# First experiences with computers

- **Episode:** [222](https://agents.truthliesandwork.com/episodes/222.md) (2025-08-12)
- **Type:** other
- **Tags:** computers, technology, first-experience
- **Time:** 43:43–48:25 (start 2623s)
- **Listen:** [https://truthliesandwork.com/222?t=2623](https://truthliesandwork.com/222?t=2623)

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[43:43] Al Elliott: Yeah, absolutely was
[43:43] Leanne Elliott: What was your first experience of using computers?
[43:49] Al Elliott: My first experience, I've got, I remember 2
[43:52] Leanne Elliott: Because to be clear, we are old enough to have lived a good amount of our lives without a computer
[43:56] Al Elliott: Yes. That said, I was, uh, I must have been about 7 or 8 years old. And my dad bought a, God, I can't remember what they're called. They're basic. I wanted a BBC BASIC or a BBC something computer, Acorn or something it was, but he bought something else from, uh, From Tandy back in the day. And it was a computer that had a, you got a separate tape player and you plugged your tape player into your computer and you could play stuff. And I used to program in BASIC. I'd spend like my holidays, 4 days writing, hand coding a racing game so that on the 5th day I could play it with my keys. So I would be about 7, which would be about 1984. 1984
[44:42] Leanne Elliott: Early adopter
[44:42] Al Elliott: Yeah
[44:44] Leanne Elliott: Yeah
[44:45] Al Elliott: Surprisingly how well I did with the ladies later on in life. Actually, that's not true
[44:49] Leanne Elliott: You did very well. Thank you very much
[44:51] Al Elliott: Yes. Later in life I did
[44:52] Leanne Elliott: Computers. I don't really remember my first time. We had them at school, but like the old ones that were like DOS, where it's just like black screen, green font. But the first, like the flashbulb memory I have about computers was when I must have been about I don't know, maybe I was in early high school, so maybe 11. And my dad sat me down in front of the computer, his work computer. It's when he got his first laptop and it was like—
[45:22] Al Elliott: Did it have a nipple in the middle between the two letters for your mouse?
[45:25] Leanne Elliott: I can't remember, but it was a weighty thing. It was a weight, like took two of us to carry it to the table. And he opened it up and he was like, Leanne, I want to show you something. This is called the internet and it's gonna change the world
[45:38] Al Elliott: Wow
[45:38] Leanne Elliott: And I was like, what's that then? And he was absolutely right. And within probably 3 or 4 years, everyone was online on MSN chat, MySpace accounts and the like. But yeah, that was my first. But it's funny to think that when, and this actually goes on to our next question, which is what about your uni life would sound weird today? Though the ability to research information online was still very limited when I went to university in 2003. Like, you'd have to go to the library and you'd have to find the journal and you'd have to photocopy it if you wanted to take it out of said library, or you'd borrow the books to write your essay. You couldn't just Google it. Google, was Google even a thing?
[46:20] Al Elliott: No
[46:21] Leanne Elliott: You couldn't Google things. So, it was, it was a lot more, a lot more manual. And speaking of manual, another thing that was weird about life at university, I did type up my essays. But there wasn't a portal to submit them. So, I had to print it off, take it down to the administration office, which was like 5 miles away, go to the office, get like a cover sheet that had a sticky bit in the corner where you'd fill out your name and your student number, and then fold it down and stick it so it could be marked anonymously. And then we'd have to then go back in on a certain date when we were told in our lectures that that marking was ready and we'd go and collect it from same admin office. And if you didn't go to a lecture, you were screwed because nothing was online
[47:05] Al Elliott: I remember, it's weird, you said you couldn't, there was no portal. And I was like, why the hell would there be a portal? I don't understand why there'd be a portal. Because I remember all of our stuff was either printed out in the last year of my university, it was printed out, in 1998 it'd be printed out. But in the first 2 years, '95, '96, It was all handwritten, and you put a punch, punch 2 holes in it, and you'd use treasury tags to go through the punched holes, and you'd hand it in to the, to the actual lecturer. You have to go in there and punch it
[47:37] Leanne Elliott: For the kids at home, what's a treasury tag?
[47:39] Al Elliott: A treasury tag is like a little piece of rope, a miniature piece of rope with 2, like a T-bar at the end. And what you used to do was you'd punch, like you'd use a hole punch. A hole punch is a— and you used to take these A4 pieces of paper. A piece of paper is like a tree that's been— basically, it was a way to keep something that had got holes in the side of it. If you didn't have like a file for it, you put these treasury tags through, like temporary lever arch file sort of thing
[48:04] Leanne Elliott: Brilliant
[48:05] Al Elliott: Wow, we are old
[48:07] Leanne Elliott: We old. Couple more quick ones for you. This is quite funny, 'cause I know you'll have a good answer to this. Question about radio back in the day. Hi folks, hope you're doing well. I just had a random thought and want some insight from people who lived in a time before advanced technology
[48:23] Al Elliott: Rude