The Virtual Pub
Come Inside... => The Computer Room => Topic started by: TG on November 14, 2008, 04:46:23 PM
-
was...
-
1997
-
15 years ago whilst working as a sales manager for a major company in the City I had a secretary. One day I went into my office to find an oik beneath the desk laying a lot of cabling. The following day a PC appeared on the desk. It sat there for 6 months doing nothing until my secretary showed me how to turn it on. It sat for a further 6 months turned on but doing nothing. Then she went on maternity leave, the temps were no bloody good and after some months of increased frustration I got a call telling me that my sec had resigned to spend time raising her new baby (having taken the company for all the maternity leave with pay that she could get). I contacted HR to be told that the decision had been taken NOT to replace her. I went to the MD and discovered that all secs had been given redundancy notices (except his of course) and that we had all had PCs for over a year now and could manage our own typing etc. So I had to learn to use the bloody thing. I also bought one for home use, reasoning that I need not go into the office to type letters but would bring home some headed paper and do a lot of work from there. I then fell ill and was eventually "retired". We are now 10 years ago. I became interested in family history and took out a subscription with Freeserve for dial up internet access. Taught myself to use the internet from there. At first my only interest was in using it to look things up, when I didn't have a book that covered the topic, and in looking for details to help in my family tree researches. Then I discovered that one could look up phone numbers and other such stuff ~ which was handy. When we moved to North Wales I decided to start a Community Magazine (many reasons, not relevant here) and started to use the PC more and more but still mainly as a word processor.
One day, reading Private Eye, I spotted a piece (can't remember if it was an ad or an article) about GOM and joined that forum. Got well into the exchanges on there and then got slung out for joining BM in setting up this enterprise. Now I spend up to 10 hours a day at the keyboard, split 70/30 between the internet (here and elsewhere) and word processing articles for my own and other magazines, periodicals etc. This is the only "Chat" forum I use although I do look in at GOM, as a "visitor",from time to time. Tried one or two others but they didn't suit me for one reason or another so if I am not here or logged on but not posting I am researching other stuff for my writing/ family tree/ kids homework etc.
I don't do gaming, music downloads or movies on line. I do use the internet to listen to the cricket commentaries as Long Wave reception in this area is poor.
-
...a disaster
-
This is in the wrong thread point:
-
Do tell!
-
This is in the wrong thread point:
Go easy. It took him half an hour to type it. Merge! Merge! merge!
-
1997
Spare us the details wont you?
-
I plugged it in and it worked.like.
OK I did go on Watchdog to complain about my ISP later redface:
-
This is in the wrong thread point:
I decide what is the right thread not you Mr Smartarse violent073:
-
I don't remenber. Probably at work.
I think I bought my first home machine with internet access late 2000
-
This is in the wrong thread point:
Go easy. It took him half an hour to type it. Merge! Merge! merge!
It took fifteen minutes but unlike some I was management not a fvcking typist ~ however I do know how to release the Caps Lock on time whistle:
-
Are you calling me a fVcking typist? cussing:
-
If the Caps Lock fits whistle:
-
I don't remenber. Probably at work.
I think I bought my first home machine with internet access late 2000
Before broadband then. What did that do to your phone bills?
-
OK I have split the topic ~ happy now? I don't think it belongs in the Computer room which is more for Geekiness than this subject
-
OK I have split the topic ~ happy now? I don't think it belongs in the Computer room which is more for Geekiness than this subject
I don't wish to be pedantic but this is a computer thread really innit?
Anywho..
-
...can anyone remember the first WEBSITE they visited?
-
I had a subscription with Freeserve. I'm sure I had a freephone number for the dial-up.
-
See above Banghead
-
For those confused, as I am, TG has requested the topics he started in two different places be merged.
Carry on.
-
I had a subscription with Freeserve. I'm sure I had a freephone number for the dial-up.
Mine did ~ but you could elect to either pay a fixed monthly charge or pay per minute via your phone bill. If my memory is not as shot as I think it is.
-
I had a subscription with Freeserve. I'm sure I had a freephone number for the dial-up.
Freeserve? That was Dixons wannit?
