OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when my computers high speed connection was just that, high speed. When I would click on a download and download it at 200k +, now I am lucky to get 40k. Thanks AT&T.

I remember when I could drive on the streets of my city at night and not see another car, now its like driving at night has become the hobby of billions, and they all drive on my streets.

I remmber when I knew that what I did at work mattered, and that working was important. Now, I don't work, and everything I thought was important at work wasn't.

I remember when I had money, now I don't. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

The one thing that really bugs me is what big business has done and how those in our government have screwed us all over.

The rich pay fewer taxes than a coctail waitress while I was paying 27%. Heres a guy like Bill Gates who mades on average (Reportedly) of about $600,000 + bonuses a year, and only paid 9% in taxes while I made $40,000 and paid 27%. (He should also have had to pay 27%!) The rich get richer while the poor get poorer.

I remember when Insureance companies only raised your rates after you caused an accident. Now they use everything from your credit rating to how many cups of coffee you drink in a day.

I think that it should be made illegal to use a persons credit rating to determine their insurance as one has absolutely nothing to do with the other. And to try and make us think they do is utter and complete bull ****. Its simply fruad. A way for big insurance companies to steal money from us. Its theft by fruad. They lie to use, and we accept it and pay the money. I wonder how much all of the ex-Enron employees auto and home insurance is going to increase now that they are out of work.

What I would love to see is the heads of every Insurance company's CEO, P, and VP on a pole out side the local Federal building with a sign dangling from their lifies bodies stating they were lieing, cheating, thevies with no morals or values. Wait, I forget these very things that we all find repugnate are a'ok in the world of big business and politics.

In the end, I only want to remember when it was all right to be kind, fair, helpful, courticies, and civil to one another.

To hell with big business, insurance companies, banks, and those who drop the ball in our government.

Oh ya, if your paying intrest on it, ITS NOT AN ASSET!

[ September 22, 2002, 09:34: Message edited by: Atrocities ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when business men actually cared about the quality of their product. Now nothing matters but the bottom line. If you are a quality worker, a "professional", someone who gives a **** about his workmanship, use caution when asking for a raise. All they want is the job done on time. They'll be quite happy to hire someone from cash corner to slop together whatever you've been doing so well.

Yeah, buddy, I hear ya', I hear ya...

Kim

Addendum:

I remember when the product inside was more important than the shiny package.

I remember when salesmen would tell the truth, not just whatever it takes to make the sale.

[ September 22, 2002, 13:32: Message edited by: Grandpa Kim ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when I made mufins on location at a Mr. Donut and they were like the ones my mother made.

I remember when I was top computer salesman for a small mom and pop store, (12 years ago) and admired by all of my customers because I would sell what they needed, not what they could afford. I can remmeber getting repeat business and refferals. Then my boss found out I was telling the truth and "Down Selling" my customers.

I can remember when "Until Death do Us Part" meant something. If you had a problem you stood together to work it out.

I remember when there were only a few STDs and Penicillen would clean them up, (though you never forgot you had it)

I remember when a Gentlman would stand up to shake hands. It was a deliberate insult not to.

I remember when "Utilize" had a different meaning than "Use". People started to employ "Utilize" because it was more "sophisticated".

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when we didn't connect at 40k because the modems only ran at 14.4, and the old timers complained about connecting at 2400.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Gandalph 300

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when I said "Please" "Sorry" "How are you today", and "I'm fine" only when I meant them.

Now I mumble them out robotically to all I meet.

A few tortured souls will actually call me on that.

Do they really want me to tell them, to paraphrase Douglas Addams, "Zark Off"?

Thank you for this vent space Atrocities.

Take care.

And I mean that.

I just don't have any practical advice or real solutions is all.

[ September 22, 2002, 19:02: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when web pages were well designed and did not try to cram a thousand pieces of information and a few dozen adds all onto one page

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I remember when web pages were text, with a few graphic icons. There was a small amount of pages with a few nekkid pictures, but mostly you could find free information on a usefull topic a person at some university or govt site felt like posting.

Now any google search gives you 10 pages of p0rn, 10 pages of advertisments, 10 homepages of commercial sites with links that don't work, and a search for a scientific topic gives you a title and how much you can pay for an article reprint.

Someone should mod the internet into SE4. A culture reaches a certain tech level in computer science and production and research grind to a halt

[ September 22, 2002, 21:41: Message edited by: Arkcon ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when the "high speed" setting on my modem was 1200 baud (normal speed was 300).

My first computer programming class (senior year of high school, '76-'77) used acoustic couplers to connect a teletype to the mainframe. We used punched paper tape for local storage. We also had a programmable calculator bigger than an electric typewriter which was programmed using punched cards (which had to be punched by hand).

I remember seeing _Star Wars_ in a first-run theater, before it was called Episode IV.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember in 1981 when printers were well in excess of $1,000.00.

What I did was modify a IBM Selectric II correctable typewriter into a printer. It was a lot of fun working with all those solinoids etc.

