Phoebe and Her Unicorn by Dana Simpson for September 29, 2024

Aaaah! It’s the horrible skreek-squooper! Come to skreek-squoop all my organs out! I’m totally not making this up!

Oh, false alarm. Just some squeaky rain boots.

I remember “You’ve got mail!”

The dread cry of 14400 Baud!

When your modem sacrificed itself to the internet……

I miss the sound of my modem negotiating. It was comforting.

Hey, beat going out in the snow to the computing center to enter your project. That Apple IIc was wonderful.

I started using the Internet when I was about 12. That was in the mid-90s and I thought it was the coolest thing ever even though it was so primitive then. I remember dial-up very well.

Even now when I dial some business’ number I get the modem one and hear the familiar noise!

That sound is burned into my memory. Along with AOL’s “Welcome. You’ve got mail!” Of course it still beat a dial tone and a busy signal.

AOL disc

I think I still have my old US Robotics modem somewhere. Mind you, I have an even older Pace Linnet somewhere too!

AOL is still around. I’m assuming it no longer uses the phone dial-up, but I occasionally see someone who lists it for their e-mail address.

What was awesome, at the time, was renegotiating the handshake, to make your 300 baud modem connect at 450 baud, just by a few AT commands.

Thooossse, we’rrrre, the days my friend,

\\//_

Hilarious, Dana! Two thumbs up!

Aww, now I really want to see one of these northwestern screeching-followed-by-stabbing unicorns. I’d call her Sharpie.

Heh, I can’t say I miss dial-up, but I also often find myself weirdly nostalgic for the infamous dial-up sound for reasons I can’t explain. But then, I guess it WAS part of my own childhood, so…

I don’t miss it. I was so relieved to get broadband!

In a box in its box downstairs, I have a Zoltrix 56k modem. I’m not happy with waste but I can’t imagine any use for it anymore

Ah yes, I remember when a guy I hardly knew let me have his old 300 baud modem to use on my Commodore 64. No internet then, just BBS (Bulletin Board Services). I laugh at this and how primitive that technology seems now, but I have a fond feeling of nostalgia and remembering how exciting it was to take that step.

I like to imagine Dad replicated the sounds perfectly. And the screeching-stabbing unicorn also oddly sounds like dial-up for some reason.

Around 1992 I got a terminal for dialing into work to solve problems in the middle of the night. It came with a 56K modem. I used it with my computer for Genie.

Be afraid, Phoebe, be very afraid.

I remember keeping a radio scanner in earshot of the computer.   If I heard certain keywords, I had to log off in case I got a call.

And, in winter, run upstairs and put on long underwear.

I remember messing around on the family computer before dial-up, making masterpieces with MS Paint. When we did get internet, I would go on the American Girl Doll site and play their little flash games. I don’t remember specifically, but I’m sure I had a time limit. Or one of my parents would come along and say, “Time to wrap it up. I need to call somebody.”

I used to start my downloads before going to bed and would hope they’d be finished by morning because as soon as someone called or picked up the phone it would disconnect and I’d have to start all over. Downloading a 30 MB game demo took a reaaally long time.