Author Topic: You know you're middle aged when  (Read 186645 times)

Guy

  • Retired
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #975 on: 15 October, 2019, 03:53:18 pm »
I don't know what the OS was, but when I started using computers at work I was writing documents in WordPerfect 3.1.
"The Opinion of 10,000 men is of no value if none of them know anything about the subject"  Marcus Aurelius

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #976 on: 15 October, 2019, 04:04:29 pm »
Surely you're middle-aged if you remember Windows 3.1.

I remember being underwhelmed by Windows 2.0, having had previous experience of Amiga Workbench and GEM.  That machine had the first colour inkjet printer I ever saw attached to it, which was somewhat more impressive.

Tim Hall

  • Victoria is my queen
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #977 on: 15 October, 2019, 04:20:11 pm »
I don't know what the OS was, but when I started using computers at work I was writing documents in WordPerfect 3.1.
I'll see your WordPerfect 3.1 and raise you WordStar on a CP/M terminal connected to the Magic Box using RS232 electric string.
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Regulator

  • That's Councillor Regulator to you...
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #978 on: 15 October, 2019, 04:22:21 pm »
Pah!  Amateurs...  @Wowbagger wrote his dissertation in cuneiform on a clay tablet.    ;D
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I completely agree with Reg.

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robgul

  • Cycle:End-to-End webmaster
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Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #979 on: 15 October, 2019, 04:26:06 pm »
Does Wordwise on BBC micro score any points?? - that's where I started writing stuff.    IIRC the prog was on a plug-in chip.

Rob

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #980 on: 15 October, 2019, 04:42:12 pm »
You know you're middle aged when you reminisce about old computer programs you used to use.

Nahh, I've been doing that since I was about 17.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #981 on: 15 October, 2019, 09:07:53 pm »
You know you're middle aged when you reminisce about old computer programs you used to use.

Nahh, I've been doing that since I was about 17.
I think you've just proved roadrunner's point.  :D
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #982 on: 15 October, 2019, 10:17:04 pm »
I remember agonising with my wife whether we bought a spectrum or BBC Micro. We bought the BBC and colleagues gave me blown EPROMs of view as the worprocessor and a couple of games.

We made 35mm slides for lectures on the computer and photographed the screen before we bought for the department  a special projector thing to which we attached a camera. Then the film was sent for processing score we got it back and mounted the slides. Fastest we could do a lecture in was 48 hours with overnight delivery.

Now I write the lecture whilst the previous speaker is talking.

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #983 on: 15 October, 2019, 10:29:55 pm »
We made 35mm slides for lectures on the computer and photographed the screen before we bought for the department  a special projector thing to which we attached a camera. Then the film was sent for processing score we got it back and mounted the slides. Fastest we could do a lecture in was 48 hours with overnight delivery.

In the early 90s, I used to make 35mm lecture slides for my father using a variation on this process[1], on account of my naturally superior Young Person computer skills[2].  One of the computer programs I would have been reminiscing about when I was 17 was Harvard Graphics 3.0 for DOS.  A package which - although limited in countless respects - Microsoft Office has yet to beat in terms of actual graph-drawing ability.  Imagine a user-friendly version of gnuplot, with rudimentary PowerPoint-style presentation features.

I still get nostalgic for the colours that worked well on 35mm slides.  Medium yellow text on dark blue backgrounds was much easier on the eye than the harsh contrast that you need on the underpowered video projectors of the early 2000s (and today's low-end projectors of equivalent spec).


[1] I *think* the hospital or the MRC or someone had a machine that would expose film directly with EPS-style vector graphics, possibly using lasers or an oscilloscope-style vector CRT or something.  The image quality (in the early days of XGA displays) was phenomenal.
[2] Gen-Z-ers: Ask your parents.

Jaded

  • The Codfather
  • Formerly known as Jaded
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #984 on: 15 October, 2019, 10:36:03 pm »
OMG. I thought I was odd creating graphs and stuff on a QL, then photographing the screen for use in a presentation.
It is simpler than it looks.

ian

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #985 on: 15 October, 2019, 10:51:20 pm »
Blimey Harvard Graphics, that’s a blast from the past. I recall Word 2 on the diddy Mac being awesomely WYSIWYG after years of colour-coded, function key-hammering WordPerfect.

Cantankerous lab equipment (hplc, capillary electrophoresis, and the giant first generation DNA sequencers that graced the age) always seemed to run on OS/2 Warp.

fuzzy

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #986 on: 16 October, 2019, 01:36:57 am »
People you work with were born after you got your first mobile phone.

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #987 on: 16 October, 2019, 09:42:16 am »
Does reaching for the smallest adjustable spanner in your tool kit which you inherited from your father on his death who got it from his father count.

Even if it doesn't, it was a really strange feeling taking up a tool which is quite possibly 100years old.  Almost a Star Wars moment.  "I am a self taught tinkerer and mechanic like my father (and my grandfather)".

