[thenotch]

For those of you who are old enough to remember....

Remember when a "webmaster" was a "sysop"?
Remember when a "forum" was a "BBS"?
Remember XModem and ZModem transfer protocols?
Remember Food Fite, Tradewars 2002, and LoRD?
Remember FidoNET?
Remember when a 9600 baud modem ruled the world?
Remember ANSI graphics?
Remember when the was only a DOS command line?
Remember the sound of your modem making a "handshake" when a user "dialed" in?

The year was 1990 and what fun that was!!!! Learning and stepping into a whole new world!

I remember it (I was 24) and as much as I love the availability and the resources that we now have with the internet back then it was so ground-breaking and experimental and exciting.

So, for those who are old enough to remember...

[Advertisements]

Heh, do remeber those days. my father was in IT back then i was just a kid. that was before he left the industry, always trying to explain it to me when all i wanted was to watch ninja turtles.

Edited by Magosis, 16 November 2006 - 07:27 AM.

[Magosis]

Heh, do remeber those days. my father was in IT back then i was just a kid. that was before he left the industry, always trying to explain it to me when all i wanted was to watch ninja turtles.

Edited by Magosis, 16 November 2006 - 07:27 AM.

[kyms]

Sad to report I remember when Amstrad made my computer and all the tape kept unwinding and jamming up
and then the green screen went wonky

yep, I'm gonna stand in the corner again, lol

[ZEUS_GB]

I was playing games on the ZX Spectrum when I was six so I can remember those.
My fondest memory of the time would have to be the Atari 520 STFM/STE....those were the days!
Great games, fantastic demos....well you'll have to excuse me because i'm feeling the need to switch on my Atari STE and boot up the Cuddly Demos.

[Johanna]

In high school, computer class was flow charts and dots to punch as "yes" "no" answers. The only "input device" was the keyboard, no mouse. Windows didn't exist. I remember when "Pong" got popular, and, looking back, it was a dumb game, but we played for hours. I had an Atari with Space Invaders, Pac Man, Frogger... Later I had a computer that was more of a glorified typewriter. It was nice to be able to cut and paste, and edit on the fly, then print. That computer had Tetris on it, which was fun. Then I got busy with life and forgot all about computers for about ten years, except for what I had to do at work for inventory and payroll. In 1996 or so, friends started talking about the Internet, and this new company called AOL was everywhere. Hmmm... I watched soap operas and had babies. Three years later people were printing off email jokes and bringing them to work. In 2001 I decided to see what all the fuss was about; at the end of that year I had one of the first XP Pro installs (and a hundred and some hotfixes and service packs later, here I am!) I think Vista and IE7 are going to change the Internet once again, but the foundation is already there, and we, as a society, are online for good.

I wonder if my parents felt the same way about TV? They talk about TV being on for just a couple of hours a day in its infancy, and switching from radio to TV, now there are 125 channels of garbage to choose from on basic cable. I remember when we were one of the first families to get a color TV, and dad would yell at us kids not to change the channels so fast. or we'd break the tuner. The "remote controls" were whichever child was closest at the moment.

Okay, Notch, you've brought out some nostalgia with this topic...
Johanna

[ZEUS_GB]

and dad would yell at us kids not to change the channels so fast. or we'd break the tuner.

My dad used to say the exact same thing!

The "remote controls" were whichever child was closest at the moment.

Yes I remember the days of being a remote control. I used to switch it on to a channel I wanted to watch...by mistake of course.

Edited by ZEUS_GB, 16 November 2006 - 09:10 AM.

[dsenette]

Remember the sound of your modem making a "handshake" when a user "dialed" in?

even better is when you got so used to the sounds that you could tell what portion of the communication your modem was at just by the sounds....and subsequently...could tell where in the chain the process failed when it did...before any error messages showed up... "dangit....the password failed" how did you know that so fast? " it went beeee booo baaahhh instead of baaaahh booooo bllllaaarrrrttt"

[MaverickSidewinder]

I was born in 1990...but my first computer at the age of seven, modern compared to 1990, was a very exciting adventure.

I remember finding out that the x closed stuff and I was like: dang it, how do i open it up again?!?!!?

[SRX660]

AH, dsenette, i do remember. And i remember fighting Windows 3.0 and the networking maze of Win 3.11. I remember my first javascript that kept telling me my operating system was being deleted and i could'nt stop it. I remember my first true virus on my Packard-Bell 1750 Legend computer(pentium 200)and the P-B Tattoo recovery CD would not reinstall the OS. I think that got me started in knowing how to fix anything wrong with my computers. Soon after that i started building my own computers.

Now, i would not trade anything i have done in the last 15 years for any other alternative. I have had a great deal of fun and can laugh at a lot of the things i did or tried to do.

So it is on to the the next 20 years and i truly wonder where i will go now. It can only be just as much fun as it has already been and maybe i will learn many new wonderous things.

SRX660

[kyms]

I too remember being a remote, sent to change the radio channels.

Best remote job was to start the 6 volt VW beetle so it could try to get warm before they went out, had many a go around the village before the world woke up. Village bobby had a Le Velocette and the telegraph boy a Bsa Bantam both faster than the Beetle unfortunately cos the punishment wasn't by remote, lol

[SecretMaster]

I still have dialup. And I still go through all the funny sounds of dialing in.

*hangs head in shame*

[evilwizard]

My first computer was a Tandy laptop.. It was big, bulky and you had to boot from a floppy. I also remember I use to connect to other college libraries to do research and the modem was a device you put the phone receiver on so you could connect. The screen was black with green display. I used this computer in my college days on loan from the college.

When I bought my official first computer 10 years later I was blown away with how advanced the computer world had become.. Color graphics.. built in modem.. No boot from floppy.. It took me a while to get adjusted to all this new stuff and am still learning..

[sarahw]

I remember the ping pong virus on my 8086XT. That green dot would bounce around the black screen. I loved it! Great fun. I would continuously reboot for hours watching it.

[Bny509]

UM i remember windows 3.1 dam I liked 3D dino games. man oh man I got so pissed cuz I could not get past the desktop lol

I was born in 87

Edited by Bny509, 28 November 2006 - 03:57 PM.

[Kat]

I still have dialup. And I still go through all the funny sounds of dialing in.

*hangs head in shame*

no shame there! I have dial up. Tis better than having NO connection out here in the middle of nowhere!

I remember all those things, notch. I was 19 in 1990, and amazed by all the 'newfangled technology'

Johanna..speaking of the old Atari. I was just talking about that last night, oddly. I miss my old Pitfall game from Atari!