this post was submitted on 07 Jan 2024
243 points (93.5% liked)

Asklemmy

46498 readers
1443 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy πŸ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_[email protected]~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

TL;DR It was an old Wang system, 286 processor(I think, anyway), with no hard drive, a 5.25" floppy drive, and a lovely green monochrome monitor. I didn't have it long enough to reach the point where I could have identified the actual hardware/specs.

Back in 1993, I was 10, and the internet really wasn't a thing yet(yeah, yeah, I know. But for most of us, the internet didn't exist until the mid-late 90's). You'd probably have difficulty even finding someone in the neighborhood who could tell you what a computer was, nevermind having used one. I was out running around the city, as you used to be able to do at 10 years old, when I passed by some local business/office/who knows I was 10. Big pile of trash out front, waiting to be picked up. When you're a kid, and you're poor, you go picking. Trash picking, I mean. You can get all sorts of cool shit, especially from the wealthier neighborhoods. Maybe it's different nowadays, but back in the day, people would toss out perfectly good toys, bikes, electronics, furniture, and as they became more commom, videogames, computers, etc. A ton of the shit I owned as a kid is stuff I picked straight out of the trash. Even after that, I picked trash for years. Resold a metric FUCKTON of stuff that other(presumably wealthier) people deemed to be garbage.

Back to this business/office/free stuff location, I obviously start eyeing what's in the big pile out front of this place. Among the stuff, I see a big, beige, metal box, a weird looking TV, and something with a big coiled wire hanging off of it. Now, it's not like there weren't computers in movies/TV at that point, and I had just read Jurassic park the same year, so I did recognize, vaguely, what it was. So I start looking at it, poking around, It had a name on it. "Wang". Don't know what that means, but I'm 10; that's hilarious. I decide I'm taking it. Tried to pick it up, and yeah, that shit is heavy. Nevermind the TV thing, and the keyboard. So as you do, I look around for a stary shopping cart, and sure enough, there's never one far away. Grab the cart and start lifting my haul into it, when someone comes out of the business/office/treasure-hoard, and yells "HEY!" Thought I was about to be in trouble, but instead, this guys walks over to me and says "you're gonna need this." Handed me a bundle of wires, and a square envelope, and just went back inside. So I toss that in the cart, and start pushing. And push I did. A shopping cart full of early 90's computer hardware, pushed by a 10 year-old, down the street, on and off of curb, up and down hills, from the other end of the city, is hard work. But eventually, I got home with it. Not to worry though, I only lived on the 3rd floor of a three-story building.

So I get home, and I start unloading my haul, one piece at a time, and start dragging it up the stairs. Thankfully no one was home, so I could bring everything into my room without anyone complaing about what I'm doing. That was also one of the only times I actually had a bedroom, so that worked out. Once I get it in there, I put the big metal box on the floor in the corner of my room, I take my monitor and decide that I'm pretty sure it's supposed to sit on top, so I put that there. The keyboard was next. After I untagled that cursed coiled cable, I obviously checked the back of the monitor, looking for where I need to plug the keyboard in. Figured out that no, it gets plugged into the big metal box. What next? Oh, right, that bundle of wires the guy gave me. It tuned out to be a couple of power cables, and a (what I now would assume) was a VGA cable. So I get to work plugging all of that in, and when it comes to the VGA cable, that's when I realize that oh, everything plugs into the metal box, that seems important. That must be the part that is a "computer." So what the hell is the TV thing? Took a minute, but I eventually remembered my NES, and realized that oh yeah, the box is where everything happens, and the screen is just where you see it. Again, I was 10, and all of this technology was still new to the average person. Give me a break here.

And last up was that square envelope. Would you believe it had a black plastic thing inside? It's really floppy. Weird. What the fuck is this thing? It has a white sticker on it, and some illegible scribbles. Nintendo to the rescue again. This black plastic thing sure does look like it would fit into the slot on the front of the metal box. Oh shit, it did! Now I just have to turn this thing on. How the fuck do you turn this thing on? Spent a while on that one, flipping the obvious big red power switch in the back. Took a while before I figured out there was a second power button on the front. TWO power switches?! What is this nonsense? Whatever. It's on now.

I sat and watched as bright green text started popping up on the screen. Various numbers, and phrases that I'd never heard in my life. Clearly, this stuff could only be understood some secret government agent, or that one kid I read about Jurassic Park, who was obviously like, a genius hacker or something. The slot where I shoved that floppy plastic square sure is noisy. What the hell is it doing, anyway? It loads in just like my Nintendo games, maybe it's a game?! Maybe a game is about to start. It sure was, friends. Maybe the greatest game ever made. We called it... DOS.

