Keyboard Warriors: How many years of experience do you have with computers?
 

Let's give some props to the people that weren't raised on a steady diet of GUI.

These bitches that complain about keyboard warriors -- I guess you never realized what industry you were in -- the computer industry. Maybe when you get past "hunt and peck typing" you can post a reply that's a little longer than one sentence. So many newbs get on here and reply with smiley faces -- they can't even type!

The real work in this biz is at the prompt... I'll never forget my dad set up our first computer's prompt to say, "yes, master c:>"

Newbs bow to the power -> "yes, master"

First computer ever used was a Sinclair ZX-80, way back in 1981.
First use of a GUI was on an Atari ST, around 1986ish.
First use of the internet was in 1991 at university - we were allocated 2MB of space each in which to store our work, and we though that amount was generous!

first computer, Apple IIe, 1988 (5 1/2 inch floppy, SWEET!)
second computer, HP something, 1992 :thumbsup

..sometimes im a racist - what about you?

The first computer I used daily was Amiga 500.. no idea when I got that. Probably 88 or so.

i got 6 years under my belt...when i got my frist computer a HP, I didnt even know how to turn that bitch on and off right. Never took it in for repairs or upgrades.. learned the ins and outs by trial and error...and the help of a few friends via telephone. Now i can build one from scratch. Mind you this HP is still going strong ..fuck the keyboard is still the original one.

I have added another pc and a laptop to my reportoire.....couldnt tell ya shit about how the laptop works internally.. thats a whole new project for me to figure out..

I guess i am still a newbie :1orglaugh

Atari with a touch pad keyboard... Seperate tape recorder, HD and ZORK 1 on a 5 1/4 floppy :thumbsup

My first OS was Amiga OS, in 1984ish. Next I used DOS on a big fancy 286. Since then, it's been all macs for me. (Though I've been happy to fix other people's windows boxes.)

I'm 40/yo....my first experience with a computer was back in college at Arizona State in 89. Autocad just came out and since I was a Architect major it was a required class....I barely passed the class....

My next experience was in 97 when I actually got into this business...I didn't know shit about computers then and to some extent still don't know much. All I know, is I can put a computer together and load an OS. I can type and no how to use a few shortcuts on my keyboard.

What I do know and am smart enough to realize, is I have created a company and surrounded my self with intelligent and proficient people that do understand. All my employees are between the age of 19 and 21 y/o with the exception of my video editor who is 29...

So I'm not sure what exactly your point is....

If it is because I don't understand the intricacies of networking or backends, then yes I am a dumb fuck but if you want to know marketing strategies and how to make money in this biz, I'm your man.

My number of posts on GFY doesn't have a direct correlation to whether I am a newb or if I have the skills to generate money in this biz.

We used to play Ultima IV on my friend's Amiga for hours til our fingers bled.

Around 3 Years now pretty less huh :winkwink:

hahah... one of the early computers my dad had that i played on was a small heathkit (well, small for the day). it had a numeric keypad, an alphanumeric led readout, and he taught it t say "follow the yellow brick road". those were great times. that was probably my best guess around 83-85, something like that. been playing with computers ever since.

quite a long time - 8 years...:thumbsup

I'm still trying to figure how to bookmark a page...I can't figure how to get that plastic marker between each page....

Please Help....

Well said.

:)

macs in the 80's :)

Holy shit! Heathkit I remember that. I used to go to the ham radio conventions and they had some really cool robots set up. They had nice catalogs -- you could build just about any electronic device that you wanted to -- just follow the instructions and solder away... I have to admit I was never elite enough to solder my own PC :)

I bet they are still around -- a couple of years ago I was looking into robots and I think it was Heathkit that had a little circuitboard that you could program on your computer -- attach the thing to your robot and the coded instructions would be saved on flash rom -- so you could build smart robots...

Atari 400
(prolly not until late 1980 that i was using it though)

http://www.heydon.org/kevan/collecti...-400-large.jpg

http://www.laughton.com/paul/abps/oss/two_births.html
"I don't know exactly when the concept of the Atari Computer was developed within the corporate mind of Atari, Inc., nor do I know all of the people responsible for nursing that concept into reality. The following history covers the relationship with Atari, Inc., during the evolution of the system software.

