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Post by dave on Mar 20, 2014 13:14:26 GMT -5
I used dial up for quite some time, even after I began my website. I uploaded pages and graphics and simply waited for the time it took. Went upstairs and got a cup of coffee. I figured I'd rather wait than pay for cable internet service.
Truthfully, as my pages carried more graphics it got to be burdensome, but what caused me to finally go with cable internet was our Verizon telephone service. We began to experience frequent problems on our phone line and Verizon would respond to the call, but the repairman told me the lines on our road were old copper and Verizon was not about to replace them because they were spending their money putting fiber in down in Westchester county so they could sell FIOS in higher density neighborhoods. Remember when we had a Public Serivce Commission? We still do? I wonder where they are? Probably at a conference in Cancun sponsored by Verizon.
Anyway, we went to cable phone and got the package of TV, Internet and phone. I have never been sorry.
That was with Time Warner up north, of course. Down here we have the same package from Time Warner's competitor. We get the same service from the Horry County Telephone Cooperative for $20 less per month. They don't add things to my bill without asking like Time Warner did and the few times I've had to call HTC I've been met with a much better attitude.
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Post by Clipper on Mar 20, 2014 13:50:33 GMT -5
I hadn't given any thought to dial up internet service in years. I never had i. I have always had my high speed internet through our cable provider. When I first went online I used to receive AOL discs in the mail all the time, good for so many minutes of internet time I guess. I only guess because I never inserted one into my computer to find out.
I DID find that they worked well for keeping birds away from the garden when hung to twirl and flash in the wind.
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Post by dave on Mar 20, 2014 15:29:32 GMT -5
I remember AOL. When I first got a PC capable of online connection in 1994 it ran the new Windows 95. My PC was the giant size with 50MB memory and I think 500 MB (not gigabytes) of hard drive space. The only browser at the time was Netscape and it was pretty basic. When you signed up on AOL, they provided their own browser, which was a bit less sophisticated than Netscape. Since graphics were not as much an integral part of web pages at the time, you could set your browser to not display photos and graphics to save time downloading each web page. If you came across something where you wanted to see the photo, you clicked them back on and re-loaded the page.
AOL provided extensive (at the time ... this was before Google) indexes for looking up where you might want to find something on the Internet. They also sponsored "rooms" where you could chat, and special rooms staffed by real teachers to help you with your homework. To test that out, I went on one night, found myself the Social Studies Homework Room and announced I needed to write a paper on the History of Broadcasting for my senior year social studies course. The teacher assigned that evening, who was probably paid $8/hour by AOL to sit on his PC in his rec room and monitor the homework room, came forward and asked me a few questions. He then said he'd meet me back here in twenty minutes, at which time he gave me some references for both online sources and also books I might find in my library. The next evening he sent me an email saying he'd had a conversation at school with another teacher and stopped on his way home from school to look in his local library and consult with the librarian on my paper.
I never had the heart to tell him I was just testing the service, which was legitimate since I was teaching at the time in a public school. But I did send a note to AOL saluting the guy and thanking AOL for their great idea and service.
Eventually, everyone came to use Netscape and then Microsoft's explorer and then firefox. And then independent service providers started offering internet connection for less that AOL's integrated price. As AOL users discovered this, they would get on the phone and call AOL to quit, only to be told they could get on the internet via an independent provider but still keep their AOL logon for free. And continue to use AOL's mail services. Those who didn't call AOL to quit continued to have their charge cards charged each month at a rate I think was double most independent providers.
Independent internet access providers ran a server connected to telephone lines and charged you ten or so dollars per month to dial them up and get on line. When I got tired of my first provider always giving me a busy signal, I went to Google and typed in "service provider" and my area code. I was amazed to find so many! I chose one that had unmetered usage and a great price (CISBEC.NET) I had no idea who or where they were. They just charged my card every month and I never had any problem at all with access. I finally had a problem and called their tech support number and while talking with the guy asked him about the company called CISBEC. It consisted of two guys who I think were in the insurance business who ran a server in their closet on the side. They were in Saratoga, NY and I don't remember their names, but their initials were CIS and BEC.
(A friend of mine used the Internet before browsers, before that college kid invented the web and browsers. You used FTP (file transfer protocol) and whenever you went to a site the first file was an index and a welcome letter like a home page.)
