Conference turris::womannotes-v3

    ...when people ask you for your address, your first thought is to
    give them your net address.
    
    --- jerry

    ... when your computer's surge protector is powerful enough to run not
    only a *computer,* but an *iron* as well!!   ???

    ... or, on the less worrisome side --

    (really, Linda L, do you think it's safe to put such a load on a lowly
    surge-protector (that was probably bought in the '80s anyway) ??  :-)

    ... You know you're a person of the '90s when you have to study a
    50-page manual just to learn how to use your (you should pardon the
    antique expression) record-player and radio...

    But I guess that started in the '80s too so it don't count...

    When you refer to a song as "track number xx"

    Wait a sec, 
    
    Bonnie, you spent the week at Linda's and no one called me.
    
    What is the deal, here???...
    
    
    Sue
    
    Back to the regularly scheduled discussion!

All of my friends have fax machines.  (And I just got a fax modem
for my home computer).

Martin.

    You spin away from your home computer to dial into work on the
    real terminal while you print out a long file.
    
    						Ann B.

    ...when writing even paper mail (a very rare occurence in and of
    itself) you express pleasure or humor by sticking in a colon, followed
    by a dash, followed by a right paren. 
    
    ...when you have good friends you have known for months and you don't
    know their phone number because the only way you ever communicate is by
    email!
    
    D!

    
    
    >...when writing even paper mail (a very rare occurence in and of
    >itself) you express pleasure or humor by sticking in a colon, followed
    >by a dash, followed by a right paren. 
    
    I don't know D!  I kind of like getting them!
    
    
    (*8
    
    E Grace

You know when you're a person of the '90s when someone (Hi Martin) asks if the
singular of feces is fax and you do:

gilroy 32*>rsh jumbo random feces
feces

feces
(fesez),
n.pl.
1. waste matter discharged from the intestines through the anus;
   excrement.
2. dregs; sediment. Also, faeces.
[late ME  <  L faeces grounds, dregs, sediment (pl. of faex)]

In order to tell them that, no, it's the plural of "faex".

	:-)
	-- Charles

>    You spin away from your home computer to dial into work on the
>    real terminal while you print out a long file.

    Nope, that's '80s. To be '90s you do it all in different windows
    on your home PC with a print spooler and terminal emulator.

>>   You spin away from your home computer to dial into work on the
>>   real terminal while you print out a long file.

>   Nope, that's '80s. To be '90s you do it all in different windows
>   on your home PC with a print spooler and terminal emulator.

Nope, that's 80s too. In the 90's you have a small home lan and a workstation
and gateway connected to the global network via ISDN. You spool your print
jobs to the laser printer in your office, or you spool them to the small printer
next to you on the desk, then give the input focus to the DECwindows Notes
window and continue noting... 

If you don't believe me, check back in five years.

	-- Charles (a 90s kind of guy)

P.S. No, I don't have ISDN yet. I connect via 56kb leased line. ISDN is next
year's project.

	You blankly look at a sheet of paper with writting on it and try
	and figure out how to spellcheck it. Realize that that requires a
	scanner which you don't have with you in the store and just write
	so sloppy that noone can tell what the letters are anyway.

	Explain that the reason you haven't written someone is that they
	don't have an (Email) address.

	Can't "call" in sick because the computer is down.

	Have to explain why the word "dial" is in the phrase "dial in" to
	your son.

			Alfred

    ...when you can't type anymore.  It's *got* to be word processed.
    
  

    When all you want for Christmas is a second phone line so you can carry
    on a conversation with a friend through email while simultaneuosly
    talking to them on the other line!
    
    Nanci

    Ya don't mean to be trying to convince me that all those random feces
    that you had to *remember* and *type into a terminal* (or terminal
    emulator) is NINETIES, do ya, Charles???  
    
    Now if you'd said you were pointing and clicking at windows and radio
    buttons and sliders and suchlike, I might have believed that you were a
    person of the Mid-to-Late 80's or earlyish 90's....
    
    Nice functionality, btw, and I hear that Steve Jobs' NEXT cube has the
    Merriam-Webster online on CD-ROM, bundled in with the box.  Now that's
    closer to state-of-the-art interfacing to an online dictionary, and on
    a U*IX substrate too!!!
    
    (Apologies to the "mouse-ophobic" among us {yes, I guess I *did* mean
    "-ophobic" with a slightly sarcastic tone :-} but mice and GUIs are
    definitely here to stay -- and to evolve into multimedia extravaganzas,
    even like unto the Real World...)
    
