JohnH wrote:
On 27 Jan 2006 05:16:49 -0800, wrote:


Eisboch wrote:
I've been using the "handle" "Eisboch" since my early days on the net back
in 1989 or '90. I had a super modern 286 computer, 13mhz clock speed and a
huge hard drive with 20 mbytes of storage space. It ran on DOS with a
pre-MSWindows software suite called "GeoWorks". GeoWorks actually had a
windows type format and even included a word processing program called
"GeoWrite". I signed onto an internet access through Prodigy and was
heavily involved in some of the midi sequencing groups and "chat" rooms.
You had to have a screen name, so I became "Eisboch" because I happened to
be drinking a Coors Eisboch blend that night.

Anyway, it's time to retire the handle. Mrs.E thinks it's stupid, and I am
getting kind of tired of it anyway.

From now on I shall be known as ......

"Sam Adams"

Just kidding.

RCE

Man...GeoWorks.....THAT brings back memories! It was the first
graphical interface I used. I was anti-windows, because anything
graphical like that slowed my computer down too much. Besides that,
most programs at that time were still DOS based. Oh, I had prodigy,
also! I remember a guy I was going to school with bought a 386 that ran
at 20Mhz. I thought he was the cat's ass with that thing... I was SO
jealous! Oh, and remember, to get any real speed out of them, you had
to add a math coprocesser!!

BTW, bassie, did I tell you I loved NASA's World Wind? Great program.
--
'Til next time,

John H
Oh, and I can't wait till someone's birthday comes up.... thanks!

Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:10:41 -0500, "RCE" wrote:

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
.. .

What was the name of the network utility that you could use to connect
with Compuserve? That was my first inkling that some sort of
universal connectivity might someday be possible.


Oh, man ... I have a hazy remembrance of that, but forget the name or
details. It was some bizarre way to get your computer hooked up ... It
will come to me.

I'm kind of remembering that it was something like "Telnet" although
that may not be exactly correct. If you didn't have a Compuserve
local number, you could dial into their network and then log onto a
pass through connection to somewhere else. It was very hi tech in the
late 70s, early 80s.

GEnie?

RCE wrote:
"Calif Bill" wrote in message
ink.net...



TI-99. I think it is still in the gargage. Had the best game for kids.
Alpiner. My daughters loved that game. Tandy had one of the best early
PC's. Had the much superior Motorola 68000 and ran SCO Unix. I think it
was the 16B. We used it to develop a multi computer hook up disk
subsystem with 8 megabytes of Cache. When 8 Megs cost a couple of
thousand dollars.


That was it - a TI-99. Best thing about it was that you had to learn how to
write stuff in Basic, although I think it was called "TI-Basic". I
remember doing the examples from the manual - the little stick figure that
walked around and the program that was supposed to emit ultrasonic
frequencies to keep mice away. I kept looking at the dog to see if he
noticed. He didn't.

My oldest son (now 32 yo) was about 4 or 5 at the time. He decided to drop
a dime into one of the air vents on the TI-99 and it went up in smoke.

RCE

My very first computer was a Sinclair, you hooked it to the T.V. It
only had internal memory, no drive, so if you wrote a simple basic
program with it, you had to re-enter it if you turned it off.

"Shortwave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 04:10:41 -0500, "RCE" wrote:


you guys remember the early days of tcp/ip when you had to type in the
entire path to move a message from one part of the state to the other?

i can remember staying up nights making and probing open connections
from pc to pc thinking what a big deal it was to find a route to nyc,
then omaha and finally ca!!!

those were the days man, good times, good times.


Just *how* old are you, anyway? Methinks maybe you were Al Gore's mentor.
You did it, he just took credit for the invention.

RCE

wrote in message
oups.com...


My very first computer was a Sinclair, you hooked it to the T.V. It
only had internal memory, no drive, so if you wrote a simple basic
program with it, you had to re-enter it if you turned it off.


Little black miniature keyboard with plugs on the back? Yep. Had one of
those too.
In fact, it's dawning on me that my whole life has been a series of gadgets
with wires. No wonder Mrs.E likes horses.

RCE

On 27 Jan 2006 08:45:32 -0800, wrote:


JohnH wrote:
On 27 Jan 2006 05:16:49 -0800, wrote:


Eisboch wrote:
I've been using the "handle" "Eisboch" since my early days on the net back
in 1989 or '90. I had a super modern 286 computer, 13mhz clock speed and a
huge hard drive with 20 mbytes of storage space. It ran on DOS with a
pre-MSWindows software suite called "GeoWorks". GeoWorks actually had a
windows type format and even included a word processing program called
"GeoWrite". I signed onto an internet access through Prodigy and was
heavily involved in some of the midi sequencing groups and "chat" rooms.
You had to have a screen name, so I became "Eisboch" because I happened to
be drinking a Coors Eisboch blend that night.

Anyway, it's time to retire the handle. Mrs.E thinks it's stupid, and I am
getting kind of tired of it anyway.

From now on I shall be known as ......

"Sam Adams"

Just kidding.

RCE

Man...GeoWorks.....THAT brings back memories! It was the first
graphical interface I used. I was anti-windows, because anything
graphical like that slowed my computer down too much. Besides that,
most programs at that time were still DOS based. Oh, I had prodigy,
also! I remember a guy I was going to school with bought a 386 that ran
at 20Mhz. I thought he was the cat's ass with that thing... I was SO
jealous! Oh, and remember, to get any real speed out of them, you had
to add a math coprocesser!!

BTW, bassie, did I tell you I loved NASA's World Wind? Great program.
--
'Til next time,

John H
Oh, and I can't wait till someone's birthday comes up.... thanks!

