does anyone else miss the days when the internet was populated by lots of people

[datasuspect]

who logged on using academic accounts/.edu email addresses?

when did AOL come out?

[billyskank]

1. The September That Never Ended was in 1993.

That was the year AOL unleashed their hordes on Usenet.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/S/September-that-never-ended.html

[Oeditpus Rex]

3. Ha! 'AOL!' was/is Usenet slang for 'Me too!'

...alluding to the legendary propensity of America Online users to utter contentless "Me, too!" postings. The number of exclamation points following varies from zero to five or so. The pseudo-HTML <AOL>Me, too!</AOL> is also frequently seen.

http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/A/AOL-.html

:rofl:

There should also be psuedo-HTML, <AOL>I agree!</AOL> I wish I had a quarter for every time I've seen "I agree!" on AOL boards so disorganized (a la FR) that you couldn't tell whom the poster agreed with.

[jeff30997]

13. I agree!

AO-lol!

[bridgit]

2. hubby has a little round key on his ring for other stuff, but an academic friend the other night...

over drinks was lamenting how it reminded him of an old IBM key, poor guy, thought he was going to cry :cry:

[lost-in-nj]

4. I remember the first time my brother

showed me the internets.....


it was all text....


lost

[Writer]

5. I remember the days of the 28.8K baud rate modem and downloading ftp files from "Gopher."

The kids using the Internet today have no idea how good they have it...

("Back in my day...")

[billyskank]

7. OMG

you are SUCH a nerd.

:P

[Writer]

8. I am a PROUD geek!

Yes, indeed! :thumbsup:

[DarkTirade]

10. You had a 28.8? Lucky bastard!

I was stuck with a 14.4... and parents who decided to use AOL as their service provider. :scared:

I'm just glad they finally turned off those damn parental controls that were keeping us from using IE or Netscape. Because the built-in AOL browser back in the 2.0-3.0 era SUCKED. It couldn't multi-task. Nothing inside AOL could at the time. So if it was loading one thing, you couldn't do anything else. Couldn't even switch to another window. That drove me (*&%ing NUTS. When you've got a slow connection and a limited amount of time you're allowed online, you gotta try and get your shit done ASAP, and this horrifically badly designed software was keeping me from doing so.

[Starbucks Anarchist]

11. 28.8?

Is that an actual number or something? :P

[SPKrazy]

6. no

i remember the old dial up 14.4 modem, bulletin boards

edu addys

etc.

while the internets are not wonderful, i don't miss that slow morass either

[Roon]

14. My first Modem was a 14.4

My ex brought home a computer that his work was throwing away. It was a 486 with Window's 3X. We spent 450 bucks and got a CD-Rom, a sound blaster card, Windows 95, and Myst. We got AOL and it was so long ago, that I had [e-mail].

[Capn Sunshine]

9. Ha! It used to just be academic and govvie defense types on DARPANET

and a page like this would take about a day and a half to download so we limited ourselves to data transfer and short emails. It all Started in the late 60's, but I wasn't involved as a user until the 70's. We shared an account with a code name and you needed a DOD ID to log in. Out of the Rand/ UCLA research, LA Freenet evolved just before AOL. AOL to Freenet was like the difference betwen a GUI and DOS.

When I first signed on to DU I used that codename , but in retrospect it sounded like a chicks name and everyone thought I was just a really bitchy girl. (You can't have strong opinions in GD without being identified---well, you know.) So when they changed over servers in 2002(?) I renamed myself :)

So yeah, I remember when it was ALL academics and Gov types. :bluebox:


DUers are definitely more fun, not concentrating on post atomic war communications packets and all.

[Call Me Wesley]

12. 1200 bit/s.

Phone hooked up on the modem. This was in the 80's, and there wasn't much to dial into, and I won't say what we dialed into then. ;)

Then, later in the early 90's, 14.4, access was CompuServe, since this was the only ISP here then. Phone bill went through the roof.