I bought my first Eagle (8088) back in 1984. It was high-end--used a dual floppy (5.25" single density) and had an interface into a SilverReed typewriter for letter-quality printing (many publishers I was sending articles to wouldn't take dot matrix). Slow, but it worked.

Computer number two was a Packard Bell 286 bought through DAK. We put it online when my spouse brought home a 2500 baud Hayes modem in the early 1990s. You'd think we'd just invented radio! I didn't do much online until I started I went back to school and could log on to the university modems. I remember sending my first email back then. The university used LYNX for searching. My first orders at Amazon, that new and revolutionary book seller (I learned about them when my Dad sent me a newspaper clipping) was via a text interface, clicking through various slow screens.

Many computers have come and gone since then. And when I think of how much that first 8088 cost. . .

SRS