Teens react to Windows 95

[cockerpunk]

a few fun links for old computer aficionados:

magnetic flux core memory on eevblog: https://youtu.be/ofCXpIuFhno?t=24m59s

the entire lazy gamer reviews channel is about old computers and games: https://www.youtube.com/user/phreakindee

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by BlueSkyJaunte

4800?!?! Damn, son...I still have my 300 baud acoustic coupler around here somewhere...

Well....I was referring to state-of-the-art corporate networks

Would've loved to have a string and two cans myself....couldn't afford all three at the same time

[rusnak]

I still have my Apple IIe, and it works.

I also have my college edition of MS Word 2.0 and windows whatever from 1990.

[Por_sha911]

OK,you may be an old geezers if:
You ever used punch cards?
You remember programming in Basic and Fortran?
Do you remember using Edlin for DOS?

Bonus question:
Do you use a cradle modem to connect to a remote computer? My high school had one that connected to a room size computer at Hofstra back in 1972. We thought it was cool to print pics by programming "x"s to print out on a teletype. Anything older than that and you were using an abacus.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yea Win95 was hyped like mad and it sucked - essentially a DOS overlay that was prettier than 3.1 but then again so was a horse's azz so it ain't saying much.

[E Sully]

I remember in college learning FORTRAN, BASIC and having a lot of punch cards.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by E Sully

I remember in college learning FORTRAN, BASIC and having a lot of punch cards.

Same here...but I absolutely kicked butt with the low level machine languages....
360/370 Assembler anyone ?

I was a systems programmer/networking guy for years....

[Otter74]

This was funny but really familiar.

I've still got my last Windows machine, which I replaced with a Macbook (the one I'm still typing on now) in 12/2007. This and my dad's last computer I've kept around until I get around to extracting the HD contents.

My dad was a huge computer nerd and built them for us as hobbies. Our first computer was an Apple I in ~1981 when they cost a zillion dollars. In the US we had many years' worth of PC machinces, all homebuilt by dad. Everyone in the family had their own and it got upgraded or replaced whenever he felt like it. But my last one was Win95 or whatever was in around ~8 years ago. It is amusing how clunky it looks, but at the same time it is more or less the same interface we are still using today (granted, one that was originally created by Apple.)

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by KC911

Same here...but I absolutely kicked butt with the low level machine languages....
360/370 Assembler anyone ?

I was a systems programmer/networking guy for years....

Owens Illinois (Toledo car glass for Detroit) hired my Dad in the late 50's because he had an English major for programming. Who else you gonna hire?

In the early 80's in college I told him about learning COBOL. I asked "Did you ever have to do that Assembler stuff"? He said "OMG, I have simply raised a pussy".

[Bob Kontak]

Originally Posted by Otter74

It is amusing how clunky it looks, but at the same time it is more or less the same interface we are still using today (granted, one that was originally created by Apple.)

Yep. Windows 95 was monumental (as far as catching up to Apple). It is the same today.

A computer geek told me that it all had to do with funneling data through some portal. MAC's portal was bigger than IBM's and allowed their cool functionality earlier. MS developed a work around to provide the same functionality with the existing IBM X number of bits portal size limitation. Just talking. Don't know for sure.

Start me up.

[GH85Carrera]

Originally Posted by Otter74

This was funny but really familiar.

I've still got my last Windows machine, which I replaced with a Macbook (the one I'm still typing on now) in 12/2007. This and my dad's last computer I've kept around until I get around to extracting the HD contents.

My dad was a huge computer nerd and built them for us as hobbies. Our first computer was an Apple I in ~1981 when they cost a zillion dollars. In the US we had many years' worth of PC machinces, all homebuilt by dad. Everyone in the family had their own and it got upgraded or replaced whenever he felt like it. But my last one was Win95 or whatever was in around ~8 years ago. It is amusing how clunky it looks, but at the same time it is more or less the same interface we are still using today (granted, one that was originally created by Apple.)

