I’ll be the first to admit that for the past ten years or so, I’ve been wandering – lost and confused — in the jungle of emerging technology. And no matter how I hack away, the thick undergrowth of gadgets and accessories continues to coil around my wrists and ankles, pulling me down and threatening to choke the virtual breath right out of me.
Okay, maybe that was a little melodramatic. I tried to portray myself there as some kind of fearless explorer, forging a path for others to follow, and that isn’t quite accurate. Let’s forget the jungle analogy. It’s more like I was on the train, got off at a station to use the bathroom, and the train left without me. This part is true. I was riding along, up in one of the front cars. The terrain was bumpy, and there was a lot of junk on the tracks, but we were inching forward.
It was 1982. I had a Radio Shack computer, a massive desktop model, silver and black, with sixty-four kilobytes of memory and those huge floppy disks that you had to insert with two hands. The disks were called diskettes, which made them sound small and cute. They weren’t. Baseball teams could have used them to cover the infield during a rain delay. There were no ultra-thin monitors or wireless keyboards back then. The computer weighed as much as a stand-alone freezer filled with boxes of spinach and cans of orange juice with extra pulp.*
Connected to the computer by a flat, gray ribbon cable was something called a daisy-wheel printer. It was enormous. Had this printer been floating down the Mississippi, it could have been mistaken for a barge. Had it dropped to Earth from outer space and hit land, it would have wiped out all life forms worth worrying about.
With the aid of an acoustic coupler – a modem that required you to insert the telephone handset into the device – I could communicate with another computer six blocks away. I also joined a network called CompuServe, which allowed you to be in groups and clubs, where you could type messages to other people and trade information. Mostly, we discussed settings and baud rates, and the problems we were having with our acoustic couplers.
Not long after, I got a modem that plugged directly into the phone jack in the wall. It made a hideous squealing sound that reminded me of an old man clearing his throat, but it had cool switches on the front and operated at blazing speed. Blazing, that is, for 1984 – incoming messages crawled across the screen, one letter at a time. The connection would often freeze for minutes, then restore itself, with whole words bursting into view behind the racing cursor. Usually, though, one of us would have to re-dial the phone, wait for the throat-clearing noise, and start again. But sooner or later it would work, and it was thrilling, like how the pioneers must have felt when they finally learned how to make a canoe that didn’t leak.
The faster modem helped me buy an expansion bay, ordered through CompuServe and delivered two weeks later right to my front door. The bay had slots for three more diskettes, so I was now able to back up my files in a single step. This gave me something to say whenever anyone showed up and asked what I was doing on the computer. “I’m backing up my files,” I’d tell them, and that would make them go away, because they had no idea what I was talking about.
I bought my first microwave oven the same way. This was a large appliance, equal in bulk to the expansion bay, but much heavier. The microwave was big enough to reheat all of my leftovers at the same time and, between meals, provided a handy place to store luggage. Its most impressive feature was that it would boil a cup of water in fifty seconds. I wasn’t fond of leftovers, and was never in that much of a hurry for boiled water, but the chance to tell everyone how I’d acquired the thing made it seem worthwhile. And just as I’d expected, they were all stunned by my bold and visionary step.
Using the microwave was another matter. It made us nervous, because it seemed like magic the way food would suddenly start bubbling away in there. I worried that the baked potatoes were becoming radioactive, and that later, in bed, I would see my stomach glowing in the dark right through the blankets. The owner’s manual advised us not to stand too close to the microwave while it was running, but it was hard to resist – something pulled you in and forced you to look, like the way you’re not supposed to look at an eclipse, but some part of you wants to anyway, or how Niagara Falls makes some people want to jump over the railing. It was the risk that came with glimpsing into the future.
By the way, the computer and printer totaled more than seven thousand dollars. I purchased them at the exact moment that interest rates reached their highest level in recorded history. The equipment itself became obsolete around 1990, and stopped functioning a couple of years later. Nevertheless, I fully expect to have it paid off by the end of this decade.
*I don’t eat spinach. I realize it’s jam-packed with vital nutrients, but it’s gross. And I hate pulp, because I generally don’t drink solids, and also the word pulp makes me think of wet recycled paper. My reason for mentioning spinach and orange juice was that I was trying to get you to appreciate how heavy that computer was. If I confused or distracted you, I’m sorry. If this is going to lead us into a debate about the kinds of foods I should incorporate into my diet, or about how delicious cooked vegetables can be if prepared properly and topped with a little melted cheese, I’m even sorrier.
