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?

 

[OllympianGamer]

The only tech I cared about while growing up was my Nintendo 64, the N64 magazine was all I needed.

 

[okrobie]

I started my electronics journey in 1956 when I got my first Novice class Ham Radio license. i would go to the Library and borrow copies of the Radio Amateur Handbook. My first experience with "Computers" was in about 1976 with my Motorola 6800 evaluation kit. It had a 6800, 8 bit processor and about 4K of memory. It had an onboard Hexadecimal keypad as an input device. I went to a local Junior college at night which offered classes in "Microprocessors" and "assembly language programming". I was working in a steel mill at the time and got to see a Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) Hard drive. It was 5 Megabytes and had to be in it's own air conditioned vibration proof room and was the size of a small refrigerator. When I graduated to "PC's" I took courses in Basic at local schools etc. and I also avidly read "Byte" magazine and others. I bought junk and as-is PC's and fixed them at home and learned enough to get a promotion at work which involved PC's, Mac.s and Spark servers and got sent to company schools on the servers. By then the internet came along so this part of the story is complete.

 

[jonnyguru]

Computer Shopper magazine when it was 2" thick and via BBS.

 

[Unolocogringo]

I did not get interested in computers until 96. I know late starter.
By that time the internet already existed.y son always had The latest Nintendo, then Play station consoles and an original Tandy , then an IBM.
Then I found out about software that would allow me to do 3 dimensional house drawings in hours instead of weeks.
My first system.
Pentium 75
8 mb ram
4mb S3 Virge 326(?) had 2-1mb soldered and 2- 1mb socket-ed ram.
850mb Conner harddrive.
1024x768 monitor
Windows 3.1 then an immediate upgrade to 95 after purchase. Cad install was 14 floppy disk.
This was early spring 96 ,found this site that fall and the rest is history.

PS
I took a few classes in high school 78/79 . Basic language programming and operation but never developed an interest until it became a viable tool for me.

 

[King_V]

Compute! and Compute Gazette. I had a Commodore 64, then a Commodore 128.

I literally used that thing for gaming and word processing until 1996, when I got a Windows 95 PC. I discovered Tomshardware within a year or two of that.

 

[R_1]

Magazines as mentioned above. lots of trial and error fed by curiosity.
Maximum PC minimum BS subscriber for many a year

 

[Franco428]

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?

Usually Bulletin Boards and Tech Mags.
"I built a Heathkit H-89 (all-in-one) computer system with 64K Ram, 100K Hard Sectored Floppy Disk, two Z-80 CPU chips and an Amber Screen (Upgraded from the original Green). I wrote graphic software for the Word Game: "Star Trek." to make the Phasers & Photon Torps move. It was easy once you got the knack of programming in Assembly Language. The ATC Game was very Interesting and Challenging." (Franco428)

 

[Colif]

wonders if Future want to create time travel and buy all the magazines we mention here in the past, and not just now that they are dinosaurs.

I wasn't into tech before the internet, although early 80's I started my interest in computers, the amount of information was limited and back then a lot I got from the rare computer magazines I could find, and a lot in the past were UK magazines.

Computing back then was too dry and all business orientated and boring to me, so I ignored computers and used consoles instead from 84 to 99, then I swapped back after doing a course of Micro computer technology & getting my 1st PC.

 

[falcon291]

Computer magazines. And there is no other option.

For my country, most articles were translations and most of the time not exactly up-to-date.

Accessing knowledge was an issue almost for everyone, not just for tech, but for almost everything.

 

[refillable]

I had Internet the moment I was able to read and write. Am I too young to be here?

 

[USAFRet]

I had Internet the moment I was able to read and write. Am I too young to be here?

Yes...

 

[Theresa N]

In my late 20's I got a Commodore 64 and modem. I learned a lot from trial and error and from BBS's.

 

[R_1]

In my late 20's I got a Commodore 64 and modem. I learned a lot from trial and error and from BBS's.

commodore 64 I remember those. did anyone else have a VIC 20?

 

[USAFRet]

commodore 64 I remember those. did anyone else have a VIC 20?

I still do. One of each, in the original boxes.

 

[R_1]

I still do. One of each, in the original boxes.

Well of course YOU would still actually have them. lol.
Mine was lost or stolen during a move.
Now who still has a Lisa?
I hear CalTrans is still using TRS-80's, and are always looking to buy.

 

[bit_user]

Since we're talking about old computer magazines, did anyone else read Dr. Dobbs Journal? It was the first programming magazine I had ever seen. When I discovered it, I flipped out and poured through 5 years worth, at a local library, photocopying every article that struck my fancy. I filled 2 big binders, that way. I'm sure a few would still be quite relevant.

Since I didn't have money to buy a PC, or for upgrades beyond a sound card or modem, PC hardware magazines weren't as interesting to me. Still, Byte was my favorite of them, with PC Magazine probably being second. Byte seemed to do more "deep dive" articles, and it's where I first read about the superscalar architecture of the Pentium Pro.

 

[bit_user]

Circuit City

I applied for a summer job there, but they didn't take me. That tuned out to be a good thing, since the job I ended up landing was in PC repair. So, I got to fix PCs instead of just selling them.

In reality, doubt they'd even let new kids sell PCs. You probably had to work up to that. I'd have probably just swept floors and stocked shelves around new PCs. Before long, I'd have probably gotten fired for steering customers towards cheaper models that would work just as well for them.

 

[ex_bubblehead]

Since we're talking about old computer magazines, did anyone else read Dr. Dobbs Journal? It was the first programming magazine I had ever seen. When I discovered it, I flipped out and poured through 5 years worth, at a local library, photocopying every article that struck my fancy. I filled 2 big binders, that way. I'm sure a few would still be quite relevant.

