Nice people thread part 4 - sugar and spice and all things

vivatifosi

I started using the internet in 1996 if that helps michaels.

PasturesNew

michaels wrote: »

That made me wonder - was 1997 pre internet?

It wasn't pre-Internet... but it was before the days when everybody and his dog had a website. In fact, I googled Cromwell Foods and while they do exist, they don't seem to have a website even now!

In (I think) 1988/89, although it might have been earlier, I got a temp job looking at the new fangled Internet for an international publisher. My booking was to investigate it and tell them what they should do about it.

Back then it was pre -WWW so I had to navigate it using all the old unix-style commands only. No pretty web pages... just lists and lists and lists of filenames. Used ping, gopher, finger, whois a lot.

Later that year I delivered a few seminars to local businesses telling them about this new Internet thing ... and that they should be on it.

Back then it was an expensive boy toy. There was pretty much only one way onto it - and you paid handsomely per minute through an expensive dial up. Hence I didn't actually get my own Internet until some dial up in 1996/7, but couldn't afford more than 2-3 hours/month.

It was 2001 before I got broadband.

sss555s

Windows 95 was a leap forward and internet was going strong then though not sure if that was actually out on time or not.

I remember Freeserve doing 1p per minute on the 56k modems and that it took a bit for a page to load, i think i was 1996 too.

zagubov

vivatifosi wrote: »

I started using the internet in 1996 if that helps michaels.

In the 90s a friend went to work in Hawaii and used to email me at my work. A handwritten note would appear in my pigeonhole, telling me an email was waiting for me. I would walk to the tallest buiilding on campus and take a lift to the top floor. I'd sign a book to get on a machine using Sun OS and would access the email (usually a brief "hi there") before finishing the programme and closing down my acccount, signing out in paper and plodding back to my own department.

It reminded me of the stories about how car drivers had to have a servant walking in front waving a flag to warn everybody there was a car coming!

I had to carry a piece of paper with my email details on it as I used it so rarely I couldn't even rmember my own address.

Always took about half an hour what with queuing. Felt like a man running with a note in a stick would be quicker and more convenient. :mad:

I was so underwhelmed it was ages before I could get interested in the internet again- my computers were basically typewriters to me. Now I open my email account and I drown in the useless spam and search for the rare morsels of genuine human communication that sometimes appear.

Dear god, I've just reread my post and it screams Luddite! on all frequencies. I do like technology, honest!!

neverdespairgirl

michaels wrote: »

That made me wonder - was 1997 pre internet? and I realised I can't remember when the internet started and can't imagine life without it. I do remember that when I was a student and even when I started work I didn't have a mobile and then a short while later my GF of the time and I only felt we needed one between us.

I had an email address and internet access from May 1996. And a mobile from 1994, but I hardly used it, too expensive. It was for emergencies.

PasturesNew

zagubov wrote: »

Now I open my email account and I drown in the useless spam and search for the rare morsels of genuine human communication that sometimes appear.

I switched from Outlook on my PC to using gmail so I didn't suffer from any HD loss or PC upgrade problems.... and to date I have 23,000 unread emails.

I load it up and just use the box at the top to search for important phrases like "paid you" .... and ones from Paypal ... and "sale made". Did that tonight and there was a nice $24 that had arrived 2 hours before but had already scrolled off the page.

Real people sending emails is a nightmare as you have to read/reply ... and then the bugg4hs write again!

PasturesNew

If I'd had a better income and wasn't suffering for being an underpaid female living alone, I'd have been able to avail myself of modern technologies and equipment and actually been way ahead of where I am now with stuff. I've worked hard, very hard, for donkeys years ... and never quite achieved much spare cash to be able to do stuff like buy modern PCs, or good ones, or phones. Even now I'd struggle to get a job doing what I do because employers would expect me to know more about social networking on posh mobile phones - iPads and apps and stuff.... stuff I've never even seen.

I felt I used to get overlooked in jobs too as I didn't dress as well as those women who had partners and whose entire salary wasn't gobbled up on a roof over their head and a car to get to work.

JonnyBravo

I'm a late adopter for the internet it seems.
Dont think I was online til late 98.

Wheezy_2

I think it was '96 or '97 for me.
First on a 14K modem, than a massive upgrade to 56K
Broadband from '99
Actually, I met Mrs. Wheezy online. Not a dating site, but we were just yapping away on ICQ (a popular chat program back then) and from one came the other. Cool thing, that internet

lemonjelly

Managed to get tomorrow off work - golf course here we come! Lovely sunshine.:)

Have a gig booked for saturday - Crazy P. Intimate venue - should be really good. The jelly boots are ready for a boogie.:j

Hoping to get a ticket for the Wolves v Newcastle game this weekend - though if it doesn't come off, I'll happily listen on the radio in the garden sun.

Monday should be a good day. More details monday...;)