What year is it?

hindsight2020 said:
My netscape cross-domain email still works with my aol one. When I think of my life in 1998 this icon is always at the forefront of my mind.

Waiting on that porn .jpg to fully load on that 33.6k modem, then the anticipation of 54K baud rates man, brings me back to a time of such optimism. :D
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Newbie.

Unfortunately, I have actually used a 300 baud modem, where you dialed your landline phone, and put the handset into the acoustic coupler.

My first direct modem was 2400 baud. I move to 9.6, then 14.4, then 19.6. Then got an ISDN line at 128K. Then last 90s, cable modem came to my street and now have 1GB connection.

I started on CompuServe in 1987.
 
DaleB said:
I had a Compuserve number, and more than a few AOL addresses, and a Yahoo email,
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Never did AOL directly, but my current Compuserve email is served by AOL, as they bought CS a while ago.

I still have a Yahoo address, but I am not sure what it was. It was used for Yahoo Groups. One one the BMW M3 LTW and one on the Aerobatic One Design.
 
OK since we are reminiscing here..my first computer was a Texas instruments Ti-99 with a cartridge loader on the side. Back then you would buy dos code books, spend a couple hours writing code to have a block character move left/right. Upgraded to a atari CPU with a tape drive.. that's right start the cassette to save data. My neighbor got a tandy and I was jealous that he had a floppy drive. Back then we would call BBS on numbers and the majority of the time they were out of town which incurred a charge. I learned how to bill numbers to random people so I wouldn't get charged. Well one day during dinner the telephone company called and let my parents know I was doing this and that they would be responsible for the charges (which were alot) they were not happy.

In college I got a job upgrading IBM's employee computers to win NT and it was one of the best jobs I ever had. Me and my friend at the time would get a list of 2 employees we were to upgrade. Go to their cubicles, get some passwords and start the download. We had it down to a science so we could spend about 10-15 min starting the download. The download would take about 4 hrs so as soon as we started it we would walk to the mall. Right before noon we would come back and check on the installations. Then it was lunch and off we went..back to the mall. In the afternoon we would start the other one and leave around 4:30. The job was great until we got laid off since we were contractors. Also worked for citicorp and a early internet store creator called expanets. Still have my hotmail acct too.
 
Half Fast said:
Oh, how I long for the days when to shut down a computer you didn't hit "Start".......
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It's just a windows symbol now. Yeah, the tool tip says "start," but you can change that.
 
The first computer I programmed was a TRS80 at my high school. 4k memory and a cassette recorder. 1978, IIRC.

The first computer I owned was a Timex/Sinclair ZX81. After the power supply fried it made a great door stop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81
 
Many people do not realize that the first model IBM PC had a cassette port.

But, at the time, a floppy drive was $1000. And $20,000 a year was a good job.
 
I hate Sheppard Air. Their philosophy of brute force rote learning by memorizing only the correct answer to multiple choice questions is shameful.

I've never had any problems with Kings courses coupled eith simply taking an interest in the material and learning it myself

Too many people only care about memorizing the answers versus actually learning and understanding the concept.
 
I learned the correct answers and used their explanations as needed. It’s a good supplement to also reading the PHAK, AFH, FAR/AIM.
 
Pinecone said:
Unfortunately, I have actually used a 300 baud modem, where you dialed your landline phone, and put the handset into the acoustic coupler.
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When I upgraded from my 300 baud modem to a 1200 baud modem I noticed that I was no longer able to keep up with text scrolling on the screen. I read fairly quickly, but not that quickly.
 
Half Fast said:
The first computer I programmed was a TRS80 at my high school. 4k memory and a cassette recorder. 1978, IIRC.

The first computer I owned was a Timex/Sinclair ZX81. After the power supply fried it made a great door stop.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZX81
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Ditto on the ZX81, I still have mine. I think the first program I ever wrote was from a dumb terminal (Lear Siegler ADM-3) connected to a remote PDP-11/70 at Ft. Sill. That would have been ‘79, I think.

AggieMike88 said:
This thread is devolving into a version of the Four Yorkshiremen sketch by Monty Python.
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These threads always do.
 
