Remember The Dark Days Before The Internet?

[blugill]

Kids really don't know how good they have it! Ernie Cline pretty much sums it up in his rant, When I Was A Kid.

I keep thinking about how life would have been different for me if the internet had been in this form now back in 1987!

When I got online in 96 a lot of ISPs didn't even have local numbers! You had to pay long distance fees PLUS a per minute fee! Then on top of that it took five minutes for the fake picture of a naked Kathy Ireland to actually show up on your fourteen inch monitor that was barely out of the monochrome era!

Yeah, I can't think of one invention that has revolutionized the world as much as the internet has.

[MikeyC]

The internet . . . THE INTERNET!!! How about DOS remember that? Running your computer using DOS was a MAJOR PITA and kids these days have it easy with their fancy-shmansy windows GUI operating systems.

[blugill]

Yes I remember DOS....wow that was a tough OS. Yes it was good at the time but installing games and playing them was a major pain!

Wow....we've come a long way!

[poker]

I still remember punchcards and 5-1/4" floppy drives LOL

[havana_lover]

ya, me too.. However Im glad it came the way it did.. playing outside as a kid being whatever baseball football soccer or the countless years in the hockey ring.. I wouldnt have traded that for anything, but if the internet was there for me then. Who knows how I would have grown up..

[Ashcan Bill]

Originally Posted by poker

I still remember punchcards and 5-1/4" floppy drives LOL

One of my first jobs when I was still in high school was to pull and assemble Fortran cards.

That was a while ago.

[shaggy]

Originally Posted by poker

I still remember punchcards and 5-1/4" floppy drives LOL

you're old

[oldforge]

Originally Posted by blugill

Kids really don't know how good they have it!

In those days my smoking was a steady diet of drug store machine made doggies because B & Ms charged insane prices and I didn't know any other source for stogies.

My wife has three sisters. Despite (or maybe because :-) ) of my constant preaching on the subject _none_ of them use the Internet at home or at work.

The only way they are going on-line is if jack-booted thugs kick down their doors, kidnap them, and demand they go on-line at the point of a gun. ;-)

[vstrommark]

Originally Posted by poker

I still remember punchcards and 5-1/4" floppy drives LOL

You guys are funny. I've programmed on mylar tape and punch cards, but didn't start programming until 1975. I did work with what became the Internet in about 1979 and also have been reading what is called USENET (or network news) since 1978.

But I'm not old, merely vintage.

My old boss at Sperry Univac programmed the Sergeant missile with plug boards!

[icehog3]

Originally Posted by havana_lover

or the countless years in the hockey ring..

Awesome....sometimes the rink feels like the "ring" to me too Oliver!

[JordanWexler]

wait....there wasn't always internet??

[Will_S]

Originally Posted by JordanWexler

wait....there wasn't always internet??

No. In fact I can remember as a child walking my packets to the router barefoot both ways. In the old days, this was the easy way:


http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html

This is not to be confused with the infinite gorilla protocol, which I think may be a joke:

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2795.txt

[JordanWexler]

Originally Posted by Will_S

No. In fact I can remember as a child walking my packets to the router barefoot both ways. In the old days, this was the easy way:


http://www.faqs.org/rfcs/rfc1149.html

"Upon receipt, the duct tape is removed and the paper copy of the
datagram is optically scanned into a electronically transmittable
form."

[zonedar]

How about core memory and using toggle switches to input addresses, instructions, and data (PDP-11)?

Got a B-day coming up, too. Boy do I feel old...

[ChasDen]

I remember getting my first 14.4 modem and calling dial-up bulletin boards and paying long distance phone charges to download stuff. That was back when software came on a true floppy disk and p00rn was still in downtown movie theaters.

Chas