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Post by clarencebunsen on Mar 20, 2014 16:00:10 GMT -5
I'll chime in on a couple things.
I don't qualify as an expert but talking about operating systems made me realize that I truly qualify as a dinosaur. I did a count and realized that in three months I can celebrate the 50th anniversary of the first time I used a computer. I don't remember the name of the manufacturer or operating system but the programming instructions looked something like 01001 0041. The first set of numbers indicated the memory location I wanted to use and the second set the operation I wanted to perform.
Win 8 did an update a few months ago to 8.1 which most people saw as an improvement. There is another due next month (I've read it will be called Win 8.1 Update 1.) From what I've read it will address a lot of issues users have had. I usually don't do update the first day they come out. I'm happy to let other people find the problems.
I truly like having a desktop and work station particularly for my lodge secretary work. I was going to get an inexpensive Win 8 desktop but decided to wait for awhile. I'm pulling to internet cable from the XP desktop in two weeks but for now I'll replace it with a Vista notebook. Maybe I'll wait until 6 months after Win 9 comes out. The Vista machine loads slower than either XP or Win 7 but the $0 out of pocket appealed to me. If anyone wants to look around they may be able to find something similar for low cost. Vista was never pupular.
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Post by dave on Mar 20, 2014 16:46:42 GMT -5
If you were entering hexadecimal data you were writing directly to registers and memory and that would have been a pretty basic computer, probably what we today would call a microcomputer .. a bunch of circuits.
If you were coding for the IBM 1401, you might have been writing in Autocoder.
Like this:
* Clear card reader storage and set word mark at location 1
*
BEGIN CS 080
SW 001
* Clear print storage
START CS 332
CS
H *halt check printer,punch,tape
* Read data card and test validity
CC A *skip paper to channel 1
R *read data card
B RDERR,? *read error
CLOOP C 012,CDDATA *compare 12 chars in card area
BU RDERR *branch if unequal - read error
SW *-14 *set word mark for add
A @12@,*-19 *add 12 to card area address
C *-26,@084@ *compare address last full area
BE ENDRD *if last go to next compare
CW *-37 *clear word mark from address
B CLOOP *go back to compare again
TAPE LCA GRPMRK,081 *group mark to 81
CS 299 *clear print area
LCA GRPMRK,281 *group mark to 281
RWD 1 *rewind tape 1
WT 1,001 *write card area to tape 1
BER TPERR *if tape transmission error
WT 1,001 *write second record
BER TPERR *tape error
CC A *skip paper to beginning
END H START *restart program
IBM System 360 Assembler Language was similar, but with much more power and the ability to access program status words, separate channel commands, etc.
Or you could have been writing in a higher level language like COBOL or PL/1 or even RPG.
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Post by clarencebunsen on Mar 20, 2014 18:27:46 GMT -5
What I remember (and I was only 17 at the time so memories have faded a bit) was programs with no words just line numbers, memory locations and number codes for the operations. I remember a couple of the older guys in the computer room (probably 19 or 20) talking about a lower level language programmed in binary but everything I did used decimal numbers.
A few years after that I did take a course in Fortran. Many years later I got a Vic 20 and learned Basic. I've had a few programmable calculators and I had to learn special languages for some HP test equipment and a numerically controlled welder but I've really never been much of a programmer.
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Post by dave on Mar 20, 2014 22:51:28 GMT -5
What is a programmer? No one knew before they were invented. The first programmers were the guys who used to "wire" the control boards of the old accounting machines ... tying registers together, providing a path from the punched holes in card columns to counters and then to electromechanical "memory." (All of them I met were men, never women.)
And then the company I worked for decided they should be college graduates, this so that they supposedly had the intellectual stamina to survive company training on how to get the computers to do what analysts wanted them to do, as soon as someone figured out how to do that. It was a crazy time of weird learning theories, trial and error and wild ass guessing. Math majors were quickly ruled out because they were "too rigid," it was soon thought. But not before a goodly number of them were hired and started on careers. Humanities majors were the next crowd of new hires, based on a theory that said well rounded minds were more apt to think out of the box. Eventually colleges invented Computer Science curricula and of course they took over the industry. But not without some misgivings from old timers who felt that the information science schools were teaching solutions rather than creativity.
Of course, today computers program other computers and programmers are most often those guys and girls who step in when problems arise. And there are no where near as many pure programmers as there used to be.
