Anyone else remember being a computer noob?

[Maximilian]

I was just thinking back to my old computer, i remember reading pc's for dummies that a bigger hard driver was always better! So i took a measuring tape to the base unit of my computer (i had developed past thinking the monitor was the computer and actually aknowledged that strange grey box under the table) and measured it, i also compared it to pictures of other computers in a computer shopper book my dad bought, my computer looked bigger so i assumed it was better lol. Ah well, turns out it actually had a 1GB hard drive.

We tried to get that computer repaired in 1998 and the repair guy stole it when he moved away, that soab. :frown: Anyone else remember being a noob?

 

[duragezic]

About 12 years ago, I was 10, recently got first computer for christmas. It was a 486 SX, cd-rom, Windows 3.11. So we had some various software for it, games and whatnot. For whatever reason, I don't recall my first uses of the computer to be in Windows. But the games were all DOS anyway. So I would put the disks in, install them, then run them from the screen that asked me to once I finished installing. I didn't know the difference between installing and running (or just didn't know how to run) so everytime I wanted to play, I installed it. So a while later when someone figured out the 'win' command, get to the file explorer, and there is dozen copies of the same damn programs! I guess the install programs just appended a number to the directory name.

 

[hiromizu]

Probably dating myself here. My elementary school had a computer game with a supposed turtle to draw lines on the screen via commands. Took me aboot 2 weeks to figure out how to fill up the entire screen with lines.

 

[Raduque]

Speak for yourself, Soviet.

 

[Saint Michael]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Probably dating myself here. My elementary school had a computer game with a supposed turtle to draw lines on the screen via commands. Took me aboot 2 weeks to figure out how to fill up the entire screen with lines.

I remember that too... LOGO?

 

[Q]

I was born a computer nerd so I never was a noob.

 

[Maximilian]

Originally posted by: duragezic
About 12 years ago, I was 10, recently got first computer for christmas. It was a 486 SX, cd-rom, Windows 3.11. So we had some various software for it, games and whatnot. For whatever reason, I don't recall my first uses of the computer to be in Windows. But the games were all DOS anyway. So I would put the disks in, install them, then run them from the screen that asked me to once I finished installing. I didn't know the difference between installing and running (or just didn't know how to run) so everytime I wanted to play, I installed it. So a while later when someone figured out the 'win' command, get to the file explorer, and there is dozen copies of the same damn programs! I guess the install programs just appended a number to the directory name.

Thats exactly what my stolen compuer was lol.

 

[cKGunslinger]

I once paid $200 to have 4MB of RAM installed in my PC (486 DX). $50 of that was for labor. Not long after, I realized that "labor" was opening the case and popping in the RAM.

 

[kamper]

Yup, the first machine that I owned (as opposed to my family's) had windows ME and I didn't see anything wrong with that. When I first heard about scsis I thought it would be so cool to install one and use it for a page file and it would be as fast as ram because it spun at, like, 10k rpm. I've blocked out most of the details of my early programming experiences. Oh, but one really stupid one... I was programming in java and using a float where I should have been using an int so comparisons (foo = 7.2; foo == 7.2?) didn't really work well. I wrote a long ranting comment about how this meant that java sucked and wasn't as robust as c (never having written a line of c in my life). The TAs must have had a pretty good laugh when reading that.

 

[Nohr]

I remember in junior high a friend asked me what OS I had on my computer. I had no idea and responded with a guess: "Microsoft Works?"

In high school a classroom had just upgraded a few computers to brand new Pentium 90's with 16MB RAM. The hard drives were rather loud compared to the older PCs they had. I thought the clicking noise was the Pentium thinking. "Wow, listen to how fast it's going!"

I remember playing on dialup BBS's that were located in other states, not realizing that long distance charges applied just like voice calls. My parents were not too pleased with me when the bill came.

 

[Baked]

Yes, back when I paid and used Norton software. And of course paying $2.5K for a NEC computer from Circuit City.

 

[Hyperlite]

no. i was l33t before i retained memory.

 

[JJChicken]

Nope, never was a noob. Was using computers when I was 10.

 

[IronWing]

Originally posted by: Quintox
I was born a computer nerd so I never was a noob.

That was sort of true for me. The first thing I ever did with a computer was play tic tac toe against a mainframe that would use a super cool fixed-base pen plotter for output. I was either five or seven years old. The next time I touched a computer was as a freshman in HS when I sat down at an Apple II and started programming (BASIC).

 

[Fritzo]

Heh...when I was a noob, I read books to teach me how to use things. There were no icons and sissy crap like that- you had to write apps on your own in machine language (or BASIC if you bought it).

Wow, it's the future! I can do grandpa "when I was a kid" stories with computers!

 

[TreyRandom]

Originally posted by: Fritzo
Heh...when I was a noob, I read books to teach me how to use things. There were no icons and sissy crap like that- you had to write apps on your own in machine language (or BASIC if you bought it).

Wow, it's the future! I can do grandpa "when I was a kid" stories with computers!

Yep - same here. I learned BASIC on a Wang. My first computer (a Timex-Sinclair 1000) had 2K of RAM. That was back in '82.

I got my first hard drive about 7 or 8 years later. The drive had 40 MB split into two 20 MB partitions. Strangely enough, I still have that drive, as well as the Amiga 500 it's connected to.

 

[Colt45]

not possible.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmYDgncMhXw

 

[Miramonti]

The first computer I bought myself was a Gateway Dual Pentium 450mhz Windows NT workstation (e4550?).

OMG, just the thought of troubleshooting NT as a pc noobie makes my head spin again.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

In middle school, I destroyed a slew of CDs by not knowing how to burn.

I remember the first time I opened Windows Explorer I was scared. The folders were endless!

 

[thehstrybean]

My first use was a Apple green screener with a 5.25" floppy playing stupid games like wordcruncher
Then a 95->98->ME (EW!) box (Compaq 200MHz box with a CD drive that sounded like a jet plane).
THen I built my own AMD Duron -> Athlon XP

 

[IronWing]

I never figured out why folks hated Win Me so much. It wasn't much different than 95b.

 

[MotionMan]

Originally posted by: hiromizu
Probably dating myself here. My elementary school had a computer game with a supposed turtle to draw lines on the screen via commands. Took me aboot 2 weeks to figure out how to fill up the entire screen with lines.

Logo

I remember that and, in fact, taught a very basic class in Logo at an orthodox Jewish camp for girls (!) one summer when I was in high school in the early 1980's.

The biggest trick was remembering to tell the program to "learn" (save) what you were about to do. If you just started "programing" first, it would not save your work.

I learned how to use the program starting in the second grade.


I recall not knowing things about computers, but I do not recall doing or saying noob things. If I didn't know, I asked someone who did or I looked it up.

MotionMan

 

[KLin]

I tried upgrading my family's 386dx/40 PC from Dos 5.0 to Dos 6.20. ended up hosing the PC. Had to have a friend's dad fix it for me. That's the day I learned about the sys command. I think I was about 13 or 14 at the time.

http://www.computerhope.com/syshlp.htm

 

[ObiDon]

yes. there was a time when i used AOL

 

[lyssword]

Back in 2000 I started reading up on computers. I was about 13 back then. I (used mouse, opened a program) first computer (older mac) when in Elementary school in 98'.