First on line in 93 with Compuserve, at 2400, woohoo! Skipped the 9600 to the 14400. Bought a 33.6(?) because that's the max that the university system ran at, then stepped up to 56, and then to DSL two years ago with Telus. Used PC clones all the way.
I had been on CompuServe previously (at 300 baud -- it's as fast as I can read, so I didn't need anything faster), but my first Internet experience was my freshman year of college (89-90), using Vanderbilt's Vax terminals to send email to a friend at Georgia Tech. It blew my mind that I didn't have to pay to send the message. The dorm I lived in in 90-91 actually had Ethernet jacks in every room, but my Apple IIc couldn't deal with them. I had no idea what I was missing. (Actually, probably not much.) My senior year, I got a Net-ready computer -- a Macintosh LC II. Vanderbilt didn't have PPP or SLIP dialups, though, so I relied on trusty ZTerm. My biggest vices then were Gopher and Usenet. I also used Lynx for the first time, and got a taste of the WWW. My first thoughts were along the lines of "Whoop-de-doo. It's like Gopher without the structure." I was roughly one generation behind on my modems around this time, but I can't match speeds to years. After a short post-graduation stint on AOL and eWorld, I moved on to my first ISP, InfiNet. It was my first non-terminal Internet access, and I built my first Web page. I never used Archie much -- I knew that I wanted to go to either InfoMac or UMich (well, technically, their mirrors at WUStL). In the summer of 1997, I signed up as a beta tester for @Home in Nashville, using my Power Mac 7200/75. Woo-hoo! I had to give it up for a few months in 1998, but I've been using broadband ever since -- now on a Power Mac G4.
I first got on bulletin boards in the early 90's - you know, the dial in type. I mainly played things like Legend of the Red Dragon, but also downloaded some... err... illicit software (note to our resident programmer: I only did this before I had a steady cash flow). First got on-line in 94, after begging my mom. Once I actually got on, I found the internet pretty boring. Only one of my other friends was on-line, and you can only chat with one person so much before it starts to suck. So we unsuscribed after about a year and a half. Got on-line again in 97, after more people had internet access. Didn't really use it for much other than email though until I found ccnet and yahoo chess.
I remember my dad getting Prodigy back when i was in kindergarten (i'm about to graduate HS now), and he thought it was the coolest thing in the world. I would guesstimate that we had a 2400 modem... I probably started getting on the internet regularly in 93 or 4. For a long time we had both Prodigy and a local ISP to do all the things that Prodigy couldn't do. The first time i actually logged onto the real internet (not prodigy) I was in 4th grade and was into WWF big time. When i searched for wrestling websites and a million of them came up i was instantly hooked. I thought it was the most awesome thing in the world that some people actually knew what was going to happeon the next show. Prodigy was a horrible service and everyone started leaving them in 96-7, so I migrated to IRC chats and to this day I still spend hours upon hours chatting on IRC. I first logged on to cc.com (.net is so much better, and I cant remember no one else has mentioned cc besides Jeff) whenever Barkley was in his first year here, but I didn't become a member until April 99...I've had some really great fun here and in the chat... I moved up to broadband 2 or 3 months ago and I honestly don't see how i ever lived without it. The phone lines here suck so the fastest i ever logged on was 26.4
I was introduced to the 'net in '96 at a former place of employment. It was "so cool" we would "surf" during our lunch breaks.... then I bought a PC of my own. I tried the AOL 'free' trial service... they gave you a certain amount of free time, but they didn't tell you it was only good for a month. When I got my first bill, I raised hell! Eventually the charges were dropped and that's when I signed up with MSN. That was my only experience with AOL. I thought the internet was the best thing since sliced bread. MSN had this v-chat service where you could create an avatar and virtually chat with people... I would stay up till all hours (kinda like I do now)... I remember the first night I got hooked up, I stayed up till 7am then went to work the next day at 8!! ahhh.. those were the days... wow.. I had a Pentium 100Mhz with like a 2 gig HD! too funny.... now I've got a laptop, 2 PC's, a flat screen monitor, DSL, 20 and 30 gig HD's, a CD burner, DVD, wireless network.... it's crazy, especially at the rate technology advances! I never experience anything less than a 14.4 modem... is that right?? or was it a 28.8?? I don't know... I'm just glad to be where I am now and can't wait to see where I'll be in a few more years! rH
