Life before the Internet

[George]

Can you remember it? I'm not sure I can.

 

What was different ?

 

You got your porn from a magazine hidden in a bush , or stolen off your dad.

 

You went to a record shop to buy your ticket for a gig.

 

You went to a record shop to buy records.

 

Book recommendations were word of mouth.

 

Football gossip was confined to the pub and terraces.

 

The internet truly is one if the biggest life changing inventions ever. And I think we've still only seen the top of the iceberg.

[ELDERBEZZA]

Life before the Internet and mobile phones was bliss!!!!

[George]

Life before the Internet and mobile phones was bliss!!!!

 

Even more life changing...the mobile internet. You are never 'offline'.

 

It's a Brave New World (so said Aldous Huxley)

[bookworm]

ow them miserable buggers who post on o thase forums can vent thare splane nar, wereas in them ewdon dees they cost put up wi em at werk,them us did ony or lissen to em spoutin after a few bevvies dine th local,nar they cossner get rid on em. carryin on abite things the now sweet fa abite most on em towkin rubbitsh,meks yer wunder if the ever ad any breens ato,sumonem co theresels edificated,meks yow wunder dunner it if things ar better fer ow this tecnul,tokneler, er prowgeres.

[JOHNNYAITCH]

What did I do all day before OVF?

 

I definitely don't recall being as interested in trivial useless rubbish as I am now..so is that a case of the dog wagging the tail? All that stuff is at my fingertips so I'm now interested in it?

 

Wrote letters regularly, called people much more, the days and weeks seemed longer as communication was less instant...

[robf]

There was still online things before the "web". I used to work for CompuServe in the days BEFORE the world wide web. That shows how long I have been working online - almost 20 years.

 

When the "world wide web" started being available via browsers (circa 1995/6 I think) CompuServe made the brilliant decision that it would never work and failed to support it. They really thought it wouldn't "catch on"...

 

That opened up the market for people like AOL (who bought CompuServe and for whom I worked for 11 years) to become the prime movers.

 

I sometimes wonder what happened to the CompuServe executive who thought the WWW would never catch on?

[onestepatatime]

There was still online things before the "web". I used to work for CompuServe in the days BEFORE the world wide web. That shows how long I have been working online - almost 20 years.

 

When the "world wide web" started being available via browsers (circa 1995/6 I think) CompuServe made the brilliant decision that it would never work and failed to support it. They really thought it wouldn't "catch on"...

 

That opened up the market for people like AOL (who bought CompuServe and for whom I worked for 11 years) to become the prime movers.

 

I sometimes wonder what happened to the CompuServe executive who thought the WWW would never catch on?

 

 

He's not working as an agent nowadays is he for Southampton footballers??

[JOHNNYAITCH]

I sometimes wonder what happened to the CompuServe executive who thought the WWW would never catch on?

 

Eee i remember Compuserve..a big player in online retailing before the web took off

 

Martin Turner, Product Marketing Director for CIS UK, in 1994 decided to go down their own closed network route rather than go with the web..I dare say others were involved in the decision. He didn't last too much longer after the WWW took hold but can't be certain there is a link between his decion making and departure.

 

http://www.m2.com/m2/web/story.php/1999852568440080DDE88025683C00303AB3

http://www.theregister.co.uk/1999/01/29/compuserve_uk_loses_its_head/

[robf]

Johnny,

 

It was Martin Turner. Gosh, that name brings back some memories. He was always a nice, smiley bloke at the time. I guess he never suspected what he'd done...

 

In the days before I moved onto building websites, sports editorial then web design and marketing, I used to be answering customer questions about how to connect 9600 Baud Rate modems to CompuServe. I remember when people started getting 28,800 "super fast" modems as well...

 

:pc2:

[bookworm]

I think i'll remain a Luddite, it's much more comfortable that way, nar dunner ow towk at wunce wut.

[Tone]

My first PC, in the mid 90s, had a massive 110mb hard drive :D and came with loaded with AOL software. I have been with AOL ever since for my personal email. I remember Compuserve as being an alternative to AOL but then, as Rob said, they were swallowed up.

 

I met my wife through AOL.

 

One night she got home from her evening shift at work and decided to search for someone on AOL who liked Eric Clapton. She did a search of AOL profiles, male, online now, who had Clapton in their profile. I apparently seemed like the only one online over 18 years of age. I was sitting in my office early in the morning downloading my email.

 

She sent me an AOL Instant Message and the rest is history. Yesterday was our 14th wedding anniversary and here I am in Texas.

 

I am thankful for technology.

[Rampant Zebra]

On a related theme, am I missing the point with the driverless car story? Does it carry passengers or do we just have fleets of empty cars clogging up the roads even more than they are already?

[bookworm]

it's progress, no sense or reason just progress

[robf]

And CompuServe of course plays a small role in the history of OVF.

 

The *very* first website "There's only one Vale fan in Bristol?" (now shortened to onevalefan due to me moving from Bristol) was originally published on the CompuServe web publishing service "ourpages". I seem to recall it was a mighty five pages.

 

The site is now, somewhat, bigger...

[Tone]

And CompuServe of course plays a small role in the history of OVF.

 

The *very* first website "There's only one Vale fan in Bristol?" (now shortened to onevalefan due to me moving from Bristol) was originally published on the CompuServe web publishing service "ourpages". I seem to recall it was a mighty five pages.

 

The site is now, somewhat, bigger...

 

It has expanded due to all the hot air....

 

:D