4 ms·
I started just right I suppose. My first modem was 28k. Windows 95 was just out (I had used win 3.1 a bit before that). Slackware was my Linux distribution. I w
by bitexploder 6y ago
I started just right I suppose. My first modem was 28k. Windows 95 was just out (I had used win 3.1 a bit before that). Slackware was my Linux distribution. I was in high school. Doom was just out. We made Doom maps and dialed each other up to play. My kids are 14 and 9. I am CTO at my own small consulting firm now.
I’m no industry titan, but I have been around the block. Many came before me, but I have seen the modern Internet rise from almost nothing. We all have to start somewhere. I still use Reddit, guess I am too old for it, but I started when it was all about programming, and had just launched. I was a developer first, but also a sysadmin for a startup. Did that from 2000-2006, before we called it DevOps. Someone had to keep the servers up. I was huge into MUDs and coding/building them... I actually kept track of a couple of the people I played with over all these years, but only a couple.
YC, Paul Graham, and the entrepreneurial spirit is built into me now. I read every Pg essay when it came out. In my career I only worked at a larger company for a few years in my 22 year career in tech this far. Tech is weird some days.
Now get off my lawn and all you kids stop using NoSQL and JavaScript and quit writing electron apps ;)
- jzer0cool 6y agoGosh I started with a 2600 bps. I think I still have it. It was given to me since the ones out in market were 28kpbs (expensive). Eventually I got a 14.4 kbps. I felt like I was flying. I did some free work for someone. The logo was for "Digi(something)" ... is it one of you monkey's? I used QuarXPress and Photoshop. One of the first software I used and installed on a 3.5 disk. At a young age this was exciting tech time for me.
- bitexploder 6y agoHeh, kind of glad I started when I did. 14.4 and up modems really were quite usable back then, for what the web was. I still remember waiting for big files like MUD source code. Also, I remember installed Slackware with a dozen or so floppy disks :)
- mgkimsal 6y agoStarted with 300 and was insanely jealous of people when 1200 became affordable enough for them. I think I eventually got 1200, but then many people had moved to 2400.
- shanusmagnus 6y agoI jumped from 300 (Apple Cat) to 2400 and felt like the king of the world :)
- adamredwoods 6y agoI had 300 baud, which had a switch on the side. I would call a BBS and flip it on when it made the handshake beeps. I tried to host a BBS of my own between the hours of 7pm and 9pm, but my parents were not happy with it.
- mrkstu 6y agoStarted w/sleepover's at my buddy's house dialing into the mainframe to play Adventure on his Dad's terminal w/acoustic coupler modem. Pretty sure it was slower than 300.
- voidmain0001 6y agoBe careful. You couldn't afford a US Robotics 14.4, and yet you could afford QuarXPress, and Photoshop? Hmmm...I smell something fishy. ;-)
- arpa 6y agoI didn't ask where that came from. Somebody must have copied that floppy...