7 ms·

This wasn't just restricted to COM port based I/O either. Back then I had a Logitech bus mouse. The mouse was connected directly to an ISA card, and didn't use

This wasn't just restricted to COM port based I/O either. Back then I had a Logitech bus mouse. The mouse was connected directly to an ISA card, and didn't use the COM ports as most mice did back then. (I needed the extra COM port/IRQ for my modems.) I too witnessed the 'windows is running slow when installing' bug. I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled for speed these days). That way when I would walk-away from an install I could see if the progress meter moved while I was away. More often then not the progress bar would still be where it was when I had left. By moving the mouse activity would return and the installation would continue. I always assumed it was the graphics that were not being updated. A small bug with the install would keep running but the lack of input interrupts caused the display to get 'stuck'. (That would explain the sudden 'jump' in progress bar movement as soon as I wiggled the mouse.)

samstave 7y ago
Get off my lawn! But what newbies will bever know the heck of: dip switch settings for IRQ for modems. Thats what literally got me into computers... In order to dial up BBSs and play tthe Pit and dl warez. —- Ive told this story before, but in about 1992? Or so - i got grounded for a month because i had been calling in long distance to a bbs in san jose to play the pit - and racked up a long distance bill of $926 - my dad was livid. He yelled at me and said “why are you wasting all this time with computers! Its never going to do anything for you!” Years later after i became successful with yee olde computerz! He apologized to me and said “im sorry i yelled at you for that time you cost me all that money in long distance charges.”
- chasingthewind 7y ago
  I also got yelled at by my dad for racking up long distance charges in 1991 or 92 but in my case it was only about $150 for calling the Sierra BBS to download stuff for King's Quest games or something :)
  - samstave 7y ago
    Wonderful! Were you also calling into PCLink? I used to have a challenge with my best friend at the time: We used to call 411 and challenge to whom could keep the 411 operator on the phone longest.
- rhacker 7y ago
  Same here, except it was San Jose to San Jose. However still had a bill because I was in Zone 1 and the BBS was in Zone 3 (phone book tells you which zone) So.. charges. Dad wasn't mad, I think he realized I was going to get a job in the field.
  - samstave 7y ago
    You up-dadded me!!!
- treebeard901 7y ago
  > Ive told this story before, but in about 1992? Or so - i got grounded for a month because i had been calling in long distance to a bbs in san jose to play the pit - and racked up a long distance bill of $926 - my dad was livid. I had this problem until I discovered a bug in a Major BBS door game (TradeWars 2002) that let me have unlimited BBS credits. No more charges on my moms phone bill and even was able to trade those for other things in real life. Early bitcoin in a way. Looking back on it, my need to get online overrode my ethics regarding either my moms bank account or the sysops running the BBS. Oh well.
- cek 7y ago
  I've told the exact same story. Weird.
  - pbhjpbhj 7y ago
    Also $926?
    - samstave 7y ago
      Doubtful - I was calling from Tahoe City California to San Jose California... And it was a summer month long binge on PCLink and BBSs... (I later convinced my highschool to install a CAD network on which we installed a BBS Called Heaven and Hell and ran a warez site from there.... Fun times. EDIT: Oh -- and it was run on an EverexStep Cube machine... I think it was a 386?
- mcguire 7y ago
  "Years later after i became successful with yee olde computerz! He apologized to me and said “im sorry i yelled at you for that time you cost me all that money in long distance charges.”" At which point you lit up your Havana Muy Gordo with a $1000 bill and said, "Don't sweat it?"
- rlonstein 7y ago
