Ten years ago last February I joined an online service called PC-Link, which eventually gave rise to America Online.
I became a Remote Service Provider (equivalent to the board moderators and administrators here) during the summer.
Ten years ago this week, I hosted the first weekly episode of Polycarp’s Brain Teasers, an online trivia game.
I bring this up because (a) it’s a fun anniversary for me, but more because (b) the first game was won by a wise, witty, sardonic attorney from Connecticut who is now a regular poster to this board.
Ten years ago, I was in high school and although we had a computer at home, it didn’t connect to anything other than the power socket
Mind you, I was quite the Test Drive expert. The first time I heard the engine sound of a Countach IRL freaked me out - it was nowhere NEAR that cool bleeping sound from the internal speaker
Yep. I had a Radio Shack Tandy 1000-TX with a 286 chip, and a full 640K of RAM. Got 10 MHz throughput. And we went for the top of the line: a 20 MB hard drive, a 2400-baud modem, and a 24-pin DMP. Expensive, but worth it!
BTW, remember the DEW line and SAC’s SAGE computers that constantly monitored it (except when they blew tubes)? Terrific machine. It occupied a three-story blockhouse (full) and had a whopping 64K of memory!
Well, 12 years ago I was editing the student newspaper and otherwise having a blast with our Mac SE, but by 10 years ago I was a grad student and no longer had such immediate access to a computer; didn’t get my own Mac until 1991 or so.
Ten years ago I laid out my fanzine using Word Perfect on my dad’s XT. He still has it, in fact, though he long ago deleted my work from it’s spacious hard drive…
My first on-line experience was in 1991 when I worked at (now defunct) Bose Express Music Catalog. They advertised on AOL (pre-internet connection for them) and Prodigy. So I stayed late after work to screw around in chat rooms on AOL since as an advertiser, we got to use it for free.
“Did they have computers 10 years ago?” Humph. About 18 years ago I bought a Radio Shack TRS-80 - 64K and a cassette tape drive. Type “run”, hit “play” button, eat dinner, take shower, read newspaper, and viola! Program loaded!
The overwhelming majority of people have more than the average (mean) number of legs. – E. Grebenik
No offense Chris, but I thought you were at least as old as I am. But 10 years ago I was already in college, so I guess not. You were not even legal 10 years ago. Dang I am getting old.
Ten years ago I was 6. I feel like a baby. Who’s the youngest Doper? The oldest? Just interested in knowing the age span in here. Isn’t great that age doesn’t “exist” on-line?
White Wolf
“Honesty is the best policy, but insanity is a better defense.”
“Half the world is composed of idiots, the other half of people clever enough to take indecent advantage of them.”
10 years ago i was 3 and 4. i win as youngest! at least i think so!
I was walking down the street when something caught my eye… and dragged it 15 feet.–Emo Phillips
Someone said to me, “Make yourself a sandwich.” Well, if I could make myself a sandwich, I wouldn’t make myself a sandwich. I’d make myself a horny 18-year-old billionaire.
