Where were you/what do you remember?

[CaptainCrunch]

I thought it would be a cool topic, we've all been around for history shaking moments from the fall of the Berlin Wall, to 9/11, to the Election of the First Black President. Usually in their moments we don't think about them for what they are. But watching Halt and Catch Fire, I thought about some of the very historic moments that I've been effected by.


So I wanted to start out with one.


My first time accessing the internet. We have to remember before that, we used BBs and Bulletin Board software. We'd look up a number for a board and use the Board Software to dial and connect, then we'd look at a text filled screen and select things like downloading software, or grabbing a receipe.


I still remember, and I think I was probably something like 22, I had just moved back to Calgary, and I had moved into my first place that was all my own. No room mates, I had set up my Clone PC, with my sparking VGA card, Soundblaster card, and my 14 inch color monitor. A friend of mine had set up a local ISP. I loaded up my copy of Mosaic, and dialed in. To this day, I'm sure the first page that loaded on connect was the home page for the ISP, and had links to news, games, and probably the stock market as well as access to my email.



But no more memorizing phone numbers, or worrying about long distance. The web pages had no graphics and it was slow as hell, but frankly in that little apartment on 14th ave and center, life had changed and I think everyone saw the possibilities.



From sitting in a college classroom logging in to a VAX server on a terminal this was a generational leap forward,

[Sliver]

First time I saw anything on the internet was in my friend's basement around 1994ish. Pulled up a picture of fisting. I couldn't understand where this amazing photo had come from, but it was pretty cool.

[RichieRich]

Cool thread concept...
I remember upgrading to 9600 baud. wow.
I remember wondering why my 2088 mobo had a "turbo" mode button and why on earth would you not just leave it, instead of using the slower 5Mhz.
I remember taking 58mins to download a 1MB file.. except when I was 10seconds from being done my friends f*ng dad literally pulled the telephone connection.
I turned 13 the day I became a Canadian citizen.


Now I get to remember Slivers fisting cherry being popped. Not what I expected today.

[lazypucker]

I remembered the first internet we had at home was through some "free" provider - I think CadVision, and the catch of being free was that there was an giant ad on the browser that's blocking half the screen at all times. Also I think there was a limit of 1 hour connection per day, and everything took forever to load....

[GirlySports]

Originally Posted by Sliver

First time I saw anything on the internet was in my friend's basement around 1994ish. Pulled up a picture of fisting. I couldn't understand where this amazing photo had come from, but it was pretty cool.

I didn't think you could download pictures yet. Would it have taken a day? My brother downloaded a picture of Cindy Margolis in 1996 and he left it to download overnight. That's one of my first memories of the internet.

[troutman]

I think one of my earliest memories was watching Apollo astronauts on the moon, on a black and white TV.

First encounter with internet - We were using the internet for legal research in the early 90s. QuickLaw.
http://www.slaw.ca/2007/01/25/the-birth-of-quicklaw/

Associate Dean and Chief Law Librarian Denis Marshall explained in 1992: “University mainframe computers throughout North America are linked together by a series of regional communications networks known collectively as the Internet” — a reminder of just how quickly things have evolved“Trends and Technology in the Law Library” Queen’s Law Reports (Winter 1992) 5..

[afc wimbledon]

I remember thinking that the warbling sound the old 56k modems made was going to cause a vast sea of crazies to claim all sorts of weird #### was being done to them, I worked with the mentally ill and it seemed pretty much designed to mess with their heads, if only I had know what insanity the internet was actually going to cause back then!!

[WhiteTiger]

Hm, the first time I can remember having anything to do with the Internet would have been around '95 or '96, when I went to College. I had met with a group of friends who basically disappeared at night. I eventually figured that they were going to one of the computer labs and setting up gaming networks or doing online chatting and had a deal with the night security guard that when he'd come by, he'd kick everyone out (since the lab was technically 'closed for the evening') but we'd leave him some of the food we brought for the evening as we were leaving, and he'd take a bit and 'forget' to come back for the rest of the night...so we'd go right back in as soon as he left the room.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by troutman

I think one of my earliest memories was watching Apollo astronauts on the moon, on a black and white TV.

didnt have a TV at home for that, but they wheeled the only TV in school into the lunch hall for us to watch, 13 inch black and white in a hall that sat 250!!

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by lazypucker

I remembered the first internet we had at home was through some "free" provider - I think CadVision, and the catch of being free was that there was an giant ad on the browser that's blocking half the screen at all times. Also I think there was a limit of 1 hour connection per day, and everything took forever to load....

Thanks for the reminder, it was CadVision.

I still remember getting those AOL disks in the mail weekly.

Other historical things.

I was probably too young, but I vividly remember watching Neal Armstrong stepping on the moon.

I remember the Reagan Speech, One of the great speeches of all time "Mr Gorbachev tear down that wall"

I remember sitting in my living room with my girl at the time on Nov 9, 1989 and seeing people dancing on and tearing down the Berlin Wall.

I remember seeing the Space Shuttle Explosion, I was at school studying for the finals in the Library at Scarlett. The Librarian had pushed out a TV so we could watch even though Shuttle launches were rather ordinary. I remember the Library got quieter then usual, and I looked up to see the twin forks from the explosion, and people were crying. I think I failed my final that day.

