Those were the glory days. A new floppy disk in the mail every week. Unlike those crappy cd-roms in tins we get now. I mean what the heck do we do with them.
Re:Ah yes....
by
wo1verin3
·
· Score: 4, Informative
>> I mean what the heck do we do with them.
We could do these of if it really bothers you join up here.
These guys have collected 150000+ cd's already to forward to america....:)
In 1998, AOL chairman Steve Case and his wife, Jean, gave over $8 million to a Christian school that, according to its own Web site, is a division of a virulently anti-gay church that seeks to "cure" homosexuals.
I guess this is why there are no more glory holes at AOL.
Re:Glory days
by
LucidityZero
·
· Score: 5, Interesting
AOL is to computer culture what Little Boy was to Hiroshima.
Oh, come on! I hear stuff like this constantly, and it's just complete and total BS.
Sure, I kinda miss the days when "The Internet" was "our" thing. But you have to realize that is already over. So stop dwelling on it.
In the mean time, the Internet-boom happened. And overall this has been a good thing. It was provided us with wonderful conveniences (like web-retailers), wonderful innovations (like Java), wonderful social impact (Instant Messaging and being able to email even your grandparents in Europe), and holds in store plenty of new possibilities. We have IPv6 around the corner, imbedded systems are popping up everywhere, and wireless technologies are ushering in a whole new era of connectivity.
Without companies like AOL, we may have never seen the explosion that we have seen, and concepts that we now take for granted that enrich our lives every day may have never seen light.
We all get nostalgic sometimes, but don't go belitteling a company for "ruining" the internet as you are attempting to imply, when they may very well have been one of the most important players period in the construction of what many of us now base much of our lives around.
-- Sig.i>
Re:Glory days
by
Smidge204
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
I think you missed the intent of the parent post, and the original Hiroshima analogy was rather appropriate...
It's not so much that AOL made the internet popular (as in a lot of people use it), it's that it made it 'popular' (as in the hip and trendy thing to do). This created a whole (and by now, several) internet-aware but still functionally illiterate people.
Specifically: "netspeak"
Now, if you're not typing in your native language, even some severe deviations in grammar and spelling are forgivable. Personally speaking, if I can understand what you're trying to say then that's good enough. This also applies to native speakers who make the occasional "topy" and spelling error (expecting everyone to run their text through spell and grammar check every time just isn't reasonable!)
However, since the internet became "popular" you have an entire culture of people who can't use punctuation like commas and periods, proper capitalization, can't (or won't?) use full words, (Though some "alternative spelings" are commonly acceptable - I can't see, for example, how "u" is a suitable replacement for "you"...), can't be bothered to proofread what they type (even a quick glance), and at worst can't even form coherent thoughts.
So it's not that there are more people are using the internet - that's a very good thing - it's that far too many of them can't understand why they get kicked out of chatrooms and forums for typing "hi a/s/l plz how r u k 10x lololol!!!1! u r gay ass i h4><0r j00"
=Smidge= "I really like it when a site calls it a 'Message Board' instead of 'Forum'. 'Forum' suggests some semblence of order, respect and maturity." -braedan51
I sometimes get CDs in DVD-type cases
by
Radi-0-head
·
· Score: 4, Insightful
Which are always nice for homebrew DVDs...
AOL needs to back off on the marketing. I think everyone knows who they are by now.
Re:Glory Days at AOL?
by
ctrl-alt-elite
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Feh! You young whippersnapper! You wouldn't know glory if it bit you on the foot! Why, in my days of being on AOL, you could make a username WITHOUT appending a long string of numbers to the end. And you could jump in a chat room WITHOUT getting hit on by 48 year-old marines. And spam was still the name of a canned 'meat' product!
That was true glory, not the stuff in that article...
</grandpa simpson>
Re:Glory Days at AOL?
by
Faust7
·
· Score: 4, Funny
Ah, the good old days...
by
Anonymous Coward
·
· Score: 5, Funny
Ah, the glory days of AOL. The slowness. The service drops. The browser functionality that was always just a generation behind what non-idiots were using. Those were the days...
Kids these days are spoiled. Back in the good 'ol days when we all had 14.4 modems and we had to walk fifty miles in snow and ice just to pick it up. If we wanted to talk on the phone, tough luck!
