From: Nyssa@logicalinsight.net   
      
   SH wrote:   
      
   > On 12/08/2025 13:08, Nyssa wrote:   
   >> Rich wrote:   
   >>   
   >>> Eli the Bearded <*@eli.users.panix.com> wrote:   
   >>>> In comp.misc, Lawrence D'Oliveiro     
   >>>> wrote:   
   >>>>> Further to that, 34 years ago puts their start in   
   >>>>> 1991, before CD-ROM drives became popular in PCs. I   
   >>>>> think they were giving out floppy disks for those   
   >>>>> first few years.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Anybody remember seeing an AOL floppy?   
   >>>>   
   >>>> Definitely. Better than CDs because you could just wipe   
   >>>> and reuse them.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object/nmah_1395721   
   >>>   
   >>> Which I did for many an AOL 3.5" floppy.  Not for   
   >>> anything valuable, but for a "copy file X from computer   
   >>> Y to computer Z" use they worked just fine.   
   >>>   
   >>> The CDROM's were only useful to either join AOL (which   
   >>> was never going to happen) or to make garden scarecrows.   
   >>   
   >> I made coasters with them.   
   >>   
   >> Nyssa, who believe it or not is still on dialup (not AOL)   
   >> and has been for almost 40 years (not the same ISPs)   
   >>   
   >   
   > given the fastest dial up modems are 56 kilobits, it must   
   > feel really slow viewing websites that rely on broadband   
   > to fling audio or video or Java/SHockwave/Flash at you?   
   >   
   > And downloading software must have taken days?   
      
   Plus my local (rural) phone lines are crap. I get ~43Kbps   
   on average. It was better when I lived in the Big City.   
      
   I don't do video and no longer do audio, so those are problems   
   for me. Mostly I do email, Usenet, and download ebooks, which   
   are relatively small files.   
      
   If I need to download something BIG, I wait until I take a   
   drive (2 hours) down to the Big City and use the wifi   
   in the public library to download the biggies to one of my   
   laptops I haul down with me.   
      
   Meanwhile I save $$ over what a broadband connection would   
   cost which I would only be using an hour or two each day.   
      
   I've got better uses for those $$ saved.   
      
   Nyssa, who is used to the limitations and works within   
   them quite well   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)