How times change (Old fogey content)

monquixote

Schooldays being "the best days of your life" is one of the biggest lies told to children. 

School was crap. I'm much happier now. 

Phil_aka_Pip

Calculators became common during my first year as a student, 1975. @monquixote I agree. I have to say that I received what in general must be described as a "good" education, but I think that was despite the system and the attitudes of most of the teachers. There were just a few who were very effective, and in some cases inspiring. However it was a relief to leave the Grand Pettiness behind. The other thing that made school crap was most of the other kids. A lot of them were arseholes, only a few weren't.

Emp_Fab

bertie said:

we were Oxbridge............... casio FX-80     for me

Me too !!  I loved my FX-80 !  Possibly where my initial interest in computers started.  I took my O Levels in 1980 too, so it looks like we were in the same year.  I remember going to the local computer shop in school lunchtimes to stare in awe at the *Colour* Apple II machine they had.

Did anyone else have one of these...

http://steveffisher.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/casio_vl_tone1.jpg?w=593

Phil_aka_Pip

@Emp_Fab I borrowed one once, and put it through a guitarist's phaser pedal for a recording (onto 4-track cassette!). Someone listening to it said "I didn't know you had an expensive synthesiser, which one did you get?".

Myranda

My primary school had a handful of BBC Electron units and we did a couple of classes (spread over the last year) on basic - I think it was a box ticking exercise so they could say it was done rather than to actually learn anything.

Then at secondary school we learned less about computers - but used them more. doing a handful of WordPerfect classes learning to print a document and save it, that sort of thing - they'd also installed some form of software launcher that booted on DOS immediately so that none of the students would need to learn anything useless like DOS or Windows. Meh

Then I had to go 35 miles a day (each way, so I guess 70 miles) commute to get to a college that didn't think computers as a subject wouldn't catch on (ended up at NESCOT doing Computer Science A level, and Physics and Chemistry)... luckily my college was in a very high crime area, so as naughty types broke in so often to steal computers or components they were able to use the insurance money to keep replacing bits and keep very up to date hardware-wise. We had a particularly scatty but very good lecturer - he was old enough that I'm pretty sure when he started training in computers it was all valves.

Now £147 a month train fare was apparently not sustainable for my parents - after all, if my dad didn't buy a £2500 HiFi the world would implode, and what's a child's education compared to marginally better music?! So I ended up at another college - but they used differnt exam bodies so wouldn't accept my first year in Physics and Chemistry (the Chemistry lecturer didn't even let me onto the course...). So I went from doing a Computer Science A level (plus Phys and Chem) to doing Biology, Maths, and Physics ... and CLAIT - Computer Literacy and Information Technology. The first HOUR long class was "turning on a computer and booting into Windows 95 and safely shutting down" !! Computers were out of date and slow... meh!

Then another year later and my dad pulled funding again, telling me to get a full time job or get homeless... Turns out his expensive amp and turntable needed a CD player and new speakers and a TV...

NESCOT wasn't local... so if you ignore that then my generation of local types got progressively less computing teaching... from learning BASIC, to just about printing, to no proper classes and only having a bolt on class dedicated to turning computers on and off... while computers got more important and more widespread the local schools provided LESS ...

My step brother went to the same college as me - they now have a computing class - a proper-ish one and they have decent computers aplenty

bertie

Emp_Fab said:

Me too !!  I loved my FX-80 !  Possibly where my initial interest in computers started.  I

had no interest in computers at all.  Took an O and A level in 1 year when  I went back to resit 1 of my A levels in 85/86 as  I thought it might be useful.  Got into the 'trade' by accident really....it was more to do with going for a job where Id be using me brain, being slightly techie and travelling round the s/west..... still have no / very little interest in them outside of my job.

Phil_aka_Pip

bertie said:

 still have no / very little interest in them outside of my job.

persactly. I'm more interested in them when I'm getting paid!

maltingsaudio

Ok enough about computers I raise you Telex machines

ESBlonde

When I went to college the business computing course was all about punched cards.

Phil_aka_Pip

ESBlonde said:

When I went to college the business computing course was all about punched cards.

they made good roach

frankus

Phil_aka_Pip said:

They didn't have computers when I were at skool. We had to have our own slide rules and sets of log tables anyway.

So ... your Dad recorded your birth on his iPhone did he?

I think there's every chance they know they're born

ROOG

Emp_Fab said:

bertie said:

we were Oxbridge............... casio FX-80     for me

Me too !!  I loved my FX-80 !  Possibly where my initial interest in computers started.  I took my O Levels in 1980 too, so it looks like we were in the same year.  I remember going to the local computer shop in school lunchtimes to stare in awe at the *Colour* Apple II machine they had.

Did anyone else have one of these...

http://steveffisher.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/casio_vl_tone1.jpg?w=593

I still have mine and one of these too

http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3680/9687499906_7ddfe1fe3a.jpg

 

The former being no good as a calculator and the latter being not much good as a drum machine. should have bought the 606!

 

ROOG

Oops double post

Bogwhoppit

WTF is school ?

Phil_aka_Pip

frankus said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

They didn't have computers when I were at skool. We had to have our own slide rules and sets of log tables anyway.

So ... your Dad recorded your birth on his iPhone did he?

I think there's every chance they know they're born

If it were fashion in those days for dads to record births, he'd have used his Ensign Selfix (I've still got it) with a 120 size roll of FerraniaColor reversal film.

@ROOG I've still got a Boss Dr Rhythm. You're quite right about it being not much good, the sounds are well cheesy, but its User Interface was easy enough to learn & use, it kept me in time, and with a couple of books entitled "Rhythm Dictionary" it taught me a fair bit about drum beats.

mike_l

Bogwhoppit said:

WTF is school ?

That empty place you went on weekends in your younger days.....

Axe_meister

We started computing at school in about 87 on some old commodore PETs. I'd been programming on an electron for two years. Our poor maths teacher was tasked with teaching the class with me teaching him the day before. I got a lot of time of is lieu.
My physics teacher was the best. He set the sports ground on fire when teaching us what happens when you mix H and O, via the use to a bottle of compressed H and a bottle of O, a lunch trolley and a cone made in metal shop.
This boys is how a jet engine works.

Drew_TNBD

Bogwhoppit said:

WTF is school ?

Bit like those mills you worked in, 'cept less cripplings.

digitalscream

Our school had a pretty decent setup for the day - a full network (Econet, as I recall) of BBC Bs, BBC Masters and a few Archimedes pretty much as soon as they came out.

We discovered a fantastic vulnerability in the network - you could directly access the network port on your computer, and almost trivially gain full read/write access to the keyboard buffer on any other computer. Aside from the obvious use of this (changing the teachers' passwords on a daily basis), we came up with an brilliant way to spook the hell out of the other kids (particularly the bullies). The old Beeb had a pair of relays used to switch the tape motor on and off - we'd randomly put swearwords in while they were typing up their homework for a while to get them on edge, then send a program directly through the keyboard buffer which switched the relay on and off as fast as the computer could manage (very loud, nasty buzzing sound), while repeating scary-sounding messages on the screen.

When you're one of the geeky kids, there's absolutely nothing more satisfying than watching the kid who was beating you up in the playground run out of the room crying. Looking back, it was a bit cruel, but...ah, hell, they deserved it at the time

Phil_aka_Pip

maltingsaudio said:

Ok enough about computers I raise you Telex machines

I did a Baudot/Ascii character set translator for the Hasler Mk III telex machine in 1987, written in 8086 assembler.