Back then......

Ray S S

Silver Member
Nov 18, 2007
3,011
59
Port Huron, Mi.
Detector(s) used
Freedom Ace Coin Commander and Ace 250
Hello, here are a few comparisons that some of you might get
a kick out of.
Enjoy.

Ray

Back Then

>>>A computer was something on TV from a science fiction show, a window
was something you hated to clean, and ram was the cousin of a goat.

>>>Meg was the name of my girlfriend, and gig was something you did on
stage for money; now they all mean different things and that really
mega bytes.

>>>An application was for employment, a program was a TV show, a cursor
used profanity, and a keyboard was a piano.

>>>Memory was something you lost with age, a CD was a bank account...

>>>Compress was something you did to the garbage,not something you did
to a file, and if you unzipped anything in public you'd be in jail for
a while.

>>>Log on was adding wood to the fire, hard drive was a long trip on
the road,a mouse pad was where a mouse lived, and a back-up happened
to your commode

>>>Cut was something you did with a pocketknife, paste you did with
glue, a web was a spider's home, and a virus was the flu.

>>>I guess I'll stick to my pad and paper and the memory in my head.
I hear nobody's been killed in a computer crash, but when it happens,
they wish they were dead.
 

Glenns5900

Sr. Member
Dec 14, 2005
269
1
Longmont, CO USA
Detector(s) used
Whites 5900 Di Pro (not SL) Old, but still good
Upload: Putting the firewood in the back of the pickup.
Download: Taking the firewood off of the pickup.
Windows: What you opened to get a cool breeze.
Mac: A brand of large trucks.
 

OP
OP
Ray S S

Ray S S

Silver Member
Nov 18, 2007
3,011
59
Port Huron, Mi.
Detector(s) used
Freedom Ace Coin Commander and Ace 250
to billKY,
dpill8,
Glenns5900,
and Tee, thanks to all of you for your replies and good additions that fit right in nicely. I'm glad
you liked it.

Ray
 

Seamuss

Bronze Member
Jan 27, 2009
1,160
10
Found under a rock, in Washington State.
Detector(s) used
Garrett Scorpion, Garrett pro pointer
A hard drive is something you did all day and part of the night.

A disk is something you slipped in your back.

If you have a three and a half inch floppy... you hope nobody finds out.

A port was where you sailed out of.

A keyboard is where you hung your keys.
 

Libralabsoldier

Hero Member
Jan 7, 2007
666
23
Baker,LA
Detector(s) used
Garrett Ace 150
This is pretty cool. I am in the in between generation. I remember what life was like before computers. My wife, who is seven years younger than me, has always remembered having the internet in her life.

My first computer was a Tandy office computer. I improved it with a Commodore 64, and had an 8K baud modem that I had to direct dial.....ah, those were the days.
 

Glenns5900

Sr. Member
Dec 14, 2005
269
1
Longmont, CO USA
Detector(s) used
Whites 5900 Di Pro (not SL) Old, but still good
I remember having a computer class in high school.
We had a DECwriter printer/keyboard with a serial connection that we connected to a 300 baud acoustic modem. It was on a cart with wheels. We had to wheel it out into the hallway to the pay phone and dial up the university and put the handset into the cups on the modem to log on and do our BASIC programming. The bottom shelf of the cart had a box of paper on it. Everything was printed on the paper. No monitor. No computer. Just the dumb terminal and the modem.

Later in life I worked for a company called Storage Technology. They made computer tape drives and disk drives for banks and large corporations. I worked at testing the tape drives on a Univac 318. You had to load the operating system from a 1/2 inch tape. To load it you had to hand enter a bootstrap program to read the tape by flipping some toggle switches to set the bits and then flip an execute switch to load one instruction step. If I remember correctly, it was about 45 or 50 steps to enter the bootstrap code. The Univac 318 had a whopping 4K of memory (all on cards that had transistors). No IC's when it was made. It was about the size of 3 good sized refrigerators. The output was paper on a Teletype KSR28. Those of you in the military years ago will know what this was. Hated the bell. Always indicated an error.

Anyone remember Drum memory?
 

WilliamBoyd

Hero Member
Sep 22, 2007
647
341
California
A "geek" was a carnival entertainer who would pose as a wild man and bite the heads
off of chickens and snakes. He was usually paid with liquor.

The term originated in the 1944 novel "Nightmare Alley" by William Gresham.

I can't see how that term came to be applied to computer experts.

:)
 

oldgoat

Hero Member
Oct 21, 2008
538
9
I remember back in the 60's, when computers were first coming out, the programs were written on cards with holes punched in them...it took a whole box of cards to do a simple program. God forbid if you got the cards mixed up...
 

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