Monday, October 24, 2005

Those were the days..

Youngsters nowadays are so "fortunate" :) I still remember during my uni days, when I was doing my medical undergraduate in one of the local university here.. During those days, only one or two of my coursemates owned a computer or mobile phones, or in other word, just the minority have such priviledges. When we did assignments, we had to queue up in the library waiting for our turns to use the computers. I still remember doing my Community Health assignments in the library till late at night on Chap Goh Mei (and eating instant noodle maggie mee as my dinner :D ) Nowadays, most college or university kids own laptops or if not laptops, they have desktops. Computers are such a norm nowadays...

Handphones are such a norm nowadays. Nowadays, even primary school kids also have handphones. During my uni time, only a handful of people owned handphones. Those were the priviledged people. I still remember we have to queue up in front of the public phone booths waiting for our turns to use the public phone. Damn it when there was/were some long winded person/people talking on the phone booths :( And not forgetting those mosquitoes bites when waiting for our turn queueing up in the phone booth. And we always carry phone cards like telekom phone cards in our purses or wallets :) Those really were the days..

Internet? I only get access to internet during my third or fourth year in University (that was somewhere in 1996 or 1997). After I get to know about emails, life really changed :P We no longer have to depend on the "slow" Snail Mail.. which will take ages to reach the receipients and take long times as well to get the reply.. Just like everytime I sent mail back home (from KL to Sarawak), it takes around a week to reach the destination. But I still send Snail Mail back home previously cos there's no computer nor internet access in my house in Sarawak during those days. Emails are so superb and so convenience. Messages can be sent to multiple recipients throughout the world within seconds :)

Regarding computer ~I still remember the computers we used during my secondary school times, in the late 80's ~ those are the monochrome monitors which display only one colour for text and pictures.. The one available in my secondary school in the late 80's are the green colour text and picture display against the black blackground.. which I referred as "green screen" :P If not mistaken, the one available in my school is the IBM PC. I bet the youngsters nowadays have no idea of the existence of such computer and dunno how it looks like :P There's only one colour monitor available in my school ~ and that computer was indeed something very "precious". Only my computer club teacher get to used it.. Btw, I'm the honourable treasurer of the computer club in my secondary school :P

Windows are not yet introduced at that time.. I still remember some of the computer keyboard has a deck for cassette. And the floppy diskette we used were the 5 & 1/4 inches floppy disks:) I bet many youngsters nowadays never see (or know the existence of) the 5-1/4" diskette. These floppy disks have very short lifespans. Those who used it before will know why is it so :) I still have the diskettes back home in Sarawak but 100% the diskettes can't be used already.. and by the way, there 's no such floppy disk drive available nowadays. The programmes available were very minimal like DOS, Turbo Pasca, etc etc.. I can't remember most of the programmes already, but I can still remember some of the DOS commands.We don't have computers at home during those days. The first computer my family bought was in 1998 :)

Talking about camera, I get my first camera during my fourth year in university in 1996. Too bad there were no digital cameras yet at those days. Or else I will shoot lotsa interesting snapshots already.

Those days ~ no computers, no internet, no emails, no mobile phones, no digital camera etc etc.. And yet we can still survive and happy. Those were the days... ;)

21 comments:

Chen said...

humble warrior
of course I am more happy with all the new gadgets & tech stuff... Kkakaka.. No doubt :P
I'm just trying to show how's the world now & contrast it with how it is a decade or more ago... :D
So much changes ...

Shackks said...

Veron,
Totally agree on wat you wrote there.

My cousins has their own handphone and they are only in Standard One.

When I was in Standard One, I dun even know's there such things as phone...

Anonymous said...

Wow, woman. You're not 50 yet, are you? :)

Cynthia said...

darryl, you are "mean". LOL
i bought my laptop last yr.. this is new age mah doc! you know what, when i installed broadband just a few months ago, my good friend said" welcome to the new millenium.. yeh! you are no longer in ice age!".. very insulting.. ekekke..
Im ok already, i guess.. so many things happend over the weekend.. thanks doc.

Furkids in Hong Kong™ said...

You make me feel so old. :(

I hail from the age of the Spectrum ZX81 (lol). A cassette tape was the floppy disc. Pagers (the long metal ones with no display and just a blinking light) were symbols of wealth and importance!

And after all these years, I still find pleasure in strolling around Toys 'R Us. (blush)

Take care!

Winn said...

handphone and internet is necessity now i cant live without them!!!

i hope i m not extremist but i actually sleep with my handphone beside my bed , hahaha Well my handphone serve as my faithful alarm clock too :p

Anonymous said...

About the computer language - I remember the years learning BASIC. Got to have line numbering.

Arhhh - that was years ago.

Handphone - too many functions nowadays.

JoeC said...

My world in the 70's n 80's is soo, village-ish, enclosed n somewhat arcane. I think the world was a much isolated pockets of ppl 15 years ago... since then there have been an phenomenon explosion of global awareness, information availibility and technological leap. We can only move forward... hoping that it is the right general direction. Cheers!

izchan said...