  Similar but earlier story... staying up late at night or waking up early before school to login to BBS's. First with a Practical Peripherals modem that my dad acquired to dial into his business (which still used teletype). I got myself a Hayes 2400[1] and convinced my dad to get the fixed calling within your area code which I mostly paid for with my part-time work. I tried to stay within my LATA which included Sherwood Forest, Camelot, some others with doors and FIDO that can't recall. And then I made a mistake and on the advice of another BBS'er tried one in what I thought was a neighboring LATA. It was great! Active! Doors! gFiles! Warez! But was actually zones away in Texas. I had a good old time until the bill came. My Dad was purple he was so angry and I worked a lot of odd jobs to pay that off. . . [1] somehow just before college I got a used USR Courier HST. Then I sent it in with what was probably all of my hard earned beer money for upgrade to a Courier v.Everything... I still have that one, found it while moving https://v.gd/gF83mM https://v.gd/gF83mM)
- mr_toad 7y ago
  > But what newbies will bever know the heck of: dip switch settings for IRQ for modems. And dip switches to set hard drives to primary/secondary. Get that wrong and your machine didn’t boot.
  - unionpivo 7y ago
    those were jumpers :)
  - corrigible 7y ago
    And making sure ATM0(?) was sent so that the modem was quiet...
TomMarius 7y ago
One time I was installing Windows 95, I had to move the cursor the whole time because otherwise the installation got stuck. I discovered this after at least 30 tries.
- yial 7y ago
  I remember having this exact some experience once before! I'm glad I wasn't the only one.
yokohummer7 7y ago
> I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled for speed these days). This is just me, oh my gosh. I thought I was the only one who did that. But now I come to think about it, it can't be true. It has been a really long time since I used that technique last time...
- johnchristopher 7y ago
  What ? I still do that at least once a week/month. Last time it was for the linux dropbox updater, last week. I am also a fan of using another window so I can use the mouse and still have a marker to monitor progress.
  - TomMarius 7y ago
    Today everything goes so fast that it's faster to kill and restart if it's not visibly moving, IMHO
  - yokohummer7 7y ago
    I guess what has changed is me, not the computing environment. When I was young, I easily grew impatient when things were going slow. Nowadays I still kinda feel nervous, but not to the point to warrant such bookkeeping methods.
    - koolba 7y ago
      My urge to measure everything has only grown with age. I don't chalk it up to nervousness though. I'd say it's driven by curiosity and and a desire to forecast.
  - Swenrekcah 7y ago
    I do this all the time too, but unfortunately many processes today only go around in circls instead of showing the actual progress.
    - woodrowbarlow 7y ago
gsich 7y ago
>I too witnessed the 'windows is running slow when installing' bug. I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled for speed these days). Most software doesn't feel any faster compared to Windows 95 (see Wirth's law). Also most shitware does not display a loading bar anymore, instead you get some spinning stuff that's just an animation.
- Analemma_ 7y ago
  > Also most shitware does not display a loading bar anymore, instead you get some spinning stuff that's just an animation. In fairness, that's because users constantly complained about loading bars not being accurate (they'd freeze, change speeds, stop right at the end etc.), but having a "true" loading bar that proceeds smoothly basically requires solving the Halting Problem. So out it went.
  - gsich 7y ago
    Let them complain and ignore it.
wnevets 7y ago
Was this a win95 only bug? I remember doing the mouse thing on 98 as well.
- yellowapple 7y ago
  I mean, I still do the mouse thing all the time, regardless of OS. Not because I actually expect it to go faster, mind you, but rather because I'm bored.
isostatic 7y ago
> That way when I would walk-away from an install But a few minutes later you'd be back to swap in floppy number 18