Images:
Train station is at the Elmira Railway Museum in PEI
Tandy Model II from http://www.old-computers.com
Acoustic coupler from http://www.computinghistory.org.uk
Modem II from http://www.trs-80.com
Original cartoon artwork by Ron Leishman
"HE WHO"
January 16, 2013
Enjoyed the post! I haven’t seen a Trash-80 for years. I bought my first computer in the mid-eighties, (Vendex Head Start, no hard drive but two floppies, one to work with and the other a program like Word). I loved it. Until the words on the screen scattered all over the place once my “novel” got to 43 pages. And that was that. I did love the printer. Mine wasn’t that big and also used a daisy wheel, but was efficient and fairly fast. I am a Luddite, however, and was left behind in the 90’s. Sure, I have a smart phone, have worked with Photoshop and Excel, etc., but I am getting tired of trying to keep up. I can text but prefer to talk on the phone. For me, e-mails are only to set up phone or personal appointments. And I’m liking microwaves less and less all the time. I’m even back to boiling my wieners.
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bronxboy55
January 16, 2013
Trash-80. I’d never heard that before. I actually loved that computer and still get excited when I see the picture. I think it’s because the leap from a typewriter to the TRS-80 (Model II) was such a great one. I’ve had quite a few computers (all Macs) since then, and each has been more amazing than the one before — but I’m spoiled now, and will never again be that easy to impress.
I’m tired of trying to keep up, too, HW. Some things are already good enough.
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"HE WHO"
January 16, 2013
Well said. And about the Trash-80…I bought the Vendex because I couldn’t afford Radio Shack.
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amelie
January 16, 2013
That is a beautiful picture. My mom and stepdad co-owned a Radio Shack for a couple of years. I remember those massive things. I’m surprised ours didn’t break the dining room table. Did you ever play Eamon? That was freaking epic.
Now I’m partnered with a techie guy, I can’t tell you how many hours I’ve listened to him rant on….and on and on…..and on about annoying new technology. I am the expert at pretending to listen now to stuff I can’t understand if my life depended on it.
Then he bought me an Ultrabook. Now I’m listening. 😉
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bronxboy55
January 16, 2013
I used to have lunch in high school with a bunch of guys who loved to talk about stereo equipment. I wasn’t listening either.
Thanks for the comment, Amelie, and congratulations on the Ultrabook. I don’t know what it is, but it sounds like something you like.
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icedteawithlemon
January 16, 2013
Ah, Charles, we are showing our age. I’ve had several trains leave the station without me, too, but if you reveal in your next installment that you have hopped aboard the Twitter train, I am going to feel desperately alone and abandoned and may be forced to choke down some pulpy OJ to drown my sorrows. And by the way, I bought my first microwave the same year you bought that ridiculously expensive computer–it commandeered half of my kitchen counter and cost me half of my first paycheck from teaching, and it was worth every dollar to have popcorn a whole two minutes faster than I could have popped it on the stove. I wish I could remember now what I did with all of those extra two minutes (probably stood idly in front of the microwave watching the magic happen).
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
The Twitter train was long gone before I ever even heard of it. Several people have advised me to catch up to it, but I can’t find a good enough reason. Maybe someday, but I doubt it.
Was your first microwave a Litton? That’s what I got. I had to carry it at an angle, because one side was so much heavier than the other. I don’t know for sure, but I’d bet that thing is still working.
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Stacie Chadwick
January 16, 2013
That is some SWEET equipment you’ve got there, Charles. Serious question: did you, by chance, save it? It might actually be worth what you paid for it (minus a zero or two), including interest.
I kind of miss my college days when I’d have to hike over to the computer lab in subzero weather to pound out a paper in the middle of the night only to watch it get jammed on the dot matrix printer 30 minutes before it was due. OK, that’s a lie.
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
I moved eight or nine times with those machines, Stacie. By the time the computer stopped working, in 1993, the people at the local Radio Shack had never seen that model or even any newer version of it, so getting it fixed seemed unlikely. It’s probably been recycled into some exercise equipment by now, or maybe a small truck.
Were you in school during the time when you could hand in a paper on a floppy disk? That was a weird feeling.
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Stacie Chadwick
January 17, 2013
No, but my first job out of college was at a small PR firm in 1992, and we did everything via floppy disk. We had no network and a crappy printer, but were able to set up a 9-hole putt putt course throughout the office whenever the two managing partners were away for the day. Good times. =)
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bronxboy55
January 21, 2013
Some of the most creative ideas are born on the golf course.
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The Sandwich Lady
January 16, 2013
Gosh I remember that era. We had a dot-matrix printer, as did my dad (who became a techie as a senior citizen). Some of his old recipes still have the perforated edges and narrow strips with holes in them. Remember working solely in DOS to do my writing, and how the computer and printer took up so much desk space that I had no room for notes. Also, who can forget those early cell-phones? The flip ones that were as big as a hiking boot?
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shoreacres
January 16, 2013
It’s not as big as a hiking boot, but I’m still using a flip phone. It doesn’t do much but make phone calls. I didn’t think I could text on it, but then a friend gently pointed out you have to sign up and pay money to text. Oh, says me. I did sign up, but I’ve only texted once, to be sure the thing works. I did finally figure out how to make it ring like a rotary dial. That was cool. 😉
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
I never had a dot-matrix printer, and felt secretly superior with my daisy-wheel machine that could produce typewriter-quality pages — without the perforated edges. And I had the same problem with desk space. After I bought the expansion bay, I had to move into a bigger house.
