[TheVerge] Extolling the (hidden?) virtues of the "Shared Family Computer" of times gone by.

[VirtualLarry]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/8/9/17661466/shared-family-computer

I thought that this was kind of a neat article, mentioning what essentially is times gone by, when well-off homes had a SINGLE shared, "family PC", and everyone used it.

 

[allisolm]

"Times gone by." A whole 18 years ago.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

Yeah, I mean.... it was so much harder to hide my porn back then.

 

[richaron]

Yeah, I mean.... it was so much harder to hide my porn back then.

So very true. Could only get like a dozen pics onto each floppy. Had to create folders named generic stuff like "data" somewhere deep within Program Files or the Windows folder to hide my stuff.

I still feel dirty.

 

[vi edit]

That was a very good article. Hit both at my childhood and my current state trying to manage a digital moderation with my children. I severely limit my kids electronic access. My 10 year old in particular would do nothing more than sit and watch brain dead retarded videos on youtube for 10 hours straight if given the opportunity.

 

[pete6032]

I remember leaving the computer connected to the dial up internet overnight so I could download demos. Couldn't leave the phone tied up during the day, and I only downloaded around 2-5kbps.

 

[Tormac]

I guess it is a give and take between staying on the computer too long and not having access to it.

I can remember growing up in the '80's when my brother, myself, and my father were always competing with each other for who got to use the computer next. My father was finishing grad-school, and wanted to use the word process to write papers, while my brother and I may have wanted to type a paper for school, but more likely wanted to play a game. Each of us would drive the other two crazy with our need to use the computer (and worse yet Dad's need always trumped mine and my brother's).

When I finally got my very own computer it was a godsend. There is no way I could picture sharing a single computer now with my wife and son. Especially if we did not have our own cell phones as well.

 

[s0me0nesmind1]

I remember when we originally signed up for the whole AOL or Compuserve GUI based internetz... That initially was how we got interwebs.

But then my dad at one point switched to PDQ. I will never forget him telling me this just strictly based on the irony. I asked him "What does PDQ stand for?" he said "Pretty damn quick!" God damn that makes me roll over laughing knowing where we were and where we are now.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I guess it is a give and take between staying on the computer too long and not having access to it.

I can remember growing up in the '80's when my brother, myself, and my father were always competing with each other for who got to use the computer next. My father was finishing grad-school, and wanted to use the word process to write papers, while my brother and I may have wanted to type a paper for school, but more likely wanted to play a game. Each of us would drive the other two crazy with our need to use the computer (and worse yet Dad's need always trumped mine and my brother's).

When I finally got my very own computer it was a godsend. There is no way I could picture sharing a single computer now with my wife and son. Especially if we did not have our own cell phones as well.

My family had similar issues.

We all had our own computers (old-but-functional ones in the case of me and my brother) by 1995 or so. Internet connectivity came later, modems were expensive.

 

[ultimatebob]

You poor people using AOL or MSN... I had a REAL ISP that let me connect at 48 to 52 kbps speeds with 120ms ping times!

 

[VirtualLarry]

Yeah, me too. Had a shell account, with a PPP daemon, and a login/dialer script in Windows 95. Remember dialer scripts?