25 Years: How the Web began

[A Guy]

I had a See 'n Say

A Guy

 

[thelma]

Well, I was at least half the age I am now than I was back in '90 and one thing we all have in common is that WE had a childhood before the internet. We are the generation that knew what life was before the internet and we are also the only ones who will ever speak, as it were, both languages. We are the only fluent translators of Before and After.

How many remember the Dewey Decimal System? That was the filing system used in libraries and the alpha numbers found on thousands of index cards that was kept well organized within what was called the "card catalog" and if we wanted to know what the meaning of life was we actually had to finger through that card catalog, find the book and read it!! OMG! Can you imagine?

And when we had a group project, there was no Facebook or google docs which meant we had to ask all the hard, embarrassing questions in person then jot notes down on paper in a spiral notebook made of paper that had a cardboard cover, front and back.

We went to the store to buy the latest music release on a Long Playing (LP) album made out of vinyl and we didn't have cells phones so we could call our friends to tell them all about it till we got home and used the land line. GASP! (you can google landline too.)

How many here remember maps? You know, the kind that are made of paper and once unfolded, never seemed to fold up right again. We didn't have google maps, maps quest, GPS's. We had what was called a sense of direction. (I do believe that is googlable as well )

Yes... those were the good 'ol days. Where will society be in 20 yrs? Kind of scary. Makes me think of that T-Shirt where the prehistoric man walks slumped over and evolves to the biped man standing upright then evolves back to the guy slumped over the computer. Gives new meaning to the saying of, "what goes around comes around".

Yesssssssssss, I could not put it better ! I was born in 1951 and what a time to live in, I am so lucky and I know it !

 

[BorisTheAnimal]

I was only white stuff back then.

 

[mjf]

We went to the store to buy the latest music release on a Long Playing (LP) album made out of vinyl ....

I have a heap of them and consider buying a new turntable. They are actually coming back into fashion but I will need to buy a good new stereo amp and then there is the speaker upgrade issue.

 

[DonnaB]

Hehe... I was born in 1960.

@ A Guy....

I remember playing with a "The farmer says See N Say" (the cow says...Moooo!) Not the one armed bandit kind they have now, but one with a string that had a little ring on and if you pulled the string too hard it would break and you were doomed.

@ mjf

I was going to through my attic last week and found a box of several of my old albums. At the bottom of the box were those little adapters you needed to play 45's. Wal-Mart had a pallet of portable turntables (the kind that came in a suitcase with a handle) on display before the Holidays.

@ thelma

The other day I was listening to Marlissa sing "Yesterday" on youtube. My 18 year old daughter looking over my shoulder says, "Oh I love that song". I told her that was a Beatle song and she says, who?? :shocked: I can't even "imagine" where we would be without the Beatles.

@ BorisThe Animal

Yes my dear, you missed out on the best of times. So sad....

 

[thelma]

Playing in the street, badminton, footy, ( hardly any cars and they stopped ! ), reading strip mags together, the milk-, vegetable's and cool- man all with horse and cart, bread delivered each day, freezing cold house, only warm in the kitchen in winter, my toothbrush frosted in the glass, those were the days . Sounds like the middle ages now.

In Holland, they brought out a book about the 50 ties with many pictures last year. It's called, " the golden years" and it has chapters on everything from housing to music, from trains to TV, telephone, hoovers and so on.
It was a massive success no 1 sale for weeks on end!

 

[DonnaB]

Hoovers? Here in the States a Hoovers was/is a vacuum cleaner that actually sucked, lasted for generations (my mom pasted hers down to me and she bought it when I was pre-teen. Works great!!)

Remember the TV repair man? Now if the TV breaks you toss it out and go buy a new one. Same with many luxury appliances. Back in the 80's I had bought a Maytag washer/dryer set. Those luxuries lasted 15+ years. Now you're lucky to get one to last 5 years and when you flick the "metal" with your finger they go pinnng! instead of pong..

Speaking of ping pong, how better to spend a rainy day. I was raised in a neighborhood that was 3 blocks by 3 blocks and there were only two ways in or out. Everybody knew everybody and we were all friends even though our ages spanned years. We would all gather at "the 4 corners" where a side road and main road crossed to play kickball for hours. Same corner intersection that would flood during a heavy rain and we would gather with our bikes to have what we called spray races. That's where you ride your bike through the floods as fast as possible to see who could create the biggest spray kind of like a water skier would do but we did it with our bikes.

How about jump rope? Do they even sell those things anymore? Kids now a days have no idea how to have real fun.

thelma, you and I could go on and on and...

Hooray for the good 'ol days.

 

[ThrashZone]

All I noticed is there was not 1 mention of Al Gore he said he invented the internet

 

[DonnaB]

Hah! Al Gore... (pfft! wave of the hand)

WE (us kids who used their imagination) invented the internet! Or was that networking?

 

[Ranger4]

I was born in 1941 & we lived on a rural property. We had a 32 volt home lighting plant with batteries & an engine driven generator to charge them. Cooking was on a fast combustion wood stove. Rainwater only for drinking & bore water for washing & bathing. No hot water system & chip heater in the bathroom for heating the bath water.

