# ~~~Those were the days~~~ :)



## Greg (Oct 24, 2003)

These are pretty funny:

http://web.archive.org/web/20001012181055/http://www.alpinezone.com/skiing/skiforum.mv

http://web.archive.org/web/20001005161325/www.alpinezone.com/hiking/hikeforum.mv

http://web.archive.org/web/20000607214049/http://www.alpinezone.com/msgboard.mv

We've come a long way, baby... :lol:


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## Max (Oct 24, 2003)

And if you think yours has progressed Greg, I can remember some archaic boards of the past.  Including the days when you actually phoned the administrator himself and got hooked to his board run from his own computer.  If you were lucky, he had at least 2 or more lines so that more than one person could log on and read messages (and download important DOS text files...i.e. jokes)!  Prodigy was the wave of the future.

We certainly have left the "Model T" behind, eh?


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## MichaelJ (Oct 26, 2003)

Somewhere I still have the "next generation of technology" ... a BBS reader that would run pkArc (pkZip in the newer versions) on the BBS to pack up all the new postings, download them to the computer on the high-speed 2400bps modem using Ymodem (Zmodem in the newer versions), then hang up the phone so you could read and respond offline...

Now I run my own domain on the 'net out of the spare bedroom.

Technology is so much fun!


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## Max (Oct 26, 2003)

...and that 2400 bps modem that replaced the original 300 bps modem.  The pony express was nearly as fast!  In 10 years we will be laughing at what we're doing now (hopefully).


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## Greg (Oct 27, 2003)

Wow. And I thought the days of the 14.4 kbps modem on the Pentium 60 computer were lame...


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## Stephen (Oct 27, 2003)

Anyone remember tradewars? Those nasty Cabal!


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## teachski (Nov 3, 2003)

I remember my first home computer in 1982-3, it was one of the better ones out there because there were a lot of different cartridges, tapes and 5 1/4 inch disk programs you could get for it, particularly games.  (not one of the first though).  It was an Atari 800XL.  Back then I used it for word processing and to play games.  I did dabble a little into basic programming too.  My first printer was an Okidata thermal transfer.  What a pain that was!

I graduated a few years later to a Radio Shack Tandy 1000RL hard drive.  It had about a  4 meg hard drive.  That was a big deal then.  Looking at it now, I don't think I have one program or application that would be able to use it.  I had a modem, a really primative one...but I never used it.  

This all kind of reminds me of my personal ski history.

I started on wooden skis with beartrap bindings and leather lace boots in the mid 60's.  I had several more pair of beartrap hand me downs and lace boots and used rental GLM's with Spademan bindings before I finally got my first pair of (used) HEAD standards with step-in bindings and Rosemont buckle boots.  From there I went to a (used) pair of Rossignol Freestyle J skis with a bright orange pair of very leaky and cold ALPINA boots (their first year out). My first NEW pair of skis came when I was a freshman in college.  I bought myself a pair of HEAD SL163's/S404 bindings with money that I was supposed to spend on books(we all chipped in $20 and bought one set of books to share).  Through the mid 80's to 90's and after the HEADS got run over by a van at the residential school where I was working I bought several different pair of K2's.  I was a pretty loyal K2/solomon binding person for a while.  I also went through several pair of boots, usually the cheapest ones I could find at the ski shop.  In the mid 90's I bought a pair of VOLANT skis on pro-form/ they had a marker binding.  I also bought a pair of Dachstein Pro 66 boots and had them custom fit.  In the late 90's I bought some BLIZZARDS (straight ski-worst ski I ever owned), and skied them 4 or 5 times then went back to the Volants.  In the early 2000's I was convinced to try "shaped skis" and bought ELAN Integra 6.0's. I liked the shaped ski, but found this ski didn't have enough for me and went to the Rossi Bandit X in the spring of 2003.  I owned a pair of Dalbello boots, which I fondly refer to as my "fat lady" boots, for a year.  "Fat Lady" because they had a really large cuff with a ratcheting closure...my calf didn't fit other boots.  I lost 75lbs and traded those boots for Solomon Evolution 8.0 boots which I love and am currently using.  I am currently looking at a pair of Volkl 6*'s that I think I am going to buy.


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## Greg (Nov 3, 2003)

Wow teachski! Pretty extensive ski history. Welcome to the boards!


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## Max (Nov 4, 2003)

Teachski...you bring back memories.  Sounds like we took similar journeys!  I also remember the old wooden skis with the bear traps (no metal edges).  What a huge advancement it was to finally upgrade to the Cubco step-in bindings!  And after those square box toe boots, came my first pair of non-lace up Koflach buckles, followed by the Lange plastics.  Of course we had to splurge for the "Jet Stick" accessories which extended to mid-calf (in order to look like Jean Claude Killy).  Skiing on 210 cm Rossignols, followed by Dynamic VR-17's...life did not get any better!  After high school, I moved up to Sugarbush in Vermont for a year in order to wash dishes and ski bum, skiing every single day of the 1970-71 winter season.  It was the winter after Stein Erickson had left for Colorado.  Sigi Grottendorfer was the pro was at Sugarbush when I was there, and I remember the visit by Austrian Olympian Karl Schranz and how some of us bums got to take a run with him (actually watching disappear in the distance) down Stein's Run.  Shortly after I gave up downhill skiing after getting depressed when the lift ticket prices started climbing above $10 per day on the weekend!


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## Joshua B (Nov 6, 2003)

I got into computers late, well, after owning a Coleco Adam for a while. Cool-looking machine. Oh, and I had a Commodore 16. No, not a Commodore 64, a 16. I bought the tape drive which used cassettes, but I can't remember how it was used.

But I really got hooked after buying a 486 DX33 and ran Photosthop. I connected to the internet via Netcom. Remember those @ix.netcom.com addresses?


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## ChileMass (Nov 11, 2003)

Max and teachSki - 

You boys are fossils - !!!   (Just like me.....)

I learned on some old wooden skis called Snowbirds (made by God-knows-who) with bear-trap bindings and old lace up boots my dad got from a friend of his.  When I finally got a pair of steel/fiberglass skis (secondhand K2s) with step-in bindings (Looks, as I recall), they were so old the bindings barely opened, much less released appropriately.  My black Lange Banshees were so stiff and cold and unforgiving - I can't believe I made it through 2 seasons on them!  They used to leave a welt on my shins very time I skied, but when you're 12, it doesn't really matter.  I had forgotten about Jet-Sticks!  Definitely needed them to make you look cool and so you could sit back and hot dog like Wayne Wong.  And Spademan bindings!  I remember how strange it looked to see other skiers with no toepiece binding........  

Gave up my pseudo-shaped skis (188cm Rossi Vipers) for traditional Rossi GS skis (201cm) a couple of years ago.  As a kid I raced competitively, and that style still sort of works for me.  The shaped skis were almost too "turny".  They grabbed at slow speeds and didn't track well at all when I wanted to really turn it on.  Got a pair of upper-end Nordicas at the Wachusett ski swap a couple years ago and LOVE them.  That event is a yearly can't-miss........

Cheers from one fossil to another - !


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## teachski (Nov 11, 2003)

ChileMass said:
			
		

> Max and teachSki -
> 
> You boys are fossils - !!!   (Just like me.....)



Fossil maybe, boy NOT!   man NOT!


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## ChileMass (Nov 11, 2003)

TeachSki - 

My apologies!!  A bad ASSumption on my part.  It is great to hear from rugged women with excellent war stories to tell!  Rock on!

Chill


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## Max (Nov 11, 2003)

Fossil, hmmm......I was just gonna add that I resemble that remark!


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