I found an old company Compaq notebook I used for my job between 1995 and 1996 the other day. I was supposed to have given it back to my MIS dept. in the summer of '96 when it was replaced with a new one but I hung on to it for a while just in case there was anything I needed from it during the transition period. That was seven years ago. Oops.
It's a Compaq Contura 410c for those who are interested, 486-50, 12Mb RAM and a 340Mb disk, Windows 3.11 For Workgroups. Hot spec! Anyway, it's like a time capsule because everything is just as I left it back in June 1996, using it is just like being in a bloody time warp. Plus I forgot just how seriously bad pre-95 Windows was, euch. Back in those days we used Microsoft Mail for email and I'm itchin' like mad to get into my seven year old inbox to see what was going on, it's really like peering into someone else's PC and in a way I suppose it is.
When I last booted that PC up I was 27 years of age, unmarried though well entrenched with Fiona, no daughter, small house, so-so salary, so-so Ford Mondeo company car, analog mobile phone and no idea that I'd be sitting rooting around my old PC seven years later and then telling you guys about it whilst blogging wifi on my notebook, sprawled across a leather armchair (actually the same one that we had in 1996), in England, 350 miles from 'home' whilst Fiona - now my wife - dresses our seven month old daughter upstairs in preparation for our day out before I return to work (same company as 96' only now I'm the general whereas then I was a foot-soldier) on Monday after a short break.
However, two problems present themselves in my quest to get in and about my seven year old inbox and consummate my nostalgia;
1) I can't remember the password I used for MS-Mail though I've found a password cracker that will let me in in return for $40 - I've downloaded the trial version which exposes the first letter of the password and I'm hoping that will be enough to jog my memory or at least set me down the path of what I might have chosen as a password seven years ago.
2) I need to transfer the mail file to my current notebook because the password cracking software only runs on post-Windows 3.x kit. The old compaq has no USB or Infra-Red ports, only serial. My new Dell notebook has only USB ports, no Infra-red (I just discovered!) and no serial port. Now there's a thing. So I dug out an old laplink cable and I'm going to have to get under the desk and plug the old notebook into my main PC box and trip off into a world of how the hell do I get an eight year old windows 3.11 machine to talk to a Windows XP machine using only a serial cable and an empty packet of cornflakes.
I forgot just how challenging and wonderful olde worlde computing used to be, think of me while I'm gone.
It's a Compaq Contura 410c for those who are interested, 486-50, 12Mb RAM and a 340Mb disk, Windows 3.11 For Workgroups. Hot spec! Anyway, it's like a time capsule because everything is just as I left it back in June 1996, using it is just like being in a bloody time warp. Plus I forgot just how seriously bad pre-95 Windows was, euch. Back in those days we used Microsoft Mail for email and I'm itchin' like mad to get into my seven year old inbox to see what was going on, it's really like peering into someone else's PC and in a way I suppose it is.
When I last booted that PC up I was 27 years of age, unmarried though well entrenched with Fiona, no daughter, small house, so-so salary, so-so Ford Mondeo company car, analog mobile phone and no idea that I'd be sitting rooting around my old PC seven years later and then telling you guys about it whilst blogging wifi on my notebook, sprawled across a leather armchair (actually the same one that we had in 1996), in England, 350 miles from 'home' whilst Fiona - now my wife - dresses our seven month old daughter upstairs in preparation for our day out before I return to work (same company as 96' only now I'm the general whereas then I was a foot-soldier) on Monday after a short break.
However, two problems present themselves in my quest to get in and about my seven year old inbox and consummate my nostalgia;
1) I can't remember the password I used for MS-Mail though I've found a password cracker that will let me in in return for $40 - I've downloaded the trial version which exposes the first letter of the password and I'm hoping that will be enough to jog my memory or at least set me down the path of what I might have chosen as a password seven years ago.
2) I need to transfer the mail file to my current notebook because the password cracking software only runs on post-Windows 3.x kit. The old compaq has no USB or Infra-Red ports, only serial. My new Dell notebook has only USB ports, no Infra-red (I just discovered!) and no serial port. Now there's a thing. So I dug out an old laplink cable and I'm going to have to get under the desk and plug the old notebook into my main PC box and trip off into a world of how the hell do I get an eight year old windows 3.11 machine to talk to a Windows XP machine using only a serial cable and an empty packet of cornflakes.
I forgot just how challenging and wonderful olde worlde computing used to be, think of me while I'm gone.