How did you get started????

not2shygrrl · 12-13-2012, 07:44 PM

What a memory this has brought back

I worked in Arlington Va for a life insurance company. I was low on the totem pole office assistant and we had a WANG system! Now the woman who was the geek from WANG was OMG I was totally crushing and lusting after her! Affectionately I called her the WANG~BANGER and often would sabotage our system to get a "weekly " visit from her...hehehe

We finally did go out and of course I wished I still at the time was able to have my daydreams of her (which didn't exist after we went out). I just was not into her weirdness, her and revving her engine (an automatic) at stop signs and red lights in her gold Trans Am with a black eagle painted on the hood! We stayed friends but my fantasies were blown out of the water!! After that she was just the Wang lady......

LOL good memories though, and I am where I am in part because of all of my experiences!! Thanks for provoking this memory! <smile>

Ginger · 12-13-2012, 08:19 PM

Way way back in L.A., I had a job from 11 p.m.to 7 a.m. searching for checks on a microfilm and taking "photos" of them that I piled in a basket. I finished my work after about an hour and used the rest of the night napping and rotating among the big empty room, trying out everyone's desk and IBM Selectric typewriter. At home, I put my little Corona typewriter on a pedestal and stood typing.

Shortly after that, I moved to New York and lived with a lover in graduate school who had a computer in 1987. She was the first person I knew with a computer; how early you made each leap in home technology was more class based, then; or at the very least, income based—our incomes were very different. (We went to Europe for two months. She spent her allowance. I spent my life's savings.) Anyway, she had a big clunky computer which seemed amazingly high-tech at the time. I can't remember the brand but I remember she had a dot matrix printer. So I had access to computers earlier than I might have, on my own. Thank you, my long ago Ex!

When we broke up, I lived alone, but eventually moved in with someone else, and had the money to buy my own, first computer.

Again, I don't remember the brand, but I remember using WordPerfect, the precursor to MicroSoft Word.

Then I made a huge leap with a new Gateway, and the big box that was black-and-white like a Guernsey cow sat in our living room like a shrine to the future.

And that's when I got my first Internet email account, AOL, some time in the late nineties. A lot of people over 45 or so still have their AOL accounts; it's like a boomer badge of honor, and I've been sneered at for holding on to it, but my family and old old friends would get confused if I let it go.

Anyway, here I am in 2012 using the MacBook Air they gave me at work, and I also have a Dell PC that is woefully in need of replacement. I'm planning to get an IMac in 2013. I marvel at the changes in how we write, process information and correspond, that technology has caused.

chefhmboyrd · 12-13-2012, 08:28 PM

When I was in Chicago (late 80' early 90's) we had some computerized warehouse inventory tools (picking packing shipping)
it was all proprietary software
then when i came to Nashville i rarely used them until AOL in the mid 90's
didn't own one of my own though
it wasn't until i started working for Ryder in 2003 that i used them everyday.
eventually got one of my own
now i have more computer power in my house then most 3rd world countries.

i recently earned an Associate's in IT and going back for my Bachelor's in Jan.

Teddybear · 12-13-2012, 09:28 PM

lets see i trained in college to b a coputer programmer and learned basic, rpg, rpgII and rpgIII aloing with cobal and cobal2. was told we had to learn basic to learn the other langugages however we would never use it since computers were math based and we would need to know a math based programing language. about half way with school lotus 123 came out and the rest is history as they say.

I had a Tandy 101 however we didnt have internet as a matter of fact it was a tape drive and we had a old cassette tape recordered hooked up to it for the programs.

the next computer i had was the qualcomm on my truck that is kinda like a word processor from back in the day now it is a touch screen that i HATE

my first internet computer if u can call it that was Web-TV. I loved it i had a huge tv and could see it from my couch without have to squint to read it

ruby_woo · 12-13-2012, 10:05 PM

We took computer classes in elementary school. I loved computer day! We used those old Apple computers to learn typing, and played games like Oregon Trail and Math Munchers.

When I was about 11 or 12, my dad bought a computer that ran on DOS, and my sister and I played this silly Barbie fashion game, and a Carmen San Diego game. Eventually we got AOL, and my sister and I used to troll the AOL chatrooms until my parents figured out the parental controls. We figured out how to undo the parental controls, and my mom decided to move the computer from the basement to the dining room, where she could watch us from the kitchen or living room.

Our family would get into epic fights over use of the internet vs. use of the phone, and who wanted to use what and when. Oh, dial-up...

In high school, we used the Mac computers Ruffryder pictured in the school library, and to work on the yearbook layout. This was about 1999 I think? High school teachers were still resisting the internet as a research tool at the time, and emphatically told us that we HAD to cite actual books in our research papers, they did not want us using just the internet.

I received an iBook as a high school graduation present, and have been using Mac laptops at home ever since.

Corkey · 12-13-2012, 10:15 PM

Mom had a Commodore 64 keyboard. She played pong on it for days.

