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Geek Culture / Who remembers getting internet for the first time?

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Non Sequitur M
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 06:14
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Just a random topic... Kind of a social study I guess.

I remember. It was early '97. I was in middle school. They announced that our school had gotten internet. I was like, 'Internet? What's that?' And, my technologies teacher handed me a pamphlet on it. I read a little on it and laughed. I thought, why would I want to talk to someone from another country? We probably wouldn't speak the same language, and if we did, we wouldn't share any experiences...

And, then I found you could play games on the internet. And, I freaked out. I thought, SCORE!

Anyway, who else remembers it? And, where did you first get to use it?

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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Quik
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 08:09
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at home.. like... since i was newborn we have had internet, since my mom and dad is as nerdy as me x-)


[Q]uik, Quiker than most
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Thraxas
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 08:50 Edited at: 14th Mar 2011 08:50
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I remember opening my 14.4k modem... having to trail a phone cord from the modem to the wall socket via 2 rooms... and then waiting 2 mins for an image to appear on screen... it was glorious... but my parents used to get annoyed because people couldn't through on the phone...

A man will one day wear a tophat in glasgow on a sunny day juggeling grapes while humming the jurrasic park theme tune.
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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 09:07
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I remember. I was all like:


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Fallout
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 10:09
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Same as Thraxas. Constant shouting "Are you on the internet again? I need to use the phone!!!" and constantly being disconnected whenever my mum picked up to try and make a call. 16 or 17 years ago, at a guess. Back then I used to use CompuServe, which was like it's own array of bulletin boards and forums with it's own dialer, browser and gateway interface, and I didn't really know the rest of the internet existed. I just went to this same old role-playing forum and not much else.

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Thraxas
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 10:18
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Quote: "CompuServe"


That was my first isp too... I remember being addicted to a MUD that was built into the interface...

Then I moved onto Freeserve and at that same time upgraded to a whopping 36.6 modem

A man will one day wear a tophat in glasgow on a sunny day juggeling grapes while humming the jurrasic park theme tune.
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Dazzag
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 10:50
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Proper internet? Was 1991 I think when I went to Uni. Good olde Mosaic browser It was all running through fast communications at the time (Janet I believe it was called) so when I got my first proper web link at home a few years later (probably about 1995) I remember being massively disapointed by the speed

Cheers

I am 99% probably lying in bed right now... so don't blame me for crappy typing
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SpyDaniel
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 11:24
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I don't think we had a computer until 98, at least not full time. So it must have been around 98 when I first went online and it was crap XD.

Didn't get good until I had my own computer, around 99-00. All the summers I must have wasted playing Empire Earth on 56kbps. Used to hate being kicked off when someone wanted to use the phone, but then micro filters came out, but that was around the 128kbps time, which felt like 50Mbit broadband back then XD.


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BlueKlayman
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 11:46 Edited at: 14th Mar 2011 11:47
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Man, you guys are all so old :p












And creepy.

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Neuro Fuzzy
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 12:20
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AHAHhahahahh, just saw this facebook conversation, kinda relates to this thread:

Quote: "person 1: the iq of the average human is 100.
the iq of the average internet user is much closer to 70.

70 is borderline-retarded.

person 2: Borderline? That's two standard deviations below the mean.

person 1: there's a spectrum for borderline; i chose the lower end, which is probably more appropriate.

person 2: Well, in public education, anything below 80 is considered eligible for "Special Day Class", which is where those who used to be called "retarded" go. The kids above 80 still struggle, but are referred to as being in the shady 80s, because... their not really bright enough to succeed in school, but their IQs are too high to get them the help they need. And, of course, the data brings up a number of questions: 1) How were the IQs determined? 2) What was sample size? 3) Did the IQs of Internet users start at 70 or did they drop after excessive use?

person 1: it seems to fluctuate as they turn their browsers on and off"

just sayin'. I would post it in the posting competition but no.

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 12:36
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Must have been the year 2000, I think, but it has ruined my life ever since. First half of my life was internet free. We had an Amiga 500+, a Sega Megadrive and Sony Playstation, but nothing to access the internet. Then came the fabled day we got a PC with Windows 95, which ran at 133mhz (and a 1mb 3DFX card, it was AWESOME!) and it didn't take long for use to start connecting to the internet with a 56k modem. Then we upgraded to Windows 98 with a 250mhz Pentium II and 512kb broadband.