Thanks for the comment, Catherine.
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Ray Colon
January 16, 2013
Hi Charles,
My first computer (also from Radio Shack, I think) saved onto an audio cassette. I never got that to work right.
Price and the ease of use of today’s devices have made it a lot easier for people to be early adopters. Back then, you felt like a mad scientist just getting those computers to do what little they were supposed to do; that is, if you could afford them to begin with.
I started working at a time when 16-column accounting pads were the computer. The introduction of computers to the office environment, at least where I worked, had an odd dynamic. Newer computers would go to managers, who had no intention of using them — ever, and the staff would have to make do with the older/slower/clunkier technology. If this was the common practice everywhere, it probably set back the effort toward office automation by years.
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
I remember those days, Ray, when managers would be given computers that would then sit on their desks for years, unused. Meanwhile, their secretaries were slaving away on electric typewriters.
The first computer I worked on was a Compugraphic EditWriter 7500 typesetting machine, in 1978. The fonts were on plastic strips, about two feet long, and you could load two different ones onto the drum. Then, when you needed different fonts, you had to change the strips. (See: http://www.prepressure.com/prepress/history/events-1970-1979.)
I doubt there were many people back then who could imagine computers in almost every home. What in the world would we do with them?
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cat
January 16, 2013
Loved this column, Mr. C … know how you feel … I am highly resistive when it comes to upgrading anything electric … mind you, the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree … my mumme still sits on her neatly folded laundry and calls that ironing … 🙂
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
Your comment made me think about the hundreds of things my computer can do — all the different applications — that I never use. I keep upgrading, but continue to focus on the same three or four programs.
Even irons have gone high-tech, haven’t they?
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ShimonZ
January 16, 2013
great fun thinking about beginnings
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
And speaking of beginnings, I enjoyed your recent post on photography.
http://thehumanpicture.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/plain-photography/
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susielindau
January 16, 2013
I remember getting our first digital camera and assuming my husband would figure out how to work it. I never ever could type fast. Then I started to blog and man, my whole technological world changed. I am the master and commander in our house now. It is amazing how a little motivation to get photos and words on a blog post, goes a long way!
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
I agree, Susie: The need to produce something speeds up the learning process. I know a few lifelong photographers who look down on digital cameras, but when the only option was film, I couldn’t take a picture to save my life. And I still type with two fingers.
I bet you’ve always been the master and commander.
Have you recovered from that New Year’s Day swim?
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Fiona
January 16, 2013
I really enjoyed this post. I was only 4 in 1982 but I’m sure you stirred up memories of these things 😉
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
You were born in 1978? But how did you talk to people before Skype?
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Fiona
January 18, 2013
’77 actually, but late in the year. I don’t know, I seriously don’t know how I managed to survive evenings at home without a computer or phone either. What did people DO?
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
Mostly, we watched reruns of Green Acres, and when no one was home we practiced disco dancing.
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Ashley
January 16, 2013
You just took me back to the days when I was in college, and we were working on Exxon 500s. Holy smokes! Oh, and the thing that fascinated me when I first got a microwave was the fact that you could cook eggs in it. It was better than television at the time….of course, I was easily entertained.
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
You’re at least fifteen years younger than I am, Ashley, but both our first computers must be in a museum somewhere. And I agree with you about television at the time — but it was still better than it is now.
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Marie M
January 16, 2013
$7,000, eh? I hope you turned it into a tax write-off. I still shake my head at our first printer–a solid, wide-model pin-feed Epson that I intended to use to print clients’ DTP jobs. And since no software could rotate a landscape-oriented page to portrait orientation for printing purposes, the larger width was (I thought) a necessity. It was $1800, but it never gave us a lick of trouble. I still seriously consider buying Epson when we need a printer.
And I, too, feel as if I’m being left farther and farther behind in the tech world. I used to be proud of being more or less ahead of my circle re understanding and using computers in general–both hardware and software–but now I’m often afraid to open my mouth to show how little I know. I’ve even stopped bragging that I’m a fast learner. Humility: fittingly, it tastes like dirt.
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bronxboy55
January 17, 2013
I can remember the business majors coming into history class with their stacks of computer cards. They were always talking about having to “run” their programs, and I had no idea what that meant. And then they would print out their results on that accordion paper, and it would be a picture of Santa Claus and his reindeer, or something, fifteen feet long. I could never understand what that had to do with anything. I guess I was lost before I even started.
That $1800 printer probably paid for itself, though, didn’t it? Those were the days when we were actually earning a living.
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ptigris213
January 16, 2013
Wow, this brings back memories. the first computer I ever touched was a TI-1000, a big, slow monster built by Texas Instruments. The ‘diskette” was 8 inches across and fit like a pizza underneath the screen. The screen was black with white letters that were painfully slow..no wait, maybe they were green letters?
