CP wrote --

> I loved that little thing! I had so much stuff stored on cassettes!

  My first was a cassette drive as well.  Took about 15 minutes to load
Text Pro to write a letter.
  Then I moved up a blazing fast disk drive, that only took a couple of
minutes.  Now if Word doesn't load in one second I'm thinking "Come on, whats
taking so long?"  :)

> touch typing to 30WPM or more, learn DOS, Win 3.1, Wordperfect 5.0,

  I used to know DOS (but forgot a lot from not using it for years).
  Never used 3.1,  
  Used WP for years until I moved over to Word.  I use Word 2007 and
perfectly happy with it.
  But now, I understand, MS is no longer selling stand along Word CD's. 
Have to lease a copy yearly for big bucks.

> We were all permanently & mostly freshly so, disabled & trying to move on to new work/career paths. & their approach was wonderful: no mollycoddling & treating us as weaker., but push us to our utmost, so we could go on to compete evenly with able bodied jo

  As it should be.

> The federal goverment closed it the year after my graduation

  Naturally. Don't want a government program that actually contributes
anything.

> As you'll recall, the public internet was still new & controlled by  portals (AOL, Compuserve, & a couple others) in the mid 1990s. 

  I was on GEnie (General Electric Network Information and Exchange, or the
like).  I was able download various groups, read/reply and upload.  At the
time it was "time and mileage" to use it and the phone call was long
distance.
  I got my first "real" Internet connection free, at the local university. 
I was associated with a non-profit organisation at the time. Had to fill out
all sorts of paperwork why I needed, what to be used for, etc then have that
approved, etc.
  Now they are handed out like candy at Halloween.

> I'm filing any new storage medium I get just as fast, but now Io have actual doewnload speed & bnandwidth -- I got my first 2Tb external drive & had it full within 3 weeks 

   I keep very little on my desktop and laptop, other than programs I can
easily replace.  Had too many crashes in the past and lost a lot of stuff.
   Most of my stuff is all on CD/DVD (sometimes multiple ones in case one
fails and can't replace that info).  A thumb is used for temporary storage.

> Oh, I miss Win98 & SE. . . it never recovered after they left it. . .  Vista must have been done on purpose just to be a poison pill.

  The only Windows I never used as 8 and something else.
  I'm sticking with 10.

> Gonna stock up on 640Mb USBs

  I've only brought a few, the rest are freebies.
  Every October and April Marshall has a job fair with vendors in from all
sorts of companies.  
  I wander around checking out the freebies (pens, pencils, etc) one year a
table had 9 MB thumbs and picked up a couple.  The next year there were 58
MB thumbs and got a few of those.  

> ahh, TV, i grew up with a 25" wide body hunk of furniture

  I don't recall our first tv, it was in 1948 and a table model.  That was
replaced in 1951 with a RCA giant 12" round screen console.  The family had
that for many years. 
  My last tv was a 21 inch colour table top demo model I got for about
$150.
  I don't even have a tv now.  Turned the old ones in at a recycling drive
years ago.  Along with lot of electronic odds and ends.  
  My tv viewing is currently old shows I get free off the net, stored on
DVD's to watch whenever I want.  I download the shows since things have a
tendency to disappear without warning on You Tube.
  Joe
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