Remember when...

[bleme]

You never forget your first. Mine was an Apple IIe. Upgraded it to a color monitor/TV. It was awesome!

My first was a Commodore 64. It's in my garage somewhere now.

In 1969 my parents managed the largest volume gas station in the Greater Sacramento area. My Dad broke his leg and was running around on crutches so he started offering a discount on the outside lane of pumps if you pumped your own gas. Within a year, he saw other stations around him start to adopt it.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I'll see you and raise you!

First "computer" I ever played with in Junior High in 78-80. Learned to program in basic, and saved on punch cards, and thought we were hot **** because we could hook up one of these modems,

And play Star Trek Battles with kids at other schools through the "network."

God, I still remember the smell of brown recycled paper and hot machine oil.

Wait, so you still own this time machine or did the pic come from elsewhere?

 

[Revvy]

Pic on the web. The floor even looks like the "computer lab" in my Jr High.

It would be interesting to own one though. I could just imagining it catching fire just trying to print out one thread on this forum....

 

[Airplanedoc]

Remember the nice purple hue of the mimeograph?

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

Remember the nice purple hue of the mimeograph?

Brings back memories of primary school. Seems these things were outdated even back then.

 

[JeepDiver]

Brings back memories of primary school. Seems these things were outdated even back then.

Got sent to the principal in 4th grade for getting in a purple paper fight with another kid

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I can remember in high school you could get a 1/4 of the good sticky icky for a 20 spot.

Not that I knew anything about it. Just knew this guy.

 

[glenn514]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but the duplicating machine pictured twice, above, is NOT a mimeograph machine. It is a SPIRIT DUPLICATOR. A mimeograph forced ink through a fine mesh "master." The spirit duplicator...my first few years of teaching, we had to hand-crank it...used methanol [or maybe ethanol...I don't remember] to remove a very slight bit of "wax" from the "master" and let it print onto the paper. Those worksheets ALWAYS smelled great!

glenn514

 

[Beernik]

It just kills me that everything that was on the 586 tower I bought ~20 years ago for $1200 when I was in college could be put on my iPhone and I'd still have 15.5G of memory left over.

And then my 7 y.o. daughter says to me last night about my old iPhone 3S, "It's no fun without wifi."

I turned to her and said, "Imagine a world with no wifi. Phones were just phones. No music. No games. They plugged into walls. And you had to twist a knob to dial. That was what my childhood was like."

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

It just kills me that everything that was on the 586 tower I bought ~20 years ago for $1200 when I was in college could be put on my iPhone and I'd still have 15.5G of memory left over.

And then my 7 y.o. daughter says to me last night about my old iPhone 3S, "It's no fun without wifi."

I turned to her and said, "Imagine a world with no wifi. That was what my childhood was like."

What is even more interesting is the fact that you will likely have to pay to dispose of your $1,200 computer if you still had it today.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but the duplicating machine pictured twice, above, is NOT a mimeograph machine. It is a SPIRIT DUPLICATOR. A mimeograph forced ink through a fine mesh "master." The spirit duplicator...my first few years of teaching, we had to hand-crank it...used methanol [or maybe ethanol...I don't remember] to remove a very slight bit of "wax" from the "master" and let it print onto the paper. Those worksheets ALWAYS smelled great!

glenn514

Good call.

According to Wiki, the fluid was composed of a mixture of methanol and isopropanol.

Johnny works on a freshly printed spirit duplicator worksheet, sticks his fingers in his nose, proceeded by mouth and then eats lunch without washing his hands.

Dee Dee Dee...

 

[MrNatural]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but the duplicating machine pictured twice, above, is NOT a mimeograph machine. It is a SPIRIT DUPLICATOR. A mimeograph forced ink through a fine mesh "master." The spirit duplicator...my first few years of teaching, we had to hand-crank it...used methanol [or maybe ethanol...I don't remember] to remove a very slight bit of "wax" from the "master" and let it print onto the paper. Those worksheets ALWAYS smelled great!

glenn514

This reminded me of high school print shop. You had to load individual lead letter types into clamp frame used on platen press. Had a bunch of these drawer cases for different fonts.

I'll never forget the type cleaner solvent that boiled at about 10° F. Actually cause rags to frost up when humidity was high.

And never could keep the linotype running right, but at least we got to play with molten lead In California no less.
Try that today..........

 

[Airplanedoc]

I don't mean to hijack this thread, but the duplicating machine pictured twice, above, is NOT a mimeograph machine. It is a SPIRIT DUPLICATOR. A mimeograph forced ink through a fine mesh "master." The spirit duplicator...my first few years of teaching, we had to hand-crank it...used methanol [or maybe ethanol...I don't remember] to remove a very slight bit of "wax" from the "master" and let it print onto the paper. Those worksheets ALWAYS smelled great!

glenn514

But I found that picture on the internet....They can't put anything on the internet that isn't true..

oh well, thanks for the correction

 

[Airplanedoc]

[URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gsNaR6FRuO0"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=gsNaR6FRuO0[/URL]

I recently had to explain to one of my employees that the monochrome monitor was not broke. It only displayed in green and black, that is why it was called monochrome -- one color. It blew his mind when I took him over and showed him a orange and black screen as well someplace else in the plant left over from the dark ages.

