What Is The Internet?

[tednlou2]

From 1994:  Bryant Gumble, Katie Couric, and Elizabeth Vargus try to understand what the internet is on the Today Show.  It seems so silly now.  You can see they didn't have a graphic yet for the "@" symbol. 

It is amazing how far we've come in just a few years.  Oh, remember when 28.8 modem connection speeds came out.  We were all so amazed at that speed..lol.  And then 56k!!  We talk about pages being sluggish here.  You could go take a shower and eat breakfast trying to download someone's pic back then.  Even 10 years ago, there wasn't much happening on the web--besides email and AOL.  Oh, and porn.  Most companies didn't start getting web addresses, or ones that did much, until the late 90's and early 2000's.  I remember thinking when I got my first cell phone in 1998 that having email on our phones would be nice.  Everyone I said that to told me that could never happen.  Now, I can do most things on my phone that I do on my computer.  Anyway, just thought this was an interesting look back.           

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/41349362#41349362

[mecch]

Internet hookups took a long time, much longer than taking the subway to the Bijou.  There were only 50 cock shots and thousands of men shared these 50.  
In the late 90's I bought a huge Apple tower multimedia computer and lugged it all the way across the ocean. Back then all cool american technology was about 2X the price in switzerland.  
In the early naughts I started doing workshops for teachers to start using the technology all the kids had. The trainees ran the gamut from hopeless to really fast learners.  Tears were shed, it was so frustrating for some 50 year old teachers who felt like dinosaurs - they wanted detailed instructions how to press each key and onscreen button and when and why.
There was that senator who said the Internet was a system of tubes!  Obama is the first wired President, I think?

[wolfter]

I'm really dating myself.  My first cell phone was in 1989.  It was a Motorola bag phone.  I paid $29.99 a month on the Clear Choice 10 plan.  I rec'd 10 minutes per month and paid $.99 for every minutes after that. 

And the internet?  Christ, by the time you'd download some hottie, you'd already ruined the keyboard.

[GSOgymrat]

In the early 80's, back in the days of DOS, CompuServe was my first access to the Internet. It was not for the impatient.

[wolfter]

Oh yeah, Compuserve days.  If someone attempted to call while you were on-line, it'd knock you off-line.

Goes hand in hand with Word Perfect and Lotus.  Back when you actually had to type commands, not just click some icons.  Thank you Mr. Gates!

[leatherman]

I still mourn for my old leatherman@prodigy.net account those were good times back then but then we had that nasty Y2K issue. 

some days I miss the modem squeal as it dialed up and connected -
but I don't miss it enough to return to when the computers connected at speeds barely above a fax machine.