The internet used to be a thing you'd connect to when you wanted to use it, then disconnect from it when you had finished using it. You also had to go to a specific place in your house to use it, where the only computer in your home was located, and even habitual computer users would often use it without ever connecting to the internet.

We need to return to that time. NOW.

Ok.

alrighty

We know. Some of us are actually over the age of 20.
What's your next trick? Gonna tell us about how there used to be these mythical places called "Blockbuster" where we rented movies?

>>105755454 (OP)
>pc 1990s.jpg
>that photo
>1990s
OP is a zoomie who's high on para-nostalgia

>>105755454 (OP)
fake news

>>105755505
Zoomers have literally zero culture of their own, so they parasite off their forebears. They fetishize shit, and pine for some "great and golden" past that didn't exist.
And yeah, that's Windows XP (GA in 2002), and probably pre-SP2, so it was absolute shit.

>>105755454 (OP)
What/who is stopping you from doing that? After the covid years, I've decided to quit social media, news, TV and to drop out of the internet and to only use it for work related stuff and from time to time for some kind of lightweight(ie not algorithmically influenced) content.

You don't need a "dedicated room" for that, you just need self control

>>105755505
No, I'm a boomer who isn't so autistic as to carefully examine every pic I download to post threads so that they 100% fit the theme of the thread.

>>105755546
There's also Halo in that shot and a box literally saying 2003 on it, if the picture wasn't already screaming 03/04 enough

Lately I've been thinking about the concept of "the internet as a realm".
It's interesting how, psychologically, the internet, its collection of websites, apps, social media, videos etc. create a sort of a disconnected space from reality almost another reality. Like a meta reality, a reality that only exists in the conceit of common users.
To expand upon this, I would say that internet videos and culture tend to fit within to the conceit of the internet realm, this conceit has become increasingly removed from reality over time. Look at old movies, they were movies that felt very real, new movies do not feel real because they exist within an internet conceit, with all the disingenuity, sarcasm and distrust of the internet.

>>105755593
That's by design and many people are absolutely unable to differentiate between internet bullshit and reality anymore. That's what makes the situation so dangerous.

>>105755618
And before the internet this was the case with movies and TV. Only that the internet is multiple times more potent.

>>105755631
Thats true, imagine the impact sitcoms had on society.

>>105755588
The last game I played (excluding FreeCell) was probably Quake 2, so I'm not up on exactly what date "AAA Gayme 46: Revenge of my Cousin's Boyfriend's Gay Lover GAME OF THE YEAR EDITION" was released.

>>105755588
that lineup of games looks pretty nice, i recognise many of them.
warcraft III
warcraft III: the frozen throne
diablo
half-life
unreal tournament 2003 (looks like)
links 2003 which you mentioned (golf)
halo
return to castle wolfenstein (looks like)
there's a second battlefield there which i don't recognise. it doesn't look like 2, but probably one of the original expansions
none of them i recognise are newer than 2003

>>105755848
mentioned the second battlefield but forgot to add "battlefield 1942"

>>105755848
also on the screen i see;
windows xp
winamp (with the winamp 5 default "modern" theme, barely still 2003)
msn messenger (some pre-live version)

>>105755848
It was also the onset of the dreadful BLACK+MATTE SILVER era.
Everything electronic had to be in black+ matte silver in the mid 00s.
In that photo you can see the slow transition from the 90s into the mid 00s (speakers, Lexmark printer, mouse

>>105755454 (OP)
>Links 2003
lol
back in the day
*everyone* had the golfing game
but why

>>105755581
yet you are here

>>105756052
yea, the picture is completely covered in early-'00s signs, nobody could mistake it for '90s except for op

Just ban internet from phones, problem solved.

>>105756181
-- though that isn't intended to demean op, if you only look at it at a glance you could mistake it for very late '90s

>>105756091
I had a minigolf on my 2000 Sagem mobile.
Everyone was playing snake on their Nokias and I was the sperg with minigolf. Some tried it though and then kept coming back to play minigolf on my phone.

>>105756052
that picture is almost agressively 2003, like so much of it came out in 2003, but nothing i've recognised is from 2004
the winamp 5 skin shows is right at the end of 2003 as well
even the original xbox 'duke' controller shown there was replaced by the 's' controller after 2003

>>105756287
-- it is a bit curious they'd have an xbox controller and the pc version of halo at the same time
like, why have an xbox controller with no xbox, or why have an xbox and not have had halo on xbox already? (pc halo came out much later... in late 2003)
the photo is obviously staged, but it's still a little weird

>>105755454 (OP)
nostalgia thread?

>>105757122

>>105757141

>>105757158

>>105757170

>>105757178

>>105757186

>>105757195

>>105757232

>>105757141
>>105757240
>>105756052
I always hated that black and silver aesthetic. Absolutely no nostalgic feelings for them from my side.

>>105757274

>>105757282
that complete bliss

>>105755454 (OP)
I used to have to wait 20 mins for windows to load before using it and it sounded like a leaf blower was running in the room the computer was located in. It would also take 30 mins to load simple flash animations. I don't miss that but software did seem more magical back then.

>>105755454 (OP)

>>105757391

>>105760462

just remove the internet from phones and society will return to normal

>>105755454 (OP)
>then disconnect from it when you had finished using it.
Why? Why would I need to disconnect?
>muh phone line
I had two in the 80s/90s come on man.

>>105760718
>tcp over soundwaves
based

>>105760736
https://i.4cdn.org/wsg/1751331205741403.webm

Me circa 2001

>>105761326
surely this is AI and you're not actually mr. beats

>>105760735
>tcp
Nah, this is more like a direct serial line hooked up to a terminal on one end and to the computer on the other miles away. No Internet involved here.
There's also something amusing about taking an electronic signal, converting it to sound, then immediately taking that sound and converting that back into an electrical signal in a span of a few millimeters. Very Rube Goldberg-esque if you ask me.

>>105761415
it's not just like a serial connection, it IS a serial connection. all the modem is doing is turning serial into sound then back into serial on the other end
dial up internet is the same thing, just with IP layered on top of the serial connection (SLIP/PPP)
>There's also something amusing about taking an electronic signal, converting it to sound, then immediately taking that sound and converting that back into an electrical signal in a span of a few millimeters.
you probably already know this, but acoustic couplers like that only existed for legal reasons. you were not legally allowed to connect anything but a certified telephone set into a telephone line, so there was no way to make or sell a modem that hooked up to the phone line directly, but if the computer is just talking/listening using an unmodified handset... no problem

>>105755454 (OP)
>The internet used to be a thing you'd connect to when you wanted to use it, then disconnect from it

Uhm... no? You could totally eternally live online since at least 1995+
>subspace
>onlive traveler
>pir8 websites
>forums
>irc

Today's internet is shit.

>>105756350
Xbox controllers were piss easy to convert to USB. They were already electronically compatible, just had to modify the connector or pay someone to do it for you, then install XBCD so Windows would recognize them.

>>105761759
i'm aware, i've done that before, but i wasn't commenting on it being used on pc, rather presence of both an xbox controller and halo for pc. it could be just that he liked that controller so got it without an xbox

>>105761737
>random forums with active people
>active irc channels
>piracy was incentivized not demonized
>no one gave a shit about security/privacy/updating/virus and such, at the same time, no one needed to use their real name anywhere
>no one did it for money, or asked for support, or mentioned any type of monetary thing.
>there was more action and less lurking
>it felt alive
>no political propaganda
>no massive brainwhash
>ads appeared around 2008~2009, I remember there was no ads before that
>when facebook first started taking over, they accessing it free for third world countries, and they paid ads on tv.