$450 monthly net access???

[PDP-8]

Went down memory lane to 1984 when I was using 8088 and Televideo Z80 CP/M boxes.  (pip anyone - ever get it backwards?)

Not knowing or having any access to Usenet, or Fidonet for that matter, I researched what it cost me back then to use Compuserve at 300 baud.

10-cents a minute but only during night hours.  Sounds kind of ok right?  At 300 baud, it was *easy* to spend at least an hour each day on it.

Let's see - .10 * 60 = $6.00 daily.  Today: adjust for 2018 rates, and that would be like spending $14.60 daily today.   For just one hour of access.  Or about $430.00 monthly adjusted for 2018.

We live in good times now my friends...

[itsjann]

Things change so rapidly.

[thane]

IIRC back in 1980 I paid $1500 for an Apple II+ computer that had 48K (yes, K) of memory. You loaded programs from a cassette tape. Then I paid $500 for a floppy disk drive that I think stored about 150K of data. After that I got married, had a kid, and didn't have enough money to buy a another computer until 1995. From pioneer to left behind.

[Pats]

In old days I had to depend on landline phone for net access with a  distinct username / password. Speed may be some 2 or 3 kbps. It took many hours at night  to dnload small utilities for Windoz / linux .
Unix was coming on 18 or  36 5.25inch floppies . My first HDD was 20MBs which was sufficient for Win3.1 and below versions with C , COBOL, Pascal, and some other Utilities like  PrintShop etc.
After some years When after many attempts I was successful in setting up Unix on my PC with continuously blinking light , I smiled loudly. 
Buletin Boards were famous for exchanging files , MP3 etc. ... I think my firsr linux was muLinux and then Slacks , Debian, Puppy. Knoppix on CD was my best experience that time. But when I came in contact with Tinycorelinux v2 , then the linux world changed with simplicity and speed .

 Roberts , jaunito , jason , Markus , Rich and many others ( sorry if I have not mentioned many others names ) , enriched my linux knowledge with many unknown details which I was not knowing at all - perticularly easy automation of many jobs with readymade bash scripts with detailed comments .
 Curaga helped me to setup my TCL security with iptables etc among other things.

Hats off to all these guys and many others ! Thanks !!

[vinceASPECT]

HEllo Forum,

Yes yes indeed. As the previously poster pointed out. Things change so rapidly.
Technology is relentless.

For internet nostalgia, it would be University for me ...way back and i saw the birth
of the web, pretty much as it's been since..... web 1.0 web 2.0 web 3.0

My University course leader
allowed me FULL internet access via Unix mainframes
on the basis of doing a multimedia module.

The World Wide Web really caught
my sincere interest in an all pervasive
way........... Just utterly astounded me really.

Fast forward to owning my own
home computers and doing 28k baud access
via dailup and finding FULL DUPLEX which allowed
CD quality music to be accessible.

i mixed and matched with many many
Internet service providers and used
AOL on there "freebee" back of magazine
dial up deal..... for a very very long time
for totally free.

Had DSL from various corps and TElco's
"blue yonder" .....?..anybody
UK based.

Right , these days it's 40 megabit per second for $8 US
dollars per month.........that is  what i pay here
in the UK.

AS for computers themselves.

We know that a very nice desktop
computer with some grunt is $14.99
dollars........who would have though it?
(a device with more power than what tool
man to the moon for $14.99)
astounding

you have SOPHIE WILSON to
thank for Global DSL.........she is
in the top ten most important
people who have ever lived on earth.

REgards
C.

[Greg Erskine]

hi PDP-8,

I remember Compuserve with fond memories. I also remember the cost!

I think I used an add-on that allowed you to download changed content of subscribed "groups" so you could minimise connection time and browse offline.

regards
Greg

[gadget42]

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2022/03/a-brief-tour-of-the-pdp-11-the-most-influential-minicomputer-of-all-time/
(grab your favorite beverage and/or snack...commentary is seven pages)

also for your clicking convenience:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDP-11_architecture

sharing is caring

20220314-0910am-modified-added note and links