You're welcome! Hell, I sent one to you and to Chuck, but hadn't heard
anything. I figured I'd get a lot of complaints about the caterwauling',
but then I figured y'all didn't get the emails.
--
'Til next time,

John H

******************************************
***** Have a Spectacular Day! *****
******************************************

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006 11:58:57 -0500, "RCE" wrote:

Just *how* old are you, anyway? Methinks maybe you were Al Gore's mentor.
You did it, he just took credit for the invention.

I think he just got on the internet before we did.

RCE wrote:
wrote in message
oups.com...


My very first computer was a Sinclair, you hooked it to the T.V. It
only had internal memory, no drive, so if you wrote a simple basic
program with it, you had to re-enter it if you turned it off.


Little black miniature keyboard with plugs on the back? Yep. Had one of
those too.
In fact, it's dawning on me that my whole life has been a series of gadgets
with wires. No wonder Mrs.E likes horses.

RCE

Exactly! The wire you hooked to the TV had a slide switch on it, to
switch between channels 2 and 3, in case you received one, you'd slide
the switch to the other!

JohnH wrote:
On 27 Jan 2006 08:45:32 -0800, wrote:


JohnH wrote:
On 27 Jan 2006 05:16:49 -0800, wrote:


Eisboch wrote:
I've been using the "handle" "Eisboch" since my early days on the net back
in 1989 or '90. I had a super modern 286 computer, 13mhz clock speed and a
huge hard drive with 20 mbytes of storage space. It ran on DOS with a
pre-MSWindows software suite called "GeoWorks". GeoWorks actually had a
windows type format and even included a word processing program called
"GeoWrite". I signed onto an internet access through Prodigy and was
heavily involved in some of the midi sequencing groups and "chat" rooms.
You had to have a screen name, so I became "Eisboch" because I happened to
be drinking a Coors Eisboch blend that night.

Anyway, it's time to retire the handle. Mrs.E thinks it's stupid, and I am
getting kind of tired of it anyway.

From now on I shall be known as ......

"Sam Adams"

Just kidding.

RCE

Man...GeoWorks.....THAT brings back memories! It was the first
graphical interface I used. I was anti-windows, because anything
graphical like that slowed my computer down too much. Besides that,
most programs at that time were still DOS based. Oh, I had prodigy,
also! I remember a guy I was going to school with bought a 386 that ran
at 20Mhz. I thought he was the cat's ass with that thing... I was SO
jealous! Oh, and remember, to get any real speed out of them, you had
to add a math coprocesser!!

BTW, bassie, did I tell you I loved NASA's World Wind? Great program.
--
'Til next time,

John H
Oh, and I can't wait till someone's birthday comes up.... thanks!

You're welcome! Hell, I sent one to you and to Chuck, but hadn't heard
anything. I figured I'd get a lot of complaints about the caterwauling',
but then I figured y'all didn't get the emails.
--
It's hard to reply when you've been humbled by a star!!!!!!

Bryan wrote:
"Calif Bill" wrote in message
ink.net...

"RCE" wrote in message
...

"Bryan" wrote in message
news
"Eisboch" wrote in message
...
I've been using the "handle" "Eisboch" since my early days on the net
back in 1989 or '90. I had a super modern 286 computer, 13mhz clock
speed and a huge hard drive with 20 mbytes of storage space. It ran on
DOS with a pre-MSWindows software suite called "GeoWorks". GeoWorks
actually had a windows type format and even included a word processing
program called "GeoWrite". I signed onto an internet access through
Prodigy and was heavily involved in some of the midi sequencing groups
and "chat" rooms. You had to have a screen name, so I became "Eisboch"
because I happened to be drinking a Coors Eisboch blend that night.

Anyway, it's time to retire the handle. Mrs.E thinks it's stupid, and
I am getting kind of tired of it anyway.

From now on I shall be known as ......

"Sam Adams"

Just kidding.

RCE




Nice to meet you, Mr. RCE.
You started with one of them fancy high-powered 286's of which I could
only dream! I started with the 8086 xt and a 20, yes 20, MB HDD. I
loved my DOS; I didn't understand why people needed all that Mac and
Windows nonsense. DOS: just tell your computer what to do and it did
it! Simple as that. Remember when the excitement of opening a gif meant
starting the process and coming back after dinner to see if the gif had
finished filling in all the pixels? I actually started with an Apple
(was it IIC?), encountered a mac in grad school, and switched to the DOS
world when I couldn't find a mac program that could handle the graphical
representation (believe it or not) of my lab data. Boy that was a long
time ago!


It is. My super fast "Pal" 286 even ran CADD 1, an early cad design
program. CADD was developed through version 6 as a DOS only program then
was bought out by Autodesk (Autocad). CADD was recently re-introduced in
a Windows version and I just downloaded a copy. It's like old times.

The Pal had a normal clock speed of 8 mhz, but had a "turbo" button that,
when pushed, took it to a lightning fast 13 mhz.

RCE


I started out on the Internet with a DEC PDP. Probably an 11/05 but maybe
an 11/34. Still have a great spicy peanut noodle recipe printed on dot
matrix printer. When it was a text only world. Except for ascii art.


I forgot all about dot matrix printers. I realized the other day that my
kids have no idea about the punch cards!

The first that I ever saw of a computer's ability to talk to another
computer was at my brother's college. He took me to see a computer
(took most of a room), that he could magically ( to me) type in some
code, and another computer at Cornell would print out a dot matrix
picture of a Playboy centerfold. If you looked at it long enough, you
could figure out what it was!