Comments on: Your First Experience Communicating On A Computer?

By: SomeoneKnows (Vince)

SomeoneKnows (Vince) — Sun, 08 Feb 2009 18:00:39 +0000

In 1971, the summer before starting my Senior year in high school, I went on a career camp with 4-H to the University of Missouri in Columbia. All my friends went on to tour the Agriculture Department but I went alone to see the computer department. I was impressed by the computer and the big room it needed with all the special environment required to keep this room cooled down. I was impressed but my thoughts at the time were I’ll never be able to do anything like this.

A couple of years later I was working for a land surveying company on one of their field crews. I took an opportunity to transfer to the office as as drafter and began working on calculations to reduce the survey notes and learning how to make the numbers fit. The company had a big contract to locate all of the section corners as part of the new lake planned at Smithville, MO. The survey company’s owner bought a paper tape teletype machine and I began working through a dial-up connection to McAuto which was McDonnell Douglas Automation system.

My first experience at communicating on a computer was entering coordinate geometry (COGO) data as survey point coordinates and directional vectors. This data was typed as holes punched in paper tape then dialing up the service to load the tapes.

By: What I Am Reading - February 6, 2009 | (jeff)isageek.net

What I Am Reading - February 6, 2009 | (jeff)isageek.net — Fri, 06 Feb 2009 21:47:37 +0000

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By: Buck

Buck — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 19:57:37 +0000

Anyone remember CompuServe? Oh yeah — those guys. In middle school I had a Commodore VIC-20 computer and a really funky 300-baud modem — you had to use your phone to call the data number, then physically disconnect the twisty handset cord from your phone and plug it into the back of the modem…

So I did that. A lot. Living in Warrensburg at the time, I figured out how it was cheaper to call CompuServe’s Topeka, Kansas dial-in number instead of the one in Kansas City, Missouri (note to newer generations: they actually used to bill less money for out-of-state calls, go figure).

Dad got my $300 phone bill that first month and about had a fit! I’m glad I was able to work it off and he didn’t put a lien on my computer…

By: Zach

Zach — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 07:04:31 +0000

James and I did do some serious dial up internet action that landed that huge bill for only one month. Good ol days!

By: geekosaur

geekosaur — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 23:05:57 +0000

That goes back a bit. 300 baud acoustic coupler attached to a bare-board Ohio Scientific “Superboard II”, talking on Cleveland Forum-80.

By: JamesCornick(jchost.net)

JamesCornick(jchost.net) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:04:12 +0000

Side note: Zach did not do this intentionally and I actually got the overage refunded.

By: JamesCornick(jchost.net)

JamesCornick(jchost.net) — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 22:03:42 +0000

I remember when I let Zach use my swbell.net dial up service (501-0005 I even remember the dial in number pretty sad I know). That was back when you had a set number of hours you could be online for sort of like cell phone minutes now. Zach left his computer online for a week or so and ran up a 380 dollar bill. Those were the days.

By: jiznakefoo

jiznakefoo — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:41:12 +0000

Sixth grade computer science class on the Commodore 64 sticks out in my memory. Not for sure it was the first time using a computer, but it was the first time I actually did something creative on a computer (even if it was programming in basic!)

By: Freddy Gipson

Freddy Gipson — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 21:10:18 +0000

My first taste of a social networking experience came when I used the virtual pet site Neopets back in elementary school, I kid you not because while it is such a kiddy site it is a good way of getting kids into social networking without many of the same risks that Facebook and MySpace have. Neopets allowed me to send PMs, chat on forums, make guilds or groups with other members, and host community events.

By: Stephan Miller

Stephan Miller — Wed, 04 Feb 2009 20:23:12 +0000

Mine was on AOL chat. I accidentally chose the phone number with the 9600 baud modem and was stuck with that for a week until I figured out what the heck I was doing.