posted on July 9, 2001 08:45:08 AM new
Most of us have been online for several years now, or at least awhile. Anything that makes you think of "the good old days"?
I for one will never forget that blissful year of uninhibited and easy Napster downloading. Now it's a real pain to find anything I want (although it's still possible).
I'll never forget when Netscape was a good browser. Actually, when it was the browser.
I'll never forget when animated penguin gifs excited me.
I'll never forget when email was such a novelty that spam didn't really annoy me.
I've been online since 1995. I'm sure some of you will "never forget" 2.2 kbs connections. What will you remember fondly or not so fondly?
posted on July 9, 2001 09:05:08 AM new
Well embarrassingly enough, I loved aol chat rooms when I first went online. I had just gotten divorced and had moved 1500 miles, so I was fairly isolated. Meeting people online was just perfect - no real risk, but still a way to joke around.
As aol grew, the ratio of idiots to normal folks increased and I grew to hate it. But it was fun for awhile.
posted on July 9, 2001 09:14:28 AM new
Fun, thanks, James...
I'll never forget when I was but a few months old on the computer...Mark had made me the Image Hosting Help Moderator (mages seemed to be the ONLY THING I was able to understand...), and of course, I had many questions. Once he replied that he would respond to my latest question later because right now he had to go and "take care of a firewall problem"...That was GREEK to me! So, I wrote back and asked what a firewall was: was it people fighting on the board?...Of course, he must have chuckled...or even laughed out loud... Never did get his answer till long after, I bought Symantec Internet Security...WITH FIREWALL BLOCKING.....
posted on July 9, 2001 09:30:40 AM new
I was on the 'net before there was a WWW and everything was line command - unix stuff - and all the information was in universities and you used Gopher and Archie and Veronica and a lot of people used a text only and FTP. The Library of Congress had stuff online but it was in an irritating private format that took 3 or 4 days of study before you could hope to find anything. There were probably a couple 10,000 computers online total. Compuserve was one of the few national ways to connect and it was a small division of H&R Block. They had spare computer capacity from their core business and rented it out! I got online so I could manage my stocks when traveling and used a Tandy 100 computer with a 300 baud modem to load stock quotes. Then I would place orders by phone - not online.
I don't miss it at all. It was a pain in the but to get anything done.
posted on July 9, 2001 09:34:18 AM new
I use to enjoy the AOL chatrooms, and the IRC chatroom, but the ratio of idiots to polite people got out of hand. There were some advantages to higher access rates and software that wasn't completely idiot proof.
The local BBS scene was the best, there was a real sense of community there, you ended up meeting most of the people you chatted with and it created a different way you treated one another on-line. The anonymity today lets people behave without accountability, and the manners have diminished because of it.
posted on July 9, 2001 09:50:46 AM new
Oops....sorry James.
I didn't really answer your question; nevertheless, I'll let it stand.
Promise to pay better attention the next time.
-------
Talking and sharing with people all over the world.
I'm still in awe.
And, it's good for the soul and restores your faith in humanity to know that people you most likely will never meet are generous enough to express empathy and sympathy, when needed, and share in your joy, when needed.
-------
E-mail!!!
I've been able to share in my daughter's months in Europe (although it will be sparse when she goes to Norway. If the beers are $9.00, I hate to think what an Internet cafe might cost her).
I just received an e-mail from someone I have not seen or talked to in almost 40 years!!! What a wonderful surprise.
posted on July 9, 2001 12:40:35 PM new
FIDO Net. Send an email to Austraila, and get an answer in... oh, maybe 2 days by the time it was relayed around the world and back. HOG HEAVEN.
Hard Drives. I remember my first hard drive in an IBM PC, a 20 meg job. Now that was COOL, even though I had to remove one of the floppy drives to make room for it..
A Graphics card in the same machine. I dumped an MDA (text only) card and replaced it with a Hercules Graphics Card, and could get PICTURES on the little green screen. This was also COOL.
I remember "Line Noise" with 2400 buad modems. Srceens full of "check marks" and other Garbage from the static in the phone lines. NOT COOL.
If I want to go farther back, I remember logging on to the University's Main Frame with a Vic-20 and a 300 buad modem. VERY COOL. (they gave us a whole MEG of storage. Seemed like a LOT )
Even farther back, I remember writing programs on PUNCH CARDS, and carrying the cards from one room where the card punch machines where to another room where the card reading machines where. They kept that building at 60 degrees. Bring a sweater, even if it was July in Texas.
posted on July 9, 2001 01:03:00 PM new"Even farther back, I remember writing programs on PUNCH CARDS, and carrying the cards from one room where the card punch machines where to another room where the card reading machines where. They kept that building at 60 degrees."
I remember this too! In fact, we had a class project and while everyone else got Snoopy sitting on his rooftop, I got only random garbage, no matter how hard I tried.
As a result of this, I had nothing to do with "computers" again until 1999!!!!!
Is this the place we can kick back, relax, and have fun! Share a story, tell a joke, write a poem, make a friend...???
posted on July 9, 2001 02:49:18 PM new
Been on the internet since 1985 - Arpanet, Bitnet and Internet... as the other poster said, I remember fondly of Archie and Gopher sites. Internet chat was text based and frequently we lost 1/2 the country when one relay computer went down. A lot of chatters from Singapore and the looooved to talk and talk! Email arrived within a couple of days.
I didn't have a DOS machine back then, I had a CPM machine with no hard drive and 2 360k floppies and a top-of-the-line 300 baud modem!
posted on July 9, 2001 03:54:51 PM new
The last message that I received on my DOS
program was...Your computer is stoned
...a permanent and fatal conditon.
posted on July 9, 2001 06:02:44 PM new
My first isp was AOL. Not out of choice mind you! But it was the only one that would take a 2400 baud modem (14.4 was the norm then). I remember chat rooms and how cool everyone was back then too, even on AOHell. But I spent most of my time on irc. I too remember when we'd lose a bunch of people to a relay going down. They'd all disappear and one by one pop back in. Wav files were my passion then. I'll never forget the day I learned to make my computer talk. I forget now what the problem was, but hubby came home and asked, "How did you do that??!" I was so proud of myself that I knew how to do something he didn't. Mom was always so impressed when I told her about the people from all over the world I talked to. I had so much fun then, no politics!
posted on July 9, 2001 10:44:08 PM new
LOL Becky! My dad was a trucker and I always wanted my own cb when I started driving. He was going to put one together for me from a couple of his old ones but never seemed to get around to it. Maybe he didn't want his sweet young daughter talking to those crusty old truckers.
posted on July 9, 2001 11:52:47 PM new
Pre internet: I remember when the University switched over from Model 33 Teletypes running at 110 baud to Decwriters running at 300. It was like being catapulted into the 22nd century.
They made everyone in the first year do all their programs on punch cards (the influx of declared CS majors was so huge they used it as a culling process). Learned how to invoke a text editor from batch real fast -- that practically counted as hacking, then.
-gaffan-
What will you remember fondly or not so fondly?
Never did get his answer till long after, I bought Symantec Internet Security...WITH FIREWALL BLOCKING...
..
Hippy wannabe 
~^~