Early Experiences - What turned you on?

[ila]

Originally Posted by a9127

...(Wonder who alive today knows what a "386" or "486" is? Or ever owned one? Or has ever heard of "Lotus 1-2-3" or "Windows 3.1"? Wonder who "Bil Gejts" is? )

I started with a Commodore 64 and then moved on to DOS on an Atari. Lotus 1-2-3 was still a DOS program. dbIII+ was the pinnacle of databases. WordPerfect was the only word processor worth talking about and Harvard Graphics was the only presentation program that could do more than show bullet points. I remember when a 50 MHz processor was called a screamer. It took me a long time before I had anything faster than that. It's hard to believe that at one time sixteen colours on a monitor was not just cutting edge, but bleeding edge. I was a system administrator using a DOS based NOS. Shall I go on?

[a9127]

I started with a Commodore 64 as well. Did you have the cassette? I also had to hook it up to an old color TV. My Dad had a Compaq DeskPro 386 for work and a T1 line that GM paid for. So I was exposed to business and technology at a pretty early age. We had a Novell network at school and one of the teachers let me work with it. Under his supervision of course. I remember almost all of the original DOS based computers and the earliest versions of Windows. One of my professors in grad school had an old "CP/M" machine sitting in his office. It still worked. My first "real" computer was a "hand me down" IBM PC/AT that used 1.2 Mb floppies had a 20Mb hard drive and used a "286" processor running at 6Mhz.

My first "new" computer was a "Gateway 2000" 486 running at 25Mhz. It was the first to have "VGA" graphics so you could see "real" pictures.

During middle school through High school I probably owned over a dozen PC's including Mac's. In college I learned UNIX and became proficient at C++. My undergraduate was in Industrial Management which was Purdue's way of combining Business and Engineering. The last CRT monitor I owned was in 1999. It was a Dell and had a 19" screen. I got a workout carrying it around. Everything since then has been a flat screen. My current home display is 27". For most professional work I use an HDMI interface at our university and in my office. My current home desktop uses an AMD Ryzen with 32 Cores and has a 1Tb Solid State drive. Everything is wireless. I have a Linux machine in my office as well as many tablets and notebooks.

At my university they give us "Acers" running Windows 7 and Office 2013. Most of the students have better technology. The main classroom I teach in has six huge flat panel displays that I can control with my phone or iPad.

Sorry to go on and on. Long boring post...

(In 1988, one of the school administrators gave me this "certificate" after I helped him with an end of year project. 30 years ago! Notice the "border" of "floppies." No I wasn't very old. Surprised I still have it. He was one of my inspirations to go into teaching many years later. He is still alive and we correspond now and then. Of course, along the way I managed to add to my collection by earning a Bachelor's Degree, an MBA, and Doctorate. I'm chair of the Business Analytics Program at our university and I also own a market research company. I've done pretty well.)

[ila]

Originally Posted by a9127

I started with a Commodore 64 as well. Did you have the cassette? I also had to hook it up to an old color TV. My Dad had a Compaq DeskPro 386 for work and a T1 line that GM paid for. So I was exposed to business and technology at a pretty early age. We had a Novell network at school and one of the teachers let me work with it. Under his supervision of course. I remember almost all of the original DOS based computers and the earliest versions of Windows. One of my professors in grad school had an old "CP/M" machine sitting in his office. It still worked. My first "real" computer was a "hand me down" IBM PC/AT that used 1.2 Mb floppies had a 20Mb hard drive and used a "286" processor running at 6Mhz.

My first "new" computer was a "Gateway 2000" 486 running at 25Mhz. It was the first to have "VGA" graphics so you could see "real" pictures.

During middle school through High school I probably owned over a dozen PC's including Mac's. In college I learned UNIX and became proficient at C++. My undergraduate was in Industrial Management which was Purdue's way of combining Business and Engineering. The last CRT monitor I owned was in 1999. It was a Dell and had a 19" screen. I got a workout carrying it around. Everything since then has been a flat screen. My current home display is 27". For most professional work I use an HDMI interface at our university and in my office. My current home desktop uses an AMD Ryzen with 32 Cores and has a 1Tb Solid State drive. Everything is wireless. I have a Linux machine in my office as well as many tablets and notebooks.

At my university they give us "Acers" running Windows 7 and Office 2013. Most of the students have better technology. The main classroom I teach in has six huge flat panel displays that I can control with my phone or iPad.

Sorry to go on and on. Long boring post...