Oh, yes, CompuServe. You had no idea who you were talking to, there were no graphics whatsoever, (and no ads….) and it cost .25 per minute, if I recall. I ran up a bill of over $200 trying to fend off some guy who (even then) was looking for something more than a mere conversation about pets.
So you are not alone in the technological wilderness. I haven’t a clue how to Tweet or what Twitter really is, nor even how to read the things. I don’t text, and believe it or not, I’m the only person on the planet not on Facebook.
Sometimes it’s nice being a Luddite.
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
You’re right about the per-minute charge for CompuServe. I’d forgotten about that. And then AOL and Prodigy showed up. If I remember correctly, they all had these long intro screens you had to wade through every time you logged on, which drove up the bill.
I don’t text either, and haven’t been on Facebook in eight months. The word Twitter makes me think of pointless chattering, and as much as anything else, that’s what’s kept me from giving it a chance.
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ptigris213
January 19, 2013
What amazes me most about Facebook (which I’m not on), is that here is this intrusive, invasive, privacy blasting internet thing that is everywhere. Imagine what would have happened if the government had decreed: you must put yourself out there on the net: name, where you live, who you sleep with, how much money you make, what you do, etc? There would have been a revolution. But being that it’s a ‘fad”, everyone seems to have jumped aboard and puts out all that personal information for FREE!
Not me, thank you. I treasure my anonymity.
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Andrew
January 16, 2013
Now you’re making me feel old. I remember UPGRADING to a TSR-80 from a home brew S100 bus system I built in the late 70s.
Sounds like a cheap printer. My dad bought a printer around 81 for his accounting practice – about 12,000 as I recall (but it could boil water).
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
My first printer seems expensive now, but maybe it was one of the cheaper ones back then.
You built your own computer in the 1970s? I was still trying to figure out how to use a slide rule. (I never did learn.)
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Allan Douglas (@AllanDouglasDgn)
January 16, 2013
What a wonderful schlep down memory lane. I’m grateful. I’m always grateful to anyone who can elicit memories from this bowl of mush I call a brain.
My first computer was a Commodore 64. I had one of the first to hit the streets because I anticipated it’s roll out. I’d been researching these microcomputers ever since I got my hands on an Apple II. That’s a long story, we’ll skip it. My C64 used an old TV for a monitor, amber text on a black background, a cassette tape drive for data storage and the ever infamous acoustic coupler modem. The computer held as much RAM as my current wrist watch.
My, how far we have come! Now I have a device the size of a paperback book that holds 1 terabyte of stored data. I can’t even tell you how many zeroes are in a terabyte, let alone how many bits that is.
Oh, and I like spinach, feel free to pass yours over my way. Thanks!
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
I think those little storage devices are what amaze me the most, Allan. The memory card for a digital camera that holds thousands of photographs — I try to imagine what goes on inside one of those things, but I just can’t.
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KL
January 16, 2013
Although I am a little young to appreciate the computer you had… you had me at ‘behinder’ lol.
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
The quote is from Lewis Carroll: “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”
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KL
January 21, 2013
Of course! I had completely forgotten about that! Which reminds me.. I really must dig out my illustrated copy of ‘Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland ‘ and read it to my son!
Well, hurrier and behinder are just too cute 🙂
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mostlikelytomarry
January 16, 2013
I remember the computer that my Dad had when I was young. It is unbelievable how far things have come in such a short amount of time. To wonder what technology will be like when my kids have kids is a little terrifying.
As a testament to that, yesterday I was doing a workout video on the TV and my 5 year old was watching me. It was a kickboxing video with a female instructor. He said, “Mommy, are you making her move . . . or is she making you move?” He lives in the world of Wii where you can make a tv character move with your own body. So crazy 🙂
Anyway, as always thank you for the great post. I have to agree that pulp is gross. No question!
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
That conversation with your son is a great example of how easily the next generation will incorporate technology into their lives. For them, it’s always been there. And you’re right: it’s hard to imagine what that technology will be like in just a few more years.
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shoreacres
January 16, 2013
I didn’t get my first computer until 1999. Yes, that’s right. I never used a computer in school, and I never used a computer at work. No one did. It was the 50s and 60s. By the time computers were being introduced, I’d started varnishing and that was it.
Any time you want to talk about Royal typewriters, carbon paper, mimeograph machines, overhead projectors or the joys of collating reports by walking back and forth along a table and picking up sheets of paper, just let me know. I still remember those days, not to mention black lucite telephones that didn’t even have a dial. You picked up the receiver and an nice operator said, “Number, please”. Our number was 1906. Sometimes I think that’s when I was born.