samstave 7y ago

Get off my lawn! But what newbies will bever know the heck of: dip switch settings for IRQ for modems. Thats what literally got me into computers... In order to dial up BBSs and play tthe Pit and dl warez. —- Ive told this story before, but in about 1992? Or so - i got grounded for a month because i had been calling in long distance to a bbs in san jose to play the pit - and racked up a long distance bill of $926 - my dad was livid. He yelled at me and said “why are you wasting all this time with computers! Its never going to do anything for you!” Years later after i became successful with yee olde computerz! He apologized to me and said “im sorry i yelled at you for that time you cost me all that money in long distance charges.”

chasingthewind 7y ago
I also got yelled at by my dad for racking up long distance charges in 1991 or 92 but in my case it was only about $150 for calling the Sierra BBS to download stuff for King's Quest games or something :)
- samstave 7y ago
  Wonderful! Were you also calling into PCLink? I used to have a challenge with my best friend at the time: We used to call 411 and challenge to whom could keep the 411 operator on the phone longest.
rhacker 7y ago
Same here, except it was San Jose to San Jose. However still had a bill because I was in Zone 1 and the BBS was in Zone 3 (phone book tells you which zone) So.. charges. Dad wasn't mad, I think he realized I was going to get a job in the field.
- samstave 7y ago
  You up-dadded me!!!
treebeard901 7y ago
> Ive told this story before, but in about 1992? Or so - i got grounded for a month because i had been calling in long distance to a bbs in san jose to play the pit - and racked up a long distance bill of $926 - my dad was livid. I had this problem until I discovered a bug in a Major BBS door game (TradeWars 2002) that let me have unlimited BBS credits. No more charges on my moms phone bill and even was able to trade those for other things in real life. Early bitcoin in a way. Looking back on it, my need to get online overrode my ethics regarding either my moms bank account or the sysops running the BBS. Oh well.
cek 7y ago
I've told the exact same story. Weird.
- pbhjpbhj 7y ago
  Also $926?
  - samstave 7y ago
    Doubtful - I was calling from Tahoe City California to San Jose California... And it was a summer month long binge on PCLink and BBSs... (I later convinced my highschool to install a CAD network on which we installed a BBS Called Heaven and Hell and ran a warez site from there.... Fun times. EDIT: Oh -- and it was run on an EverexStep Cube machine... I think it was a 386?
mcguire 7y ago
"Years later after i became successful with yee olde computerz! He apologized to me and said “im sorry i yelled at you for that time you cost me all that money in long distance charges.”" At which point you lit up your Havana Muy Gordo with a $1000 bill and said, "Don't sweat it?"
rlonstein 7y ago
Similar but earlier story... staying up late at night or waking up early before school to login to BBS's. First with a Practical Peripherals modem that my dad acquired to dial into his business (which still used teletype). I got myself a Hayes 2400[1] and convinced my dad to get the fixed calling within your area code which I mostly paid for with my part-time work. I tried to stay within my LATA which included Sherwood Forest, Camelot, some others with doors and FIDO that can't recall. And then I made a mistake and on the advice of another BBS'er tried one in what I thought was a neighboring LATA. It was great! Active! Doors! gFiles! Warez! But was actually zones away in Texas. I had a good old time until the bill came. My Dad was purple he was so angry and I worked a lot of odd jobs to pay that off. . . [1] somehow just before college I got a used USR Courier HST. Then I sent it in with what was probably all of my hard earned beer money for upgrade to a Courier v.Everything... I still have that one, found it while moving https://v.gd/gF83mM https://v.gd/gF83mM)
mr_toad 7y ago
> But what newbies will bever know the heck of: dip switch settings for IRQ for modems. And dip switches to set hard drives to primary/secondary. Get that wrong and your machine didn’t boot.
- unionpivo 7y ago
  those were jumpers :)
- corrigible 7y ago
  And making sure ATM0(?) was sent so that the modem was quiet...

TomMarius 7y ago

One time I was installing Windows 95, I had to move the cursor the whole time because otherwise the installation got stuck. I discovered this after at least 30 tries.

yial 7y ago
I remember having this exact some experience once before! I'm glad I wasn't the only one.

yokohummer7 7y ago

> I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled for speed these days). This is just me, oh my gosh. I thought I was the only one who did that. But now I come to think about it, it can't be true. It has been a really long time since I used that technique last time...

johnchristopher 7y ago
What ? I still do that at least once a week/month. Last time it was for the linux dropbox updater, last week. I am also a fan of using another window so I can use the mouse and still have a marker to monitor progress.
- TomMarius 7y ago
  Today everything goes so fast that it's faster to kill and restart if it's not visibly moving, IMHO
- yokohummer7 7y ago
  I guess what has changed is me, not the computing environment. When I was young, I easily grew impatient when things were going slow. Nowadays I still kinda feel nervous, but not to the point to warrant such bookkeeping methods.
  - koolba 7y ago
    My urge to measure everything has only grown with age. I don't chalk it up to nervousness though. I'd say it's driven by curiosity and and a desire to forecast.
- Swenrekcah 7y ago
  I do this all the time too, but unfortunately many processes today only go around in circls instead of showing the actual progress.
  - woodrowbarlow 7y ago

gsich 7y ago

>I too witnessed the 'windows is running slow when installing' bug. I often would use the mouse cursor to 'mark' the position of the loading bar (we really are spoiled for speed these days). Most software doesn't feel any faster compared to Windows 95 (see Wirth's law). Also most shitware does not display a loading bar anymore, instead you get some spinning stuff that's just an animation.

Analemma_ 7y ago
> Also most shitware does not display a loading bar anymore, instead you get some spinning stuff that's just an animation. In fairness, that's because users constantly complained about loading bars not being accurate (they'd freeze, change speeds, stop right at the end etc.), but having a "true" loading bar that proceeds smoothly basically requires solving the Halting Problem. So out it went.
- gsich 7y ago
  Let them complain and ignore it.

wnevets 7y ago

Was this a win95 only bug? I remember doing the mouse thing on 98 as well.

yellowapple 7y ago
I mean, I still do the mouse thing all the time, regardless of OS. Not because I actually expect it to go faster, mind you, but rather because I'm bored.

isostatic 7y ago

> That way when I would walk-away from an install But a few minutes later you'd be back to swap in floppy number 18