Worked very well. And the printout was very professional.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">HUH???

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

You never gonna be able to fix those things. It's human nature to be corrupt. Gotta complain to the big man upstairs.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember paying $2700 for my first 8086 computer, opting for dual floppies and 1 meg of memory(hard drives were non-existant).

I remember tweaking my first 14.4k modem to achieve 10k throughput speeds.

I remember bulletin Boards, because web pages were almost non-existent.

I remember when you didn't have to contribute to the insurance scam.

I remember when a verbal agreement was binding.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

In 1981, when I bought my first personal computer, floppies had not been invented for it yet.

We had to save our programs on a tape recorder.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember working on systems that used punch cards for memory and storage.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

i remember my first computer for which i paid loads of money: an amstrad schneider CPC 6128 (8 bits system !)
yesterday, while surfing around, i saw a page somewhere where people are still toying with this os.

i remember the days that traffic wasn't as lethal as it is now to people and the environment.

[ September 23, 2002, 00:47: Message edited by: minipol ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

My first computer? An Apple II with 48K of memory... 8 whole colors... Basic in ROM... Yep, it was STATE OF THE ART http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Edit: My first computer that I owned. First computer I worked with... A PDP-11.

[ September 23, 2002, 01:22: Message edited by: Taz-in-Space ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Atrocities,

I remember when I was out of work for a brief time. I enjoyed the (brief) leisure but jumped right back in. Now, sometimes I reflect on the percentage of time I spend in my life working for some huge corporation vs. the laughable time I have off... 2 weeks (ack!) I guess the only time you get to reap the rewards of your hard work is when you move to Florida and wheel around with the geriatrics. To me, that is a crime. I wonder how many of those geriatrics actually don't wish that they took a little more time for themselves, friends, and family.

And it's a joke now because companies don't take care of you any more. There used to be an expectation that you got on board with a good company and they would take care of you after many years of service. Now, that's a pipe dream. You will be downsized without a second thought or flat out screwed like employees of Enron who lost their entire pensions due to corruption.

Last but not least, there is no penalty for gross mismanagement, either corporate or public administration. The US has a crappy stance and track record for dealing with white collar crime. At best, these idiots get fired, but there is no help for all the people who are irrepairably financially damaged, such as shareholders or taxpayers. I agree with you Atrocoties, there should be heads on stakes for this.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Hey, Taz, I too had an Apple, only it was the Apple II+. It too came with 48K, but I immediately upgraded it by a whopping 16K to 64K. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

[ September 23, 2002, 03:27: Message edited by: tbontob ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Hey Taz...Do you remember the Apple magazine called "NIBBLE"?

I wonder how many people know what "nibble" is?

Stumped my MBA prof with that one!

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Nibble was the shi....

Anyways, I loved all that stuff back in the day... I didn't think many people remembered that.

Ahhh, how I remember delving into my fist programming project ever, battleship, with help from nibble. Of course I had to change it so you couldn't win.... It was only fair...

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yeh, those were the days when we did our own programming. Not like today, where almost everything comes canned & off the shelf. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Companies think about the bottom line. They can pay Mr. Middle Aged Experienced $40,000 to do his job because he's been here for 10 year, or they can "cycle" him out and hire Joe Schmoe for only $30,000. Keeping old employees means less money for the CEO, of course.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">[RANT]
The company I used to work for called it "scaling" and disposed of most of the senior employees through false terminations, forced retirements, and down right ****ty tactics to make them loose hope and just quit.

Then they were replaced by fresh out of school teenage blond girls who giggled more than they talked, and were very happy to be doing highly dangerous work for minimum wage. [/RANT]

I remember when you could get a large Pizza with everything for $12.99.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

[quote]Originally posted by Atrocities:

Quote:

I remember when you could get a large Pizza with everything for $12.99.

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Heh you still can, but you have to buy 2 and get the second one for half off or some other crappy marketing ploy. Of course you end up throwing the second one away. If you wanted two pizzas you would have bought two to begin with for crying out loud. And you have to ignore the fact that neither pizza is as good as the single 12.99 pizza you used to buy. Part of the price of living in a disposable soceity I guess.

Geoschmo

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

All part of the come-on gimmicks. We encourage it with our dollars, otherwise they wouldn't do it http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Happy to let you know that in Ontario you can still get 1 pizza for that price... But everything would be about 30 toppings

I like the 6.99 walk in special... 3 topings large pizza and away we go...

Gandaph 300 was a modem...

Rack mounted modem LOL Used to use them with the pdp-1....

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remeber when cars used to have 400 ci engines, get about 6 miles to the gallon, and you could still smell 'em the next day....

I remeber when people and companies used to dump raw sewage and chemicals into streams and rivers....

I remember when AT&T used to control ALL the telecom services.

See, IMO not everything is for the worse. And yes, I'm one of the relative old timers here too. My first computer experience was not even on a monitor - everything was a printout on a ROLL of paper - not even perfs...

