[OFB Cafe] Introductions?

[Fred A. Miller]

saki wrote:
> Fred A. Miller wrote:
> 
>> I certainly won't argue with that! ;)
>>
> 
> Pleased to hear it!
> 
> Actually, on the "old geezer" theme, I was talking to my (adult) 
> children a few weeks ago, trying to explain why I felt that they had 
> missed out.
> 
> I started (as many of us, no doubt) with an 8 bit ZX81 "home" computer, 
> and a cassette tape recorder for storage, went to colour with a 
> Spectrum, and then an Acorn "BBC Model B".
> 
> Then in into the big time, with the long defunct Ferranti's PC clone. 
> What excitement- a 5 1/4 inch drive, and the ability to save data once 
> the operating system was loaded.

Kaypro was my choice....same thing...a single 5 1/4" drive.

> Then a second floppy drive- oh, the power!

Oh yeah! ;)

> The break through: a Western Digital "Hard Card" drive of 20 mb. This 
> had to be formatted as two partitions as M$-DOS wouldn't read over 10 mb...

Well, I had the biggest drive made at the time...a full-height 5MB. 
Those were the days that WD made a decent drive. :)

> My first (PC) GUI, and shortly after my first mouse. I still remember my 
> excitement at seeing the cursor move around the screen.

'Was neat, wasn't it? ;)

> The first (dot matrix) printer, and the first -crap output- letters and 
> staff papers print-outs.

Yep....an old '80 from Epson that was "hot stuff"........back then.

> Ami (then Ami Pro) giving me WYSIWYG (You can see it's Times Roman!), 
> Lotus Symphony, and Corel Draw. Getting pirated software c/w handbooks 
> in the Golden Arcade in Shansuipo in Hong Kong.

I spent quite a bit of time with OS/2, QNX, and Coherent Unix. The only 
time with 'Bloze was what I had to and no more.

> Then the first CD-ROM and the Britannica for my children (so I said).
> 
> My first home modem (I'd played with acoustic couplers when doing my 
> Master's at London Uni), and communicating around the world. The start 
> of the Web.

I thought 300 baud was quick, then 1200 put me in the "fast lane." 
FidoNet was the mainstay then.

> Using a HP 8000 main-frame for research data analysis, running a small 
> Unix network....
> 
> Writeable CDs then DVDs.

'Waiting for writable Blue-Ray drives and media to become cheap. :)

> Laptops, usb sticks- well, it doesn't stop, and for me the wonder goes 
> on (three states now possible - a trit?), roaming access, powerful 
> computers as mobile 'phones......
> 
> But for my children there doesn't seem to be any wonder in all this. 
> They have grown up with it, and seem not to regard it as wondrous.

My kids remember the "good old days," but only because ol' Dad had it to 
show them.

> I know that this may sound as if I'm yearning for an imagined romance of 
> the past, I'm not. As Kipling put it "And all unseen, Romance was 
> bringing up the 9:15"
> 
> I'm just sorry my children will not experience the same excitement that 
> I've enjoyed. They will have their own, though, that's certain.

'Could be.

Fred

-- 
This message originated from a Linux computer using Open Source software:
openSuSE Linux 11.0 No Gates, no Windows....just Linux - STABLE & SECURE!