Man, did I love that game, DOS. I spent the several hours, typing random shit on the keyboard, as the command prompt did absolutely nothing of interest, since I had no idea what I was doing. But after those couple of hours of typing swears and random nonsense, I finally started to get bored, what with all of the nothing that was happening. And for whatever reason, I thought maybe someone could help me. Or, why not the computer itself? Maybe it will help me. So I typed the work "help", I hit the enter key, and sure enough, something finally happened. Holy shit, it's doing something. It's telling me how to DO stuff.

And so, before this novel goes on even longer, yeah. I found the help menu, and spent many more hours needlessly using very basic commands to create, copy, move, rename, and delete empty files and folders. Truly, I was now an elite haxxor man.

Over the next couple of years, I pulled many systems and parts out of various trash piles, and cobbled together different systems. Many, many different 386 and 486 systems. Until finally, when I was 15, I managed to get my hands on an obscenely slow, but absolute magic at the time, dialup modem, and a pile of "free hours" of AOL.

And they all lived happily ever after... Until social media was invented. The end.

If people like/want to read/discuss such poorly written nonsense, maybe I'll write up some nonsense about other technology-based shenanigans from over the years. And if people would rather make fun of my poor writing skills; fair.

(page 3) 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

My introduction to the world of computers was back in the late 80s when my stepdad brought home a Pravetz 8D. It was an 8-bit Oric clone made in Bulgaria. It hooked up to our TV and we had a cassette deck to load/save data. I was 13 or 14 at the time living in Ukraine. Playing games and learning BASIC on it got me interested in coding and started me on the path to a now 30+ year career in IT. Technically it wasn't mine though.

After we emigrated to the USA in the early 90s I went to college to continue studying programming. With my very first paycheck from a part-time job I bought my very own first PC. It was a 486DX2-66 with a ginormous 40 megabyte hard drive.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

My first computer was a hand-me-down Toshiba T3100. I was around ten years old at the time, in the late 90's. The portable computer, was way far different from any computer I've seen thus far. It also came with a printer, but I don't think I managed to make it work. The portable computer only had a 20MiB hard drive, and memory that can be measured in kibibytes. Its hard drive has already been reformatted, and had MS-DOS 6.21, Windows 3.11, as well as some DOSβ€Œ games installed in it.

I didn't really bother with the DOSβ€Œ games, but I've had a lot of fun playing Chips Challenge on Windows. However, a huge chunk of time went into me just messing around with QBasic. Later on, when I had programming classes, I installed Turbo Basic, Turbo Pascal, and Turbo C in there for homework and projects.

It could have lasted far longer but I couldn't resist myself opening it up. I didn't have a lot of trouble opening it up, but had a bit of trouble putting it back together. It didn't survive my prying though, and it got shoved into the storage.

Just recently, a few years ago, I found out that it's a bit of a collector's item, and was even expensive back when it was new. I couldn't have known it at that time, nor would I have cared, but I still regret not taking care of it a bit more.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I got a double hand-me-down laptop (4th child) in 7th grade.

I watched stupid shit on albinoblacksheep, played stupid games on addictinggames, and looked at porn.

A lot of porn.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Here is an alternative Piped link(s):

https://piped.video/watch?v=B-2ilGx1pfs

Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.

I'm open-source; check me out at GitHub.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Zenith HealthKit z-89 , Dad built it, I played it. He bought me a β€œintro to basic” book and I never stopped making games for my brother to lose. He figured it out I mapped all choices to eventually lose. those were fun times

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The first computer I remember using was my dad's IBM PC-XT, but the first computer that was mine was an Apple IIe that my grandfather gave me when he upgraded his own.

I don't remember how old I was, but probably around 9 or 10. I loved that thing, and I used it for all sorts of stuff. I played games, I made cards and banners with Print Shop Pro, I wrote stories and stuff. That thing was great.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

TRS-80 Color Computer with 4K of memory. (1982)

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

I have half expected that computer to come pre installed with Doom (since that was also released on 93). Wouldn't that be swell, though probably hard to find from DOS for a kid. Nevertheless I bet if you saw a folder called Doom, you would likely try to start the shit out of every file in that folder.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The first computer I got regular use out of was an old Apple II (or Apple ][ for the real ones), which I used almost exclusively for playing Zork.

After that, I got some hand-me-down computer from my grandpa when I was about 15. Had a Pentium II, 1 GB of storage, and an whopping 256 MB of RAM. Used it to play Starcraft, chat on IRC, and post on forums back when those were still fun.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

1993 acer tower computer. I'm not sure of the model. It ran windows 3.1 or maybe it was 3.11. I had nothing but problems with that computer but it gave me the first real ability to look into how a computer was put together. I built my own for years after that.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

The Fat Mac (512k) my dad bought to run inventory for his store. I was probably 2 or 3 playing games like Count-on-Mac and version of the memory game called, I think, Concentration. I’d also mess around in Mac Paint and later got into Pinball Construction Set.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My brother's TRS-80 CoCo in 1983, at least until I got a TI-99/4A of my own the next year. But the real fun didn't get going until I got the 32k expansion cartridge and started assembly language. Now 40 years later and a degree and career in CIS...

