Wanna feel old? Find some students at your university that AREN'T computer geeks (they will still use the internet constantly, trust me). And try to explain VAX terminals to them. Not as in how-they-actually-work, just as in 'well, back when I was a freshman, we had these workstations. And they didn't actually do anything, they were just like the thin clients we have here - they ran off the main servers... and they didn't have a mouse. And it was ALL TEXT. Green text on black background. And we would log in and spend hours on the internet reading pages and pages of PURE TEXT. With no scroll function ...'
(I told this story, with a bit more plot, to two of my student workers today. Wicked smart kids, both humanities majors. They were appalled and fascinated. Why would you want a computer with no GRAPHICS???? Then one of them said, 'oh, I guess it's kind of like how text messaging is turning into voice messaging'...)
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(I told this story, with a bit more plot, to two of my student workers today. Wicked smart kids, both humanities majors. They were appalled and fascinated. Why would you want a computer with no GRAPHICS???? Then one of them said, 'oh, I guess it's kind of like how text messaging is turning into voice messaging'...)