SFW: The "When I was young...." thread

[BernyMac]

When I was young, I remember living in some garden and we got kicked out of that because of some person eating some fruit they were not supposed to eat. We did well for a while until the great flood, it was no navy stint, but dang, the stench from all those animals in that boat was unbearable...well, at least for the first 39 days and nights and then we all got nose blind from it all.

I would have proof, but GoPro hasn't been invented yet at the time.

 

[A.Goldberg]

When I was young...

- I had to be explained what the concept of the internet was
- You couldn't go online and make a phone call at the same time with dial up (oh wait... that's still a problem Verizon cell phones!)
- Floppy Discs were a common form of storage*
- People thought my iPod was a silly idea
- People asked "why would you ever buy a Mac"
- Gateway vs. Dell was a thing
- Palm ruled the Smartphone market

*Last year (2015) my father called looking to see if I had an external floppy drive. Many of his vital/ICE documents (estate planning documents, bank account information, asset whereabouts info, etc) were all stored on floppy discs and needed to put them on a flash drive. He realized he no longer owned a floppy drive to update them.

 

[maflynn]

When I was young there was only ABC, NBC, CBS and a few UHF channels on TV.

Yup, and I was in 6th grade or 7th when we finally were able to get a color TV. It was significantly longer to get a TV that actually had a remote control.
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When I was young, my dad wouldn't get a computer with colour monitor, it was monochrome.

Playing a game was like this...

View attachment 614052

I remember that, but not because I wouldn't get a computer with a color display but rather there were no computers with color displays

 

[Strider64]

When I was young a mouse was a rodent, not a device....
When I was young downloading a 100K file under 8 hours was doing good....
When I was young Zork was a cool game even though it didn't have any graphics...
and finally when I was young playing Space Invaders on a multi-million dollar computer system because you went along with your sister to her place of employment...

 

[OllyW]

When I was young there was only ABC, NBC, CBS and a few UHF channels on TV.

We had just the 3 channels in the UK, BBC1, BBC2 and ITV.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

When I was young...

- I had to be explained what the concept of the internet was
- You couldn't go online and make a phone call at the same time with dial up (oh wait... that's still a problem Verizon cell phones!)
- Floppy Discs were a common form of storage*
- People thought my iPod was a silly idea
- People asked "why would you ever buy a Mac"
- Gateway vs. Dell was a thing
- Palm ruled the Smartphone market

*Last year (2015) my father called looking to see if I had an external floppy drive. Many of his vital/ICE documents (estate planning documents, bank account information, asset whereabouts info, etc) were all stored on floppy discs and needed to put them on a flash drive. He realized he no longer owned a floppy drive to update them.

When I was young, paper had just begin to replace parchment, which, in turn, had replaced papyrus.

However, strange to relate, a few thousand years later, - or - at a push - several centuries later - material written on paper, parchment and papyrus are all still as legible and as accessible to the reader as they were the day they were written, whereas some of the more recent methods of storing and retrieving information are obsolete within time's equivalent of the the proverbial blink of an eye.

 

[Huntn]

Oh, come on, guys (and gals). An eon of time passes in just a whisper…..

When I was young, the Pony Express had just started a coast to coast mail service…….you didn't even have the railway, let alone a hand cranked telephone with which you could dial the exchange.

Wow, you are not young.

I pre-date Pong.

We played these games called pinball machines. One play for a dime. Three plays for a quarter.

I remember eagerly looking forward to sinking 3 dollars worth of quarters into a pinball machine at the converted gas station/bar.

The I was young, I had to walk 15 miles to school, in the snow, barefoot, uphill, both ways.

This is the reply I was expecting.

When I was young.... (Wait. I can't remember, where are my pills).
This was my first PC/Laptop in the mid 80s, a REIN ELEKTRONIK 420 SLC (Made in Japan).

View attachment 614108 View attachment 614109 View attachment 614110

Well I would not call myself young but younger (24), I remember friends building their own PC on the cusp of PCs (1978).

When I was young death was not a potential side-effect of having sex.