    (-: btw if anyone starts arguing about the pros/cons of MICE etc., Be
    Warned -- that will START A RATHOLE!!!  :-)
    
    (-: have I earned my Nerd Beanie with 2 propellers rampant yet?? :-)
    
    Dan

    
    your dog has a separation anxiety issue, and you address it.  =8-)
    
    Carla (who wants a psychologically healthy woofer)
    

...when you want everyone to wear spandex and cat suits and look spacey.

and when you cringe at each new NASA failure, I want to travel to the moon as a
tourist before I die and things are looking grim. liesl

    
    
    re. 19
    
    but carla, he's just a BABY!!
    
    poooooooor elliot... his mama just doesn't understand. 
    
    ~r

    you can find people to go out to dinner with by checking their "hungry
    bit".  This was set up on one of the MIT systems (OZ?) in the AI
    building because so many hackers worked so many strange hours.  If you
    were hungry you'd set your hungry-bit and when someone wanted company
    for Szechuan food (of course...), they'd simply contact all the people
    with their hungry bits set.  Oz is now gone, and I'm uncertain whether
    the program carried over from that DEC-20 to any other machines, but it
    was a lovely hack.
    
    Another good hack was done (drat I can't remember where), but you could
    "finger" (i.e. using UNIX you could check on certain
    things/people/characteristics) the coke machines in the building and
    find out when the cans had been last added so you could locate the
    coldest soda in the building and purchase it posthaste....
    
    -Jody

        re .22,
        
        I heard they also had <some funny key on the keyboard>+E
        rigged to call the elevator up to that floor.
        
        Dan

    G'Day,
    
    	Re .22
    
    	I've never been known to 'finger' a Coke machine before but I sure
    have 'fisted' a few!
    
    David.
    

    
    ...when you feel truly embaressed, and concerned about the quality of
    your life, because you don't have a screen of any kind at home...
    
    'gail
    

    At lunch the other day,
    
    the waiter had to prompt me for a reply,
    
    $ Eggrolls? <ret>
    Yes
    
    $Fried rice? <ret>
    Yes
    
    $Tea <ret>
    Yes
    
    My daughter thought it was hysterical; the 'prompter' and I felt
    kind of weird.
    
    

    
    re:.22
    the 'finger coke' hack was perpetrated at cmu circa 1983
    ;^)
    

You know it's the 90's when you can listen to Bach on the CD Rom reader
on your home computer while you run Notes in one window, a drawing
program in another window, and a page layout program in a third;
all on a "personal computer."

Martin.

Re: .18 NEMAIL::KALIKOWD

> Ya don't mean to be trying to convince me that all those random feces
> that you had to *remember* and *type into a terminal* (or terminal
> emulator) is NINETIES, do ya, Charles???  

Of course I didn't type it in... I used quick-copy. I have do "Xwebster" with a
motif interface that I normally use, and I could have posted a CDA screendump
of the interface, but would have missed my point...

********************************************************************************
* WARNING, WARNING, WARNING. The next note is a DDIF document! If you are      *
* using the character cell interface to notes you probably want to skip it!    * 
********************************************************************************
    
> Now if you'd said you were pointing and clicking at windows and radio
> buttons and sliders and suchlike, I might have believed that you were a
> person of the Mid-to-Late 80's or earlyish 90's....

I was using point-and-click at windows and radio buttons and sliders back in the
'70s boy. I worked on Lisa - the predecessor to the Mac. I also worked at Xerox,
and I have a Xerox Dandelion on that home lan I mentioned...
    
> Nice functionality, btw, and I hear that Steve Jobs' NEXT cube has the
> Merriam-Webster online on CD-ROM, bundled in with the box.  Now that's
> closer to state-of-the-art interfacing to an online dictionary, and on
> a U*IX substrate too!!!

It seems that you may not have been able to tell that I accessed random from
unix via a network. Stand alone PCs aren't very '90s. Global networks are...
(Though I was using the ARPAnet to get from San Diego to MIT in the *early*
'70s.) Jody - I didn't use oz, I used MIT-MC and MIT-AI - venerable DEC-10's.
    
> (-: have I earned my Nerd Beanie with 2 propellers rampant yet?? :-)

Nope, but you can have a nerd wannabeanie.

Re: .20 TINCUP::KOLBE

> and when you cringe at each new NASA failure, I want to travel to the moon as a
> tourist before I die and things are looking grim. liesl

I'm afraid the '90s sort of way to get to the moon will be from Baikonur... :-)
(ask the Japanese journalist who just went to MIR for n-gazillion dollars cash.)

