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You know you are getting old when:

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,775
Location
New Forest
One of the advantages of getting old is, there's far less peer pressure.
British comedian, Norman Wisdom observed: "Three things happen in old age. The first is your memory goes. I can't remember the other two.
I cannot find the author for the following, bu I do have an empathy for the sentiment.
I’ve reached the age where my train of thought often leaves the station without me.
 

KILO NOVEMBER

One Too Many
Messages
1,068
Location
Hurricane Coast Florida
I was just watching an episode of Morse from 1987. In it, Sgt. Lewis was entranced by an IBM PS2, he'd just done a course on using one.

On the screen appeared the WordStar menu. If you remember when WordStar was the hot word processing program and VisiCalc was the king of the spreadsheet world, you are old.

Oh, and when Lewis discovered a document that appeared to be a suicide note, he printed it out on a nine-pin dot matrix printer with pin-feed paper.

It was the paleocalc era of personal computers.
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
^^^^^^
WordPerfect, anyone?

It’s among the reasons I am rarely among the early adopters. The line used to be that your new computer was outdated about 10 minutes after you took it out of the box it came in.

It’s somewhat akin to the early age of the automobile, when it had to exist alongside horses and handcarts and an automobile operator had to know enough about how the contraption worked so that he could fix it when it ceased to work properly, which was a not infrequent occurrence.

Going back 40 years ago I sometimes felt that computers were more bother than they were worth.

And then came the Apple MacIntosh. Point and click.

I still don’t know diddly about how these gizmos work but that doesn’t matter much, seeing how there’s little need to anymore. Even I figured out how to make my Apple Watch talk to my iPhone and iPad, and vice-versa. And the last desktop computer I bought, an iMac of maybe 2009 vintage, rarely gets used.
 
Last edited:

GHT

I'll Lock Up
Messages
9,775
Location
New Forest
I still don’t know diddly about how these gizmos work but that doesn’t matter much, seeing how there’s little need to anymore. Even I figured out how to make my Apple Watch talk to my iPhone and iPad, and vice-versa. And the last desktop computer I bought, an iMac of maybe 2009 vintage, rarely gets used.
Computers just passed me by, I'm known as computer illiterate, a term that I find insulting. Whilst I agree that most five-year-olds leave me in the starting blocks when it comes to computers, or, as I have heard it defined: Information Technology, the term illiterate is rather harsh. Then again, it was said by a college lecturer whose handwriting resembled that of a spider that had managed to crawl out of an inkwell.

Said lecturer always managed to score points about his IT knowledge and my redundant method, that of the handwritten word. He also managed to make some comment that my work was hand written not printed. You know that you are getting old when you don't really care what others think, say, or do.

letter 001.JPG
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
^^^^^^
It appears you know what you need to know to do what you wish to do with digital communications technologies.

My penmanship sucks, and that’s fine by me. It’s not that I wouldn’t wish prettier handwriting. (There is something special in a personal communication in one’s own hand.) But at this point in my life I don’t wish it enough to go through the effort required to hone the skill.

FWIW, I’ve become a fan of WhatsApp, via which the lovely missus and I stay in regular communication — written and verbal — with friends living halfway around the world. It’s a wonderful thing.
 
Messages
10,930
Location
My mother's basement
I took a late lunch with a friend this afternoon, followed by a visit to a nearby “antique” mall. As with most such emporia, the largest part of the goods on offer there are not truly antique but “vintage,” meaning not of recent issue but not yet a century old.

Had I not experienced such scenes many times before, I might have been taken aback by the realization that much and perhaps most of the stuff under the roof of an “antique” store was made after my birth.
 

Edward

Bartender
Messages
25,074
Location
London, UK
11 years in the making. Artist in the background.

View attachment 625766

One of my late cats, Greta, did something similar to two sofas. We did give her the coloured little claw caps, which she seemed to like, but I'd have throttled anyone who suggested declawing. I raised her and her sister Marlene from seven and a half week old kittens, and I cried like a baby when eaxh of them died in my arms, six years apart. I hope they're together now getting up to mischief.... along with the late Mimi Dog. Marlene was, like Mimi whom she never met, an angel. Greta was a real ass - I loved her for it - and our naughty little charge now, Bertie Dog, has much more 8n common with her.



^^^^^^
WordPerfect, anyone?

It’s among the reasons I am rarely among the early adopters. The line used to be that your new computer was outdated about 10 minutes after you took it out of the box it came in.

It’s somewhat akin to the early age of the automobile, when it had to exist alongside horses and handcarts and an automobile operator had to know enough about how the contraption worked so that he could fix it when it ceased to work properly, which was a not infrequent occurrence.

Going back 40 years ago I sometimes felt that computers were more bother than they were worth.

And then came the Apple MacIntosh. Point and click.

I still don’t know diddly about how these gizmos work but that doesn’t matter much, seeing how there’s little need to anymore. Even I figured out how to make my Apple Watch talk to my iPhone and iPad, and vice-versa. And the last desktop computer I bought, an iMac of maybe 2009 vintage, rarely gets used.

It's amazing how things have moved in the last 25 years. Rare to see a desktop at all now.... in fact, outside of work the only comouter I own currently, pending a new machine when I finish the home office, is a tablet.... a glorified phone, but it's so much more capable than the first few laptops I had.
 
Messages
12,941
Location
Germany
My reflexes seem to be still in order.

Went to next bigger city by omnibus and when we arrived, I stepped out and nearly fell onto the boardwalk, because the bus's steps were too deep and I stepped into the empy, first. But I instantly held on something, otherwise I would have fallen directly on my face.

The omnibus was the travel bus type, this time, so the different steps.

But IF this happens to you, when you're 80+?? Better NOT.
 

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