OMG who remembers OREGON TRAIL!?!?!?!?!?!?! Best game ever.

HAHAHA Oregon Trail, 6th grade on the Apple II GS.

 

http://redux.com/f/1765814/The-Men-Who-Wear-Many-Hats-Organ-Trail

Have fun, guys.

I remember using all 5 of my monthly allotted hours to download Wolfenstein 3D from AOL on my 2400 baud modem. (before they went to the unlimited plan). I thought 'man, gaming will never be better than this'. 2 months later I downloaded Doom.

 

But, um, Facebook, yeah!

Facebook has no business starting an email service when they don't even have a customer support line. You have to research google just to figure out how to contact them by email and even if you send an email it takes days, sometimes weeks to get a response, let alone resolve some sort of conflict (if they even choose to do something about it).

NetZero, Callwave, CompuServe, 2400 baud modems, getting yelled at for tying up the phone line for too long, Windows 3.1, EMM386...

 

circa 1983 - IBM PC, 16-bit Intel 8088 CPU at 4.77Mhz, throttled by an 8-bit bus. 256K RAM, 2-360K Floppy drives, No Hard Drive, DOS 2.1, "Fast" Hayes 1200 Baud Smartmodem (not all local phone lines would support that much speed, so it could automatically step back to 300 Baud if necessary), Okidata tractor-feed dot-matrix printer, Word Perfect run from floppy with overlays. ~$5,000. Later came an $800 add-in card to boost RAM to 640K, enabling creation of a virtual drive where I could load the entire Word Perfect floppy to accelerate loading of overlays and free up a drive. Still later, a ~$500 10MB Hard Drive, and I couldn't imagine how I was going to use all that storage. Also got a copy of Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet from work and upgraded with an 8087 floating-point math coprocessor.

I think all those numbers are what made a lot of home users wuss out and buy an Atari 400 or Commodore 64.

I think all those numbers are what made a lot of home users wuss out and buy an Atari 400 or Commodore 64.

 

That stuff was before my time - earliest system I had was a Nintendo - I remember getting worn out just blowing into the cartridges to get the games to work. I can't imagine how sh!tty the Ataris were. I did have an Amiga...I can't remember the model number but that system was sweet! They had some cool games for it.

Wait...did the Ataris function as a PC? I thought they were just for gaming. When I think of Atari, I think of Pong, Space Invaders, Pac Man. You get better performance if you have all of your processor speed and memory dedicated to gaming.

 

 

My mid 20s people.. how many of you wanted to strangle that @sshole dog that popped up and started giggling every time you missed a clay pigeon in Duck Hunt? I still hold a grudge lol.

There were Atari computers, which were not the same as the Atari game systems.  I had an Atari 800XL 8-bit computer, which rocked for it's time.  I used to love playing games on it but also doing other things like making simple programs in BASIC.  You could get anything for it that you could for an IBM compatible- hard drives, modems, printers, etc.  Atari also made 16-bit (the ST) and 32-bit (Falcon) computer systems.

The Atari computers had the computer integrated into the keyboard and used a TV just like a Commodore 64.  The one I used quite a bit had a thingy for game cartridges centered over the keyboard but also had an off-brand free-standing floppy drive. 

 

I seem to remember it loading the programs without having to a DOS disk first or any command lines.  We had a Tandy 1000 without a hard drive for several years which could actually copy files from disk to disk with a single disk drive but through a time-consuming process peppered with the strange sounds those things made.

 

My fist experience with the "internet" was local dial-up BBS's, which was basically somebody's extra computer with its own phone number.  You got a half hour to be on them, then they kicked you off automatically.  The culture of the discussion forums was pretty similar to what's here now.  There were moderators (called "sys-ops"), trolls, and of course NO WOMEN.

 

 

 

I'm only 23, but my dad is a hardware engineer so I've been on computers since I was about 4.  I was too young to remember the specifics, I just remember how excited I was when Windows 3.1 came out and I didn't have to use command lines and DOS anymore.  Although having to type C:/win.exe every time to get Windows to start got annoying pretty quickly.  I also remember reading message boards on Prodigy, before AOL came out.

^ What was your handle on BBS's?

I was Chochise from Welcome Back Kotter.  Also, now that I think of it, the fist person I ever met in real life that I met on the internet was some girl named Abbie (can't remember her handle).  We realized we were going to the same concert and since this was before cell phones we just had to say what we were going to wear and actually do it then hope to see one another.  Anyway she finds me in the crowd at Bogart's and had been saying she was 17 but was probably 14 (I was 18 or 19) so that was the end of that.  After all that build-up it was all over in 2 or 3 minutes.   

My mid 20s people.. how many of you wanted to strangle that @sshole dog that popped up and started giggling every time you missed a clay pigeon in Duck Hunt? I still hold a grudge lol.

