Latest Moan From You and Me 2025

In those early years we used Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, & Wordperfect as our lab office suite. I became a dBase programmer for my sins. Email, as I recall, was provided on separate mainframe-based dumb terminals prior to the internet and full desktop computing.

I can still remember our first lab PC - a Shelton Signet - with twin 5.25" floppy drives. Very unstable it was! I do recall though some other lab equipment having 8" floppies.

 

Oh lordy... I used Lotus 123 and I'll never forget getting a Commodore Vic 20. I thought it was magic and enjoyed changing the script on various games to display my kid's names or those of kid's visiting. Lucy the Lizzard just ate, "Gilbert" or whatever. Early fun with games.

 

The large ones were mostly pre-Windows although for a long time you could buy PCs equipped with both formats of floppy drive. I used the 5.25 inch ones with DOS. I still have one in my desk drawer at work, I use it to freak out the youngsters.

I had one of the first commercially available CD-ROM drives; this was pre-1990 and I won it in a magazine competition along with a DOS PC and monitor (EGA graphics). The CD-ROM case was as big as the PC and it ran single-speed (modern ones are 52x). Part of the prize was an early CD-ROM game, it was rubbish.

 

Did the Jazz drive take off ?

 

I was a dBase programmer for a while too - dBase IV. That was my introduction to relational databases. Went on to Ingres and then Oracle for a long time.

 

The issue with the coking coal that would of been mined was the high sulphur content, which does not make it ideal for making virgin steel. Plus the blast furnace plants would of exceeded the S02 emissions which they have to adhere to. They estimated only 17% of the coking coal would of been used in the UK with the other 83% being exported. If the coking coal had a low sulphur content, then the outcome of opening the mine might of been different.

 

*strolls in*

*notes everyone seems to be talking in a foreign techie language*

*backs out, closing door quietly*

 

Same here @ViewAhead

 

I got into computing when people still made flowcharts to design programmes and then coded them o sheets which were sent to human data processors to type onto cards or tape depending on destination computer. I left just as PCs were coming in and am now also a Luddite compared to OH, computing all his life tho latterly management and not techie, and Possum who thinks it's mostly intuitive and is learning to create websites.

I taught myself Word and Excel and find Word less clever than Word Perfect and dedicated word processors used to be. I don't care how a computer thinks as long as I can make it work for me.

Same with cars - used to do my own maintenance and services including timing and colour tuning but not brakes and wheel changes as too heavy. These days I have no idea what's going on under the bonnet but as long as I know how to drive one and check oil and windscreen wash levels I'm fine.

 

With you there re cars O-V. Best car I ever had was a Triumph Spitfire. Once the bonnet was up you could sit all day on the wheels tinkering with the engine. Pity about its rust problems. Who can remember what a core plug was for?

 

My dad had a Spitfire when I was a kid. Two seater, with a six inch wide parcel shelf at the back, and it was the family car. Us two kids had to sit on the parcel shelf. No restraints of any kind of course, and he used to drive that thing around with the top down. (Mind you if he drove with the top up I'd be sick, the smell of the vinyl was horrendous).

 

Even the garages have no clue what's going on under the bonnet these days.

Amount of people I know who have had problems that occur because of sensors not working, even main dealer struggle sometimes.

 

*strolls in*

*notes conversation has moved onto the equally impenetrable topic of cars*

*backs out, closing door quietly*