# Internet hardly changed from late 90's to now!!Bit of rant!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 28, 2016, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494 "2016-03-28T23:22:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/21 "2016-03-30T01:24:44Z")
No improvement? Why, I can dismiss the OP as asinine nonsense at least least 14 times more efficiently than 1990s technology would have allowed! No improvement… pshaw, I say! Pshaw! ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 3:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/22 "2016-03-30T03:25:02Z")
Back on the AOL boards, it would’ve taken 12-15 min to say “Pshaw!” Longer if I had to yell “Junior! Muffy! Get off the phone, so I can use the World-Wide Web! Don’t worry, it’ll be quick, I just have to connect via Dial-Up and listen for that 2800 Baud Modem whine and ding… Almost done! You can call Butch back as soon as I type a word!” ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 10:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/23 "2016-03-30T10:14:56Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > It does not explain why a message board of 500 active members to 1,000 active members had little to no ads in late 90’s and message board today of 500 active members to 1,000 active members have many ads and are site owner is struggling with bandwidth. > > It not like the message board has 5,000 to 10,000 active members!! Where I can see that much may be bandwidth problem. How much actual traffic are they generating in bps? And what is the type of traffic? How about you show some actual data on hosting prices relative to traffic volume then and now combined with actual traffic data then and now? Comparing the number of users isn’t really interesting. What’s interesting is how many bits they’re putting in and pulling out. ---
**Author:** ![JohnClay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/c37758/32.png) [@JohnClay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnClay)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 11:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/24 "2016-03-30T11:07:35Z")
Now there’s video - often high definition. There only used to be tiny gifs. ---
**Author:** ![Cyros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a698b9/32.png) [@Cyros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cyros)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/25 "2016-03-30T13:06:18Z")
Everything is different, but the same… things are more moderner than before… bigger, and yet smaller… it’s computers… San Dimas High School football rules. -Ox _Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure_ ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 3:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/26 "2016-03-30T15:03:15Z")
> [@digs](#): > > Back on the AOL boards, it would’ve taken 12-15 min to say “Pshaw!” > > Longer if I had to yell “Junior! Muffy! Get off the phone, so I can use the World-Wide Web! Don’t worry, it’ll be quick, I just have to connect via Dial-Up and listen for that 2800 Baud Modem whine and ding… Almost done! You can call Butch back as soon as I type a word!” 2800 baud? Why you young whippersnapper, back in my day, we got 110 baud and were happy to get it. Modems used acoustic couplers, where you put the telephone handset in a little cradle, and the 110 baud actually got you 10 characters per second, not 11, because each character had a total of 3 start/stop bits on top of the 8 bits of data, because characters were bigger and stronger in those days. And we didn’t have these at home, either, young whippersnapper, we had to walk to school to use them, 10 miles uphill in deep snow, wearing only plastic bags on our feet. And at night we came home the same way. For some reason that was also uphill. That’s just the way the land was arranged in those days. But we were happy. Today we’re all spoiled. Today we complain, as the OP so eloquently informs us, that so many web sites and message boards have ads but many ads yes may ads!!! And site owner saying many times to people they may have to pay to access the web site or message board or may have to shut the web site or message board down!! It’s no wonder that young people today face a shortage of exclamation marks despite all the technology. The OP informs us that the experts protect this will go on to year 2020. After that, we are informed, Moore’s Law starts to brake down, until the brakes overheat and you end up accelerating to 9600 baud and get splattered against a telephone pole with blood and exclamation marks all over the road!!! And the experts won’t be there to protect you. So yes, whatever it is the OP is on about, I’m sure I agree. ---
**Author:** ![Drunky\_Smurf](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drunky_smurf/32/449_2.png) [@Drunky\_Smurf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Drunky_Smurf)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/27 "2016-03-30T15:16:00Z")
> [@JohnClay](#): > > Now there’s video - often high definition. There only used to be tiny gifs. I blame the crappiness of the internet now-a-days on YouTube. ---
**Author:** ![Finagle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/b19c9b/32.png) [@Finagle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Finagle)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 3:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/28 "2016-03-30T15:53:26Z")
> [@Drunky\_Smurf](#): > > I blame the crappiness of the internet now-a-days on YouTube. Hasn’t anyone ever told you: “_Never_ read the comments.” ---
**Author:** ![Muffin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muffin/32/4341_2.png) [@Muffin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muffin)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/29 "2016-03-30T16:37:28Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > now!! rant!! faster!! ads!! ads!! ads!!! down!! Start using Adblock Plus and a grammar checker. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/30 "2016-03-30T17:35:07Z")
> [@wolfpup](#): > > 2800 baud? Why you young whippersnapper, back in my day, we got 110 baud and were happy to get it. Modems used acoustic couplers, where you put the telephone handset in a little cradle, and the 110 baud actually got you 10 characters per second, not 11, because each character had a total of 3 start/stop bits on top of the 8 bits of data, because characters were bigger and stronger in those days. And we didn’t have to wait for the crap to download before we started reading it! 110 and 300 baud are slow enough that you have some hope of reading the text as it is downloading. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/31 "2016-03-30T21:19:43Z")
Actually 110 baud was slow enough that you were kept in suspense and got to make up your own variations of the story or the error message that might be coming next. It was always great when it was an email from your boss or the S.O. and it went something like (excuse the all-caps but I am trying here to best convey the ASR-33 experience) … chug … chug … clatter … clatter … \ \ **I’VE BEEN HOLDING BACK THIS VERY IMPORTANT NEWS** … chug … chug … clatter … clatter … **WAITING FOR JUST THE RIGHT TIME** … clatter … chug … **BUT I CAN WAIT NO LONGER AND MUST NOW TELL YOU THAT** … chug … chug … clatter … clatter … \ ding! … clatter … clatter … \ **?ILLUUO, ILLEGAL UUO AT USER ADR 063317 ?USRFKD, USER SEGMENT “EMAIL” TERMINATED** clatter … clatter … \ \ **?MODFIR, ALSO YOUR MODEM IS ON FIRE** . You kids today don’t have half the fun, no wonder you’re bored and bitchy. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [March 30, 2016, 11:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/32 "2016-03-30T23:14:15Z")
> [@sweat209](#): > > Move to Japan or South Korea and you can down load HD movie in minutes not hours. I can do that in America, and I have Comcrap (oh, sorry, they want to be called Suxfinity now) for an ISP. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2016, 7:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494/33 "2016-03-31T07:27:22Z")
As technology improves, expectations rise with it. No matter how good everything actually is, it’s always not quite as good/fast/useful as we want it to be. I can download a 2GB HD movie in just minutes. But why can’t I do it in just seconds!?!? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/internet-hardly-changed-from-late-90s-to-now-bit-of-rant/750494.md?page=1)