Shocking events that let you know you're old

[Remster 30]

Sinclair didnt have disks, so I'm pretty sure they didnt use DOS (wherever they used.. lol)

Remster

[Bolas 5]

Ah... the days of config.sys and autoexec.bat.
loadhigh devicehigh. EMM386, XMS no EMS.
I remember when DOS (6) came with memmaker. Finally you could get the 600k of base memory needed to run your favorite games.

I used to work at a software store and once a month I'd have someone come in and want to buy memory and when I asked what type they needed they would say EMS or XMS.
Then came DOS4GW (Doom) it had a shit fit and ran slow if you had any memory managers loaded.

Remster - The TI you had was the TI-99 4A.

Great, thanks to this thread, not only do I feel old, but I feel like a huge computer geek again...

[talking to self] Ok, ok, calm down remember you're a skydiver and that automatically makes you cool... You're a skydiver, all women want you, all men want to be you... breathe... [/talking to self]

Stupidity if left untreated is self-correcting
If ya can't be good, look good, if that fails, make 'em laugh.

[EricaH 0]

Ok, I'm only 27, but remember the old computers, 1st wireless phone, 8 tracks & LPs. I have my on collection in fact.

But some non-computer geek things.

Remeber having to figure out how much you were going to spend for the whole weekend friday before the bank closed so you could go through the drive through?

Also, we had a TV w/ a quasi remote. It was a control panel that was wired to the TV.

Or when there were only 13 chanels (at the most).

Microwave ovens were HUGE but could barely fit a plate inside and used a dial timer.

Owner cleaning ovens.

live before dishwashers. Those gloves sure did stink!

There is no can't. Only lack of knowledge or fear. Only you can fix your fear.

PMS #227 (just like the TV show)

[jfields 0]

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Sinclair

I had one of those too, later.

[wingnut 0]

i remeber when iwas in high schol and had to get a calculator for algebra class.. my dad told me about when he was in college he ordered direct from texas instrements for thier first scientific calculator that was like 250 bucks then and i bought a calc for like 10 bucks that did more......

______________________________________
"i have no reader's digest version"

[AggieDave 6]

Yeah, my TI-83 does more then the systems on the lunar lander did...

--"When I die, may I be surrounded by scattered chrome and burning gasoline."

[jceman 1]

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* The first true laptop computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80

Wrong. The Osbourne was.

BZZZZT! Wrong answer, Dave.

The Osbourne was a "transportable" computer. It could only be called a laptop if you a lap the size of the fat lady in the sideshow and legs the strength of steel-reinforced concrete.

Faster horses, younger women, older whiskey, more money.

Why do they call it "Tourist Season" if we can't shoot them?

[wmw999 2,534]

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i used to have a compaq "lugable"

I had an IBM luggable I used to dial in to work for probably 5 years. I used to consider the possibility of adding a little jumper wire so I could up the RAM to 1MB

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[dgskydive 0]

* The first true laptop computer was a Radio Shack TRS-80.

* And if you were hip, you referred to it affectionately as a TRASH-80

_______________________________________________

WOW! I am getting old. I remember using my old black and white Tv for the monitor, and having my tape recorder there to save things on.

NANU NANU!

Dom

[SkydiverRick 0]

My high school teachers made me learn how to use a slide rule. They said " do you expect to carry a calculater with you everywhere you go?" They were real forward thinkers. I laughed at them when I bought a TI-30 that I could almost get in my pocket.

never pull low......unless you are

[chaoskitty 0]

I guess I'm about 70% old then.. (27).

I remember when we had a "family computer" that everyone had to share. It was an apple IIC, and it had a 8" floppy boot up disk. You couldnt use any programs or games without inserting the disk.
Now I've got three computers that are ALL MINE!!

I also remember using encyclopedias to do research for homework. Wow...

[lawrocket 3]

I remember thinking the Apple IIE was the most incredible thing. I'd pay Choplifter and Dig Dug and Autoduel on it. Some of my friends came upon Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards.

I also remember my old Atari 2600. That thing rocked! I remember I would still play that thing in college, since I had so many of the programs. Frogger, Jungle Hunt, Berserk, Megamania. It was all good.

Now, I just have a Rubik's cube and my old record collection that I cannot play, because my needle is dull (it destroyed one of my Zeppelin bootlegs, too.)

Hopefully, I'll find a DVD of the Sledge Hammer TV show, put on Eddie Murphy's Raw, and listen to some Psychedlic Furs while I'm at it.

Oh, yes, and pull out my old Uncle Ronnie shrine and Ollie North collectibles!

My wife is hotter than your wife.

[kallend 2,106]

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My high school teachers made me learn how to use a slide rule. They said " do you expect to carry a calculater with you everywhere you go?" They were real forward thinkers. I laughed at them when I bought a TI-30 that I could almost get in my pocket.

Mine too - but then calculators weren't invented until I was in grad school!

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[freakyflygirl 0]

[reply.

* There was this amazing new video game called "Pong."

* And you thought it had the most advanced graphics imaginable.

[SpeedRacer 1]

Does anyone remember the arcade video game with the two cowboys? My brother and I used to play it all the time. Big blocky graphics. The cowboys could each walk around on their respective half of the screen and shoot at the other. You each got six shots. The shooting arm had three positions: slanted up, straight, and slanted down.

And there were cactuses you could hide behind & an occasional stage coach would pass through & block your shots.

Some of those old arcade games, though simple, were a hell of a lot of fun. Hell, I'd play them today.

Speed Racer
--------------------------------------------------

[freakyflygirl 0]

I don't remember that one but I bought my son a playstation game with pac man and all of those "old" games on it. I think he played it once...said it was too boring .

