Do you remember the first time?

The golf ball typewriter/word processor - no more tippex!

Oh yes, I remember the excitement when I got a golf ball typewriter as well!

Our friend was computer manager for a big local company in the early 70s. He was in charge of the one computer, which was absolutely massive, all the various components lining the walls, floor to ceiling of a whole room. He sneaked us in after hours to marvel at it, and press a couple of buttons. I had no idea what the thing did, but felt very space age!

In evening classes I learned how to use a word processor which felt very space-age at the time. The 'mothership' of said item was the size of a very large suitcase, by todays standards it would be considered primitive.

Fax machines came and went and photocopiers could collate at the touch of a button.

The first electronic calculator. It was the size of a typewriter and only did the 4 basic functions. It cost £300 (in 1968) and for an extra £100 we could have a square root key (we didn't, we didn't need it.

After several years of using the big old, handcranked calculators that left the operator to decide where the decimal point went,these were a miracle of speed and efficiency.

I had just started teaching and no-one, including me knew how to work the BBC computers in school!
Eventually I became an IT tutor for the LA Education Dept and we were given laptops (a recent innovation) and sent on a week's residential course at Stirling university. I had no idea how to connect the laptop to WIFI. I felt such an idiot!
I have fortunately progressed.
Last night I managed to resolve issues on our Parish website, I'm feeling quite smug this morning.

Does anyone remember the old Gestetner duplicators, and the Banda machines? So much easier preparing exam papers once computers came in.

I took a job at a primary school as secretary/bursar in the '80s. There was computer sitting in the corner of the office with a cover over it. At the interview the Head had said 'you and I are going to learn how to use it!'

We set off on the training course in her tiny Fiat Panda. It was the day of the 'Great Storm', we were nearly blown over so many times on the way back I am not likely to forget it!

What an adventure B9exchange !!

Yes Juliet27 I seem to attract them!

My first computer was a green screen Amstrad word processor in 1986. I used that for my first degree. A few years later (after I had graduated to a PC) I was teaching word processing and database to adult students in a local college. Some of them had never used a computer and were scared of them. The data I gathered became the subject of my Masters. Human computer interaction was a hot subject back then. The internet was still in its infancy.

My first usage of modern technology was a telex machine when I worked in an export office over 40 years ago. It amazed me and probably the forerunner of emails. Typing out long invoices on to a tape which made holes and then inserting it into another part of the machine. Dialling a number then watching it fly through knowing it was being received in another country.

Do you remember the first time?

I must have a dirty mind.
I thought this was about something else! ................and yes I do.

I remember using an electric typewriter for the first time, it seemed as if it was running away with me. This was 1961 or 2.

Some time later I remember when I went on a Computer course in Manchester. The thought was daunting enough in itself, but at the end of the first day I was totally confused. I returned to my hotel and sat up most of the night with the sheaf of information that I had been given, but was still none the wiser. The next day I returned with some trepidation and the tutor called me into her office. Here it comes- was I to be sent home in disgrace because I was too dim to understand? Luckily (depending on which way you look at it) she told me that I had inadvertently been booked on the advanced course (the third in a series intended for those who were going on to do computer programming) rather than that for a beginner !

I went on to enjoy computers, and took a great interest in how they worked, which has stood me in good stead over the years. I must admit that sometimes I find my phone more challenging and have to resort to asking my grandchildren for help, though I was somewhat aggrieved when I was once asked “Granny, are you sure you have got it switched on”.

The first time my Mum and Dad had a front loading washing machine, we all sat in the kitchen watching the washing sloshing about.

You are all way ahead of me!
I never tried to understand the technology, I just enjoyed using it.
Well done Marydoll and as for B9exchange that ride through the storm must have been terrifying but like the others here you weren't afraid of the new computer in the corner.

I tend to be late to join the party.

DH who worked in an office used to bring home mountains of computer paper for the kids to draw on. It was in thin sheets with holes and strange marks on it. It always seemed a terrible waste to me that the machines spewed out reams of the stuff. Like in that Charlie Chaplin film Modern Times

My first laptop, probably 25 years ago now, bought by dh while away for work in Jakarta where everything was relatively dirt cheap at the time. He also bought me a (probably) pirate Windows disk to go with it.

Once I loaded it, it came up with, ‘This has performed an illegal operation and will be shut down!’

I was fully expecting the police to show up at the door!
After the initial fright it worked fine, though.

Ah Sharon that had occurred to me 😉but I think the thread would be closed down rather quickly.

Grammaretto

Ah Sharon that had occurred to me 😉but I think the thread would be closed down rather quickly.

Ha Ha .You're not wrong there

The last place I worked at, before we got narried, had a computer room with computer so huge there was garden any room for staff. They had to wear hair nets, white coats and overshoes.

Does anybody remember sending txt messages via Sky ?
My daughter was inJapan and it was so expensive to phone , I remember laboriously typing out messages on the hand set , it showed up on the tv screen !

Firstly
Yes the computers but in terms of what struck me as wonderful was getting my first automatic washing machine.
Just imagine, putting clothes in, having to do nothing except take them out when clean.

Secondly
The wide onset of Zoom and similar platforms coming when most needed.

sharon103

Do you remember the first time?

I must have a dirty mind.
I thought this was about something else! ................and yes I do.

Oh, dear. I thought the same thing as Sharon.
Yes, I do - and it was a huge disappointment.🤭

I`m another who could have got the thread shut down. And yes, I do! Not the exact date, but it was February 1963!

sharon103

Do you remember the first time?

I must have a dirty mind.
I thought this was about something else! ................and yes I do.

Ditto sharon, ...... and yes, I do.