Technologies of the past

[Unown]

Ok bro you take your hobby of being a mod on a forum where dudes talk about hos way too seriously.

I might be dating myself . . . . .

Back when the internet was young there were no “websites”. It was all bulletin boards. And they covered any and all subjects. Back then, just like now, boards had to be moderated. Or you might find your favorite restoring vintage cars board overrun by ads, trolls, or general nonsense.

Back in the early days I would help some friends and spend time moderating their boards. What a mess. Sometimes I would need to wade through 20 posts to find 3 relevant ones. And then there were the serial offenders. 90% of their stuff was so off topic that many times I didn’t even bother looking at their posts. I just left them in the queue.

The rules here are strictly enforced. But that is what makes the information here so valuable. Before you complain about the moderation here, spend some time on the other boards. You will find reviews that can’t be trusted. Answers that steer you in the wrong direction. And an endless parade of ads for other websites.

 

[genius]

I might be dating myself . . . . .

Back when the internet was young there were no “websites”. It was all bulletin boards. And they covered any and all subjects. Back then, just like now, boards had to be moderated. Or you might find your favorite restoring vintage cars board overrun by ads, trolls, or general nonsense.

Ah yes, bulletin boards ( they belonged to the bulletin system or BBS ) .
I've dated myself many times on UG so I don't see how I can cause further damage by saying I belonged to the RX7 bulletin board and communicated with my then state of the art 9600 baud dial up modem.
To hear what it sounded like watch the movie You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

 

[Monty_monty]

Ok bro you take your hobby of being a mod on a forum where dudes talk about hos way too seriously. I don't even know how to properly navigate this site, that's why I post there, because I have that forum saved in my bookmarks. All I know is, I now can't use that other login. I had to make this new account.

If you can navigate the Literotica.com forums, you can navigate this one they use the same forum software [including having sections of LGTBQ+] and they use moderators as well

 

[Raptor808]

If you can navigate the Literotica.com forums, you can navigate this one they use the same forum software [including having sections of LGTBQ+] and they use moderators as well

Very cool I read stories on that site. Some great reading. Of course second best to here.

 

[Monty_monty]

Ah yes, bulletin boards ( they belonged to the bulletin system or BBS ) .
I've dated myself many times on UG so I don't see how I can cause further damage by saying I belonged to the RX7 bulletin board and communicated with my then state of the art 9600 baud dial up modem.
To hear what it sounded like watch the movie You've Got Mail with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan.

9600 baud, as Monty Python in their "Four Yorkshiremen" skit would say ...

Pure luxury

But you know, we were happy in those days, though we were internet speed poor. We only had 5600 baud.

 

[Slinky Bender]

You haven't really lived until you've taken the hand set of your rotary dial phone and put it in the cradle of your dial-up modem.

 

[Monty_monty]

You haven't really lived until you've taken the hand set of your rotary dial phone and put it in the cradle of your dial-up modem. View attachment 37933

With the rotary dial, brilliant

 

[trader1]

I remember searching the yellow pages for escort services —

 

[Unown]

You haven't really lived until you've taken the hand set of your rotary dial phone and put it in the cradle of your dial-up modem.

I had a second phone line installed. Call waiting would always "bump" me off. LOL

 

[droopie]

I remember searching the yellow pages for escort services —

The village voice also. The guy in the store I would get it from would always wink at me when I grabbed it.

 

[genius]

You haven't really lived until you've taken the hand set of your rotary dial phone and put it in the cradle of your dial-up modem. View attachment 37933

Oh yeah, well you haven't really lived until you communicated with your computer service (I think it was called Compushare) with your 110 baud Teletype Model 33. Was faster than doing calculations with a slide rule.

To save computer time charges you would type a lot of the complicated stuff offline onto paper tape and use the teletype's paper tape reader (again 110 baud) to upload.

 

[genius]

I had a second phone line installed. Call waiting would always "bump" me off. LOL

The 1st company I worked for had a telephone switch board where several ladies would sit and physically connect your line to the outside lines. every once in a while they would notice that your extension was connected for a long time and they would plug in to see if it was just your phone off the hook. In that process your connection to Compuserve would get kicked off.

 

[chevyman53]

You haven't really lived until you've taken the hand set of your rotary dial phone and put it in the cradle of your dial-up modem. View attachment 37933

I remember doing that at the library it only went to the main frame in basement and the only information you got was input into it

 

[trader1]

Oh yeah, well you haven't really lived until you communicated with your computer service (I think it was called Compushare) with your 110 baud Teletype Model 33. Was faster than doing calculations with a slide rule.

To save computer time charges you would type a lot of the complicated stuff offline onto paper tape and use the teletype's paper tape reader (again 110 baud) to upload.

View attachment 37945

I think what’s just as smile enticing is when some of us gently aged people here discuss these technological marvels of their time to our siblings or young adults..
The look of absolute shock on their faces is priceless

 

[COD4]

I hired a 23 yo old as an AP associate. He constantly complained that the color laser printer was horrible. I told him if he kept complaining I was giving him the industrial dot matrix that we had in the basement. I said it prints on greenbar paper and everything.

His blank stare was priceless

 

[rickoshay53]

Oh yeah, well you haven't really lived until you communicated with your computer service (I think it was called Compushare) with your 110 baud Teletype Model 33. Was faster than doing calculations with a slide rule.

To save computer time charges you would type a lot of the complicated stuff offline onto paper tape and use the teletype's paper tape reader (again 110 baud) to upload.

View attachment 37945

Nothing was as much fun as having the 95% of the paper tape get read and then getting a tape parity error. Time to start over again.

 

[rickoshay53]

I used to work with a Data General computer that would crash every so often and wipe out the boot loader in core memory. At that point I would have to enter a number of instructions in manually using 16 mini toggle switches set up in groups of 3 to make octal numbers.

The operating system was contained on tape cassettes

 

[billyS]

I used to work with a Data General computer that would crash every so often and wipe out the boot loader in core memory. At that point I would have to enter a number of instructions in manually using 16 mini toggle switches set up in groups of 3 to make octal numbers.

The operating system was contained on tape cassettes

The first program I ever wrote was on punch cards.

 

[MayorSimpleton]

1-First computer you owned?
2-First work computer you used?
1-timex Sinclair 1000 with extended 16k memory pack and cassette program loader
3-TRS-80 with CPM OS (aka trash 80) with dual 8 inch floppy drives

 

[Monty_monty]

Or programming in "job cards" with hole punched JCL/COBOL