What Was Your First Exposure to Online?

[PrivateTim]

We got our first computer on the late 80's and I got online in 1990 or so using CompuServe to get onto bulletin boards, then Prodigy and of course onto AOL.

 

My first speed was that 2400 bit Hayes modem with the screechy noise as you went through trying to get a handshake. You were charged by the minute, Prodigy charged 25 cents an email and since there weren't chat programs yet we used emails like IM's. Pops blew his stack at my first $400 Prodigy bill.

 

Progressed through all the speed upgrades (4800, 9600, 28k) and I remember thinking when we hit 56k, how would I use all that speed? Now I am 500x faster than that and I bitch about how slow it is.

 

I couldn't wait for the new issues of Boardwatch and 2600.

 

Netscape was the coolest thing ever, it made browsing so much easier, but it cost like $25 dollars.

 

The computer lab at school (high school) still used punch cards and you had to learn FORTRAN and COBOL even though BASIC was starting to dominate.

 

Hard to believe we have come so far so fast.

[TetRefine]

Well I don't know all the technical bits, but I remember in the late '90s using slow as death AOL, but back then I thought it was awesome. We always used to get the free sample discs in the mail from them too. I remember the first time I used high speed, and I was blown away that you could click and the whole page would be loaded in just a couple seconds, and you could talk on the phone at the same time, lol.

 

Funny story about AOL and the phone line. When I was 12, I first discovered the Playboy website when I had my first computer in my room to myself. One morning I was on looking at porn, and my dad picked up the phone but got a busy tone. He figured someone was on the internet and came into my room to check to see if it was me. Well, he opened the door and I couldn't click out of the page fast enough and there right on the screen was this really hot and topless UT college girl. I got banned from the computer for two weeks.

[TrevorTime]

It was somewhere around 1999 or 2000 when I first got online. Yupp, dial-up was slow as molasses. I had AOL as a provider, then MSN. Finally cut the cord and went with wireless.

[Skyline]

I dont even want to remember those days. I remember back when everything was slow lmao. I had 256 mb of ram and I would've given my liver to get 1 gb. Now I have 6 gb and I'm considering upgrading to fill my mobo with 12 gb xD

[Daisy139]

First time I was online I must have been 17 or so...they put us into the school's computer lab because some teacher was sick and the sub didn't want to teach us anything...so we went into these chatrooms and all and I was blown away. When I was 18 my dad got a computer and internet, and when I was 20 I had my own computer with internet. The first few years I used it mainly for email, chatrooms/discussion boards and such.... I guess at some point I discovered google and googled everybody and their dog...pre-facebook stalking was fun

 

 

[JamesSavik]

~1984 connecting to a local bbs at a blazing 1200 baud and playing trade wars

[methodwriter85]

You totally started this topic because of Will Schluter going online in chapter 4 of Poor Man's Son, didn't you?

 

Anyway, my family had computers around 1993, but we didn't get online until the spring of 1999. I remember that's when I started reading the Nifty Archive- I was a 13-year old boy reading such thrilling stories about young men who go to N'Sync or Backstreet Boys concerts, and then they wind up falling in love with JC Chasvez or Nick Carter. I was also involved with MightybigTV, Fanforum, and this website called I Hate Jen.

 

The earliest I remember being online was about 1996- I was in third grade, and we went online to see some county site about Cecil County in Maryland or something like that.

[West Coast Dude]

I've been using a computer since I can remember, I remember playing games on it as a kid...Oregon Trail was the first I think...

[colinian]

I was 6 years old so it would have been 1995 when my dad set up a "family computer" in the den for me to use. My most vivid recollection was the sound of the modem dialing up and connecting to AOL. I played some games, but honestly I don't remember what they were. Mostly I used an education program my dad bought from some famous science fiction writer's wife who was a programmer.

 

These weren't the "good old days" and I'm so glad that computers have advanced so quickly.

 

Colin

[Palantir]

I remember the excitement, in 1982, of purchasing a 300 baud Cicada modem and connecting it to my Tandy Color Computer 1.

There were several BBS's devoted to this set-up and much of the talk was about various mods which could be made, like extending the memory of the Coco to 64k ram.

[Bumblebee]

My family has always worked with, and owned computers, but it wasn't until 2008 did my mum finally get the internet for my sister and I

 

but when we were in like yr 3 we were allowed to go into the computer labs and play the maths games on the computers... I was the rebal who played tetris on the internet

 

 

when we first got the internet, I didn't even know what to do with it... now I honestly don't know how I would get through my day without it lol

[Michael9344]

I first used the computer in 2004. My aunt opened a Yahoo account for me. I really began using the internet in 2007.

[rustle]

I'd been using computers at work since about 1981. We had a 64k mainframe. The machine would choke whenever more than one person was on it.

 

My first exposure to online was in 1998. I thought it was "nice," but overrated. Then, in 00, I got my first computer and internet connection, AOL, for the house. My IMAC didn't work and play well with AOL, though.

 

Online is a much better experience now, due to access and processing speeds. I do not miss dial-up.