Sometime in early 1978, when the Atari 800 and 400 were still called "Coleen" and "Candy" and were still in the breadboard stages, Atari bought a copy of the source for Microsoft 8K BASIC. This version of BASIC was fundamentally the same product that was implemented by Commodore in the early PETs, was used by OSI, and was a close ancestor of Microsoft's Applesoft Basic. Six months and many, many Atari man-hours later, that 8K BASIC was almost functioning properly on the Atari prototypes. But buying source for a program buys you just that: source. Generally, you also receive little documentation, sometimes obscure code, no guide to modification, and no real support. What to do? The products were due to be shown in early January, 1979, at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, Nevada. "

:thumbsup

Atari was ahead of its time with the MIDI processing capabilities of those machines.

19 out of 24 years

Thats the one :thumbsup

we had like 3-4 heathkits, my dad assembled them all. one of them was like a normal computer for those days... monitor, keyboard and all. the talking ones were a little different tho. about the size of an old xt or something. they were definitely cool. assembling them had to be a nightmare. i can assemble all that stuff and crap... but what i was always jealous of is my dad's ability to resurrect electronic parts that have pieces that are pretty much close to unrecognizable (exploding resistors and that sort), and have it function like new in a couple days. yeah, i can repair electronics, but not like he can. i guess that's why i stick with cars :)

Some fascinating stuff about Atari 800 -- read the book Hackers P316-> about John Harris... the guy basically bought one with his lunch money -- hacked Atari's proprietary hardware architecture... eventually became a legenday game designer coding Frogger, etc.

i think commodore 64 and I use to go in the 'alternative lifestyle" chat room on compuserve, logged in as Rock Hudson
well the fags didn't like that much
took typing in HS
1995 got my first site up for my stripper agency
i got exxxotic.com
gee I passed on pussy.com
duh

the Odyssey II was my first console/computer...

then the Atari 400

then the Apple II e
(LOGO, bitch - I got mad skills using moving the turtle around!)

then the Atari 800

then begging and pleading to get something new, and going with the Commodore 64's successor, the Commodore 128D (in 1989/90 - I must've been on crack)

then the Amiga in late 1990...

and finally the world of PCs in 1992, rocking DOS at first, the Windows 3.0.

almost 25 years using a computer... fuck.

remember when local BBS systems had one or two poorly scanned porn pics in the early 90s? usually pilfered from Rusty & Edie's?

remember typing in programs from the back of the computer magazine? taking 3 hours to type it in just to play some shitty ASCII ski-ing game (actually, that game was tight). sucked if you couldn't save it...

remember when 1200 baud was fast and Q-link was the cutting edge online service?

LOL
I started on the Sinclair ZX81, with a whopping 16Kb memory expansion module. Hooked it up to an old b&w portable TV, and recorded programs from the radio on casette tapes :)
After that I went to Atari ST, and grudgingly downgraded to an XT turbo (12 Mhz!) PC when I had to start teaching basic computer skills (I was a teacher in those days)
From there I went to a 386 DX40, then built a 486 DX66, then P133, then a P233, at which point I stagnated somewhat untill I built this 1.7 Ghz Athlon system. Bought my gf a much faster P4 laptop recently, for the Firewire DV capture option, but I'm still really happy with this one...it does what I want it to with a minimum of fuss.

hehe, yep, and remember when Ripterm was the coolest thing out because it had graphic buttons?

Gawd Ripterm Sucked ass. ;)

ANSi was the way to go if you knew how to fuck with it nicely.. who remembers thedraw? :)

I used to run a bbs back in the day.. used this trustly lil software called T.A.G. .. made it look almost like a Vision/2 bbs.... all through modding the strings...

my dad always used to bring back the amazing BBC Model B's from his work (headmaster) on the weekends and teach us how to program in basic. This must have been when i was about 5-6.

http://www.warpedsports.com/cgi-bin/....22_30/bbc.jpg

This progressed onto us stealing the memory cards out of the same machines at our school when i was about 16 and flogging them to the computer shop owner in town :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

TRS-80 with Dirty Dos count?

First PC 1988, no HD 286/12 with 640kb ram, and DOS 3.3 baby.

