Kestral

I'm looking for anyone who'd be willing to be interviewed or have a chat about their experiences of using technology in the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s as part of a #DigiPres project to document the growth and change in that time.

Please drop me a reply or DM if you're interested.

Who am I looking for? Software people, gamers, enthusiasts, fellow nerds... anyone who used and/or loved technology around the start of the PC boom and birth of the WWW around the world.

Jan 10, 2020 at 5:15pmWeb
Show threadTod RobbinsJan 10, 2020
@LaCrecerelle 👋🏻
Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@todrobbins Thank you! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadenchantedsleeper 🌈⭐Jan 11, 2020
@LaCrecerelle I'm keen! 👋 For context, I was born in 1991 and have had a PC since the age of 6 or 7 (since I was young enough to believe in Santa Claus). I was the only person in my Year 3 primary school class who could type two-handed. I've been online since 2001 and spent my early internet days on Neopets and charity discussion forums before I discovered fanfic and forums websites in 2003/4. After that I spent 90% of my time in cyberspace 😁
Show threadenchantedsleeper 🌈⭐Jan 11, 2020
@LaCrecerelle I also had a Psion palmtop computer as a kid which was my pride and joy. I've still got it 😄
Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@enchantedsleeper Oh my gosh thise palmtops were adorable! Sounds like some amazing experiences. Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadDave RossJan 11, 2020

@LaCrecerelle Sure. I had a C64 as a kid. Got a PC in high school and later a modem. Called BBSs for a couple years then got a Ripco account to explore the internet in 1995 right before I went to college. Taught myself HTML & JavaScript in those early days.

Let's get something lined up!

Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@daveross Ah fantastic, thanks so much! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadSneakyBluJan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle I'm in!
🙋‍♂️
Show threadFiXato (fallback)Jan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle
I grew up with an #8bit #Z80-based #MSX2 #homecomputer, primarily using it in the late #80s and just about the entire #90s.
While I mostly used it to play #games and doodle a bit, I also used it more seriously too, for instance to write my book reports, essays and similar written reports while in elementary school.
I've written some more toots about this in the past which you can likely find browsing the #MSX hashtag.
I also run an MSX-related forum & website in the early #2000s.
Show threadFiXato (fallback)Jan 12, 2020

@LaCrecerelle
Unfortunately most of my more detailed toots about my history with #MSX were replies, so I can't find them through the featured hashtag on my profile: https://mastodon.social/@FiXato/tagged/msx

#PC-wise I don't really have any #386/#486 experience unfortunately; the earliest PC model our family had was the #Pentium60 my brother bought for his #sysadmin education, which only briefly ran #Win311 before #Win95 came out.

Browsed a lot of forums during breaks and after hours while in highschool though.

Show threadFiXato (fallback)Jan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle
(highschool period starting in late 90s and ending around 2001)
It was also when I first started experimenting with #webdevelopment; mostly #PHP at the time.
Besides on forums, I also spent quite some time on #IRC, a chat medium that's still one of my preferred ones, even though I'm definitely not as active anymore as I used to. Oper'ed on several small servers and met my wife, @Siiw, through one of them. :)
Show threadFiXato (fallback)Jan 12, 2020

@LaCrecerelle
https://blogspot.fixato.org/2013/06/gaming-memories.html?s=mastodon has some more about my early #gaming memories, though those are mostly #consoleGaming related, and https://msx.org/wiki/Category:FiXato has a bit more about my #MSX scene history.

Anyway, feel free to DM or reply if any of this sounds relevant and you're interested in more. :)

Gaming Memories

A reflection on how gaming shapes the memories of my youth, and which gaming-related memories I have from the SNES and Game Boy Classic period.

Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@FiXato Thank you so much! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadexternal quantum efficiencyJan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle started on Apple ][ in the 80s and then PC XT clones and a Mac SE... I was the first customer of the local isp when they opened in um 1993 or so. Won some programming competitions in high school, went to uni for a CS degree, learned Unix and C there and lol that's basically still my life. Happy to chat or whatever!
Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@eqe Ah wonderful! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadChloegJan 12, 2020

@LaCrecerelle what form do the interviews take, where will the results be published, and who is sponsoring the whole thing?

I’m old enough to have used a minicomputer and a ZX81. Didn’t touch a computer until I was 21 it have spent nearly 35 years in the IT then tech industry. Was an internet early user. Before the web. I’m an information architect now.

Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020

@Morphchic Email questionairre, online (website being built right now) and me personally, I'm doing this as a pre-PhD project following acadmic guidelines.

I'd love if you'd like to be involved though. Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?

Show threadBlake C. StaceyJan 12, 2020

@LaCrecerelle Our first household computer was an Atari 400 that my parents bought when I was an infant (so /Centipede/ and /Asteroids/ are probably burned into my brain at a fundamental level). Dad actually did a little programming on it, making a game in Basic for me to practice my spelling. I started coding myself on a PC in the early '90s: QBasic, MS-DOS batch files, then a bit of assembly to augment the batch files and do silly tricks like turning on the mouse pointer at the DOS prompt, Visual Basic and C eventually. My school friends and I did a little digital video editing right around the turn of the century, when it was just becoming feasible to do at home.

Once, we went to the Super Wal-Mart on the night shift and convinced them to give us their entire kiosk full of free AOL CDs, which we loaded into the bed of a pickup truck and drove away with.

What can I say? There wasn't much to do in Huntsville.

Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@bstacey Ahh, the classic games! Sounds like some amazing stories - Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at? I'd love to send some further questions.
Show threadGreyJan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle (cc @djsundog , @thegibson , and @ajroach42 , who probably have really interesting thoughts on this if they've got the time)
Show threadwas B (this is my old account)Jan 12, 2020

@LaCrecerelle my partner ran an early machinima group that may be of interest

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machinima

Machinima - Wikipedia

Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@b_cavello Oh yes absolutely! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadAndrew (Television Executive)Jan 12, 2020

@LaCrecerelle I was born in '90.

When I was 5, we got a prodigy dialup account for our 486 windows 3.11 PC.

I'm happy to discuss my experiences growing up with the WWW as my little brother.

Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@ajroach42 Ah brilliant, I loved my old 486! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadDJ SundogJan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle I'd be happy to chat about that period - I'm a 70s kid, so the BBS scene through the 80s led me to starting a small local dialup ISP and web host in the mid 90s.
Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@djsundog Oh wow, such a cool era! Yes please! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadclock 🕰Jan 12, 2020
@LaCrecerelle @[email protected] I wouldn’t mind sharing a story or two about the web that was (or what came before).
Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@clock Yes, please, that'd be wonderful! Thank you! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadDownes 🍁Jan 13, 2020
@LaCrecerelle I can help, if you'd like. Tech and I grew up together.
Show threadKestralJan 15, 2020
@Downes That'd be amazing, thank you! Would you mind sending me a DM with the best email address to reach you at?
Show threadLyn Black🍁Cat 🍂Jan 16, 2020

@LaCrecerelle hello I'm old. My husband is old and tech oriented but not on Masto .... but bored. Could probably get him for you.

(We're in our 40s)

Show threadRowynJan 16, 2020
@LaCrecerelle Sure, I'd be happy to chat. Been a computer user since the 70s. (My father worked at IBM and was an early adopter, so built a home computer before PCs were really a thing. It used 8" disks!)
Show threadSkiriki FyxeJan 16, 2020
@LaCrecerelle Do you want views from the European side as well, with a flavoring of C-64, Amiga, Atari ST and rise of PC? Demo scene stuff? The earliest two Assembly parties in Finland? You'd get AFAB/queer point of view to go with it as well!