Before the internet, I was an outdoors person.

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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 15:24
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yeah, I remember dialing into uni on the 14.4 modem just access aminet, what fun. Must have been around 1994.


Hmm, I wonder what's coming in 2011?
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Darth Vader
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 16:13
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I can't remember much but I do remember watching dad on our windows 95 machine bring up a page (in Netscape) about Tintin! I was like AWESOME!!!!!

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 16:53
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around year 2000 i was a big star wars fan, so all i did was use the intrnet to go on star wars sites. later i started playing online games. I still remember living in russia during that time and the internet there really sucked back then. You had to buy these cards with codes that allowed x amount of minutes on the internet trough a phone line. These cards were sold all over the place. Right now everyone in russia refers to that time period as "the hunger years" like comparing it to the war time (1940s) when food rations were given out only for food cards just like the internet was given for internet cards.

good times i really get nostalgic over the internet back then, before web 2.0 there was a certain charm to it

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Yodaman Jer
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 16:58
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Jeez. I'm not sure when I started using the internet, or even when my family had it at first. I was born in '91, but I do remember when we got a Windows 95 machine (anyone remember Packard Bell?) and I very much remember the noise it made as AOL was connecting...but I also remember my mom checking her email on an old DOS based machine, so...I think the internet's always been on in my life.

I first started using it around 2000-2003 I believe. It was mostly for online games though, now it's to use for email, school, facebook and the forums. And sometimes looking up Ubuntu stuff.


New posts every week!
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Non Sequitur M
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 17:00 Edited at: 14th Mar 2011 17:05
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Yeah. Those old dial-ups were brutal... I remember trying to play Red Alert and Red Alert 2 on one, but I only ever finished half games before having to drop out so my dad could make business calls. Haha. The schools had separate lines for everything, so that wasn't an issue. In high school, after tech class, we used to play Starcraft and Red Alert.

[EDIT] @Coffee: Yeah. The noise from those old dialers sure was ear grating. I wanted to throw mine across the room every time I signed on(as it took like 30 secs to connect).

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 17:13
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Quote: "The noise from those old dialers sure was ear grating"


i liked the noise. infact a freiend of mine wanted to set up a dial up connection in his home just so he can again hear that noise

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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Non Sequitur M
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 17:21
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Haha. Really!? I remember thinking, 'This noise HAD to be invented by Satan to make us pay for the glorious 20-30 min we'll get to spend on the internet.'

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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Zotoaster
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 18:02
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Quote: "Proper internet? Was 1991 I think when I went to Uni. Good olde Mosaic browser It was all running through fast communications at the time (Janet I believe it was called) so when I got my first proper web link at home a few years later (probably about 1995) I remember being massively disapointed by the speed

Cheers"


Ah Dazzag, I missed all those stories you had from the days before my existence (even though 1991 technically wasn't before). Where you been these days man?


[on topic]

I got the internet when I was about 10, I think. I didn't know how to use it that well, but it didn't take long before I discovered how to watch porn.

"everyone forgets a semi-colon sometimes." - Phaelax
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NST
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 18:49
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Jan 1995. I know because I bought a 56.6K modem and a copy of Win95 to allow me to connect!

I'd used (and run) direct-dial BBSs before then.

Ten years before I was involved in design for Prestel (UK, remember that?) and Minitel (France) - halcyon days...
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Non Sequitur M
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 19:44
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@Zotoaster: XD I was wondering how long it would take before someone mentioned porn!

Cheers to web pron! Haha.

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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Travis Gatlin
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 20:04
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I got dialup internet when i was about 4 or 5, i HATED it, i had AOL free trial internet, they kept giving us free trials for some reason and it took about 5 minutes to load up ANY website, i couldn't play online games because it took them an hour to load, the phone line was always tied up from being on the internet, i was amazed with the "Hello" it told me when i started up the Internet browser.
I'm so glad i switched to Broadband, It's not the fastest internet in the world but it can load up a page in 2 seconds and it's fast enough to play online so i'm happy.

My Current Project: Unbenounced to you, Puny Human!
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BatVink
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Posted: 14th Mar 2011 22:29
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Anyone remember Prestel? It was like Teletext, but home users could access it via Amigas, IIRC. It cost about 2 pence per page, and loaded extremely slowly. That was my first experience in the late 80s at a friends house.

