortunately, is no "undo" function...