I still remember the first time I encountered a good PC case that didn’t require three hands and a forceful smack if you wanted to close it again.
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Oh gawd, Fry’s. The one in the San Fernando Valley (Canoga Park) became legendary for placing returned “problematic” products back onto their shelves, apparently in the hope that duped customers would not take the trouble to return them. Such a wonderful store.
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In 1995, the best way to order a computer was to call 1-800-GATEWAY, talk to the phone rep, and then sit back and wait for the Gateway Fairy to drop off two large cow-spotted boxes at your house in a few days.
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I freaking hated Fry’s. The last time I was there, and it was the LAST because of this, was a nightmare.
Went to get an inkjet printer for my Dad. All the ones on the floor were returned (should’ve taken that as a hint), found someone, sent them back for an unopened one, took a good 10 minutes, at least. Grabbed a color refill and a black refill too.
Get to the checkout, the refills ring up as different prices. Well, duh, THEY’RE DIFFERENT PRODUCTS. Took the cashier a good 10 minutes to go back and find out yeah, the prices were correct. Then they try to ring up the printer, say there’s no price tag on it, ask me to go back and get another one. Fuck that noise, just walked off. Told a manager what happened, he offered $100 gift certificate which I turned down because it meant coming back.
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Dude, you’re getting a Dell.
Poor guy got fired as the spokesman for buying a bag of weed.
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Mom was one of the first women computer techs, if not the very first, so she knew all about 'em and what they’re like, hence refused to buy us a home computer until Oct '98.
I’d begged in vain for years, and can’t recall what finally convinced her to get one…probably video games and shopping. She got lotsa memory etc for the time, fancy speakers and all, and the lot cost well over a grand.
We were stuck with a 56 dial-up modem for far too long.
I was able to get a V cheap refurb’d Lenovo laptop & free broadband thru a Wayne State University/Volunteers of America program. They’d set out to get fast broadband and reliable machines into the hands of local poor folks, and we qualified. I took their How To Use A Computer course - a cake walk - and we got a router and the attendant goodies. The broadband was sposed to last a year, but it actually worked for three!
Just before the free access ended, we could afford broadband from a phone company and did that.
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Mom’s work blouses all had oil, grease, and ink on b/c printers. Her hands were covered in cuts, splits, and burns. She’d use hand lotion and complain about how much it hurt, poor thing.
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Man, I loved Amigas in the early 90s. Best of both worlds in the PC/Mac debate, IMO. But I only used them at school.
My first computer, a PC, I got on January 12th, 1997, which was when HAL 9000 was first turned on in the book, so of course I made that it’s theme.
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My parents were pretty tight with money too, but fortunately I managed to convince them to fork over half the price of an Amiga 500 (with no extras) by paying for the other half with money saved from my newspaper delivery job.
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You, Sir, Madam, or fluffy creature from the third planet to the left of the right shoulder of Orion,
You are old.
No offense, I mean it in the best of ways.
I have a friend, same age, who has a sibling who was born about 30 years prior to his own birth. My friend ‘inherited’ both his old computers as well as his soldering skills. The lair in the basement smelled funny, but that’s where I read my first lines of code in a magazine, typed up the listing into some computer model I can’t even remember and which might have been an Amstrad.
My friend now has a lair in his attic, which also smells funny. Also, he build a Geiger counter using nixies, and in his dayjob he builds satellites and rocket payload he shoots from a base in the arctics.
I, for one, never took up soldering and am adapting code from SO to solve problems I created for myself when having ideas how to solve somebody else’s problems with fucked-up data.
I clearly am to old for this shit, but also to young to have had the opportunity to learn the bloody basics!
Nice school! What the hell did you do with those machines there? The sound and graphics capabilities were what made them stand out, but that’s something schools would not really tap into, would they?
I still think the Monkey Island theme sounds best on an Amiga 1200, hands down. (Actually, I wanted to have this as my phone’s ringtone…)
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The art teacher had an Amiga… I want to say 2500? It was pretty beefy for the time. We used it in some art projects like using a digitizer to take picture ( you had to stand really still and even then it was in one color). He was into video editing etc with a Video Toaster he had at home.
There was a Paint Deluxe and I think Imagine 3D were the two programs that he let me basically do what ever I wanted. I’d take drawing or what ever - but Id be in the corner making things. I wanted to do a cool Highlander themed animation with a Claymore vs a Katana in 3D, as well as some rudimentary mannequin like figures fighting. I had some of the basic stuff made and started the animation in wire frame - but I never finished it as my friend who also did similar projects somehow managed to wipe most of the hard drive.
In deluxe paint I was trying to make a database of my home made comic characters, making it look like a faux computer program.
I really wanted to get into 3D animation or computer design - but honestly, other than maybe the KC Arts Institute, it wasn’t being offered around here, and so I just went to a JUCO that had a lab of Amiga 500s and later finished up at K-State on Mac with traditional computer design. I did dabble a little bit into 3D animation on the side when I got my own computer, but by then work and school and GFs etc made it so I just didn’t have the time to self teach and go for it - so I stuck it out with 2D design.
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Now you got me started! In the mid 80s, I bought a Technics SLDL1 turntable (still use it 
) from Pacific Stereo in Woodland Hills, CA. It was on sale and a great deal. The salesperson claimed that one of the customer services they provide is a bench-test of closed-box items before handing over. I’m ashamed to say that my ‘Times Square’ district electronic shop instinct failed to kick in, and I agreed to the bench-test. Got it home then noticed a lot of strange old-looking scratches and scuffs and smudges underneath the turntable. Everything else looked good, so I guessed it had at worst been used as a display item at the store and for quite a while. Furious, I took it back and demanded an unopened factory-boxed turntable and w/o a bench-test. The sales guy was not happy; he took a very obvious look at my NY Giants cap and retorted with this: “Well, I don’t know what you guys in New York have, but here in California we provide customer service.” Me: “You sold me a display item. I paid for a new one. I want a replacement.” He became even more pissed off. “Fine! Get him a boxed one from the back! And don’t come back here if you have any problems with it!” Then he stalked off. The capper was the cashier gal who wrote up the paperwork for the switch. She wrote in “Returned Used Item” and she was smiling the whole time. It was a ‘He gotcha, boss!’ smile. What a day.
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Somewhere in this thread is a PowerMac G5 with a closed-loop watercooling system made by Delphi (an auto-parts supplier in the United States) crying as it isn’t part of a joke, those cries unheard over the bird-chirping of its switching power supply.
First computer purchase had to wait until I was solidly employed (despite Trash-80 fun in HS), so a Packard Bell from Sears (with financing!) entered my life in 1992. Within a year something very glitchy was going on, so I took it back for a full refund per Sears’ policy back then.
Got a monster-sized Gateway (moo!) and rode that until Win95 came out, then built a custom box. Honestly, I had the best time with Win3.11 and that Symantec(?) skin that let you go to town on every setting. In comparison, Win95 was a let-down.
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