When I taught a ground school, each week I would do a quiz on the material from the previous weeks. I used one of the test prep books with the FAA questions for the quizes.

That way the students got both. The knowledge of the material, but exposure to how the FAA asks questions.
 
I guess there's some value in how the FAA asks questions, but in my experience there are no tricks, the questions are very direct. "Refer to Figure 3, point B is: " and it will be something relatively obvious if you open the graph and have seen an airplane before.

I've always taken umbrage with rote learning, but it's one thing if someone simply memorizes valence electron counts without understanding quantum mechanics, but safe aviation relies heavily on that deeper understanding

If you know the subject matter you really shouldn't have to see the exam format. Real aviation is NOT packaged into a neat exam format. When you start losing oil pressure and you need to plot a course to the closest airport it's not going to be "just like how the exam was, cool! I know it's 8.2 miles on a heading of 234 because I memorized the *h!t out of question 827!"

PS - requiring someone to call to buy a product is absolutely shameful. Can you imagine if Amazon made you call someone to buy something, only between certain hours? If Netflix made you call someone to watch what you want? Absolute disgrace. But they stay alive because people, by and large, and lazy and find they'd rather memorize 800 questions vs spend a few hours actually learning the matter.
 
Try using a Bloomberg terminal. Using some of the sub-applications in that thing make me feel like I'm a 1980's time warp. And it costs a lot more than the Sheppard subscription!

I just signed up for a ShepAir sub last week only because my instructor absolutely swore by it. It works out because I was a little disappointed with sportys IFR (their PPL program is excellent, though, IMHO). I was a little put off by the ShepAir ordering process (having to call), very put off by only being able to use it on one device, and maximally put off by the Windows 95 interface. But after I got over the superficial complaints, I realized can't argue with the methodology and question bank. I think it's really solid and a marked improvement over Sportys.

The only thing I wish they did differently was break down some of the huge categories a bit more. E.g., have like an IFR category 1/2/3 to make them more digestible. Doing the entire 400+ question IFR category in one session began to make me question my will to live.
 
There are people out there providing supplies/equipment for target shooters that don't have online ordering and yet are some of the best available.

Having a slick website doesn't mean the supplier knows jack about anything or has quality products.
 
^no, it certainly doesn't. However it is also unusual in 2023 to have a website that looks like it hasn't been updated since 1995, and doesn't instill confidence in the prospective audience or user.
 
Word of mouth is still a good way to gain confidence.
 
Does Shep have more word of mouth notoriety than Kings? Gleim? I wouldn't say so, and they have a reputation of their brute force memorization method, which speaks to people's aversion to actually learning

Take three people off the street and give them an unlimited budget to purchase courses from Kings, Gleim, or Shep and I can't imagine too many choosing Shep.


But people are different I guess, strokes for folks, horses for courses, insert whatever cliche. Plenty of people also enjoy flying a 172 and swear by Southwest as well. There are also people who choose not to eat meat. I don't get any of that either.
 
Tantalum said:
Does Shep have more word of mouth notoriety than Kings? Gleim?..
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Sheppard Air focused initially on the mil competency crowd at a time and place when access to the question banks were available.

The Air Force publishes a Master Question File (MQF) which is pure memorization for the closed book portion of written exams you get in initial and upgrade training as well as semi-annually in operational units.

Sheppard built a product for a target market that works and will continue to work until the FAA re-invents the entire question bank. Not change, re-invent.

Want to blame someone for Sheppard’s success at what they do, blame FAA.
 
I posted above that the reason to use Sheppard is that users are successful on the FAA tests.

On the other hand, I would not use them because I have had success studying good manuals and FAA sources. Memorization is not my top skill, but understanding how things work is. Memorizing clearance from clouds, and airspace rules is required, as exact numbers must be used for things that cannot be measured in flight. Anybody with an Instrument ticket can amuse their passengers with contests of guessing the distance up or down to a cloud layer you are about to transit. Even if those passengers are pilots, the estimates will be wildly wrong most of the time.

