<p>"Still have friends with AOL accounts. What’s WRONG with them? "</p>
<p>That would be my dad. He still calls it “the intrawebworld thingamabob”</p>
<p>dmd77, I remember when amazon used to advertise in the back of The New Republic, just another small yet highbrow company selling to bookish people.</p>
<p>when I was taking computer programming, we would write our code on sheets and they would be punched onto cards by someone else (not enough machines for students). You looked at every column of every card. One misplaced . or ( and your job would abort</p>
<p>My boyfriend is getting a new computer soon and wanted to know if they still had floppy disks. I told him NO, and that we are going to take EVERY floppy he has and burn it onto ONE CD. Okay, he’s a bit older (61) and not hugely computer savy. I’m working on it.</p>
<p>Wrote first computer program in 1977, using paper tape for offline storage, and an acoustic coupled modem. The language was BASIC, and variable names were only two characters long. Remember using a teletype machine, knowing that <ctrl>H was a backspace?</ctrl></p>
<p>I remember talking to a customer about an error msg they were getting. I kept saying "at the C prompt, type “print space K” meaning for them to type C>print K</p>
<p>they kept getting an error. Turns out they were typing “print SPACE k”. I wanted to hurt someone!</p>
<p>another person was told to type a “left Parentheses”, meaning “(”. they asked how do you spell that. I could have died with laughter!</p>
<p>luckily most people now are WAY more computer literate than in 1980s (I stopped programming in 1989)</p>
<p>-Acoustic couplers, paper tape, and boxes and boxes of heavy punch cards
-Dropping off stacks of those cards and coming back hours later
-Knowing ascii codes and line editing commands
-Having to worry if someone’s email address was in the internet or on BITNET and specifically routing email through Cornell to cross two networks
-Kermit</p>
<p>And how I loved my favorite Usenet newgroups… some things never change. 
Anyone else here use the travel with kids Usenet group in the early 90’s?</p>
<p>We were Prodigy users in 1991. Also, bought a Mac PC in 1986. Finally got rid of it last year; I took it to the take-it-or-leave-it pile at our local transfer station and overheard a little kid ask his Dad if it was one of those old fashioned television sets. My H used boxes of punch cards and when he was writing his dissertation he kept them and his drafts in the freezer. (In case of fire.)</p>
<p>UGGH!</p>
<p>One of the requirements for my Master’s thesis was an internet search for “objective” material on my subject. This was 1985, and boy was it difficult! The subject was Eva Peron, and since she controlled the media in Argentina, everything was just how she was a saint. Eventually I went to Spain, was allowed to get books in Spanish accepted, but my thesis is full of “translation my own”. </p>
<p>2 weeks before it was due, we bought our first computer, an Apple, and for the 48 hours before I turned it in, that baby was running non-stop. If I had handed my paper in 24 hours later than I did, I would have had to go 1.5 years more to complete and added component for those who didn’t finish on time. Thank you Steven Jobs!!</p>
<p>starbright, your OP made me recall that torture!</p>
<p>sueinphilly,</p>
<p>A friend of mine had to train a gal on the computer many years ago and the gal asked her “Where’s the <any key=”“>?”</any></p>
<p>I actually bought a “Lisa,” then a Macintosh 128K and a 512K (upgraded to a “plus,” of course).</p>
<p>I was also a beta user of PageMaker!</p>
<p>My PhD dissertation (1984) was the first in the history of our department to be typed and printed on this new thing called a “word processor.” And back then a word processor was not merely a program run on a PC but was an actual separate device. I had seen word processors in big rich companies in the late 70s but never had access to one prior to that.</p>
<p>I had it so much easier than the grad students who had come before me. I avoided the drudgery and heartache of having to constantly retype pages or even whole chapters for the sake of some typo or an alteration that the professor or committee member insisted on. To top it off, my professor was eager to try out this new word processor toy. And since I didn’t know how to work it, he had his secretary type the whole thing for me. I managed to completely avoid one of the traditional huge ordeals of finishing your degree.</p>
<p>coureur, amazingly, my H had a similar word processing pioneering experience in his days as a PhD student! Whoever defended his/her thesis before my H was the last PhD student in that department using a typewriter 
I had it much easier when it came to manuscripts and such - our lab got a 286 PC (ooh, remeber this: [List</a> of DOS commands](<a href=“http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_DOS_commands]List”>List of DOS commands - Wikipedia) ?)!</p>
<p>In 1979 my departmental head had a party at his house to introduce the faculty and grad students to “word processing”. I can well remember him making the argument that the automatic footnote function was well worth the $10,000.</p>
<p>I remember building computers with the help of a CompuServe bulletin board.(Finally let my CompuServe account go last year). I used the “same screen” name I use now.I also remember MOSAIC.I “adopted” Amazon so well, they used to send me birthday and Christmas gifts.</p>
<p>What were those portable computers that looked like sewing machines in their case? They used the big floppy disks. It took me a while to realize that these professional looking people were not carrying sewing machines around. I guess it was the early version of a laptop, but definitely no wifi.</p>
<p>^ Not what you mean, but I had an Apple IIC around 1984 that was pretty tiny.Except for the monitor…</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.allaboutapple.com/museo/pictures/donazioni/apple_iic.jpg[/url]”>http://www.allaboutapple.com/museo/pictures/donazioni/apple_iic.jpg</a></p>
![http://www.allaboutapple.com/museo/pictures/donazioni/apple_iic.jpg[/url]](http://www.allaboutapple.com/museo/pictures/donazioni/apple_iic.jpg%5B/url%5D){kind=link}
<p>I guess the one I’m talking about is a Compaq:</p>
<p>[Compaq</a> Portable Computer](<a href=“http://www.vintage-computer.com/compaq_portable.shtml]Compaq”>http://www.vintage-computer.com/compaq_portable.shtml)</p>
<p>It had the screen built in and the keyboard fit in the bottom and there was a handle on top. You would load the floppy disk drive with your DOS disk.</p>
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<p>DH had one of the first thesises (let’s see… thesis, thesi, thesae, thes-I-give-up) that was done on a “word processor” at our school. It was strictly something that you worked with the CS dept on, your regular department kind of looked down their collective nose at those big binders full of pages. Oh, and if they could find a dangling participle somewhere, they enjoyed sending the whole thing back, because “you can just make changes without paying a typist”</p>
<p>dragonmom: plural of thesis is theses… </p>
<p>okay, back on topic.</p>
<p>
I had some of those. First cell phone was 1988. Christmas present from my husband. The battery was about a foot square. Never took it out of the car though, too heavy. Besides, the phone bills were outrageous. Same year we got our first computer for the kids. An AppleIIGS. Cost over $3K and no internet. Basically a bad word processor that played games.</p>
<p>Our whole family has six digit gmail accounts. My cousin worked for google. Now retired. He’s in his 40’s. That was back when you had to have an invite. Now have googlewave. Don’t use it much since there aren’t many people on it yet.</p>
<p>When I first worked in an office, we typed letters with carbon paper and different colored copies. Had to have white out in all those colors. Make one little mistake and it took minutes to correct all the layers. Corresponded with our overseas sales people by telex. </p>
<p>Such good memories.</p>
<p>dmd77: Now I understand your screen name. All this time, I thought you were a dentist. ;)</p>