How Long Have You Been Selling Insurance

[Alston]

Oh cool what apps did it have?

LOL. We didn't call them apps back then.

I think it had some boring mathematical functions built in. It also had a printer that used thermal paper.

What was cool is that you could actually write a program on it. It had B.A.S.I.C. installed.

If I remember correctly, you could export the programs to a cassette tape. (Hard drives and flash drives were still in the far distant future.)

I coded an amortization table, because I started out selling mortgage insurance. I can't remember what the other programs I wrote did.

I just remember being fascinated with programming. (I was a geek right out of the womb.)

The thing I used the most was the memory of your previous input. It was kind of like an adding machine with a tape.

If you did a series of calculations and the answer looked wrong, you could essentially "scroll up" and see where you went wrong.

That was very practical in the days when we used rate books.

 

[somarco]

$170 for a pocket computer! That was a lot of money back then. Love the mutton chops on that guy.

I think I paid $30 or $40 for this bad boy in the late 60's. Still have it. Still works.

 

[HomeService]

first licensed in 1986 but not continually selling all that time. there were breaks in service at times

 

[Rob Lion]

$170 for a pocket computer! That was a lot of money back then. Love the mutton chops on that guy.

I think I paid $30 or $40 for this bad boy in the late 60's. Still have it. Still works.

How am I supposed to pull up pornhub on that thing.

 

[somarco]

How am I supposed to pull up pornhub on that thing.

Get written permission from your wife and I will show you how

 

[Alston]

How am I supposed to pull up pornhub on that thing.

You'll have to learn DOS, QDOS or BASIC.

Now you know why I was so motivated to learn how to code programs.

 

[rousemark]

You'll have to learn DOS, QDOS or BASIC.

Now you know why I was so motivated to learn how to code programs.

Ah, yes.. I remember when you had to know DOS commands to use a PC.. Very limited in what we could do with the computer yet at the time we were truly amazed by it.

 

[shonceman]

Ah, yes.. I remember when you had to know DOS commands to use a PC.. Very limited in what we could do with the computer yet at the time we were truly amazed by it.

I remember some of that! My first home computer had a whopping 2k of RAM and an actual keyboard, which was WAY better than that TRS 80, which was still being sold! In 1986 if we wanted to get a UL illustration I had to go to the office to run it. My broker had just installed a state of the art system with a full 512k! (Also, notice that I said "if we wanted to run..." An illustration wasn't required for UL's, which were a brand new product at that time.)

When I joined MetLife in 1990, they provided a laptop, and were the first company I remember being able to take an app on the laptop. (They called it a "LapApp") We typed everything in, hit the return key when finished. That locked the app down and assigned it a code. We had a pad of forms where we would fill in the code and have the client sign agreeing to electronic submission, which we turned in at the office. Then when we got home we hooked the laptop up to our home phone line and transmitted to the home office. Only took about 20-30 minutes to send an app, which was lightning fast at the time! What was really awesome, though, was a clean app was often approved and issued the very next day!

Of course, many people remember AGLA introducing the "SmartPad" in the '90's, which was revolutionary and a predecessor to tablet computers like my iPad.

 

[rousemark]

I remember some of that! My first home computer had a whopping 2k of RAM and an actual keyboard, which was WAY better than that TRS 80, which was still being sold! In 1986 if we wanted to get a UL illustration I had to go to the office to run it. My broker had just installed a state of the art system with a full 512k! (Also, notice that I said "if we wanted to run..." An illustration wasn't required for UL's, which were a brand new product at that time.)

When I joined MetLife in 1990, they provided a laptop, and were the first company I remember being able to take an app on the laptop. (They called it a "LapApp") We typed everything in, hit the return key when finished. That locked the app down and assigned it a code. We had a pad of forms where we would fill in the code and have the client sign agreeing to electronic submission, which we turned in at the office. Then when we got home we hooked the laptop up to our home phone line and transmitted to the home office. Only took about 20-30 minutes to send an app, which was lightning fast at the time! What was really awesome, though, was a clean app was often approved and issued the very next day!

Of course, many people remember AGLA introducing the "SmartPad" in the '90's, which was revolutionary and a predecessor to tablet computers like my iPad.

Yeah, when I went back to AGLA for five years, 2004-2009, they were still bragging about their revolutionary Smart Pad.. I just kind of shook my head because by that time it seemed really outdated.

 

[somarco]

went back to AGLA for five years, 204-2009

I knew you were old but did not realize you were around in 204AD.

Oh, and your math is off a bit . . .