Technology

[spiritofaslan]

I remember once I went overseas for 5 weeks on a holiday (years before WFH came in) and we all had desktop computers back then. I was someone who took pride in my workstation and kept it clean and tidy at all times. The bloke who worked next to me though was the complete opposite. This guy would always each lunch at his desk and surf the internet at the same time. His keyboard had so much food on it, it was filthy. I returned from leave and found my clean keyboard was suddenly filthy. I looked over at his desk and saw a clean keyboard. The silly bugger thought he could fool me and did a switcheroo. Back then I got in before him though so switched it back lol.

How good was it back in the day when you could swap around keyboards when computers were close together

Or when wireless mice just started out and you could sync mice from someone 3 computers over !

Funny story... so when I was in high school, one of my (then) mates, would often joke around by going into the library and removing the mouse balls from the library computers. We all used to think it was funny, and often I'd just log the computers back to the os, or swap the keyboards on them for a laugh. Anyhow so I leave high school and about 3 years later am working for a break fix IT company. We were doing a cleanout one day of the office and I come across this plastic bag (sealed) with about 20 mouse balls in it. I go to the boss "whats the deal with the bulk buy on mouse balls here?". His reply "Well I used to do work a few years ago for (school I went to), and someone kept stealing the mouse balls from the library computers, so we bought them in bulk to replace them". I absolutely pissed myself laughing before admitting it was my mate that was doing it, and we all had a good laugh about it.

 

[Captain Ibis]

I'm with you there bro. When I was working in the 'blue ribbon' area of the city (Circular Quay, Martin Place) I used to always go for a walk during lunchtime without fail -- provided it was extremely hot or pouring. I just enjoyed walking to Pitt St. Mall, in around the arcades there (Imperial Arcade, R.I.P.) The Strand, Westfield Centrepoint, Myer etc... especially on Friday's, it just had the positive vibe to it.

Just on the Imperial Arcade, I remember I used to frequent it all the time before Westfield bought it and redeveloped it. I used to go to EB games there (bought a copy of Rugby League 2 back in 2005 lol), and not too far away from that was a Strathfield Car Radios franchise, where I purchased my first MP3 player, however the one place I used to frequent the most without fail was EzyDVD. I purchased dozens of DVDs from that shop for about 2-3 years. I remember walking through it in 2008 when all the shops were closing for the redevelopment and it was strange and eerie - and arcade in the heart of the city that was dead, void of almost anyone. All the shops shutters were down, maybe 4 or 5 were still open but only days away from closure.

When I was living in the Eastern Suburbs I used to like going to that part of the city with my laptop.. it really is a good vibe man I miss living in the city...the inner west is definitely good for that as well. I like going into the clothing stores around Pitt St for inspiration as well.

I think I remember the Strathfield Car Radios.. I also remember the record store Utopia was always super popular.

 

[Wahesh]

When I was living in the Eastern Suburbs I used to like going to that part of the city with my laptop.. it really is a good vibe man I miss living in the city...the inner west is definitely good for that as well. I like going into the clothing stores around Pitt St for inspiration as well.

I think I remember the Strathfield Car Radios.. I also remember the record store Utopia was always super popular.

Yeah same here man. There was this place called "Dirt Cheap CDs and DVDs'" and they pretty much sold all kinds of music and movies and nothing was over $10. They were legit copies too which is unreal. That whole area though has been replaced by the ANZ tower there on Pitt St.

There were so many little hidden gems in the city prior to 2008 - it looks very different now in some parts.

 

[Wahesh]

How good was it back in the day when you could swap around keyboards when computers were close together

Or when wireless mice just started out and you could sync mice from someone 3 computers over !

Funny story... so when I was in high school, one of my (then) mates, would often joke around by going into the library and removing the mouse balls from the library computers. We all used to think it was funny, and often I'd just log the computers back to the os, or swap the keyboards on them for a laugh. Anyhow so I leave high school and about 3 years later am working for a break fix IT company. We were doing a cleanout one day of the office and I come across this plastic bag (sealed) with about 20 mouse balls in it. I go to the boss "whats the deal with the bulk buy on mouse balls here?". His reply "Well I used to do work a few years ago for (school I went to), and someone kept stealing the mouse balls from the library computers, so we bought them in bulk to replace them". I absolutely pissed myself laughing before admitting it was my mate that was doing it, and we all had a good laugh about it.