I didn't get a computer until 1998. I had no idea how to use it but I played around till I figured it out. I am no techie. When in 1999 my company went to computer generated reports and keyless entry I learned a few programs. I had a PC at home. When I moved from Ca, I left it to my ex's daughter. We now have Mac Pro's and we plug along nicely.

PaPa · 12-13-2012, 10:32 PM

Wow...what a loaded question, princessbelle. I will see how well I can tackle the answers....

1980 or 1981...I took a computer math class at the beginning of 9th grade. The schools computer was one preformed piece with monitor and keyboard. It had a modem which sat on the top and it had two holes in which the telephone receiver went. We would dial a number for a college nearby and hook up to their computer system which took up a whole room. We were then able to learn computer programming for that time. Each line began with a base ten number in sequence and we could insert go to commands if ___ then go to ____ commands...etc...I don't remember a whole lot of that but then again it was 31 or 32 years ago!

Fast forward to the mid 80's I had experience with a commodore 64 that my brother purchased. Later in the 80's my brother tore apart a premoulded one piece computer and designed his own. He had written to IBM and Apple and received schematics. He played around with it in the garage until he had a useful computer for what he wanted to use it for. Today, my brother has his own business and deals with high temperature extreme hardware for companies like Boeing, Lockheed, and the military.

Early 90's I was in college and learned Word Perfect, Quattro 1, 2, 3, and other programs.

Mid 90's I bought a Brother Word Processor for my own needs.

I then advanced to a Dell, an HP and today I am still a faithful buyer of HP products. It meets my needs and has never left me stranded.

12-13-2012, 07:44 PM	#1
not2shygrrl Member How Do You Identify?: as a Lesbian Preferred Pronoun?: she/her Relationship Status: under the cover of starry starry nights...enjoying a warm fire in the pit ! Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: in a cabin in the woods Posts: 636 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 8,068 Thanked 2,454 Times in 546 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	Oh my!! What a memory this has brought back I worked in Arlington Va for a life insurance company. I was low on the totem pole office assistant and we had a WANG system! Now the woman who was the geek from WANG was OMG I was totally crushing and lusting after her! Affectionately I called her the WANG~BANGER and often would sabotage our system to get a "weekly " visit from her...hehehe We finally did go out and of course I wished I still at the time was able to have my daydreams of her (which didn't exist after we went out). I just was not into her weirdness, her and revving her engine (an automatic) at stop signs and red lights in her gold Trans Am with a black eagle painted on the hood! We stayed friends but my fantasies were blown out of the water!! After that she was just the Wang lady...... LOL good memories though, and I am where I am in part because of all of my experiences!! Thanks for provoking this memory! <smile>

12-13-2012, 08:28 PM	#3
chefhmboyrd Senior Member How Do You Identify?: man Preferred Pronoun?: beef Relationship Status: Uncle Daddy Snap Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: nashvegas Posts: 1,607 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 2,411 Thanked 2,846 Times in 898 Posts Rep Power: 14271905	When I was in Chicago (late 80' early 90's) we had some computerized warehouse inventory tools (picking packing shipping) it was all proprietary software then when i came to Nashville i rarely used them until AOL in the mid 90's didn't own one of my own though it wasn't until i started working for Ryder in 2003 that i used them everyday. eventually got one of my own now i have more computer power in my house then most 3rd world countries. i recently earned an Associate's in IT and going back for my Bachelor's in Jan. __________________ what's a cowboy got to do to get a drink around here?

12-13-2012, 10:15 PM	#6
Corkey Infamous Member How Do You Identify?: Human Preferred Pronoun?: He Relationship Status: Very Married Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Where I want to be Posts: 8,155 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 47,491 Thanked 29,269 Times in 6,637 Posts Rep Power: 21474860	Mom had a Commodore 64 keyboard. She played pong on it for days. I didn't get a computer until 1998. I had no idea how to use it but I played around till I figured it out. I am no techie. When in 1999 my company went to computer generated reports and keyless entry I learned a few programs. I had a PC at home. When I moved from Ca, I left it to my ex's daughter. We now have Mac Pro's and we plug along nicely. __________________ "Many proposals have been made to us to adopt your laws, your religion, your manners and your customs. We would be better pleased with beholding the good effects of these doctrines in your own practices, than with hearing you talk about them". ~Old Tassel, Chief of the Tsalagi (Cherokee)

Thread Tools
Show Printable Version Email this Page
Display Modes
Switch to Linear Mode Hybrid Mode Switch to Threaded Mode

