WTF - now I feel old :(

[TCMSLP]

See the following:-

http://superuser.com/questions/231273/what-are-the-windows-a-and-b-drives-used-for

If the 'kids today' need to ask these sorts of questions, a) it makes me feel very old and b) it makes me think I'm now in the category of those 'old timers' who I used to respect when in my teens.  Only, the kids asking these questions today probably have zero awareness (or interest) in anything pre-windows.

It's a sad, sad world


Steve

[tone007]

Only, the kids asking these questions today probably have zero awareness (or interest) in anything pre-windows.

..and why should they? Chances are, none of it would do them any good.

I realized years ago much of the random information I learned playing with computers in the 80s and 90s is no longer useful.

It's a sad, sad world

Because technology marches on?

[AmigaNG]

Iol, not as funny as another one I read not too long ago, cant remember on what web site, but a IT class in america the teacher asked what the PS/2 connector was for on PCs and one person said was it too connect a ps2 to the computer! :laughing: usb spoil them.

[TCMSLP]

I realized years ago much of the random information I learned playing with computers in the 80s and 90s is no longer useful.

I'd disagree.  Much of the basics I learnt years ago are equally valid nowadays.

I remember when I had my I was interested in general computing, reading as much as I could about the history, other machines/architectures and even electronics.  This was at the age of 12 or so - so only basic stuff but none the less I had a passion for this subject.  I remember a whole range of books available at the time (aimed at kids) taught the basics of ram, rom, the basics of binary notation etc.

Nowadays people have to ask what floppy drives are.

So yes, get 'orf my lawn, etc.


Steve

[tone007]

Sure, basic concepts can be applied, but specific things like "how much does a floppy disk hold" or "how do I free up more conventional memory in DOS" and "what's the IRQ for COM1" for the most part don't come up anymore.

[TCMSLP]

AmigaNG: Ha, I like that.  I remember in my childhood I had an Atari ST (which of course had midi ports).  My Amstrad hifi system was labelled as a 'midi system' - I thought I could connect the two together!  However this stupidity eventually led to building a home made (1 bit!) sampler and eventually developed an interest in computer music ... I was only young, so I guess no no different to these kids asking what a A: drive is.

However, it does make me realise my heroes are probably consigned to the dustbin of history as far as these kids are concerned.  RIP Jay Miner, all the DIY computer hobbyists of the 70's, not to mention the creators of the ENIAC and before that Collussus etc.

[vidarh]

However this stupidity eventually led to building a home made (1 bit!) sampler

I remember when I realized (not that I was anywhere near the first to do so) that the Commodore 64 Datasette could be used as a 1 bit sampler (just read the cassette IO bit as often as you can, and then play it back by turning the volume on and off every time you find a 1). Of course sound quality isn't exactly stellar.

[TCMSLP]

That's exactly what I did on the ST (although with cassette connected to the parallel port)!  I remember a friend in school doing exactly the same with an Amstrad CPC tape deck too

[jj]

Yeah I did a similar trick on the cpc. God I was creative with with mc cpc, more than another machine I could be bothered with. Think it was my age when had one,

[klx300r]

Steve, I know what you mean, a 17 year old son of my friend thought that it was urban legend that we used to load programs onto computers using tape cassettes.  The poor kid was in shock when I showed him the datacassete and immediately took pictures on his phone and texted all his friends:laughing:

c'est la vie..our grand kids won't even know what a desktop computer is

[mikeymike]

About stagnating knowledge though - I used ramdisk solutions for a good few years on Windows because of the poor cold start times for certain programs and obviously it had an enormous benefit.  I doubt I would have thought of that if I hadn't spent a while using Amigas (not saying that ramdisks are/were unique to Amigas btw).

Personally I think in say a systems admin role it's incredibly useful for someone to have had some sort of cross-platform experience.  It gets people to think of solutions that aren't so ordinary, and also it helps point out flaws in a different platform much more obviously (rather than accepting the walls one lives in when using only one platform).  I don't think it matters greatly whether the 'other platform' one has used is a considerably older one, though the line has to be drawn somewhere.

Admittedly I've been wondering along a similar line about stagnating knowledge, when I think of what I learnt from NT4 that has benefited me in terms of troubleshooting problems affecting later versions of Windows, even though it's not as if what I experienced in terms of problems with NT4 SP4 can be directly applied to say the next service pack for Win7.

[orange]

..and why should they? Chances are, none of it would do them any good.

I realized years ago much of the random information I learned playing with computers in the 80s and 90s is no longer useful.



Because technology marches on?

I disagree, you probably learned about bits and  bytes, buses, registers and stuff. those things don't change. it will always be useful, because you know what digital computer can and can't do - how it works.
that is, until they make usable quantum computer or something.

[TheGoose]

Yeah, I actually think my floppy days and CLI and PATHs and memory and always having to debug and fiddle with things made me a much better IT / Web Developer.

You don't know jack about php.ini until know your startup-sequence!!!!!

etc.

[orange]

the rules haven't changed at all. modern computers are following the same rules/algorithms. they are just turing machines.

[motorollin]

Of course they don't know what floppies are, just like I didn't know until told a few years ago about punchcards, and have no idea how computers were programmed before that. In a couple more decades the 10-20 year old age group will have no idea what CDs are. I don't find this particularly depressing (though I will be sad when CDs stop being produced as I prefer to buy my music in a physical medium).

Actually there was a recent series on British TV called "Back in Time - The High Street". They got a whole load of modern day shopkeepers and recreated high streets from various periods in history. When they got to the 70s, they added a record shop. One younger guy who had never seen a vinyl record actually said that it was nice to buy the music in physical form rather than a download. So maybe there's hope yet

--
moto