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Do you remember when….

1. You logged onto your local bulletin board system (BBS). Hoping to get an invitation by the SysOp to the cool one in your town. I remember being entranced with downloading images from the bulletin board. Remember they were all those tacky photos of dogs and cats, some neat POV RAY images, interspersed with corel draw clipart. I didn’t need the images, rarely used them in anything. I just loved the idea of downloading them. I also remember discovering shareware for the first time, although I can’t remember a single download, but I know I did. And finally I remember meeting a group of people in the chat that I eventually met and had my first discovery that people online don’t always translate over into real life the same way.

2. You were able to login (really one of the first forays of the internet) into your local college/university and found hundreds and hundreds of articles and information.

3. Using your BBS to log into FidoNet as an access to the internet

4. Aol

5. Logging on to the world wide web for the first time and I became completely addicted for a little while to a trivia game on #IRC called #chaos.

6. My first personal website was all animal related (I was a veterinary technology grad) with paw prints background and fit the bill for the first tacky websites that came out at the time.

A lot has changed in the last 20 years as far as what we can do and how we do it online. As a knowledge and information junkie, I have to say that I love the internet and can’t imagine my life without it. Imagine having to go back to the days of looking up outdated information in an encylopedia. Having to actually write a letter to someone, buy a stamp and mail it, gasp;) But one thing about the internet that hasn’t changed over the last 20 years or so is that regardless of how it’s done, people are always trying to find ways to connect with each other and that ability to share with people around the world has made it incredibly valuable.

Posted by By: lisa | 2006/10/17 | Life - odd things | Trackback | Comments [RSS 2.0]

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Lisa R

Comment by Lisa R | 2006/10/17 at 01:01:11

hmm, did I just basically confess I was a geek? lol
Andrea

Comment by Andrea | 2006/10/17 at 10:23:31

Don’t worry, you’re in good company.
Brikwall

Comment by Brikwall | 2006/10/17 at 10:40:54

My first “real” computer was a Samsung PC-XT. It had an 8088-1 processor, a 10MB HD (later upgraded to 20MB), dual floppies, a 2400 baud modem and a one-colour monitor (yellow only, although I had a switchable graphics card that allowed me to change from text-only to CGA). It came bundled with a Star NX1000 9-pin dot matrix printer, all for the low-low price of $2499.99 (at that time, a year’s tuition was $1675.00). I bought it in the spring of ‘89, just near the end of my second year of university. I finally threw it out in 2000 - although many of the disks had gone bad (5-1/4 floppies), the computer still booted up and ran like a charm the day I tossed it in the trash!

It was a great machine for its day. It came with three manuals (yes, actual BOOKS!). One was for MS-DOS, one was the User’s Manual, and the third was a technical manual that not only showed you how to install upgrades, but also gave such information as wiring schematics, etc, so that you could troubleshoot hardware problems. MS-DOS, unlike Windows, was pretty-well trouble free: it was hard to screw anything up and, if you did, you could simply re-format the hard drive, reinstall DOS, and be back up and running again in under an hour. But there was none of today’s “idiot-proof” computing. You had to get off your ass, put your brain in gear and actually LEARN how to use the computer - the software didn’t do it for you.

In those days, the UNB computer lab operated from the old mainframe. There were about 30 terminals that were shared by both the Computer Science and the Engineering faculties (all disciplines) - several hundred students. Only about half the terminals worked properly, and it was impossible to get computer time before midnight, especially on weekdays. That old computer of mine was a god-send as I could sit in the comfort of my apartment, connect to the mainframe, and do all of my computer and computer-based assignments from home. I would have to walk to Head Hall to get my printouts, but that was a minor inconvenience compared to waiting for computer time.

The various faculties also offered free versions of many of the software programs we used at that time. So, if I needed a certain programming language, spreadsheet or graphics program for one of my courses, I could simply go to the CS office and copy the software onto disk, which I could then install onto my home computer. Again, it allowed me to do much of my work at home rather than fight for a terminal at Head Hall. You’d never see that today with all of the software licensing and anti-piracy initiatives.

I never did play with BBS or other early online services, although my father and I did try a couple of times to connect our two computers to “chat” or transfer letters. At 2400 baud, it was quicker and easier to talk!

We’ve come a long way since then…
lisa

Comment by lisa | 2006/10/17 at 10:50:26

Hey Dan, you pretty much described my system, and they were expensive as hell. I had a Tandy from Radio Shack and nothing was interchangeable, had to use Tandy parts only. Yeah the 2400 baud modem. I remember getting really excited when the 3300 k baud modem came out, lol. Ack, you triggered a flashback of doing Watcom basic assignments at UNB’s Head Hall, lol.
Barbara J Gill

Comment by Barbara J Gill | 2006/10/17 at 23:19:59

Well I do well just to keep on top of the new language (to me) ! Yikes !!! It was 1998 when I was forced really through my work with high-tech sector in Kanata outside of Ottawa Canada … to get an email and learn about the Internet. I do enjoy the information that is available through this source - for research and also have made lots of contacts. I did a lot of my sales through Internet eventually. Did you hear about that poor u-tube company (pipes) that has 15 employees or something and got millions of hits (as in You Tube). Poor guys have had to work around this - missing sales etc. Barbara
SkylarKD

Comment by SkylarKD | 2006/10/19 at 21:06:02

I used to spend so much time on IRC when I was a teenager! I’ll admit that I still log on a couple of times a year to play the trivia games… *sheepish grin*

Do you remember when….

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