I have done all my written exams, PPL, COMM, and INST, from self study, with a crash memorization of the above items the morning of the test. I did take a ground school for commercial while finishing up my PPL self study, and passed the PPL written before I had completed half the ground school. It did not help the actual commercial written many years later, but taking that ground school made me a better Private Pilot. :)
 
Tantalum said:
I guess there's some value in how the FAA asks questions, but in my experience there are no tricks, the questions are very direct.
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Part of it is also seeing how the wrong answers are worded. To see how they are close, but not the right answer
 
Older thread but I came back here to post that I completely take back anything I ever said about Sheppard!

I recently passed both FIA and FOI with their program and scored the best I've ever scored on an FAA exam 97 and 96 respectively

I've long been a big believer in Kings and methodically learning the material well enough to answer the questions as they come however that approach never got me scores like this

Their study strategy isn't totally rote memorization, each question has a explanation that is humanly written with background information and why the correct answer is the correct answer. They also expose you to hundreds of questions so it helps you learn the material through that

Both times I called to purchase they answered the phone on the first ring and were very helpful and courteous

I called a third time as well to get clarity on a weight and balance question, we worked through the math together

Their question explanations also included gotchas to be aware of

So yeah, I still generally believe in the King's method, but this program honestly was easier and got me a better score
 
Tantalum said:
...
So yeah, I still generally believe in the King's method, but this program honestly was easier and got me a better score
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At the risk of stirring up a hornet nest... do you feel you understand the material better with Sheppard or are just happy to get a better score on the test?
 
Bob Noel said:
At the risk of stirring up a hornet nest... do you feel you understand the material better with Sheppard or are just happy to get a better score on the test?
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The score is a ego-stroke for sure. The understanding part is tricky.. I took Sheppard after an extensive ground school so I had a good foundational knowledge but there's no way I would have sword like this without Sheppard

The math bits are easier to learn than memorize

But "the floor of Class B starts at what altitude near Area 4 Figure 17" I can see I just memorizing that you would not actually learn the airspaces
 
70441,2071 Joined AVSIG in 1987, and also still there. But haven't seen much of you there lately. :D

First owned computer was for our business. An AST 286/10m 2 MB RAM, and a 105 MB hard drive. EGA graphics driving an NEC MultiSync monitor. A 2400 bps modem.
 
Tantalum said:
The score is a ego-stroke for sure.
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I thought a higher score minimizes the sections the dpe examines during the flight exam, which would be much more important than an ego stroke

anyway, Shep makes it easy to focus on the test, without looking through notes in several full sized books. I doubt anyone would be comfortable using it as ground school though it hardly matters since everyone has to go through a cfi/cfii/dpe etc
 
Randomskylane said:
I thought a higher score minimizes the sections the dpe examines during the flight exam, which would be much more important than an ego stroke
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I have also heard that too hopefully that's the case this time as I understand the CFI oral is quite exhaustive!

But I've also heard that getting too good of a score might make them think you just memorized the answers and they'll drill you that much harder..

I guess we'll see

Agree with your points on the notes verse the exam, I think this will be my new strategy for any future tests
 
I love how this thread is alternating between flexing about written test scores and flexing about being an old fart. :p
 
Tantalum said:
But I've also heard that getting too good of a score might make them think you just memorized the answers and they'll drill you that much harder.
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There are literally questions about this on FOI.:D

According to the FAA, applicants who pass the knowledge tests by rote memorization tend to do poorly on oral examination. As for what the DPE will cover, there's a minimum and maximum amount of time they'll spend on the oral, and they have to cover whatever you missed on the written. If you didn't miss anything, you have no idea what to focus on.....
 
kayoh190 said:
I love how this thread is alternating between flexing about written test scores and flexing about being an old fart. :p
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But who else got a 97??

/jk

Lindberg said:
There are literally questions about this on FOI
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I saw those and appreciated the irony

I did take an exhaustive ground school in person so that definitely helped

I'll ping when the checkride is behind me. Pass or fail I'll advise
 
Tantalum said:
I have also heard that too hopefully that's the case this time as I understand the CFI oral is quite exhaustive!
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My CFI oral exam was six hours long without a break. I didn't like the examiner, Carl Lipke, very much. It didn't seem he did anything to put me at ease. But I passed on the first attempt. February 2001 in St. Paul, Minnesota.
 
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