I remember having to go to the library to do research for school work. I also remember the very first pc I had, it was an old RM from the school my mum used to teach at. Looking back the sheer amount of things I take for granted now is scary.
Imagine...........there was no internet
- Thread starter compboyo
- Start date
Soldato
- Joined
- 4 Apr 2003
- Posts
- 8,116
Do you know what, life was still great before the internet and mobile phones, we met up with our mates daily, managed to organise to do things and have loads of fun.
So im limited to the web, hotmail, ICQ, CompuServe chat servers, my BBS list, and Doom/Quake/Teamfortress/Total Annihilation/etc, I think ill survive, going back to 56k porn may be an issue though...
The internet has made building a PC a doddle. All the information on settings, the latest drivers, troubleshooting and the kit to buy is immediately available.
Before you researched the kit in magazines, used the drivers that came with the kit and used Peter Nortons books to set it all up running efficiently.
The most useful thing? Looking up mountain weather forecasts at any time.
Before you researched the kit in magazines, used the drivers that came with the kit and used Peter Nortons books to set it all up running efficiently.
The most useful thing? Looking up mountain weather forecasts at any time.
Soldato
- Joined
- 10 May 2004
- Posts
- 13,060
- Location
- Sunny Stafford
My parents had internet since 1995. They were with CompuServe and it was incredibly expensive. We weren't allowed on as kids (I was 17 in 1995) and it wasn't until 1998 when they let me go online... for a whopping 30 minutes per WEEK! In 1999 though, I had my own PC in uni halls with a fast T1 connection. But yeah, I just played a lot of computer games before the internet days and I played with the kids outside on bikes, tag, camping, building dens etc.
I think the fact the kit has been simplified to the plug and play point where a child can (and do) do it is also a factor. When was the last time and of us set motherboard FSB/Voltage/Multiplier jumpers? or manually entered the HDD's C/H/S info? or entered IRQ/DMA/IO settings to make the sound-card work?
I miss going to the usual hangout spots to see if your mates were there, because none of us had mobiles. Then AOL chat rooms hit the scene and we'd jump on them and talk to "girls" (so naive at that age lol). If it weren't for the ease of online/mobile communication I'd probably be forced to hang out with my work mates. Nice enough, but I'm glad I don't have to see them outside of work.
You could get it for free by opening a support room window (free), then opening another instance of compuserve and browsing for free anywhere you wanted!
I used it all the time and never once paid for it.
Hehe, A fav trick of me and my friends for free internet was to call the company across town (after 5pm and on weekends) then wait for their answer phone to hang up, then dial 9 for an outside line (as you were still in their system and it didn't drop the line) then dial your chosen long distance or international BBS number.
Thinking about it we must have cost them a lot but it serves them right for having such a retardedly insecure system, every kid in town knew about it lol.
Associate
- Joined
- 13 Jan 2010
- Posts
- 109
I worked for a poster company in 1996 and we used to sell posters online internationally . .quite a lot of trade too.
it wasn't that grim
(I also remember seeing a browser in IBM's basement in salford pointing to a Texas university in 1992 .. that bent my brain a little
)
Permabanned
- Joined
- 9 Aug 2008
- Posts
- 35,711
With me working in education I always say to people, could you imaging what it would be like if we replaced all the projectors for blackboards and chalk.
People still passed their qualifications but it was harder to find information out. Because of technology people are learning faster than ever before since the information is right in front of you with a quick search. It really is amazing but I think without it we would still be OK just people would have to go out more to get things done. For example, walk to the library to purchase or hire books.
People still passed their qualifications but it was harder to find information out. Because of technology people are learning faster than ever before since the information is right in front of you with a quick search. It really is amazing but I think without it we would still be OK just people would have to go out more to get things done. For example, walk to the library to purchase or hire books.
Man of Honour
- Joined
- 29 Mar 2003
- Posts
- 57,684
- Location
- Stoke on Trent
I was about 36 when the Internet came out so have 3.5 decades of survival skills I can call on.
I still post letters and make phone calls from a real phone so I might survive.
I still post letters and make phone calls from a real phone so I might survive.
I remember all this.
I hated it! Years of messing about with computers that didn't work, arguing with very old celeron pc's that couldn't run more than 2 tasks at once, finding out my 3d hardware has forgotten where it's drivers have gone again (killing le mans 24 hour on the pc again), didn't get more things done, just spent more time failing to do what I planned to do originally.
Only good bit was playing mini quake on the old school network, back when my secondary school was poor and we ran 1999 pc's in 2006 (all with win 2k and a whopping 128mb ram). So many good lunch times playing shooting each other across the 6th form building
I hated it! Years of messing about with computers that didn't work, arguing with very old celeron pc's that couldn't run more than 2 tasks at once, finding out my 3d hardware has forgotten where it's drivers have gone again (killing le mans 24 hour on the pc again), didn't get more things done, just spent more time failing to do what I planned to do originally.
Only good bit was playing mini quake on the old school network, back when my secondary school was poor and we ran 1999 pc's in 2006 (all with win 2k and a whopping 128mb ram). So many good lunch times playing shooting each other across the 6th form building
Letters... pen & paper? :O
notepad.exe
my survival skills without interswebs is next to none.