Old PC Technology

[a9127]

Sorry to disappoint everyone but I’m still here…

CompuServe? Through a 300 bps modem? The kind you put the phone into. Anyone remember those?

This ad is even older. From 1979… But she’s kind of hot.

From the keyboard and “mall shots” I’m guessing this is from around the mid-80’s to early-90’s. Within my lifetime. But I could be wrong. The world as imagined in “the year 2000.” Yes, they were right. We call it “Amazon.”

“Internet in a Box.” I remember seeing these in places like BestBuy. From 1995. Mom and Dad didn’t have to worry, they had me. I would have been embarrassed to be seen using this to get online even as a kid.

And of course “Windows 95.” But pre-release it wasn’t called “Windows 95.” It was codenamed “Chicago.” I can’t remember the exact version but one of my teachers was in a Microsoft “beta tester” program and let me take his copy home to install on my PC. It was on a stack of 3½” floppies—like a zillion of them. Took forever to install.

Finally, really old CompuServe. “Pre Internet Browser” era, no GUI, probably 300 bps at best (see old modem in first pic). Newspaper is dated July 9, 1980.

(Just been very busy with work. That and spent some time in the hospital getting IV antibiotics after a leg infection flared up. Yes it goes back a long time to an old football injury. Otherwise known as a “compound fracture.” )