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I never heard of pong until just now. By the mid '80s when I was working AND going to grad school, they made us take a computer course. I refused to learn DOS because I thought it was a waste of brain space and I figured they'd invent something else sooner or later anyway.
They made us sit at a computer in a computer lab and I was afraid to turn the computer on.
Mid '90s--my ex came home with a computer. Although, I was disinterested, when he left it running, I typed in Louvre. Astoundingly, the screen filled with real full color pictures from the famous LOUVRE MUSEUM and then I was hooked.
A few days later, after work, I came home and typed in my last name and the English village where my grandfather was born. Bingo! A genealogy group appeared, I joined it, and within weeks, a few hundred years' worth of my family history came spilling out from the printer--called a Gedcom--piles and piles of paper all over the floor. To this day, I thank you, Jan in NZ, whoever you are.
I learned to love Netscape Navigator and the various search engines we could choose from. I learned to hate dial up service that would die at the most inconvenient time. We had to call them up and ask what to do to get re-connected. I've still never played a game on a computer, still never had to learn DOS , and still use the internet mostly for my interests. How did we live without it!
I remember pong. owning a 1200 baud modem and upgrading to 2400 baud and marveling at how fast 56k modems were.
Bulletin boards pre-dated Internet and I remember getting on the Internet and realizing I couldn't find anything unless someone printed a link somewhere and it was a short time after that search engines came out.
Altavista
yahoo
and much later google
the browsers back then were terrible. Netscape and I can't remember the other browser that was available (I didn't say popular) back then.
I remember thinking that the possibilities were endless.
I was never a huge game fan, but absolutely loved Cosmo. If someone had a version that worked today, I'd be playing it. I think we got at least two copies of the Nigerian letter... I still wonder how people fell for it.
There are a number of places that have it available online or for download - here's one:
You want to be careful, obviously, when you're downloading and installing something especially on a Windows machine. Make sure you run anti-virus software if you do so.
I remember PONG arriving at our local bowling alley in a small town in the mountains in the early '70s and it was pretty mind blowing, but as others have said we mastered the simple game fairly quickly. I also remember winning a "pocket" (big pocket) calculator from a local store opening about the same time, worth about $40, with just the basic functions that would be given away now. The internet with the screeching dial up sounds was pretty wild as you waited for pages to load and guessed as to what search engine among the half dozen or so you s should use.
But the thing I remember the most as to what would really change my life was when my partner brought home the first MacBook in the early '90s and I drew a simple floor plan and elevation of a design I was working on with the very simple graphics drawing program it had and was blown away at thinking about the possibilities. Now, almost 30 years later I spend all day long (it seems) drawing CAD on the computer at the architecture firm I work at. It isn't nearly as magical as it once was but when I get to do 3D modeling with my own residential designs I still am as excited as a kid when I create on the computer and flyover my designs.
I bought one for my ex the year it came out. We had SO much fun playing with it!
As for the internet, I reluctantly began using it in 1999 at the insistence of my sister, who gave me her old laptop. As soon as my son installed AOL's software, I was hooked.
My DAD got pong in the early 70's when it came out and raved that this was going to be the wave of the future.. I was a typical metal girl in HS who graduated in '80 and had ZERO in common with any of the comp folks .
Fast forward to 1998 my quadriplegic neighbor got one and again RAVED OMG you can talk to people in other countries - WHY would I want to do that said the woman who today has a dutch husband I met when we moderated an MSN classic rock group together. I did not get my first computer until 2001 and didn't touch it for a year . I was a very hard sell . Photoshop and PSP10 blew my mind and I managed to finally learn on my own how to design websites . I don't do that much anymore but I still do some freelance work ( writing - photography ) still on my little laptop .
PONG---I think I spent about two weeks at a friends house every day and night playing on a small B&W tv in a small bedroom about 1975 or so. Kids lined out the door to play.
Internet....about 1985 working in a tech company....I thought it was cool we could long into customers machines, screen share, and pull down text pages from some far away obscure place.
I also remember about 1999 leaving google start page on my screen. My boss came in and said that is the problem with giving everyone internet access. You're just screwing around....and playing with some kind of google crap. She got fired about a year later....
I knew some people who were members of neighborhood bb's and half of them ended up leaving their wives/husbands for each other! Called themselves "Cyber Lovers" or CLs, for short. There was an entire message board for people like that at one time, on Delphi forums. Pretty interesting stories to be sure. One woman that I knew personally ended up switching around to about four different partners in a few years.
My family and friends hated me when I first got online because, of course, it was a dial up and my phone was ALWAYS busy. lol
At one point we had three lines. One was for our bbs. One was for one of us to be online. And the other was left open during likely call time but busy past it. We got our first cell as a call number which wouldn't be busy.
I know a few who found their new mates online too. This one guy kept sending me messages which I didn't reply to but I suppose if I'd known more about my ex then.... But the best relationship made was through fan fiction. We were both very active on usenet, and our trek stories were similarly bad for the principals. We split a room at the first Star trek con in a while, and have kept in contact and call each other still. She's a best friend. I wonder how many others have made friends in other places that wouldn't have been possible without the net and its earlier precurcers.
One fine fall day, I gave a presentation to the Board of Directors for a Fortune 100 company on the future of the Internet and communications. In the finest 30 minutes of my life I told these people about the future. I predicted online commerce, paypal, e-bay, online banking and bill pay, WIFI, telecommuting, globalization, and eventually the end of copper wire telephone service. Everyone would do everything on their phones and computers. I told them things that would have put them years ahead of the curve. But they didn't listen. They thought I was nuts. There would never be computers and mobile phones in almost every home.
Me too! I've used computers since 1984 but got internet access in 1991, and I gave pretty much that same speech at my workplace, at a prominent university in 1994. My manager actually laughed when I said the WWW was going to change everything. I quit and went to Silicon Valley.
Me too! I've used computers since 1984 but got internet access in 1991, and I gave pretty much that same speech at my workplace, at a prominent university in 1994. My manager actually laughed when I said the WWW was going to change everything. I quit and went to Silicon Valley.
I hope you made all the money I let get away!!!
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