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> We kept transistor radios on top of the computer cabinets. Each job made a distinctive sound, as did runaway programs (infinite loops, for example). A halted computer did not make a sound so the radio was an early warning that something wasn’t right.

You mean you used the radio like a baby monitor?

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The different components would make different electromagnetic interference patterns. You could tell what the computer was doing (or not doing) from the static.

This is also how some of the first computer generated music was produced.

I remember listening to my TRS-80 that way -- easy to monitor outer/inner loops, different sounds for Basic vs. asm code, etc. The downside was that often people had no choice -- the TRS-80 was so noisy, that nobody in the house could watch (OTA broadcast) TV if I had the computer on.

Can confirm. I did some work on a TRS-80 in a Radio Shack store (inventory on cassette tapes!). The “trash 80” as it was called would interfere with the stereo equipment in the store, the manager would have to turn the little computer on the counter off to demo a receiver.

> "trash 80" Boo! :)

Still much love for it...

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