Windows look was stolen from Apple who stole it from Gem at AT&T from PARC.

[JavaBrewer]

I was in junior high and begged my mom to drive me 1 hr north to Santa Maria to, I believe Computerland, to see this



In high school we programmed PET computers with audio cassette storage. Middle school computer programming class was a teletype hooked up to the UCSB mainframe. We uploaded our programs at the end of the day and got results the next morning.

[Holger]

Originally Posted by JD159

Hmmm...

I'm 25 and used to play around with dos when I was a kid. Loading up nhl 94 and 95. Tweaking settings and messing around.

I'm trying to think at what age complete ignorance of older operating systems became the norm?

^this


But making those movies they have to act like this, otherwise nobody would watch them.

[nota]

at my first job they used IBM cards [ paper punch cards ]
then they up-graded to paper tape !

after getting a Commodore 64, then a IBM 8088 box not 8086
for home use

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by Por_sha911

OK,you may be an old geezers if:
You ever used punch cards?
You remember programming in Basic and Fortran?
Do you remember using Edlin for DOS?

I still do all of my coding in Fortran! That's because I'm a stupid lazy coder and don't know anything newer, but it does the job for me, which is 99% array manipulations.

I had my first e-mail in 1991, U of Illinois was the center of the Universe at the time for computing and internet and such.
in 85/86 we were writing programs to connect an Apple GS to a laser disk player, you could use the computer to print overlays on the screen to annotate stuff. You know, like Powerpoint

[Pazuzu]

Originally Posted by JD159

Hmmm...

I'm 25 and used to play around with dos when I was a kid. Loading up nhl 94 and 95. Tweaking settings and messing around.

I'm trying to think at what age complete ignorance of older operating systems became the norm?

I think that the kids now don't think in terms of DOS, they know it as DOSBox. That being some strange environment that they need to emulate to run Doom

[ckissick]

I also used punch cards to write Fortran code in 1978. In 1984 I worked at the USGS and used ARPANET, the precursor to the internet. I didn't know it was cool at the time.

[GH85Carrera]

In 1985 I upgraded to my Commodore 64 from my Commodore Vic-16. I paid several hundred dollars for a 300 baud modem that was not even auto dial. Back in those days a modem user was supposed to get permission from AT&T and get a business line to hook any equipment to the phone system. AT&T was the phone company and the ONLY phone company. I could not even own my phone, I had to rent it monthly from AT&T.

Anyway I set up a Compuserve account and logged in. At 300 baud the text (no graphics at all) would scroll across at a pace you could read as it came in. Up comes a menu and you make your selection with the keyboard. There was a charge by the minute for access.

I poked around and finally decided to order some Livi Jeans. At the end of the month I saw the charge to Compuserve for the connect time and it was over 30 bucks. I killed my account right then.

The jeans came in and were just what I wanted. I have been shopping on-line since 1985. Amazon.com is many orders of magnitude better than the old ways.

Edit: Whoops, my memory was off. Change 1983 to 1985. I remember the store I bought my modem at was playing MTV back when MTV played music. The song "Money for Nothing" by Dire Straits was on and that was released in 1985.

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by Pazuzu

I still do all of my coding in Fortran!

Actually it is still respected used in some very high powered systems because it is such a pure numbers cruncher.
Snoball Cobol and PL1 were a pain in the caboose.

Anyone else use a cradle modem and teletype?

[VincentVega]

Good stuff

I spend way too much time in the 80's with the vic 20 and commodore 64. Looking back it taught me a lot and sparked an interest. Later in on of my first desktop support jobs I remember replaceing a bunch of full size ~20mb hard drives. Those things weighed a ton. I think I had 3-4 formatting at a time with a a/b switch at my desk. Ah, the good old days.

Win95 was such a step forward but what a POS. Networking finally started to work w/o carrying around a box full of floppies. One thing I remember about that time? 3 com, 3c509. I must have installed 1000 of those damn cards, still have some of the drive names in my head. Weird.