I was a Prodigy man in the early 90's. I can't remember the year. That was 4 computers ago...an IBM. I loved Prodigy. I used to get on the college basketball bulletin boards and harrass Kentucky Wildcat fans. I labeled myself the President and Founder of the KHC: The Kentucky Haters Club. I was a big Louisville Cardinal fan. Our slogan was: 1978: Billy Beer, AMC Pacers, Disco and the last time Kentucky won a national championship. That used to piss the KU (as we called them) fans off so much. We would call Rupp Arena CorRUPPt Arena. A bunch of juvenile stuff like that to pass the time. I worked everytime. All in all it was me and some other punks giving Kentucky fans a hard time. They were/are so hardcore it was hilarious. They take their basketball very seriously. I wish I had some of the threads from back then. os
My Mom's an IT gal, so she was doing all sorts of Internet work since the early 80's. We had a top of the line IBM in 1983, and I learned to type at a whatever level when I was five (1985), but the family interests were elsewhere. In spite of some pretty expensive, IBM-provided computers during the 80s and early 90s, I was a bit of a video game snob (save for some Tecmo exploits) and tried to stay away from most computers. The family did get online in 1995 or 1996, it was an on and off thing, whenever I decided to actually use Mom's laptop instead of the family computer (which was not hooked-up). Since 1995 or so, I did make a habit of going to the library to use their connection and read some of the finer NBA scribes of the day (Dave D, Vecsey, Bucher in Golden State, the old Houston Post, etc.) I started writing for OnHoops in 1996, we got online for good in 1997 (a crappy local ISP), and then I hit the ethernet when I hit college in 1998. I had cable for the first half of the 2000-01 season last year (when I had to scour over and link every Western Conference newspaper for NBAtalk), then a 28.8 connection after I moved, cable for a month, and a 28.8 connection since last June. I've been using AOL since August, mainly because my parents pay for it a state away for the younger two in the Dwyer clan; and yes, the $9.95 to get online with any other ISP means that much to me. As far as my own computers go... 2.35 gig, 28.8 modem, 32kb from 1997-2001 10 gig, 56.6 modem, 126kb from January 2001 to August 2001 (my apartment flooded, I lost the laptop) back to the old 32kb monster from last August until last month. Just bought from a friend a 20 gig, 256kb monster, but I don't use broadband and it's impossible to find a 56.6 connection in downtown Chicago.
Dude, if you're running on a 32kb machine, I really feel for you. lol. Even my original Apple \\e was 128kb!
Courtesy of a link on the 1998 version of this site (thanks Wayback machine!) www.hic.net/jeff/rockets. Unfortunately, wayback does *not* have that gem archived. For the record. Apple ][, 300bps, no copyright protection on software. Funny thing is, I was thinking about a BBS called "The Mines of Moria" (thanks, "Lord of the Rings") the other day. Weird what will cause nostalgia.
You'd be suprised (I was at least), I made it five months with that machine and was able to everything I needed (if I can load newspapers and use MS Word, I'm cool).
Kelly... sorry, we geeks were making fun of you... I'm sure you meant 32 MB. MB = megabytes kB = kilobytes.
McCartney obviously started things, the first real electric bass player to mean anything. Willie Dixon had his say back in the day, but it was the Arrogant Beatle that blew it all up. Graham invented the slap bass on "Thank You," but Bootsy with his brother Catfish Collins were just as important in James Brown's band at the same time. Jeff, you need to pick up a VHS tape of DVD disc of "The Making of Aja," done by the Classic Albums series (used to be on VH1 all the time). They show how Rainey and Rick Marotta laid down the groove on "Peg," how Becker and Fagen told Rainey not to slap, and how Chuck went out of his way to get his groove on wax. Great stuff. I actually had NSync girls and DMB guys demanding to watch said tape after some drunken exploits -- it was quite the cross over... I like McBride, Tom Barney, Ray Brown, Mingus, Paul Cassidy, Paul Chambers, and Harvey Brooks. I'm leaving quite a few names off the list, but I'm sick as a dog right now (evidenced by my kb/mb flap).
