Is this referring to computer labs in schools in general? This is at least Win 95 (and the school system didn’t bother to update things in 98), so I would have been in high school with these, and thinking back we had very similar machines. I do kind of miss it because my friends and I had setup a hidden series of IRC servers on a few PCs. So, while we were supposed to be learning to type, we’d just chat. In retrospect, it was a good idea that was poorly implemented (people will eventually get around anything that they have physical access to) but the modern idea of kids in schools just having a ChromeBook, tablet, phone, or w/e is kind of fucked up. We had access to the computer lab for 1 period a day vs. the modern 24/7.
I think that in the end my real opinion is that I don’t miss this, I miss my friends and I testing the limits of the security for both network and individual PC. We did some wild stuff with our TI-83s. One of my friends from that time was a certified Machine God and wrote an assembly program for his TI that would allow him (and by extension us) to surreptitiously plug in our calculators to those PCs via serial and effectively “dial out” bypassing the restrictions. It was a wild time.
Bah, I’m too old. Had a commodore 64 at home tho.
… you kids need to get off my lawn *shakes fist*
We had Apple IIs and later some early macs because my area experienced a population boom and had some more tax money to play with.
Not much, but I do miss the fact that school computers were linux and we used free software to learn basic computer stuff. Nowadays the our school system is held ar gunpoint by google&co
Mid 90s. Our school built its first computer lab. The guy they hired to teach students how to use computers was probably in his mid-20s. He installed Doom on a few PCs, and the few of us who figured out there were games hung around near the end of the school day to see if he would allow us to play. He eventually let us when he was convinced we won’t tell anyone.
And now you’re out here telling the whole world smh
I don’t remember how I got involved, but I somehow convinced the school that I knew what I was doing and they let me (starting as a 16 year old student in 1997) create my own elective class where I spent one period every day working with that same 20 something computer lab guy. We built the lab together, just me and this dude who just barely graduated, alone for an hour a day. We put together Frankenstein machines with parts from old busted 286s and rarely a coveted 386. I learned to set up a Novell NetWare network and throw expansion slot cover plates like shuriken.
I still remember working in that lab when the Phantom Menace trailer released online and we downloaded the .mov file (and required QuickTime 3.0 player) to view it in stunning 480x216. That’s sub 240p. It looked fucking amazing.
In my nearest CCollege in the mid 2000s, they w were still using FLOPPY DISCS and old macs for computer labs. its only until few years later we finally got funding for upgrades, i think the 08 crash really screwed things up.
I actually liked those old eMacs, the speakers were great.
I mostly miss that our society seemed stable at the time. I was wrong; for minorities it was still a shit show, but I didn’t know that yet.
Gaming got way better after around 2007, and Turtle Rock invented co-op multiplayer that wasn’t deathmatch.
Being optimistic about technology and humanity
So nostalgic
Why am I crying?
Yeah, I want my toasters back
Unauthorized Bread
Ah yes, my first exposure to Hamster Dance was in that room…
I mean yeah. The past is a perfect snapshot in time where I can imagine without also imagining the woes that happened. Great place to pretend live!
Yeah I remember going to the “computer lab” and doing school work searching askjeves for answers.
Ask shut down recently. End of an era :(
I don’t miss windows, but I do miss sitting in the same era computer labs with either the university’s own flavor of red hat, or SPARCstations.
The internet was a lot more fun 30 years ago. I guess partly because it felt like magic, and after a degree and some decades in the industry the illusion is gone.
Also, it used to be about sharing pictures of your cat or listing your favourite books. Now everyone is trying to either sell you something or source everything about you to be able to sell you something with more accuracy.