I miss them. As a group within the company they evinced a sorely needed shot in the arm of originality and playfulness. If I were to walk down the halls today of the Development Lab I worked at years ago I doubt if I'd see anyone like the free spirited programmers I used to know who wore flannel shirts, sported long hair and beards and would rock-face climb the back wall of the building on lunch hour.
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Post by chris on Mar 22, 2014 11:14:29 GMT -5
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Post by Clipper on Mar 22, 2014 11:24:10 GMT -5
Thanks Chris. I will have to set aside a block of uninterrupted time to complete the entire lesson package.
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Post by chris on Apr 12, 2014 10:44:43 GMT -5
okay Guys (batting my eyelashes) right now I am looking at a PC that off the bat is 699.00 a Dell on dot com , no monitor just the tower. What I chose is Win 8.1, 8Gb, 1TB, Nvidia video card, 4 yr support, 4th Gen Intel15, so far adding up to 1088.00 and I am still adding (Corel Paint Shop Pro or Adobe) I want all my cd's no downloads. CD/DVD burner. I use to have Roxio and Sonic on here but do I reallly need them or only if I wish to be creative ( I did make a wedding DVD once for my niece) now mainly for burning a music CD I think. What do I really need besides this if I missed anything. Clipper you said yours was 599.00 but did that come with support ? I don't want any trial versions. Mine will come with McAfee trial and for now that is okay cause I'm not sure I want to stay with that. I have Corel currently but wondering if I should try out PhotoShop Elements. By the time I figure this out hope I don't get hit. Any input will be welcomed. Thank you.
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Post by kit on Apr 12, 2014 11:25:49 GMT -5
I got a little doo-hicky from Jon Hynes a few years ago that plugs into a USB port. The other end (and there are a couple of adapters) plugs into an internal hard drive that's been taken out of a computer. By reformatting it, it now becomes an external hard drive that can be used for backup or other data storage. Best thing since sliced bread.
So rather than destroying a perfectly good hard drive, why not reformat it and use it for backups?
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Post by clarencebunsen on Apr 12, 2014 15:50:17 GMT -5
Chris, here is a video showing something similar to what Kit described: Here is a link on computer setup. I don't agree with everything and I really don't like McAfee but it's a place to start. www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2337555,00.asp Here is a site that offers one stop shopping for a lot of the common free programs: ninite.com/ |
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Post by chris on Apr 12, 2014 19:22:09 GMT -5
That is pretty cool although I would not know the first thing about going into my tower. (I know I know fairly simple but I'm too squeamish messing with that stuff)
I own a Click Free which backs up all my files (do it every 30 days) Same concept correct. It saves only new found files and adds them to the list.
Decisions decisions .... I have a headache.
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Post by dave on Apr 13, 2014 22:24:00 GMT -5
I just did a quick scan of Amazon and eBay for new external hard drives. You can get a 500 GB Seagate for $50 on Amazon. Prices are similar on eBay, but there you can also get refurbished, which I always like for the price break. I've bought refurbished PC's too (for under $200.) A year ago I think I paid about $70 for a 500 GB Hitachi external drive on eBay, so prices are down.
The eBay buys I look for are not auctions and are through dealers who make a living from eBay and maintain reputations so they continue to do business.
I like buying stuff on eBay because someone is holding the seller's feet to fire, something that is not happening in other parts of the retail world. And it shows. Complain after paying an inflated price at some U.S. chain stores and they give you an 800 number to go home and call and wait twenty minutes on hold for someone to come on the line and give you a hard time. An eBay seller in Hong Kong sent me a second external sound card for free when I wrote him that the first had a discernible hiss. He told me to just throw the first one out. Oh... and the price? $12.97 with free shipping. It got here in two weeks. I don't know how these guys do it. My favorite was the $40 CAT 5 cable at Best Buy (plus gas to get there and back and NY State taxes) that I instead bought on eBay from China for $5.95. That got here in one week, free shipping.
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Post by chris on Apr 15, 2014 16:49:21 GMT -5
I don't know how they do it either Dave. I usually buy from cellphonedeals and they sell on ebay also. real cheap. I also had a problem and same thing. replaced with no hassle like your transaction. They must spit those parts/products out like candy so you can imagine what they make on them when we buy at cost with a 500%markup. I guess thats what cheap labor does.
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