Computers | BulgingButtons

September 18, 2014
by BulgingButtons 8 Comments

Throwback Thursday – Tech Toys

I know it’s late, and it may not even be Thursday anymore where you are, but I had to get this off my chest. I miss the old days of technology. There. I said it. Maybe it’s only because my expectations were so much lower then, and maybe it’s because I’m currently having fits because my phone and my computer don’t want to play nicely together (and I HAVE to get those pictures off the phone!), but it seems like tech wasn’t as overwhelming back in the day.

Here are a few tech blasts from the past that you may remember (if you’re as old as I am).

1. The old daisy wheel printer. Remember carefully tearing the sides off the paper before you handed in your assignments?

2. The first little Macs. Oh my, were those groundbreaking. I remember a friend had one in college, and it was totally radical. I mean, it had like six fonts and everything!

3. Printing out pictures with computer characters. My brother had a young lady pinned to his wall that was created entirely out of keyboard characters. Geek.

4. Flip phones. I loved mine. I kind of miss it, even if it wasn’t smart.

5. The original Oregon Trail game for the old Apple computers that seemed to be in almost elementary school in the country. A whole generation of kids wound their way westward and tried to survive the digital versions of hardships the pioneers faced.

What do you miss? Dad’s Betamax? Your Tamagotchi? How about the old 8 track player in your brother’s van? I’d love to hear some of your memories from years gone by. Pong anyone?

August 7, 2014
by BulgingButtons 6 Comments

Throwback Thursday – Internet

Remember the good old days, before internet? No? I do, but it seems like ancient history now. Here are some of the oldies but goodies from my personal internet past. How many of these experiences do we share?

1. Dial up. Ugh. It was so slow, and it tied up the telephone line. Some people even went so far as to put in a second telephone line. Imagine.

2. Prodigy Online Service. I was never an AOL girl. I got my start on Prodigy and liked it just fine. I participated in a bunch of online quilting swaps through Prodigy, and really enjoyed connecting with quilters across the country.

3. Parent Soup. I loved this online community when my son was a baby. I participated in the mom’s group for the month and year of his birth and really got to know many of the other moms and their babies. We created a cookbook together, we celebrated milestones together, and one of the girls even sent me flowers in the hospital when I had surgery.

4. Geocities. They hosted all sorts of cheesy webpages. Our baby webpages from the Parent Soup mom’s group were hosted by Geocities, and by golly they were adorable.

5. Yahoo Message Boards. My scrapbook buddies and I were part of a group that used a Yahoo Message Board, and it worked really well for us. In addition to all the conversation threads, there was a chat feature, which we used for a formal chat session once a week, and informally all the time. It was so cool to chat with friends in New Zealand!

Today’s technology makes these formally cutting edge services seem antiquated, or at the very least, quaint. I wonder what’s around the corner to make today’s internet seem like it’s from the dark ages. Whatever it is, I’m sure there will be a place for me.