Sorta OT: Comcast v. Century Link

[Boob-No-More]

I remember when it took an hour to download a song on 56k.

Hell, I remember 14.4k baud.

Hell, I remember sunlight!

You young whippersnappers! My first REAL computer was an IBM PC with a 4.77MHz 8088 processor and 256K of RAM and two 5 1/4" floppy drives. I upgraded the shit out of it with a 8.0MHz NEC V20 processor, 640K of RAM a 20MB HDD and 1200 baud modem and thought I was hot shit!

BNM

 

[Strenuus]

You young whippersnappers! My first REAL computer was an IBM PC with a 4.77MHz 8088 processor and 256K of RAM and two 5 1/4" floppy drives. I upgraded the shit out of it with a 8.0MHz NEC V20 processor, 640K of RAM a 20MB HDD and 1200 baud modem and thought I was hot shit!

BNM

The incredible machines took up my whole dos drive!!! :MARIS61:

 

[Boob-No-More]

The incredible machines took up my whole dos drive!!! :MARIS61:

A couple years ago, I was talking to one of the guys on one of my rec league teams and he asked me how long I'd worked in the high tech industry. When I told him I started working at IBM in 1984, he laughed and said he was born in 1987 - and he was one of my older teammates. Fucking kids!

BNM

 

[Sedatedfork]

I had a Commodore Vic 20. That's right! 20KB ROM, 5 KB RAM (expandable to 32KB)

 

[Natebishop3]

They do if it's Frontier FIOS (their fiberoptic service). It's not available in all areas. It started out as Verizon FIOS, but about 6 years ago, Verizon sold their FIOS infrastrusture in Washington and Oregon, and licensed the FIOS name to Frontier Communications. I've lived in the Bethany/Rock Creek area for the last 26 years and about 12 years ago, Verizon spent the entire summer tearing up the sidewalks and pulling fiberoptic cable in our neighborhood. I've moved twice since then, in the same general area, and both the new places (newer construction - current house built in 2009) had FIOS service available.

BNM

It is FiOS. We're out in Hillsboro

 

[BlazerCaravan]

I had a Commodore Vic 20. That's right! 20KB ROM, 5 KB RAM (expandable to 32KB)

In 1991, when I was 14, I wrote a top-down dungeon crawling RPG on an unexpanded VIC-20. I created a program to save the levels to disk in DAT files, so the main game read the levels off disk and only kept a 5x5 grid in RAM. I had shops, monsters, and a 30x15 maze... in BASIC. .. in 3583 bytes.

It was the second nerdiest thing I've ever done.

 

[Sedatedfork]

When I was 14, I wrote a top-down dungeon crawling RPG on an unexpanded VIC-20. I created a program to save the levels to disk in DAT files, so the main game read the levels off disk and only kept a 5x5 grid in RAM. I had shops, monsters, and a 30x15 maze... in BASIC. .. in 3583 bytes.

It was the second nerdiest thing I've ever done.

Sounds rather creative (and nerdy) *scared to ask what tops it*

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Sounds rather creative (and nerdy) *scared to ask what tops it*

I designed and professionally published a collectable card game (like Magic The Gathering, but with anime characters) in 1996.

 

[Boob-No-More]

It is FiOS. We're out in Hillsboro

Go for it. Like all the other providers, they'll try to jack up your prices when your contract is up, and you'll have to threaten to leave to get their special "customer loyalty" pricing, but other than that, I don't have any complaints about the quality of the service. I actually had the same installer both times I moved and he was really good - and even on time, but that may have just been the luck of the draw.

BNM

 

[Natebishop3]

Go for it. Like all the other providers, they'll try to jack up your prices when your contract is up, and you'll have to threaten to leave to get their special "customer loyalty" pricing, but other than that, I don't have any complaints about the quality of the service. I actually had the same installer both times I moved and he was really good - and even on time, but that may have just been the luck of the draw.

BNM

What are your internet speeds currently?

 

[barfo]

There's already a generation of people who maybe have never seen one.

Or a payphone.

I used one of those just last week.

barfo

 

[Sedatedfork]

I designed and professionally published a collectable card game (like Magic The Gathering, but with anime characters) in 1996.

Well, I may be the only one here who thinks that's pretty interesting. Been playing with some LCG's the last year or two.

Edit: Maybe you should develop a collectible card game based upon S2. Just make sure Denny and Sly aren't too powerful. Oh sweet I got a PapaG in foil!

