The lack of computer literacy and rotting of it to dumb it down for the brain rotten ipad kids ... did i just sound old? im just 35 xD

It is a serious concern for mine for the humans.
My love Noctalon agrees with me.

The lack and rotting of computer litteracy is depressing this ancient angel

I would like to teach others old computers. why u think i do free demos of my 286 at events where people can come see them? <3

I love teaching others about old computers and stuff. let others know you have more fun on these machines! <3

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Re: Computers Literacy
By: mary4 to All on Sun Apr 12 2026 02:25 pm

The lack of computer literacy and rotting of it to dumb it down for the brain rotten ipad kids ... did i just sound old? im just 35 xD

It is a serious concern for mine for the humans. My love Noctalon agrees with me.

I've had the same thought.. When I was growing up, it was common wisdom that computers & related technology are here to stay, so it's odd to me that there seems to be a bit of computer illiteracy with some younger people these days. If anything, I thought people of newer generations would be more computer literate than people in the past.

Nightfox
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Nightfox wrote to mary4 <=-

I've had the same thought.. When I was growing up, it was common
wisdom that computers & related technology are here to stay, so it's
odd to me that there seems to be a bit of computer illiteracy with some younger people these days. If anything, I thought people of newer generations would be more computer literate than people in the past.

For a lot of them, the computer is their phone or a gaming device. They
don't use a computer for "computing" any more.



... Keep your stick on the ice
--- MultiMail/DOS
* Origin: Project Scorpio TEST (21:1/175.6)

The lack of computer literacy and rotting of it to dumb it down for the brain rotten ipad kids ... did i just sound old? im just 35 xD

I'm of two minds about it.

On one hand, I think it's a shitty idea to gatekeep the benefits of technology behind some kind of arbitrary skill check. For the longest time, effectively using computers was walled behind knowledge of technical concepts like directories and files. The idea to abstract all that away when iOS and Android rose to prominence was genius. Computing became task- and outcome-focussed, rather than wrangling with the machine. This is all a "Good Thing TM".

On the other hand, because computers are ubiquitous and accessible to all, they're just a part of the furniture now, and it's hard to get young people excited and interested in computers beyond using them as a tool to achieve a task or goal.

Or to put it another way: The wonder and intrigue we had as youngsters, with computers in their own right, will be difficult to inspire going forward. And that makes me sad.

Cheers,
RetroSwim

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A49 2024/05/29 (Linux/64)
* Origin: 2o fOr beeRS bbs>>>20ForBeers.com:1337 (21:2/150)

RetroSwim wrote to mary4 <=-

Or to put it another way: The wonder and intrigue we had as youngsters, with computers in their own right, will be difficult to inspire going forward. And that makes me sad.

Setting IRQs and ports on peripherals using DIP switches, getting it
all right, flipping a big red switch, watching the memory test, then
the longest of pauses, a beep - and a C: prompt.

That was ASMR long before anyone knew the term. :)



... Each pope gets to add one new page to the bible.
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Setting IRQs and ports on peripherals using DIP switches, getting it
all right, flipping a big red switch, watching the memory test, then
the longest of pauses, a beep - and a C: prompt.

Internal modems were not fun.

***wcTaglines: The floggings will continue until morale improves.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v10.0
* Origin: Inland Utopia BBS * Ontario, California (21:4/108)

Internal modems were not fun.

Why do you say that? They were very easy to configure and they didn't use any extra power outlets. At one point, I had 2 internal modems for my 2 phone lines.

... Nothing wrong w/ this program a strong magnet can't cure.

--- Renegade v1.40/DOS
* Origin: The Titantic BBS Telnet - ttb.rgbbs.info (21:1/144)

On 4/19/2026 4:06 PM, Exodus wrote to Matthew Munson:

Internal modems were not fun.

Why do you say that? They were very easy to configure and they didn't use any
extra power outlets. At one point, I had 2 internal modems for my 2 phone lines.

Setting up comports.


wcTaglines:If this were an actual tagline, it would be funny.
--- Platinum Xpress/Win/WINServer v10.0
* Origin: Inland Utopia BBS * Ontario, California (21:4/108)

The lack of computer literacy and rotting of it to dumb it down for t brain rotten ipad kids ... did i just sound old? im just 35 xD

I'm of two minds about it.

On one hand, I think it's a shitty idea to gatekeep the benefits of technology behind some kind of arbitrary skill check. For the longest time, effectively using computers was walled behind knowledge of
technical concepts like directories and files. The idea to abstract all that away when iOS and Android rose to prominence was genius. Computing became task- and outcome-focussed, rather than wrangling with the
machine. This is all a "Good Thing TM".

On the other hand, because computers are ubiquitous and accessible to
all, they're just a part of the furniture now, and it's hard to get
young people excited and interested in computers beyond using them as a tool to achieve a task or goal.

Or to put it another way: The wonder and intrigue we had as youngsters, with computers in their own right, will be difficult to inspire going forward. And that makes me sad.

Cheers,

The thing is, Directories and Files still exist. iOS and Android abstract them away and obscure what is going on underneath. DOS was raw, you dealt with the system as it actually was. With Windows 11, you have a folder hierarchy which doesn't actually represent how the files are stored.

This leads to increased confusions, and an incorrect understanding.

Young people actually are not that good with computers at all. They can use a phone, perform single tasks which hand hold them, but anything more abstract, and they are lost.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Setting IRQs and ports on peripherals using DIP switches, getting it
all right, flipping a big red switch, watching the memory test, then
the longest of pauses, a beep - and a C: prompt.