(In 1988, one of the school administrators gave me this "certificate" after I helped him with an end of year project. 30 years ago! Notice the "border" of "floppies." No I wasn't very old. Surprised I still have it. He was one of my inspirations to go into teaching many years later. He is still alive and we correspond now and then. Of course, along the way I managed to add to my collection by earning a Bachelor's Degree, an MBA, and Doctorate. I'm chair of the Business Analytics Program at our university and I also own a market research company. I've done pretty well.)

So as not to take this thread way off track I'll keep my answer short.

The Commodore 64 that I learned on belonged to my boss. He was modern for his times and had 2 drives both 5 14" floppies. The monitor was a tv. This the computer that I had to learn some Basic to operate.

The Atari I learned on belonged to an educational institution. DOS had progressed to the point where I didn't need to use any Basic programming.

The first computer that I ever bought was Gateway 2000 486 with a 33 MHz processor, a 5 1/4" floppy drive and a 3 1/2", but no CD ROM drive. It came with a huuuuge 14" monitor.

[a9127]

I'll try to get it back on track. I'm thinking of changing my desktop wallpaper. Which one should I pick?

(Somebody went to a lot of trouble to make a Windows 95 theme for Windows 10. Why? )

[ila]

Originally Posted by a9127

I'll try to get it back on track. I'm thinking of changing my desktop wallpaper. Which one should I pick? ...

The Windows 95 logo of course. What could be sexier?

[a9127]

Originally Posted by ila

The Windows 95 logo of course. What could be sexier?

Unless of course it was a screenshot from this early PC game featuring the promise of electric sex…

[a9127]

He only has eyes for you…

Tried to talk my wife into something like this for Christmas…

From 1926! Look at how Frosty is smiling. Bet that’s not a carrot down there…

Damn! It’s all of my “ex’s”...

God, the girl in the red dress and stockings. Yes, he IS way too old for you…

She’s thinking “Shit. Never shoulda 'swiped right.' But his profile sounded so hot...”

[a9127]

Originally Posted by a9127

Unless of course it was a screenshot from this early PC game featuring the promise of electric sex…

Hard to believe. But that was really what PC graphics looked like back then. "CGA" video was only three colors (Cyan, Magenta, White) @ 320x200 resolution.

Those pics are the actual screen sizes. And the original IBM color display was very expensive. That's why so many screens you see from that time are Green or Amber monochrome. Ever seen a "Lotus 1-2-3" graph?

Here's a few more "screenshots" for you to enjoy. Bet lots of guys beat off to this...

Atari however was way ahead of the game. The fourth pic was from an "Atari ST."

Just a few years later, by the late 80's, "EGA" and "VGA" graphic standards were becoming commonplace. The last two are from 1988.

(Strip Poker was written in GWBASIC. "Dr. Andy" was in kindergarten. One of the first things he ever did was write a short subroutine that caused her to strip when you pressed F10. To the delight of his friends. Someone uploaded his version to a BBS. Anyone remember those? Very naughty boy... )

[a9127]

Originally Posted by ila

The Windows 95 logo of course. What could be sexier?

Good news. Hayley is currently leading 4 to 1. You can probably guess which of the two is already gracing my desktop...

However, the Windows 95 logo might be “sexier” then most people think. In 1995, Microsoft chose the song “Start Me Up” by the Rolling Stones as the theme song for the release of their new operating system. It was played during commercials and you could even order the album “Tattoo You” directly from Microsoft.

Microsoft was also pushing, at the time, the “educational” aspects of technology and targeting younger people (especially grade and middle school students such as myself). Of course Apple had this market wrapped up almost from the beginning. I remember that Microsoft targeted “Encarta” a “multimedia” CD-ROM based encyclopedia at people my age. I still have my copy and it is painful to look at almost 24 years later. Once I showed it to my current students (college age) during a discussion of the evolution of interactive technology and they couldn’t stop laughing at it. The “basketball” video is a classic.

Anyway, I digress. Someone in "PR" wasn't paying attention... If you are familiar with the lyrics to “Start Me Up” you know it’s not appropriate for a “family friendly” product. Also it received unintended ridicule from “IT” professionals with the lyric “You make a grown man cry” as it was notoriously difficult to work with. But it gets better… Here are some of the actual lyrics, my favorite are the last two:

If you like it, I can slide it up

Slide it up, slide it up, slide it up

You, you, you make a grown man cry

You, you made a dead man come

You, you made a dead man come