We've come a long way baby - world wide web and technology

[Data's Cat]

Remember news groups, Windows 95, 64mb RAM, 2GB hard drives, and dialup?

There were no social networking sites, no Youtube, Amazon just sold books, and the only streaming videos were short flash videos that took FOREVER to load (because of dialup).

There were no tablets and smart phones for surfing the web. Laptops were so expensive few could afford one.

Now computers are 10 times more sophisticated and so much cheaper and less bulky. Tablets, smart phones and and laptops are everywhere. 4Gb RAM is considered so-so, 1Tb hard drives are standard, and there are streaming movie sites all over.

The only thing I miss from the old days is the original Usenet.

 

[scotpens]

I remember when there were no news groups, Windows 95, 64mb RAM, 2GB hard drives, or dialup. When "computers" were mentioned, most people thought of something like this.

 

[Data's Cat]

I remember when there were no news groups, Windows 95, 64mb RAM, 2GB hard drives, or dialup. When "computers" were mentioned, most people thought of something like this.

<snip>

When I was in school, we had punch cards and mimeograph machines.

 

[Kemaiku]

My first computer/gaming console was an Amstrad CPC464, 624kb processing, casette tape deck drive, stand alone processor you could cook your dinner off of. Not really missing it these days.

 

[Naira]

It is a wonder indeed and it only makes you wonder how our world will be in 20 years from now. People have been over-optimistic in the past, e.g., thinking that human-robots would be among us by now. I don't see that comming in 20 years either. However, I think that things like heads-up displays will be as common as smartphones are today, we will "cyborg" our vision a bit.

 

[Data's Cat]

However, I think that things like heads-up displays will be as common as smartphones are today, we will "cyborg" our vision a bit.

I think that technology is in the works.

 

[TheSeeker]

I still use newsgroups.

 

[Data's Cat]

I still use newsgroups.

Yes, they're out there, but they're not the same as they used to be.

 

[MacLeod]

My first computer/gaming console was an Amstrad CPC464, 624kb processing, casette tape deck drive, stand alone processor you could cook your dinner off of. Not really missing it these days.

Oddly enough I had the Amstrad CPC6128 with 3" disk drive, though we did have a tape drive as well.

 

[JarodRussell]

What I miss is the advertisement free zone that the Internet used to be. But some dick had the idea that he needed to extend his greed into that realm, and now see what happened, everything sucks.

 

[TheSeeker]

Well aren't you the ray of sunshine.

 

[kirsten187]

When I was at primary school in the late 1980s / early 1990s, our school had the BBC computers.

 

[Owain Taggart]

and the only streaming videos were short flash videos that took FOREVER to load (because of dialup).

Actually, Flash didn't even exist then. But there were AVI and Quicktime files which did take tons of time to load. And they weren't even really streaming either as you pretty much had to load it all up before it would play. And then Realplayer came along and changed that.

 

[TheSeeker]

Who remembers RealPlayer?

 

[kirsten187]

Who remembers RealPlayer?

It rings a bell....faintly!

 

[MacLeod]

Yep I remember RealPlayer, you used to need just about every player possible due to all the different types of files, and a somewhat lack of compatability between them.

 

[kirsten187]

At school over the years I used BBC, Amstrad and Apple computers (years 1985 to 1997)!

 

[MacLeod]

Elite on the BBC Micro, a classic game.

 

[kirsten187]

We were barely allowed to touch the BBCs at school!

 

[Owain Taggart]

Yep I remember RealPlayer, you used to need just about every player possible due to all the different types of files, and a somewhat lack of compatability between them.

Yep, thank goodness for players like VLC now!

And the computers we got to use in school, and I read now that it was primarily an Ontario Canada thing, Unisys Icon computers which were designed for the classroom in mind which had built-in trackballs. The school system kept using them well into the 90's where they really started to show their age against more modern computers. I remember my High-School having two computer rooms, one which was all Icons and the other being PCs.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unisys_ICON