Thread: Ahh....reminiscing

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    Ahh....reminiscing

    So this was on yahoo today and it made me think of the good times in computing:

    Things your kid will never know about
    18.Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long.
    19.The scream of a modem connecting.
    20.The buzz of a dot-matrix printer.
    21.5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
    22.Using jumpers to set IRQs.
    23.DOS.
    24.Terminals accessing the mainframe.
    25.Screens being just green (or orange) on black.
    26.Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.
    27.Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.
    28.Counting in kilobytes.
    29.Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.
    30.Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.
    31.Turning a PlayStation on its end to try and get a game to load.
    32.Joysticks.
    33.Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
    34.Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
    35.Recording a song in a studio.

    I am sure we could add somethings to this list....
    Quote Originally Posted by anduril462 View Post
    Now, please, for the love of all things good and holy, think about what you're doing! Don't just run around willy-nilly, coding like a drunk two-year-old....
    Quote Originally Posted by quzah View Post
    ..... Just don't be surprised when I say you aren't using standard C anymore, and as such,are off in your own little universe that I will completely disregard.
    Warning: Some or all of my posted code may be non-standard and as such should not be used and in no case looked at.

  2. #2
    (?<!re)tired Mario F.'s Avatar
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    >> 18.Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long.

    I think they will stay still for a long while... But we shall see.

    >> 19.The scream of a modem connecting.

    It hasn't been that long ago, hehe. My eldest was already born.

    >> 22.Using jumpers to set IRQs.

    Not really setting IRQs, but I will soon be getting my hands on those tiny little dip switches all over again, when I buy this beauty.

    >> 24.Terminals accessing the mainframe.

    My very first job. Doing backups of a IBM ES9000 mainframe on 10.5 inch reel tapes, on Alcatel-Portugal.

    >> 26.Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.

    My kids actually had a lot of that a couple of years ago as I went through a nostalgia phase... ZXSpetcrum.

    >> 27.Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.

    Never actually owned a SCSI drive.

    >> 33.Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.

    Or, not being able to fill a 20 Mb hard drive with software, even if you tried.

    >> I am sure we could add somethings to this list....

    Sure... Token Rings
    Originally Posted by brewbuck:
    Reimplementing a large system in another language to get a 25% performance boost is nonsense. It would be cheaper to just get a computer which is 25% faster.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F. View Post
    Sure... Token Rings
    Tolkien are good books for everyone - screw the limited films!

    Though it shouldn't be on the list (though it apparently is), I'll name:

    - Pay phones! Remember those things? They peaked at the popularity of the "beepers." lol. (I had one...)

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    Ahh...pay phones, Capt. Crunch, and 2600. Those were the days....
    Quote Originally Posted by anduril462 View Post
    Now, please, for the love of all things good and holy, think about what you're doing! Don't just run around willy-nilly, coding like a drunk two-year-old....
    Quote Originally Posted by quzah View Post
    ..... Just don't be surprised when I say you aren't using standard C anymore, and as such,are off in your own little universe that I will completely disregard.
    Warning: Some or all of my posted code may be non-standard and as such should not be used and in no case looked at.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewHunter View Post
    Ahh...pay phones, Capt. Crunch, and 2600. Those were the days....
    Yeah, try explaining that to a teenager (besides quzah). "Back in my day, we put coin money into big phones on the street. Then we played our video games ... pacman was a hoot. You were a semi-circle eating dots and avoiding ghosts! You kids don't know what you missed!"

  6. #6
    ATH0 quzah's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F. View Post
    >> 18.Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long.

    I think they will stay still for a long while... But we shall see.
    I'm not a fan of wireless stuff. Why waste money on batteries when I can run a cord? Wired remotes anyone?
    Quote Originally Posted by Mario F. View Post
    >> 27.Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.