The phone was magneto type where you cranked the handle & waited for the operator to ask what number you wanted. The radio was a 6 volt wet battery powered console with a AM & short wave bands. Records were played on wind up gramophone at 78 rpm.

It might seem by the standards of today as a terrible life, but it really was very pleasant.

 

[DonnaB]

I remember visiting my great aunt and uncle in the late 60's and they still had outdoor plumbing. Well, it wasn't plumbing really but that is what we called it. We had to carry water from the well to do dishes and take a bath and if you wanted the water warmed we did so by putting logs in the old stove they had to generate heat and boil the pan of water.

 

[mjf]

.........

It might seem by the standards of today as a terrible life, but it really was very pleasant.

How true! I'm younger but grew up in QLD in fairly humble surroundings but I remember life being basically pleasant. What gets me now is kids given late model/new cars before they have even left High School.

 

[Layback Bear]

I remember the day I helped my day install a shower in the house. I never really new why. Well maybe, at times he drank to much and bought strange things.
All are water came from a hand pump in the kitchen. All hell broke loose if the pot of prime water was forgot the night before. It took forever to get water without a prime.
We got smart and started saving rain water for the prime. Well I got smart because I got tired of the ass whopping. Mom and Dad were not happy camper in the morning without their coffee.
Even today with automatic computer chip auto start coffee pots water is needed.

That old house never did get indoor pluming but we did get our first phone. Good old party line phone with about 6 or 8 other homes on the same line and a busy body operator that listened to everybody.
I wonder how a 56k dial up modem would work on a party line.

That old house on the bluffs above the Mississippi river was destroyed by a tornado and now their are multi million dollar homes built on the bluffs.
I have no idea how they got rid of all the rattle snakes to build the homes up there.

I remember our first record player. Another time dad drank to much. Just picture a record player that was cover with cow hide. Big dollars in those days. It was a Gibson.
Dad didn't allow music in the house or even a radio playing.
We never did get any records.
Hell we were poor but us kids didn't know we were poor. Everybody around us lived the same way. We went to school and played out side without store bought toys and had lots of fun.

In the winter we walked along the top of the bluffs to school. I really don't know how far it was but it took about a hour one way.
In the summer we had to come down off the bluffs to a road and walk back up to the school.
In the summer the woods were to dense to walk to school and get their before lunch. A GPS would not of helped, nor would a cell phone.
You could hide Pattons 3rd army in those woods in the summer.

 

[lafnsu]

oh my 56k wasn't even thought of when I first started building my computers...the excitement was when you had a 30 MB hard drive (yes, that small), oh yeah! My first computer ran rpg, then rpg 2, then mac, then pc-dos. Wow, it's been fun on the travels through internet and technology changes. I marvel as I watch my grands using technology at two years (and younger) like it's part of their anatomy. When they are my age I fully expect they won't be able to remember all the changes that are made.

 

[chefduane]

Other than Heathkit/breadboard stuff, the first 'real' PC I had was some off brand 80386dx @ 16mhz. Line printer was a KSR 33 TTY with a kluged interface board in slot 1. Slot 0 was a your external floppy that you had to boot with the "PR#0" command. (Who remembers that?) Monitor was a 12" B&W Sharp tv. Communications was 300bps dialup via your Bell System phone and analog modem cradle. DARPANET existed but the "World Wide Web" was years off. First tech job was night operator on a DEC PDP11/45. (RSTS/E if I remember correctly.) When I eventually cashed out of hi-tek I was a vp at a satellite carrier in Palo Alto. Then I went to culinary school and now I cook for a living in Texas. Go figure.

"I sometimes catch myself looking up at the Moon, remembering the changes of fortune in our long voyage, thinking of the thousands of people who worked to bring the three of us home. I look up at the moon and wonder, when will we be going back, and who will that be?" - James Lovell

 

[mjf]

I think the initial ARPANET development was funded by DARPA. So maybe DARPANET may be used.
My first PC was based around an Intel 8088 with an 8087 math co processor. I lashed out on a 20 MB HDD. Ironically this was more powerful than the PDP 11 I used to complete my PhD which was written on an IBM Selectric golf-ball type writer. How times have changed!!!

 

[A Guy]

I too was born in 1960...and I AM a "TV Repairman", lol. More old school then new, but obviously "tech savvy"

A Guy

 

[thelma]

Yes, because you were in real contact with people and nature and even the things you were using.

They asked time and effort to make them work, and when they did it made you happy. And we did have time, although working days were much longer and school weeks as well. School and work on Saturday morning. Weekends were short.

The food was so much better and home made. When I said to my Grandma:" I am thirsty", she always replayed:" the tap is patient."

Contact was real and warm with neighbours and you said hello to people you pass. We still do here in this little village in Tirol,
in fact, we say "Gruss Got ".

 

[mjf]

I too was born in 1960...and I AM a "TV Repairman", lol. More old school then new, but obviously "tech savvy"

A Guy

I'm a bit confused by the comment but I think you are extremely well technically respected. Maybe I missed something in the message.
You can fix my TV anytime because I think I would struggle.

 

[A Guy]

Wasn't aimed at you Michael Was in response to Donna mentioning she was born in 1960, and "Remember the TV repairman", lol. Happy New Year

A Guy