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

386dx40 with 5MB ram and 42MB hard drive.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

AMD CPU? I ask because I had one! Pretty sure Intel didn't make a 40mhz.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

An IBM PCjr, when I was 4 (I was one of those kids that picked up reading very quickly).

I learned DOS, played King's Quest, and even picked up simple programming in BASIC from a book. Not sure if the book was a pack-in with the computer or if my parents got it for me separate. I didn't learn PC internals until a few years later, although I do vividly recall an ISA-slot 15MB hard drive that was the size of one of today's big video cards.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My first computer is like 17 years old and it's still in daily use. It is a custom build gaming rig that I paid like 1k€ for back in the day. It has since been upgraded with more RAM, SSD, and has a brand new GPU aswell. I may need to invest in a new CPU soon too as my core2quad is really starting to show it's age now. The main issue however is the RAM as it only supports DDR2 and finding compatible 4Gb sticks was really hard and out of the 4 one seems to be faulty and makes it crash so I only have 3 of them in use. After I upgrade the motherboard aswell I don't consider it the same computer anymore as it has almost none of the original parts.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

IBM Aptiva 100 mhz Pentium 1 4 mb RAM 28k modem 4x CD ROM 3.5 in floppy drive 1 gb hard disk Win 3.1 / OS2

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

1995, I was 4. Can't remember specs, but it ran win95. I had some preschool games like The Playroom and Math/Reading Blaster, which were pretty sweet. And Rugrats adventure game, which started my affinity for point-and-clicks. Aside from that I would just think of cool animals or other shit I wanted to know about and looked it up on Encarta. The fun lasted until shortly after we got the internet in 99, I had to build a new PC to get more frames in flash games on the Nickelodeon website and with bonzibuddy

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

1984 a used Apple IIE Messed around with some simple accounting software Also used Slice by Peach, I think on a Commodore.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The first computer I used was (I think) a CP/M system that could run BASIC, and I used to use it to play Castle in the early '90s.

The first computer of my own was a Gateway laptop for college in 2002. It was the first Wi-Fi device I laid hands on. I immediately set it up to play music to wake me up in the morning, and I listened to the fans running all night.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Oh yeah, using a whole computer as an alarm clock. I used to have some loud ass speakers connected to a desktop, way back in the day, and I had an alarm clock program called Banshee Screamer. It had a super loud rooster noise, and I used that to wake myself, and the whole house, up every day. I later found out that software was supposedly malware lol.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

First computer I toyed on was a friend's TRS80. The first one I owned was an Apple2e, circa late 1983 or 84 iirc

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A PC running MS-DOS, 133 MHz. Mostly some text writing and a few games. It was my father computer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Some old Acer or Asus hand me down from my uncle.
Cracked Cinema4D and tried that out.
Worked kinda.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Hewlett-Packard, sub 100mhz, 5.25” floppy AND a 3.5” (I know, right?😎)

It was running windows 3.11. I think I was… 11?

[–] kionite231 1 points 1 year ago

Dell Inspiron 15 3000

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Windows 95. A Dell I think? It was in our dining room lol. Played a lot of Lego Island and Hot Wheels Stunt Track Driver.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

1985 when I got to use the new computer. I was about 6 years old. Royal Alphatronic A60 PC. It's in my basement right now!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

First family computer I used was a TI99 4/a, this was around 1983 or so, with tape deck. Used to type in programs from magazines. I grew up using BBSs, Lan parties, freenet, and shared university accounts when the internet still wasn't publically accessible.

My first computer that was my own I remember well because it was unique, a dual Pentium pro which was the first i686 and that processor line went on to power ASCI red to become the first supercomputer to reach a teraflop. Dual CPUs in consumer hardware was very unique for the time, it was more classed a workstation then a computer.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Commodore 64 in the school computer lab. Huge floppy disks. They only let us use them for typing class, I don't think it was even connected to anything else. Good times.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

First PC my house got (the family PC) was an IBM Aptiva. I'd eventually upgrade the OS (from Win95 to Win98), upgrade the RAM (I think to 64MB), and upgraded the modem (from 33.6 to 56k).

Used that machine for years.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

A laptop in 2007. I don't remember the details. I believe it had 2GB RAM, since that was the main metric for bragging about computational power back then.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

My first computer was a Sinclair ZX Spectrum 48K in the early 1980s when I was 17. My parents agreed to buy it and I used to device to learn about computers, which I was curious about as I had played a bit with the Apple IIe and the Sinclair ZX-81 of some classmates.

load more comments
view more: β€Ή prev next β€Ί