What did we do before the net...

[barq]

Before the internet... gosh, that would be FidoNet and dial up bulletin board systems (BBS).

Enthusiasts ran BBSs and you'd call up a local one with your 2400 baud modem. Normally there were a few games to play, files to download and discussion areas (called 'echoes') shared with other bulletin boards over FidoNet. In the middle of the night all the BBSs would call into regional hubs and swap mail around. It worked pretty well, but might take three days for a message to propagate from one side of the world to the other. I know that sounds crap now, but it was amazing then - and free.

 

[shimano]

at my last work a digger cut through a bunch of cables and killed the net access, no-one in the office knew what to do without it. the next two or three hours were spent with all these guys looking at each other wondering how to do any work without it. 'what? you mean phone a customer and TALK to them? are you mad?' and 'anyone know how to work the fax?' or even better 'how do you write a letter without that paperclip helper?'

 

[Night Train]

at my last work a digger cut through a bunch of cables and killed the net access, no-one in the office knew what to do without it. the next two or three hours were spent with all these guys looking at each other wondering how to do any work without it. 'what? you mean phone a customer and TALK to them? are you mad?' and 'anyone know how to work the fax?' or even better 'how do you write a letter without that paperclip helper?'

Some of us grew up doing all that and have never forgotten. It's like being able to add up without a calculator.

I have kids at college who are unable to put pen to paper and make notes during class or look up information in a book.

 

[Shaun]

Before the internet... gosh, that would be FidoNet and dial up bulletin board systems (BBS).

Enthusiasts ran BBSs and you'd call up a local one with your 2400 baud modem. Normally there were a few games to play, files to download and discussion areas (called 'echoes') shared with other bulletin boards over FidoNet. In the middle of the night all the BBSs would call into regional hubs and swap mail around. It worked pretty well, but might take three days for a message to propagate from one side of the world to the other. I know that sounds crap now, but it was amazing then - and free.

Flippin 'eck, that brings back memories. All that lovely coloured DOS text. Waiting half the night to get connected because most of them only had one modem.

There was one locally that had 8 lines - must have been run by a local millionaire or something!

 

[Brains]

"Dear Mr *******

I thank you for you recent letter and quotation for the ****** shipbroking and communications computer system, however we do not need now nor in the future use of the 'internet' or to send messages via electronic mail....."


That message was sent by a medium sized international shipbroking company (who would have been sending/receiving +/- 1,000 telexes a day at the time) in August 2000. So we may all think this web thing has been around for ages, but as recently as 2000 there was a question whether the Internet thing would actually take off and was not just another flash in the pan.

(By the way the company is still around and now has the Internet)

 

[Joe24]

There was a time before the internet
Actually, i only got internet properly when i was in year 6, 5 years ago Before that, it was all about the TV, and it was only channels 1-5. Oh and the Playstation aswell.

 

[yenrod]

There was a time before the internet
Actually, i only got internet properly when i was in year 6, 5 years ago Before that, it was all about the TV, and it was only channels 1-5. Oh and the Playstation aswell.

..gosh Joe, anyone would think you were 42 or something

 

[Joe24]

Shh, dont tell anyone Yenners, my cover will be blown

 

[longers]

Shh, dont tell anyone Yenners, my cover will be blown

I get it now . . .


-the hat is for covering your bald spot

 

[Speicher]

"Dear Mr *******

I thank you for you recent letter and quotation for the ****** shipbroking and communications computer system, however we do not need now nor in the future use of the 'internet' or to send messages via electronic mail....."


That message was sent by a medium sized international shipbroking company (who would have been sending/receiving +/- 1,000 telexes a day at the time) in August 2000. So we may all think this web thing has been around for ages, but as recently as 2000 there was a question whether the Internet thing would actually take off and was not just another flash in the pan.

(By the way the company is still around and now has the Internet)

Am I older than I think I was?
By 2000, I thought there was Faxes (from facsimile).
I can remember sending telexes in 1978, when you typed on a machine, and it punched holes in a long thin strip of paper. This punched paper was then fed at high speed through a machine to send the message via telephone cables? (We also used manual typewriters and there was no Tippex)