Author |
Message |
Hermione69
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 10:49 am
(P.S. I'm a geek for even googling it, aren't I???)
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Tess
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 10:51 am
yes. definitely, Hermi.
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Crossfire
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 10:57 am
Ok, I'm glad you jumped in Hermione, I'd have guessed much earlier than that. It is a bit of a trick question in that you have to separate the www from the internet in general which preceded the net as we know it today. Prior to the www, there were other archaic means for accessing the internet such as gopher and newsgroups (NNTP). My first online experience goes back to the early 80's using a 300 baud acoustic modem connecting to something called the dow jones information service which was an ugly complicated mainframe system with no graphics and very little else. Back then, you could read information faster than the computers could transmit it. And doing something like setting down a coffee mug too hard on the desk could cause you to lose your connection.
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Jan
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 10:58 am
Wow Crossfire. I bow before you also!!! (and yes Herm, I would say that officially makes you a geek ) According to the book I was reading (a GREAT READ BTW..Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything"): "the World Wide Web is a CERN offshoot.(CERN, which is the European Organization for Nuclear Research located on the border of France and Switzerland, employs 3000 people). WWW was invented by a CERN scientist, Tim Berners-Lee, in 1989" This fact is mentioned in the precursor to "The DaVinci Code" BTW (a great fiction read). CERN figures prominently in this prequel (Angels and Demons)
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Crossfire
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 11:01 am
For the record, my first modem can be seen in this photo. (It is the long flat black thing with the two rubber cups that you would set the phone handset in after you manually dialed the number for the computer on the other end.

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Hermione69
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 11:10 am
fascinating! i wasn't sure if i should separate the internet from the www, so part of why i googled was to check that. i knew the internet was far older than 1994, but i also knew that crossfire probably knew what he was talking about! i remember the first time we ever did a successful www search in my school library. i was a middle school librarian and we couldn't find the answer to this obscure science question in our book collection, so i tried the www and bingo! it must have been 1995 or 1996. it was quite a milestone in library history and the science teacher was THRILLED. i still remember how excited he was. he was a big proponent of computers in the library anyway and this just reinforced his stance. i remember one of the first email systems i used. very archaic. text only. fragile connection. we've come a long way!
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Midlifer
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 12:21 pm
Geeky things I do? Hang around Hermione in the LIBRARY!
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Landi
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 12:24 pm
gawd... i remember being in middle school when i used my first computer hooked to a modem. it had those cuppy things like crossfires... i figure that was 1975 or 1976. we dialed up some computer somewhere to do math and we did beginning programming of some sort (too long ago to remember what!). we also did stuff with punch cards. gawd i'm old.
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Midlifer
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 1:52 pm
No, you're not, Landi...I remember when computers had the "ticker tape" type stuff. Top THAT if you can!
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Crossfire
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 2:05 pm
Punch cards...That must be like a geek medal of honor or something. I've never had to go (got the chance to go) any lower on the food chain than telnet like sessions on a teletype. Which I can only describe as a computer with a roll of paper where the monitor should be. Anyway, I'll step aside, and let the punch card and ticker tape folk assume their proper place at the front of the room. err .
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Midlifer
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 2:20 pm
All RIIIIIIIGHT! Does that mean that I am the Queen of Geeks?
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Hermione69
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 2:25 pm
Definitely! Okay, I think I jumped the gun. I think the WWW was invented before 1994. I did read the page thoroughly and it was the WWW Consortium that was in 1994, which I think was a conference. Whoopsie. WWW Inventor Sorry, Crossfire. I still bow before you, though! 
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Djgirl
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 2:57 pm
I guess you can count me in on the geek parade! Let's see, I, like Hermi, bloomed late and was a huge geek only my transformation decided to take much longer - 18... I lost the glasses, shed some pounds, and got out of my small town! I too am a gamer, but not a PC gamer, I don't have a PC at home (can't be that big of a geek can I? ), but I do have a Nintendo64 and want a GameCube. I LOVE the Zelda series & have a Gameboy Advance SP to play the current games on. I was a KARAOKE DJ for two years so Cross, I think that beats just being a DJ! I was in three different school bands, five choirs & skipped exactly 1 class during high school. I was in all the advanced classes and excelled at music & english... I'm going to hide the rest of my geek'ness, but I hope I can join the crowd!!!
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Jan
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 3:06 pm
according to my book Hermie..it was 1989 that he invented the WWW.
