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

Fair enough.

>> 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, that's the kind of thing. The one I saw was light brown. ;-)

>> 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.

Oh hell yeah... I'll never forget the time one of the pistols LEFT THE 
ENGINE BLOCK while we were driving back to the camp site one time while 
on holiday. o_O

>> and some but not all
>> families owned an 8-bit home computer of some sort.
>
> I forgot, you live in the affluent south. (As I do now.)

Is there actually a difference?

>> My parents bought a ZX Spectrum so they could run "educational" type
>> games on it for me and my sister.
>
> I had rubber bands to play with and marbles. ;-)

I remember my sister collecting marbles. All sorts of different colours. 
Other than looking at them, we could never figure out anything 
interesting to do with 'em though.

>> 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.

Really? I haven't seen that on any of the ones I've bought or used.

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

I imagine most people who had a laptop actually had "the company's 
laptop", not one of their own.

>> During boiling, the outside of the kettle may become hot. This does not
>> indicate a fault condition.
>
> LOL

No kidding, the manual for our tap says that shortly after use, it may 
dribble water, and this is not a fault. (It's a swan-neck tap.)

>> Solo games are still games. ;-)
>
> I was thinking of people like your clan.

Sure. But even if you only play Freecell, that's still a "use" for a 
computer, as such...

Post a reply to this message