I have two sons, one of whom is also a tinkerer/mechanic and all being well he will inherit the spanner as well  which will make the tool an heirloom through 4 generations.  I just have to make sure one of my granddaughters has a STEM interest :D

My other son will inherit the walking stick made from the propeller of the Sopwith my grandfather flew in WW1.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #988 on: 16 October, 2019, 10:01:39 am »
My other son will inherit the walking stick made from the propeller of the Sopwith my grandfather flew in WW1.
Wow. Quite an heirloom.  :thumbsup:

Only two objects survive from my grandfather's WWI experiences: a photo of him, looking ridiculously young and impish, in his brand new 1915 uniform (complete with SWORD) and his partially forged Red Cross release papers six years later. I expect he'd be prouder of the latter.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #989 on: 16 October, 2019, 10:47:09 am »
My other son will inherit the walking stick made from the propeller of the Sopwith my grandfather flew in WW1.
One heck of an heirloom.

I have a sweater I treasure. It is a hairy brown thing.

My mother knitted it for my father when he was about the age my son is now.

I think that definitely qualifies me as middle aged.
<i>Marmite slave</i>

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #990 on: 16 October, 2019, 12:57:39 pm »
Does reaching for the smallest adjustable spanner in your tool kit which you inherited from your father on his death who got it from his father count.

Even if it doesn't, it was a really strange feeling taking up a tool which is quite possibly 100years old.  Almost a Star Wars moment.  "I am a self taught tinkerer and mechanic like my father (and my grandfather)".


I have tools that go back that far, a mix from both sides of the family.  I don't know where they'll go after me, though, since neither of my kids are makers: one's a musician, the other's a consumer.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #991 on: 16 October, 2019, 09:20:37 pm »
I have a bunch of woodworking tools that came from my father through my granddad. Sadly I'm not much of a woodworker myself, more mechanically biased.  On that front I have a beautiful micrometer in it's original case, probabaly 50's/60's when my dad was starting out as an engineering apprentice.  I did have a lovely steel rule that had metric and imperial, including down to 1/16th inch, though how you could use it accurately I don't know.

“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

ElyDave

  • Royal and Ancient Polar Bear Society member 263583
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #992 on: 16 October, 2019, 09:22:38 pm »
Musing on my flight this afternoon with a quick trip to the loo and the various No Smoking  and no Cigarrette Disposal signs, I can still remember when aircraft armrests had ashtrays, and when trains had smoking carriages.  Does that qualify?
“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.” –Charles Dickens

Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #993 on: 17 October, 2019, 08:45:43 am »
I can remember being on a plane where people smoked. I was at the front of the no-smoking area, but the curtain didn't do much to stop smoke intrusion from the smoking area in front.
We are making a New World (Paul Nash, 1918)

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #994 on: 17 October, 2019, 09:01:29 am »
And why was smoking at the front of the plane but the back of the bus? I remember the theory for the bus was that air currents would carry smoke back anyway, also that it would rise and that's why it was allowed on the top deck of double-deckers. None of which had any practical effect, of course, any more than did the absence of theory in restaurants.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

Panoramix

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Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #995 on: 17 October, 2019, 10:54:30 am »
You know you are middle aged when ... you realise the London AZ in your hands was published in 2003 (15 years ago!) whereas you were under the impression that "it wasn't that old".

At least the millenium dome is on it!
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T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #996 on: 17 October, 2019, 11:08:19 am »
And why was smoking at the front of the plane but the back of the bus? I remember the theory for the bus was that air currents would carry smoke back anyway, also that it would rise and that's why it was allowed on the top deck of double-deckers. None of which had any practical effect, of course, any more than did the absence of theory in restaurants.

Lufthansa short-haul flights had smokers up one side and non-smokers up the other, with the air circulation arranged to contain the smoke. It worked, if you could manage to get a non-smoker window seat.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Kim

  • Timelord
    • Fediverse
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #997 on: 17 October, 2019, 12:03:28 pm »
I can remember being on a plane where people smoked. I was at the front of the no-smoking area, but the curtain didn't do much to stop smoke intrusion from the smoking area in front.

I've never been on a plane where people didn't smoke.   :sick:

hellymedic

  • Just do it!
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #998 on: 17 October, 2019, 12:19:19 pm »
You know you are middle aged when ... you realise the London AZ in your hands was published in 2003 (15 years ago!) whereas you were under the impression that "it wasn't that old".

At least the millenium dome is on it!

I hate to inform you that we're now at the tail end of 2019 and 2003 was at least 16 years ago...

Giraffe

  • I brake for Giraffes
Re: You know you're middle aged when
« Reply #999 on: 17 October, 2019, 03:47:16 pm »
You know you are middle aged when ... you realise the London AZ in your hands was published in 2003 (15 years ago!) whereas you were under the impression that "it wasn't that old".

At least the millenium dome is on it!
About 15 years ago I dumped a road atlas that I remember my father buying. Decided it was not current as the M1 wasn't on even as a proposed road.
2x4: thick plank; 4x4: 2 of 'em.