Remember When

[crich70]

Originally Posted by AlbertaCowboy

I remember getting ahold of one of the coveted copies of "The Oregon Trail" for Aplle IIE in my computer class and being crushed when I discovered that someone had taped it up and erased the disk!

They were good for getting dirt or other junk on the media and ceasing to work as well. At least the 3.5" disks had a spring loaded door that would cover it when not in use.

[euro traveler]

Originally Posted by morriss003

I still miss DOS

I still use a DOS accounting program every day at work to print checks.
It's on a separate pc that's not networked and works great

Also, I was reading my Sony 350 while in Christiania this past October and had several people ask me what it was. They were unfamiliar with what an ereader was.

[jersysman]

Originally Posted by crich70

They were good for getting dirt or other junk on the media and ceasing to work as well. At least the 3.5" disks had a spring loaded door that would cover it when not in use.

Yeah, but you couldn't use a hole puncher to make them double-sided like you could with the 5 1/4s.

[simplyparticular]

I read for years on Palm OS devices, and then my iPhone, thanks to Peanut Press ---> Palm Reader --> eReader.com

I only deigned to notice the eInk devices when the agency $hit hit the fan and broke the eReader store. Thanks to apprentices and cabbage, I was able to save my bookshelf and take it with me, onto several Sony, Kindle and Nook devices, before settling on my T1 + iPad.

I'll give B&N props for eventually rescuing my eReader bookshelf, but I've got it all backed up in Calibre for use on ANY device I want, anyway.

[BeccaPrice]

I keep thinking this thread is about the book Remember When by Nora Roberts/JD Robb. (that is, the first half of the book is by Nora Roberts, and the second half written under her pseudonym of JD Robb - interestingly, in slightly different writing styles and voices)

[Apache]

Originally Posted by crich70

In the circular file cabinet perhaps?

I always referred to it as File 13.
Apache

[Ladyrixx]

My first eReader was an Aztak EZ Reader Pocket Pro. I got it for around $300 when Robert first brought them to the US. My husband just to laugh at me (especially when I'd update it with the lbook firmware and it would go back to being in Russian) and say how stupid eBooks were.

Now I think he'd rather cut off his foot than be separated from his Vox with his books/comics.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by jersysman

Yeah, but you couldn't use a hole puncher to make them double-sided like you could with the 5 1/4s.

I remember hearing about something that is supposed to have happened with the 5.25" disks. This secretary had trouble using her disk drive. A repair man came in and did everything he could think of to fix the problem. Finally he asked her to show him what she was doing.
She:
1. Got a disk out
2. Put on a label
3. Rolled it into her typewriter
4. Typed a name onto the label
5. Rolled the disk out of the typewriter
6. Tried once again to get the disk drive to work right.

[Ekaros]

I think I first used Palm, not sure which one likely the V. Quite nice screen even with backlit. Then E and T3. Later upgraded to Nokia 810 Internet "Tablet" and then to cheap chinese reader. And finaly got my Sony...

Palm's screen was quite nice, atleast the monocrome ones...

[MikeB1972]

Originally Posted by Apache

I always referred to it as File 13.
Apache

"Unsecured short term storage" around here, File 13 looks like a slightly crypted File IB (File in Bin), same theory as an ID Ten Tee error.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by corroonb

I remember spending €330 on a Sony PRS-505 in 2008. There were very few places to get decent ebooks apart from mobileread. Many authors were simply not available. Alas the perils of being an "early-adopter".

I was in the same boat. Spent €400 on a Cybook Gen3 including its original cover and the end of 2007, but sold it in febuari 2008. There were very, very few authors available that I wished to read, and at that time, I wasn't really interested to re-read the classics that were posted at MobileRead. And of course, at that time, the library here was WAAAAY smaller than it is now.

Apart from that, I actually liked books better. One reason was the fact that the Gen3 did not have a touch screen. I absolutely hated the Four Way button. Very hard to press.

However, I did keep an eye on e-readers, mainly because I recognized the massive advantage for me, due to poor eyesight: custom fonts and sizes. It all exploded in 2010, and ebooks started to become available in larg(er) quantities. More and more authors were readily available. The ones I wanted to read and were not (yet) available, were exceptions.