Too bad today's internet sucks!
Actually, they did do something good for the Internet world. Remember that they made it the standard to charge people for access to the internet instead of charging per minute. Several smaller ISP's had the idea first, but AOL took it mainstream and did it nationwide.
This of course was humanities first encounter with busy signals and paying for service you can't actually connect to, but hey, at least they had decent intentions...:D
Well, I never! I'm upset since you young guys hijacked television..
err...wait
no...you can have it, changed me mind.. keep on hijacking it lads! Used to be we had one fuzzy channel that only ran to 10 or 11 or midnight, then went off the air and showed nifty test patterns, and programs that mostly sucked, now we have hundreds of programs that mostly suck! Now THAT's tech progress!
Not!
Radio! errr... no... wait......
Newspapers!...rats..... hmmmm
Movies!....uhhh... nooo.... hmmmmmm
Girls! There ya go, still exactly the same as the "good old" days! And now with even *less* clothes!
Did AOL Cause The Dotcom Depression?
by
Babbster
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
As I was reading the article (something few so far seem to have done), it was mentioned that the goal of AOL Business Affairs was to get as much of the venture capital possessed by a potential "partner" as possible. This makes me wonder if, even more than poorly thought-out ideas, fancy chairs and expensive office space, AOL caused - or at least hastened - the end of the dotcom boom. If they were siphoning ridiculous amounts of money out of these new companies before they even got their businesses moving, there would clearly be little left to actually make the businesses work. While association with AOL could be an asset, wouldn't losing a third or more of the available start-up capital making the AOL deal have given executives pause?
I'd be curious to see some figures on how much of the aforementioned venture capital AOL managed to scoop up during the boom and what percentage of the total VC spent on Internet startups that number represents.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that if people were busted out because of AOL it means the executives of the busted company were making bad decisions...but it might make even happier those on the sidelines (particularly those who got out of AOL/TW stock before the bottom dropped out and those who AOL squeezed out of business) who are now watching AOL seemingly reap what it sowed.
Chat with the Author
by
jkeyes
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
I don't know if anyone else noticed this but there is going to be a chat with the author at 1 PM EDT Monday. It'll be at http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/03/r_maga zine_klein061603.htm
AOL is not the internet
by
gad_zuki!
·
· Score: 4, Interesting
>In the mean time, the Internet-boom happened.
Yet, dial-up at that time could be had for 5.95 or if there wasn't much competition in your neighborhood at the time 9.95 or so while AOL wanted double that. AOL does not equal the internet-boom. They're an ISP second and a content/service provider first.
From my experience, cheap local dial-ups helped get most of the non-techies on the net a lot more than AOL and its other proprietary cousins. These non-techies fired up a browser and were off - excitied by the prospect of this web thing and email, while AOL people safely hid in their controlled chat-rooms and paid per-minute charges.
Sure the non-AOLers had to actually spend five minutes talking to tech-support to setup their modems and email clients but at least they learned a little about how their computers and modems worked, as opposed to being stuck with some proprietary software that didnt really deliver the goods regarding easy easy use until much later versions.
Now, these non-techies are somewhat savvy tech consumers and surprisingly handy with a computer and have long since moved on to broadband, while the AOL people I remember are still there on a beater 486 and still getting ripped off.
Not exactly a scientific study, but lets not overestimate AOL's influence. Those mysterious "http" things on movie commercials, that Netscape thing people keep talking about, and not having an answer to the question "Whats your email address" were probably the biggest factors in getting people online, not a voice saying, "You've got mail!"
Slashdot Mirror
Those were the glory days. A new floppy disk in the mail every week. Unlike those crappy cd-roms in tins we get now. I mean what the heck do we do with them.
In 1998, AOL chairman Steve Case and his wife, Jean, gave over $8 million to a Christian school that, according to its own Web site, is a division of a virulently anti-gay church that seeks to "cure" homosexuals.
I guess this is why there are no more glory holes at AOL.
David Colburn's stature at AOL grew to such epic proportions that he earned a nickname: God.
Hey. That's reserved for sysadmins.
The coolest voice ever.
AOL never had glory. Glory was when Usenet had never seen a "me too", and barely had a dozen examples of the extremely annoying "LOL" or "ROTFLMAO".
