Althouse: The Internet!

February 25, 2012

The Internet!

21 comments:

Wince said...: I dunno. For some reason the people pictured in that video (except the stock photo of the telephone operator) reminded me of those "what if they mated?" photos you can see... on the In-ter-net.

And "Rick" sounds like a pervert... "Rhiiick".; 2/25/12, 9:34 AM
Toad Trend said...: OK that was weird.

Slow news day?; 2/25/12, 9:35 AM
edutcher said...: Y'know, 10 or 20 years ago, that would have been how to get people over 25 interested.

Little less weird, maybe, but pretty much the idea.; 2/25/12, 9:46 AM
Chip S. said...: I kept expecting to see Richard Dean Anderson.; 2/25/12, 10:08 AM
Joe Schmoe said...: Love the sound of the dial-up modem at the end.; 2/25/12, 10:12 AM
pm317 said...: I can't believe I got sucked into watching that video.; 2/25/12, 10:18 AM
Joe said...: That was stupid.; 2/25/12, 10:26 AM
Tyrone Slothrop said...: My Commodore 64 and I first logged on to the Internet via CompuServe in 1990, before the Worldwide Web existed. My modem was 300 baud. There wasn't a hell of a lot you could do, just EasySabre and bb's, but you could chat with people you didn't know or care about, much like today.; 2/25/12, 10:44 AM
Wally Kalbacken said...: Tyrone, you laggard. I had my Commodore 64 in 1982/1983. Using cassette tape as storage. I qickly tired of writing BASIC programs and trying to figure out what to do with it.

When you have to explain to younger generations how bad those first forays into computing were, it seems futile. No one who hadn't experienced it could believe how bad it was back then.; 2/25/12, 10:52 AM
traditionalguy said...: This must be what Word Verification was designed to stop getting through to the Blog.; 2/25/12, 11:21 AM
raf said...: When you have to explain to younger generations how bad those first forays into computing were, it seems futile

"First forays"? You mean, punched cards? Commodore64 was a huge advance in itself, dialup internet was downright exciting.

I wonder what the environment will be in 20 years when everyone is reminiscing about how tough it was back in the days of mere 2d monitors, or some such.; 2/25/12, 11:54 AM
Chip S. said...: waiting to hear from someone who started out on the ENIAC...; 2/25/12, 12:34 PM
God, An Original A-hole said...: Hey Althouse- I may have existed for all eternity, but still I place a minimal value on my time. I would like my sixty-six seconds back please! (Those sixes always pop up in bad places.); 2/25/12, 1:04 PM
Popville said...: You do know semiconductors are a fad, don't you? Now where's my Back to Vacuum Tubes button? Oh yeah, in Corcoran, California on Phil Spector's yellow jumpsuit.

Noetheless, this short by the same folks -- Jazzbot Xtreme -- slays me.; 2/25/12, 1:15 PM
pm317 said...: Chip S. said...

waiting to hear from someone who started out on the ENIAC...
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I have used punch cards for mainframes that I didn't have access to. Will that count? BTW, I am not that old just that I came of computer age in the early 80s in a poorer(at that time) country.; 2/25/12, 2:32 PM
alan markus said...: have used punch cards for mainframes that I didn't have access to

When I took a computer science class at a 2-year UW campus back in the mid 70's, we had access to a card puncher. The prof would then take the cards to a different 2-year campus (about 40 miles away) where he also taught. That campus had a card reader hooked up to a main frame at a different campus. Since the class only met twice a week, and if a mistake was made & had to be repunched, well, it took a whole semester to write a few lines of code.; 2/25/12, 4:13 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: Hey God; from your picture I can see you created John Malkovich in your likeness.; 2/25/12, 5:07 PM
God, An Original A-hole said...: Hey God; from your picture I can see you created John Malkovich in your likeness.

Yes, yes... God addressed that in the comments yesterday. God is not verbose. Not unless intoxicated, anyhow. And God gets a little pissed (in the U.S. sense)-- especially when he is pissed (in the U.K. sense)-- at having to repeat himself. When God is annoyed, he speaks in the third person. And then he is awfully tempted to do some smotin'!!! Alas, good liquor is even more tempting to the Divine...; 2/25/12, 6:47 PM
Carol_Herman said...: Too bad but if the Jihadists get their hands on this, they'll think they can take out the whole "American Internet" by attacking a building with zero security out front. Be afraid. Because they roam America looking for targets.

And, they're stupid enough.; 2/25/12, 6:53 PM
Carol_Herman said...: PUNCH CARDS!

We used to get bills in the mail ... with these "punch cards" ... and they came with instructions: DO NOT FOLD, SPINDLE, OR MUTILATE.

When? Oh, back when Nixon was president, if I had to guess. Back then, Mr. Watson was president of IBM. He said nothing would replace typewriters. And, Selectrics came with balls ... where if you changed out the ball, you could change the "type face."

IBM's Watson was wrong.; 2/25/12, 6:55 PM
Joe Schmoe said...: Sorry God. I didn't read that post.; 2/25/12, 7:47 PM