All free. But back then you had to remind users that you still had to pay the phone bill.
The first email address I ever used was with Compuserve. They got devoured by somebody or other.
AOL got them it seems.
-
Well don't bother to say thank you or anything.
I work my paws to the bone just to give you everything you asked for demanded and what thanks do I get?
Sweet FA that's what. sad24:
-
For those confused, as I am, TG has requested the topics he started in two different places be merged.
Carry on.
Eh? I didn't start the 'online nookie thread' where this subject was first broached. That would have been you I think. confused:
-
For those confused, as I am, TG has requested the topics he started in two different places be merged.
Carry on.
Eh? I didn't start the 'online nookie thread' where this subject was first broached. That would have been you I think. confused:
cussing: Note difference between THREAD and TOPIC ~ and still no thanks I see.
At least you admit to derailing my Thread. evil:
-
You are a lovely man.
Stroppy, but lovely.
-
lol: lol: lol:
Fun here innit.
-
PS ~ Note the new signature whistle:
-
Good griefio
Is this the Home for the Confused?
-
One of the things that used to happen when I was growing up was every Christmas Eve, the parents would throw caution to the wind and phone up Dad's brother and wife in Oz. It was a short but very excitable conversation and we'd each get a chance to say hello and ask inane questions ~ What's the weather like? etc.
After the Christmas greetings were exchanged the phone was put down and we'd all sit there in awe of the technology and trying to imagine barbies on the beach...
By 'eck. T'information super highway eh?
-
Indeed ~ such progress eh?
In the early fifties my Aunt, who lived on the eastern side of Southampton used to send us a postcard in the 0930 post to say she was coming to tea ~ that day. We lived on the opposite side of the town. Mother would get the Post Card in the afternoon post and by the time the old duck had arrived for tea (3.30pm prompt) everything would be ready.
I have just received an email from a mate who lives opposite, asking me if my email system is working as his seems to be going very slowly ~ he sent it at 0730 this morning.
-
happy001 sad24:
-
happy001 sad24:
As my late father would have said "I don't know whether to laugh, cry or piss meself"
-
The person whom I've known longest outside immediate family and communicate with rationally (I think that means friend) has been living in subtropical Queensland for the last twenty years or so. Email comms go back and forth on an almost weekly basis and for that I owe Tim Berners Lee a huge debt of gratitude. We don't know if we'll ever see each other again but the friendship is alive and well ~ something that dwindles all too often with the passing years.
-
Well I do feel that I have made friends here. Certainly I "talk" to more people than I otherwise would.
By the way ~ who is that statue and where is it? It's driving me mad trying to place it.
-
PS ~ Note the new signature whistle:
I havent got a signature. whacky115
-
Good griefio
Is this the Home for the Confused?
Yes. A cake is a cake and a train is train. Never shall the two mix. happy088
-
imagine barbies on the beach...
Or Kens in the ladies case of course.
-
One of the things that used to happen when I was growing up was every Christmas Eve, the parents would throw caution to the wind and phone up Dad's brother and wife in Oz. It was a short but very excitable conversation and we'd each get a chance to say hello and ask inane questions ~ What's the weather like? etc.
After the Christmas greetings were exchanged the phone was put down and we'd all sit there in awe of the technology and trying to imagine barbies on the beach...
By 'eck. T'information super highway eh?
In our house it was the USA being phoned. My folks would then get drunk trying not to think about the phone bill. This would be AFTER they had already got drunk so as not to worry about the phone bill.
-
imagine barbies on the beach...
Or Kens in the ladies case of course.
Wassa point of Ken? ~ he's got no willy.
-
imagine barbies on the beach...
Or Kens in the ladies case of course.
Wassa point of Ken? ~ he's got no willy.
Shrugs:
Barbie is equally neuter I understand.
-
Well I do feel that I have made friends here. Certainly I "talk" to more people than I otherwise would.
By the way ~ who is that statue and where is it? It's driving me mad trying to place it.
It's a statue of Jaques Tati which I've reversed.
