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I bought my 1040st, and a dot matrix printer, with most of my first year's student loan. (Almost all of it.) I was so embarrassed I told no one, even my girlfr
by hellbannedguy 5y ago
I bought my 1040st, and a dot matrix printer, with most of my first year's student loan. (Almost all of it.)
I was so embarrassed I told no one, even my girlfriend at first. It was a big expensive secret. My car was a Chevette, with a bad tranny. Anyone in their right mind would have bought a better car.
Not one teacher could differentiate type written papers, from dot matrix. Besides the fear of public speaking, I always worried a teacher would find out I didn't write my paper on a twpewritter.
I tried to get my girlfriend to like it, but it was a big No. I remember drawing, in Paint, a penis. I even got it to vibrate. (It was not easy back then.)
She thought it was cute, and we had sexy time, but she didn't like the machine. I could just tell she didn't like my computer.
In retrospect--maybe she thought I should spend that kind of money on her?. I remember thinking, I'm a glad about equal rights. After all she was from a wealthy family, and I was poor. (sorry about reminiscing.)
Now most of you think it was my dick pic, but it wasen't. I think she thought the computer was nerdy?
She wasn't happy with my Bullmastiff either, but I loved my dog. She didn't like it when my dog had her period. She once said to me, "It's the dog, or me?". I didn't say anything, but my Elsa was my family. It was no decision to be made. I would have died for that dog.
I don't think we ever liked each other, but boy was she attractive.
She's now some big wig at a computer company, and consultes on computing.
I only bought it for word processing.
I wasen't a computer guy. I just knew at the time college was a joke, and if I was going to write all those useless papers; I wasen't going to do it on a IBM, with Whitout.
I felt like I was cheating.
Got my degrees. Had a nervous breakdown. The world seemed grey, and depressing.
I got tired of looking at that horrid beige idle computer on my desk one day, and tossed it all. (I'm color blind, but thought that beige was horrid.)
I wish I kept it now though.
(I miss my dog, and computer. My girlfriend not so much, but she was stunning. Way out of my league.)
- Thorentis 5y agoThis is the strangest comment I have ever read on Hackernews.
- mpol 5y agoIt's still a good story and I like it :) I don't have anything else to add.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y agoNeed more comments like his on HN.
- tcmart14 5y agoMy favorite part was him being happy about vibrating dick picture in paint.
- TedDoesntTalk 5y ago> and we had sexy time This sounds like 70s/80s Euro-English a la Borat, but I think you’re American. Well done.
- G3rn0ti 5y agoThis is great stuff for a "coming of age" movie or Netflix series!
- bregma 5y agoIs this comment written in green text? I can't tell because my 1040STe only has a monochrome SM147 monitor. atari.jpg
- J_cst 5y agoThis comment is equally odd and beautiful. It flows like a nonsense dream. I picture it like the images generated by an AI. Thank you for sharing it. I'm not sarcastic/ironic about it.
- Keyframe 5y agoThe s was quite a journey!
- drivers99 5y ago> I got tired of looking at that horrid beige idle computer on my desk one day, and tossed it all. > I wish I kept it now though. So it goes with a lot of electronics and other products (could be anything, even magazines). They start off at high value and dip to lower and lower values for us until they reach 0 value (or even negative value because of the space and weight they take up), but then when they become harder to find again they start gaining value again. Unfortunately we can’t just hoard everything either.
- trimbo 5y agoYour comment reminds me of Kary Mullis's Nobel lecture https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1993/mullis/lecture/ https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/chemistry/1993/mullis/lect...
- JasonFruit 5y agoThis is why I enjoy HN so much: it introduces me to the entirely unexpected.
- mftb 5y agoI was on the fence about this comment. I was contemplating whether or not it was authentic. Then I got to the part about the dog, and I decided, "This guys alright by me."
- michaelcampbell 5y agoThis is a fun post, but I can't bring myself to believe... > Not one teacher could differentiate type written papers, from dot matrix. It just strains credulity. Daisy wheel, sure, but not in the history of dot matrix printers, from start to finish, were they comparable to typewritten output.
- HeyLaughingBoy 5y agoThe 24-pin ones used to advertise themselves as being almost indistinguishable from a typewriter. If you didn't look too closely, they actually were.
- qsi 5y agoYou could get close to inkjets and early laser printers with Signum! on the ST and 24-pin dot matrix printer. It used custom bitmapped fonts and very fine control of the pins to generate amazing output. It was very slow in the highest quality setting, but most people couldn't tell it apart from much more expensive solutions. It also had an astounding equation editor which made it great for STEM work.
- michaelcampbell 5y ago"too closely" hardly qualifies IMO as "indistinguishable". Maybe I'm a printer nerd, but I could generally tell the printer manufacturer from its output in the time they were popular. Not to mention that back then, I don't think any consumer-grade dot matrix used single sheet paper like a typewriter would. The tractor punched-hole bars on the side after removal would give it away; even that fancy super-perforated stuff.