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
Linda, I remember using a manual typewriter, too, and trying to rewind the ribbon without getting ink on my fingers. I can also recall being sent to the office at school on Fridays to pick up the weekly quiz, fresh from the mimeograph machine, and then back in the classroom, passing out the sheets to the first person in each row. You’ve got me with the dial-less telephone, though. And the nice operator — I was afraid of ours, partly because my older brothers would get me to keep bothering her and she’d eventually threaten to call my parents.
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Rufina
January 17, 2013
When Part II is ready, you’ll be that much more behinder. Would love to hear your perspective on phones, telegrams, faxes and email…are we worse off, or better than ever? I remember getting a LOT more done before I had email.
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
Rufina, I have no experience with telegrams. I’ve never sent or received one. I’m not sure I’ve ever even seen a telegram. I do have some memories of very early fax machines, and I hope you’ll come back to read about them.
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Rufina
January 18, 2013
Of course I will! I can’t believe that I am getting to that age where we start to say “I remember when we had…[insert any archaic and cumbersome machine]”. Can the phrase “Beam Me Up, Scotty” be that far away? 😉
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knotrune
January 17, 2013
Wow you had the internet early! My Dad was into computers so we always had them, I remember our excitement when we upgraded from the tape cassette to the floppy drive – instead of taking over half an hour to load pacman, with that floppy drive we could play one game of pacman then one of frogger! 🙂 But he was slow to adopt the internet. I had that in the early 90’s when it was all DOS and newsgroups and yes that horrid squealing chuntering sound is never to be forgotten. In view of the nostalgia stuff where digital cameras make the sort of sounds film ones used to, maybe one day they will make modems which make that sound digitally too…
And like you I am now behind the times, running XP and must be one of very few people left in the universe who has never ever sent a text message! I couldn’t cope with predictive text. I dislike it when machines think they know what I want better than I do. They don’t. I tried to text ‘Hi Mum’, it changed it to ‘Hi Nun’ and while I have a superior mother, she is not a Mother Superior! So I gave up.
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bronxboy55
January 18, 2013
I agree with you about machines trying to correct me — sometimes I really want to hyphenate the word, even when it doesn’t need it. And I still don’t know what newsgroups were. Are they still around?
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knotrune
January 18, 2013
They were like an old DOS equivalent of forums. I doubt they are still around, unless any migrated into being forums, but I have no idea!
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Tori Nelson
January 17, 2013
I tried using an iPad the other day and it was like looking at the future, everybody speaking some crazy code language I can’t figure out. I’m 25, and I’m told I should feel right at home using all these gadgets.
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bronxboy55
January 19, 2013
I remember when the iPad came out, Tori. Apple’s promotional videos made me want to get one. But when I thought about it, and tried to come up with reasons to justify the expense, I couldn’t. The major benefit seems to be its portability, which is only a benefit if you need (or think you need) to be connected to the Internet everywhere you go. I suppose if you see it as a device that replaces the computer, that makes sense, but for me, it would be redundant. Maybe it’s the same for you.
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John
January 17, 2013
Man, daisy-wheel printers! That brings me back, much like .38 Special and antenna TV.
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bronxboy55
January 19, 2013
John, I can remember watching that daisy-wheel spinning around and finding each character in a blur. I couldn’t understand how something could be that fast and that precise. Just like the metal type ball in the later electric typewriters. Remember those? Scroll down a little on this page:
http://observatory.designobserver.com/entry.html?entry=25238
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Stephanie Jill Rudd
January 17, 2013
Love this post! Laughing so much I am crying. Oh I remember what you are talking about so well!! Nearly falling off my chair…funniest thing I have read in ages…I just hope you did intend it to be funny?? LOL
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bronxboy55
January 19, 2013
It can be funny only if it’s true, Stephanie (with a little exaggeration). Thanks for the kind words. I hope you like Part 2, as well.
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sotengelen
January 17, 2013
This post made the last 15 minutes of my workday SO much better! Thanks!
I do remember the modems making beeping sounds but I don’t think we had a computer until 1995.
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bronxboy55
January 20, 2013
You’re reading blogs at work? Be careful!
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sotengelen
January 21, 2013
I do, but usually during my lunch break.
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jeanjames26
January 17, 2013
This totally reminded me of how truly foreign it was to use a computer for the first time; to really understand what it was. I was in 7th grade when I typed out my science fair report on my friends dad’s computer for the first time. It was 1983. I remember how fascinated and confused I was about what this machine was, and thinking my friends dad must be some kind of genius to be a part of the new ‘computer age’. I don’t remember model names or anything, but I do remember the size and speed. Oddly enough I did not do my science report on the computer, but on solar/wind energy. Go figure…Great Post!!
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bronxboy55
January 20, 2013
The ability to edit text was the lure for me. I had been using a manual typewriter, then an electric, and with both, correcting mistakes was difficult and messy. Invariably I’d hit a wrong key on the very last line on the page, and either have to live with it or retype the whole thing (I still do this with handwritten letters). So suddenly having this freedom to go back and fix something, or move an entire paragraph, seemed too good to be true.