Mate that is pretty funny. Your boss probably would've been happy that you and your mate giving more business to him lol.

So I have 1 wireless mouse and keyboard combo here, and I use it for both my PC and laptop. It's so convenient just to take the dongle out and put it in whatever device I'm using - however it'll be a problem if for some reason I need to use both at the same time (hopefully it doesn't come to that).

 

[Captain Ibis]

Yeah same here man. There was this place called "Dirt Cheap CDs and DVDs'" and they pretty much sold all kinds of music and movies and nothing was over $10. They were legit copies too which is unreal. That whole area though has been replaced by the ANZ tower there on Pitt St.

There were so many little hidden gems in the city prior to 2008 - it looks very different now in some parts.

"legit" you say... haha... nah that's cool.. I like going to "The Galleries" for inspiration. But my favourite shop around there would have to be Kinokuniya.

For sure. There's still some cool little back street clothing stores and stuff like that.

 

[spiritofaslan]

I also remember the record store Utopia was always super popular.

Red Eye Records, Utopia and Beat Disc (Parra Church St Mall) are still there.

All used to get the seriously rare and collectible stuff found nowhere else.

There was also another one called Collector Records, but no idea what happened to them.

My brother and I used to frequent all those places quite a bit.

 

[Wahesh]

"legit" you say... haha... nah that's cool.. I like going to "The Galleries" for inspiration. But my favourite shop around there would have to be Kinokuniya.

For sure. There's still some cool little back street clothing stores and stuff like that.

Yeah I couldn't believe it lol. I remember I went there once and saw a movie from my childhood - that I hadn't seen since - Edward Scissorhands lol. It was only sale for $5. Now these days people won't buy DVDs as much but I snapped that one up straight away. I hadn't seen it in about 13 years at that point and my memory of it was a tad foggy but when I watched it again was so nostalgic.

 

[Wahesh]

Red Eye Records, Utopia and Beat Disc (Parra Church St Mall) are still there.

All used to get the seriously rare and collectible stuff found nowhere else.

There was also another one called Collector Records, but no idea what happened to them.

My brother and I used to frequent all those places quite a bit.

For some reason you just reminded me... in the mid-late 90s there was that new radio station 96.9 - but it's not Nova 96.9 that's there today. It was a radio station aimed at younger audiences and they used to play music such as dance and techno etc... and you could tell the hosts were young as well. There would always be ads from Central Station Records on that show, and I always thought Central Station Records were located... in or around Central Station. Turns out they are not really near Central!

 

[Captain Ibis]

Red Eye Records, Utopia and Beat Disc (Parra Church St Mall) are still there.

All used to get the seriously rare and collectible stuff found nowhere else.

There was also another one called Collector Records, but no idea what happened to them.

My brother and I used to frequent all those places quite a bit.

yeah right? That's really cool.. I love how certain small chain stores are able to survive in the digital/big corp era.

I used to like heading up to Central Station Records on Oxford St in the late 90s as they sold Aussie Hip Hop which was very hard to come by back then.

Yeah I couldn't believe it lol. I remember I went there once and saw a movie from my childhood - that I hadn't seen since - Edward Scissorhands lol. It was only sale for $5. Now these days people won't buy DVDs as much but I snapped that one up straight away. I hadn't seen it in about 13 years at that point and my memory of it was a tad foggy but when I watched it again was so nostalgic.

Ahh yea... fucking strangest concept for a movie lol.. love that sorta thing though.. I suppose the problem with DVD is that most are cheap looking and therefor people don't see them as a real collectors item, where as a record for example, apart from quality is always a nice package.

 

[Wahesh]

yeah right? That's really cool.. I love how certain small chain stores are able to survive in the digital/big corp era.

I used to like heading up to Central Station Records on Oxford St in the late 90s as they sold Aussie Hip Hop which was very hard to come by back then.



Ahh yea... fucking strangest concept for a movie lol.. love that sorta thing though.. I suppose the problem with DVD is that most are cheap looking and therefor people don't see them as a real collectors item, where as a record for example, apart from quality is always a nice package.

