I think its time we reflect on the last ten years and remember what was happened from 1999-2009.
Ten years ago everyone was scared to death of Y2K. Now its 2012.
Rommel Fenrir Wolf II
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
They're only afraid that someone will make them watch that movie.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
When I think of the things I worried about when I was a kid...
Posted by Owasm (Member # 8501) on :
We have lots of new things to worry about:
World Situation Domestic Situation Economy End of the World (2012 to 2016, pick your year)
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I read a book in 1972 telling me the world was going to end in 1973. After counting in the new year and finding the world still here on January First, 1974, you'll understand if I'm a little dubious about putting any actual date on the end of the world...
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
All I know is the end of the world will be a Tuesday.
I don't fear the end of the world, I fear that the world is going to end after I'm already dead so I don't get to see it.
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
as i see it and lived it, the last 3000 years people have been saying the world will end, i dont think it will end any time soon
i think the world will end when the sun explods. or maybe i will nuke the planet from the moon just to bring back the glory days of the immortals.
RFW2nd
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
It would take you 3000 more years just to clean up the mess, don't think it's worth it.
Posted by satate (Member # 8082) on :
In the year 2000 I got married. We got a wedding video and like most of the videos then it was recorded on VHS. I didn't have a cell phone and niether did most of the people I knew. I think my dad had one for work and my mom might have had one. I'd never heard of texting and lol meant nothing to me. I didn't know what blogging meant and no one had an ipod or an mp3 player.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Don't worry about the world ending tomorrow, because it's already tomorrow in Australia.
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
one thing i have leaned in my long life (lives), is that time, is something that has no meaning in the long run.
10 years ago when i was 12 the last time, computers were only in schools and at work.
my step father swor up and down that computers were not going to have the afect that they have now.
man that i would love to see what that idiot has to say on how the world is today.
one of my faverit things from before the turn of the centory was a bumper sticker that i took to heart. it said...
"Bullets, the currency of the next millennium."
and now i have 15 guns 4 swords and over 150,000 rounds of amo of all types. and i kept my body armor from the Army when i was to return it. i am ready for just about anything.
RFW2nd
Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :
New year's eve ten years ago I asked my girlfriend to marry me.
Now we have kids, a dog, a mortgage; I quit my job, ran my own business, sold my business, got another job, quit that and got another. I bought a motorcycle, sold it, bought another, crashed it. I had no car accidents until I bought a new car and then I was rear ended three times within as many months.
I couldn't have predicted the last decade then, so there's no chance I can predict the next one now - I'm just happy to be able to step into it today.
Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :
10 years ago I graduated from high school. I thought by now I'd have a job. But no, I'm still in college!
Happy New Year.
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010 FROM WHITE SANDS MISSILE RANGE 2ND ENG BN 40TH MAC
RFW2nd
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
0545 1 jan 10, still awake, not drunk, have not drank, man i am proud i didnt drink for new years, i havent done that since 1 jan 08 in afghanistan.
the 2nd sober new years in 4 years drinking for new years
RFW2nd
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
On computers: Dean Koontz writes of how critics found Demon Seed, movie and maybe book too, unbelievable because the computer expert had a computer in his own home. Think about it.
Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :
In 1999? We had five computers in our house by then. Even in 1989 we had two.
Caveat: my mom WAS a computer programmer in the 70s and 80s, but still!
I just read a blog post the other day that reference "the link less tweeted". Yikes. If you said that 10 years ago, you might have been asked what a link was and how did a bird tweet it?
Posted by LAJD (Member # 8070) on :
Happy New Year!
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I got a chuckle out of the word "unfriends" being popular, and its attribution to Facebook usage. Short of some earlier example, I'll attribute it to Tolkien, published in The Silmarillion in 1977 and certainly written down a good deal earlier.