[One Cheap Suit]

1978 my dad connected us to the mainframe at GM using a phone modem (probably 100 baud, I'd bet) and I played Adventure for hours. That was the start of my IT career.

In 1979 my dad got an Atari 800 (I still have it) and in 1981 I got a modem for it. I was connecting to some Atari BBS systems and ran one for a while for a couple of years.

In 1985 I connected to Quantum Q-Link (the forerunner of AOL -I had to dig around in wikipedia for the names haha) for the first time and when they offered it for PCs (PC-Link) I was on that for a while, and that's also when I got my first Mac.

I took a break from online stuff for a while, and then in 1992 I came back, and was around when AOL opened up USENET (eternal september).

 

I was a host in AOL's gay forum, the GLCF, when it transitioned to onQ, and left before it basically died/turned into gay.com. I've been online,almost continuously, since about 1996, running and participating in lots of online sites.

 

edit: dates)

Edited March 27, 2011 by bigdave976

[Cyhort]

The first time I used the internet was in the mid 90's I think. I was restricted to the AOL Kids section which was pretty boring, even for a kid. My dad let me go in a chat room once while he was in the room with me and then immediately kicked me off like a minute later when everyone started talking about Bill Clinton's dick. I can't remember if that computer broke or if my parents just disconnected it from te internet because shortly after that I had to use the computer in my dad's office to get online. I had every version of AOL from 3.0 up to 11.0 and I remember getting the free update CD's from Blockbuster, lol.

[bel08]

I remember first getting a computer in the mid to late 90's. I think I would have been about 8 or 9. The first game I ever played on the computer was Creatures. I don't think I was allowed to use the internet until the 00's. Oh those were the times. I think the first time I went into a chat room it was on my dad's account. We went into some random chat room and began spurting nonsense until eventually we got kicked out. We thought it was hilarious.

My first experience of being online was when I made my first email account so I could chat on MSN with all my school friends. That and playing Docking Station online (which was a sequel to Creatures).

Oh yeah and I totally remember that classic old dial tone when the internet was connecting... ah nostalgia! lol

[DragonFire]

My first exposure....mmm... I guess when I webcamed my ex back in the early 00's!

 

Oh.. you meant first computer... 1992 with a really slow PC and dial up with AOL. Damn, I even remember the snails pace even the most basic pages took to load.

[old bob]

I began 1965 (46 years ago !) with an IBM 1130, and an intern network between the companies of my group. The beast filled a whole room, but the screen was just 20 cm highon 30 cm long.

My first PC came 1984.

 

IBM 1130

 

[DragonMando]

my first experiences online were probably around '05 or so, with my parents' 56k and only being allowed to go to two websites: Focus on the Family and their entertainment review site, PluggedInOnline XD fun times /sarcasm

[Breeze]

I first went online in '99 @ my BFF apartment,she showed me what was what. I never totally had my own pc till my hubby built my own about 3-4 yrs after we were married.Until about 18 months ago I'd never had a store bought pc, always home built. The one I have is a cheapie, but works good for what I need, its an acer aspire.

 

 

[Hamen Cheese]

No idea about the year but it might have been around the time of Starcraft.

[bigbear427]

I began 1965 (46 years ago !) with an IBM 1130, and an intern network between the companies of my group. The beast filled a whole room, but the screen was just 20 cm highon 30 cm long.

My first PC came 1984.

 

WOW! Bob, another 1130 user! We should talk sometime.

 

My first experience was programming FORTRAN on an IBM 1130 at UC Riverside when was about 13 years old. It wasn't online, though. How I managed that, is a (semi) interesting tale, and I consider myself the first 'hacker'. (At least I was a probably close to first.) I wrote an essay about it...

 

MY IBM 1130

For as far back as I can remember, I was always interested in how things work. A technophile from the word go. Sometime early on, computers caught my interest and I had to know how they worked. I read all the books I could find, which weren't many in the small town where I lived. In those days of course (the mid 1960's), no one had even thought of building the PC, much less owned one.

 

When I was about 13 and in the 8th grade, my 7th grade English teacher (who lived next door to my parents and I) took me one Saturday to UC Riverside and took me to see my first real computer. He was friends with someone at the computer center there, and managed to talk them into letting me into the machine room. There, I was delighted to find myself in the presence of an IBM 360/65 mainframe computer. Most people have no idea what an impressive sight these machines were. It had over 100 flashing lights on the main console, and a chattering IBM Selectric-style typewriter, banging out requests to the operator. The console was attached to a huge cabinet housing the central processing unit, usually painted bright red or cool blue. These were flashy, 'movie style' machines. Below is a picture of a similar system (courtesy of IBM, thanks folks).

 

I was in heaven!

 

 

 

IBM 360/50

(Photo courtesy of IBM)

The day I was there, an IBM technician was there performing the routine maintenance cycle and, to impress the young visitor he found there, he grabbed a tape from his bag and ran a program. Behind me, I then I heard the high-speed printer begin to ‘sing’, music was coming from the printer! I stood there dumbfounded as the 1403 printer played out on its print hammers a medley of Christmas carols, while at the same time, printing out a series of pictures on the long ribbon of computer paper. It printed everything from Christmas ornaments and holly to a long banner of Santa Clause riding in his sleigh pulled by his eight reindeer. I think this was the moment in my life when I decided I was going to spend my life working in the computer business.