I don’t think most people, in 1983, could have understood where all of this was heading. We probably still don’t.
Thanks for the comment, Jean.
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timmyjohnboy
January 17, 2013
Being a tad younger, my experience with computers began a little later. I think our first computer was a Tandy of some sort. I didnt really get into it until the 90s and we got a Packard Bell with Windows 3.1 on it. I do remember the early days of the web and even explored some of those crazy bulletin boards.
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bronxboy55
January 20, 2013
I remember reading articles in news magazines about the World Wide Web, and thought they were greatly exaggerated. Of course, that was 1994, and I was using a Mac SE for desktop publishing — and little else. I had left CompuServe behind, and was unaware of the advances. Even seeing the words Windows 3.1 makes it seem like a century ago, doesn’t it?
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Margo Karolyi
January 17, 2013
Great post – brought back a lot of memories. I worked in ‘instructional design’ at a Community College in the late1970s and had a Commodore PET dropped on my desk with the directive: “Figure out how we can use these things in the classroom!” YIKES! Up until then, computers were machines that took up whole rooms and only guys wearing white lab coats were allowed in there – and here I was with a ‘microcomputer’ (it actually hand a HANDLE on the back, even though it weighed about 50 pounds) on my desk and no idea what to do with it. The first PETs ran off a cassette drive; when we got dual 5 1/2″ ‘floppies’ as an upgrade, it was nirvana. Eventually the department (with help from some savvy computer programming students) developed some math tutorial software (that was used throughout the College system for years), and I gradually became adept at figuring out various programs (as they came along) and showing other people how to use them. I began teaching College courses in computer applications the following year (1980) and kept at it until 2010. Still, like you, I have this feeling that I’ve missed the ‘bullet train’ of technology and am travelling on one of those old steam locomotives from the ‘good old days’. We’ve come a long way, baby!
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bronxboy55
January 21, 2013
One of the things I never thought about was the short shelf-life of so much of that software. I remember people writing code for games and educational programs, and I thought of it as something like books that would be around for years or decades. What a risk it must have been — and still is — to work on something that requires so much effort, without knowing if someone else is doing the same thing, but six months ahead of you.
You’re right: maybe we missed the bullet train, but we can still make some progress. Thanks for the comment.
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Barbara Rodgers
January 17, 2013
Oh my, a lot of those technical terms you used have a ring of familiarity to them, probably from discussions I couldn’t help overhearing between my husband and his brothers, son, or co-workers. Tim dragged me kicking and screaming onto the Internet, enticing me with genealogy research opportunities. I honestly don’t know what would become of me without his expertise as he is almost daily ironing out little technical mysteries for me. I just keep making sacrifices to the computer sprites and hope for the best!
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bronxboy55
January 21, 2013
Having a goal — such as genealogy research — is a great motivation to keep pushing ahead through all of the confusion. It’s also nice to have someone close by to answer the inevitable questions. Most of us will never master any significant fraction of what’s already available, never mind the new things that appear on the market every day. Maybe the secret is to find and learn what we need, and somehow ignore the rest.
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rangewriter
January 17, 2013
Trust you to point out how far we’ve come. As our appliances have shrunk, we, it seems have done the opposite. At least me, anyway.
I always wondered why they called those things diskettes, maybe because they were slightly smaller than an LP record?
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bronxboy55
January 21, 2013
Or maybe the storage devices used in those huge mainframe computers were so much bigger? I don’t know. I’m just proud that I came up with that high-tech word — mainframe.
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strawberryquicksand
January 18, 2013
Having grown up with a Commodore 64, I can almost fully appreciate your recount of days gone by. I recall putting a cassette into the cassette player to load a simple game called Pulsar (where you were a little gun at the bottom of the screen and had to shoot space ships etc zipping around the screen). I would put the cassette in, press play, go and do the dishes, come back, flip the tape over, go and dry the dishes and come back… to find the wretched thing had crashed. Start again. Rewind the tape right back to the start on the right side, press play, go and do the ironing, come back, flip the tape, go and watch Dr Who on telly, come back and the game would have loaded. Just in time for bed. And yes, it was about 1984. Heck! We even joined a COMPUTER CLUB! We would box up and cart the trusty Commodore 64 to the local school library at 6pm on a Tuesday night where other die hard Commodore 64 and Amstrad fans would meet, set it up alongside other computers that other people had carted along, and swap games and hints and tips. Those were the days!
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bronxboy55
January 21, 2013
I don’t think it’s the word I would have used back then, but now those first computer games seem kind of endearing. Maybe it’s similar to the very first movies. They look primitive and unsophisticated to us, but when they first appeared, it was all there was.
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Elyse
January 19, 2013
I’m with you on the craziness of gizmos, Charles. And on spinach. There are few grosser things humans consume than cooked spinach.
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bronxboy55
January 21, 2013
It’s nice to have an ally, Elyse. Thank you.
