Risk

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Was it ever REALLY risky?

The Warning has been there since I've been on the board...

Gogar · 01-31-2017, 04:45 PM

There was always a small risk of it being annoying.

livi · 01-31-2017, 10:55 PM

Lackofwordis smilitities can be a very handicapping condition.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Go grandpa what was it like back in the olden days when using an animated GIF was risky? Did you use a rotary phone and dial-up? Were the dinosaurs scary?

red-beard · red-beard's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Go grandpa what was it like back in the olden days when using an animated GIF was risky? Did you use a rotary phone and dial-up? Were the dinosaurs scary?

We used cable modems without firewall, directly connecting our PCs. Everyone did it. And the speeds were AMAZING! 500kbps! You young whippersnappers have it easy!

Fast Freddy 944 · Fast Freddy 944's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

Was it ever REALLY risky?

The Warning has been there since I've been on the board...

Those little buggers have been around the I-net for a long time, chat rooms, etc.....they don't bug me

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

We used cable modems without firewall, directly connecting our PCs. Everyone did it. And the speeds were AMAZING! 500kbps! You young whippersnappers have it easy!

Yea, I have been around computers since the stone ages. Our office was a few hundred yards from the local AT&T exchange building. We knew some high on the food chain employees there. Our company got one of the first ISDN lines in Oklahoma City. At one point I had 5 AT&T employees in my office and I bet there were a dozen more on the phone in a support group trying to get it to work. Finally after 4 hours some propeller head in another state changed a setting and we were on-line. The speed pegged out the meter. Then he started cranking down the speed to what we were going to pay for, something affordable. They used that installation as the model to teach the AT&T techs how to do it.

I can remember being wowed by how much faster my 1,200 baud modem was over the old 300 baud manual dial modem I had been using. I am a geezer too.

legion · 02-01-2017, 06:49 AM

Out of curiosity, I looked up what "baud" really means:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baudot_code

It's a 5-bit character encoding scheme that dates to 1870.

GH85Carrera · GH85Carrera's Garage

Everyone called it BAUD but it was really the bits per second. Today most people still use the term "Dot per inch" for prints and scans and it is truly pixel per inch.

Modems were marketed as 300 Baud or 14,000 Baud. I paid some stupid price like 300 bucks for that first 300 baud modem and that was when the phone company owner the network. We were supposed to get a business phone line to hook up the equipment. Virtually no one did because the phone police did not chase down hobbyists.

1990C4S · 02-01-2017, 06:54 AM

Less risky than swimming right after lunch.

dad911 · 02-01-2017, 07:17 AM

Damn, you guys worked fast.... my first printer was a 110 baud teletype. Save data to cassettes.

DPI? what's that? Google ascii art....

JackDidley · JackDidley's Garage

Quote:

Originally Posted by red-beard

We used cable modems without firewall, directly connecting our PCs. Everyone did it. And the speeds were AMAZING! 500kbps! You young whippersnappers have it easy!

I remember going to work, turning on the computer, 10 minutes before I needed it. Didnt even have one at home in the 90s.

MikeSid · 02-01-2017, 08:25 AM

gwood · 02-01-2017, 08:41 AM

To install the first modem I bought, I had to pull the serial chip from the motherboard on my KayPro and install a daughterboard. Like to see some of you youngsters handle that.

varmint · 02-01-2017, 09:29 AM

I always preferred Axis&Allies

scottmandue · 02-01-2017, 10:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GH85Carrera

Were the dinosaurs scary?

You have no idea! Get up at dawn to hunt down a mastodon with the rest of the villagers armed with noting but stones and pointed sticks! And that was just for lunch!