 

Of course, this grand machine was totally beyond my reach. I could hardly touch it, much less use it. The morning went on, and after annoying the people there with a thousand questions, I was politely shooed out, as they had real work to do (he he).

 

***

So, I was left to wander around the campus for the rest of the day by myself. Now, since science and technology were always my main interest, I inevitably ended up wandering the halls of the Physics building, just looking to see what I could find. I remember talking for a while to a graduate student as he was using a punch card machine to encode the data from some kind of nuclear particle experiment. But, as my wanderings continued, I found it! There on the second floor of the building was a room I would later visit many times in my youth. For it was there I found an IBM 1130 computer. It was a very simple machine by any standards, even those of the time. It had 8K (that's 8,192 words) of main memory, and a disk drive with 512,000 word capacity (that is, 1 MB). It also had a very slow printer and card reader. A modern PC is thousands (perhaps, millions?) of times more powerful. But there it stood, the doors to the room were wide open and students using it with their own hands. It looked much like this one below (sans the pretty model).

 

 

 

IBM 1130

(Photo courtesy of IBM)

I spent quite a while there that day, the students were friendly and happy to show me how the machine worked. I paid careful attention and I was pleased that they actually let me touch it. In fact, I was pushing start buttons when they told me to, learning how to load paper into the printer and how to feed cards correctly into the card reader. I even got to use the old manual card punch to punch a few cards. I had an extraordinary day. I'm pretty sure now it was the most important day of my life.

 

***

It wasn't long before I paid a visit to the offices of IBM in Riverside (with my mother in tow, of course), where I purchased a copy of the FORTRAN manual for the 1130, and a box of blank punch cards. (Anyone remember Hollerith punch cards?) At a mall bookstore, I also bought a textbook on FORTRAN programming¹, by the legendary computer scientist, Daniel D McCracken. I took it all home and began to learn.

 

A few weeks later, I was ready. I hopped a ride with my ex-English teacher again (he often took courses at UCR on the weekends), and quickly found my way again to the second floor of the Physics building.

 

Looking back on it now, I'm quite sure the students who were working in the lab that day must have been quite astonished to see a 13 year old kid brazenly walk into the room, sit down at the card punch, load it with cards from the box he was carrying, and begin to type. I'd really love to know now what they were thinking...

 

After struggling awhile to get the cards punched just right, I added the necessary cards to the front of the deck needed to run the job and, when the machine was idle, put the cards in the reader and hit the 'READY' button. The job started and, as all programmers know, a program never runs on the first try. Mine didn't either. But, I got the printout off the printer, sat down and read the error listings, got out my books, and kept trying until my program ran. Thus, I wrote and ran my first "Hello World" program on 'my' IBM 1130 that day.

 

Many, many, such weekends followed. I can't recall now, of course, exactly what I did on those many visits to that wonderful room. I only know now, that was where I got my start writing software.

 

***

I will finish this memoir with a final story from a few years later. I attended college for a year at California State University at San Diego (now SDSU). While there, I got a student job as a computer operator for the Engineering and Astronomy departments working in... you guessed it, their IBM 1130 computer lab. I ran the computer there for the students. In this lab, the students weren't allowed to run the computer themselves. Of course, I spent as much time as I could (ok, more than I should have) there.

 

Just being the operator there taught me much more about programming than you might think. Almost daily, I would find myself face to face with a bewildered engineering student, asking me why their FORTRAN program wouldn't run. This is where I found that all those weekends at UCR were valuable and worthwhile. I became very adept at looking over a program listing and locating at least the gross errors in the program. After some practice, I could often perform this feat in less than a minute or so while the standing at the operator's station. I imagine that I acquired a reputation there, though I never really thought about it at the time. Obviously, this experience has served me well in all the years since. The ability to quickly find errors in a program's source code is a gift I'm grateful for now.

 

***

I've been in the computer business for almost 40 years now, but I'll never forget the IBM 1130 and what it taught me. It was a fantastic little machine!

 

 

If you are interested, here are some links to websites about the IBM 1130.

 

http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/1130/1130_intro.html

 

http://www.ibm1130.org/

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_1130

 

¹ McCraken, Daniel D. (1961) - A Guide to FORTRAN Programming. (At the time, of course, I had NO idea who he really was)

Photos Copyright © IBM Corp., used with permission.

[old bob]

wow, bigbear !

nice memories....

I have also a lot to narrate , not as a computer expert, but as user, manager of an engineering group, with an intern computer center for civil engineering (bridges, buildings),

and at the same time partner of another extern computer center, with an UNIVAC machine, selling programming and machine time (time sharing) to everybody..

Funny times, a lot of occasions to earn much money, but also a lot of occasions to loose it when the first IBM PCs came and over-all the Web.

I never learnt programming, just Basic for the beginning. and I remember the times when an extern harddisk was a "slice" of 50 cm diameter and 5 cm thick with 2 MB in it !