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Hermione69
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 4:22 pm
Whoops, Jan. And you posted that way above. And I even read it. Apparently it didn't sink in! Sorry, Jan! And thanks! Ah, Deej, I knew I'd find my twin here!! How was your trip??? I will email SOON! PROMISE!
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Jan
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 4:43 pm
LOL no biggie Hermie. I just figured it got lost in my verbiage I am quite well aware that I do run on sometimes. I read a description once that fits me perfectly... if you ask me what time it is, I will tell you how to build a clock  
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Urgrace
| Monday, January 12, 2004 - 7:43 pm
We need some volunteers to play another chess game. Surely there are plenty of clubhouse members who play the game. Hey you! Don't be shy, come on in and say you'll play. Someone posts a picture of the chess board and the moves made are shown for you. In your imaginary world the peanut gallery will astound you with their cheering, there is always plenty of food and snacks, we have pets to calm you and while waiting for your opponent to move you can take a dip in the indoor pool (we even have a lifeguard on duty certain hours of the day) Just post in the Chess thread of the Games area! If you don't know where that is, just ask!
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Jed245
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 7:45 am
in honor of the rest of the gamming geeks of the board.... :o) Jed. :o)
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Djgirl
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 10:56 am
BTW, I had to return two Christmas gifts last night (would have done that last week, but oopss, Mexico got in the way ) I got two copies of Two Towers: Extended DVD, and a Gameboy Advance Quidditch Game that sadly is just too hard for me to play - I'm only good at quest/adventure games! I picked up the X-men box set, and Lufia: The Ruins of Lore, and I'm really enjoying it so far!!! It's reminiscent of the old Zelda's for the original Nintendo system - fantastic for adventure gamers!!! Yes, I'm a geek & a dork and I'm darn-tootin' proud of it! Hey back atcha Hermi!! 
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Lostintheglades
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 11:37 am
Yep...Had to do all my programming on keypunch back in the 70's. The worst part was having to wait your turn to see if the darn code worked. This of course depended on how many others were in line before you and could be a day just to see where your syntax erros worked. I have a 10 meg hard drive that I use as a door stop on my porch. It's as big as a laptop. I have a fax machine with the roll paper and still have a box of paper for it. I still have all my floppy's for MSDos and Windows 3.1 setup. 4 PC's, wireless network,
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Yankee_In_Ca
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 11:45 am
I'm such a geek that I haven't posted much here in a few days ... because I've been stuck in Deus Ex!!! Yankee
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Landi
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 11:58 am
i have the 5 1/4" and the 3 1/2" for the msdos install!! i can't believe how many computers i've had since .... okay... the question for all us geeks and geekettes... what was the first computer you actually owned? mine was an apple II.
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Hermione69
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 12:14 pm
We had an Apple//e in our household, but technically it belonged to my parents. We had this Idol game that was a hoot. You had to find the Idol by moving the cursor around this blind map. Whenever you occupied a space, you would either find strenth potion, or treasure, or some beast that you either had to fight or run from. You never knew what you were going to get before you moved there. Very primitive game, but we spent hours playing it! I've always owned Apple/Macs, except for one brief year when my brother let me borrow his piece of crap PC. (Yes, I have Mac versus PC debates, check off another one on the Geek Quiz!) I've conquered Zelda: Link to the Past twice now. I am going to try Luigi's Mansion again. It is a fun game, but I can't beat the last boss, which is a Bowser/Big Boo combination. Time to give that another whirl. I also have Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Zelda: The Wind Waker waiting in the wings. I want to get the LOTR games and there was this one game written up in Game Informer that got really good reviews. It wasn't Resident Evil, I don't think, but along those lines. Some horror game. I cannot remember the name! Deej, Lufia: The Ruins of Lore sounds really good. What system is that for?
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Hermione69
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 12:15 pm
And for comic relief-- I also snort when I laugh!! That didn't start until I hit 30 or so, and the first time I did it, I was with my sister and we just kind of looked at each other and were like "What was THAT?" and then we laughed so hard we about wet our pants! Now it happens all the time. You can't take me anywhere!
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Landi
| Tuesday, January 13, 2004 - 12:36 pm
i wasn't going to admit to the "snort when i laugh" thingie... but oh well... guess i have to now. i also get giggle fits. i once got one in the middle of my daughter's swim banquet. i had to leave the room
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