In 1990, I was using BBS systems to download a few kilobytes of VB code samples at 2.4Kbs

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crispex
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 00:41
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I simply remember the dial-up days with that annoying connect tone. God, they really needed a better sound.

I just now realized I've had a typo in my signature for the past 3 years.
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bitJericho
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 03:14
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we use dialup to connect to servers where I work. I get to hear that noise 10-20 times a day. Then again, I don't mind it

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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 03:52
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What would you guys tell your grandkids about how the internet used to be in the 90s?

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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flashing snall
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 04:12 Edited at: 15th Mar 2011 04:14
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Ive always had it, but this is a nice story.
(I couldnt resist)


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Virtual Nomad
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 05:15 Edited at: 15th Mar 2011 05:19
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first 'memory' of the internet was late 1992. i was playing legends of future past™ in massive doses @ 9600 baud ($100 used, + commodore amiga 1200)
. i remember paying $3.60/hr to play**; internet users could play for $1.80/hr but there was lotsa lag there so i avoided it (therefor racking up $5k between 2 credit cards inside a year ). i seem to remember ~15-20 max logged in at a time. so, internet existed but i held out until ~1994 with my first ibm compatable (DX2-50, tho 66 was standard at the time, and a 14.4k modem) and really don't remember the internet much until getting cable in 1998 (after going through the 33.6k/56.6k phases, a short stint with AOL (i despise them still), and then earthlink until '98). come 2000, i was playing asheron's call and finally enjoying the best of the (legal) internet)

**looking at the wikipedia article, they state $6/hr for legends in '92 but i'm sticking to my figures for '93.

and, just in case anyone here might have played legends, too: does "Jebu the Elder pets his kitten skin gloves" ring a bell?

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Errant AI
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 08:44
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My first internet experience had to be around '92. My buddy got CompuServe for his Mac LC... We'd spend like an hour downloading a hypercard game over the 14.4 and then play it for five minutes before agreeing it sucked and then start downloading another one

I miss the crazy sounds dial-up modems would make.
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Accoun
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 17:06
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At home? It was like: "At last!" and a bit "Why it's so slow?". Since both my parents work at local radio I got used to fast(er) connection at work.
I remember I used to spend hours every weekend playing games on old LEGO website. It was around 2001-2002 I think...

Make games, not war.
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Bandito_Walrus
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 19:06
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I always hated going to any website with even an image back then, it would make the entire page load slowly

I'd pull up an online video, and let it load so I could watch it an hour later.

A Graceful Harmony of Video Games and Insanity:
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Non Sequitur M
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 20:21
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Accoun. What connection type was it?

@PAGAN: I'll probably say something like, "Yeah. 90's internet was great... I think. I don't know. My dial up modem still hasn't connected! Can you hear it kids? That was the sound of the 90's!"

I just realized those old modems sound like a defective R2 droid! Hahahaha! Nerd joke!

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 20:26
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I started going on BBS' on or around '92. I begged my parents to let me run my own BBS but they were worried someone would find where I lived and kill me (or something like that). I remember for the BBS', when you first called them, they had to call your modem back to verify you were real (kind of like getting emailed with an activation link when you sign up to a new site nowadays). We were running on a 2400bps modem. It took me an hour to download a 1MB shareware game at the time, but it was worth it. ASCII art was awesome

It wasn't until about '94 that we got a 14.4kbps and it RACED! I connected to the Internet for the first time in Grade 9 or 10, and it was DOS-based (hahaha, I'm old!) We used PINE for email, and it was just white text on a black background. Good times.


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N3wton
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 20:39
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I miss dial up... I just loved the dial up tone... plus i loved to imagine this was true

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FG1AQcGGSec&feature=related

Yours
N3wton

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=PRoF=
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 21:32
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My first experience of the internet was back in '97 or so.

I remember it was not long after the birth of my 2nd child, I'd just spent the best part of £1200 on a shiny new 266Mhz PII, 32mb of ram, 3.2gb hdd and an awesome 4mb ATI 3d Rage Pro gfx card.

Back then I had BT Lineone internet, it cost £14.99 a month, and then a local rate call on top. It wasn't uncommon for me to have phone bills in excess of £400 a quarter, and I'm fairly sure I spent half the year being cut off as I caught up on the bill.

I was made up when Freeserve launched their "No monthly fee" service a year or 2 later.

Now I pay a grand total of £25 a month on line rental, free calls to land lines and a 7.5mb line.

I like the 56k dial up noise, it reminds me of the old ZX Spectrum tape loading sound.

P.S.

My mobile phone, a Nokia n900, which cost a measly £550, has a 600Mhz cpu, 256mb of ram and 32Gb SSD HDD; and can emulate a ZX Spectrum (and the tape loading noise) perfectly

P.P.S

My Win2k3 Server has a 56k Modem installed and is configured to share that connection to the other PC's in case my broad band ever gets cut off :$ lol

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Jeku
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Posted: 15th Mar 2011 22:11
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Quote: "My mobile phone, a Nokia n900"


I have that one too as my backup phone--- it's awesome!


Senior Web Developer - Nokia
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Ausculta
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Although I kinda come from the "direct dial BBS" age, I didn't start using the internet regularly until 1991 or 92. From 1992 until around '96 or 97 I used it for pretty much nothing but retrieving satellite imaging data, sharing schematics with associates and... Playing really nasty pranks on universities. Thinking back, aside from some console gaming, it wasn't until Starsiege: Tribes was released in 98 that I actually became really interested in / obsessed with video games.

I know this makes me sound ancient, and I will admit, the first computer I ever owned was a Ti-99 back in early 80's. I'm actually just in my 30's though. The Ti was a birthday present, along with a modular kit for building simple robots, from my parents in the hope that it would put a stop to my love for dismantling everything I could find that ran on electrical power.

It only made things worse.
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firelord
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Posted: 16th Mar 2011 04:00 Edited at: 16th Mar 2011 04:03
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man..now i feel old....i remmember having to actually put my phone handset onto the modem itself..after dialing....lol..that was before dial up....well wat you call dial up..here's a pick of what i mean...
http://williambader.com/museum/modem110/modem110.html
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crispex
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Posted: 16th Mar 2011 04:22
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I have a theory that as you become more accustomed to something, you realize how bad it really sucked but how much you appreciated it at the time. I believe it's called taking something for granted.

I remember when everyone thought dialup was speedy, and that the minute 256k DSL was introduced, people thought it was literally lightning fast. Nowadays dialup doesn't even exist with the exception of a few isolated areas. I have a friend who lives in Florida, lives in a beautiful house, decent income, yet DSL hasn't made it to their area yet.

I just now realized I've had a typo in my signature for the past 3 years.
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PrimalBeans
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Posted: 16th Mar 2011 06:10 Edited at: 16th Mar 2011 06:12
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Quote: "I started going on BBS' on or around '92. I begged my parents to let me run my own BBS but they were worried someone would find where I lived and kill me (or something like that). I remember for the BBS', when you first called them, they had to call your modem back to verify you were real (kind of like getting emailed with an activation link when you sign up to a new site nowadays). We were running on a 2400bps modem. It took me an hour to download a 1MB shareware game at the time, but it was worth it. ASCII art was awesome

It wasn't until about '94 that we got a 14.4kbps and it RACED! I connected to the Internet for the first time in Grade 9 or 10, and it was DOS-based (hahaha, I'm old!) We used PINE for email, and it was just white text on a black background. Good times."
Hahahaha those were the days huh? I remember my first 14.k modem.. and my first 56k the thing with the 56 k was well it wasnt much faster unless you lived in town were the phone lines would allow a fast enough signal. Nothing about bragging about how your about to be over the hill...lol...(Which im not... not for a year or two.)

As far as bbs jeku all you have to do to protect yourself is not post your picture if you under 18 AND dont let ppl know that your under 18 especially after a mod tells you not to. LOL

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Jeku
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Posted: 16th Mar 2011 20:08
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Quote: "As far as bbs jeku all you have to do to protect yourself is not post your picture if you under 18 AND dont let ppl know that your under 18 especially after a mod tells you not to. LOL"


Hahaha, so true. In hindsight I was pretty dumb back then


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PrimalBeans
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Posted: 17th Mar 2011 06:35
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General will never live that down... nice guy... but stubborn like most of us... lol.

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Non Sequitur M
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Posted: 18th Mar 2011 02:31
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I played a guy in Gears of War once who had some crazy connection. Even though he was on the other coast from me, you still fired and the bullets immediately came out. It was crazy. I forget what it was called, but I looked it up at the time, and it cost like 350-400 bucks a month IIRC!

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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Libervurto
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Posted: 18th Mar 2011 20:04
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I remember when every website was ugly tables and images would load a row of pixels at a time. I used to look at stupid things on ebaumsworld.


Everything worthwhile requires effort.
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PAGAN_old
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Posted: 18th Mar 2011 20:08
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Quote: "I used to look at stupid things on ebaumsworld.
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i still look at that

dont hate people who rip you off,cheat and get away with it, learn from them
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tha_rami
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Location: Netherlands
Posted: 19th Mar 2011 04:12
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Oh, I remember. I actually installed a 56k modem and dailed in behind my parents back. Sadly, it made a lot of noise, which a small 7 year-old-or-so did not expect. I told them the speakers were fried, which worked until the first phone bill arrived.

Business guy and developer at [url]www.vlambeer.com[/url] - bringing back arcade since 1956.
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Grog Grueslayer
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Playing: Green Hell
Posted: 19th Mar 2011 08:21 Edited at: 19th Mar 2011 09:28
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Ah the good ole days! Back in the 80's I was calling BBSes with a 1200 baud modem, then a 2400, then jumped to a 9600. After a year or two of using the 9600 I won a Trade Wars contest on a BBS ran by a guy named Kray Bold and he sent me a 14400 modem as the prize. I used that 14.4 for a long time and got a 56k eventually.

I ran a few BBSes myself the first one was called "The 5th Dimension" and the second one was called "The Tack". When I ran those I made several programs in Quickbasic 4.5 to make the BBS better by making custom ansi user list, lastcall lists, a graffiti wall, a quote of the day, a front door maker for some of the odd games, a Trade Wars port report and reseter, and a Trade Wars dead end sector finder (for good bases). When BBSes died in my area and everybody started going to the internet I refused for many years till my mom bought Diablo 1... and we've been on the internet ever since.

Edit: Great news I found an ansi reader for windows.



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Green Gandalf
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Playing: Malevolence:Sword of Ahkranox, Skyrim, Civ6.
Posted: 19th Mar 2011 13:33
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Quote: "Who remembers getting internet for the first time?"


While reading this thread I suddenly realised that I'm not sure. I had access to email via the Janet network at work for several years before the internet became publically available - that must have been the early 1990s and possibly the late 1980s. When I moved to Cornwall (1994), if I recall correctly, I could get access to my work mainframe computer via an FTP connection over the phone and could even run programs from home - but it was so slow that I found it easier to get everything working at home on my home PC and then do final testing when I went to my office in London.

I obtained access to the public internet around 1997 and initially used it mostly for email. At that time I was using a 14.4k modem I believe (I'd forgotten about that till someone mentioned it in this thread).

One thing I've noticed over the years is that web pages don't seem to load any faster. Whereas pages used to be filled with useful information in plain text (which takes only a few K bytes) they are now filled with uninformative but very pretty graphics or even videos which just slows everything up again.

Of course, if it's images, videos or massive MS SDKs that you want them you'll see the benefits in speed - but if it's pure usable information that you need then you probably won't see much benefit in the modern faster systems because of all the extra clutter that now comes with the page.

On a side note, sometime around 1990 a colleague showed me how to send messages at conversational speed from one computer to another. On one occasion I decided to test it out and asked him if he had a copy of one of his papers handy for me to look at (his office was next to mine so I was being lazy really and could have used the phone of course as well ). He was online and replied: "Yes, of course." I replied back and said "I'll drop in now and pick it up." His instant reply came back with "You'll find it difficult, I'm in Ithaca." I was in London. I felt a bit foolish then - but the system worked. [I got the paper when he returned to the UK.]
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Non Sequitur M
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Location: Where am I!? Where are YOU?
Posted: 20th Mar 2011 04:29
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Some of the 'good 'ol days' posts about like the 80's and stuff... 14.4k? Holy crap. That sounds like a nightmare to me. But, I guess it's because it was mid 90's before I first got on the net. So, by then it was filled with pictures and other such nonsense, so 56k was sluggish! And, Grog's 1.2k baud? Gawd. Bauds were going out when I was in elementary!

If life were like a box of chocolates, I'd know what I would get... The one that got dropped on the floor and put back in the box.

Iye nehvur yoose spehl chehk, ahn mie tippyng izz fiyne.
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Grog Grueslayer
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Posted: 20th Mar 2011 10:02
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Quote: "And, Grog's 1.2k baud? Gawd. Bauds were going out when I was in elementary!"


Yeah I was lucky. My dad almost bought a 300 baud first but decided to go with the more expensive faster modem.

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