Registered: Jul 2000
Location:
Posts: 3034

quote:

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Originally posted by terrysalmi
Ok - Time to make everyone on the board hate me--- [...]

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Nah...

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These were used big at my high school, especially in the science department. They used the barcode to do sample problems, etc. a lot...too big for me, though! [...]

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It must be a science teacher thing.

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Now, this is my list of 'remember when' -
- When floppy disks were actually 'floppy'

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They still are. They just have a harder case around them than 5.25" or 8" did.

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- When computers had green screens

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We've still got a few green screen dumb terminals here.

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- When people actually used 14.4 and 28.8 modems and thought they were the best thing in the world

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heh...we've also got a few 300 baud modems in service.

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- Before Al Gore invented the Internet.

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That was only a couple years ago that he did that.

Registered: May 2002
Location: Mt. Laurel, NJ
Posts: 10

Wow.....

Sheesh... I'm glad I'm not the only one feeling this way.

Well... I guess I don't feel so old anymore (lol...)

But, I may not be the oldest here, but I have been fortunate (or unfortunate) to remember these things:

1. Programming with punch cards (yes...alot of people don't believe me, but I took an 8th grade summer class in this)

2. Internet BEFORE World Wide Web and 'surfing' with TEXT browsers like 'Lynx' (what fun, then, eh? and the response time...forgitabuhit)

3. When the Netscape browser was #1 (in fact, it was the only one)

4. Trying to figure out what the heck WINSOCK meant (still don't know what it means)

5. When Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3 were kings of word processing and spreadsheet programs, respectively (how I miss that blue screen of Wordperfect 5.1)

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 501

Re: Winsock

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Originally posted by robertruelan
4. Trying to figure out what the heck WINSOCK meant (still don't know what it means)

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__________________
Jeff Meyer

"And he died like he lived: with his mouth wide open."

Registered: May 2002
Location: Mt. Laurel, NJ
Posts: 10

Gee.. Thanks for the info!!!

Thanks bookrats.....

Though I still don't know what it means...lol...

No really, thanks for the info. I just remember trying to dial-in to my university's unix box and I kept having problems and it seemed to be some WINSOCK problem.

Glad to see it's now standard.

Oh.. that's another one I can add:

6. Life BEFORE Windows (DOS-prompts and knowing how to tweak that autoexec.bat file...)

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

Oh good grief (major horror) ... what does it mean when you remember all the things everyone has listed above?? I had a C64 w/300 baud VIC modem, computers weren't even in schools till I was in Jr. High (that's middle school to all you younger folks), a gleaming silver TRS 80 Model 1 with cassette and thermal printer, (the Jr. High only had one and you had to sign up on a sheet in the library and wait your turn to even access it) As I kid, a red Panasonic "ball" radio on a chain with only AM, b&w hand me down TV, oldest sisters old stereo with 8 track.. etc.. I feel the old age cracks starting to form.. I could go on and on..

(and yes I actually had to work on punch cards for one of my freshman CSC-150 intro computer courses in college, the professors logic was "you may actually encounter these things in the real world.." I thought he was joking at the beginning of the semester, but he wasn't.. actually had to do a few assignments on those dammed cards!

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"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Hacienda Heights, Ca
Posts: 302

What is this about computers in high school? I wish! My school didn't have those until a few years after I was gone.

When I first started as a computer operator (large Burroughs mainframes, mid-70's) everything was run from punch cards. And back then every program read from an input tape (open reel) and wrote to and output tape (disk drives were still very expensive).

It made for a bad night when you would drop a box of 2000 cards before you read them into the card reader.

In college, the only PC's we had were TRS80's and an Altair.

I also remember taking our vacuum tubes to Thriftys to test them on some sort of tube tester. If they were bad, you would just pick up a new one there and replace the component back home.

And remember the Lisa? or the very first time you saw an original MAC? A cursor moving around a screen...what does that do? How did you input you commands into that? It took me a while to get my mind to think in that world.

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Bret Snyder<BR>If you don't know where you're going,<BR>You'll probably end up somewhere else.

Last edited by Bret Snyder on 05-31-2002 at 06:41 AM

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

Bret, you are making me feel a little better!

Before the TRS 80 arrived , my Jr High had a paper tape terminal with acoustic modem (you know the kind you put the headset into after you dial the phone number) connected to the PDP 11 (I think that's what it was) at the high school, I never got to use it, but I do remember it made one hell of a noise when someone fired it up..

When I was taking that intro computers class, we were the last to use the punch cards and as luck would have it the sorter was busted, for obvious reasons they weren't going to fix it either..

It was such a trip using cards, you would enter you program then drop the cards off in the data center to be read in to the mainframe and hopefully have it executed.. next day you would pick up the output and hope you had no typo's or errors, I recall one assignment took FOREVER due to , how shall I put it, "un expected code enhancements" on my part, or other problems like, not getting the card lined up and the whole thing being off by one or two columns.. that was fun.. I don't think I would have had the tolerance to program if it was all on punch cards.. far too slow.. Ultimately the experience did give me a good first hand view of just how far computers have come in the past few decades, I guess my professor had the right idea..

