Speed Limit 56K
It was 1997 – the machine was a then top-of-the-line model, featuring a 4.3gig hard drive, 32 megabytes of RAM, 300Mhz AMD processor, 56K modem, and Windows 95. The first time it connected to the wild and wooly World Wide Web was via AT&T’s internet service on a telephone line through the aforementioned modem. Those were heady days of crashing operating systems, numerous restarts, scan disk, unwheeled mice, 256 colors and almost a complete lack of spam and pop-ups. Most everything you could want was free; even in some cases, internet service. But it was all so slow. Multi-hour downloads were the standard and Lord help you if you got an email with a picture attached!
A few years later, Phenix City’s tyrannical cable TV company introduced broadband and we hopped on it. They used to have this commercial that featured the flashing lights of a police car to advertise their service and it was fast… when it was working. Unfortunately, along with all this new speed came reliability problems. What made these problems worse was that when it wasn’t working and you called to report it, the techs took you down this rabbit hole of clicking this button and reloading that program and all to land at the conclusion that there was no problem to begin with. Never mind that your computer was sitting dead in the water. If they said it was working, it was working by golly and if it wasn’t, it was your fault.
Anyway, that’s all history now. I don’t know if Phenix Cable ever solved its issues but I do know that once Bell South introduced DSL to our area, we immediately defected.
The reason for this dance down memory lane is because Verizon has a program to collect Broadband Stories.
Yup, Broadband Stories. The purpose is, of course, to generate business but even that leaves you wondering just how many possible reasons one might have for wanting a fast(er) connection. Well, one very good reason was to avoid spending hours explaining to various (if not, dubious) tech-types how my connection wasn’t working and that I wasn’t kinking-up the garden hose just to amuse myself... or them.
* * * * *
On a side note…
G'morning Chuck! I love oatmeal. Just not in June… and if they want to make me register my ATV, they’ll have to pry it from under my cold, dead butt!
* * * * *
WTVM Skycam Shot of the Day
A few years later, Phenix City’s tyrannical cable TV company introduced broadband and we hopped on it. They used to have this commercial that featured the flashing lights of a police car to advertise their service and it was fast… when it was working. Unfortunately, along with all this new speed came reliability problems. What made these problems worse was that when it wasn’t working and you called to report it, the techs took you down this rabbit hole of clicking this button and reloading that program and all to land at the conclusion that there was no problem to begin with. Never mind that your computer was sitting dead in the water. If they said it was working, it was working by golly and if it wasn’t, it was your fault.
Anyway, that’s all history now. I don’t know if Phenix Cable ever solved its issues but I do know that once Bell South introduced DSL to our area, we immediately defected.
The reason for this dance down memory lane is because Verizon has a program to collect Broadband Stories.
Yup, Broadband Stories. The purpose is, of course, to generate business but even that leaves you wondering just how many possible reasons one might have for wanting a fast(er) connection. Well, one very good reason was to avoid spending hours explaining to various (if not, dubious) tech-types how my connection wasn’t working and that I wasn’t kinking-up the garden hose just to amuse myself... or them.
* * * * *
On a side note…
G'morning Chuck! I love oatmeal. Just not in June… and if they want to make me register my ATV, they’ll have to pry it from under my cold, dead butt!
* * * * *
WTVM Skycam Shot of the Day
posted by Redoubt at 3:39 AM
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