I agree, but don't overlook gonorrhea and syphilis, although in our life times they have been treatable for the most part. But I also remember hearing stories pre-AIDS time frame, in the Navy about people coming down with incurable STDs in places like the Phillipines and not allowed to return to the US. Legend? I don't know.

When I was young there was only ABC, NBC, CBS and a few UHF channels on TV.

And I was indignant in 1980 when the cable company wanted me to pay $15 a month for TV!!

 

[monokakata]

When I was young, our island had no TV whatsoever, and no FM radio. We had a 4-digit phone number. My radios (ham and otherwise) were 100% tubed. If we flew at all, we flew on a DC-3.

The town dumped its raw sewage into the bay. The sugar cane mill dumped its processing by-products directly into the bay, which meant that depending on tide and weather, we had a bay covered with something called "bagasse" while underneath the bagasse was our ****, but not that from our house, because our waste dumped into a lava tube and went . . . well, nobody knew where it went. The fish processors dumped their offal into the bay, attracting sharks. There was TB and a bit of leprosy, and also plague (really).

The good old days had some serious downsides, and not just electronics and the things we like to talk about on MacRumors. It's better now.

 

[Huntn]

When I was young, our island had no TV whatsoever, and no FM radio. We had a 4-digit phone number. My radios (ham and otherwise) were 100% tubed. If we flew at all, we flew on a DC-3.

The town dumped its raw sewage into the bay. The sugar cane mill dumped its processing by-products directly into the bay, which meant that depending on tide and weather, we had a bay covered with something called "bagasse" while underneath the bagasse was our ****, but not that from our house, because our waste dumped into a lava tube and went . . . well, nobody knew where it went. The fish processors dumped their offal into the bay, attracting sharks. There was TB and a bit of leprosy, and also plague (really).

The good old days had some serious downsides, and not just electronics and the things we like to talk about on MacRumors. It's better now.

I imagine the farther you go back, the lesser the sewage standards were everywhere, while acknowledging some civilizations were well ahead of the curve as I think of ancient Rome/Italy. Those people were on the cutting edge when it comes to sewers and water distribution. 1800's US some places (don't know what % of places) you dumped your chamber pots into the street out front of your houses. Better to have your rooms and garden area in the back of the house. And up to very recently large bodies of water were likely recipients of untreated human waste.

 

[nightcap965]

I was in high school before I touched my first computer. It was a teletype attached via acoustic-coupler modem to a PDP 11 in a local university computer room. I'd sneak in there on Sunday mornings because that was the only time I could get enough core to play the text Star Trek game (printed on reams of teletype paper).

The first computer I fell in love with was the Osborne 1. It had a built-in 5" screen and two floppy drives (single-sided, single density), and came with software for only $1799. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford it. I did ultimately save my pennies and buy a Compaq Portable, which had a built-in 9" screen and two double-sided, double-density floppy drives.

The first thing I bought for my Compaq was a modem. This was the future. I met the one who is now the Unidicted Co-Conspirator on a local BBS. She was logged in via VT-100 terminal. We ended up starting our own FidoNet BBS, which ran until the mid-nineties.

And now, I walk around with a computer on my wrist that talks to a computer in my pocket that is constantly in touch with the world. I can raise my wrist and ask any question, and get the answer almost instantly. I have access to the world's greatest libraries, greatest minds living and dead, greatest works of art, literature, music, poetry...

And I use it to argue with strangers about minutiae.

 

[Don't panic]

when i was young SFW was not a thing, and we actually used full words

 

[Huntn]

I was in high school before I touched my first computer. It was a teletype attached via acoustic-coupler modem to a PDP 11 in a local university computer room. I'd sneak in there on Sunday mornings because that was the only time I could get enough core to play the text Star Trek game (printed on reams of teletype paper).

The first computer I fell in love with was the Osborne 1. It had a built-in 5" screen and two floppy drives (single-sided, single density), and came with software for only $1799. Unfortunately, I couldn't afford it. I did ultimately save my pennies and buy a Compaq Portable, which had a built-in 9" screen and two double-sided, double-density floppy drives.