 

I use to try to shoot him.

 

Me too! But it wouldn't let us. There should have been a secret button combination that allows you to lol.

I'm only 23, but my dad is a hardware engineer so I've been on computers since I was about 4. I was too young to remember the specifics, I just remember how excited I was when Windows 3.1 came out and I didn't have to use command lines and DOS anymore. Although having to type C:/win.exe every time to get Windows to start got annoying pretty quickly. I also remember reading message boards on Prodigy, before AOL came out.

 

My dad was the first one on our block to have a personal computer.

I also remember using DOS when I was 4 or 5...  Always remember hitting "g" for games and I'd be entertained for the day haha.

I was typing dos commands and building computers when I was 9-10. I forgot a lot of what I friggin knew at that age lol. I've regressed. We have it too easy now with Win 7 and OS X.

You guys are amateurs. I grew up with boxes of IBM punch pads for my scrap/doodle paper. We had Pong.

In the arcade version of Duck Hunt (called "Vs. Duck Hunt") you can shoot the dog.

There are some flash games where you can kill that damn dog too.

You guys are amateurs. I grew up with boxes of IBM punch pads for my scrap/doodle paper. We had Pong.

 

:laugh: I was using 80-column punch cards, operating a keypunch, making drum cards, running a sorter, and configuring tab bars for NCR tabulating bookkeeping machines in 1965. I worked with NCR 1-inch paper tape punches and readers, too, and in 1966 I took a class to learn to wire boards for IBM punched card interpreters, collators, etc. I had a brief encounter with the abominable mark-sense card equipment. Just a little of that was more than enough.

 

The first dial-up access we installed in our regional warehouses used telephone modems and teletype-style printers with keyboards for input. It was a big step up when we got Televideo CRT terminals that would work with separate dot-matrix printers.

Indeed, you haven't lived until you've had to use a boot disk.

 

First computer I used was a TRS-80 in my 5th grade class. We thought we were the sh!t because we knew the 3 line Basic program to get our name to scroll across the entire screen.

I actually have my wife's Commadore 64 up in our attic begging to be fired up....I am doubting any of the floppy will have lasted this long though.

 

As a kid had a C64 with a paint program that had senstive pad that you plugged in and used aplastic stylus on. Hours of enetertainment when you are 6. Printshop banners on the 9-pin DM printer were the shit. I remember upgrading from the 9 pin to the 21 pin. 1400 baud modem that you set the handset on, Liesure Suit Larry command line games, Much later after that the VGA monitor upgrade that blew my mind that I would just fire up the demo and watch them...

 

But that was then I was facebooking on my ipod last night while I was on the ellipitical machine...Progress, sort of..

 

 

Indeed, you haven't lived until you've had to use a boot disk.

 

First computer I used was a TRS-80 in my 5th grade class. We thought we were the sh!t because we knew the 3 line Basic program to get our name to scroll across the entire screen.

 

Yep. The early IBM PCs had Basic encoded in ROM. If you booted without the DOS boot disk, they'd start up with the Basic programming interface. Mine was the second version, I think, capable of accepting up to 256K RAM on the motherboard. Prior to that, they only accepted 64K, and you had to buy an additional ISA board to hold the additional chips. If I recall, there were nine chips to a 64K bank, eight bits data and one bit parity. I can't remember the price, but I do remember that they were damned expensive. The boards were expensive, and to build a machine out to the maximum 640K cost an arm and a leg.

 

After I built my machine out with a hard drive and 640K RAM, I bought a Fortan Compiler. I was familiar with the language because I used Fortran 77, an extended version capable of handling character strings, at work. The compiler was fun to mess around with at home, making clocks and such with text screens (no graphics capability on my PC then), but I don't think I ever did anything serious with it.

While cleaning up our office's storage unit at Uncle Bob's, we ran across cases of old 5.25" disks which were apparently backups of our daily billing records in the 90's.  I guess we can just toss them without erasing them because we can't even find a 5.25" drive to run them and reformat them.  Maybe I should stick them in the MRI machine and erase them that way...

While cleaning up our office's storage unit at Uncle Bob's...

 

Heard an interesting statistic over the weekend, not sure if it's true or not but if it is, wow:  There were no storage lockers before around the 1960s. People just had less stuff. What kind of society have we evolved to be that so many people now have so much STUFF that there are these massive storage lockers everywhere?

Ahhh, Windows 3.1.  You know that old computer of ours still runs better than the computer I got my first year of college?  The programming is so much simpler that it doesn't destroy the thing.  And I remember having to go through DOS to get to the C prompt to change it to the A or B prompt to play my games on disk....  Because still in the early 90's, the games couldn't be played without disks.  I also remember the Apple IIs we had in school that didn't even have a hard drive.  And if you booted it without the floppy, it would go to this screen with a scrolling ball saying please insert disk.  Yes, those were the days.... 