Yes I recall my first glimpse of a Mac (never did see a Lisa "in person" though - however I do recall reading about them ).. Now the Amiga 1000, they had to pry me away from the display that day, I was trying to go for squatters rights!! Ironically I just got a Mac Plus -- yes you read correctly, It was an odd gift from a friend a year or two back,, said I never own a Mac but had everything else, so now I have a "classic" Mac.. he even scrounged up an old 9 pin applewriter to go with it.. The Mac plus has a nice form factor (the Amiga 1000 also had a nice design too, slide the keyboard right under), wish I could cram an updated system into the same Mac Plus case and drop a color screen in it..

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Mar 2000
Location: Hacienda Heights, Ca
Posts: 302

Ahh paper tape!! More fond memories.

We used to have a flat bed plotter whos initial program load was via a Teletype with a paper tape reader. It's no wonder I have some hearing loss now. In the old days the computer room was a very loud place to work.

I worked for a large engineering company and we used the plotter to churn out computer generated ortho and isometric drawings. The head floated on a cushion of air as it zoomed from spot to spot drawing with a liquid ink pen. It was a showcase for any visiting VIP. A one time in the early eighties I had to give a demo of the plotting capabilites to President Ford (he was on our board of directors), it was a big day for a computer geek like me.

- Drive-in Theaters
There is still a drive-in near my house that still runs current release movies. I think it is only 1 of 2 left in Los Angeles County.

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Bret Snyder<BR>If you don't know where you're going,<BR>You'll probably end up somewhere else.

Registered: Dec 1999
Location: "Children are a gift from God, they are a reward"
Posts: 1049

"The Mac plus has a nice form factor (the Amiga 1000 also had a nice design too, slide the keyboard right under), wish I could cram an updated system into the same Mac Plus case and drop a color screen in it.."

What's stopping you? People do it in Japan all the time. Really.

How about this:

I remember when the only 'personal computers' were the ones engineers made for themselves, some without keyboards, mice, or monitors! Not only were there assembled PCs, you couldn't even buy a kit! Nutty!
(I grew up in San Jose, right up near the Milpitas city line, when it was still just San Jose and Santa Clara, etc. - NOT Silicon Valley.)

My dad actually had a company (Wameco) that made motherboards for that market for a few years. I spent one summer staying with him outside LA (he got into some partnership/business deal with Jade Computers - anybody remember them? - which involved him moving down to LA for awhile). I spent my time packing boards into baggies and stapling 'hanger cards' over the open ends. Yuck.

My old work vehicle (1952 Jeep Willys Station Wagon), that I was driving daily less than eight years ago, didn't have seatbelts - I had to add them.
I still remember when it was legal to ride in the back of a P/U truck (Boy Scout paper drives- woo hoo, what fun!). Now it's illegal in alot of places for even dogs to ride in the box.
I also remember when Playboy magazine was what we would consider PG-13 now.

Michael "Where in tarnation is my walker?" Walters

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"I am a debtor both to Greeks and to Barbarians, both to the wise and to the foolish."

Registered: May 2002
Location:
Posts: 1

I remember having a Sinclair ZX81 and buying a 16k memory expansion for $99! I still miss loading and saving programs to a tape recorder. LOL. Upgraded to an Aquarius home computer made by Mattel. Wow, color, man. Then bought a Commodore 64 as cutting edge tech. 64k of RAM, who needs more than that? Had a 300 baud modem but quickly upgraded to a blazing 1200 baud. Anybody remember that scene from Hackers? Ran up a $200 bill playing text-based games on Compuserve. Discovered Bulletin Board Systems and even ran my own for a while on the C64 and later on the C128. Scoffed at the PC as an inferior gaming platform and remained true to Commodore when the Amiga came out.

Ah, the memories...

Registered: May 2001
Location: NY metro area
Posts: 219

quote:

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When Wordperfect and Lotus 1-2-3 were kings of word processing and spreadsheet programs

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I remember when I bought Supercalc.

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computers weren't even in schools till I was in Jr. High

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Schools didn't even have many computers, other than main frames (for those who remember them ) when I was in college, let alone high school. I can still recall typing 40-50 page term papers on an electric typewriter. It always was a wonderful time when you made a mistake towards the end of the page because you then had to retype the entire page so you wouldn't get marked down because of corrections on the page. Thank God they had computers around when I was writing my Masters' theses.

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Jonathan

Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695

And now, my kids (ages 12 to 22)...

- did not know how to use a dial telephone,

- think they OUGHT to be able to pause TV, and have never had to adjust rabbit ears, or wait for a TV to turn on.

- almost never listen to AM radio.

