A blast from the past!

[KGIII]

In my browsing, I came across this search result (which was uncharacteristically unhelpful, but still interesting) and thought some of us would enjoy a look at some old-school computing.

This Painful Video Shows What It Was Like to Send an Email in 1984

For those of you who remember life before the Internet, you'll know that from the early to mid '90s, access made serious leaps from the realms of government and research facilities to the home.

www.sciencealert.com

The article did remind me of an interesting statistic. It was amazing how quickly the US adopted the internet, as compared to other nations. I don't think that's a political thing, but rather a social thing. We had a great deal of promotion with things like AOL sending out diskettes (eventually CDs) to every address they could find.

Man... That was a waste of CDs... Well, probably not a waste from a marketing perspective, but so many just ended up going straight into landfills. At least we could reuse the disk when it was the 3.5" diskette. I recall that AOL also had 5.25" disks but I think you had to request those or find them at a local computer expo. I do not recall getting any of those in unsolicited mail.

 

[gvisoc]

I love watching videos and documentaries from that era. I can spend hours digging them out watching them. One of my favourites is the full BBC's "The computer programme" (that I bookmarked here in Archive.org).

 

[KGIII]

I love watching videos and documentaries from that era.

You might absolutely love this one:

That's a bit long - but worth the time (I think). That's the very first computer (wait for it) that ol' KGIII used. I went to a pretty fancy prep school and we had a classroom with one of these every few seats. (It was a small class, so that means they had maybe four or five, plus one for the teacher - who had his connected to a TV and plotter.)

Prepare to be amazed!

 

[The Duck]

Now that really is a blast from the past.
I was 16 years old in 1968 and in high school.
We didn't have machines like that I went to public school.
I do remember girls actually wearing dresses to school then.
I learned how to use a slide rule and trigonometry tables in math books.
I don't remember if portable calculators were around but even if they were they were expensive and out of the reach of my parents.

 

[KGIII]

I learned how to use a slide rule and trigonometry tables in math books.

Me too! We're pretty old.

 

[gvisoc]

You might absolutely love this one:

That's a bit long - but worth the time (I think). That's the very first computer (wait for it) that ol' KGIII used. I went to a pretty fancy prep school and we had a classroom with one of these every few seats. (It was a small class, so that means they had maybe four or five, plus one for the teacher - who had his connected to a TV and plotter.)

Prepare to be amazed!

This is going to teach my wife to not let me choose what to watch... tonight!

 

[camtaf]

Ha, ha! Hands up those who actually know what a slide rule was.......

 

[sphen]

Now that really is a blast from the past.
I was 16 years old in 1968 and in high school.
We didn't have machines like that I went to public school.
I do remember girls actually wearing dresses to school then.
I learned how to use a slide rule and trigonometry tables in math books.
I don't remember if portable calculators were around but even if they were they were expensive and out of the reach of my parents.

A friend of mine went to a school that had one. I was a "tag along" with him one Saturday morning. I saw it and it kept me occupied the entire morning while my friend was busy. After that, I came back to his school with him many a Saturday, just to have access to that system.

Sorry, but the YouTube video was boring and I could not hold out to the end. I had less attention span when I watched it back then. It was hard to watch without imagining the sounds of a school movie projector to accompany the narration.

To Everyone at Linux.org:
-> I highly recommend a visit to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, USA. It is a wonderful step through time, filled with all of the systems and products we all used and depended on for decades. We took the family there about a year before the pandemic. It was a very special and memorable day for me.

Even if you don't like museums, this one is really really good and worth your time. If you are ever near the Bay Area here in California, the Computer History Museum should be a "must see" on the itinerary for nearly everyone who visits this forum.

Home

computerhistory.org

Disclaimer: No affiliation.

 

[sphen]

Ha, ha! Hands up those who actually know what a slide rule was.......

Yes, and my favorite is still in the desk drawer next to me. I wish I had my father's nicer one, but we donated it years ago. Maybe that slide rule found its way to the Computer History Museum. ;-)

When I was young, I watched a demonstration by an abacus expert. He was extremely fast and always accurate. It was a fun demonstration to watch. I never learned to use one.

 

[camtaf]

Oh yes, I remember watching an old Asian man in a cafe we used to use, he was fast, it is a basic calculator, I think the bottom row is the lowest denomination, because as he used up the beads, he would add one to the next row up, & zero out the lower row.

 

[Brickwizard]

Hands up those who actually know what a slide rule was...

I have 3, a standard mathematical one, a 6" pocket one and a full engineer's log/log one, when there is no power they beat longhand calculations hands down

 

[ML_113]

We used to clean our slide rules like ... cowboys who do to their revolvers.

 

[KGIII]

Ha, ha! Hands up those who actually know what a slide rule was.......

You'll pry my slipsticks from my cold dead hands.

I have a variety of them that I've collected over the years.

This is going to teach my wife to not let me choose what to watch... tonight!

That video is full of drama, excitement, plot twists, and romance! How could she not like it?!?