It's become appearant that my uncle has become a tea-partier. All he does on Facebook -- and he's on there day and night, is post something about God and religion, or about how Obama sucks.

It's become appearant that my uncle has become a tea-partier. All he does on Facebook -- and he's on there day and night, is post something about God and religion, or about how Obama sucks.

 

Jesus!

While cleaning up our office's storage unit at Uncle Bob's...

 

Heard an interesting statistic over the weekend, not sure if it's true or not but if it is, wow: There were no storage lockers before around the 1960s. People just had less stuff. What kind of society have we evolved to be that so many people now have so much STUFF that there are these massive storage lockers everywhere?

 

I doubt that, though the drive in garage style storage lockers may date to that period.  There are older buildings known as "fire proof storage" buildings that you can find now and again, and if you look on old maps you'll see them referenced quite often.  They look just like multistory warehouses from the outside, though.

>As a kid had a C64 with a paint program that had senstive pad that you plugged in and used aplastic stylus on.

 

We had MS Paint for Tandy and got a stylus pad like the one you're talking about.  It didn't work well at all. 

 

My gradeschool's computer lab consised of about 12 Tandy's from about 1983 that looked like the ones from the front of Kraftwerk's Computer World.  We had to double up on each computer and a few had to triple up.  The games loaded off a server that was the exact same type of computer.  We had to enter at least 15 command lines to get simple flash card games up and running.  The command lines were written on the chalk board. 

 

Then they started this ridiculous "computers in the classroom" thing where all the parents collected receipts from Thriftway grocery stores to get us free computers.  After a year and some truly staggering volume of receipts -- like $1,500,000 -- we were awarded ONE computer, an Apple II, which was of course incompatible with the rest and then forced the school to buy all new computers.

 

It was a total sales scam and the school administrators fell for it.  It was absolutely comical how few adults "understood" computers then.       

 

While cleaning up our office's storage unit at Uncle Bob's...

 

Heard an interesting statistic over the weekend, not sure if it's true or not but if it is, wow:  There were no storage lockers before around the 1960s. People just had less stuff. What kind of society have we evolved to be that so many people now have so much STUFF that there are these massive storage lockers everywhere?

 

It depends on need.  There are times when ive dumpster dived or bought things from a flea market.   

 

You cannot bring those things directly into your home, to avoid any type of bug infestation.  I dont have any extra room in my apartment or my parents home to prep items before I refurbish them.  So I've occasionally wrapped the items up and placed them in storage to make sure i've killed any bugs.

 

Wrapping the items in clear plastic and leaving them in a hot warehouse near a window or out in the yard for 2 or more weeks is sure to kill all bugs and their eggs.

While cleaning up our office's storage unit at Uncle Bob's...

 

Heard an interesting statistic over the weekend, not sure if it's true or not but if it is, wow:  There were no storage lockers before around the 1960s. People just had less stuff. What kind of society have we evolved to be that so many people now have so much STUFF that there are these massive storage lockers everywhere?

 

I doubt that, though the drive in garage style storage lockers may date to that period.  There are older buildings known as "fire proof storage" buildings that you can find now and again, and if you look on old maps you'll see them referenced quite often.  They look just like multistory warehouses from the outside, though.

 

I had to read some required texts in urban planning about how commercial office space needed by tenants has dwindled down significantly from the 50s or 60s compared to now. This is because of computers. Storage for various records; even things that would go into an old school filing cabinet, are now just stored on computers and backup disks/memory cards/hard drives, etc. We'll always need important documents on file but the idea of folders and subfolders made in computers for storage has had a profound impact on required space, for sure. I would definitely say it had a profound impact on vacancy rates in buildings. It's amazing what all we could get done in a 600 sq. ft. office where I interned.

 

I think a lot of ebay sellers or otherwise online retailers use those storage garages. I don't use one but I've been to several, to help people move their junk. I'd see people open their garage door and half of it would be full of empty boxes, styrofoam pellets and merchandise that was probably bought from a wholesaler.

Why do people post the trashiest stuff on facebook?  :? Everyone is WATCHING you! Someone I went to school with was like "Going to the orthodontist today" and everyone's all like "ask for Dilaudid", "Tell them you want the gas mask and the IV". Then one of my friends pops up in the status updates, "Drunk and obnoxious at Happy Ending." What the hell is wrong with people? lol Your employers can easily look you up!

thats your generation

MY generation?

 

 

MY generation?

 

 

 

Yep the under 30 generation.  AKA the TMI generation!

And you date 20 y/o's ha!

And you date 20 y/o's ha!

 

Yeah but neither of them is putting my bidniz on facebook.

