Things you used to do on a computer that you don't anymore

[Airyaman]

Insert a floppy disk.

I saw a 1991 apple computer at a flea market over the weekend in perfect condition, it even had the printer with the paper that had the edges you had to rip off.

Now computers often do not even have a DVD/CD drive.

 

[Threegoofs]

Usenet.

DP is great and all, but Usenet was incredible.

 

[Josie]

Holy crap you must have had a super powered apple 2 in the day to play that!!!!!!!

I didn't have a computer until I was out of college.

I played this on a computer during a class in high school. Maybe Keyboarding class?

 

[beerftw]

I didn't have a computer until I was out of college.

I played this on a computer during a class in high school. Maybe Keyboarding class?

Probably an apple2 gs, it had a gui like a mac, and schools had them like crazy because apple was a poor seller by that point and often donated unsold computers to schools. Until I was in highschool all I saw was apple and mac computers, the newest macs I saw in school being the g3 imac with that fruity plastic cover, after that everyone in schools started transitioning to ibm pc's.

 

[Josie]

The memory just popped in my head of having to learn how to use Microsoft Word (I think?) without a mouse. Alt-F was to bring File down, I think. That's about all I remember of that. Thank God for the invention of the computer mouse.

 

[mike2810]

No longer have to enter data via key punch cards. Used punch cards for data or program that was fed into a main frame computer while in college. Very crude forest harvest simulation.

"A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Digital data can be used for data processing applications or, in earlier examples, used to directly control automated machinery. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

 

[Roadvirus]

Now computers often do not even have a DVD/CD drive.

Just bought a new laptop 2 weeks ago. It doesn't have one.

 

[Airyaman]

Just bought a new laptop 2 weeks ago. It doesn't have one.

My son's last build for a desktop had a case with no exterior drive bays...so no DVD/CD.

 

[beerftw]

No longer have to enter data via key punch cards. Used punch cards for data or program that was fed into a main frame computer while in college. Very crude forest harvest simulation.

"A punched card or punch card is a piece of stiff paper that can be used to contain digital data represented by the presence or absence of holes in predefined positions. Digital data can be used for data processing applications or, in earlier examples, used to directly control automated machinery. "
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Punched_card

Punch cards are probably the only thing worse than cassete tapes for media, Growing up one friend I had was poor and had a commodore 64 already well obsolete with games on cassette, sometimes took 8-20 minutes to load a game depending n how big the game was, I am sure many pushed the 64k of ram to it's limits just to store the game leaving little for the game itself.


I believe it was the altair that broke the mold away from cards and instead used a roll of paper to simply feed the machine once, however it must have been annoying carrying 5 pound paper rolls to load basic rather than a single floppy disk or simply having it on rom.

 

[RAMOSS]

Punch cards are probably the only thing worse than cassete tapes for media, Growing up one friend I had was poor and had a commodore 64 already well obsolete with games on cassette, sometimes took 8-20 minutes to load a game depending n how big the game was, I am sure many pushed the 64k of ram to it's limits just to store the game leaving little for the game itself.


I believe it was the altair that broke the mold away from cards and instead used a roll of paper to simply feed the machine once, however it must have been annoying carrying 5 pound paper rolls to load basic rather than a single floppy disk or simply having it on rom.

I hated punch cards.

 

[beerftw]

I hated punch cards.

That is what the rolls were for, paper rolls with code punched in, fed into the machine and spit back out as a single piece of medium rather than numerous cards, it was great as long as your computer lab had a forklift to carry your software library around.

 

[Hari Seldon]

DOS:/C

Also endless games of minesweeper.

Yea minesweeper was cool.

 

[JMR]

Yea minesweeper was cool.

I liked it. I was not very good at it, constant explosions!

 

[beancounter]

I heard the term A/S/L today for the first time in probably ... 10 years?

What other terms or actions did you used to do on a computer but now you don't/don't have to?

I used to say "FTP" instead of download. "URL" instead of web address.

 

[Wayne Jr]

I heard the term A/S/L today for the first time in probably ... 10 years?

What other terms or actions did you used to do on a computer but now you don't/don't have to?

Submit TPS reports.

 

[americanwoman]

Was it cheap and if so why did you not buy it? Hipsters pay a fortune for those things in good condition, sometimes upwards of 500-1k dollars.

It was only $300. I am seriously kicking myself for not getting it and may have to go back out there this weekend and see if they still have it.

 

[beerftw]

It was only $300. I am seriously kicking myself for not getting it and may have to go back out there this weekend and see if they still have it.

300 is a little steep though, granted idiots sell them for way more on ebay. If it had been 100 bucks for that antique you could have undercut every ebay seller and made a hefty profit.

 

[calamity]

I heard the term A/S/L today for the first time in probably ... 10 years?

What other terms or actions did you used to do on a computer but now you don't/don't have to?

Turn it off. It used to be something I did every night. Now, I have to remind myself to restart it once in a while just to get all the updates.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Usenet.

DP is great and all, but Usenet was incredible.

I created an alt.binaries.multimedia group back in 2002.
The process of petitioning to the administrators was pure Hell, but I was finally granted my "froup". (usenet slang for "group")
It was utterly dead for two years, so I gave up on it.
Now, apparently it's a bit active, at least according to rumors I recently heard, so I guess I am going to have to subscribe to Easynews in order to follow it.

No, not pr0n, it's a music group.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

That is what the rolls were for, paper rolls with code punched in, fed into the machine and spit back out as a single piece of medium rather than numerous cards, it was great as long as your computer lab had a forklift to carry your software library around.

My first really serious live-in girlfriend worked data entry at Burroughs in Minneapolis and I guess she was also a whiz with Friden Business Systems Tape Talk.

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

She was so cute...she thought it was a hoot when a client (usually a secretary) would call in from, say perhaps a bank, or a law office, and say "It keeps going down on me".
Finally one day she said, "That doesn't sound like it's a problem!" and it took the lady on the other end about five minutes to recover her composure. They became friends after discovering that they had grown up almost around the corner from each other.

Yep, raised floors, separate air conditioning, separate three phase power, old mainframe hard drives that probably weighed thirty pounds each.

 

[RAMOSS]

She was so cute...she thought it was a hoot when a client (usually a secretary) would call in from, say perhaps a bank, or a law office, and say "It keeps going down on me".
Finally one day she said, "That doesn't sound like it's a problem!" and it took the lady on the other end about five minutes to recover her composure. They became friends after discovering that they had grown up almost around the corner from each other.

Yep, raised floors, separate air conditioning, separate three phase power, old mainframe hard drives that probably weighed thirty pounds each.

Back in the day, IBM got sued when they changed the core memory processor by a third company that made the core processor. At the trial, the lawyer had the old core processor be brought in by two men, because it weighted a couple of hundred pounds. The lawyer then took a silicon card out of his brief case, and said 'This is what the old memory got replaced with'. The case was dismssed right then and there.