I'm so old I remember when the internet didn't have commercials.

[kibcol1049@mstdn.social]

@harrymuzz At my first job, the computer room temperature was controlled with double door air lock to enter. The computer was huge with punch card operators typing and huge floor to ceiling reel to reel tapes. The print outs were on large sheets of paper and took several runs for all the errors to be corrected. With programmers, inputters and clerks, there were about 8 staff. Nowadays a kid of 8 or 9 could do it all and more on a smartphone and 30 times quicker! Hard to believe but true.

[nlarson830@techhub.social]

@kibcol1049 @harrymuzz

Use a rubber band around a small deck.

If the deck was more than an inch thick, draw a diagonal line on one edge face so if they got scrambled you could reassemble without sobbing.

Too big for a rubber band?
There were purpose-made boxes.

[trouble@masto.ai]

@geospacedman @kibcol1049 I'm so old, I remember when the Internet was black and green...

[kentenmakto@mastodon.ie]

@NormanDunbar @kibcol1049 The cultist was before the lawyers, if I recall.

One of those two lawyers is dead now. That is a pity.

(That it's only one of them, I mean.)

[chuff@bark.wolp.chat]

I remember ICQ and eLists, for the latter, I ran a local furry list

[lopta@mastodon.social]

@harrymuzz @kibcol1049 80 or 96-column?

[phaysis@mastodon.coffee]

@kibcol1049 And then Juno came along to prove how much of a bastard free services can be.

[backfromthedud@mas.to]

@stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049 When I were young we just had 2 rocks to bang together.

[nunavutbirder@mas.to]

@BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049 Luxury. We had to make our own rocks with sand collection our bare feet and spit.

[tantramar@zeroes.ca]

@NormanDunbar @kibcol1049 Canter & Siegel. I remember the Usenet backlash like it was yesterday.

[bob@beamship.mpaq.org]

@chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049

I remember a bridge between ICQ, AIM and JABBER, lol

[kelvin0mql@mastodon.hams.social]

@nlarson830 @kibcol1049 @harrymuzz
I signed up for a community college sort of computer programming class, 'cuz I was certain computers would be a huge part of my career (correct).

Looked at the shopping list for the syllabus of the COBOL class, & saw I needed to buy a box of punch cards.

Immediately dropped the class. I would've been cool with learning COBOL, but if they were still doing punchcards when I already had an XT with dual floppy drives, they were too backward.

[captain_jack_sparrow@mastodon.world]

@NunavutBirder @BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049

you had sand?

[john_loader@ohai.social]

@BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman @kibcol1049 we were poor. We had only one rock to bang together

[bette@mstdn.social]

@bob

I loved ICQ!! Anyone ever use "The Palace"? That was a fun place to go. It used avatars of your choosing/making and took place in various "palaces" built by the users. Then the 12-year-old boys took over and it became a swamp of sexual harrassment.

@chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049

[kelvin0mql@mastodon.hams.social]

@bob @chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049
Yeah, for a while at work I'd convinced all the CC folk to use Meebo, because it incorporated AIM, but with better controls of persistent rooms.

[kibcol1049@mstdn.social]

@John_Loader @BackFromTheDud @stuartl @geospacedman

[anctreat5358@mindly.social]

@bob @chuff @johnnyvibrant @IanDSmith @kibcol1049 That was initiated during the heyday of the Trillian product, right?