The first thing I bought for my Compaq was a modem. This was the future. I met the one who is now the Unidicted Co-Conspirator on a local BBS. She was logged in via VT-100 terminal. We ended up starting our own FidoNet BBS, which ran until the mid-nineties.

And now, I walk around with a computer on my wrist that talks to a computer in my pocket that is constantly in touch with the world. I can raise my wrist and ask any question, and get the answer almost instantly. I have access to the world's greatest libraries, greatest minds living and dead, greatest works of art, literature, music, poetry...

And I use it to argue with strangers about minutiae.

Next step a brain synaptic plugin... serious!

 

[A.Goldberg]

However, strange to relate, a few thousand years later, - or - at a push - several centuries later - material written on paper, parchment and papyrus are all still as legible and as accessible to the reader as they were the day they were written, whereas some of the more recent methods of storing and retrieving information are obsolete within time's equivalent of the the proverbial blink of an eye.

It's funny you bring that up. There was just that thread about the best digital media to put in a time capsule. My recommendation was hard copy.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

It's funny you bring that up. There was just that thread about the best digital media to put in a time capsule. My recommendation was hard copy.

Mine would be the same. Not only is hard copy accessible now, but it will still be accessible - and legible - in five thousand years time, which is more than can be said for most technological forms of information storage.

Microfiche has now degenerated to such an extent that much of it is virtually impossible to retrieve, or access, let alone read.

Likewise, floppy discs: Who would have thought that not only would they be obsolete - but that they would be inaccessible and utterly useless within thirty years of the invention and ubiquitous use of this form of data retention, as hardly anyone has the means to read what is written on the disc any longer?

 

[A.Goldberg]

Mine would be the same. Not only is hard copy accessible now, but it will still be accessible - and legible - in five thousand years time, which is more than can be said for most technological forms of information storage.

Microfiche has now degenerated to such an extent that much of it is virtually impossible to retrieve, or access, let alone read.

Likewise, floppy discs: Who would have thought that not only would they be obsolete - but that they would be inaccessible and utterly useless within thirty years of the invention and ubiquitous use of this form of data retention, as hardly anyone has the means to read what is written on the disc any longer?

Oh wow. Microfiche. I didn't realize it was so unstable but I guess that makes sense knowing how film ages. There's another obsolete media I remember learning about in school. I can't say I ever used it to look up information.

[Non-digital] "Card Catalogues" are another thing I haven't seen in a while speaking of libraries.

In my early years of high school floppy discs were still entirely common forms of file transportation. When the school computers got upgraded to thin clients, they suddenly fell off the face of the earth. In elementary school I remember the teachers would back up their files to "two words - Zip Disk" (to quote the movie Zoolander).

Now school computer labs aren't much of a thing with 1:1 computing. In my day, the multicolor iMacs came out and the teachers had to assign computers because kids would fight over what color iMac they got to use.

 

[Huntn]

Mine would be the same. Not only is hard copy accessible now, but it will still be accessible - and legible - in five thousand years time, which is more than can be said for most technological forms of information storage.

Microfiche has now degenerated to such an extent that much of it is virtually impossible to retrieve, or access, let alone read.

Likewise, floppy discs: Who would have thought that not only would they be obsolete - but that they would be inaccessible and utterly useless within thirty years of the invention and ubiquitous use of this form of data retention, as hardly anyone has the means to read what is written on the disc any longer?

Oh wow. Microfiche. I didn't realize it was so unstable but I guess that makes sense knowing how film ages. There's another obsolete media I remember learning about in school. I can't say I ever used it to look up information.

[Non-digital] "Card Catalogues" are another thing I haven't seen in a while speaking of libraries.

In my early years of high school floppy discs were still entirely common forms of file transportation. When the school computers got upgraded to thin clients, they suddenly fell off the face of the earth. In elementary school I remember the teachers would back up their files to "two words - Zip Disk" (to quote the movie Zoolander).

