How old are you?

[gaptrast]

Hello,

I have a long time wondered: How old is the members of x10hosting including moderators?

[essellar]

I don't know what your poll will show, but I'm pretty sure we run the gamut age-wise. When I was able to click the 25-34 category, there was no Web in any real sense (Sir Tim's NeXT was the only web server at the time). It sounded interesting, though, so I took the HTML spec (there were so-o-o few tags in those days) and began converting our local tech library before I'd gotten a browser mailed to me on a floppy (which took less time than downloading it would have at the time -- 1200 baud was what it said on the outside of the Hayes modem box, but 300 bits per second was much more likely in real-world terms). Hypertext links in running text? Just click and go there? That sure beat Veronica + Gopher, not to mention blowing our Director-based CD-ROMs (which we needed to have commercially mastered for distribution) out of the water.

Things have changed an awful lot over the years. In the early days, there wasn't much for anybody who wasn't a techie or into serious research. Now there is a way to produce, publish and consume just about anything imaginable without having to know what's going on under the hood. Anybody with something to say can have a voice if they want one, and places like this mean that the last remaining barrier to entry -- cost -- is also becoming a thing of the past. Now if we could just get rid of the proxy twerps and let people know that there is blogging software that isn't Wordpress...

[Brandon]

18 over here. @esselar: That sounds like it was a forever ago!

[Sharky]

I don't know what your poll will show, but I'm pretty sure we run the gamut age-wise. When I was able to click the 25-34 category, there was no Web in any real sense (Sir Tim's NeXT was the only web server at the time). It sounded interesting, though, so I took the HTML spec (there were so-o-o few tags in those days) and began converting our local tech library before I'd gotten a browser mailed to me on a floppy (which took less time than downloading it would have at the time -- 1200 baud was what it said on the outside of the Hayes modem box, but 300 bits per second was much more likely in real-world terms). Hypertext links in running text? Just click and go there? That sure beat Veronica + Gopher, not to mention blowing our Director-based CD-ROMs (which we needed to have commercially mastered for distribution) out of the water.

Things have changed an awful lot over the years. In the early days, there wasn't much for anybody who wasn't a techie or into serious research. Now there is a way to produce, publish and consume just about anything imaginable without having to know what's going on under the hood. Anybody with something to say can have a voice if they want one, and places like this mean that the last remaining barrier to entry -- cost -- is also becoming a thing of the past. Now if we could just get rid of the proxy twerps and let people know that there is blogging software that isn't Wordpress...

CD-ROM's?? It's like you were from the future... Our first proper computer that I can remember had a 5¼-inch floppy drive and no hard drive.

I say this as I'm typing on something with a full colour display with a touchscreen that is many many times quicker and fits in one hand...and yet still annoys the he'll out of me -- fat thumbs miss the virtual keys...

But there hasn't really been anything revolutionary since the first computers -- it's still a keyboard and mouse, although on a small number of devices the keyboard is onscreen and the system interprets the touch display as a mouse. Who knows what's next. Mainstream adoption of technologies designed for disabilities or military use, such as interpreting where you look?

[essellar]

My first (a MIPS Altair) used a surplus teletype and punched paper tape for non-volatile storage, although I used Electrographic Hollerith cards to run Fortran 4 on the local university's computer when I was in high school. I also fondly (not really) remember carefully adjusting the volume of the cassette recorder attached to a TI 99/4A before I sprang for the expansion box and dual 5-1/4s (single-sided, single density). The CD-ROMs were for the Canadian military and, well, we had a larger budget than most mom-and-pop setups.

[anhpro070975]

under 18 !!!

[rlodge]

47 tomorrow. Looking at the poll, I don't feel like the only "old man" on here.

[carl6969]

47 tomorrow. Looking at the poll, I don't feel like the only "old man" on here.

I have you beat by 3 years and I do not feel like an "old man" in any way.
Happy birthday and a big Texas howdy from the "big city" of Calf Creek Texas.

[davaophiltattooartsfestival83]

under 18 rocks!

[FreedomForAll]

Under 18... I find it frustrating that so-called "adults" think that they know more than you because you are younger than them. Just because they're older, doesn't mean they know everything. In many cases I know more than them about the web and computers. Oh well.