My big dictionary, from somewhere in the seventies, has a definition of "clone" that deals with a certain method of plant propagation involving grafting---I really should get a new big dictionary.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
In first grade (Which was more than ten years ago) I was given two promises (by different individuals mind you) that by time I graduate I wouldn't carry around a calculator with me and I would own a computer that could fit in the palm of my hand. One was right the other wasn't. Ten years ago I did graduate and I did own a palm pilot which had a calculator in it so ha! Over the years the palm died, and I lasted out the decade of cell phones without getting one. I'm proud of that accomplishment but I don't think I can survive much longer this way.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
I have to wonder how the individual who made that promise to you, Pyre Dynasty, defined computers. A handheld calculator is certainly a computer, though not the same as a desktop or laptop.
People can certainly access the internet and their email with handheld devices now, and texting makes it possible to "write" as well, though I don't know how much "writing" you can do on one (how long a story, that is). Maybe people could tweet their stories piece by piece to some private twitter site, if nothing else.
It might be interesting to know if anyone has actually done that, or at least attempted it.
Posted by Kitti (Member # 7277) on :
I've seen some people who tweeted stories 140 characters at a time. I was never interested in trying to read them that way, though, so I can't remember who did it/where I encountered it.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I do carry a calculator around---it's built into my watch.
For awhile before I got my cellphone, I borrowed one from my sister-in-law to take on vacations. Then, owing to illness in her family, I couldn't borrow it, so I went out and got my own. I'm still on the same phone, and the same, whatchamacallit, policy? Except on vacations, it generally sits in the glove compartment of my car, and I make one or two phone calls a month with it. And I use it on vacations to avoid long distance charges from calling home---I've never, ever, used up my monthly allotment of minutes. No texting whatsovever. (I don't even like to talk on the phone.)
I feel like the Indian fakir who wandered India wearing nothing more than a loincloth---and a portable P. A. speaker around his neck. He embraced---and I embrace---the technology we need.
[changed one word]
[This message has been edited by Robert Nowall (edited January 03, 2010).]
Posted by genevive42 (Member # 8714) on :
My cell phone has a calculator on it as well as a bunch of other officy things. It's not anything fancy either.
I don't use my cell phone much either and I've found the Virgin Mobile pay-as-you-go plan to be very economical. With auto top-up I only have to put $15 every three months ($20 if not auto) and I never actually lose unused funds. My account just has X dollars on it for me to use. And if I need more it can be added (auto or not).
I know I sound like a commercial but for low usage I think this is a great system. I resisted the cell phone idea for a long time because I couldn't imagine using it enough to spend $30-40 a month. They finally came up with a system that works for me.
Posted by Crystal Stevens (Member # 8006) on :
I, too, only use technology I need or can't get around. I like things simple. A phone should be a phone. Not a camera, the internet, or a hand-held computer. I have never believed in paying someone to spend my money. I can get TV for the cost of a television set and an antenna. Works just fine, and I don't miss a whole bunch of channels one bit.
So, I don't own a cell phone, I've never EVER owned a credit card, though I do have a checking account mainly to pay bills through regular mail, and don't need cable or satelite TV. I rarely watch TV anyway except to watch videos and DVD movies.
If I'm someplace where I need to call someone in an emergency, there's usually someone around who will let my borrow a phone (That's the way we used to do it in the old days.), land or cell.
Yes, I love my computer and just bought my first laptop. Love it.
I was quite happy with video tape movies and audio tape music. I will admit that DVD's and CD's are a big improvement, and I buy both now.
I think cars would be much better without all the extras. If it gets me where I want to go in a comfortable interior, I'm satisfied, though I do like playing CD's while on long trips.
Technology is a really great thing. I couldn't do my job very well without a calculator for example. But there is some of it that's just plain not necessary. I hate going places where everyone looks like they have a cell phone growing out of their ear. Children wouldn't be sitting around getting fat playing computer games and be out getting exercise like jumping rope, or playing tag in the summer or having snowball fights or sledding in the winter.
I guess what I'm saying is that I refuse to use complicated technology when the old way works just fine and with much less trouble. I'm a strong believer in the "KISS"(Keep It Simple, Stupid) method. But things keep getting more complicated all the time just for the sake of progress.
Looks like I better finish this up. My computer illiterate husband needs me to program the universal remote since the old one doesn't work anymore to change the channels on our combo TV. Poor baby has to get out of his recliner every time he has to change the channel.
