I got a late start on this post today, much later than any I have done.
Summer is unofficially over here in the Northeast. Labor day weekend has come and gone and school is back in session.
Thirty years ago at this time many students were getting their first look at an Apple II in the classroom. I am not one of them; my first look came later in the year at a friends apartment.
For some there would have been excitement at this wonderful new technology. Most would have been nervous at having to learn this complicated new technology. Now students carry around the equivalent of what would have been a giant computer back then, in their pocket and not even be aware of how far we have come. They talk, send text messages and pictures without a thought too how that happens with a device smaller than a deck of cards.
I don’t know about your house but around mine magnets were something to be taken seriously. They had their places and they stayed there. One misplaced magnet could wipe out and expensive program or weeks worth of work. Back then they could almost be considered evil because of how easily they could wreak havoc on your work or play.
As computers have gotten more advanced and floppy diskettes have gone by the wayside, magnets have gotten less evil and could travel from where they belong. You might put them on your desk or other flat surface without fear of the destruction they could cause. Now, since I have gotten back into using my vintage machines, I have to relearn that discipline of keeping them where they belong. I have come home from work and gone to put my name tag with its magnetic back on my desk, only to catch my self before I put it on a disk. I have never done it before but I did not want a first time for me.
I remember once being at that same friends apartment when somebody put down a speaker magnet they had be idly playing with on a stack of diskettes. It was not good and many words were exchanged.
Have you run into habits you have to relearn when working on vintage computers, that you may have let slide with the newer computers?
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