AOL is to computer culture what Little Boy was to Hiroshima.
If tits were wings it'd be flying around.
Which are always nice for homebrew DVDs...
AOL needs to back off on the marketing. I think everyone knows who they are by now.
Feh! You young whippersnapper! You wouldn't know glory if it bit you on the foot! Why, in my days of being on AOL, you could make a username WITHOUT appending a long string of numbers to the end. And you could jump in a chat room WITHOUT getting hit on by 48 year-old marines. And spam was still the name of a canned 'meat' product!
That was true glory, not the stuff in that article...
</grandpa simpson>
When the hell did they reach glory?
Seems to be right around 2000.
The coolest voice ever.
Ah, the glory days of AOL. The slowness. The service drops. The browser functionality that was always just a generation behind what non-idiots were using. Those were the days...
*weeps*
back in the good old days (the 1990s)."
Kids these days are spoiled. Back in the good 'ol days when we all had 14.4 modems and we had to walk fifty miles in snow and ice just to pick it up. If we wanted to talk on the phone, tough luck!
Too bad today's internet sucks!
----
Go canucks, habs, and sens!
Actually, they did do something good for the Internet world. Remember that they made it the standard to charge people for access to the internet instead of charging per minute. Several smaller ISP's had the idea first, but AOL took it mainstream and did it nationwide.
:D
This of course was humanities first encounter with busy signals and paying for service you can't actually connect to, but hey, at least they had decent intentions...
-kalle
Back in the good 'ol days when we all had 14.4 modems and we had to walk fifty miles in snow and ice just to pick it up.
Pfeh. We had to manually carry our packets through the snow and hand-deliver them to the other computer(s). Didn't even have "baud."
The coolest voice ever.
the only times I could login was between 11:00pm and 5 AM. Those were the good ole days....
Well, I never! I'm upset since you young guys hijacked television..
...rats..... hmmmm
err...wait
no...you can have it, changed me mind.. keep on hijacking it lads! Used to be we had one fuzzy channel that only ran to 10 or 11 or midnight, then went off the air and showed nifty test patterns, and programs that mostly sucked, now we have hundreds of programs that mostly suck! Now THAT's tech progress!
Not!
Radio! errr... no... wait......
Newspapers!
Movies!....uhhh... nooo.... hmmmmmm
Girls! There ya go, still exactly the same as the "good old" days! And now with even *less* clothes!
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I'd be curious to see some figures on how much of the aforementioned venture capital AOL managed to scoop up during the boom and what percentage of the total VC spent on Internet startups that number represents.
Of course, this doesn't change the fact that if people were busted out because of AOL it means the executives of the busted company were making bad decisions...but it might make even happier those on the sidelines (particularly those who got out of AOL/TW stock before the bottom dropped out and those who AOL squeezed out of business) who are now watching AOL seemingly reap what it sowed.
I don't know if anyone else noticed this but there is going to be a chat with the author at 1 PM EDT Monday. It'll be at http://discuss.washingtonpost.com/zforum/03/r_maga zine_klein061603.htm
>In the mean time, the Internet-boom happened.
Yet, dial-up at that time could be had for 5.95 or if there wasn't much competition in your neighborhood at the time 9.95 or so while AOL wanted double that. AOL does not equal the internet-boom. They're an ISP second and a content/service provider first.
From my experience, cheap local dial-ups helped get most of the non-techies on the net a lot more than AOL and its other proprietary cousins. These non-techies fired up a browser and were off - excitied by the prospect of this web thing and email, while AOL people safely hid in their controlled chat-rooms and paid per-minute charges.
Sure the non-AOLers had to actually spend five minutes talking to tech-support to setup their modems and email clients but at least they learned a little about how their computers and modems worked, as opposed to being stuck with some proprietary software that didnt really deliver the goods regarding easy easy use until much later versions.
Now, these non-techies are somewhat savvy tech consumers and surprisingly handy with a computer and have long since moved on to broadband, while the AOL people I remember are still there on a beater 486 and still getting ripped off.
Not exactly a scientific study, but lets not overestimate AOL's influence. Those mysterious "http" things on movie commercials, that Netscape thing people keep talking about, and not having an answer to the question "Whats your email address" were probably the biggest factors in getting people online, not a voice saying, "You've got mail!"