Posted by BenM (Member # 8329) on :
My name is Ben, I am a computer programmer and I have been 0.0 seconds without using a piece of technology. I use a nokia smartphone that replaces my old palm pilot, we have four operating laptops and a desktop at home (between two adults) not counting other computing devices like game consoles or programmable calculators. Yes, I once programmed Scorched Earth into my calculator.
However, because technology is one of the loves of my life, I usually find it distracting when writing. Email, facebook, forums and blogs call me. I couldn't write a novel on a smartphone, for example. I haven't yet regressed to writing on a manual typewriter, but it is tempting.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
I know how you feel Ben, that's why I own a netbook which I have vowed never to connect it to the internet. It's a typewriter that I can play free cell on, nothing more. (Gotta love Scorched Earth.)
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
Energy prices have jumped from $17.00 to 79.62 in 10 years. Reaching as high as 147.27 in July 2008.
Cost of living has also risen a lot in the last ten years.
Now I don’t know ANY thing when it comes to energy usage, so when I did a net search, none of it made since to me at all. How much energy dose the average house use in one day? I am going wind power for my cabin but I don’t know what all those fancy words mean when it comes to energy out put.
Would someone please help me out?
RFW2nd
Posted by aspirit (Member # 7974) on :
Without knowing exactly what you want--and not wanting to lecture--the best I can provide are a couple links.
I haven't done the research, but I'm guessing solar would provide more reliable energy on Colorado ranchland than a personal windmill would. I could be wrong, though. Resources like the webpage linked below will give you an idea of what to expect of personal windmills. http://www.builditsolar.com/Projects/Wind/wind.htm#WindMap
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
solar works well when there are no trees and moutins to block the light, and moveing a moutin is not easy. trees are not realy the problome its the snow, and night. wind turbins work in almost every weather day or night.
thanks for the link that made things make more since.
RFW2nd
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Robert, your cell phone service must have been digital all along. Our first cell phone was analog, and when they stopped doing analog cell phones around here, we had to get another phone and another service (and we've since had to get a replacement phone because, I guess, of planned obsolescence ).
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Dude, story prompt: Humans invented planned obsolescence, they shouldn't have been surprised when it happened to them.
Posted by dougsguitar on :
Yep
[This message has been edited by dougsguitar (edited January 11, 2010).]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
To me, Analog is a magazine...talk about an unforseen problem with a title...
Analog, digital...I didn't pay that close attention to that aspect. I'm sure all my phone service, even the one connected to the wall, is digital in some way and at some point. (I changed it over when I got this high-speed Internet connection line last year...in doing that, I got some services I don't particularly want or want to use, like voicemail.)
Posted by satate (Member # 8082) on :
Yesterday I was telling my sixteen year old sister that when I was in Jr. High (over ten years ago) the cool technology to have were pagers. She didn't even know hoo they worked. When I explained how she asked why wouldn't people just call them. Then I had to explain that no one had cell phones then, if you wanted to call someone while out you had to use a pay phone. It was surprisingly hard to explain it to her.
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Anyone else remember slide-rules? Those things used to be as ubiquitous as typewriters.
Posted by Kathleen Dalton Woodbury (Member # 59) on :
Well, maybe ubiquitous among engineers and mathematicians.
I still have a circular "slide rule" that is way cool, and there's an extra large one around here somewhere, I'm positive.
Posted by Meredith (Member # 8368) on :
Heh. I actually used to know how to use a slide rule. Not sure I could do much with one, now. I can actually remember when we weren't allowed to use a calculator on a math exam. Slide rules were permitted, however.
And I used "actually" twice in that short paragraph. Addicted to adverbs? Me?
[This message has been edited by Meredith (edited January 06, 2010).]
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
i used a slie rule when i was in high school when my calculater broke. my answers were always a few decimals off from the corect answer. my math teacher was such a dick, when i told him that i used a slide rule.
RFW2nd
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Last semester I had a class where you couldn't use a calculator on the exam, but we were allowed a slide rule. But for me it was like a dog chasing a car, I wouldn't know what to do with it if I ever got my hands on one. (I actually couldn't find one.)
