Re: old school

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Chris Morton wrote:
> dBase III was one of the first computer courses I took. WordPerfect gave me
> a copy of their then-new, flagship word processor to try out for about six
> months. I opted for WordStar 2000 on my IBM-XT with its whopping 10MB hard
> disk and 640K. 

Wow, a hard disk! We were so excited when we got those,
and 10MB was unheard of storage space :-> Remember dual-
floppy drives when you had to have a key on a floppy disk
inserted in one of the drives in order to run an application?
(The XT had one of my favorite keyboards, and then they
replaced it with the noisy uncomfortable AT keyboard.)

> Taking my wife and kids through the Smithsonian a few years later, I was
> amazed to find a full set of Windows 1.0a on 5-1/4" floppy disks in a glass
> display. I told them I still had my copy, which—along with the first edition
> of Aldus PageMaker—pretty much launched my career as a trainer and technical
> writer. Prior to that I had spent 12 years in advertising sales, where the
> Xacto was KING and the Compugraphic 9600 was something out of the future.
> 

Um, not sure about the Compugraphic 9600 being something
out of the future. Windows 1.0 would have been about 1985
or so and when I was running the Compugraphic in 1978, it
was older technology even then -- only one support engineer
for the entire Southeastern US still knew how to diagnose
and repair one. If I had a problem and he was out of town
or otherwise unavailable, I had to wait until they could
contact him to get it fixed.

I know what you mean about the Smithsonian, though. Went
to the launch of their Information Age exhibit several
years ago with a friend who had graduated UC Berkeley
with a CS degree in 1971. He walked out feeling very old...

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb          | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com  | this message is the return address
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to Help file formats or 
printed documentation. Features include support for Windows Vista & 2007 
Microsoft Office, team authoring, plus more.
http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

True single source, conditional content, PDF export, modular help.
Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
documentation. Boost your productivity! http://www.helpandmanual.com

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40web.techwr-l.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/ for more resources and info.