I used to work for Zoom, my first tech-writing job in fact. The fellow who hired me to replace him apologized for offering me the job. There are tales.
When I worked at Wang Laboratories, our PCs came with Hayes modems. I still have a Hayes baseball cap with their logo on it. It greatly resembled Polaroid Corporation's logo from the early days: two circles that partly intersected, sort of like a Venn diagram.
. . . to a company I worked for in my mid 20's in the mid 90's. Zoom was big back then - but even then a 14.4 modem was the bottom rung for modems. 56.6 modems were the big thing then. The company I used to work for - one of their main businesses was renting computers to corporations. This was back when a 486-66 PC still cost 2500 bucks. They would rent these out to corps for 400 bucks a months and they would end up staying there for years- paying for them 2 or 3 times over and justify the cost as a business write off. They had 386 computers out on rental still when I started there and they were charging every month like a green grocer hundreds of dollars for each. Total money maker back when the hardware still mattered.
Remember modem cards with PCI slots for laptops? Remember when laptops weighed 10 pounds?
Yes, a Trash-80 Model 100 with the 300-baud acoustic coupler with the tiny cheap little wires that would break after a month or so and if you were unlucky and had to file a story on deadline, you'd sit there, jiggling the cable in the hopes you'd get a connection long enough to send.
. . . when I was about 12 my pop bought one of the first "portable computers"- it was an Osborne 1 Computer. It had a modem- but since it was 1982 about- there was no internet really. So it became the family computer for about 3 years or so. Used it to write papers for school (though it almost was as much of a hassle as a typewriter)- and to play a text scrolling game called simply "Adventure". No graphics- just text- and you would type commands like "turn right"- "forward" or "open chest". Real basic- but it was fun for back then.
And by the way- at 25 pounds and the size of a suitcase- it was hardly "portable". I guess what made it "portable" was the handle on it.
- that was the term for it alright. Luggable. I bet if I search my family storage stall I could still find some of the old "floppy" disks it used. I remember learning "BASIC" on that thing.
... it was a DG-1 (Data General/One), and i believe it had a 300 baud modem. it looked like a typewriter on steroid. it was super impressive at the time... but then again it wasn't hard to impress people with a laptop in 1984 ;)
It's what Galaxy Internet Services sent me when I signed up for DSL a few years ago. Works fine. So the company has definitely moved forward with the times.
Comments
WABAC machine
I used to work for Zoom, my first tech-writing job in fact. The fellow who hired me to replace him apologized for offering me the job. There are tales.
Hayes Modem
When I worked at Wang Laboratories, our PCs came with Hayes modems. I still have a Hayes baseball cap with their logo on it. It greatly resembled Polaroid Corporation's logo from the early days: two circles that partly intersected, sort of like a Venn diagram.
Still plugged into router
Looked in the basement, my zoom modem is still plugged into the router, as a backup route in case comcast sucks. Wasn't turned on, however.
That brings me back . . .
. . . to a company I worked for in my mid 20's in the mid 90's. Zoom was big back then - but even then a 14.4 modem was the bottom rung for modems. 56.6 modems were the big thing then. The company I used to work for - one of their main businesses was renting computers to corporations. This was back when a 486-66 PC still cost 2500 bucks. They would rent these out to corps for 400 bucks a months and they would end up staying there for years- paying for them 2 or 3 times over and justify the cost as a business write off. They had 386 computers out on rental still when I started there and they were charging every month like a green grocer hundreds of dollars for each. Total money maker back when the hardware still mattered.
Remember modem cards with PCI slots for laptops? Remember when laptops weighed 10 pounds?
I had one of the original laptops
Yes, a Trash-80 Model 100 with the 300-baud acoustic coupler with the tiny cheap little wires that would break after a month or so and if you were unlucky and had to file a story on deadline, you'd sit there, jiggling the cable in the hopes you'd get a connection long enough to send.
I'll go one better . . .
. . . when I was about 12 my pop bought one of the first "portable computers"- it was an Osborne 1 Computer. It had a modem- but since it was 1982 about- there was no internet really. So it became the family computer for about 3 years or so. Used it to write papers for school (though it almost was as much of a hassle as a typewriter)- and to play a text scrolling game called simply "Adventure". No graphics- just text- and you would type commands like "turn right"- "forward" or "open chest". Real basic- but it was fun for back then.
And by the way- at 25 pounds and the size of a suitcase- it was hardly "portable". I guess what made it "portable" was the handle on it.
Luggables
I've heard these called "luggable".
Yup-
- that was the term for it alright. Luggable. I bet if I search my family storage stall I could still find some of the old "floppy" disks it used. I remember learning "BASIC" on that thing.
my first laptop weighed about 11 pounds...
... it was a DG-1 (Data General/One), and i believe it had a 300 baud modem. it looked like a typewriter on steroid. it was super impressive at the time... but then again it wasn't hard to impress people with a laptop in 1984 ;)
I also worked for Zoom and
I also worked for Zoom and got laid off in 2002. I didn't think it would survive back then because I got it in the 6th round of lay offs.
My DSL modem is from Zoom
It's what Galaxy Internet Services sent me when I signed up for DSL a few years ago. Works fine. So the company has definitely moved forward with the times.
I expected the link
to go to AOL.
(Every time I get an e-mail from @AOL, I'm kind of shocked that it exists.)