Ah, what does he know, those games use to ROCK!!!! LOL

[Amazon 7]

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I remember thinking the Apple IIE was the most incredible thing. I'd pay Choplifter and Dig Dug and Autoduel on it. Some of my friends came upon Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards.

I have several of each of the Apple II variants in my little Apple Collection.. going back to the II I bought with 4k of memory in 1978 for WAY too much money. I think I even have a (cough cough) cracked copy a friend left at my house long ago of LSL in the LLL (cough cough). I also have the stupendous business machine known as the Apple III that ran SOS instead of Apple DOS. I still have several of the Z-80 cards that were plug ins... so you could run C/PM on the Apple

I also have my first MAC I bought.. $1000 on a student discount when they were coming out.. I HAD to have one because I had lusted after a LISA the year before at the local Apple UG meeting.... and have all told about 8 working MACS that I will probably NEVER use again. but if they ever broke down I have plenty of spare parts of non working ones sitting there.

I got rid of the various Commodore... TI.. Sinclair..Atari etc.. long ago... but stillhave plenty of IBM hardware and OS around from the IBM PC 5150 up thru MOST of the IBM PS-2 models... I still have SEVERAL of the Luggables... Compaqs of various flavors...

Egad why do I keep all of this crap anyway...

Jeanne

[Lostinspace 0]

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My high school teachers made me learn how to use a slide rule. They said " do you expect to carry a calculater with you everywhere you go?" They were real forward thinkers. I laughed at them when I bought a TI-30 that I could almost get in my pocket.

Mine too - but then calculators weren't invented until I was in grad school!

I worked on the engine that goes into the F-22 and the JSF at PWA. I guess they thought it was hazying... but my fellow engineers at one point stripped me of ANSYS and NASTRAN/PATRAN and gave me a Post 1460 versalog to use.

"But B! What if we loose power?"

After PWA, I went to work for TI .......... and quit

screw ti! I own 2 Post versalog 1460's now, and can use them. I even have a belt mounting case.

*** i feel lonely enough to jump out of a plane now


ps: I need 1 new glass viewer, if any one can help.

[RoysPlayThing 0]

Dammit Amazon! .. thanks for reminding me that I am old.....lol

_______________________________________________
My mind is like a parachute...it functions only when open.

[Guest]

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I remember thinking the Apple IIE was the most incredible thing. I'd pay Choplifter and Dig Dug and Autoduel on it. Some of my friends came upon Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards.

I have several of each of the Apple II variants in my little Apple Collection.. going back to the II I bought with 4k of memory in 1978 for WAY too much money. I think I even have a (cough cough) cracked copy a friend left at my house long ago of LSL in the LLL (cough cough). I also have the stupendous business machine known as the Apple III that ran SOS instead of Apple DOS. I still have several of the Z-80 cards that were plug ins... so you could run C/PM on the Apple

I also have my first MAC I bought.. $1000 on a student discount when they were coming out.. I HAD to have one because I had lusted after a LISA the year before at the local Apple UG meeting.... and have all told about 8 working MACS that I will probably NEVER use again. but if they ever broke down I have plenty of spare parts of non working ones sitting there.

I got rid of the various Commodore... TI.. Sinclair..Atari etc.. long ago... but stillhave plenty of IBM hardware and OS around from the IBM PC 5150 up thru MOST of the IBM PS-2 models... I still have SEVERAL of the Luggables... Compaqs of various flavors...

Egad why do I keep all of this crap anyway...

Jeanne

Hey Jeanne,

Maybe RE-PC would be interested in some of your stuff. I mean, any place that has an exhibit on RADM Grace Hopper just might want some of your old dinosaurs for their computing museum.

mh

ps - For those not in the know, Isaac Asimov is alleged to have based the female protagonist in many of his "I, Robot" stories on Hopper. She's one of the unsung heroes of the computing revolution, as influential in her day as Charles Babbage was in his.

mh

"The mouse does not know life until it is in the mouth of the cat."

[Erroll 80]

When I started computer programming, even work stations and keyboards were luxuries. I recall punching my programs, one line per punched card, on a portable punch, seldom using fewer than three fingers per 'stroke'.
And talking of LP's - one of the first mainframes I worked on was an ICL machine. It's disk drives were seperate units, each the size of a washing machine. They housed removable disk packs - each consisting of six platters the size of an LP - one disk pack yielding 20 megs of storage!

I am typing this on an IBM ThinkPad with 36 gigs of disk space, and even though I have been around computers for thirty years, I don't feel old - just amazed.

[kallend 2,106]

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When I started computer programming, even work stations and keyboards were luxuries. I recall punching my programs, one line per punched card, on a portable punch, seldom using fewer than three fingers per 'stroke'.
And talking of LP's - one of the first mainframes I worked on was an ICL machine. It's disk drives were seperate units, each the size of a washing machine. They housed removable disk packs - each consisting of six platters the size of an LP - one disk pack yielding 20 megs of storage!

I am typing this on an IBM ThinkPad with 36 gigs of disk space, and even though I have been around computers for thirty years, I don't feel old - just amazed.

Punched cards! New fangled idea. We used paper tape punched on teletype machines. Just over 36 years since I wrote my first program, and a program I wrote 35 years ago to perform analysis of X-ray diffraction data is still used in research labs around the world (who remembers FORTRAN?).

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[Antithesis 0]

[reply

* There was this amazing new video game called "Pong."

* And you thought it had the most advanced graphics imaginable.

[MyOwnWay 0]

damn, i feel REALLY young.

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all good things are wild and free - Henry David Thoreau

[jsaxton 0]

I must be ancient then, I started before Apple