Now school computer labs aren't much of a thing with 1:1 computing. In my day, the multicolor iMacs came out and the teachers had to assign computers because kids would fight over what color iMac they got to use.

Last time I went to a Mormon Family Center to do some genealogy research (about 12 years ago), they were using Microfiche to distribute research records. I remember at the time thinking whoa, antiquated. I wonder if they have since transistioned their records over to something more up to date?

In my battle to keep documents up to date, I remember when I updated to whichever MacOS update where they stopped supporting ______ (whatever it was), and all of my old Applwork docs were no longer readable. Realistically, nothing there was vital or relevant, so I let it slip away.

 

[mgguy]

When I was young, god hadn't yet been invented.

 

[nightcap965]

Next step a brain synaptic plugin... serious!

Sadly, neuroscience isn't quite there yet. But, FSM willing, I have a few years to go before departing for that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns. Maybe in a decade.

 

[Jonathon71]

When I was 8 my father brought a computer in our house. I was very excited.

 

[Thomas Veil]

When I was very young I remember:

• Having a milk chute in our house
• Getting bread, potato chips, cupcakes, eggs and the like delivered to our home
• Having a console TV with ABC, CBS and NBC
• "The following program is brought to you in living color, on NBC!"
• The Gemini space program
• My grandpa's upright console radio
• Actually replacing your own tubes in said TVs and radios.
• McDonald's without seating areas
• Full-service gas stations with revolving signs on poles
• Watching an episode of The Outer Limits from behind a chair because I was so scared ("It Crawled Out of the Woodwork")
• Computers being largely science fictional, let alone home computers
• Rotary phones and party lines
• Having the refuse guys (two of them) actually go to the back of your property and get the garbage cans, instead of you hauling them out to the curb
• Clipping the edge of our grass with hand shears

 

[Apple fanboy]

When I was young I remember the US had reusable spacecraft called the Space shuttle.

There was also a passenger plane that flew twice the speed of sound called Concorde.

Hollywood made films that wearn't just reboots of films made 10 years earlier.

 

[Huntn]

When I was 8 my father brought a computer in our house. I was very excited.

What kind? Not a 15" MBP...

 

[loby]

Mine would be the same. Not only is hard copy accessible now, but it will still be accessible - and legible - in five thousand years time, which is more than can be said for most technological forms of information storage.

Microfiche has now degenerated to such an extent that much of it is virtually impossible to retrieve, or access, let alone read.

Likewise, floppy discs: Who would have thought that not only would they be obsolete - but that they would be inaccessible and utterly useless within thirty years of the invention and ubiquitous use of this form of data retention, as hardly anyone has the means to read what is written on the disc any longer?

Yeah...and CD's and DVD's lasting for "100 years" as advertised back in the day. I had to pull out old twenty year old disks and transfer the data in risk of them non-operational due to aging...
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Sadly, neuroscience isn't quite there yet. But, FSM willing, I have a few years to go before departing for that undiscovered country from whose bourn no traveller returns. Maybe in a decade.

One did....

 

[maflynn]

When I was young I remember the US had reusable spacecraft called the Space shuttle.

When I was young, I watched astronauts walk on the moon while in school.

Side note, the Space Shuttle program that replaced the Apollo program by President Nixon was to be used for a space station. That is they needed a vehicle to be reusable for a space station, yet the space station was killed but the shuttle wasn't. It struggled for purpose until the ISS became a reality but by then the fleet was aging and becoming a risk as we all know.

 

[Huntn]

When I was young, I watched astronauts walk on the moon while in school.

Side note, the Space Shuttle program that replaced the Apollo program by President Nixon was to be used for a space station. That is they needed a vehicle to be reusable for a space station, yet the space station was killed but the shuttle wasn't. It struggled for purpose until the ISS became a reality but by then the fleet was aging and becoming a risk as we all know.

I remember looking forward 33 years in anticipation of a space station and moon base. Was not planning on a monolith though. Reality never lives up to the science fiction schedule.