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Pre internet

pillsaregooood

Is there anybody on here that worked in an office before the internet arrived ,what did ye do to pass the time ? I must spend 70% of my day surfing ,I'd be fecked without the web.

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petes

When I started were I am now I didn't have access to the internet. ISDN connection being shared. Had to do work. Crazy.

Giruilla

i didn't have the internet last summer, man it was painfull!! I was in an open plan office too! I used to spend my day memorising rows of random numbers from my calculator, sneakily playing sudoko or crosswords (I'd hide it under my keyboard the slide it out when the time was right), writing emails to other just as bored colleagues, taking one hour toilet breaks (I'd just listen to my mp3), thinking and planning about what to have for lunch, making action figures out of any office supplies I could get my hands on (rubber bands and paper clips mostly) and playing with them after:) , and generally retreating to my imagnation quite a lot!! Theres a few other stuff which I'd have to go unreged for if I wanted to say. But basically yeah, without the internet it sucks! Man only 70%, I'm on like 98% at least this summer, cubicles rule!!

biko

I started travelling very young, before e-mail.
Had to send postcards home to friends and family !

stovelid

jaysus, thank god for the net

Giruilla wrote:

memorising rows of random numbers from my calculator

Agamemnon

When I worked in jobs with no internet access, I went for smoke breaks on the hour, every hour. Now that I'm in front of a computer all day at work, I go for smoke breaks every 90 minutes instead.

seamus

Well the internet brought with it things like email, which was/is a major spur to give everyone their own terminal. I didn't work before the internet came around, but from first-hand accounts, the general set up was that there were only a handful of machines in most places. If you wanted to do up a document and print it out, you gave it to a typist, or you found a free machine and did it. Memos were either sent via internal mail, voicemail or by calling down to someone's desk. You had a desk with no computer or monitor on it, but you still had no space because you had a mountain of paper on it.

This of course varied from place-to-place. Accountancy firms would naturally have more computers than say a solicitors.

The Hill Billy

Ahh... This brings me back to the days when we had only 2 PCs (an IBM AT & an IBM XT) & a scattering of 3270 terminals. (That probably means fcuk all to most of ye.)

The 3270 terminals had email of sorts which I used to chat to mates in our offices in London.

Time-wasting in those days more revolved around chatting to work-mates over coffee & having a smoke at your desk.

Eventually we got in some IBM Model 55SX's (12.5 MHz, 4MB RAM, 60MB hard-disk) running Windows 3.1. Then got down to some serious time-wasting playing Solitaire!

The rest - as they say - is history...

/goes misty-eyed

gimmick

I used be great at crosswords and other word games. Unfortunately my mind is now a mere slush with cheap kicks on the net.

Must go, must watch monkeys.

Archeron

I found a book at home of photcopyable (??) jokes. It was printed in the late 70's i think, and its all stuff that you're supposed to copy and give to your friends to make them laugh and then discuss over the watercooler. Funny thing is that a lot of stuff in it is stuff you still see in emails today.

scojones

Life did not exist before the Internet!

Day-wanna-wonga

Giruilla wrote:

Man only 70%, I'm on like 98% at least this summer, cubicles rule!!

That doesn't make sense. You are 28% better than man in summertime?

pillsaregooood

That doesn't make sense. You are 28% better than man in summertime?

Ruu_Old

gimmick wrote:

I used be great at crosswords and other word games. Unfortunately my mind is now a mere slush with cheap kicks on the net.

Must go, must watch monkeys.

Yep crosswords, now crosswords on the internet. *throws away pen and paper*

robinph

We'd run a serial cable between the laptops that we were supposed to be fixing and play Doom. Purely for testing that they were working OK though of course.

Lorax

I do about 15 minutes of actual work a week..

[Deleted User]

has anyone found even now when they do have work , the internet is such a distraction
this morning a woman called me up regarding her remote ID and was having problems with it but i was distracted by an email i got with the link to colin farrell's sex tape!

connundrum

What the hell did you guys do for porn in pre internet times*?? Jesus, brown duffel coat sales must've dropped something shocking in the last 10 years :eek:

*I ask on a friends behalf. Obviously

The Hill Billy

connundrum wrote:

What the hell did you guys do for porn in pre internet times

Pic of nekkid woman with blank piece of paper covering it.
Slowly moved blank piece of paper down to gradually reveal full pic.

In some ways the old days were better coz you didn't need a PC to have a wnak. You could do it in the bathroom, at the cinema, even at bus stops.

Mind you - this new wireless malarky was obviously designed to bring back the good ol' days of wnaking anywhere.

Interceptor

connundrum wrote:

What the hell did you guys do for porn in pre internet times?

Have ye no heard of the legend of the spank mag? Arrr, it be on the top shelf in Eurospar and it holds the key to internet-free wnakking. Arrr, me wrist it throbs...

'cptr

goods

anyone have any interesting sites to visit , seem as no one is doing any actual work ?

abetarrush

Ah twas the days of letter, swirly-dial phones and typewriters

fjon

I started university in 1996, right when internet was starting to really take off. Exciting times - people used to queue for hours at the start of each year to join Netsoc (the only way to properly get internet access). The lucky few had a Netsoc account, which their friends would regularly "borrow".
The W95 PCs were ancient, really slow, but we loved them.
We also had some godawful Telnet email. No pictures or attachments!
I went into the computer rooms recently, and how things have changed! Bebo, flash drives, cd burning, DVDs, flatscreen monitors...

muckwarrior

fjon wrote:

I started university in 2000, right when internet was starting to really take off. Exciting times - people used to queue for hours at the start of each year to join Netsoc (the only way to properly get internet access). The lucky few had a Netsoc account, which their friends would regularly "borrow".
The W95 PCs were ancient, really slow, but we loved them.
We also had some godawful Telnet email. No pictures or attachments!
I went into the computer rooms recently, and how things have changed! Bebo, flash drives, cd burning, DVDs, flatscreen monitors...

Jesus, what college did you go to? That sounds more like 1997!

fjon

D'oh! I *graduated* in 2000! You're right, it was actually 1996/ 1997 - good guess!

Merrick

Blah, you lucky people, I can't use the net at work, so I have had to resort to making things out of blu-tack, stringing all my paperclips together, doodling, eating without anyone noticing... I once spent an hour and a half cleaning my whole desk, and the area around it, just for something to do.
*sigh*

po0k

Ask for a raise.

LundiMardi

I did have the net in work, but apparently 80 hours a month surf time if a tad too much according to my employers. ::sigh:: :rolleyes:

Merrick

SyxPak wrote:

Ask for a raise.

Now there's a clever thought...
Getting more money for the same messing, I like it.

Terry

connundrum wrote:

What the hell did you guys do for porn in pre internet times*?? Jesus, brown duffel coat sales must've dropped something shocking in the last 10 years :eek:

*I ask on a friends behalf. Obviously

VHS tapes and 2 VCR's.
ron jeremy seemed to be in every one of those films back then.

BrokenArrows

LundiMardi wrote:

I did have the net in work, but apparently 80 hours a month surf time if a tad too much according to my employers. ::sigh:: :rolleyes:

sure if you work 40 hours a week its like spending half your month at work on the net.