12-13-2012, 08:19 PM	#2
Ginger Senior Member How Do You Identify?: Femme lesbian Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: East coast Posts: 2,416 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 5,829 Thanked 12,295 Times in 2,057 Posts Rep Power: 21474852	Way way back in L.A., I had a job from 11 p.m.to 7 a.m. searching for checks on a microfilm and taking "photos" of them that I piled in a basket. I finished my work after about an hour and used the rest of the night napping and rotating among the big empty room, trying out everyone's desk and IBM Selectric typewriter. At home, I put my little Corona typewriter on a pedestal and stood typing. Shortly after that, I moved to New York and lived with a lover in graduate school who had a computer in 1987. She was the first person I knew with a computer; how early you made each leap in home technology was more class based, then; or at the very least, income based—our incomes were very different. (We went to Europe for two months. She spent her allowance. I spent my life's savings.) Anyway, she had a big clunky computer which seemed amazingly high-tech at the time. I can't remember the brand but I remember she had a dot matrix printer. So I had access to computers earlier than I might have, on my own. Thank you, my long ago Ex! When we broke up, I lived alone, but eventually moved in with someone else, and had the money to buy my own, first computer. Again, I don't remember the brand, but I remember using WordPerfect, the precursor to MicroSoft Word. Then I made a huge leap with a new Gateway, and the big box that was black-and-white like a Guernsey cow sat in our living room like a shrine to the future. And that's when I got my first Internet email account, AOL, some time in the late nineties. A lot of people over 45 or so still have their AOL accounts; it's like a boomer badge of honor, and I've been sneered at for holding on to it, but my family and old old friends would get confused if I let it go. Anyway, here I am in 2012 using the MacBook Air they gave me at work, and I also have a Dell PC that is woefully in need of replacement. I'm planning to get an IMac in 2013. I marvel at the changes in how we write, process information and correspond, that technology has caused.

12-13-2012, 09:28 PM	#4
Teddybear Senior Member How Do You Identify?: by my name Preferred Pronoun?: He, him Relationship Status: single Join Date: Jun 2010 Location: Here there everywhere. Posts: 2,097 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 4,620 Thanked 6,233 Times in 1,687 Posts Rep Power: 21474854	lets see i trained in college to b a coputer programmer and learned basic, rpg, rpgII and rpgIII aloing with cobal and cobal2. was told we had to learn basic to learn the other langugages however we would never use it since computers were math based and we would need to know a math based programing language. about half way with school lotus 123 came out and the rest is history as they say. I had a Tandy 101 however we didnt have internet as a matter of fact it was a tape drive and we had a old cassette tape recordered hooked up to it for the programs. the next computer i had was the qualcomm on my truck that is kinda like a word processor from back in the day now it is a touch screen that i HATE my first internet computer if u can call it that was Web-TV. I loved it i had a huge tv and could see it from my couch without have to squint to read it

12-13-2012, 10:05 PM	#5
ruby_woo Member How Do You Identify?: queer femme Preferred Pronoun?: her/she Relationship Status: single Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Vancouver, BC Posts: 427 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 1,848 Thanked 1,939 Times in 376 Posts Rep Power: 17615393	We took computer classes in elementary school. I loved computer day! We used those old Apple computers to learn typing, and played games like Oregon Trail and Math Munchers. When I was about 11 or 12, my dad bought a computer that ran on DOS, and my sister and I played this silly Barbie fashion game, and a Carmen San Diego game. Eventually we got AOL, and my sister and I used to troll the AOL chatrooms until my parents figured out the parental controls. We figured out how to undo the parental controls, and my mom decided to move the computer from the basement to the dining room, where she could watch us from the kitchen or living room. Our family would get into epic fights over use of the internet vs. use of the phone, and who wanted to use what and when. Oh, dial-up... In high school, we used the Mac computers Ruffryder pictured in the school library, and to work on the yearbook layout. This was about 1999 I think? High school teachers were still resisting the internet as a research tool at the time, and emphatically told us that we HAD to cite actual books in our research papers, they did not want us using just the internet. I received an iBook as a high school graduation present, and have been using Mac laptops at home ever since.

12-13-2012, 10:32 PM	#7
PaPa Senior Member How Do You Identify?: GQ Butch Daddy Relationship Status: A Very Protective BIG Daddy... Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Pennsylvania Posts: 2,657 My Photo Gallery Thanks: 7,597 Thanked 5,871 Times in 1,530 Posts Rep Power: 21474854	Wow...what a loaded question, princessbelle. I will see how well I can tackle the answers.... 1980 or 1981...I took a computer math class at the beginning of 9th grade. The schools computer was one preformed piece with monitor and keyboard. It had a modem which sat on the top and it had two holes in which the telephone receiver went. We would dial a number for a college nearby and hook up to their computer system which took up a whole room. We were then able to learn computer programming for that time. Each line began with a base ten number in sequence and we could insert go to commands if ___ then go to ____ commands...etc...I don't remember a whole lot of that but then again it was 31 or 32 years ago! Fast forward to the mid 80's I had experience with a commodore 64 that my brother purchased. Later in the 80's my brother tore apart a premoulded one piece computer and designed his own. He had written to IBM and Apple and received schematics. He played around with it in the garage until he had a useful computer for what he wanted to use it for. Today, my brother has his own business and deals with high temperature extreme hardware for companies like Boeing, Lockheed, and the military. Early 90's I was in college and learned Word Perfect, Quattro 1, 2, 3, and other programs. Mid 90's I bought a Brother Word Processor for my own needs. I then advanced to a Dell, an HP and today I am still a faithful buyer of HP products. It meets my needs and has never left me stranded.