newb Q - starting point

[imthejman85]

Imagine typing something like that and having to proof and spellcheck. It would mean a complete re-type, and probably more than once. Then there's the cost of that much paper; and how in the blazes do you store something like that, especially if it isn't bound? The younger folks on this forum have no concept how much the computer revolutionised writing.

The first two books and half of book 3 in the Sennadar series were originally written in spiral notebooks...six of them. I wrote them, literally.

I started Tower of Sorcery in 1985, in my sophomore year of high school. I don't remember exactly when I finished. And boy, did it get me in a lot of trouble in school, as I'd be writing instead of paying attention in class.

After I got out of the military, I decided to start writing again. I pulled out those spirals and literally rewrote the first two books by transcribing them out of the spirals and onto what was then my brand new shiny 386/16MHz computer, complete with Wordstar, making many of those changes Nicolai alluded to that really can only be easily done with a word processor program.

And those story files were kept on FLOPPY DISKS. I still have those disks. They're in my nightstand, wrapped up in a rubber band.

I still have those spirals as well...somewhere. I think. They're in a box. As to if that box in the attic or stuffed in a closet somewhere is the question.

Fel,does the younger generation , even know what floppy disks are, let alone spiral note books ?

Notebooks and 3.5in floppy's are how I started writing. Then again I started really writing in the mid 90's. Hell, I was BORN in 85', so I shudder to think what Fel went through back in the day, rofl. My first computer was a hand-me-down family 486... It served me well.

Fel, can't wait for the next chapter of Tribulation! Awesome books.

[Spec8472]

I'm sure they've heard of them. You know, part of computer mythology immortalized in that commercial I see on TV of four nerds gaping at a fifth, one saying "it's the Elder, he who speaks of...FLOPPY DISKS!", then he turns and looks at them and scathingly retorts, "You're all soft."

It's the 386/16 that I think they have no inkling as to what it is.

A three-eighty-what now?
Sixteen Megahertz? I have a watch that's faster than that. Then again, my 'watch' is my phone... which is running Linux (Android) and has a 1Ghz processor.

My first PC: Acer 486 DX4/100 with EIGHT* Megabytes of RAM and an 840MB HDD, and 4x tray-load CDROM. None of this caddy business. (* Upgraded to 16 later. Forgot about that -- oops)

[Hearly]

I'm sure they've heard of them. You know, part of computer mythology immortalized in that commercial I see on TV of four nerds gaping at a fifth, one saying "it's the Elder, he who speaks of...FLOPPY DISKS!", then he turns and looks at them and scathingly retorts, "You're all soft."

It's the 386/16 that I think they have no inkling as to what it is.

A three-eighty-what now?
Sixteen Megahertz? I have a watch that's faster than that. Then again, my 'watch' is my phone... which is running Linux (Android) and has a 1Ghz processor.

My first PC: Acer 486 DX4/100 with EIGHT* Megabytes of RAM and an 840MB HDD, and 4x tray-load CDROM. None of this caddy business. (* Upgraded to 16 later. Forgot about that -- oops)

you had 840megs? my first one with the 386 dx40 was 10 megs.. now within a year or so I upgraded to a 40meg.. I remeber running dual boot with OS2 and Windows 3.11

[DigitalMaestro]

My first PC ran a DOS OS until we got Shell. Had a 40MB HD and used the actual "floppy" floppy disks as well as the 3.5in hard versions. Some of my favorite games were on that machine... Keen4e was the best nanny a kid could have!

-DM

[Spec8472]

My first PC ran a DOS OS until we got Shell. Had a 40MB HD and used the actual "floppy" floppy disks as well as the 3.5in hard versions. Some of my favorite games were on that machine... Keen4e was the best nanny a kid could have!

-DM

8", or 5.25" ?

[DigitalMaestro]

My first PC ran a DOS OS until we got Shell. Had a 40MB HD and used the actual "floppy" floppy disks as well as the 3.5in hard versions. Some of my favorite games were on that machine... Keen4e was the best nanny a kid could have!

-DM

8", or 5.25" ?

5.25" I believe....

[GBLW]

Oh boy, a bunch of kids. lol, but I'm one of the old timers.

I first ran into computer tech of any kind in 1965 -- I lived in Alberta and worked for CN/CP Telecoms --the computer was in a warehouse in Montreal Quebec. We worked with teletypes/tellex machines that spit out paper tape and if the machine didn't connect directly to a telegraph line, then the paper tape was sent to another office where the paper tape was placed in a 'reader' sending a signal via Telegraph line, to a central office, forwarded to a microwave link, and across Canada to the computer in Montreal. If I remember correctly, the language used was Fortran.

My first home computer was a TI, but I can't recall the model, then an Apple, which came in kit form - no case, no keyboard, no display - I think that was actually the first Apple available to the public.
The first 'real' home computer I had with a diskdrive was an Apple IIc which used 5 1/4 disks.
About 1986 I switched to IBM and IBM clones - the first one was a portable made by NEC and used 3 1/2 inch disks (They called it a laptop, but it came in a suitcase about the size of a large briefcase and must have weighed about 20 lbs.)
After that I got into Windows machines with built in hard drives.
Now I have at least two machines in operation at all times, one running on Windows, one on Ubuntu and I'll occasionally use an old Mac laptop that I have laying around.

