One of the earliest consumer internet options, AOL’s dial-up service was once the most common way for people to access the early web.
One of the earliest consumer internet options, AOL’s dial-up service was once the most common way for people to access the early web.
While I hated AOL for reasons, this is the end of an era. RIP
AOL will be remembered more fondly for things like this. But, nobody ever has a fond memory of the software AOL shoved out. It was clampware, unreliable and frequently crashed.
But they gave out nice coasters
Eh…I wouldn’t call them “nice”. They were ok. Wouldn’t put them on a nice table.
Before that, they gave out floppy disks. You could tape over the write protect hole and reuse them.
But they were 720k. Barely usable
You could punch a hole in the corner and double the capacity 😁
You couldn’t flip a 3.5in floppy
You didn’t need to flip it, 3.5" readers could already read both sides, but the hole or lack of is what told them whether both sides were available. I’ve done it myself.
https://www.webcommand.net/index.php/2019/07/31/does-anyone-remember-the-floppy-disk-punch-notcher/
Ahhhhh.
By the time I came around they were all 1.44 floppies
They were free and not everything needs 1.44MB.
The early vibe coders.