You Know You're Old/Young If ... 1

[Ashereng]

I have been reading various comments in the fora which seems to date the poster as "old" or "young" sometimes.

I though maybe there is sufficient interest to compile a list to help the old identify with the young, and the young to identify with the old.

If you are in between, I guess pick a side?

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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[kenvlach]

Alas, poor quark, old before his time!

 

[fglass]

Easy, you are old if you are 30 and above, and consider as young if you are below 30. For those who are above 30 and thought they are still young ...... knock, knock ,knock, WAKE UP DUDE AND FACE THE TRUTH!!!

 

[mog69]

fglass
Harsh, but regretably true !!

 

[mcutchi]

You're getting there if you were amazed how your first calculator took mere seconds to calculate 2+2. (The batteries drained soon after that !)

Did anyone record their first programs on audio cassettes ?

 

[ScottyUK]

You know you're getting old when you stop chasing girls and start chasing their mothers!


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I don't suffer from insanity. I enjoy it...

 

[Quantum50]

ScottyUK: Another harsh reality. Some of my son's friends mothers are foxy to me. ;-)

 

[Ashereng]

mcutchi

Audio cassettes?

I saved my first program on computer cards - written in HB pencil or sharpie.

"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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[MadMango]

A sign of being old is when you start looking at people your own age and no longer find them attractive in the slightest.

My Korean friends make a big deal about someone turning 31. I found this strange as in the USA most big birthdays are 16 (driveing), 18 (offical adult, voting), and 21 (drinking without sneaking). I was at a 31st birthday party and finally had to ask why 31? The response was they celebrate 31 as being over the hill, as one is closer to 40 than 20.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
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[jmw]

Civil war?
Well some countries had revolutions instead e.g. France and Russia and others just had "uprisings".
Of course, the US, just to be sure they weren't missing anything has had both revolution and civil war but not yet an uprising.


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[Quantum50]

jmw, think it's on the horizon?!?

 

[MadMango]

You must not have heard about the Conch Republic in the Florida Keys.

[green]"Art without engineering is dreaming; Engineering without art is calculating."[/green]
Steven K. Roberts, Technomad
Have you read faq731-376 to make the best use of Eng-Tips Forums?

 

[kenvlach]

The GWB administration plan for the Conch Republic: Drowning via global warming.

And as blue states, the first countermeasure:

 

[berkshire]

jmw (Industrial)
You will be telling us next that you could go to the sweet store (candy store) and buy a 1/4 of a pound of assorted sweets for sixpence.
B.E.

 

[berkshire]

looslib (Mechanical)
You are right, it was 1979 The computer was an IBM mainframe with 18"Winchester drives and terminals that looked like PCs. I remember now they were "dumb" terminals with orange phosphor screens.
IRstuff (Aerospace)
I bought the xerox 820 in 1982, it cost me $7000 with two 8"floppy drives, it actually worked until 2003 but god it was slow compared to a new pc.
B.E.

 

[jmw]

Well Berkshire,
I do remember going and buying 1/2 lb of broken biscuits for 6d. or so (and the shopkeeper would throw in some iced gems for free) - biscuits were then sold by weight loose from the manufacturers tins and supplied in paper bags or in paper twists.
The local village hardware store sold just about everything you could want and in the quantities you wanted. They had a huge inventory and if you wanted just one washer, that is what you bought. No bl**dy blister packs of cheap soft metal imports, all top line goods of indigenous manufacture (this was before DIY was a recognised thing.) Those were also the days when cars had starting handles.

Quantum 50,
Revolution etc. may not be that far away for many western countries. In fact I believe there is a US think tank report (optamistic or pesamistic depending on how you view these things) that the EU will come apart in blood and tears. They could be right.
I think they were referring to the original membership who have a past histpory of duffing each other up and internal strife, and not the new members (or potential new members) some of whom appear to be just about getting their latest spell of bloodletting out of the way.
In fact, this might not be a topic for humour but serious concern. Many EU countries have in recent years, had some pretty nasty riots or "incidents" and they must be expected again. Who knows if they will spill over from localised disorder into "uprisings", " revolution" or "anarchy"?


JMW

http://www.ViscoAnalyser.com

 

[mog69]

jmw - starting handles! My Lada came with one of those and the most complete tool kit you could imagine, circa 1990!

You're old if you can remember the sense of achievement if you managed to get your car past 50k miles before it needed it's first decoke (can you still get Redex??).

 

[Quantum50]

I remember my favorite candy was Cherry-Its. Small pea sized cherry flavored candies in a poke (small canvas bag with a pull string closure). The bag came with a small straw and you could either suck the candy from the poke and chew it or use the straw to then pelt your friends. Quite fun actually. I'm sure they were removed from the market because it was quite easy to suck one down the windpipe. Just a learning experience, not a suit opportunity.

 

[KENAT]

monkeydog, I didn't think corblimey was actually harsh at all, he was a lot nicer than I was going to be before I read his post but I was doing my bit for Anglo/US relations.;-)

Asherang, I've found people from the US to be more insular than people from other European countries. It may be partly because the US has such influence on culture etc in Europe that we pick up some stuff.

According to the 30 year definition I'm still young but,

In the UK you're getting on if you remember 1/2 pennies and definitely old if you remember shillings etc!

Or in the UK you're old if you still can't work out what a kg or m is. Young if inches leave you baffled.

I'm fluent (more or less) in both. Learnt metric at school & imperial at home. Dead handy now I'm in the US.

 

[CorBlimeyLimey]

Ha'pennies & Shillings ??? ... I remember using farthings!!!


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[Quantum50]

I just wish the US would finally bite the bullet and switch to metric. This glacial move into SI is maddening. I daily work with designs that are English (Imperial?) in disguise like bored holes that are 9.525mm. Yeah, right! (grump)

And I'm old (but not at heart!)