I was presented with an A4 piece of paper which explained the basic html tags by two chaps who had set up a server. They wanted someone to build websites for their clients. I was a keen hobbyist computer game developer acquaintance of theirs with some graphic design skills and in some bizarre way that meant I was a fully qualified website developer! The whole proposal seemed very basic, clunky and hard to understand due to the paradigm shifts involved. I felt the potential more than understood it and it was exciting. I still love developing games as a hobby yet this project and the potential (especially for me with regard to games) is the first bit of technology that feels exciting to me. I felt compelled to share this. Iām not sure why.
Share away There are a few of us who have similar feelings from past innovations. I too remember '94 and how I felt as it unfolded. And the early Internet before it. And early computers before that!
But donāt mention any of this to @neo or weāll never hear the end of it
You are right about other past innovations. A big one for me was my first computer - a Sinclair ZX81 and the sheer sense of achievement I felt after I had typed in the instructions required to run a Pong clone. That was me hooked. The whole independent/hobbyist game development scene was exciting yet felt very niche. The web was the first time I was involved in something that was actually going to change the way the world works. I get that sense again as I absorb the documentation here. I am an idiot though - I spent all my time on the dev forum, earned basic level, downloaded the SAFE Browser to start playing andā¦ it turns out I have to be basic level on this forum lol@myself
Still have mine in the closet.
Thanks for sharing! Iām not a serious game developer, but some of what you say sounds familiar! Back in the late 1980ās My supervisor knew I owned a Commodore Amiga and a Commodore 64. So when the office had to get a Sperry 1100 computer terminal, guess who everyone picked to learn how to use it ?? Yes, ME! As if those machines were anything alike. Now, I am here to learn about SAFE.
In 1994 I hated computers, mostly because I didnāt like the people I knew who were excited by them. Also though, going back a decade, I feared Orwellās ā1984ā scenario where all our actions and thoughts are collected and used to control us, and the more I learned about databases the more obvious that danger became. I donāt know what the consequences of SAFE will be, and Iām sure they wonāt all be benign, but the dangers to society presented by the current internet grow more obvious day by day.
The current internet does have itās flaws. Thatās one of the reasons Iām here. I heard that the author of ā1984ā wrote it in 1948 and just changed the last 2 digits to ā84.ā So I guess I have always thought it to be so fictional.
In a world with the Safe network, there will never be Ministry of Truthā¦ 2 + 2 will never be 5 in a SAFE world
Haha I know what you mean. By the wayā¦ The Amiga 500. What a great computer, especially for the hobbyist game developer.
ā¦Never got to play with the c64 or the Amiga, but I was lucky that my father worked with computers and we got an 8086 on the day they were available more or less (at 3 months salary in price). 640k ram, 10Mb HDD, 4MHz. And it was a beast. Everything was new, everything was possible, everything was custom at first. Scripting dialups for time limited BBS connections. Reprogramming Wumpus Hunt. The joy of discovery. Got that feelinā once again with Safe (and some other crypto projects).
ohhhā¦ the title says ā1994ā not ā1984āā¦ i was just like āWTF?ā
My computer experience, in chronological order:
Atari 2600
Commodore 64
Tandy 8088 XT
Packard Bell Legend 486 DX33 (my dialup BBS goes online 1994-10-31)
Pentium 100MHZ (home built)
From there I rose up the ranksā¦
133MHZ, 166MHZ, 200MHZ, etc, etc
Until I got into 1GHZ+ and you get the idea.
In the PC world I started with MS-DOS v3.0, rose through the ranks to MS-DOS v6.22 with Windows v3.11 for Workgroups (as well as QEMM / Desqview).
Then went from Windows 95 to 98 to 98SE, skipped Windows Murphyās Edition (aka Might Explode) and went to Windows Oh-ohh! (Windows 2000). Then to 2K-Pro 2K3 Server, Windows XP and in 2006 made the jump to Debian Linux followed shortly there after by Ubuntu Linux where Iāve remained since.
BBS Software History:
Renegade BBS [MS-DOS] (1994-1997)
Telegard BBS [MS-DOS] (1997-1999)
Mystic BBS [WIN32] (1999-2003)
Synchronet BBS [WIN32] (2003-2006)
Synchronet BBS [LINUX] (2006-2010)
Took the BBS down due to reasons I might get into some other time, but not right now.
The BBS Scene still exists, but seems largely lacking in motivation, creativity and inspiration anymore. SafeNet in my opinion, seems to provide some hope for not only jump-starting the creative spirit within the BBS Scene ā but within all scenes, all genres, all communities and basically everything within cyberspace. It has the potential to change basically everything. So it makes me feel like those good old pioneers days are once again reborn, and Iām here with bells on!
I think I see a biiiiiiig topic comingā¦
The title of that topic being?
What is everyoneās computer experience?
And mine being something like this:
Nintendo Game&Watch
Apple ??
Commodore 64
286
486
Pentium II
???
???
???
Intel Pentium J4205 (small, quiet, does the basics)
OS:
Apple
Commodore
MS-DOS
Win95
Win98
WinXP
Ubuntu
Linux Mint
Arch Linux
ArchBang
Parabola GNU/linux-libre
Ubuntu (Unity 7)
Arch Linux
Now now that would be telling me age
How about starting with RTL (Resistor Transistor Logic) and DTL (Diode Transistor Logic) and TTL (transistor Transistor Logic) CPUs. Ever hear of microcoded CPUs, ever hear of the intel 4004?
@neo is trying to pull a fast one here. I know for a fact he started on a Difference Engine.
Match this:
End 1947 experiments were performed and one observed that when two gold point contacts were applied to a crystal of germanium, a signal was produced with the output power greater than the input.
In 1946 experiments were performed and in 1947 I was born o/o
I remember Nintendo Game & Watch, those were really fun to play on, I still have it in a box somewhere.