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.postimage.org%2FaVR6Umi.jpg&hash=22f6173570514b5fc35d6fd7e7177c21804a08de) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVR6Umi)
I imagine it's overlooking a beach in western France trying to make sense of what's going on... but I don't know Shrugs:
I'll research further cool14:
-
At first I thought
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffarm3.static.flickr.com%2F2020%2F2033643307_c179a4b550.jpg&hash=c2fea5470e88378c341d22294760893a55ae23e7)
But realised that it could not be so have been going through all those I know of in a similar vein.
Both statues are equally evocative of the person now that I know who yours is ~ I'm thinking "Oh, Of Course" doh:
-
Who is it?
-
I saw the hat, I saw him looking out, I'd convinced myself that it was Thomas Telford
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.postimage.org%2FPq11zFP0.jpg&hash=68bd93402f270ddca493f86b3b0e66de3cb60ab2) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=Pq11zFP0)
-
Who is it?
My statue you mean?
Sir John Betjeman at St Pancras Station
-
My first go on the internet, 1997. We were being taken over by a company that said they would be very I.T focussed. (The first of many lies for the following 11 years). Eager to be ahead of the game I purchased a new PC and joined AOL. I can still remember the missus panicking and saying "turn it off, turn it off", when it said I had carried out an illegal operation, she was convinced the authorities would come banging on the door
First website I visited, BBC news, it was my homepage then, it still is now.
-
I'll research further cool14:
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_/ai_n12616294
http://www.pbase.com/vincentbruyere/saint_marc
Very much as I thought ;)
-
Thank You. My mind is at rest.
-
Anyhooo....
Who remembers acoustic couplers? A bendy thing with a microphone on one end and a speaker on the other... You fitted it onto your telephone or your telephone into it and then dialed the other computer...
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F7%2F7c%2FAcoustic_coupler_20041015_175456_1.jpg%2F785px-Acoustic_coupler_20041015_175456_1.jpg&hash=1f257bb0d180203628a0cd5daf2f5de684fa60e3)
It connected to your computer by RS-232 and you could get about 300baud if you were lucky and had a crackle free line.
I guess that was my first experience on the t'internet although it wasn't called that then... you could log-on to company computers and download files and 'chat' to people on other sites but it never really worked... noooo:
It was a 'textual' interface of course, flashing cursor and all that stuff... hit send, wait for a reply... No mouse of GUI back then...
Happy days...
PS One of LL's first jobs was selling acoustic couplers...
-
My mind is at rest.
No change there then. ;)
-
Anyhooo....
Who remembers acoustic couplers? A bendy thing with a microphone on one end and a speaker on the other... You fitted it onto your telephone or your telephone into it and then dialed the other computer...
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F7%2F7c%2FAcoustic_coupler_20041015_175456_1.jpg%2F785px-Acoustic_coupler_20041015_175456_1.jpg&hash=1f257bb0d180203628a0cd5daf2f5de684fa60e3)
It connected to your computer by RS-232 and you could get about 300baud if you were lucky and had a crackle free line.
I guess that was my first experience on the t'internet although it wasn't called that then... you could log-on to company computers and download files and 'chat' to people on other sites but it never really worked... noooo:
It was a 'textual' interface of course, flashing cursor and all that stuff... hit send, wait for a reply... No mouse of GUI back then...
Happy days...
PS One of LL's first jobs was selling acoustic couplers...
I remember seeing one in the film 'Brainstorm' and being well impressed.
-
The first "Computer" I owned
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.luxsoft.demon.co.uk%2Flux%2F9512.jpg&hash=80dad1bdc20163728bdd8fdbf3cfa7bcd5c9b295)
I prolly put Alan Sugar where he is today.
-
My first:
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.postimage.org%2FaVUFGjJ.jpg&hash=3452656989b1c38cbaeff4cdef4b19f4425029e9) (http://www.postimage.org/image.php?v=aVUFGjJ)
-
Is Mrs TG still using it?
-
I prolly put Alan Sugar where he is today.
On my assassination list?
-
My first...
(https://www.virtual-pub.com/SMF/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gdhpress.com.br%2Fhardware%2Fleia%2Fcap1-7_html_m7c745a21.jpg&hash=f414f1bf3ce44a9dcc136c335b587b19eafa1a93)