All I can really say about my experiences is that "the good old days" weren't!

[nicolai]

Imagine typing something like that and having to proof and spellcheck. It would mean a complete re-type, and probably more than once. Then there's the cost of that much paper; and how in the blazes do you store something like that, especially if it isn't bound? The younger folks on this forum have no concept how much the computer revolutionised writing.

The first two books and half of book 3 in the Sennadar series were originally written in spiral notebooks...six of them. I wrote them, literally.

I started Tower of Sorcery in 1985, in my sophomore year of high school. I don't remember exactly when I finished. And boy, did it get me in a lot of trouble in school, as I'd be writing instead of paying attention in class.

After I got out of the military, I decided to start writing again. I pulled out those spirals and literally rewrote the first two books by transcribing them out of the spirals and onto what was then my brand new shiny 386/16MHz computer, complete with Wordstar, making many of those changes Nicolai alluded to that really can only be easily done with a word processor program.

And those story files were kept on FLOPPY DISKS. I still have those disks. They're in my nightstand, wrapped up in a rubber band.

I still have those spirals as well...somewhere. I think. They're in a box. As to if that box in the attic or stuffed in a closet somewhere is the question.

That brings back some memories. My first was a 286 with 1Meg of memory, which was a lot in those days. It had a 10M hard drive, which was considered large. I think it was a Compaq, although I'm not sure. It was certainly a P.O.S. I was running MSDOS 3.3, iirc, a bootleg copy. I stuck with DRDOS through 6.0, then switched over to Win3.11 on a 486/25Mhz with 2 Meg of RAM.

And I remember Wordstar fondly. I still, once in a great while, find myself using one of those old keyboard shortcuts. Ancient reflex, I suppose.

I started playing with computers in high school as a sophomore, in 1965. I don't remember what the language was, but a local business allowed us (the math club) to run programs after hours, and we had to write those programs. The only command I remember from that language is 'iff', which stood for 'if, and only if'. Sort of a precursor to 'if, then', I suppose. We input the programs on paper punch tape, and I'll be surprised if anyone here remembers that stuff. I also got to play with PDP-7's and PDP-11's, which had a whole 4kB and 8kB of memory, for both the program and the data.

The first floppy disks I used were 8" 160kB, then I got to upgrade to 5 1/4" 320kB, then 640kB and finally 1.2MB. When the 3 1/2" floppies appeared, at 1.44MB, they were wonderful. They were also HUGE.

Fel, if you can find a drive to read them, you might want to transfer those floppies to CD's or something. After this many years, it's pretty much certain that they won't be readable much longer, if they are readable at all at this point. The only medium I'm aware of for digital storage that's good for more than 10-12 years is magnetic tape. I have CD's that are dying, and like Fel, I have 5 1/4" and 3 1/2" floppies that still hold data I'd like to have handy. Unfortunately, I no longer have a computer than can read those old floppies.

Ah, reminiscing about the good old days. A sure and certain warning sign of early senility. ;-P

[artreus]

well, have started reading the first chapter twice now,
but not getting into it ...

for the record i wasnt talking about any of fel's book,
was asking about the dragonsandwolves thing

but guess the thread got derailed by now

[Fel]

well, have started reading the first chapter twice now,
but not getting into it ...

for the record i wasnt talking about any of fel's book,
was asking about the dragonsandwolves thing

but guess the thread got derailed by now

We're very good at thread derails around here.

I think it has something to do with short attention spans.

[Hearly]

well, have started reading the first chapter twice now,
but not getting into it ...

for the record i wasnt talking about any of fel's book,
was asking about the dragonsandwolves thing

but guess the thread got derailed by now

We're very good at thread derails around here.

I think it has something to do with short attention spans.

Uh?

Sorry lost where I was .... .... ..

[Fiferguy]

well, have started reading the first chapter twice now,
but not getting into it ...

for the record i wasnt talking about any of fel's book,
was asking about the dragonsandwolves thing

but guess the thread got derailed by now

We're very good at thread derails around here.

I think it has something to do with short attention spans.

I for one have an attention span that can be counted in ye... oh, look at the pretty colors!

[GBLW]

for the record i wasnt talking about any of fel's book,
was asking about the dragonsandwolves thing

but guess the thread got derailed by now

Thanks for the warning, knowing my attention span, I won't bother with it then.

[garion]

well, have started reading the first chapter twice now,
but not getting into it ...

for the record i wasnt talking about any of fel's book,
was asking about the dragonsandwolves thing

but guess the thread got derailed by now

We're very good at thread derails around here.

I think it has something to do with short attention spans.

that and grimlens throwing track switches

[Fawks]

My first comp was a had me down Tandy laptop. 8086 4.77mhz processor, 4 color graphics and two 720k floppy drives. My first real computer (i.e. build myself) was a 486sx 25Mhz with 2 Mg RAM, 80mb hand me down drive running MS-Dos 6.22. I remember teaching myself how to write config.sys and autoexec.bat files to support the DOS 6 boot menu. I played with OS/2 some but IBM didn't support it enough to let it live.

Now I'm running 3 comps plus a laptop.