On 16 Jun 2006 at 11:37, "Lord Voldemort" lordbishopvoldemort@gmail.com wrote:
Still longer than me, and the rest of us wahoos. We never had to walk to our dial-up computers, uphill both ways, on Windows 3.1, from AOL, like you oldbies. ;-)
AOL as a source of "oldbies"? The *serious* oldbie crowd regards them as the biggest source of clueless newbies! And Windows (whatever version) just brought more crowds of people too computer illiterate to handle a command line interface.
No, the *real* oldbies were the ones who used computers without a wimpy graphical interface... maybe a printing terminal using a modem switchable between 110 baud and the "high-speed" 300 (like they had at the high school I attended in the early '80s)... or even punch cards (like they also used when I was in high school, taking a class in Fortran).
On 6/17/06, Daniel R. Tobias dan@tobias.name wrote:
AOL as a source of "oldbies"? The *serious* oldbie crowd regards them as the biggest source of clueless newbies! And Windows (whatever version) just brought more crowds of people too computer illiterate to handle a command line interface.
No, the *real* oldbies were the ones who used computers without a wimpy graphical interface... maybe a printing terminal using a modem switchable between 110 baud and the "high-speed" 300 (like they had at the high school I attended in the early '80s)... or even punch cards (like they also used when I was in high school, taking a class in Fortran).
But I was specifically speaking of newbies within Wikipedia. If I recall correctly, WP wasn't around in the '80s. And from what I understand, if you are still using your computer from the '80's to access WP, you are a miracle worker. ;-) --LV
* Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
No, the *real* oldbies were the ones who used computers without a wimpy graphical interface... maybe a printing terminal using a modem switchable between 110 baud and the "high-speed" 300 (like they had at the high school I attended in the early '80s)... or even punch cards (like they also used when I was in high school, taking a class in Fortran).
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson@worldnet.att.net wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on my 486. Jump to lightspeed!
-Ras
In message 980278fa0606171146h719fef74g2bc6333b4d42e826@mail.gmail.com, John Lyden rasputinaxp-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org writes
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson-XfrvlLN1Pqtfpb/ySbbPhw@public.gmane.org wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on my 486. Jump to lightspeed!
Some of us started out on 10 c.p.s. teletypes and input our first programs on paper tape....
Arwel Parry wrote:
In message 980278fa0606171146h719fef74g2bc6333b4d42e826@mail.gmail.com, John Lyden rasputinaxp-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org writes
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson-XfrvlLN1Pqtfpb/ySbbPhw@public.gmane.org wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on my 486. Jump to lightspeed!
Some of us started out on 10 c.p.s. teletypes and input our first programs on paper tape....
Paper tape? Luxury. What's wrong with toggling your programs in using the panel switches?
-- Neil
Neil Harris wrote:
Arwel Parry wrote:
In message 980278fa0606171146h719fef74g2bc6333b4d42e826@mail.gmail.com, John Lyden rasputinaxp-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org writes
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson-XfrvlLN1Pqtfpb/ySbbPhw@public.gmane.org wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on my 486. Jump to lightspeed!
Some of us started out on 10 c.p.s. teletypes and input our first programs on paper tape....
Paper tape? Luxury. What's wrong with toggling your programs in using the panel switches?
(mutters something about the luxury of switches and having to rely on compass needles twiddling and having to wave magnets, uphill both ways in the snow)
On 6/22/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) alphasigmax@gmail.com wrote:
Neil Harris wrote:
Arwel Parry wrote:
In message 980278fa0606171146h719fef74g2bc6333b4d42e826@mail.gmail.com, John Lyden rasputinaxp-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org writes
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson-XfrvlLN1Pqtfpb/ySbbPhw@public.gmane.org wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to
go
downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster
than
you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on my 486. Jump to lightspeed!
Some of us started out on 10 c.p.s. teletypes and input our first programs on paper tape....
Paper tape? Luxury. What's wrong with toggling your programs in using the panel switches?
(mutters something about the luxury of switches and having to rely on compass needles twiddling and having to wave magnets, uphill both ways in the snow)
In my day, our computers and calculators were our fingers and toes. I could only count to eighteen because I lost my pinky and big toe hunting wooly mammoths.
(uphill, both ways, in the snow)
For 18 miles, uphill, both ways, in the snow!
On 6/22/06, Death Phoenix originaldeathphoenix@gmail.com wrote:
On 6/22/06, Alphax (Wikipedia email) alphasigmax@gmail.com wrote:
Neil Harris wrote:
Arwel Parry wrote:
In message 980278fa0606171146h719fef74g2bc6333b4d42e826@mail.gmail.com, John Lyden rasputinaxp-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w@public.gmane.org writes
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson-XfrvlLN1Pqtfpb/ySbbPhw@public.gmane.org wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started
to
go
downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster
than
you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on
my
- Jump to lightspeed!
Some of us started out on 10 c.p.s. teletypes and input our first programs on paper tape....
Paper tape? Luxury. What's wrong with toggling your programs in using the panel switches?
(mutters something about the luxury of switches and having to rely on compass needles twiddling and having to wave magnets, uphill both ways in the snow)
In my day, our computers and calculators were our fingers and toes. I could only count to eighteen because I lost my pinky and big toe hunting wooly mammoths.
(uphill, both ways, in the snow) _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
On 6/22/06, Ilya N. ilyanep@gmail.com wrote:
For 18 miles, uphill, both ways, in the snow!
On STUMPS!! We didn't even have FEET back then!!!
Alphax (Wikipedia email) wrote:
Neil Harris wrote:
Arwel Parry wrote:
In message John Lyden writes
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
By that measure, my downhill was 9600 baud.
Of course, I jumped right from my 1200 baud Multitech to a 14.4K on my 486. Jump to lightspeed!
Some of us started out on 10 c.p.s. teletypes and input our first programs on paper tape....
Paper tape? Luxury. What's wrong with toggling your programs in using the panel switches?
(mutters something about the luxury of switches and having to rely on compass needles twiddling and having to wave magnets, uphill both ways in the snow)
I do remember paper tape and drum memories. The panel switches were an improvement over having to reconfigure patch-cords. (IMSAI?) The needles and magnets appear to have more to do with the Heathkit analog computer that you had to put together. Unfortunately I wasn't old enough to afford one of those. I also do remember a first printing desktop calculator that could automatically multiply; it was a heavy beast that made one hell of a racket for that operation. Still that was an improvement over comptometers that required you to configure your fingers according to the multiplicand and push and shift in accordance with the multiplier. Some early machines would get very confused when students would naturally try to get them to divide by zero.
Ec
On 6/17/06, Conrad Dunkerson conrad.dunkerson@worldnet.att.net wrote:
Ok, stop... you're making me all nostalgic. I think it all started to go downhill when the modems became capable of transferring text faster than you could read it (aka 2400 baud). :]
Heh, yeah I remember the time I spent a whole weekend trying to install a 2400baud modem so I could double my download speed!
(then I saw someone with a 9600 baud modem and nearly died of envy, frantically seeing how much stuff I could download in one afternoon while I had access to such "high speed"...!)
Steve