Do you remember nickel Cokes? Have you ever heard of that?
Do you remember disco, before it sucked?
Did you see the original broadcast appearances of Velvet Jones and Buh-weet?
Then you also remember when the IBM PC was made with only 1 disk drive, and it used 5 ¼ inch, 360K floppy disks. If you could afford a hard disk, you could get 10MB, or go all out for 20MB capacity. But no matter what, the most RAM you could ever put on the motherboard was 640K. And if you wanted windows you went to the hardware store, not the software store.
These were the days of DOS, the original Disk Operating System, the one that made Bill Gates the wealthiest man in America, and gave new meaning to the term “leasing”.
Rare Pre-Internet Information Communication/Mint Condition: The Source
Was there life before the Internet? In the beginning there were Bulletin Boards, where you could post a note and wait for a reply later. But for news and information, you had to go to … The Source.
Based outside Washington DC, The Source was founded in 1978 by Bill von Meister (who later founded Control Video Corporation, which ultimately evolved into AOL). It was “the country’s first and most powerful online information and communications network for personal computers.” Isaac Asimov declared it to be "the start of the information age".
The Source allowed the individual to access user groups and newsletters, hardware and software reviews, online stock quotes and trading, financial services and portfolio management, email and chat rooms, UPI, AP, and other news, sports, and weather services, OAG airline schedules and travel reservations, nationwide restaurant and lodging guides, catalog shopping, movie reviews, and dozens of other services.
Of course, your computer had to be equipped with a modem – either 300 or 1200 baud. This was the beginning… the grandfather of all internet providers… until 1989 when it was purchased by Compuserve.
To join, you would purchase a membership kit ($100) at your computer store. Inside was the membership agreement to be completed and mailed in, as well as the manual with complete instructions on how to use the system. You paid for each hour of usage: ranging from $2.75 to $25.75, depending on time of day and baud rate. Want to check stocks? Just type in the command “STOCKCHECK.”
This is a Mint copy of the membership kit from 1985, complete in its original slipcase. It has been stored in my non-smoking home, away from heat, dust, and light for almost 40 years.
It has been opened, but never used. The binder and slipcase show no shelf wear; the membership agreement is intact and still waiting to be filled out and mailed in the also-mint postage paid envelope.
Truly a unique part of history in this technological age.