    Never actually owned a SCSI drive.
    Apple used to have keyboards with a port in the upper left and right of each side. Because all the ports were the same, you could plug a mouse into one side, and run the other side to the back to plug them both in (daisy-chaining them). You could also plug another keyboard into that port, because no one paid attention to what was actually plugged in, and type while someone else was trying to say, write a report. Or so the story goes.

    I suppose you could do that today with USB.
    Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewHunter View Post
    So this was on yahoo today and it made me think of the good times in computing:

    Things your kid will never know about
    18.Wires. OK, so they’re not gone yet, but it won’t be long.
    19.The scream of a modem connecting.
    20.The buzz of a dot-matrix printer.
    21.5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
    22.Using jumpers to set IRQs.
    23.DOS.
    24.Terminals accessing the mainframe.
    25.Screens being just green (or orange) on black.
    26.Tweaking the volume setting on your tape deck to get a computer game to load, and waiting ages for it to actually do it.
    27.Daisy chaining your SCSI devices and making sure they’ve all got a different ID.
    28.Counting in kilobytes.
    29.Wondering if you can afford to buy a RAM upgrade.
    30.Blowing the dust out of a NES cartridge in the hopes that it’ll load this time.
    31.Turning a PlayStation on its end to try and get a game to load.
    32.Joysticks.
    33.Having to delete something to make room on your hard drive.
    34.Booting your computer off of a floppy disk.
    35.Recording a song in a studio.

    I am sure we could add somethings to this list....
    36. Wire Wrapping a motherboard
    37. Component level electronic service
    38. Vinyl recordings
    39. 12" hard disks with a whole 100mb of storage
    40. Punch tape
    41. Punch cards
    42. KSR 33
    43. Telegrams
    44. Morse Code

  8. #8
    ATH0 quzah's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by AndrewHunter View Post
    21.5- and 3-inch floppies, Zip Discs and countless other forms of data storage.
    8 inch floppies. WORM drives.
    Lunchbox computers.


    Quzah.
    Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

  9. #9
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    Entering boot code using front panel switches
    Or at least enough for it to start reading a paper tape containing the rest of the boot code.

    Or this - memories...
    Ahh....reminiscing-koma-comic-strip-you-win-internets-if-you-get-jpg
    If you dance barefoot on the broken glass of undefined behaviour, you've got to expect the occasional cut.
    If at first you don't succeed, try writing your phone number on the exam paper.

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    Quote Originally Posted by quzah View Post
    Lunchbox computers.
    Quzah.
    In truth they may know that better than we do...

    ASRock > Products > Mini PC Series

    Small is good.

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    How about:
    Ahh....reminiscing-8track-png

    Jim

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    At one time, being described as gay had nothing to do with sex.

    When 64K of RAM was a lot.

    Having to partition a 40 Meg hard drive if you wanted access to all of the storage space it had.

    People with readable hand writing.

    Space invaders!
    Right 98% of the time, and don't care about the other 3%.

    If I seem grumpy or unhelpful in reply to you, or tell you you need to demonstrate more effort before you can expect help, it is likely you deserve it. Suck it up, Buttercup, and read this, this, and this before posting again.

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    Having to partition a 40 Meg hard drive if you wanted access to all of the storage space it had.
    I remember thinking when I got my first 20 Meg drive about how huge (storage space in addition to physical size) it was.

    Ahh....reminiscing-harddrive-png

    Jim

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    My first 20 Meg drive ... ah. I had to go to another country and smuggle one back in a washing powder box because they were 3 times cheaper there. That other country was Austria. I was in Yugoslavia back then (today in Croatia) and the year was 1988.

  15. #15
    ATH0 quzah's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by CommonTater View Post
    Small is good.
    Keep telling yourself that!


    edit - I must confess though, I am a bit disappointed that the old sci-fi shows all lied to me. I never had a wall sized computer with lots and lots of blinking lights. I feel cheated.


    Quzah.
    Last edited by quzah; 07-23-2011 at 06:28 PM.
    Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment.

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