Since I didn't have money to buy a PC, or for upgrades beyond a sound card or modem, PC hardware magazines weren't as interesting to me. Still, Byte was my favorite of them, with PC Magazine probably being second. Byte seemed to do more "deep dive" articles, and it's where I first read about the superscalar architecture of the Pentium Pro.

Ah yes! "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics & Orthodontia (Running Light Without Overbyte)". Still have several boxes filled with every issue. I'll get them back on shelves in the library one of these days.

 

[bit_user]

Ah yes! "Dr. Dobb's Journal of Tiny BASIC Calisthenics & Orthodontia (Running Light Without Overbyte)".

By the time I started reading it, they had already shortened it to "Dr. Dobbs Journal". Even that struck me as a little weird.

I'm not sure I ever knew the origin of its name, prior to reading the Wikipedia article linked from my post.

 

[clutchc]

Any publication that contained the words PC, computer, or DOS. PC Magazine was big back then.
Before that, I was a Commodore 64 user. I still have a huge box of old Commodore 64 mags.
Yes, I'm old as dirt...

 

[ChumP]

Learned about tech from my dad. Just asked him about everything as he was usually well informed about the latest stuff.
I actually "helped" in building a new PC when I was 6.... it had a P4(Northwood) HT (3 GHz from what I remember) and an ATI 9600XT....oh, almost forgot about the Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS sound card(the real MVP here). After watching my dad play doom 3 with eax on our compaq pc speakers... well let's just say that I wasn't able to sleep alone for a couple of months.

I was born in '98... I think I'm violating the rules of this thread on age.

 

[ajevans]

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?

I was in the Navy using computers for automated storekeeping duties and was subscribed to get news and information by internal memo and snail mail.

 

[_Treadstone]

I was actually quite young at the time. Probably in, maybe 4th or 5th grade when I use to hang around the local library after-school when I didn't play ball with classmates or lounge around somewhere. And at the local library, they always had a row of computers for general public use, but was limited to 30 minute per person. I would find magazines like Maximum PC, PCWorld, PCMag, PC Gamers and others alike. Flipping through those, I always wanted my own PC seeing the reviews for the next big thing or next big game. At that time, Crysis was just getting started and that was obviously challenging any consumer PC out there, pre-built or not. I wanted one, and while it would be a while before I would build one, that's where my enthusiasm for tech came from. Along the way, I learned from reading through tech mags and eventually into the digital world, where YouTube played the primary role in how I learned more about tech on top of numerous online articles and reviews that I gathered info from when doing research.

 

[Gfost73]

believe it or not Time magazine.. lol.. My mother subscribed to a yearly subscription and the "bonus' for doing so was this "personal PC" … well basically it was a keypad that you had to input the code for anything you wanted to play or do, it took us about 4 months to code monopoly to discover the joys of bugs.. LOl. this was early 1980s..

 

[froggx]

When I was 5 years old my dad thrust a screwdriver and a 486 cpu into my hands, pointed at our current computer, and told me "Put the small thing I gave you into the computer's house. Outta beer, I'll be back in a bit. Oh yeah, have fun and don't break anything or I'll kill you." 3 hours later he comes back and I had got the cpu into the 'computer's house' and didn't break anything. It was nowhere close to being a functional cpu installation, but he never said I needed to do that. He saw I could follow instructions and taught me everything he knew after that, which was mostly CLI stuff and working with hardware and electronics. There was also a year where we bounced between win3.1, OS/2, and Linux. I learned so much from taking things apart and seeing how they worked (putting things back together again was often an optional step since I often didn't learn anything new that way). I read a ton of PC mag and nearly memorized product manuals. I broke countless OS installs (which really isn't impressive thanks to Win9x). I blew up countless cheap PSUs, sometimes recreationally. We had a LOT of cheap PSUs, the kind that either had no safeguards or the kind of safeguards that are acronyms written on the box but were always 1 letter different than the ones on name brand PSUs. this day I have no idea where they kept coming from and don't want to.

I'm starting to see a lot of holes in the parenting I received as I think about this topic. I'm pretty sure that it is now frowned upon to give an 8 year old a bunch of questionable PSUs, some screwdrivers, multimeters, soldering iron, etc., throwing him in some rubber sole boots, and mumbling "Keep your boots on or you'll ground out and die. Don't touch any of the metal parts on the tools or you'll ground out and die. If a PSU starts smoking or making poppy zap sounds keep it off the carpet or you'll catch on fire and die. Don't breathe any smoke that comes out of the PSUs or you'll asphyxiate and die. I guess we need to get a fire extinguisher eventually or you'll die. Outta beer, I'll be back in a bit. Oh yeah, have fun and don't break anything expensive or I'll kill you." Disappear for 3 hours. What's that called now? criminal neglect of a minor and probably countless other things? I don't have kids so I'm not too worried about how they work.

The takeaway here is that by ending most of his sentences during the instructional portion of what my dad called 'happy electricity toy time' with the words "or you'll [insert some fatal event here] and die," then skipping out during what should have been the Q&A portion of things, I got unnaturally good with computer hardware and electronics in an extremely short amount of time. By the time I was 10, I was the one constantly ending sentences with "or you'll [insert some fatal event here] and die." That's when I he started teaching me practical chemistry, which was mostly mixing up things like thermite to "learn how heat effects the properties of PSU's" (unsupervised edition). The internet came out shortly afterward so that's about it.

I've noticed people that grew up in the 90s or before seem to have much better critical thinking skills. It's becoming less common to see someone fix something that broke instead of replacing it. I also see a lot of weird addictions related to the hyper connected, instantly gratifying dopamine surges from profit fueled technology abuse, rather than weird addictions from educational technology abuse, like safely working with electric currents "or you'll blow up your heart and die."