The internet is no longer any fun
 

"Ant" wrote in message
...

nospam wrote:
In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

And don't forget Usenet, which started in 1979.

If you were fortunate to have a connection. Here you had to be on
university and have contacts with enough power to allow you time on a
computer with that connection. I did not hear of Internet till the
90's,
and it took me about a decade to get access at home.


I got my first e-mail address in 1991 or 92. E-mail was the only
access I had to the Internet then; it was through a BBS.

I didn't have web access in my home until around 1994.

newbie.

Same for me, but later like in 1995 with TIA and SLiRP via my
university's HP-UX shell account. Before that, it was BBSes, Prodigy,
and my friend's university shell account (didn't know how to do that web
stuff yet). All on dial-up, baby. :P

Wow, you had dial-up and not a crank phone? Nice to have the latest stuff!!
--
Buffalo

The internet is no longer any fun
 

Buffalo wrote:
"Ant" wrote in message
...

nospam wrote:
In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

And don't forget Usenet, which started in 1979.

If you were fortunate to have a connection. Here you had to be on
university and have contacts with enough power to allow you time on a
computer with that connection. I did not hear of Internet till the
90's,
and it took me about a decade to get access at home.


I got my first e-mail address in 1991 or 92. E-mail was the only
access I had to the Internet then; it was through a BBS.

I didn't have web access in my home until around 1994.

newbie.

Same for me, but later like in 1995 with TIA and SLiRP via my
university's HP-UX shell account. Before that, it was BBSes, Prodigy,
and my friend's university shell account (didn't know how to do that web
stuff yet). All on dial-up, baby. :P

Wow, you had dial-up and not a crank phone? Nice to have the latest stuff!!

Hehe. http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html for my past and current stuff. Yeah, these days I use ancient stuff like my
decade old PCs. I care not for the newer stuff anymore.

--
Return of The Worker Ant? Happy Chinese New Year (Earth Pig)! Oink!
Note: A fixed width font (Courier, Monospace, etc.) is required to see this signature correctly.
/\___/\ Ant(Dude) @ http://aqfl.net & http://antfarm.home.dhs.org /
/ /\ /\ \ http://antfarm.ma.cx. Please nuke ANT if replying by e-mail.
| |o o| |
\ _ /
( )

The internet is no longer any fun
 

"Ant" wrote in message
...

Buffalo wrote:
"Ant" wrote in message
...

nospam wrote:
In article , Ken Blake
wrote:

And don't forget Usenet, which started in 1979.

If you were fortunate to have a connection. Here you had to be on
university and have contacts with enough power to allow you time on
a
computer with that connection. I did not hear of Internet till the
90's,
and it took me about a decade to get access at home.


I got my first e-mail address in 1991 or 92. E-mail was the only
access I had to the Internet then; it was through a BBS.

I didn't have web access in my home until around 1994.

newbie.

Same for me, but later like in 1995 with TIA and SLiRP via my
university's HP-UX shell account. Before that, it was BBSes, Prodigy,
and my friend's university shell account (didn't know how to do that web
stuff yet). All on dial-up, baby. :P

Wow, you had dial-up and not a crank phone? Nice to have the latest
stuff!!

Hehe. http://zimage.com/~ant/antfarm/about/toys.html for my past and
current stuff. Yeah, these days I use ancient stuff like my
decade old PCs. I care not for the newer stuff anymore.

Nice link.
Thanks,
--
Buffalo

The internet is no longer any fun
 

On 2019-02-15, Buffalo wrote:
Wow, you had dial-up and not a crank phone? Nice to have the latest stuff!!

I never had a crank phone but did have a party line for a while.

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a closet somewhere.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
Don't talk to cops! -- http://www.DontTalkToCops.com
Badges don't grant extra rights -- http://www.CopBlock.org
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The internet is no longer any fun
 

On 2/15/2019 8:30 PM, Roger Blake wrote:

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a closet
somewhere.

Used to carry one of those things around the country with me. I was
amazed that virtually every place I stopped there was a local AOL
dial-up number available...

The internet is no longer any fun
 

In article , 123456789
wrote:

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a closet
somewhere.

Used to carry one of those things around the country with me. I was
amazed that virtually every place I stopped there was a local AOL
dial-up number available...

by the time aol was a thing, 300 baud modems were long obsolete.

The internet is no longer any fun
 

On 2/15/2019 10:08 PM, nospam wrote:
123456789 wrote:
On 2/15/2019 8:30 PM, Roger Blake wrote:

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a closet
somewhere.

Used to carry one of those things around the country with me. I was
amazed that virtually every place I stopped there was a local AOL
dial-up number available...

by the time aol was a thing, 300 baud modems were long obsolete.