Yeah that's true. I remember back in the 90s there was this store I used to go to that would sell CDs and records, and no one used to touch the records as CDs were the craze. My goodness how the tide has turned on that one. I wonder what a vintage working record player would go for these days.

 

[BomberBurton]

Red Eye Records, Utopia and Beat Disc (Parra Church St Mall) are still there.

All used to get the seriously rare and collectible stuff found nowhere else.

There was also another one called Collector Records, but no idea what happened to them.

My brother and I used to frequent all those places quite a bit.

Reach'n
BPM
Central Station

A few others that I used to travel into the city to frequent.

 

[BomberBurton]

Yeah that's true. I remember back in the 90s there was this store I used to go to that would sell CDs and records, and no one used to touch the records as CDs were the craze. My goodness how the tide has turned on that one. I wonder what a vintage working record player would go for these days.

Good condition SL1200's are nuts these days.

 

[Captain Ibis]

Yeah that's true. I remember back in the 90s there was this store I used to go to that would sell CDs and records, and no one used to touch the records as CDs were the craze. My goodness how the tide has turned on that one. I wonder what a vintage working record player would go for these days.

Don't know about vintage, but obviously good quality record players still cost a fortune, though if you're somebody who is super into music and make use of it it's a decent investment.. I have a buddy who is really into records who spent a bit on a quality record player, but he lives in the inner west where you can basically get away with playing it whenever you like lol.

 

[Wahesh]

Don't know about vintage, but obviously good quality record players still cost a fortune, though if you're somebody who is super into music and make use of it it's a decent investment.. I have a buddy who is really into records who spent a bit on a quality record player, but he lives in the inner west where you can basically get away with playing it whenever you like lol.

I remember this guy I used to work with owned 5000 rock cds. He was a (and still is) a huge music guy. He lived in Bondi in a complex on top of a chicken shop. Now chicken shops close at about 7-8pm or there abouts. He used to stay up until 2-3am listening to rock music and pumping it loud. Because there were no neighbours he didn't have anyone complain about it lol.

 

[Captain Ibis]

I remember this guy I used to work with owned 5000 rock cds. He was a (and still is) a huge music guy. He lived in Bondi in a complex on top of a chicken shop. Now chicken shops close at about 7-8pm or there abouts. He used to stay up until 2-3am listening to rock music and pumping it loud. Because there were no neighbours he didn't have anyone complain about it lol.

Makes me wonder how many cds we'd all own had MP3 or other music formats / music downloading services not been invented.. definitely not 5000 I know that haha.

 

[Captain Ibis]

Man, I just got done building a log in & upload system for a friend's music website, with the bare minimum error handlers etc, and whilst it was a fun little exercise, all I can say is that developers and programmers are God damn maniacs.. just the tediousness of it all.. I mean heck, even HTML/CSS can be tedious as at times..

 

[Wahesh]

Makes me wonder how many cds we'd all own had MP3 or other music formats / music downloading services not been invented.. definitely not 5000 I know that haha.

I think I had less than 100, and then circa 2001-2004 I reckon I burned more and had all these custom ones because of how easy they become to access. That's all thanks for Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, Limewire, and everything. Nowadays I just stream everything via YouTube like everyone else.

 

[Captain Ibis]

I think I had less than 100, and then circa 2001-2004 I reckon I burned more and had all these custom ones because of how easy they become to access. That's all thanks for Napster, Morpheus, Kazaa, Kazaa Lite, Limewire, and everything. Nowadays I just stream everything via YouTube like everyone else.

Yeah I remember when Napster first came on the scene getting a good friend of mine to burn cds for me, and I'd make requests of all the crappy rap that was popular at the time haha.. Funny to think Sean Parker is now applauded for being a big player in shaping the internet as we know it today, and played a key role in the early rise of Facebook.

 

[Captain Ibis]

Man I swear every second tutorial on YouTube is in Hindi lol thankfully they're generally easy to follow.

 

[Wahesh]

Man I swear every second tutorial on YouTube is in Hindi lol thankfully they're generally easy to follow.

OMG I’ve noticed that too lol. They are usually very helpful though, I’ll give them that.