I was in College in Texas getting ready to go out for a night at the clubs in Downtown Dallas. We decided to take a few seconds to watch Mike Tyson as he destroyed James Buster Douglas. We didn't go out that night, I remember at the end when Tyson got knocked down and was fishing for his mouth guard that we all realized we had seen one of the greatest sports upsets of all time.

I remember seeing the Miracle at Manchester with some friends one of whom was an Oilers fans.

I remember when Mt St Helen's errupted and walking out the next day to pink skys Willow Road in Lake Bonivista.

[topfiverecords]

“You’ve got mail”

[troutman]

When I was at Western (UWO), a lot of students were at the pub one night to watch Ben Johnson beat Carl Lewis live. That was electric. Then the scandal started the next day, and someone held a "Thanks A Bunch Ben Johnson" party the next weekend. With hindsight now, we know they were all cheating.

https://windsorstar.com/sports/cole-...d-25-years-ago

the race had taken place at 1:30 in the afternoon, Seoul time, on the second Saturday of the 1988 Summer Olympics, Sept. 24

So, I'm thinking the race was Friday evening, 11:30 pm, London time?

[Shin Pad]

I remember the cuban missile crisis - my parents seemed quite concerned, but I was very young and blissfully unaware of the danger.
We were the first ones on our block to get a TV back in around 1959. It was great even though we only got two channels. TV shows that we watched were "I Love Lucy" and "Leave it to Beaver", among others.

I was in grade 4 when JFK was assassinated. I still picture the staircase I was on in the school when I heard about it.

I remember watching the Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show. I couldn't figure out why everyone was screaming in the audience.
Those were some of my more notable memories when I was younger.

[Dion]

I was only 4 years old at the time but I do have memories of watching The Cuban Missile Crisis on TV. I didn't understand the gravity of the situation but I do remember my parents being concerned. JFK was giving a speech to the nation and I believe it was Walter Cronkite who was explaining where the missiles were
.
I was in Junior High when man landed on the Moon. There was a TV in the library where students gathered to watch the event. I later told a guidance counsellor that I wanted to be an astronaut and maybe someday travel to Mars.

Got my first ride in a fire truck when I was 5 years old. One of my friends at the time had fallen into a construction ditch and couldn't climb out. IIRC my brother ran back home where my mom phoned for help. In the end I got the ride because I stayed with my friend and helped to keep him calm until help arrived.

I was loading groceries into a woman's car when over the radio they said the Space Shuttle had exploded after launch. My lunch hour was spent at the Bay watching reports of the event on one of their TV's they had on display.

I remember a TV being in our classroom in Elementary where we watched the JFK funeral. Our teacher was crying because of what had happened.

Getting our first colour TV was a big deal back then. Dad and I would sit on the couch each week and watch episodes of Batman. Then there was my sister and I who would fight over adjusting the colour.

[CaptainCrunch]

I remember being in junior high school at Nichol Jr High and we all crowded around the TV to see the announcement that the City of Calgary had won the Olympic bid.


I remember our first remote control was a monstrosity that was linked to the TV box by a cable and had click buttons and a lever to select different levels of channels.

[Cecil Terwilliger]

I remember being in Grade 3 or 4 in Golden BC when they announced the OJ Simpson verdict over the loudspeaker in the middle of class. I’m so glad they did. It was a cultural touchstone moment and it made me feel like I was in a tv show.

Hard to imagine such a thing would even be necessary nowadays.

[Textcritic]

When I was four years old we got our first colour television for Christmas. That was 1977, and that 19" Sony was the one and only television my family had right up to the time I moved out in 1992.

Our first family computer was a Commodore 64 with colour monitor, a 5.5" external foppy drive, and a daisywheel printer. The whole setup cost my dad $1,200 in 1984.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by Textcritic

When I was four years old we got our first colour television for Christmas. That was 1977, and that 19" Sony was the one and only television my family had right up to the time I moved out in 1992.

Our first family computer was a Commodore 64 with colour monitor, a 5.5" external foppy drive, and a daisywheel printer. The whole setup cost my dad $1,200 in 1984.

Sent from my SM-G960W using Tapatalk

You had a floppy drive. When I got my 64, it came with the 1241 tape drive. and I got the 9 pin dot matrix printer, that couldn't drop lower case letters below the line, so a g was a reversed 9 on the bit map.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by Shin Pad

I remember the cuban missile crisis - my parents seemed quite concerned, but I was very young and blissfully unaware of the danger.
We were the first ones on our block to get a TV back in around 1959. It was great even though we only got two channels. TV shows that we watched were "I Love Lucy" and "Leave it to Beaver", among others.

I was in grade 4 when JFK was assassinated. I still picture the staircase I was on in the school when I heard about it.

I remember watching the Beatles for the first time on the Ed Sullivan show. I couldn't figure out why everyone was screaming in the audience.
Those were some of my more notable memories when I was younger.

There was me thinking I was oaf

[Cecil Terwilliger]

Originally Posted by afc wimbledon

There was me thinking I was oaf

You are an oaf but I have no idea what that has to do with “remember when” stories.