We are all pre-internet people here, so I’m curious to hear your stories about when you first went online, how you managed to navigate things like emails, etc, and what prompted you to be online in the first place?
For me, we were persuaded by the kids to get a computer for “homework”. It was 2004, and for some reason we got one built for us, by a guy who lived round the corner. I think it was cheaper than buying one from a shop at that time.
So we trundle home with this massive machine and set it all up in the living room. I made a rota for the kids so they would get equal time on it, and as it was dial up internet back then, I was super conscious of keeping them each to their time.
A few months on, and they had friends from all over the world, playing games and not a bit of homework got done!
Meanwhile, I had set up my first email account with Hotmail, and as I worked in an office back then, I spent time sending myself little email reminders to get stuff done, thinking I was ever so smart and techno minded!
Now, of course, we are all using phones, tablets, and laptops with huge memories and wi-fi. Funny how things rapidly evolve!
I was teaching in 1991 and remember the first email I got from my husband from Iran. In the years before that, we had depended on the mail which took weeks. It seemed like a miracle! I still have the messages printed out on dot matrix paper, but I confess that they don’t have the charm that the handwritten notes.
I am fairly sure that I was using the internet somewhere around 1993 doing some university work, and I recall being with my dad when we opened up his first PC. We exercise a lot of trial and error to figure it out and in awe of the capabilities. Of course,the solitaire on the PC itself was pretty fun and amazing too!
Way back in the 90s. When internet dial up first came out. I reckon we were one of the first.
I can still hear that dial up tone ringing now and when it used to drop it drove me bonkers lol.
Been using computers before the internet. I was a whizz on the Commodore 64 so much so I gave myself the name Commodore Lady for my handle for the old fashioned way of connecting with the outside world the CB Radio LOL. Oh man, they were such fun, good days.
Mine and Johns first social media meeting was called Net Meeting and we met a couple from Canada and a bloke from near Washington and we are still friends to this day albeit on facebook.
About 1990 ? I bought my son an Atari computer for Christmas, he was in his early teens.
A good move, his first step on the ladder to becoming an entrepreneur.
Same here Judd, there are still some things I could do on the Amiga that I can’t do now…
I used to run with a bloke who had a computer and he loaded it up with a cassette tape, it took ages. He wrote all of his running logs on it and I had running logs going back ten years. That’s when I bought the Amiga second hand. When it packed up in 2000 …:shock: I bought a new desktop running windows 95 and moved all my backed up stuff (mostly print offs) I then upgraded to Vista (I still use that computer for backup) I love statistics and graphs, and made lots of them on databases and spreadsheets, it really helped when I went self employed as a courier.
I did lots of work on the computer for my business, invoices, route sheets, VAT and tax calculations, job sheets which I kept for old times sake…
I look through my job sheets now and remember every job I ever did, it’s as good as a photo album or diary.
Dial up drove me nuts with that connecting noise! Cost a fortune if you went over your time too! How lovely you formed a friendship online that lasts…its no big deal now I suppose, but back then simply talking to people abroad fascinated me!
Oooh, Atari had good games from what little I know of them. The keyboard was massive and had clunky keys. Its great that your son used that experience for his future though!
That’s great, Mups…its nice having some help with finding your way around. My kids were helpful in teaching me, but I think they just wanted me off so they could play!
Aww, Foxy thats a lovely keepsake to have. Unusual, mind you, but so personal!
I suppose I was first introduced to computers when my son had one in the late 80s/90s. I was fascinated by what he could do with it and used to sit with him watching him operating the keyboard.
I had my first computer as a gift from Mr Mags and my son, I was completely shocked by it as I thought there was no way I would be confident to use it on the own. My son spent a lot of time showing me how to use it and I remember how chuffed I was when I sent my first tester email to him and received an email back from him congratulating me!
In October 2003 I joined my first forum which was a cat forum, run by Azz. Since then I haven’t looked back and learnt so much more.
2006, late OH got the home PC, at first I was terrified of it, wouldn’t go near it, then I was watching Springwatch on TV in 2007 & they mentioned the BBC had a message board, or rather a series of them, with lots of pages to go on. I managed to find it on line, not having a clue what I was doing & joined the Springwatch board, then several others. The people on the BBC boards were very helpful & taught me a lot, sadly the BEEB in their wisdom decided to close all their internet message boards & people on them decided to start their own forums, I joined several of those & the rest is history.
My first computer was based on the Z80 Chip which I bought in 1980 it was followed by a Commodore C64 which I had for many years and which I first bought a modem for. It was a 300baud baud modem made in Perth - I thought it was magic - 300baud was about the same speed as you could read text.
By 1990 I had a 386 IBM type machine and ran a Dos based Bulletin Board Service (BBS) for 10 years. It had a 64Mb HDD and when I went to the local dealer to buy another 64Mb HDD he said, “What on earth do you need that much space for?”
Not the internet still it just used the phone network. Over the years the modem speeds increased dramatically, I ended up with a US Robotics High Speed modem, I forget its maximum speed but it seemed blindingly fast at the time, my BBS had two phone lines and It finished in 2000 when the millennium bug and the internet finally killed it.
I used the Internet for some years before that using DOS programs such as Netscape to explore with. I ran DESQview on the computer to make a true multitasking computer divided into several 640Kb computers - remember that limitation?