Edlin = pWned the sorry assed n00bs of the day.

Shit, I remember the RIPBBS software--that shit was wack.

I was keeping it real as a fucking WWIV webmaster, up until 94.

I've been using computers for 21 years.

Texas Instruments TI-99

http://www.oldcomputers.freeserve.co...t-ti-99-4a.jpg

I'll admit that any 15 year old hacker probably runs circles around me now though.

Wow, flashback city! Yep there was TheDraw, and the coolest one was AcidDraw. Remember ACiD and the various groups that used to form and try to out do each other? Almost like Elite Groups.

Yeah RipTerm was the high end back then. Actual vector images and clickables.

I still miss playing LORD (Legend of the Red Dragon). You got your files from FIDO backbones and if you could find a 4-node BBS and get as many as four people into a chat room at once, it was an incredible experience. hehe

You used TABS (Telephone something or other) to pay to get onto adult boards with the payment put on your phonebill. They later became known as iBill.

And the adult content was CDs from Night Owl, Windy City and Busty Babes. One of those, think it was the latter, later became known as ZMaster.

went through the basic programming course work at the university of hawaii in 1979 on a DEC LA-120 terminal over a 300 baud modem ...

my first experience with 'computers' was back in the days of the keypunch cards. Internet? There was no stinking Internet.

http://www.ampiezza.com/stuff/keypunch.jpg

Remember em punch cards well! :glugglug

I think I've been working with computers for about 24 years now.. shit, I can't remember! :Graucho

30+ years.

First was in high school on an old teletype terminal hooked up to Hofstra University's mainframe... Then 8 years usings puters in the military.... Been programming since I got out in 82....

First computer in the house was a TI94A keyboard with a cassette tape drive...

I remember the first days of Sinclair and Commodore 64

1984 basic programming on commodore

we had BBC micro computers when I was in grade 1
(all thnx to my now husband who was the person responsible for getting them into schools way back then)
i wanted a computer so much i hounded my dad into buying me an atari 520

i still have it - they rock for games
also got a coupel of 1040 ste's and stfm's laying around here



:thumbsup

the days of dos and the c: prompt :( how i miss them so
i miss my 2400 buad too :1orglaugh

Atari was my first, and I LOVED Zork!

Started with computers on 1982 when i was 7 years old with a Sinclair ZX-80. After that an amstrad, amiga, XT, 286, 386, 486, PI etc etc until now. When i was 14 year old my father started a computers shop and i started to work there while i was studing. At 18 years old i partnership with him in the shop and also started university studies but as i was so involved on the computers shop bussines, i left the uni 3 years later. Now i'm 28 and still own the shop, but i have ppl working there as i'm fulltime in porn. A whole life with computers and i hope will keep this way for some years more :)

hahahahaha... i used to draw on my dad's old punch card programs :) he had so damn many of them...


anybody remember the ibm pcjr? i gots a functioning one. hahah, that thing is great :)

Gawd I remember those days in college between in 1979 and 1980. Getting them all punched then turning them in to get them run.. only to wait and find out that something was wrong in one of the very first cards. From 1981 to 83 when I graduated, we got to use terminals that bogged down based on what they were doing with the mainframes at the time.

Had a TRS80 Model one at home just before that also.

Then terminals and PCs for accounting jobs after that. I'll never forget thos one 'portable' in the early '80s. It was larger than today's computer boxes and the keyboard actually was the bottom of the machine when it was closed up. The screen might have been 5 x 5.

First computer had no display just a series of orange diode tubes which showed numbers 0 to 9. All it could do was mathematical calculations. We wrote code using 5 hole punch paper tape. At the end of computer class to save your work you just roled up your program around your finger. Didn't have to worry about viruses back then just making sure you didn't accidentally tear your tape.

http://www.terrigal.net.au/~acms/album/b10020.jpg

http://ed-thelen.org/comp-hist/samp-...paper-tape.jpg

http://www.savethebuhl.org/dsc00014.jpg

This was my first calculator. Made by Texas Instruments in 1972. A lot of you young guys weren't even born yet. I couldn't stop playing with this gadget. It was amazing how it could instantly calculate any amount of numbers.

http://www.vintagecalculators.com/as...s/TI2500_1.jpg