Memories up to 2007 when I entered the workforce (future updates to this post planned 😉)
ELTE's Radnóti Miklós middle school
1994-1997
My First PC#
Bought from Ready Computers using grandpa’s WW2 Compensation Notes. It had no HDD and CPU cooler.
Specs#
ECS FA386 • TX486DLC/E-40 • 1.44 MB 3.5" FDD • 4 MB SRAM • Trident TVGA9000C XVGA • DOS 6.22 / Windows 3.11
Upgrades#
IBM WDA-L42 40MB IDE HDD • AdLib Sound card • IDE CD-ROM • HP DeskJet 500C printer
Top Played#
Stunts • Cisco Heat • MK1-2 • Doom1-2 • Transport Tycoon • SimFarm • Cannon Fodder • Thunderdome XIII (audio cd)
Commodore 64#
Played with this for an entire summer at my grandparents’ kitchen. Used it with a red Junost 402B TV (monochrome). The Quickshot II joystick was really crappy 😄 I learned to code in Basic (after many painful attempts at typing in code found in computer magazines - without much success 😉)
Top Played#
Boulder Dash • Commando • Ghosts’n’Goblins • Gianna Sisters • Outrun • Street Rod
Random School PC#
Had an orange monochrome screen. The Humble beginnings of my interest in computers 😄
Top Played#
Golden Axe • Prince of Persia • Stunts • NetWars
Greetz#
- Szabolcs Deák for letting me attend his classes in the school computer lab where I learned a lot about viruses and for providing me a Win95 installer on floppy disks
- Sándor Pénzes for explaining basics about PC hardware & electronics and showing me how to read a Voltmeter and an Oscilloscope
- László Csupor for borrowing me their Commodore 64
internet.galaxis'97 and '98 Budapest
1997-1998
Was a yearly exhibition by communications / digitization companies in Budapest. I went there after school to browse “the internet” for the first time. I used Netscape Navigator 4.x on Windows 3.11 for Workgroups. I remember searching for the first time with AltaVista (also the Hungarian clone Altavizsla) and browsing directories like startlap & origo… There was no google at this time!
Petrik Lajos Highschool
1997-2001
My Second PC#
Components picked and assembled by myself
Specs#
ASUS P2B 440BX • Intel Pentium II Celeron 300MHz (slot) • 32MB SDRAM • 20GB HDD • S3 Trio3D/2X 4MB • Win95OSR2, Win98SE
Upgrades#
Sound Blaster AWE64 • Plextor 52x CDRW+
Top Played#
MK3-4 • C&C • Commandos • Duke Nukem 3d • Descent 1-2 • Carmageddon 1-2 • GTA3 • NFS: Underground
Greetz#
- László Cserfalusi for teaching me about digital circuits, shunts, astable multivibrators and also playing Duke3d with us after class 😄
- András Kolozs for helping me buy my second PC, donating a SoundBlaster AWE64 card and HDD upgrade and providing a bunch of games/apps CDs for it
SuliNet Summer Camp '00
2000
This was a summer holiday camp organized by the Ministry of Education where students could extend their information scientific knowledge through group work.
- We were divided into project working groups based on common interest. I decided to join the “flight club” - our goal was to create a website about airplanes and flight.
- My peers teached me basic HTML4 syntax and I created web pages about the P51 Mustang and B52 Flying Fortress in Notepad.
- We had uninterrupted 24h internet access provided by Magyar Telekom at ISDN2 speeds (128kbps). I had no idea how it worked, but I was fascinated by their “green field infrastructure” base station truck hiding behind the house :)
- It was super cool to meet like-minded “geek” kids here. I also met a future university classmate ;)
- I playing GTA1 with the “musicians” at late night, chat with random people on IRC at dawn, browse internet whole day, rinse and repeat (3 days uptime) - I knocked myself out completely
- Fun fact: I won a prize (an OEM licensed copy of Windows'95 OSR2) for “having the deepest voice in the camp” :D
Nine Eleven
9/11/2001
I remember this day clearly, because the attack on the WTC towers happened in the early afternoon on the second day at the university. We all thought it was the beginning of the end of the world… and it kind of was, actually. All afternoon lessons were cancelled, then we went to the nearest pub and watched CNN live satellite coverage on TV:Eötvös Loránd University
2001-2007
I studied computer science and English language at the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. Besides my studies I also took on the sysadmin role for the Student Union.
Due to the Bologna Process in 2003 the TFK faculty has been split up and integrated into the Faculty of Education and Psychology (PPK), Faculty of Humanities (BTK) and Faculty of Informatics (IK).
I have kept my sysadmin duties at PPK after the reorganization, however after this “black swan event” I had to travel around Budapest a lot …
The faculty had a 100mbps uplink to the university token ring. All hosts were publicly exposed in the IPv4 subnet 157.181.27.0/24. Apparently PPK still reachable on this subnet two decades later :)
Dell SC 1430 tower server#
- My first Debian Sarge LAMP Web server for the SU
- WordPress CMS for the SU web site PPKHOK About 20 years later they still use the same CMS 😄
Dell OptiPlex GX520 SFF clients#
- SU office machines with Windows XP SP3
- Upgrade from a handful of NEC PowerMate desktop PCs (with integrated 3dfx Voodoo2000/8MB). These machines had custom built Windows 2000/XP on them.
Fujitsu-Siemens Scenic T MT kiosks#
- 27 mini tower PCs for student internet access in the copy shop. I learned to create sysprepped Windows installer images and clone machines with Norton Ghost, use Deep Freeze 5 to keep them in a healthy state.
- Win'98SE until about 2005 time due to direct exposure on the public Internet and extreme worm infections on Windows XP (Pre-SP1)
Greetz#
- László Brányi for being my favorite professor and teaching me a lot about Server OSes, Networking and cmd line
- Attila Korb (Atka) for allowing me to help administering PCs of the SU and trusting me to take over his responsibilities when he took on another role. Also for a lot of GGs playing Unreal Tournament 2003 GOTY together 😉
- Gábor Lacházi (Admin) for showing me the site infrastructure and helping me out with software when the SU needed it