	-- Charles

    When you can't seem to think, much less write whole sentences, unless
    your fingers are on a keyboard.

    
    . . . . . .  when you help your 6' - 16 year old son make a ponytail
    
    and pick out which earing looks best with it! (And I never even
    
    flinched!  I rather liked the look.)  Guess that's what convinced
    
    me that I was a mom of the 90's!

    ...when your young children:
    
    ...don't know that the TV can be turned on without a remote control.
    
    ...play "daycare" instead of "house."
    
    ...think that phone numbers are only two digits long (as in speed
    dialing, er, punching).
    
    ...play with their toy kitchen and, when you ask for a glass of water,
    reach not for the toy faucet, but for an imaginary bottle of spring
    water in the toy refrigerator.
    

    Ah, make-believe isn't what it used to be!
    
    -Tracy
    

    G'Day,
    
    	We decided to have a '70's party for New Year's Eve in our new
    house.  I am currently compiling cassettes of various seventies music
    and you really know that you are a person of the nineties when all
    those disco songs and ABBA records sound so old complete with all the
    crackles and pops and bangs that go with records - I'd forgotten how bad
    records really sound!
    
    David.
    
    P.S.  You're all welcome to come if you are in Australia :-).
    

    when you start to write "VTX ELF
                             find
                             ...
    on a piece of paper

You pick up your VCR remote to fast forward through commercials and then 
realize you're not watching a tape :^/


Jim 

    ... you look in the top right corners of any rectangular object (like a
    book or billboard or glass window) to find out what time it is!
    
    Explanation:  On my Macs at home and at work I run a small shareware
    menu-bar digital clock that tells time beautifully in Zapf Chancery 24
    point.
    
    Only problem is I've gotten so used to it that ...
    
    ... I catch myself looking in the top right corners of ANYthing when I
    wonder what time it is!
    
    But since I started doing this in 1985, I guess that's '80s innit...
    
    Dan

        The time is in the upper right of my workstation, too.  A
        small program creates an icon and shows the time in it.
        
        Dan

These aren't necessarily '90's either, but...

* You have that 3rd phone line so you and your spouse/roommate/SO could both be
  dialed in (er, punched up? uh, neither, actually, since the modem does it
  automatically) and have the third line for voice (or, both talk on the
  phone and still be able to login).

* Your friend asks if you have a third friend's phone number, and you say
  "Yes, but I'll have to get back to you after my system reboots..."

* Your home and office both start to resemble recycling centers (anyone know
  a store in the Maynard/Marlboro/Concord area that gives deposits back for
  Snapple soda bottles?  I won't throw them out! (please send me mail!)

Jill

	...when you have to decide whether to take your 
	"network link" with you on vacation.

	Of course I took my laptop with me.  That was never
	a question ;-).  But I had to contemplate whether to
	bring a pocket modem, and finally decided against it.
	The downside, of course, is zillions of unread =wn=
	notes upon return!

	On the plane it was quite thrilling to be able to get 
	things done (and play a game or two ;-) on my laptop.
	All while the very serious, somewhat older, businessman 
	sitting to my right was trying to edit a report using 
	a [gasp] pen and paper.  

	I wanted to tell him to "get a life" ;-) ;-).

					nancy b.
					who's trying to imagine it's still
                                        87 degrees F out [sniff]

re .42

I believe that FAA regulations say that you should get an ok from the pilot
before operating a computer on board aircraft.  There is some fear that stray
RF signals from the computing equipment could have a detrimental effect on the
accuracy of the aircraft's instruments.

Rich

    On the plane trip I just took (United) the flight attendents announced
    that you are supposed to turn off all laptop computers, and cd and tape
    players during take-off and landing; and that mobile telephones, radios
    and portable TV's shouldn't be used at all.  I infered from the fact
    that laptop computers were in the former list, and not the latter, that
    they *are* allowed.
    
    D!

Laptops are explicitly permitted on most airlines I've flown on. (And that's
quite a few...)

	-- Charles (who'd be lost without his T1000)

    ... when you've forgotten the telephone numbers of your immediate
    family because you've had them entered into your speed-dial telephone
    for too long...
    
    (Corollary:  
    
    ... when you define who's in your IMMEDIATE family or who's your
    CLOSEST friend by whether or not you've allocated them a slot in your
    phone speed-dialer! :-)
    
    Dan Kalikow