Furkid ... spectrums ... god ... I still own one of them.

please do not post as if it was so long ago ... it was only like 10 plus years ago that the internet florished.

as for the handphone thing ... :) ... I can't live without it anymore than I can live without the computer.

I got out of Uni in 97 ... laptops were already a popular item then. Handphones though was a luxury item. Now its a necessity.

time changes, techs upgrade and old people move on to the retirement home with robotic nurses.

:) ... see I did not say electronical doctors.

Anonymous said...

I still remember the days where people used to carry a suitcase for their mobile phones - ATUR. Apparently I heard it's so powerful that you could even receive calls while you're deep in the ocean. I doubt there were waterproof cases then.

The Chinese called it 大哥大 then - which does coincide with the humungus size of ATUR!

day-dreamer said...

*sob sob* And to think that I still don't own a handphone!

Interesting information, doc! We're indeed very lucky now. Can't live without my computer!!

p.s. Cynthia Foo: Your friend said like that is probably due to the stupid Streamyx ad some time ago that has to do with "It's not the Ice Age, it's Broadband"...

Chen said...

Shackks,
So true.. My family only subscribed the fixed phone line when I was in primary five :)
I still remember the old black coloured "dial" phone... I still have one of those phone in my old house. But since my family shifted house last year, I don't think they bring together with them the old phone :P

Darryl,
Hahahha... I'm still young :D
Born in the 70's :P

Cynthia,
Good to hear that u are alright.. *hugs*
I'm using streamyx broadband for more than 2 years already..
There's still lotsa people over here using dial up.. But I guess the trend will change soon..

Furkids in HK,
Pager? I hate pager...
Sad to say that I still have to carry that dumb pager when I'm on call...

Winn,
How true.. We will feel that something is missing if we didn't go online for few days..
Btw, I on my handphone 24 hours and use it as my watch as well as alarm clock :)
Multi purpose tool :D

Hawks, JoeC,
Those really were the days :P

IzChan
Really amazed @ how things changed within such a short period...
Things were so different 10 to 15 years ago :)
We really progress very fast :D

Robotic Nurse? Hahaha....

Darryl
They still used the ATUR in remoted place...
Yeap, ATUR is very "powerful",..
My friend who work in one of the rural place in Kelantan whereby the Klinik Kesihatan is only accessible with ATUR.

The 大哥大 thingy start to become popular in the late 80's, right?
Indeed very bulky :D

Day Dreamer
U will appreciate it more if u earn something yourself with your hard work..
I mean after u come out to the society & start working..
I only own my first handphone a year after I start working..
Btw, I don't have a laptop either :D
Still using desktop ;)

Jellyfish said...

during the 80s, erm.. 1983/4 if im still remember.. that was my 1st encounter with a 8086 PC (like the one from ur pix) at my uncle place.

handphone that time still the ATUR. dem heavy to carry, heavier than two 5kg cooking oils combined.

and of course, im still a small young kid that time :P

Chen said...

Jellyfish,
I know your age lah.. U don't have to stress that u are still a young kid at that time :P
Hah? So heavy meh the ATUR? :D

Glutton Rabbit,
Hahaha... Last time we treat it as something very special & unique leh...
Not everyone knows about computer at that time.
Btw, the lifespan of those floppy disk is very short.. :(

Anonymous said...

those were the days
luckily i was lucky enough to use the big big diskets and use this Wordperfect to type.. :p

Anonymous said...

I wanna get one of those ATUR next time. I'm sure it's good to throw them at people if they piss you off.

Jellyfish said...

yalor, da ATUR really heavy la... the 1st "REAL" mobile phone even though the size is like a 1.5L mineral water bottle, the weight and size is not even near the ATUR which is similar size to a 5L bottle, muahaha...

btw, have u ever seen an 8" Floppy? they were popular during the 70s b4 5.25" was invented.

izchan said...

the days of the damm main frames ... ARGH!!!!

which is why the BANKS still use them. You can't steal data from these dinosours.

Chen said...

Fred,
U are still young :D

Anon,
Hahhaha.. Use the ATUR as weapon? :P

JellyFish,
I still remember how the initial mobile phone looks like ;)
8" floppy disk? huh? I dunno about the existence of such thing earlier on...
Thanks for the info :)
I'm still small kid during the 70's ;)

Izchan,
Hahhaha...

Anonymous said...

I wish all these tech gadgets that I have dont exists...especially handphone & emails. People expect instant gratification nowadays and it becomes stressful! In S'pore, braodband at home costs S$50-$60/mth.

I love digital camera, though.

Chen said...

Daniel
But we are so used to those gadgets already.. If those things don't exist, the world will become a "different world".. But, think about it, we still survive previously when we don't have all those stuffs...

Digital camera is indeed fantastic :)