Internal modems were not fun.

Internal software driven modems came strait from the devils asshole, but hardware based modems were fine. I had an internal 33.6K modem for a while it was great.

--- Mystic BBS v1.12 A48 (Linux/64)
* Origin: Agency BBS | Dunedin, New Zealand | agency.bbs.nz (21:1/101)

Matthew Munson wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

Internal modems were not fun.

Perceptions change. I remember not wanting to use an internal on the BBS because if the modem hung you'd need to reboot the WHOLE COMPUTER to
reset it.

Rebooting a DOS box took, what, 30 seconds?



... BIRDS AREN'T REAL
--- MultiMail/Win v0.52
* Origin: realitycheckBBS.org -- information is power. (21:4/122)

Matthew Munson wrote to Exodus <=-

On 4/19/2026 4:06 PM, Exodus wrote to Matthew Munson:

Why do you say that? They were very easy to configure and they didn't use an

y

extra power outlets. At one point, I had 2 internal modems for my 2 phone lines.

Setting up comports.

You still had to set them up, sometimes by switches on the internal serial card, in order to use an external.

IIRC, Windows eventually started doing that part for you but, by then, most internal modems were "winmodems" and Windows handled all that for you, too.



... Does anybody here remember Vera Lynn?
--- MultiMail/DOS
* Origin: Project Scorpio TEST (21:1/175.6)

Re: Re: Computers Literacy
By: boraxman to RetroSwim on Mon Apr 20 2026 09:00 pm

The thing is, Directories and Files still exist. iOS and Android abstract them away and obscure what is going on underneath. DOS was raw, you dealt with the system as it actually was. With Windows 11, you have a folder hierarchy which doesn't actually represent how the files are stored.

How is Windows 11 different in its folder/directory heirarchy? You still work with files & directories on Windows 11; it's not much different than DOS, aside from long filenames.

Nightfox
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* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

Re: Re: Computers Literacy
By: poindexter FORTRAN to Matthew Munson on Mon Apr 20 2026 07:25 am

Internal modems were not fun.

Perceptions change. I remember not wanting to use an internal on the BBS because if the modem hung you'd need to reboot the WHOLE COMPUTER to reset it.

That's a good point. I don't remember encountering an issue where I had to reset an internal modem that way, so it hadn't occurred to me.

In the late 90s, I liked the idea of having an internal modem because I wanted things that were part of my PC and didn't require an external peripheral. But I didn't like losing the modem status lights with an internal modem. These days, I'd prefer an external modem over an internal modem.

Nightfox
--- SBBSecho 3.37-Linux
* Origin: Digital Distortion: digdist.synchro.net (21:1/137)

On 20 Apr 2026, poindexter FORTRAN said the following...

Matthew Munson wrote to Poindexter Fortran <=-

Internal modems were not fun.

Perceptions change. I remember not wanting to use an internal on the BBS because if the modem hung you'd need to reboot the WHOLE COMPUTER to
reset it.

i suspect this might be a conversation about softmodems? they took a cool idea (a fast reprogrammable chip inside of the modem that could be reprogrammed to support newer standards) and used it to cheap out as much as possible (hide some audio channels like a sound card so they can take care of it in software on the PC.. pretty much why at the end a one card soundcard/modem was common on prebuilts)

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Re: Re: Computers Literacy
By: boraxman to RetroSwim on Mon Apr 20 2026 09:00 pm

The thing is, Directories and Files still exist. iOS and Android abs them away and obscure what is going on underneath. DOS was raw, you with the system as it actually was. With Windows 11, you have a fold hierarchy which doesn't actually represent how the files are stored.

How is Windows 11 different in its folder/directory heirarchy? You
still work with files & directories on Windows 11; it's not much
different than DOS, aside from long filenames.

Nightfox

I'm not in front of a Windows box here at home (I don't use W11), but I do use it at work. The issues I have are...
* Can be unclear what is stored on your C: and what is one "One Drive".
* My Documents is where exactly? Going up a folder may or may not take you to the parent folder. I know its under my home directory but going "up" doesn't always just take me to the parent folder, but a pseudo folder with common used folders.
* C: is below My Computer, which doesn't always appear top level.

With DOS, you always knew exactly where in the heirarchy you were, with Windows 11 not always so.

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Re: Re: Computers Literacy
By: boraxman to Nightfox on Wed Apr 22 2026 12:11 am

I'm not in front of a Windows box here at home (I don't use W11), but I do use it at work. The issues I have are...
* Can be unclear what is stored on your C: and what is one "One Drive".

I've been using Windows 11 for a while, and IMO it's not hard to figure that out..

* My Documents is where exactly? Going up a folder may or may not take you to the parent folder. I know its under my home directory but going "up" doesn't always just take me to the parent folder, but a pseudo folder with common used folders.

I'm not entirely sure what you mean here.. Your "My Documents" folder is always under your home directory, which is in C:\Users\<your_name>

I've seen the pseudo folders, and I agree that's annoying, but you can go specifically to your home directory on the C:\Users directory and go from there, and IMO it's not difficult. The directory heirarchy on the hard drive in Windows 11 is the same as it's always been, including DOS. The weird pseudo directory stuff is something Windows 11 does on top of that.

* C: is below My Computer, which doesn't always appear top level.

What do you mean by "appear top level"?

Nightfox
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