1981 internet report

[swardboy]

I didn't realize this was going on that early, even as primitive as it was....

http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/01/29/you-need-to-see-this-video/

[soonerbrat]

wow. that's awesome. I remember my mom having an internet account in 1988..I used to use it to play games and chat... Genie X-talk was what I used..and it was really expensive, like $10/hour.

[OklahomaTuba]

So, they ever get around to doing that?

[soonerbrat]

So, they ever get around to doing that?

Nope, it was a flop.

[SoonersEnFuego]

One day, when I get rich, I'm going to invent something like that. Me and my buddy Al Gore that is.

[jkjsooner]

Richard Holloran - Owns Home Computer

Hilarious!

You know, I remember thinking how archaic the time was when my parents were very young. They didn't have a TV. Because they lived in the country neither had an indoor bathroom until they were a little older. Most movies were black and white.

I also remember thinking around 1981 about how my children will not look back at my youth the same way because there's no way we could advance significantly from where we were at that time. We had color TV. We had computers. We had VCR's. We had tape recorders.

Still don't have kids (one on the way) but I'm sure they're going to think I lived in the stone age without cell phones and high definition TV and Internet. (Technically I suppose the Internet was started right around the time I was born but technically TV was invented long before my parents were born as well yet nobody had either for a long time.)

[swardboy]

Technically speaking, our generation has gone through the equivalent of moving from covered wagons to manned space flight.

[OklahomaTuba]

My great grand mother literally did go from a covered wagon to seeing a space shuttle take off.

She moved to Tulsa in 1908 when she was 6 years old and traveled from rural Kansas in a covered wagon, they were dirt poor farmers. She went and saw a shuttle take off in the 80s while on a cruise in Florida.

[OKLA21FAN]

This internets dealio is just a passing fad. It will never last!

[Veritas]

My great grand mother literally did go from a covered wagon to seeing a space shuttle take off.

She moved to Tulsa in 1908 when she was 6 years old and traveled from rural Kansas in a covered wagon, they were dirt poor farmers. She went and saw a shuttle take off in the 80s while on a cruise in Florida.
Man, that generation born in the first decade of the 20th century live through some absolutely amazing times and witness unbelievable changes. When I was a kid I loved talking to my great-grandmother about her life and the things she'd seen.

[King Crimson]

Man, that generation born in the first decade of the 20th century live through some absolutely amazing times and witness unbelievable changes. When I was a kid I loved talking to my great-grandmother about her life and the things she'd seen.

i hear that.

[OUMallen]

This internets dealio is just a passing fad. It will never last!

Just another flashy, but ultimately worthless invention. Like pockets.

[OUMallen]

Just seems like the height of irony that I watched that video on the internet.

[Dio]

That old dude's TRS-80 was SA-WEET!

[RFH Shakes]

I've heard word of a top secret new technology device that will... now get this... send a copy of a document to anyone in the whole wide world via a telephone wire. I believe they said it was called a "facsimile machine".

You didn't here this from me though.

[Dio]

I've heard word of a top secret new technology device that will... now get this... send a copy of a document to anyone in the whole wide world via a telephone wire. I believe they said it was called a "facsimile machine".

You didn't here this from me though.

Go watch the '86 Orange Bowl- the NBC sideline guy was falling all over himself describing this cool new machine that used phone lines to send pictures from the booth down to the sidelines.

[King Crimson]

this thread a perfect example why everyone should take a class (or read on their own) about the history of mass media and communications and the existing social and economic conditions that shape and determine how they develop and to *what use they devoted*.

not just this "eureka" and uncritical "progress" stuff.

[swardboy]

All I've got to say is "Eureka" for all this progress....

[OUAlumni1990]

My first encounter with the internet was in 1986 when I was making out w/ my girlfriend on her couch, her dad walks into the room, sits down (as if we weren't even there), and dials up the internet and surfs for 2 hours will we were having fun on the couch behind him. LOL. My girlfriend didn't even care that he was there! Ahhh, those were the days...

[Pricetag]

What other things that have been around for a relatively short time have become so ingrained that you can't imagine life without them?

One for me is pay at the pump. I just can't imagine any more having to carry around cash to pay for gas, and then having to go into the store to pay for it. It seems like ancient history.