Bah. Netcomm 2400 baud modem to dial into my university's dialup bank of 8 modems (yes, 8 for the whole University). This was in 1990.
It was hard to get on, and the system would boot you after 10 minutes of inactivity. So I set up a modem script to keep dialling until I got a connection, then to open a vi session and type a space every minute. Would fire it off and then wander off for an hour or two before coming back to check if I had managed to connect. Good times.
1999 - "senior enough" to be allowed in research labs; one 286 with 4MB RAM to play with models and numerical algos was always there and mostly mine. Good God, what a pain in the ass the stiff ODEs have been. 1998 - my Uni had no public modems. The VAX/VMS I could access have had some optocoupled terminals at 2400: VT100 clones - green phosphorus. Oh, wow! Graphic primitives and plots on screen! I could forget the traumatizing FORTRAN or the dumb Basic; if only I could wake up to stand in the queue at 6AM in the morning to get a spot (the lab opened access at 9). 1987 - couldn't get access to anything better than ZX Spectrum clones or a single CP/M if you were in front of the queue. Personal 8" floppies were quite hard to get, smuggler stuff (communist regime at that time) 1986 - the only way to have programs running - have your stack of punch cards collected for the sole weekly run allowed to students (IBM360) - after 3 attempts, I gave up, too many syntax errors.
2002 - got enough of a wage to afford buying a 486 with 8MB RAM and 120MB HDD and the US Robotics modem. 8 month worth of savings. EMAILftp to funet.fi to get linux (thanks to Trumpet Winsock).
Only the fact that I hate putting too much about myself in a public place stops me in answering to your question. My apologies for that - the only info: southwards of Estonia (which is of course self-evident, since northward of Estonia there's no other country formally under a communist regime).
(Score: 2) by Mykl on Thursday June 29 2017, @04:29AM (9 children)
Bah. Netcomm 2400 baud modem to dial into my university's dialup bank of 8 modems (yes, 8 for the whole University). This was in 1990.
It was hard to get on, and the system would boot you after 10 minutes of inactivity. So I set up a modem script to keep dialling until I got a connection, then to open a vi session and type a space every minute. Would fire it off and then wander off for an hour or two before coming back to check if I had managed to connect. Good times.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 29 2017, @05:27AM (7 children)
1999 - "senior enough" to be allowed in research labs; one 286 with 4MB RAM to play with models and numerical algos was always there and mostly mine. Good God, what a pain in the ass the stiff ODEs have been.
1998 - my Uni had no public modems. The VAX/VMS I could access have had some optocoupled terminals at 2400: VT100 clones - green phosphorus. Oh, wow! Graphic primitives and plots on screen! I could forget the traumatizing FORTRAN or the dumb Basic; if only I could wake up to stand in the queue at 6AM in the morning to get a spot (the lab opened access at 9).
1987 - couldn't get access to anything better than ZX Spectrum clones or a single CP/M if you were in front of the queue. Personal 8" floppies were quite hard to get, smuggler stuff (communist regime at that time)
1986 - the only way to have programs running - have your stack of punch cards collected for the sole weekly run allowed to students (IBM360) - after 3 attempts, I gave up, too many syntax errors.
2002 - got enough of a wage to afford buying a 486 with 8MB RAM and 120MB HDD and the US Robotics modem. 8 month worth of savings. EMAILftp to funet.fi to get linux (thanks to Trumpet Winsock).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 29 2017, @05:42AM
I forgot. The in '99 286 had 256kB on RAM not 2MB.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by Spamalope on Thursday June 29 2017, @08:50AM (3 children)
Wow, '99 is late for a 286. Was that a typo and you meant '89?
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Thursday June 29 2017, @10:12AM (2 children)
Yes, that 1989, 1988 and 1992 instead of 1999, 1998 and 2001.
Hypoglycemia, I guess.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by tibman on Friday July 14 2017, @10:07PM (1 child)
Glad that was a typo! Was thinking about the 400mhz AMD k6-2 i had in 1999. Glorious gaming rig with a 3Dfx Voodoo 3 2000.
That 486 in 1992 was 33 or 66mhz? Did it have a turbo button?!
SN won't survive on lurkers alone. Write comments.
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Friday July 14 2017, @11:51PM
Turbo button.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by FatPhil on Monday July 03 2017, @09:13PM (1 child)
May I ask which one, as I sit in the comfort of a modernised, liberated, and otherwise westernised Estonia?
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday July 03 2017, @10:27PM
Only the fact that I hate putting too much about myself in a public place stops me in answering to your question.
My apologies for that - the only info: southwards of Estonia (which is of course self-evident, since northward of Estonia there's no other country formally under a communist regime).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Monday July 10 2017, @04:14AM
I don't recall the brand, buy my first modem was 2400.