>Storage for various records; even things that would go into an old school filing cabinet,

 

If you look in the Western-Southern Life Insurance building at the corner of 4th & Broadway, you can see that the entire second floor is nothing but file cabinets.  It's amazing that space in such a high profile building is being used for that purpose.  When I temped at nationwide, all incoming mail from customers was immediately scanned and presumably shredded. 

 

So it's sounds like facebook will soon go through a major revision and becoming more "visual"

>Storage for various records; even things that would go into an old school filing cabinet,

 

If you look in the Western-Southern Life Insurance building at the corner of 4th & Broadway, you can see that the entire second floor is nothing but file cabinets. It's amazing that space in such a high profile building is being used for that purpose. When I temped at nationwide, all incoming mail from customers was immediately scanned and presumably shredded.

 

 

Well, they're an insurance company with a lot of old contracts, so that's understandable.

 

 

One of my friends on Facebook said he's going to fire any of his employees who puts a cartoon character as their profile (in support of the end of child abuse.) He said not beating your kids is what's wrong with them these days lolololol.

[ ... ]

 

... He said not beating your kids is what's wrong with them these days lolololol.

 

That's true. I got my share of beatings, and that's what encouraged me to perfect the art of deviousness. I learned that there are three ways to stay out of trouble:

 

1. Always play by the rules (no fun)

 

2. Be discreet (good work if you can get it, but not always possible)

 

3. Or, make it look like it's somebody else's fault (a winner every time!)

[ ... ]

 

... He said not beating your kids is what's wrong with them these days lolololol.

 

That's true. I got my share of beatings, and that's what encouraged me to perfect the art of deviousness. I learned that there are three ways to stay out of trouble:

 

1. Always play by the rules (no fun)

 

2. Be discreet (good work if you can get it, but not always possible)

 

3. Or, make it look like it's somebody else's fault (a winner every time!)

 

No more calls, we have a winner!

So it's sounds like facebook will soon go through a major revision and becoming more "visual"

 

That would be consistent with the changes made in the "new profile."  I like the new profile, but then again, I mainly like it by comparison to the old profile, of which I was quite critical.  There are still many apps that the profile makes it hard to access and the photo system could still use some user-friendliness improvements.

 

And, of course, the privacy concerns remain, but I've long since realized that Facebook simply doesn't care about that.

I see facebook as evolving into a mobile-webcam-real time system where you can see what everyone on your friends list is doing.    Maybe some kind of double camera sunglasses hardware let's everyone see what you're doing.  I've seen some prototypes online of glasses that show tv -this would be an extension

 

 

I see facebook as evolving into a mobile-webcam-real time system where you can see what everyone on your friends list is doing. Maybe some kind of double camera sunglasses hardware let's everyone see what you're doing. I've seen some prototypes online of glasses that show tv -this would be an extension

 

 

 

And that's when Facebook becomes chat-roulette. I hope everyone likes to see grown men diddling themselves.

Article is mostly about how email is for old fogey's now. But they give some insight into the messaging service being provided by Facebook

 

E-Mail Gets an Instant MakeoverBy MATT RICHTEL

Published: December 20, 2010

 

SAN FRANCISCO — Signs you’re an old fogey: You still watch movies on a VCR, listen to vinyl records and shoot photos on film.

And you enjoy using e-mail....

 

...Facebook is trying to appeal to the Lenas of the world. It is rolling out a revamped messaging service that is intended to feel less like e-mail and more like texting.

 

The company decided to eliminate the subject line on messages after its research showed that it was most commonly left blank or used for an uninformative “hi” or “yo.”

 

Facebook also killed the “cc” and “bcc” lines. And hitting the enter key can immediately fire off the message, à la instant messaging, instead of creating a new paragraph. The changes, company executives say, leave behind time-consuming formalities that separate users from what they crave: instant conversation....

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/21/technology/21email.html?_r=1&ref=technology

 

 

 

 

 

And, of course, the privacy concerns remain, but I've long since realized that Facebook simply doesn't care about that.

 

What do you mean by lack of privacy? You can adjust your settings pretty well to ensure privacy. Only friends can see what you post; only friends can look you up when searching for you. Things like that. I downloaded this app spy-ware that supposedly allows you to see who your biggest stalkers are (the top 10 people who look at your page - who wouldn't be curious about that?) but it turned out to be fake. I looked up the App on Google and found out applications like that, if they even are real, would violate the terms stipulated in their agreement with Facebook so it would be taken off almost immediately.

Do people on facebook really care about privacy?  The whole premises of Facebook is to be a narcissist!

Do people on facebook really care about privacy?  The whole premises of Facebook is to be a narcissist!

 

Or a voyeur!

What are people posting on facebook that they don't want seen?  Are you like making your SSN your status every few days?  If there's something you don't really want known, I have this novel idea - don't put on facebook!