 

[Varmintman]

Reading this thread has got me thinking about how much life has changed just in my lifetime. And then that got me to thinking about how much the future will be different from now.

Space colonies and George Jetson cars come to mind

 

[CoalCracker]

I recently began commuting an hour each way to work and the whole Jetson thing came to mind. Would love to put it on autopilot and take a nap. Although, I do like being able to drive and control the car.

I remember a time where bullying would end with the bully getting his ass kicked. Not with the bullied committing suicide or getting arrested for kicking the bully's ass. When did the world become so soft?

 

[glenn514]

But I found that picture on the internet....They can't put anything on the internet that isn't true..

oh well, thanks for the correction

Hmmmmm...are you a French model, by chance???

glenn514

 

[beaksnbeer]

In 1980 my H.S. got a "computer" it ran on a reel to reel tape and it was Hi-tech and the size of a fridge today and all it did was daily class logs.

 

[Jayhem]

I remember the days when you could actually find several job openings in your general area you were qualified for and if you applied for them you would actually get an interview! Things have changed.

I remember when college graduates had a starting salary of about $12K and a single family home only cost $40K at the time. Now you are lucky to make $25K as a college graduate and average houses cost 10X your first year salary. Things have changed!

I remember back in about 1999 I could fill up my little Honda civic for $8. Today it would cost about $40. Things have changed.


There are a few things that have changed for the best I suppose. We have social media and smart phones! Woo-freakin-hoo!

 

[aiptasia]

Yep. I ran a BBS on my Apple ][/e for a number of years in the 80's. I remember paying $595.00 for my fist 2400 baud apple cat 2 modem. Ward christensen protocol had just been released (xmodem) for CRC transfers of files before packet switching was the thing. I used to dream of 20 meg hard drives. Everything back then was stored on 5 & 1/4" floppy discs, that you doubled by notching the side of the disk and flipping it over so your floppy drive could write to the bottom of the disc media.

 

[beaksnbeer]

Yep. I ran a BBS on my Apple ][/e for a number of years in the 80's. I remember paying $595.00 for my fist 2400 baud apple cat 2 modem. Ward christensen protocol had just been released (xmodem) for CRC transfers of files before packet switching was the thing. I used to dream of 20 meg hard drives. Everything back then was stored on 5 & 1/4" floppy discs, that you doubled by notching the side of the disk and flipping it over so your floppy drive could write to the bottom of the disc media.

Sh*t I must be old. That is all Greek to me. An analog mind in this digital world:cross:

 

[Varmintman]

Sh*t I must be old. That is all Greek to me. An analog mind in this digital world:cross:

I am with you brother.

 

[MrNatural]

My first "computer"

Worked fine back then, but now I need a bigger font.....

 

[beaksnbeer]

My first "computer"

Worked fine back then, but now I need a bigger font.....

My niece wondered what the funny ruler was, when I started to show her how it works she said "Why don't you just use the calculator off your phone?" :smack:

 

[Beernik]

My first "computer"

Worked fine back then, but now I need a bigger font.....

I have a slide rule in my desk. I got it as a white elephant one year.

When I get back to my office, I'll post a pick of some Sperry chips in a paper weight that I inherited from my Aunt.

 

[KayaBrew]

Anybody remember the Atari computers from the early eighties? There was the 400 and 800, IIRC. My buddies parents had the 400 (we were in 6th grade in '82-'83. We played video games that had to be "loaded" by inserting a cassete into a deck that was connected to the computer. I also remember writing really short programs in BASIC.

 

[fuzzy2133]

My niece wondered what the funny ruler was, when I started to show her how it works she said "Why don't you just use the calculator off your phone?" :smack:

The response is "and how will you do it when calculators and smart phones no longer exist."


I'll admit I was born in the 80's. I remember the Apple 2e, the Sega Master system, tape decks and VHS tapes.

One day I'll stick a "Please be kind rewind" sticker to a DVD and send it back to Netflix.

 

[OrdinaryAvgGuy]

The response is "and how will you do it when calculators and smart phones no longer exist."


I'll admit I was born in the 80's. I remember the Apple 2e, the Sega Master system, tape decks and VHS tapes.

One day I'll stick a "Please be kind rewind" sticker to a DVD and send it back to Netflix.

This VHS that you speak of? How does that work?

 

[Varmintman]

In High School we had the reel to reel movies about some cat named Joe. I am Joes liver and my favorite I am Joes lungs.

Poor Joe had a rough life :cross:

 

[Cathedral]

This VHS that you speak of? How does that work?

Betamax was better.