Re: Good Old (Tech) Days....WAS "Can this career be saved?"

Subject: Re: Good Old (Tech) Days....WAS "Can this career be saved?"
From: beelia <beelia -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com
Date: Tue, 7 Jun 2011 19:50:39 -0700

I still have a bunch of those 5-1/4" discs in a closet. I wrote my master's
thesis on an IBM Displaywriter word processor, which actually took 8" disks
(yeah, I still have it).

Every once in awhile I wonder why I've kept all that stuff, and who on earth
would want it. I still have 8 or 9 PCs, but you guys with Commodores and
TRS-80s have me beat. My first one had Windows 3.1 installed.

I also have an Apple Mac LC-1 and the first Apple LaserWriter (filled with
dried-up toner). I coveted, but did not purchase an Osborne 1. Good thing,
too - I could barely lift that "first portable computer".

And now, I invite all of you creaky old-timers to join the club. Get
yourself a proper commemorative t-shirt so we can celebrate our survival
together:


http://www.jinx.com/p/ask_me_about_old_hardware_t_shirt.html

Cheers

Bee

On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 12:30 PM, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> In 1978 my boss showed me these remarkable 5-1/4" floppy discs, each
> containing a few fonts comprising a typeface family. These were for a
> Compugraphic typesetter. Ads were created with rubylith, clip art, glue
> pots, X-Acto knives and waxing units. On Friday afternoons I'd change from
> my role as a salesperson/rough layout artist to negative stripper and
> aluminum plate burner, all destined for the Web (decidedly NOT the www
> variety) press.
>
> In '86 I set myself up as an independent, PostScript-enabled, PC-based
> electronic publishing house, centered around a hot-rodded AT-compatible.
> This was back when FEW people—outside of the Palo Alto/Menlo Park elite and
> company employees at Apple, Adobe, Aldus and QMS—considered DTP to be truly
> viable, *especially* from a PC!
>
> > Chris
>
> On Tue, Jun 7, 2011 at 12:16 PM, Becca <becca_price -at- yahoo -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > At my first writing job, writers were to *write* and secretaries typed -
> > that was a big uproar in the STC in those days. It was a big day when the
> > company purchased a (I think) Word Star unit that the secretary actually
> got
> > into like a cockpit to do the data entry and formatting. The output was a
> > long thin strip maybe 3-4" wide that we put through a hot wax machine to
> be
> > able to do our layouts and pasteups.
> >
> > Am I really dating myself?
> >
> > -Becca
> > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
> >
> > Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with
> > Doc-To-Help.
> > Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
> > Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
> > http://www.doctohelp.com
> >
> > ---
> > You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -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/salt.morton%40gmail.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.
> >
> > Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
> > http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
> >
> >
> ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
>
> Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with
> Doc-To-Help.
> Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
> Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
> http://www.doctohelp.com
>
> ---
> You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as beelia -at- pacbell -dot- net -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/beelia%40pacbell.net
>
>
> 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.
>
> Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
> http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat
>
>
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days.
http://www.doctohelp.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.

Please move off-topic discussions to the Chat list, at:
http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/listinfo/techwr-l-chat


Follow-Ups:

References:
Re: Good Old (Tech) Days....WAS "Can this career be saved?": From: Chris Morton

Previous by Author: Re: technical documents in e-format?
Next by Author: Re: Can this career be saved?
Previous by Thread: Re: Good Old (Tech) Days....WAS "Can this career be saved?"
Next by Thread: Re: Good Old (Tech) Days....WAS "Can this career be saved?"


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads