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The old internet

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Comments

  • #302
    mikeecho
    Registered Users Posts: 5,036 ✭✭✭mikeecho


    1996 , I worked for Apple.

    I had access to a T1 line.

    And the internet was mind blowing..
    I remember asking what afkb , and asl meant.


  • #303
    nuac
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 6,769 Mod ✭✭✭✭nuac


    xieann wrote: »
    Web - Rings. How to link up various amateur websites.
    They died the same time homesite owners would agree together to put each others link on their own website.
    The Commodore 64 webring was one of the more famous.

    The Commodore 64 was a good machine in it's day, as was its predecessor the VIC 20. THe VIC ran on a tape cassette, but you could get extra memory on the C64 by inserting a cartridge. Durable keyboard. I recall my son walking on it when he was a toddler


  • #304
    LaFuton
    Banned (with Prison Access) Posts: 784 ✭✭✭LaFuton


    games on tapes! :) i had an amstrad i think 624, it had this racing game that went on forever Burning Rubber and i tried putting my terminator 2 game in the stereo to hear the music but i hadnt quite grasped the tech yet

    lovin this thread


  • #305
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    LaFuton wrote: »
    games on tapes! :) i had an amstrad i think 624, it had this racing game that went on forever Burning Rubber and i tried putting my terminator 2 game in the stereo to hear the music but i hadnt quite grasped the tech yet

    lovin this thread

    I had an Acorn Electron. B/W Monitor. Awesome fun. Still have it. :D


  • #306
    FanadMan
    Registered Users Posts: 3,820 ✭✭✭FanadMan


    Montage of Feck wrote: »
    Lets say I still wanted to connect to the internet over dial-up is it still possible? I cant seem to find my eircom.net CD anywhere and i've completely forgotten how to set up a dial up connection.

    This is the only thing I could find - it's late and I need sleep :pac:

    https://www.rgb.ie/2015/10/25/eir-dial-up-numbers-for-use-with-modems-and-phone-lines/


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  • #307
    skallywag
    Registered Users Posts: 2,981 ✭✭✭skallywag


    LaFuton wrote: »
    games on tapes! :) i had an amstrad i think 624...

    Had the CPC464 myself, yeah the games on tapes, you wait what seems like forever for it to load in it's loud screechy way, then the dreaded 'Load Error B' ...


  • #308
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    nuac wrote: »
    The Commodore 64 was a good machine in it's day, as was its predecessor the VIC 20. THe VIC ran on a tape cassette, but you could get extra memory on the C64 by inserting a cartridge. Durable keyboard. I recall my son walking on it when he was a toddler

    A step up from using a Sinclair Zx81 as a door stop then.


  • #309
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,658 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    xieann wrote: »
    A step up from using a Sinclair Zx81 as a door stop then.

    ZX81 had colour , graphics and sound.




    It had BOTH colours, black AND white

    Graphics 64 x 4 pixels or Twenty different block characters could be displayed.

    Sound - if you ran certain program loops it would cause interference on an AM radio


    Here are the 20 different blocks for graphics.
    640px-Sinclair_ZX81_PCB_Revision_3_Keyboard.JPG


    Having said that Ant Attack on a ZX81 showed what could be done.
    https://bobs-stuff.itch.io/ant-attack


  • #310
    branie2
    Registered Users Posts: 10,288 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    Did you ever have to donate money towards the phone bill before going on the net? We did in our house.


  • #311
    dasdog
    Registered Users Posts: 3,483 ✭✭✭dasdog


    The 8-Bit Guy has a really good channel for retro hardware. Here is his review of the ZX80 and ZX81.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jr7Q1yJOUM


    And there are still games being released for the C64. A very niche market.


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  • #312
    Capt'n Midnight
    Moderators, Recreation & Hobbies Moderators, Science, Health & Environment Moderators, Technology & Internet Moderators Posts: 90,658 Mod ✭✭✭✭Capt'n Midnight


    dasdog wrote: »
    And there are still games being released for the C64. A very niche market.
    Excluding mobile phones and tablets, the Commodore 64 is the most produced computer model of all time.


  • #313
    PTH2009
    Registered Users Posts: 37,713 ✭✭✭✭PTH2009


    Remember I wasn't allowed go online til after 6pm cause it was much cheaper

    If a load were online the speeds were ****e


  • #314
    gozunda
    Registered Users Posts: 18,996 ✭✭✭✭gozunda


    Thankfully 'social media' (durh) was not yet a thing - where kids and peoples lives were there own and eejits on facebook trying to convert others to their 'cause' and collecting money via patreon or similar didn't exist.


  • #315
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    gozunda wrote: »
    Thankfully 'social media' (durh) was yet a thing - where kids and peoples lives were there own and eejits on facebook trying to convert others to their 'cause' and collecting money via patreon or similar didn't exist.

    Agreed. /Sigh. Maybe I'm just old fashioned, but I can't get into the whole Social media thing. I find it intrusive and just plain irritating. I grew up without it, and honestly, feel the world would be better if that junk could be put back in Pandora's box..

    Don't get me wrong. Apps for communication are awesome. Being able to chat with my family while I'm in China without spending a fortune is, just, cool. The ability to pay through such an app is incredibly convenient... but the whole growth of internet communities and identities? It was fine with geociities or msn. Limited and somewhat naive. Now? Twitter is abysmal. Facebook is just plain creepy.


  • #316
    branie2
    Registered Users Posts: 10,288 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    PTH2009 wrote: »
    Remember I wasn't allowed go online til after 6pm cause it was much cheaper

    If a load were online the speeds were ****e

    Same here. It was also cheaper at weekends.


  • #317
    80j2lc5y7u6qs9
    Closed Accounts Posts: 957 ✭✭✭80j2lc5y7u6qs9


    i agree with whover said people would havetheir own sites promoting their interests and hobbies now it is all on the fb template. Loss of creativity


  • #318
    wassie
    Registered Users Posts: 3,249 ✭✭✭wassie


    Capt'n Midnight wrote: »
    Excluding mobile phones and tablets, the Commodore 64 is the most produced computer model of all time.

    I once owned a Commodore SX-64 - the 'portable pc', complete with BASIC 2.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64

    I was the seriously cool kid lugging it around to my mates houses...Everyone marveled just how 'compact' it was.


  • #319
    Mr. CooL ICE
    Registered Users Posts: 17,489 ✭✭✭✭Mr. CooL ICE


    Me in 1996: "Hah, I have a GREAAT idea for a hilarious email address!!!"

    *enters 'hotmale@hotmail.com' and gets told address is taken*

    Me in 1996: "I can't believe someone else thought of that first :mad:"


  • #320
    MetzgerMeister
    Registered Users Posts: 19,854 ✭✭✭✭MetzgerMeister


    ICQ with the red/green flower icon - red meant you were offline, green was online

    Yahoochat.com - one of the biggest chat rooms around 99

    It was a time where websites had MP3s that you could download. I spent a LOT of time downloading from the underground prodigy archive (a lot of time = about 16 songs) and then they took the site down but put everything onto CDs and sold them. You could then just copy the songs to your hard drive instead.

    Limewire

    Yahoo Messenger - this took over from ICQ in popularity

    Good times!


  • #321
    branie2
    Registered Users Posts: 10,288 ✭✭✭✭branie2


    MetzgerMeister wrote: »
    ICQ with the red/green flower icon - red meant you were offline, green was online

    Yahoochat.com - one of the biggest chat rooms around 99

    It was a time where websites had MP3s that you could download. I spent a LOT of time downloading from the underground prodigy archive (a lot of time = about 16 songs) and then they took the site down but put everything onto CDs and sold them. You could then just copy the songs to your hard drive instead.

    Limewire

    Yahoo Messenger - this took over from ICQ in popularity

    Good times!

    My favourite chatroom was the film one


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  • #322
    maccored
    Registered Users Posts: 10,660 ✭✭✭✭maccored


    i remember trying to sell websites in 1997. people kept telling me they had a site, and when I asked for the address, gave me their email.


  • #323
    charlietheminxx
    Registered Users Posts: 2,579 ✭✭✭charlietheminxx


    What I miss most about the old internet is the way people were genuinely eager to connect with strangers around the world. You'd go into a chat room or a forum for some random interest/hobby and then be MSN messenger friends with the people in it for years afterwards. It seemed amazing to be able to share things around the world so easily.


  • #324
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    ^^^^^^ there was far less chance that when you yourself started or created a chat room, the next visitors to the chat room wouldn't be scum looking to fook the chat up, and giving physical threats.


  • #325
    angel eyes 2012
    Registered Users Posts: 896 ✭✭✭angel eyes 2012


    Samsgirl wrote: »
    Lotus notes

    Still used in some Government Departments. A Y2K warning would still pop up in some Lotus Notes databases well into 2010.


  • #326
    mobileforest
    Registered Users Posts: 100 ✭✭mobileforest


    old chatrooms. Remember around 1998 sitting in uni lab on yahoo chat while roommate (female) was on at same time. People ask A/S/L. My "m" would be followed maybe with one or two "hi". Her "f" would be followed by a dozen or two "want to cyber??"

    Anyone else here remember bulletin board systems before the World Wide Web? You'd get a few numbers of BBS's around and spend half the night trying to dial into one. Some would be playing some decent turn based games (basically a really slow game of D&D, although I remember their were mail-in ones on the back of Conan comics at the time so probably not that slow). One BBS in my hometown had a guy upload the Anarchist Cookbook (which many of us teens used to make a variety of smoke bombs with). I never read the document myself but a friend at the time did print out a few pages. The owner of the site had a call from the cops which is how I got to hear what the document was about. Good times. Mind you, I'm Canadian. I'm guessing if someone in early-90s Ireland uploaded a book that showed you how to make pipe bombs, they'd be picked up by the Garda.


  • #327
    mobileforest
    Registered Users Posts: 100 ✭✭mobileforest


    wassie wrote: »
    I once owned a Commodore SX-64 - the 'portable pc', complete with BASIC 2.0 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commodore_SX-64

    I was the seriously cool kid lugging it around to my mates houses...Everyone marveled just how 'compact' it was.

    I had a Vic20. Mind you I was never very computer literate. My best friend on the other hand used to do tons with his Commodore 64 and went on to be a computer scientist (which I think as it was pre-IT era, is perhaps way more techie than what is currently considered someone who works with computers).


  • #328
    ablelocks
    Registered Users Posts: 4,673 ✭✭✭ablelocks


    p45.net - surprised it hasn't been mentioned already...


  • #329
    [Deleted User]
    Posts: 0 ✭[Deleted User]


    Send your kids and grand kids here

    http://theoldnet.com/


  • #330
    Aceandstuff
    Registered Users Posts: 734 ✭✭✭Aceandstuff


    xieann wrote: »
    Send your kids and grand kids here

    http://theoldnet.com/

    It even has goatse, eh?


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  • #331
    764dak
    Registered Users Posts: 1,847 ✭✭✭764dak


    The Space Jam website is still up:

    https://spacejam.com/jam.htm


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