Question Weekend Question: How Did You Learn About Tech Before the Internet?

[SHaines]

Greetings!

We're kicking off our Question of the Week series today with a look back in time. In the days before the Internet put everything at your fingertips, what was your go-to method for learning about the latest tech?

My absolute favorite thing in the world was to get the Sunday San Jose Mercury News and go through the ads for places like Fry's Electronics and Circuit City. They had some glossy catalogs that described magical new tech that I could never afford (being about 11) but I still pored over every item to learn all that I could.

So, how did you scratch the tech itch in the olden days?

 

[maikutech]

Pc magazine, retail computer stores, word of mouth from my friends and teachers while in high school.

 

[mchldpy]

Tech before the Net, good one.

 

[sharif.ismail08]

I was born in 1985.... 8 years old when I first time used computer and that was Amiga 500.....
We used to play Silk Worm on it and in school it was IBM PC where we used Logo and BASIC to read it and on that time we used from magazine

 

[pmkoom]

Computer Shopper, PC world, 2600 mag, other zines

 

[littlefingers116]

Magazines like PC World

 

[Deleted member 1560910]

My cousin was up on tech back in 1994ish i was 14. I also would talk to friends but they were limited because info was limited. There was life before internet and life will survive if internet goes offline.

 

[Hal2814]

Popular Mechanics, Jane's Defense Weekly, Fortune Magazine, Guns & Ammo.

 

[Colif]

There was life before internet and life will survive if internet goes offline.

Yes, but OMG it was boring. And it would be again.

Don't wish that upon us.

 

[hammerfast]

the internet came here in 1994

but only for universities and research centers

before that and after that there were numerous pc magazines

cause nerds here aren't much frowned upon like elsewhere

 

[WebBeachBoy]

Well the Internet started off in 1967 (ARPANET) so we're going back a long way but I remember logging on to Berkeley using a Telex Terminal in 1971 to play their computer at "Matchsticks" ! Before that I remember Ferranti building the world's first commercial computer (The Ferranti Mark 1) in the 1950's as I was born in the same town.
Alan Turing was at Manchester University in 1957 and there were always science 'discoveries' reviewed in the papers.

 

[WebBeachBoy]

I wasnt alive before the internet

Hahaha What a good answer

 

[Strongwolf2]

PC magazine.

 

[Unolocogringo]

The library.
My first introduction into computers was a BASIC language class in high school. That was in 1979.
They were a curiosity until 96 when I started drawing home plans on a Pentium75, 16mb ram and S3virge326 4mb.
Then it became a tool.
Now we use them for almost everything.

 

[Tac 25]

how to use computer was taught in our school. We used microfloppies. Our grade school teacher allowed us to play Digger. Simple, but good times.

_

when reached high school.. there was one funny story I could not forget.. there was this student in another class said he "was able to reach the hard disk" of one of the school computers. But the school computers don't actually have a hard disk. Turns out that school pc got messed up. The teacher said he would try to fix it, but warned the student that if he is not able to fix it.. then the student better start saving money to pay for the damages. That story was circulated to all the classes, as a warning, so no one would try to "reach the hard disk" again. lol

 

[suvo30]

Good day, all I practically saw was my cousin's brother play Pac-Man in the year 1988. I used to gaze at the screen astonished as well as baffled with time.

My cousin's brother only introduced me to computers and later in the 1990s my introduction to MS-DOS onwards it was taught at school from a very tender age.

This action made me more curious about computers. In old times because my parents did not have that kind of money to buy computers I used to come back from school and travel daily 80 km from my home to my cousin's place to brush my computer tasks being assigned to me.

I began to buy magazines from the local magazine stall in 1999 it gave me 2 interactive disks to learn since I could not buy computers I went across town 80 Kms ( Going to his place is 40 Kms up and coming back from his place to my home is 40 Kms down so a total of 80 Km travel daily after school after reaching home and then traveling to cousins place to view the contents of the Compact Disc, it was truly mind-boggling events for me. )

On holidays since my cousin's brother went outstation I practiced and kept note of the moves I made wrong such that I could learn from my mistakes during the tasks I failed to do then.


I practiced at a cyber cafe and kept the note copy close such that I noticed my mistakes and worked on them gave multiple tests and set a clock for the exams since childhood it helped me to be precise

I got my first computer in later of the year 2004 -2005. One day it went and the blue screen of death went down.


I out of sheer curiosity not knowing computer hardware decided to open the huge Computer PC Case to know the components and what went wrong.


Since that day I never turned back I am still curious to learn more about computers, and I will be very curious to learn more about computers all my life.

Hence I am here learning from various brilliant minds in here their unique ideas and then attempting on my PC from the ideas being discussed here and then blending in with my ideas such that I can resolve PC issues with my PC with ease.


I am thankful to everyone in the group for making this forum very healthy and I am still very curious about computing. I hope to learn from each group member with the growing time. Please do enlighten me all.


Have a nice day and have a lovely week ahead.

 

[Jason H.]

Hahaha What a good answer

haha ty man. Im 31, Ive always had the internet lol.