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Worrywart
January 20, 2013
As always I love your take on life. Coincidentally, I ate my very first microwaved potato tonight because our oven is broken – so cooking something other than a “TV dinner” in the microwave, took me literally 35 years to figure out. I hope I figure out my phone in a more timely manner. More importantly (when it comes to high tech gadgets), I am REALLY hoping for flying cars while I still have a driver’s license.
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joy
January 20, 2013
flying cars may demand a pilots licence, or at least a hovercraft pilot’s licence.
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bronxboy55
January 22, 2013
WW, do you really hope for flying cars? Think about the last time you drove through a Wal-Mart parking lot. People around here haven’t even figured out red and green traffic lights yet.
Joy, a special license and a lot of follow-up training. Wouldn’t a flying car be very similar to a small helicopter?
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souldipper
January 20, 2013
Thanks for your visit, Charles – it was like family dropping in. Big smiles and nods accompanied my read this morning. My first computer was an old Commodore64 in 1981 on which I spent months learning how to program a message that came on when I turned it on, “Good Morning, Amy.” In technicolour yet – pretty good, eh? I can’t remember doing anything particularly useful with it except to be filled with determination to not be afraid of it.
Today, I marvel over the fact that my new MacBook Pro is more powerful than the total of the ones that were on 1/2 a floor of locked-up, temperature-controlled computers at Canada Trust’s Ivory Tower. The other half of the floor consisted of rows and rows of computer programmers and data input clerks. Yikes!
I don’t have the same reading time, either – and when I do, I use “Reader” on WP. Consequently, I have missed you. I’ve just made a decision that I’m going to have to do some prioritizing and determine who to have on my Reader. Breaks my heart, but I’m missing people who encourage me to stretch…like you.
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bronxboy55
January 22, 2013
It’s amazing how many people had that Commodore 64. I wonder how many they sold. And I’ve had the same thought about the powerful computers we have today — they even sell calculators at the dollar store.
I’ve missed our exchanges, too. I’m glad we’re back in touch.
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earthriderjudyberman
January 20, 2013
Charles, I do recall those cumbersome computers and microwaves. How times have changed.
While I did work in the computer section of a medical library in the late 60s and early 70s, we did not have a computer in our home until the 80s. It was dial up and super slow. I could type faster than it could put same on screen and then regurgitate my paperwork.
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bronxboy55
January 22, 2013
Judy, what I recall about dial-up was how many tries it often took to connect, how the page filled slowly from the top down, and how frequently I’d get disconnected and would have to start all over. I also remember how much I appreciated high-speed the first few times I used it. But, of course, we become spoiled pretty quickly, don’t we?
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dearrosie
January 21, 2013
I carefully backed up all my *stuff* on floppy discs but they are so last century and “old fashioned” and current computers don’t use them so am I supposed to just say goodbye to my *stuff*?
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bronxboy55
January 23, 2013
I did the same thing, Rosie. I have files backed up on Zip disks, too, and in programs that no longer run on my computer. Now what?
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Lady from Manila
January 21, 2013
Technically challenged all my life, I’ve come to develop some wild respect for high-tech wizards, especially if they’re women. Since I’ve always liked Languages, I decided to study Computer Programming Languages such as Basic, Cobol, and Dbase in my late teenage years. I did very well at all of them but they’re downright useless now, especially in my profession. *sigh*
Gotta make the sign of the cross every time I turn on my computer these days. 🙂
Recent circumstances have impeded my resolve to feel constantly good and sunny. I ask for pardon for any shortcomings as a blogging and email buddy. I am hoping to be granted another chance to prove our friendship is worth another shot. Your online presence has always been valuable to me, Charles.
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bronxboy55
January 23, 2013
Whenever I see a computer game, the first thing I think is that someone wrote the program for this. I’ve finally resigned myself to the idea that I’m never going to understand it.
Your recent loss had to knock your life off course and change your routine in significant ways. There’s no need to explain.
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writingfeemail
January 21, 2013
Boy do I ever recall the gigantic microwaves! And although I didn’t have one of the refrigerator sized computers, I did spend an entire semester in college learning how to run an adding machine like a wiz. Now that’s a skill that’s been useless.
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bronxboy55
January 23, 2013
I have rolls of adding machine paper, in case you ever want to get back into it.
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Margie
January 22, 2013
Microwaves! Did you see the Murdoch Mysteries show (set in the late 1800’s) where George talks about the vision he has of microwave machines that would cook potatoes. Murdoch suggests that is not likely to happen because the microwave machine they had seen (which had been used to kill people) was as big as a room. George, ever the optimist, says he thinks every house would have a microwave room, just off the kitchen, for cooking the household’s potatoes… I love the humour in that show…
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bronxboy55
January 24, 2013
One of the first things I learned about microwaves involved cooking time for potatoes. It seems that you had to add time for each additional potato — something that wasn’t necessary with conventional ovens.