 

[Strenuus]

A couple years ago, I was talking to one of the guys on one of my rec league teams and he asked me how long I'd worked in the high tech industry. When I told him I started working at IBM in 1984, he laughed and said he was born in 1987 - and he was one of my older teammates. Fucking kids!

BNM

Oi. lol.

 

[Denny Crane]

I used one of those just last week.

barfo

Too cheap to own a cell phone?

You could get one of those ObamaPhones.

http://www.obamaphone.com/

 

[Boob-No-More]

I had a Commodore Vic 20. That's right! 20KB ROM, 5 KB RAM (expandable to 32KB)

Well, I didn't include it because I didn't consider it a "real" computer, but my first was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1K or RAM that I bumped up to 16K. I used a 12" portable black and white TV as a monitor and a cassette tape player to store programs. Moving up to the IBM was quite a leap.

BNM

 

[Boob-No-More]

Oi. lol.

At one time I played on 4 different rec league teams where I was >2x the age of all my teammates.

BNM

 

[Strenuus]

Well, I didn't include it because I didn't consider it a "real" computer, but my first was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1K or RAM that I bumped up to 16K. I used a 12" portable black and white TV as a monitor and a cassette tape player to store programs. Moving up to the IBM was quite a leap.

BNM

Oh. My. God.

 

[barfo]

Too cheap to own a cell phone?

No service in that area.

barfo

 

[Sedatedfork]

Well, I didn't include it because I didn't consider it a "real" computer, but my first was a Sinclair ZX-81 with 1K or RAM that I bumped up to 16K. I used a 12" portable black and white TV as a monitor and a cassette tape player to store programs. Moving up to the IBM was quite a leap.

BNM

Was it AC or did you have to crank it for power?

 

[Denny Crane]

No service in that area.

barfo

I saw an actual payphone recently. First time I've seen one in like forever.

 

[BlazerCaravan]

Well, I may be the only one here who thinks that's pretty interesting. Been playing with some LCG's the last year or two.

Edit: Maybe you should develop a collectible card game based upon S2. Just make sure Denny and Sly aren't too powerful. Oh sweet I got a PapaG in foil!

Holy crap, I actually have a game engine I'm working on now that would totally work for S2. I might have to make that happen.

 

[barfo]

I saw an actual payphone recently. First time I've seen one in like forever.

Likewise. But I saw it, and I used it - to call 911. So I didn't actually stick any change into it.

barfo

 

[BlazerCaravan]

I saw an actual payphone recently. First time I've seen one in like forever.

I saw one at the MAX station in Beaverton. It felt really weird to see it in the wild.

 

[Denny Crane]

Likewise. But I saw it, and I used it - to call 911. So I didn't actually stick any change into it.

barfo

911? The guy at the drive thru didn't give you your fries with your order?

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

There's already a generation of people who maybe have never seen one.

Or a payphone.

I actually still see pay phones quite a bit at random places

 

[Denny Crane]

I actually still see pay phones quite a bit at random places

Get out of the ghetto sometime.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Oh. My. God.

I also learned how to program an analog computer (patch cords, op amps and an oscilloscope for a "monitor") in college. It was actually pretty cool. It was for my numerical analysis class and even then the technology was on the way out. We spent the first half of the semester modeling things like an automotive suspension or an airplane wing on the analog computer and then the same things using digital approximations on a DEC Vax 11/780 the second half of the semester. The analog computer produced these beautiful smooth, multicolored dampened sin waves plots using a pen plotter and the Vax spit out these ugly dot matix graphs that were a bunch of gray asterisks in the general shape of a sin wave.

I think that instilled in me an early bias for all things analog - at least things involving beauty/art. I've always been an early adopter of technology for the sake of trying new things (I bought my first CD player back in 1984 - the same summer I started at IBM), but never sold my turntable and vinyl albums. To this day, although I have CDs and a music server running on a Mac Mini, my vinyl collection is still the largest part of my music library andw hat I turn to when I want to "hear" music (the digital formats are for convenience and streaming through the house on multiple stereos). Same with photography. I use the digital camera (and even my phone) for convenience, but when I want to "make" a photograph, I pull out the large format camera and some sheet film.

BNM

 

[JfizzleBlazer]

Get out of the ghetto sometime.

I'm not in the ghetto. Portland and it's suburbs literally still have them around. Mostly at grocery stores, I'll still see one or two.

 

[Denny Crane]

It was a joke, son.

 

[Boob-No-More]

Was it AC or did you have to crank it for power?

Steam power. I was the original steam punk before steam punk was a thing!

BNM