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Pfft math with calculators. I can't even imagine them being useful in from what I remember of calculus, unless you are deriving/integrating absolutely absurd fractions.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I never mastered the slide rule...I've had a couple, and tried to learn on my own---by then there were calculators, so nobody was teaching anything---and I couldn't get beyond simple multiplication.
Asimov wrote a book, "Realm of the Slide Rule," or somesuch title (I forget), which would've been most useful---but I never saw a copy.
*****
I've always thought test taking, with its emphasis on memorizing facts, misses the point. One should be graded on one's efficient location of facts---one should have what reference books one needs right in front of one.
Posted by ScardeyDog (Member # 8707) on :
Kitti, are you my secret twin or something? I graduated from high school in 2000 and my dad is/was a computer programmer. (I guess technically he's a systems analyst now).
Also Ben, I'm with you on the tech. We own four computers (two desktop, two laptops) for 2 people.
Ten years ago I thought I'd have kids by now...
Posted by shimiqua (Member # 7760) on :
Maybe we could be secret triplets. I graduated at the same time, and my dad is a computer programmer too. And all our names start with an S. Freaky.
I never thought I would have kids. Ten years ago, I thought I would be winning an Oscar by now, or at the very least hocking toothpaste on TV.
The real question, what do you think the world will be like ten years from now.
Prediction 1. No one will wear ties anymore. Prediction 2. Robots.
~Sheena
[This message has been edited by shimiqua (edited January 07, 2010).]
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
ten years ago i remember playing pokemon in school, the back street boys and n sync were the bigest bands, but to me they sounded like sick birds. i prefer Led Zeppelin and still do.
RFW2nd
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Thanks for the image of Led Zeppelin and sick birds.
It's funny I'm Rommel's twin. (But am I his evil twin or is it the other way around?) I remember my first pokemon game was broken and wouldn't save so I'd try to do the whole game in a single sitting. There some weeks of my life spent where I should have been passing math. (I had to do a little recursion to the slide-rule thread.) I was also very afraid of these three girls who prayed to the New Sync Boys. Of course I can't distinguish between Led Zeppelin and the Grateful Dead, so I guess there is some difference.
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
Oh your very welcome.
Led Zeppelin is more rock/blues where the Grateful Dead is more American Foke/ Rock/ Acid Rock.
its like trying to compair apples to oranges. there just is not to compair to.
and i am the evil ono.
i want to wipe out at least 95% of the human population of the planet to save it for immortals and bring back the glory days of the immoratl world.
the last 5% of the human race will be food for the imortals. for there are only a few hundred thousand of us left. (you can thank the spanish inquisition for that, and yes a imortal can die, if you know how to kill us.)
i dont know why i did but i gave all my original pokemon cards, all gameboy games, posters, and books to my 10 yearold brother. i should have held on to them for they will be worth a lot of money some day.
damn there went $15,000 from my pocket.
RFW2nd
Posted by RillSoji (Member # 1920) on :
Here's a weird one for the thread.
I was looking through some old journals of mine and I found an old school assignment from 1999. The assignment was to write 1 page on the subject of 'In 10 years I will...'.
Essentially I wrote that in 10 years...
I'd write a book. I'd marry someone I met online. I'd have 2 kids with one on the way. I'd have a stay at home job. I'd be a website designer. I'd own a horse.
Until I found the paper, I had completely forgotten I wrote it. I got all tingly and weirded out when I read it. I'm seriously considering becoming a fortune teller because...
I'm writing a book. I married someone I met online. I don't have kids but I'm working on it! I have a stay at home job. I am a website manager. I have owned a horse but don't anymore.
Freaky!
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
Cool, tell my fortune.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Thirty-five years ago, I thought I'd've sold a story by now.
Ten years ago, I wasn't so sure.
Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :
I just got a Blue-Ray/PS3 and I'm watching The Matrix as I write this. It is amazing how much things have changed technology-wise in just 10 years. Keanu is sitting at a cubicle with a CVT monitor and talking into a cell-phone that is bigger than his hand. The land phones all have chords connecting the receivers. Now this is not all that unusual, except that he "works for a top software company", which should be one of the most technologically advanced places to work.
