You might be a Geek Fogie if…

With a nod to Jeff Foxworthy, I hereby present a couple ideas on how to tell if you might be an old-fart geek fogie…

  • If everytime you hit CTRL-ALT-DELETE, you expect to see Sidekick pop up for a second.
  • If you ever owned a a paper punch specifically for double-siding your floppy disks.
  • If you remember your amazement at copying a diskette using ONLY four disk swaps.
  • If you find yourself thinking that a Telebit Trailblazer would really speed up your internet use.
  • If you ever rented a truck to get a computer that someone was ‘just giving away’.
  • If you have to fight the urge to make FWEEEEE SCHHRRKKKRRRK noises whenever you hear an ATM or a Fax machine in use.
  • If you have ever uttered the phrase “Yeah, but the Newton was better.”
  • If you refuse to throw out disks for machines that haven’t been manufactured in over two decades.
  • If you know what ^X^Cc means.
  • If you remember the first time you bought a color monitor. Double points if you’re still paying for it. Special bonus points if you still have it.
  • If you find yourself in the middle of a problem, and being tempted to type ‘S..TILTOWAIT’
  • If you have ever personally owned an entire DEC documentation set, and thought it was the coolest thing in the world.
  • If you remember getting your first hard drive, and amazing your friends with comments like “This thing can hold as much data as FIFTY floppy disks!”
  • If you remember when disks WERE floppy.

Feel free to contribute any additions you might think of…

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A wandering geek. Toys, shiny things, pursuits and distractions.

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3 thoughts on “You might be a Geek Fogie if…

  1. Wow, only three of these are true for me, and that only because I’m assuming the lowercase ‘c’ after ^X^C was a typo. 🙂 (No, I never managed the complete DEC documentation set, alas.)
    I feel like such a non-geek fogey now!

  2. I’s still gots floppy floppies. 🙂 No 8″ floppies though. Never got those back when lent out. I gots mag tape though, and cassettes with old Wang 2200 programs on them. I should try to figure out what the oldest computer tech is that I’ve still got.

  3. I don’t think I have any DEC manuals, but I think I have a set of manuals for a CDC Cyber 175, including COMPASS.

    If you ever typed +++ATH.
    If ^Q/^S were your friends.
    If you still have a VT100 (or a VT52 or VT102).
    If you stayed at your desk to complete your homework assignment, because the only option to save your work was a cassette tape.
    If you ever used a BITNET relay.

    XYZZY

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