Community Chat

[hckynut]

@Sooner 

Not much. Didn't understand it and had no desire to learn about it. First off, I didn't like or want a computer. Bought the first one only because my wife wanted one. Did consult 1 of my hockey players that was on top of the technology of that time.

Only reason I even got interested in computers was because I read an article about a Nascar Race on a thing called a Floppy Disc. That drew my interest and from then on I even stayed up all night learning about computers, and then the internet. Was retired at this time.

hckynut 

[aroc3435]

@Sooner   I was in awe in 1983 when I first was introduced to it.  

I too, could see the potential, but was a bit intimidated at the same time.  

But it was so much easier to do my job this way than to have to keypunch cards at a specialized machine and haul a 70 lb.

"card deck" back and forth a mile or so in metal cases.

I could tell you many tales about my working days vis-a-vis computers but suffice it to say I'm a "dinosaur" for sure when it comes to computerized technology.

I was so bummed when my employer switched from Macs to pcs and to Microsoft.

Until I retired in 2017 I never had a computer at home.  The first thing I did was purchase a MacBook laptop and I love it, though I am no expert but can cope well enough.

Fascinaating topic, by the way.

aroc3435

Washington, DC

[SilleeMee]

Does anyone remember the Mosaic browser?...and the search engine Archie? Those were what I used to learn how to get around the www dot com.

[Sooner]

@hckynut   And THAT is why men need wives!  So they will learn about new things and not be old stick-in-the mud's!!!!!!!!

At least that's usually how it works at my house!  

[NYCLatinaMe]

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@Sooner wrote:

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@SharkE wrote:

gonna be expensive

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@SharkE LOL!  I remember asking "what do you mean it's FREE?"  How does it come to your house if it's FREE?  How is the connection made?

It still puzzles me some days!  LOL!!!

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So how do you get it free?  I have always paid for the service.

[I am still oxox]

In the mid 80's I rememeber my brother bring home a early I Mac with a modem and I was facinated

[NYCLatinaMe]

My first internet experiences were as a research tool.  The internet began as a lot of text.    I think the content built slowly.  The first "exciting" content was aol.  In my experience, it took a while to build up.  I do think children now are so lucky to have these tools.  Remember having to look things up in encyclopedias?  Going to the library for research.  In my household, everything was out of date because we wouldn't buy every year.  My mother was a school teacher and did keep a lot of printed material around for her projects, which I also used for my projects as a child. I remember going thru those to find pictures of things that I would paste in school reports.

Now, if I need to know something, takes me a few seconds to find it.

The world gets better every year, even if sometimes it doesn't feel like it.

[songbird]

At work about the same time (1990's) We always had computers back then at school.  But hearing about the Internet back then, I was impressed.  I think the first commercial Internet connection (other  then the US)  was in the 1980's in Scandinavia.  When private PC came out, my husband (when he was a student) got one in the 1980s) from IBM. I think he was in high school, LOL. DOS was the language then.  And he created simple programs. Then the computers were more complex calculators without internet..  Computers have been around since the 1940's was created  and  designed by women.  Mechanical computers (again just calculators) were around in the mid 1880's.  Earlier then that in China.  The Abacus was really a computer.   Ada Lovelace was the first computer scientist in the 1880's.

[Foxxee]

Yes, thought I'd have the world at my fingertips, but it's full potential remained to be seen.  

Began using it at home in the late 90's when I got hooked on ebay.  Bought books on Amazon.  

As retailers went online, sometimes customers didn't receive their orders.  

The internet can be addicting, but also a necessity.  What would we have done without it during Covid-19?  

There's so much to explore and learn if it's used that way.  

Just think, we wouldn't have access to QVC's Forum or their Social Team.  Lol.

Not sure which is worse, my car breaking down, or can't access the internet.  On occasion when my screen freezes, I look over at the internet cable box and don't see the lights blinking. "Doggone you, Comcast."

[SilleeMee]

I was more in shock when I saw the first Texas Instruments calculators. I bought one of the first ones which came out and showed it to my mom. She was Japanese and used an abacus her entire life until the day she died in 1998. She never used any other kind of device to count. I still have her little hand-held abacus. I preserved it inside a framed shadow box. I tell her story when people ask about it.