Ten years ago DVD and plasma TVs were just appearing (I don't recall seeing any LCD screens). The Nintendo 64 and The Playstation (1) were the top video game systems. Portable DVD players and laptops cost over a $1000 dollars. I bought a top of the line desktop that year, with 20 GB of memory (I think) and a CD-writer, for $1800.
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
I've heard it said that ten years ago the internet was about a terabyte. Now my father has a terabyte of space that he has no idea how to use.
(And I remember when a salesman tried to talk my mom out of a five megabyte hard drive, because he said she'd never use it. She couldn't figure out why the salesman was trying to talk her out of buying something.)
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Back when I was a kid, we had kinda a home video system. It consisted of a film projector, and two reels of film. One was of some baseball highlights, the other was an excerpt from an Abbott and Costello movie. Both were silent; if the films had soundtracks we had no way of hearing them. And, as a kid, I had no way of getting anything more...recording anything, say, off the TV signal, was right out.
You've come a long way, baby...
Posted by Zero (Member # 3619) on :
I'm certain it was more than a terabyte. Which would be only 200,000 copies of a single song. (MP3 format).
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
Believe it or not, when I was 12 I used a typewriter to write school papers, and I got in trouble because they were not in the right font or font size. I hated explaining to my teachers that I used a typewriter, I actually had to drag the damn thing to school to prove to them that I used one. I damn my family that we didn’t have a computer to do my work.
That was 11 years ago. Now I cant find ribbon for it.
RFW2bd
Posted by dougsguitar on :
yeah this goes back a bit further than ten years ago... I saw a presentation once where the speaker held up a recordable birthday card, $2.50, and explained that it held more computing power than what they landed the first moon landing with. My Dad worked on the first moonshot and said he did not doubt the truth of the claim. I remember watching all that stuff on black and white TV... along with Gone With the Wind.
add; BTW - in 1976 only about a thousand people were on the internet. (see the intro of the concert DVD 'Cat Stevens - Magikat for confimation)I know, I know... more than ten years ago... sorry. Decades are going by very quickly now, my 5th will come in May. GASP!
[This message has been edited by dougsguitar (edited January 11, 2010).]
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
quote:That was 11 years ago. Now I cant find ribbon for it.
I'm gonna pass something on that somebody told me when I complained about the same thing. Try searching the web. Putting "typewriter ribbons for sale" on Google produced a number of places---one of them might have what you need.
(I haven't availed myself of the privilege, but I have searched and then bought other things. When I couldn't find a Mindfold around I went online and bought five of them direct from the manufacturer.)
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
thanks i found ribons but i cant remember the right size for it.
RFW2nd
Posted by philocinemas (Member # 8108) on :
I Typed all of my college term papers on a typewriter (My Commodore 64 didn't print all that pretty) - I sure wish we had MS Word back then. All of you who grew up with "functional" computers really had it made.
I have two Ataris in storage - one is the standard 2600 and the other plays Pong and pinball.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
quote:...but i cant remember the right size for it.
Try finding it by the typewriter model; that's how it's usually done.
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
i have an compaq 3000 that runs Windows 4.0 and DOS on it in storage. unforchently the key bord is broke and finding the right size plug thing is hard.
i also have my type writer in storage and i can not remember what modle it is, and what is also funy they are right next to eachother.
RFW2nd
[This message has been edited by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (edited January 15, 2010).]
Posted by Devnal (Member # 6724) on :
.......Remember Pog?
Posted by Pyre Dynasty (Member # 1947) on :
Did you mean pong? or the game of flipping milk caps? Or Passionfruit Orange Guava, which is a divine drink? Either way my answer is yes, I do remember. Now I'm going to have to go find some pog, I'm thirsty.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
I remember in the 1990s people were nostalgic for the 1970s...which bothered me because in the 1970s people were nostalgic for the 1950s...
Think anybody'll be nostalgic for the decade just passing?
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
Wait a minute, wasn't that RFWII's original point?
Posted by Rommel Fenrir Wolf II (Member # 4199) on :
i miss the ROMAN EMPIRE.
oh the glory days when life was simple and Werewolves out numbered humans
).
Slide rules were permitted, however.