hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

Ca. 1994, there was an older fella in the Tallahassee Mac user group who could be a good resource for troubleshooting newbie problems that weren't tackled by the BBS.

He was nice enough, but he was definitely a weird, crotchety old guy.

Point is, at meetings, he would often make a rather belligerent point of reminding everyone to never call him before noon.

Because "that's when I do my downloading."

I still think about this, and it's a phrase I often consider adding to my own vernacular.

pomCountyIrregs,
@pomCountyIrregs@mstdn.social avatar

@hotdogsladies I wonder if one should strive to be an uploader in a downloader world.

chockenberry,
@chockenberry@mastodon.social avatar

@hotdogsladies WEIRD I GET MY PORN AT NIGHT

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

It was a different time.

image/png

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

I respect the grind.

dirk,

@hotdogsladies This is so unhelpful. I almost respect it.

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

@dirk This is also my position.

screambiogenesis,

@hotdogsladies 1994 was a wild time. Nothing felt as frats and futuristic as logging on to our cash register and downloading at 28.8.8.

"600 MI8 MPS?" We'd laugh incredulously. "Impossible. Never."

renegade,

@hotdogsladies

"Express X as a minimalist infographic" is a fascinating prompt. Useless and mental results at the moment but I could see it actually being useful one day. Fed it a banana bread recipe for funzies...

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

@renegade

Oh this is so freaking good.

Whenever it does something like this and I ask it to explain itself, it says something like “this is just an example of what an infographic might look like blah blah blah. “

Yeah. Like that’ll stop me.

codinghorror,

@hotdogsladies this isn't quite right, which is on brand for ChatGPT. There were 56k modems later that most switched to. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem

sandyarmstrong,

@codinghorror @hotdogsladies I'm always happy to shit on AI, but in this case we're talking about 1994.

56k modems were literally life-changing, but they didn't hit until 1997.

codinghorror,

@sandyarmstrong @hotdogsladies fair "In the late 1990s, technologies to achieve speeds above 33.6 kbit/s began to be introduced. Several approaches were used, but all of them began as solutions to a single fundamental problem with phone lines."

erik,

@codinghorror @hotdogsladies Meh - when I started I could type faster than the 300 baud phone coupler modem like in the picture. Not hooked up to a CRT, but a line feed printer…

codinghorror,

@erik @hotdogsladies oh god 300bps was brutal. 1200bps was at least closer to my actual reading speed..

John,
@John@socks.masto.host avatar

@codinghorror @erik @hotdogsladies We used to download binary images at 300 Baud over an acoustic coupler before burning to EPROM.

"Sure Grandpa, let's get you to bed."

https://www.computerhistory.org/collections/catalog/X1622.99

erik,

@John @codinghorror @hotdogsladies LOL - download? The idea hadn’t even been invented yet since there was nothing to download to. Just characters on paper.

When I started on BBSs & Internet over terminals, that at least started at 1200bps. Newsgroups, Binhex, etc. Fun times.

But yeah, it’s probably time for bed for an old fogy like me :-)

engelke,

@codinghorror You folks are so spoiled. 110 baud TI silent writer terminal with acoustic coupler.

codinghorror,

@engelke ouch

malwareminigun,

@codinghorror @hotdogsladies 56k was released in 1998, so I think the statement about 1994 is correct

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror

Probably. Everybody I knew was on 9600 at best around then. After 95 is when I remember things really picking up.

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror

I feel like I remember this only because (in my head) 1995 was Mosaic and BOY did it suck to use Mosaic on the 2400 baud Hayes we had at work.

codinghorror,

@hotdogsladies I do miss that awesome dialup connection sound. The anticipation.

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror

Me too!

"sssshhhh-kkkkkkt-SHEEEEEEEEE!”

codinghorror,

@hotdogsladies you are breaking my fucking heart over here, Merlin Mann

hotdogsladies,
@hotdogsladies@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror

I'm so happy you're here, Jeff Atwood.

codinghorror,
codinghorror,

@hotdogsladies you're right: I stand corrected. 56k was a 1997 era invention.

zachnfine,
@zachnfine@mastodon.social avatar

@codinghorror @hotdogsladies I might be mistaken but weren't 56k modems just 33.6k modems with data compression on top that sometimes effectively increased the transfer speed on compressible-data? In my mind I've got a prejudice against 56k as being kind of a marketing term rather than an actual data rate.

codinghorror,

@zachnfine @hotdogsladies no, it was real 56k but it depended heavily on line quality: see the 56k section of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modem

siracusa,
@siracusa@mastodon.social avatar
gnb,
@gnb@mastodon.social avatar

@hotdogsladies I also do my downloading before noon, typically after the first cup of coffee

  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • random
  • DreamBathrooms
  • mdbf
  • ethstaker
  • magazineikmin
  • GTA5RPClips
  • rosin
  • thenastyranch
  • Youngstown
  • InstantRegret
  • slotface
  • osvaldo12
  • kavyap
  • khanakhh
  • Durango
  • megavids
  • everett
  • cisconetworking
  • normalnudes
  • tester
  • ngwrru68w68
  • cubers
  • modclub
  • tacticalgear
  • provamag3
  • Leos
  • anitta
  • JUstTest
  • lostlight
  • All magazines