Okay, it's none of those things - but it is nostalgic and informative.

 

[bob466]

I'm glad the old days are gone forever...

My how times have changed.

 

[jpnilson]

In my browsing, I came across this search result (which was uncharacteristically unhelpful, but still interesting) and thought some of us would enjoy a look at some old-school computing.

This Painful Video Shows What It Was Like to Send an Email in 1984

For those of you who remember life before the Internet, you'll know that from the early to mid '90s, access made serious leaps from the realms of government and research facilities to the home.

www.sciencealert.com

The article did remind me of an interesting statistic. It was amazing how quickly the US adopted the internet, as compared to other nations. I don't think that's a political thing, but rather a social thing. We had a great deal of promotion with things like AOL sending out diskettes (eventually CDs) to every address they could find.

Man... That was a waste of CDs... Well, probably not a waste from a marketing perspective, but so many just ended up going straight into landfills. At least we could reuse the disk when it was the 3.5" diskette. I recall that AOL also had 5.25" disks but I think you had to request those or find them at a local computer expo. I do not recall getting any of those in unsolicited mail.

AOL CD's were great. I would hang them in my cherry trees and they scared away the birds. Thanks AOL.... For the record my wife still has an aol email account. I cannot confirm or deny I still maintain one there....

 

[sphen]

I remember the day that AOL unleashed the teaming hordes onto the internet. People were predicting all kinds of apocalyptic disasters up to total world collapse.

In those days, it seemed like newbies arrived to the internet in waves. When the next wave of newbies reached critical mass, they were heralded with a sudden massive flood of chain letter email messages that read, "SEND THIS URGENT WARNING TO EVERYONE YOU EVER MET OR KNEW, EVEN IF THEY'RE DEAD!!"

(Yeah and yeah: I made it up, and I used the caps lock key.)

The wave that came after AOL connected its members to the internet was probably the largest. For a while, AOL members were hazed, abused, and often ignored. Look at the post above and how they view their own AOL email addresses so many years later. I rest my case.

 

[KGIII]

Lemme see if I can recall some history...

Basically, those of us on Usenet were academics and very dedicated hobbyists. We had a set of standards, largely unspoken, that we adhered to.

This remained true - but every September college students would get their first Usenet access and mess things up a bit until they learned the Usenet conventions. This would take a month or so and happen every September, to some degree or another. They'd catch on and learn the expected behavior fairly quickly.

Then, ISPs started including Usenet access in their packages. It wasn't just AOL, but AOL was the big one. Folks just remember the AOL users, perhaps because AOL users were particularly different. It was relatively easy to get access with AOL and so these weren't academics of very dedicated hobbyists. They now had easy Usenet access.

This was similar to what we saw every year in September and was in the year 1993. This similarity - and that it wasn't going to stop (though it has now) - was why the phrase "Eternal September" was coined.

 

[Brickwizard]

Forgive me if I seem a little vague, back in the very early 80's my internet connection [from the UK] was dial up via CompuServe Inc. @1p per minute, sounded cheap but my hi-speed router was 3.5kbs, I cannot for the life of me remember what my e-mail provider was called, but I do remember they changed their name to AOL [must have been late 80's or early 90's] then in the mid 90's I switched mail providers to Yahoo,

 

[KGIII]

then in the mid 90's I switched mail providers to Yahoo

Man, I have way too many emails. I get way too many emails. I don't even try to keep up. I just open those that look like they need to be opened. Just the other day I deleted about 5k emails. That was probably done three or so months ago, but it was time to do it again.

I only have 10 of 'em loaded into Thunderbird. I have more, but those don't need to be checked regularly. For example, I still have a couple of .edu email addresses that don't get many important missives.

 

[curtisrussell002]

A friend of mine went to a school that had one. I was a "tag along" with him one Saturday morning. I saw it and it kept me occupied the entire morning while my friend was busy. After that, I came back to his school with him many a Saturday, just to have access to that system.

Sorry, but the YouTube video was boring and I could not hold out to the end. I had less attention span when I watched it back then. It was hard to watch without imagining the sounds of a school movie projector to accompany the narration.

To Everyone at Linux.org:
-> I highly recommend a visit to the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, USA. It is a wonderful step through time, filled with all of the systems and products we all used and depended on for decades. We took the family there about a year before the pandemic. It was a very special and memorable day for me. Besides this I still wanted to share with this source https://edusson.com/ because here I found custom essay writing service, it really seemed to me something interesting, because it should save me a lot of time that I should spend for college, I am glad to use this one, because it is already tested by my colleagues and I must say that it really works well. Good luck and I hope you find this source useful.

Even if you don't like museums, this one is really really good and worth your time. If you are ever near the Bay Area here in California, the Computer History Museum should be a "must see" on the itinerary for nearly everyone who visits this forum.

Home

computerhistory.org

Disclaimer: No affiliation.

Thank you for sharing your experience and recommendation regarding the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California. It's great to hear that you found it to be an enjoyable and memorable visit. For me this was also something new and interesting.