Some things ARE better.....

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Nobody ever said things were all for the worse. The problem is that for everything that improves, something goes wrong... It is a trade off.

Actually, for the longest time I was able to order 4 medium pizzas for 15 dollars. Good pizzas too... but then they took our coupon away http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I remember when you would buy a small or medium pizza because it was all you were going to eat at it was actaully cheaper. Now I try and I get the old "well sir with our special a large is cheaper"

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Wow you remember what happened today!! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/tongue.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

A nibble = 4 bits = half a byte.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

i remember reading menus from right to left, instead of left to right.

i remember being optomistic about.. anything.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when my new top of the line 286 with a CGA (4 colors) monitor arrived!

I remeber when i bought a superfast 2400 bps modem!

I remember when a rich friend bought directly from the US a new and revolutionary 1x CD-ROM!

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember the TURBO button.

it's TURBO.

[ September 25, 2002, 01:56: Message edited by: TerranC ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember not being able to explaine what the Turbo button did, (and I still don't).

Edit:
and along with that both a reset and on off buttons I could hit with my knee.

[ September 25, 2002, 02:02: Message edited by: Gryphin ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when TRS-80 (Trash 80's) were the stand by which all other PC manufactures measured quality.

(Oh its been a while so if I make mistakes, forgive me.)

10 CLS
20 PRINT "Hello"
30 PRINT "Enter PW"
40 INPUT = A
50 IF A = "Password" Then 60 ELSE 55
55 PRINT "Wrong Dumb ***"
56 GOTO 30
60 PRINT "Wussup"
65 END

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when the Turbo button actually did something and all the computers that came latter were they left button on cause you just got to have TURBO!!!

[ September 25, 2002, 02:49: Message edited by: DavidG ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when living in the Country meant that it took you 10 minutes on your Motor Bike to pop by your friend who lived next door and you saw wild life every time you looked out the window.

Now days, when you look out your window all you see are Bulldozers making roads for more houses and the only wild-life you see is lying on the side of the road.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember the slower pace of life. When being a kid was to be free to do all kinds of cool things.

In the Last 15 years the area I live in has expanded to cover every free square inch of land that is availible. I mean every tree has been cut down, and all open fields are now commercial or residential buildings.

Jobs, well they are non-exsistant here, yet people keep moving in. Almost a million in the Last 3 years now. And to think, 15 years ago we didn't even have sidewalks.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when during Xmas Season people were friendly, everyone would say Merry Xmas to you even if they were strangers and all the stores were beautifully decorated for the season and greed was not as prevalant with retailers.

I remember when Xmas season and Xmas decorations wouldn't be put up until the day after thanksgiving, and everyone looked foreward to it.

I remember 5 cent root beers in large mugs at served at the local drug store fountain.

I remember a gallon of gas for 18 cents

I remember ciggeretts for 19 cents a pack

I remember comic books for a nickle

I remember baseball card packs for a nickle and you could actually chew the gum

I remember our families first blk and white Zenith TV...

I remember when a new ford mustang was only $950 and $1050 for a convertible

I remember music that you could understand and where the words made sense and not based around drugs and sex

I remember walking 5 miles to school in the snow http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

sigh........ the good old days

reminicing Mac

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember going to the corner store with a nickel and coming home with a large candy bar and 3 pieces of bubble gum.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Yes, and it was so cold, that our words froze in the air and didn't thaw out till spring... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Sorry CNC, have to disagree with you. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon9.gif They were not called the "Trash-80's without reason. The Apples were the standard...

And the TRS-80 and the IBM computers followed in their footsteps.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when I first realized I was getting old...

But after reading Mac's and Gandalph's Posts, I feel like a spring chicken again! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember when a apple was something to enjoy as a nice tasty snack.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

Stone Mill says:

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">Eh? What's that you said?

http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon7.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif

[ September 25, 2002, 20:47: Message edited by: tbontob ]

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

<font size="2" face="Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif">I can rember going to th movies with $.25 to get in ang another for pop and pop corn! and I'm not REALLY that old http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon12.gif

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remeber twisting a knob on the tv to change the channel.

I remember my dads Betamax.

I remember Pong.

I remember playing Atari Pacman for 12 hours once.

I remember dancing to the theme of "CHiPs". In my underwear.

I remember buying the first Choose Your Own Adventure books. My favorite was either the Race Forever or Space Patrol.

Re: OT: I Remember When
 

I remember our first TV with a remote control. It was literaly a "Clicker". It had a mettallic thing in it when you pressed a button that made a noise, similer to the "crickets" the allied troops used during the D-Day invasion to keep from shooting each other in the dark. When ever the TV heard the click it would change the channel up by one. You couldn't change the volume, or turn the tv on or off IIRC, just change the channel up by one. Was pretty cool at the time though. What was really funny was our dog had these big metal dog tags and when he'd scratch the jingling was close to the sound the remote made and the TV would start flipping channels. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon10.gif