I remember using microfiche to do research on stocks, and pull up charts back when I was in grade school. Amazing how data storage has exploded over the years. Being a stat geek, I use to have pages of hand written data, statistical calculations, hand plotted charts, ext. that was very time consuming to keep up with. Nowadays you can pull all that up in no time at all. The internet rocks. I have over 100 stocks that I track daily, all in the matter of minutes. In the past it would have taken hours a day to do that. I also can pull up racing charts, and sports stats (as handicapping tools) in just a few key strokes. It's really amazing what you can do now, compared to not so many years ago.

Adam, that reminds me of the story books that came with the 45 record: "You will know it is time to turn the page when you hear the chimes ring like this!"

(...hey, my username's still good...)

Oooh...we still had filmstrips when I was in first grade (1989). We also had those slideshows with the little beeps to indicate when to change the slide so it would sync up with the audio...

Ah...this brings back memories Ann Marie. I used to be able to take worksheets to the school office to make copies on the mimeograph machine and we used carbon paper to share notes. My mother would get so frustrated because I'd come home with the impossible to remove "ink" stains.

janesvillian-

I had to use the "Internets" to look up the word "dongle." I thought you were pulling my leg.

--Ann Marie Ames

armyof3I remember those things and I dont feel like I am that old!!!!!

I'm so old I remember walking to school in the snow up hill both ways.

I got to use a smudgy-blue-ink manually-turned mimeograph machine to put out newsletters ... an IBM Selectric with! a! memory! card! that held 32 pages of copy (and was bigger than the typewriter) ... a non-electric cash register with an enormous "sale" handle ... and I'm only 45.
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Heck, I've got a room full of computer equipment that wouldn't work with anything you can get at Best Buy these days (no drivers) ... that alone makes me a relic of a bygone era. Zip drives! Serial cables! Key dongles!

you know you're old when you talk about shows such as M*A*S*H, or, how good of an actor Paul Newman (RIP) was, and people question you... or when you remember what the first cell phones/computers looked like in comparison to today's versions....

You know you're old...when your first job was typesetting by pounding out the metal type slugs at a newspaper on a huge linotype machine!

I get the same realization when all the photographers here tell me about developing film, and I tell them I've never developed film in my life.

Does the Gazette newsroom microfiche sit in a dark corner, surrounded by piles of books and newspapers, where people spend hours searching for controversial information? I believe this is the traditional setting for microfiche machines, especially if you're watching a murder-mystery show. :)

Oh, and I also know how to use one. Miraculously, without injuring myself when the film escapes the reel.