The Conservative Cave
Interests => Games & Home Entertainment => Topic started by: Chris_ on March 28, 2011, 08:20:22 PM
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Computer Chronicles (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=computer+chronicles&aq=f) was a program that ran on many PBS stations from 1981 until 2002 that was hosted by a guy with a mean comb-over, Stewart Cheifet. I remember watching it beginning some time in 1986 on Saturday mornings since I was outgrowing the usual cartoons that were on at the same time. It's a great trip back in time.
Laptop '89 Convention
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ew2a74PUxRQ&feature=related[/youtube]
"The Gamer's PC"
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPOuR1CTJss&feature=related[/youtube]
Low-End Computers (1985)
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9boeHRUeMPA&feature=related[/youtube]
What Happened to OS/2?
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brU4KIxsLJI&feature=related[/youtube]
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Was the internet available back then?
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Not really. Most of it was local dial-up, or long-distance dial-up if you wanted to connect to something like CompuServe (they charged a monthly membership in addition to your long-distance charges). Instead of using web browsers, there were other applications -- I think COMit was a popular one I used -- that let you dial a phone number and log into other people's computers that were running bulletin boards (BBS) or file servers (yeah, they had internet porn even back then). I remember reading/participating in quite a few forums. They were text-only, no pictures. If there was internet in 1986, I wasn't aware of it.
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So you were able to communicate with other people? but it was nothing like it is today right?
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As far as communicating, it was similar. Imagine a text-only version of this forum... you used menus to move around but the basic premise and operation were very much the same.
It looked quite a bit like Free Republic with their all-text format. Hypertext (http) allows you to link to pictures, but FR isn't much different from an old BBS forum.
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Wow, talk about a blast from the past.
Who remembers Prodigy? ::)
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Wow, talk about a blast from the past.
Who remembers Prodigy? ::)
I do. And I'm still using the same password. :ohsnap:
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I do. And I'm still using the same password. :ohsnap:
:lmao:
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I had access to a Prodigy account in 1996. I've been using that same password ever since for minor stuff like Hotmail (1997... I got there early) and mailing lists.
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I believe I started with Prodigy in 1994. I have to laugh when I think about how the "internet" was back then compared to how it is now.
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I had access to a Prodigy account in 1996. I've been using that same password ever since for minor stuff like Hotmail (1997... I got there early) and mailing lists.
I got my hotmail in 1998 as a smooth cheeked high school freshman... Damn has it really been that long?
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But do you still have it?
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But do you still have it?
Yes I do actually though I don't use it for too much anymore.
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I stopped using mine. I have a few friends that still send me things, but I mostly use Google Mail. I still use Hotmail and Yahoo for mailing lists and subscriptions, though. I still check it everyday just in case.
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I remember installing a 3200 baud modem in my 386 clone. Probably 1994 or so. (I had upgraded directly from an XT clone with a 32 MB hard drive to the 386 with 4 whopping MB of memory.)
Dial up to download email, then quickly disconnecting. Long distance charges in Germany are ungodly expensive.
As I understand it, besides what Al Goracle is reputed to have said, the Internet got its start from a bunch of scientists who collaborated in a pseudo-network to exchange ideas relative to their chosen field.
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I got my first Hotmail account in 97 or 98 and still have it. I remember my ex's father getting AOL or Internet America, or something like that back in 90-91?
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I had compuserve, & AOL back in 94-95. I discovered that if I used a new 50 hr free AOL diskette and changed screen names, credit cards used or bank account numbers used, I could get free internet for a while. I did that for a year or two until AOL came out with a $19.95/mo flat rate unlimited. I always had access to local numbers, so long distance wasn't a problem. In 97, I started work with a cable company in St Paul. I was one of the two primary techs for the institutional network which provided a WAN/ Internet for the entire city offices, schools & state offices. In early 98, the company started beta testing cable internet to their subscribers and some of their line techs. I was one of them. Later that year, I started as an headend tech, working with customer data (internet) & we rolled out cable telephone in mid 1999. I still have an aol account, but it doesn't work real well with Windows 7- 64 bit quite yet. (It terminates and stays resident in memory and often taxes my computer. There must be some kind of huge memory hole in their software or something.)
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My two favorite CC episodes:
Here, Peter Griffin can hardly contain his excitement over Mickey Mouse and Michael Jackson:
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UExsRds7RlE[/youtube]
A Macintosh Portable, complete with animation, a mouse subsitute, and "16Mhz... speed":
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gGwVTq_xcZk[/youtube]