When the Kindle Touch appeared in the end of 2011, I jumped on it as soon as it became available in the Netherlands. The only thing I wished for was built-in lighting because the Touch required MUCH more light than a paperback. I could not read on the Touch in some places where I could read a paperback.

Therefore I swore that my next e-reader would have that; I'd not upgrade until a such a reader was introduced. And *tadaa*, there was the Kindle Paperwhite at the end of 2012. I actually had a German friend pre-order it for me.

Now, in the beginning of 2013, apart from one (1) author, whose books will probably will never be ebooks, I've been able to replace my entire library with ebooks. I wouldn't want to go back to paper for daily reading. In the end, I will probably only have the very best of the best (IMHO) as paper books; as hard covers, if possible.

Originally Posted by crich70

They were good for getting dirt or other junk on the media and ceasing to work as well. At least the 3.5" disks had a spring loaded door that would cover it when not in use.

Diskettes.... AAARGGHH. My Hammond organ, designed in 1997, sold up until 2007, still used them. (My "Special Edition", sold in 2000-2001, did not escape this fate. Its storage system was not redesigned to use USB or Compact Flash or whatever.)

After seeing "DISK ERROR" one too many times, and not knowing if my disks were going bad (new, sealed boxes, but already produced in 2005...) or if the drive was failing, I went on a search and found the HxC2001 Floppy Emulator. It basically is a microcomputer that reads images from SD-cards, and represents them to the host device as if they were floppies. It uses the normal 34-pin floppy cable and 5V power connector.

Yes. Finally. I can press "SAVE" or "LOAD" without trembling on the bench, waiting to go run upstairs with a new disk to make a new copy, because of a "DISK ERROR". My instrument now has a 21st century storage capability which will probably last as long as the instrument will.

[QuantumIguana]

We got an Apple II at our high school in 1981. We had a couple coveted blank floppies that we would hide from the business teacher. She was afraid that we would damage the computer by writing programs. For her, a typewriter was a high-tech gadget. So we taped the paper sleeve to the back of the desk and stored our floppy there. None of the teacher could teach us anything about the computer, we had to teach ourselves. The business teacher was no help, obviously, but the English teacher was enthusiastic, if just as ignorant about computers.

A couple of us were the go-to sources of information, it was sort of like being an oracle. Big fish in a little pond and all that. Really, all we did was read the manual.

[ManosHandsOfFate]

Originally Posted by morriss003

I still miss DOS

You should look into Windows PowerShell.

[Rumpelteazer]

I first started reading on a Palm device and later switched to an iPaq (which was cheaper than the ereader then available (iRiver iirc). When the Sony PRS505 came available I ordered one and now I'm on my second Kindle.

Ah, I remember computer lesson in secondary school. We had to learn how to work with DOS (which was recently replaced by Windows 3.1) I didn't see much use for it since we had Apples and those were much easier to work with than DOS. I can also remember that my French teacher gave me a floppy disk to practice vocabulary with, we didn't have DOS, but the program also worked on our (even then) ancient Commodore 64.

[QuantumIguana]

Originally Posted by Rumpelteazer

I first started reading on a Palm device and later switched to an iPaq (which was cheaper than the ereader then available (iRiver iirc). When the Sony PRS505 came available I ordered one and now I'm on my second Kindle.

Ah, I remember computer lesson in secondary school. We had to learn how to work with DOS (which was recently replaced by Windows 3.1) I didn't see much use for it since we had Apples and those were much easier to work with than DOS. I can also remember that my French teacher gave me a floppy disk to practice vocabulary with, we didn't have DOS, but the program also worked on our (even then) ancient Commodore 64.

It must have been one of those disks with a Commodore 64 version on one side, and the version for another computer on the other side. I didn't see too many of those, but there were some. It meant you didn't have to distribute two different versions.

I found that DOS made it much easier to deal with the disk than other computers did. With computers like the Apple, Atari or C64, you're working from a BASIC prompt, while with the PC, you're working with a command line, and if you wanted to use basic, you ran basic like any other program.

The first computer I used with an Atari 400. At first, we didn't have a floppy drive, that was a luxury. We used cassette tapes.