- have NO IDEA how to use DOS

- get irritated using 56K modems compared to cable and T1's

- think I am old fashioned for not having a cell phone

- rarely use our encyclopedia set (and are not real sure how to even!)

- don't remember using card files at the library, and are REALLY used to self-checkout scanner

- don't believe me that you used to have to order food at a fast food place by the item- that 'value meals' were not around then

- are fascinated by the vaccination scar on my and my wife's arms

- don't understand that using calculators in the classroom simply was not an option for us

- have no idea how to gently set a needle down on a record

- how to format a floppy disk

- have no idea that it is important to conserve disk space (I now have a 8 Gig harddrive, but I am USED to my older 80 Meg, which was WONDERFUL compared to my older (mumble mumble), so i get nervous as the capacity fills up- which they think is just hilarious!

- have never seen the famed blue WordPerfect screen

- could not find the gas cap on an older car when it was behind the license plate (and I won $5 when I found it behind the turn signals on an even older car! Working at a gas station finally paid off for real!)

- don't understand that gas used to be under 50 cents a gallon

- have never seen milk or most pops in glass bottles

- were FASCINATED by 'Jiffy Pop'- the world's worst popcorn!

Sigh. What will THEIR kids think?

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore MD, USA
Posts: 717

I wonder what most modern kids think of the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

You and I would recognize as a telephone that tall black cylindrical object with a cone at the top, a rotary dial at the bottom, and cylinder on a wire hanging on a bracket at the middle.

I heard a story about a group of school children at the first day of school. One of them asked what the row of books was on the shelf. Upon being told that they were an encyclopedia, the child looked started and asked "Somebody printed them all out?"

Registered: Feb 2002
Location: Washburn University in Topeka, KS
Posts: 450

Atleast I'm not that bad! I have my knowledge in the Blue Screen (no, not the one of death), I know what encycolpedias and telephones are...etc...

Edit: Madkins-what library has a self-checkout scanner?

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Friends don't let Friends vote Democrat
Victory 2002 - Republicans Win Control of the Senate
Now onto Victory 2004 - FOUR MORE YEARS

Last edited by terrysalmi on 06-03-2002 at 05:17 PM

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 501

quote:

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Originally posted by Winchell
I wonder what most modern kids think of the old Bugs Bunny cartoons.

You and I would recognize as a telephone that tall black cylindrical object with a cone at the top, a rotary dial at the bottom, and cylinder on a wire hanging on a bracket at the middle.

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__________________
Jeff Meyer

"And he died like he lived: with his mouth wide open."

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: South Carolina
Posts: 1062

Y'all need to check out www.handheldmuseum.com
Not about PDA's, but handheld games--Merlin, Classic Football, Simon, etc etc.

Bookrats--I'm trying to find a site I used to have bookmarked called the "Warner Bros. Cartoon Collection." It had a list of all the cartoons with their inside jokes and gags.

"Oh, Bwoom Hiiillldaaaa, you're so wovwey..."

Registered: Aug 2000
Location: Alive and well on VisorCentral.com
Posts: 861

I thought I read somewhere that they recently edited out a good deal of the violence in older (pre 1980's) cartoons.?? So even the "classics" are not really the same as when we were younger..

__________________
"One of the most important things you learn from the internet is that there is no �them� out there. It�s just an awful lot of �us�." -- Douglas Adams

Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 501

quote:

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Originally posted by EricG
I thought I read somewhere that they recently edited out a good deal of the violence in older (pre 1980's) cartoons.?? So even the "classics" are not really the same as when we were younger..

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They did edit a lot of the violence (exploding bombs, etc.) when the cartoons were broadcast by the networks on Saturday mornings, in the 70s and 80s. However, all the WB cartoon collections I've got (on laserdisk -- back to the original thread! ) are uncut. I assume the VHS tapes are the same.

There were some cartoons that were recently censored due to racial stereotypes -- mostly Japanese circa WWII. I believe things were shaved off of Bugs Bunny Nips the Nips when Ted Turner repressed one of their GOLDEN AGE OF LOONEY TOONS collections. And there are a handful with very provocative black stereotypes that haven't been released, period. (Coal Black an de Sebbin Dwarfs is probably the most prominent.)

The Censored Cartoon page has a lot of information on this subject.

__________________
Jeff Meyer

"And he died like he lived: with his mouth wide open."

Registered: Oct 1999
Location: Baltimore MD, USA
Posts: 717

quote:

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Originally posted by EricG
I thought I read somewhere that they recently edited out a good deal of the violence in older (pre 1980's) cartoons.?? So even the "classics" are not really the same as when we were younger..

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Registered: Mar 2001
Location: Nebraska- the Good life
Posts: 695

quote:

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Originally posted by terrysalmi
Atleast I'm not that bad! I have my knowledge in the Blue Screen (no, not the one of death), I know what encycolpedias and telephones are...etc...

Edit: Madkins-what library has a self-checkout scanner?

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Do what you can, with what you have, where you are at!