General Chat

Dear All

Hello

Hope you are okay.



Naughty, Mr Magoo!!

Well, I first tried the internet at the local library to look up info for college courses.

Eventually, I got a dongle thing. It didn't work too well.


The first websites I went on was the BBC news and wikipedia!

I used Ancestry for a time but very expensive.

I avoid Facebook. It causes a lot of trouble.

I remember accessing the 1911 census site. Terrible waste of money and the amount of errors at the time unbelievable.


Take gentle care all <3
Best wishes
Elizabeth, EOS
xx

I remember using Compuserve to gain access to the web. My first sites to visit were all Genealogy sites. Apart from Genealogy I used the computer to find educational information to help the children with their homework. My first computer was a zx81 :-D We used it to write programmes .

We’ve no idea which websites we discovered when we first went on line. As far as OH can remember, it was partially so that the offspring could use the internet for homework.

I was more interested in sending/receiving emails to my friend!

If other’s hadn’t mentioned it, I wouldn’t have thought of FR. That was a new thing then, and fantastic for ‘ladies of a certain age’ to read how their classmates lives had turned out.

Because of our payment package, we’d try to avoid dialling up before 6pm. Apart from homework the offspring were each allowed an hour. Anything over that and they had to contribute 60p ph towards the bill. Thinking back on it, the charge was probably why they developed the skill at speedily minimizing a page…normally MSN or what ever it was called.

I do tend to stick with the sites that I know, but love the way all sorts of information can quickly be found on a Search.

Which reminds me – I need to find out what time a coach leaving Hereford at 10am is likely to arrive in London. ;-)

I have to say that the computer I got in 2003 is the same one I am using today .................. our nephew, a software programmer and computer "geek" put it all together for us.

He determined what sort of motherboard, size, etc, monitor type and size, keyboard, mouse, etc.

Then went with us to the computer shop that dealt with the university, and told them what we needed. We got the discount as "faculty/staff", and they put it all together.

The only thing I have had to replace is the monitor ............ and I got exactly the same make and size ............. 19" screen


I have sooooooooooo much space on the hard drive that I will never fill it :-D

I take it down to our local computer geek about once a year to have it tuned up and cleaned ....................... they tell me there is no need to even dream of replacing it. They can keep it going as long as I want a desk top.

Familysearch.org was the first one I used, recommended by a friend in my genealogy group. Then friends reunited and more genealogy sites.

I went online for the first time in 1982 using a terminal (no graphics) connected to a DEC mini computer running BSD Unix. There was no such thing as the world wide web at that time though hacking was already popular.

I guess the first internet web site I visited would have been PizzaHut in 1994. Another early site had the name of my cat Bianca but the rest of the site name would be referred :-( I think Google started out around 1995 although at that time AltaVista was no1 in search.

Windows before Windows95 did not have any built in way of accessing the internet whether over dial-up modem or direct ethernet connection. A TCP/IP stack had to be installed. For those with dial-up accounts this was usually provided by the supplier of the dial-up service.

What got the world web going as a commercial proposition was online gambling and adult content. This drove uptake, improved video and wider bandwidth.

Think first online in 2000 by means of a TV set! Bush Internet. Quite basic but it had Email tho you couldn't send attachments but could accept them. Had a printer. Keyboard was the TV remote, the top of it opened up to access the keyboard - a tad small for my large fingers. Access was by landline of course and cost a lot. About 2003 son gave me his old PC Windows 98 - much better incl a scanner plus a printer. One of first sites was FRU and any ex mil sites in existence.
Just to compare costs that Windows 98 PC, Scanner, printer bought in 1998 cost £1300!! Had bought son a ZX81 when they came out

Now I think about it ..........

........ we got a second phone line put in daughter's room in about 1996 or so ....................

she was in her 3rd year at university and needed to access the internet for course work and research.

Although, at that time, they were not allowed to cite internet references in their written work ........................... such references were considered "too ephemeral"


We got her the separate line so she would not tie up the family phone.

In 1997, her Honours Thesis was put up on the internet, as the first trial run by the Museum of Anthropology ............... previously it would have been set up as a temporary display in the Museum.

It was supposed to come down from the internet within 6 months ................. it was still there 2 years ago! However, I think it might have gone now.

By 1998, she and her then-boyfriend (later husband) were at opposite ends of the country, and had found an online site where they could chat, and even go into a "room" where they could talk privately, for much less than a phone call.


Both OH and I had our own computers at home at that time (as well as ones at work) .................. but neither of us had access to the internet.

I played a lot of solitaire games!

I did something on a computer in 1994/95 when I was working for an electrician friend

I did the accounts using a Sage program and remember ordering things from an electrical wholesaler on this computer....whether that was internet I do not know...as I didn't really have any idea what I was doing :-D

my brother had a computer, and wouldnt let me on, id spend hours trying to guess his pasword, and dial up was a nightmare,

yahoo, faceparty, and msn chat were the sites i used often

Christmas 2002 was my first year,when I bought a new desktop.

Found FR first then same day found GC.

Steve set up FR so Julie could look for her school friends.

Then he decided to set up GC which was a brilliant site

Thanks to Steve and Julie for setting up both sites. :-D