On 15/04/2011 2:53 PM, Invisible wrote:

>> From my memory.
>
> That's not how I remember it, but hey, OK...

Yes everyone is different.
>
>>> The possible answers include:
>>> - Play video games.
>>
>> There weren't any then. Text games or wireline graphics.
>
> I certainly remember knowing several people who owned a C64 or a ZX
> Spectrum or something similar exclusively so they could play games on it.
>

Different peer groups then.


>>
>> Most people used pen and paper. Most people could not type and the ones
>> that could probable learned how to at commercial lessons or typing
>> classes.
>
> Again, I certainly remember us owning a typewriter. Me and my sister
> used to type stuff on it just for entertainment. Having a word processor
> made life so much easier. And then my parents got a dot matrix printer
> to go with it...
>
> As late as 1995, one of the people at school paid hundreds of pounds for
> an "electronic type writer" that was basically a computer keyboard, dot
> matrix printer and a tiny LCD all in one unit. So, like a real
> typewriter, but computerised. (I don't think you could even turn it off
> without losing your work, mind you...)
>

My father had one of them. IIRC it was a Starwriter, a typewriter style 
keyboard, a 4 or 6 line LCD display and a printer all in the cace of a 
portable typewriter.


> Yeah, I'm having trouble thinking of any large volume of information
> that you'd actually bother keeping that would be too large to hold on
> paper... The contents of your filofax maybe.
>

Since all official communication was by paper it built up. Some people 
keep every thing.

>> You probably don't realise how much things have changed just in my
>> lifetime.
>
> I know how much they changed in *my* lifetime, but I'm not quite as old.
> ;-)
>
Not quite, indeed. :-D

>> Cars were for the rich, children could play in the street without fear
>> of getting knocked down. But collecting number plates (I don't mean
>> ripping them off cars) had just gone out of fashion but adults thought
>> that it was a suitable hobby. Ballpoint pens were banned in schools, we
>> used dip pens. (That changed when I went to high school). The first
>> check book I got cost 1/2d per check for stamp duty. People used to go
>> out to the airport to see planes taking off and landing for
>> entertainment. Foreign holidays were unheard of for most people.
>
> As I say, I'm younger.

And live in a new town.
>
> When I was a kid, almost everyone had a TV, most people had a knackered
> old car that they spent months per year fixing,

Sometimes when out for a drive.

> and some but not all
> families owned an 8-bit home computer of some sort. I can distinctly
> remember being utterly addicted to Space Invaders, so much so that I
> didn't want to leave my friend's room when mum said it was time to go home.
>

I forgot, you live in the affluent south. (As I do now.)

> My parents bought a ZX Spectrum so they could run "educational" type
> games on it for me and my sister. Later my dad had a Commodore Plus4.
> That died spectacularly; left on his bed, the air vents apparently got
> blocked, and I came back to find that the tape hadn't finished loading.
> Instead, the screen was now pink with diagonal white stripes and random
> flashing glyphs. It never worked again, so we got a C64. Pitty; the
> Plus4 was better.
>

I had rubber bands to play with and marbles. ;-)

> I haven't seen that one yet. Then again, I've only really got experience
> of one brand - Acer.
>

My old Acer laptop came with a manual on the HDD.

> Unless you count that IBM thing I was allowed to use, way back in
> 1990-something. You know, when only business executives, accountants and
> professional programmers could such things. Cyan and magenta screen that
> rippled when you touched it. VGA graphics FTW! :-D
>

A tad more people than than that but I worked in industry then so there 
was more need for things like spreadsheets etc.

>> Yes, plug it in and clean with a damp cloth but not at the same time.
>
> During boiling, the outside of the kettle may become hot. This does not
> indicate a fault condition.
>

LOL

>>> What, you don't know any gamers? ;-)
>>
>> Only you. My brother-in-law plays some sort of fantasy football game but
>> that is a solo thing, I think. I don't play games myself I'm not any
>> good at them.
>
> Solo games are still games. ;-)
>

I was thinking of people like your clan.



-- 
Regards
     Stephen

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