When I said I carried one of those things around the country, I meant
the acoustic coupler. And they were very much in use during the early
AOL days when many hotel phones were hard wired with no RJ11 sockets
available.

The internet is no longer any fun
 

In article , 123456789
wrote:

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a closet
somewhere.

Used to carry one of those things around the country with me. I was
amazed that virtually every place I stopped there was a local AOL
dial-up number available...

by the time aol was a thing, 300 baud modems were long obsolete.

When I said I carried one of those things around the country, I meant
the acoustic coupler.

it sounded like you meant 300 baud modems.

And they were very much in use during the early
AOL days when many hotel phones were hard wired with no RJ11 sockets
available.

i used to bring a screwdriver and an rj11 jack. never a problem.

The internet is no longer any fun
 

On 2/16/2019 7:13 AM, nospam wrote:
123456789 wrote:
On 2/15/2019 8:30 PM, Roger Blake wrote:

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a
closet somewhere.

Used to carry one of those things around the country with me.
I was amazed that virtually every place I stopped there was a
local AOL dial-up number available...

by the time aol was a thing, 300 baud modems were long obsolete.

When I said I carried one of those things around the country, I
meant the acoustic coupler.

it sounded like you meant 300 baud modems.

Moaa-dem doesn't SOUND like acooooostic coupler to me. But then I don't
use hearing aids (yet)... (Reread Roger Blake's line above that I
replied to and see if you don't agree.)

And they were very much in use during the early AOL days when many
hotel phones were hard wired with no RJ11 sockets available.

i used to bring a screwdriver and an rj11 jack. never a problem.

I just slipped one coupler cup on the phone's mouthpiece, the other on
the phone's earpiece, and I was good to go. 20 seconds max. No moving
hotel furniture, no attacking spiders, no screwing around (literally).
Easy peasy. YMMV...

The internet is no longer any fun
 

In article , 123456789
wrote:

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a
closet somewhere.

Used to carry one of those things around the country with me.
I was amazed that virtually every place I stopped there was a
local AOL dial-up number available...

by the time aol was a thing, 300 baud modems were long obsolete.

When I said I carried one of those things around the country, I
meant the acoustic coupler.

it sounded like you meant 300 baud modems.

Moaa-dem doesn't SOUND like acooooostic coupler to me. But then I don't
use hearing aids (yet)... (Reread Roger Blake's line above that I
replied to and see if you don't agree.)

an acoustic coupler *is* a modem, just one that's acoustically coupled
versus hardwired.

most 300 baud modems were acoustic and even some 1200 baud ones,
although by that time, they were usually hardwired, which was required
for faster speeds.

And they were very much in use during the early AOL days when many
hotel phones were hard wired with no RJ11 sockets available.

i used to bring a screwdriver and an rj11 jack. never a problem.

I just slipped one coupler cup on the phone's mouthpiece, the other on
the phone's earpiece, and I was good to go. 20 seconds max. No moving
hotel furniture, no attacking spiders, no screwing around (literally).
Easy peasy. YMMV...

....and it does.

a screwdriver and an rj11 jack are a lot smaller, with both fitting in
a pants pocket and also supports much faster speeds.

connect it once when first arriving and remove it before checking out.

and if you're staying in a hotel with attacking spiders, you have other
problems than worrying about getting online.

The internet is no longer any fun
 

Roger Blake wrote:

On 2019-02-15, Buffalo wrote:
Wow, you had dial-up and not a crank phone? Nice to have the latest stuff!!

I never had a crank phone but did have a party line for a while.

We had a party line when I was 8 years old or so. A LONG time ago.

Still have my old 300-baud acoustic coupler stored in a closet somewhere.

I never had a modem that would go only 300 baud. I did have one that
could do either 300 or 1200 baud.

When I first started working, the terminals in our office were IBM
3270s. They were basically selectric typewriters, that communicated at
the IBM-standard speed of 127.5 cpm. When we got a few Omron CRTs that
could work at 300 cpm, that was a BIG deal. This is the early 1970s.

--
Tim Slattery
tim at risingdove dot com

The internet is no longer any fun
 

On 2/16/2019 9:33 AM, nospam wrote:
123456789 wrote:

an acoustic coupler *is* a modem, just one that's acoustically coupled
versus hardwired.

