It was not long ago that we measured online time in minutes. You knew exactly how long you had been online in a given period because you were billed for the time you were connected. The first computer game I bought—One Must Fall 2097 by Epic Megagames—was downloaded on a Compuserve account (it was paid for online; ecommerce and delivery in 1994!) and cost about $10 over its price in usage charges. Connection was a luxury.
Now, I have no idea how much time I spend online. It would be easier to tally up hours I’m commuting, sleeping, and (sometimes) eating and subtract that from the number of hours in a day, if I wasn’t scared of the results. I just vaguely remember what it was like to count the online hours instead of the offline ones. I’d like to recapture that magic, and it’s a beatiful night outside.
The trick is to make the online experience more enjoyable. Imagine if you had a wifi enabled handheld device wit a good user interface, excellent voice recognition and voice-to-text and gigs of storage. It wouldn’t feel like you were sacrificing time to use it because you’d feel in complete control of the technology.
ISPs, web developers and hardware makers aren’t ready for that yet, but they seem to be moving in the right direction.
Your first computer game wasn’t even bought in a store…but online?
*sighs*……
That makes me feel ‘old’ at just 28!
Personally, I’m glad I don’t ‘clock-watch’ the time spent online anymore….it was a chore, a nuisance…and now I have broadband – I don’t bother at all. Monthly flat-rate fees…and less stress for it: you say ‘recapture the magic’….I say ‘which magic?’
‘Clock-watching’ net-use is as magical as punching a time-card in an under-paid factory job….Matt: Life is better than that!
*Laughs*
….a beautiful night – ellaborate.
You know Molly E. Holzschlag?
Damn, I’m a big fan.
(Don’t laugh!)….Her book ‘Special Edition: Using HTML 4 – Sixth Edition’ is one of my favourite books…..not just one of my favourite compter/net books…but one of my favourite books in the entire realm of modern literature!!
If I had a comment from her on my site – I’d print it, and get it framed!
You should be honoured….
Heh. Know what’s funnier? OMF 2097 is responsible for my brother and I going out to buy a SNES-like controller for the PC to try and get a bit better. I didn’t know how many other people knew the game.
I don’t know how many nights I spent reading a book on the bed in the spare bedroom, listening to the modem try – over and over and over and over … – to connect to the BBS and getting busy signals.
I hope to hell that you unplugged and went outside … sans wireless devices. 🙂
I have taken, of late, to not being online when I am away from work. This was a big change, but it’s been good. That said, I’m about ready to be back online during non-work hours now.
What magic?
I have 33.6k connection at home, and it’s a fu*kin’ pain. Doing anything from here is pointless. When I’m on call-support for company’s clients, I first measure how much time will it take me to do the job, and decide is it better to work from home (over 1-3 terminal connections, depends on client) or to get public transporation and go to the office (30-40mins, both ways).
I never download anything over 2MB, because it lasts forever. If I try to do something in that time, it takes double forever. Some luck is that I don’t pay the ISP hours because I worked for them 6-7 years ago (they like me).
Some people here (Serbia) have ISDN, cable (s*it version, 256kB) – I don’t. I don’t have an option. None. Enjoy the fast lane Matt, and never look back. Whatever you do, it’s fun at such speeds.
Haha, leave it to you to have been the one to buy things online when you (and I) were still in elementary school and I didn’t even know what the internet was!
I spent most of a three hour (+) drive from Austin to Dallas online this past weekend. PdaNet on the Treo600 rocks! This was the most luxurious connection I’ve experienced to date because I was in my car, someone else was driving, and I was going somewhere. Cost: ~$500 for the phone, ~$3k for the laptop 3 years ago, $34 for PdaNet. The connection was free. Thank you SprintPCS. 🙂