I’ve never heard of the Murdoch Mysteries. But then, I’ve been pretty out of touch when it comes to television shows.
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Weathered Priya
January 23, 2013
When we were young, a neighbour had bought microwave — the first we ever saw. Since the electricity supply in the cantonment wasn’t ‘heavy’ enough, our lights would go off as soon as they nuked their food for more than 5 minutes. That’s my first introduction to microwave ovens. Is it surprising, then, that I began using it only when I wanted to store McChicken in my freezer and eat one every evening?
Vegetables are good for you, you know. With or without cheese. I could sermonise on any given day.
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bronxboy55
January 24, 2013
We could always make a deal: You don’t preach to me about vegetables, and I don’t preach to you about eating McChicken.
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Weathered Priya
January 25, 2013
No go, sir. I cannot stop preaching, and I gave up McChicken a long time ago. Mmmmhahaha
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Val
January 23, 2013
Ah, this takes me back… to the early 80s or so when I had my first computer. Alas, it was an Amstrad… No pictures, no sound, and although one could apparently set up a modem of some sort I never got past the gobbledegook that tried to explain how. Green text. Oh and yours had 64 Kb? I’m not sure mine even managed that. I was writing a book at the time and had the first fifty pages on more floppy discs than you can imagine! (I think there was about a page per disc).
I remember when i first heard of computers with a gigabyte of memory I wondered if it wouldn’t fry the hard drive… !!
I had an dot-matrix printer. You weren’t missing anything. Dreadful things!
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bronxboy55
January 24, 2013
I was freelancing at a design studio in the mid-90s, and one day the art director got a new computer with a gigabyte of memory. I couldn’t believe anyone could ever need that much storage on their hard drive.
You’ve made a lot more progress than I have since those early days, Val. You might deny it, but I’ve read some of your more technical posts.
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Val
January 24, 2013
Apart from the times when my brain goes walkabout, I absorb info like a sponge.
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Michelle Gillies
January 27, 2013
The train always leaves the station without me and silly me tries to run after it. It seems I am exhausted all the time trying to catch up.
My first microwave was also purchased in the early 80s. It was an Electrolux and I had to get financing to purchase it. It cost more than my car.
(This is me shaking my head as I write.)
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bronxboy55
January 28, 2013
I didn’t know Electrolux made microwaves. Mine was a Litton. I still have the cookbook. Speaking of cars, a brand new Volkswagen back then was $2000. Why didn’t I buy ten of them and store them in a garage? (Now I remember. I didn’t have enough to buy one, let alone ten. And I didn’t have a garage.)
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elizjamison
February 3, 2013
I remember those days! I’d play “Adventure” and “Zork” on the computer in the ’80’s. Great post!
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bronxboy55
February 3, 2013
I never played Zork, and would never have guessed it was around that long ago. I think I was still trying to get the hang of Pong back then.
Thanks, Elizabeth.
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Bruce
February 8, 2013
Great post. I too stood by and watched water boil in the microwave. The magic was worth the danger. I shouldn’t have laughed so much at you buying when interest rates were the highest in recorded history, but it is funny, now. Bruce
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bronxboy55
February 9, 2013
I watched water boil, too. Our kids will never understand that, or be able to feel that kind of excitement.
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lostnchina
February 11, 2013
I love it when you wax nostalgic about things I could barely remember. What about the 8-track? Why are they always under-represented in a blog post.
PS: To test your theory about the heaviness of computers, I just threw a bunch spinach onto the ground (sans box), but I think the green cabbage fell faster. However, broccoli and cauliflower – those are the heavyweights of vegetables. Thanks to your post, Charles, my kitchen floor now looks like the ground of a Chinese wet market.
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bronxboy55
February 12, 2013
Susan, I think 8-tracks are under-represented because they were only around for about two weeks. I had just a handful of tapes, and they probably ended up in the trunk of my car, covered with motor oil and dead leaves.
Be careful in your kitchen. Cabbage is really slippery.
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i mayfly
February 21, 2013
Memories.
Light the corner of my mind…hum, hum, hum, la,la,la…for the way we were. 1973. Year of the movie and about the same time of my exposure to the beasts. Think church organ size key punch machines. As a work-study lackey I and my fellow lackeys was assigned the task of digitizing the college library’s card catalog. (That was also when internet searches were the sole domain of trained staff because the costs were $$$ per MINUTE.) Supposedly, I showed an apptitude for writing those simple programs and they sent me to a programmer’s class. When the instructor started explaining binary number system and it’s simply a pattern of 0 and 1’s, I ran screaming out of the room, “I’m an art major! Who signed me up for this x#$@!?”
Fun times. Thanks for the memories, Charles. -Nikki
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bronxboy55
February 22, 2013
“Card catalog.” There’s a term that’ll get you some blank stares.
I think it’s good that we were around in those early days of computers. At least we’ll have something to mumble about when we’re really old.
Thanks, Nikki.
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September 22, 2013
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