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Talk about feeling old!


Osbo

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This semester I have to take among other courses, CET-111 (Computer Repair and Upgrade), and the instructor is an old IBM guy from when IBM made typewriters. Today was 'boot the computer with DOS 6.22, partition and format the HD' So, ok, I did it, then I realize that I'm one of the 'old' dudes in the class of kids, so I had to go around helping the other students how to use CLS, DIR, what's an AUTOEXEC.BAT, etc, etc. One kid asked me, 'Where are the folders?' and 'Why is my mouse not working?'

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Wow. Amazing that they're even teaching such skills these days. I remember when it was young kids who were the computer whizzes, even knowing more than the teacher in a lot of cases. Of course, that time has long past. More people use a computer than ever, but few of them know a thing about it.

 

Of course, growing up with DOS, it's kind of a humbling experience to go further back and do anything interesting with an Atari 8-bit.

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Wow, using DOS brings back some memories, i haven't used it in years but i think i could still get around quite easily (configuring the autoexec.bat and config.sys, formatting and setting up software). i never really had to use the CLS command for much, i did use dir/w a bit and pause screen for those directories with a almost non ending list.

 

quite good times.

 

Your only old until you let yourself be old.

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Wow. Amazing that they're even teaching such skills these days. I remember when it was young kids who were the computer whizzes, even knowing more than the teacher in a lot of cases. Of course, that time has long past. More people use a computer than ever, but few of them know a thing about it.

 

Of course, growing up with DOS, it's kind of a humbling experience to go further back and do anything interesting with an Atari 8-bit.

 

Its about par for the course. When I took a data processing class in the 80s they taught us on what was basically 50s and 60s era hardware.

 

When I worked at IBM several of their internal systems are DOS like and it was beneficial to have that experience. Its never a bad thing to be CLI literate.

Edited by TwiliteZoner
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From a gaming standpoint, autoexec.bat, config.sys, upper memory, emm386, cd rom drivers, mouse drivers etc. all of that = frustration back in the day.

 

But I had handy multi-config menu's to handle all my games. Multi-boot disk's etc.

 

The hardest games to run I recall were Arena, Ultima VII and Alone in the Dark if I recall (on one system).

 

:)

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From a gaming standpoint, autoexec.bat, config.sys, upper memory, emm386, cd rom drivers, mouse drivers etc. all of that = frustration back in the day.

Frustration? That was the challenge..

You run memmaker and check your free memory.

Then you try to beat it manually... How much can I load into himem? Hmmm..

 

Great fun!!!!! ;-)

 

desiv

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Its about par for the course. When I took a data processing class in the 80s they taught us on what was basically 50s and 60s era hardware.

 

My first school computer experience was in middle-school which had a PDP-11 driven with a slow teletype with round keys. We knew it was ancient and we thought it was still kind of cool to play Hunt the Wumpus or Star Trek on it, or print out ASCII art. But boy did it waste paper. I'm glad the era of paper teletypes is over otherwise by now there wouldn't be a single tree standing.

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From a gaming standpoint, autoexec.bat, config.sys, upper memory, emm386, cd rom drivers, mouse drivers etc. all of that = frustration back in the day.

But I had handy multi-config menu's to handle all my games. Multi-boot disk's etc.

That early-mid 90s period was the best era in PC gaming ever - but I sure don't miss futzing with all that stuff. Edited by BydoEmpire
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I was lucky and got modern PCs. TI-99s in elementary, Apple IIe and II+ in middle school, and a VAX, Macs and 386s in HS.

 

I picked a 486 up for college and learned to set up the memory for my games. I remember trying to set up Mech Warrior on the 486. I had to slow it down. I had fun playing Starcon3 on that old machine.

I would use memmaker to start and then modify the rest manually if I needed more room. I also used QEMM later.

Edited by Almost Rice
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From a gaming standpoint, autoexec.bat, config.sys, upper memory, emm386, cd rom drivers, mouse drivers etc. all of that = frustration back in the day.

 

But I had handy multi-config menu's to handle all my games. Multi-boot disk's etc.

 

The hardest games to run I recall were Arena, Ultima VII and Alone in the Dark if I recall (on one system).

 

:)

I remember having a bunch of boot disks with autoexec.bat and config.sys files on it just to work specifically for certain games. That and constantly running memmaker to try and get a little more memory out of the machine by moving things into high memory. Then there was the infamous soundblaster settings. Those were the days =)

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The fun thing is, i still use dos commands in the cmd mode, sometimes i find it easier to browse arround in dos then in wondows.

 

Absolutely. I usually do that when I need to find a file. It just seems easier than having to go through the Windows version. I get so confused dealing with Windows since my desktop is XP, my laptop Vista, and my netbook Win 7. I still get to so a little CLI work since at my office we use a lot of Unix/Linux machines.

 

JY

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The fun thing is, i still use dos commands in the cmd mode, sometimes i find it easier to browse arround in dos then in wondows.

 

I use the command line all the time with windows, especially when troubleshooting network issues. Far easier to use things like net, nbtstat, nslookup, ping, and other stuff versus windows tools.

 

Cliff

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I use the command line all the time with windows, especially when troubleshooting network issues. Far easier to use things like net, nbtstat, nslookup, ping, and other stuff versus windows tools.

 

Same here.

I find it fun when the Windows admins ask me for help, because they know the first thing I'm going to say is "OK, open a command prompt." :-)

 

They think it's because I'm a Linux guy, but I was a DOS guy long before I was a Linux guy...

 

I just think its funny how little some of these guys know about the insides of their OS.

I'll give them that they know more about configuring AD and they can fly though all the GUI things...

But when something's really broken, they find the guys who knew DOS.. ;-)

 

The thing I think is weird when we need a file, and they are sitting at a Command Prompt (because I told them to start one) and I say "let's FTP to the image server" and they launch IE or go start-RUN-//servername??? (It's a MS server so that will work too, but)

 

What? Just type ftp ip.addr.x.y!!!! <sigh>

 

Oh well.. :-)

 

I'm OLD and proud of it!!!!!

 

<end of line>

 

;-)

 

desiv

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