Of course. But Roger and I were talking about a particular kind of modem
that we once used many years ago: The acoustic coupler. If Roger and I
were talking about the convertibles we had in our youth (and they were
fun) would you gripe because I didn't use the word car?
I just slipped one coupler cup on the phone's mouthpiece, the other on
the phone's earpiece, and I was good to go. 20 seconds max. No moving
hotel furniture, no attacking spiders, no screwing around (literally).

a screwdriver and an rj11 jack are a lot smaller, with both fitting in
a pants pocket

Putting the coupler in a suitcase was not a big burden when I traveled.
Much like I take a laptop or tablet along today.

connect it once when first arriving and remove it before checking out.

As I said YMMV. With my luck the hotel room cleaning person would spot
the unauthorized electrical trespass and report me. Then I'd be out on
my ear... 8-O

and if you're staying in a hotel with attacking spiders, you have other
problems than worrying about getting online.

You and Arlen need to work on your sense of humor... ;)

The internet is no longer any fun
 

In article , 123456789
wrote:

an acoustic coupler *is* a modem, just one that's acoustically coupled
versus hardwired.

Of course. But Roger and I were talking about a particular kind of modem
that we once used many years ago: The acoustic coupler. If Roger and I
were talking about the convertibles we had in our youth (and they were
fun) would you gripe because I didn't use the word car?

you're contradicting yourself.

I just slipped one coupler cup on the phone's mouthpiece, the other on
the phone's earpiece, and I was good to go. 20 seconds max. No moving
hotel furniture, no attacking spiders, no screwing around (literally).

a screwdriver and an rj11 jack are a lot smaller, with both fitting in
a pants pocket

Putting the coupler in a suitcase was not a big burden when I traveled.
Much like I take a laptop or tablet along today.

a screwdriver and rj11 jack is smaller than your acoustic coupler and
capable of *much* faster speeds, and you would have needed a laptop
back then anyway.

connect it once when first arriving and remove it before checking out.

As I said YMMV. With my luck the hotel room cleaning person would spot
the unauthorized electrical trespass and report me. Then I'd be out on
my ear... 8-O

they aren't paid enough to care, assuming they even notice and there's
no such thing as 'electrical trespass'.

however, if you damaged something, that's different. don't do that.

and if you're staying in a hotel with attacking spiders, you have other
problems than worrying about getting online.

You and Arlen need to work on your sense of humor... ;)

do not compare me to him.

The internet is no longer any fun
 

123456789 wrote:
On 2/16/2019 9:33 AM, nospam wrote:
123456789 wrote:

an acoustic coupler *is* a modem, just one that's acoustically coupled
versus hardwired.

Of course. But Roger and I were talking about a particular kind of modem
that we once used many years ago: The acoustic coupler. If Roger and I
were talking about the convertibles we had in our youth (and they were
fun) would you gripe because I didn't use the word car?

That is one of them rethorical thingies, isn't it!?

I just slipped one coupler cup on the phone's mouthpiece, the other on
the phone's earpiece, and I was good to go. 20 seconds max. No moving
hotel furniture, no attacking spiders, no screwing around (literally).

a screwdriver and an rj11 jack are a lot smaller, with both fitting in
a pants pocket

Putting the coupler in a suitcase was not a big burden when I traveled.
Much like I take a laptop or tablet along today.

connect it once when first arriving and remove it before checking out.

As I said YMMV. With my luck the hotel room cleaning person would spot
the unauthorized electrical trespass and report me. Then I'd be out on
my ear... 8-O

At the time, our techs would use acoustic couplers in phone booths.
I'm quite sure that the telephone company would not have thought lightly
of it if we would have tampered with their equipment in order to make a
hardwired connection! :-)

and if you're staying in a hotel with attacking spiders, you have other
problems than worrying about getting online.

You and Arlen need to work on your sense of humor... ;)

And not only on that!

The internet is no longer any fun
 

In article , Frank Slootweg
wrote:

I just slipped one coupler cup on the phone's mouthpiece, the other on
the phone's earpiece, and I was good to go. 20 seconds max. No moving
hotel furniture, no attacking spiders, no screwing around (literally).

a screwdriver and an rj11 jack are a lot smaller, with both fitting in
a pants pocket

Putting the coupler in a suitcase was not a big burden when I traveled.
Much like I take a laptop or tablet along today.

connect it once when first arriving and remove it before checking out.

As I said YMMV. With my luck the hotel room cleaning person would spot
the unauthorized electrical trespass and report me. Then I'd be out on
my ear... 8-O

At the time, our techs would use acoustic couplers in phone booths.

i wasn't talking about payphones (which were not always in a booth).

I'm quite sure that the telephone company would not have thought lightly
of it if we would have tampered with their equipment in order to make a
hardwired connection! :-)

i'm quite sure they encouraged that, because many payphones had rj11
data jacks so that you *could* make a hardwired connection.

for the payphones that did not, then you'd be stuck with acoustic
couplers and slow speeds.