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Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

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Re: Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

#11

Post by fxtentacle »

jmyeet wrote: post #2

I'm old enough to remember the 1990s. Many of us who do consider it the last good decade. Living was cheap. The previously ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation had seemingly abated. This was before the d0t-com crash and obviously the War on Terror that has dominated the 21st century thus far. I have fond memories of the 486 era, which was really the early 1990s. I'm kinda surprised the PC component of this isn…

1993 was before the west entered the last stage of capitalism. It was a time when companies still competed on products rather than using monopolistic force to squeeze ever more revenue out of the same people by turning every life necessity into a subscription. Similarly, it was a time when you could mail-order a house and build it yourself. Rental prices were low because there was no regulatory capture on housing construction yet.

Where I disagree with you is video streaming. In my opinion, YouTube and the commercialisation of holiday memories (which later became Instagram influencers) were the beginning of widespread depression. Seemingly regular people sharing their exceptional life somehow forces everyone else to compare themselves to the dreams presented on YouTube and most people will come up short and then most people will feel insufficient. I believe that’s why early YouTube ads were so powerful. Your ad for exotic goods would play immediately after the viewer became painfully aware of how boring they are, when measured against the top 0.1% on a global scale.

Re: Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

#12

Post by gizajob »

fxtentacle wrote: post #11
jmyeet wrote: post #2

I'm old enough to remember the 1990s. Many of us who do consider it the last good decade. Living was cheap. The previously ever-present threat of nuclear annihilation had seemingly abated. This was before the d0t-com crash and obviously the War on Terror that has dominated the 21st century thus far. I have fond memories of the 486 era, which was really the early 1990s. I'm kinda surprised the PC component of this isn…

1993 was before the west entered the last stage of capitalism. It was a time when companies still competed on products rather than using monopolistic force to squeeze ever more revenue out of the same people by turning every life necessity into a subscription. Similarly, it was a time when you could mail-order a house and build it yourself. Rental prices were low because there was no regulatory capture on housing con…

I never understand why people want to label such eras of capitalism as “late” or the last era of capitalism. The late stage was late only to its own death. This isn’t the last stage either. Plenty more to grow. Capitalism is more akin to an indestructible and rapidly mutating organism than an ideology.

Re: Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

#13

Post by jdougan »

xkriva11 wrote: post #10
jdougan wrote: post #8

Every so often I fire up an old Squeak Smalltalk image, put it in full screen mode, and pretend that much of the intervening years never happened.

But Squeak is 1996 ;)

Close enough. I had a copy of MacOS Apple Smalltalk from the 1985 training course I took, and had started a job using Objectworks. Squeak 1.0 is quite close to ST-80.

Re: Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

#16

Post by aidenn0 »

mrwh wrote: post #6

I don't think I was ever happier as a programmer than I was in the early 90s, well before university, with no thought of the internet, writing games on my Amiga. Incidentally, I recently replayed Loom, from a bit before that era. It's still a lovely, wonderful game! Such a shame the fan-made sequel (Forge) seems to have died.

Loom is the best looking EGA game ever made. Sadly the VGA remake was hit-and-miss with the visuals.

Re: Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

#17

Post by simonjgreen »

mrwh wrote: post #6

I don't think I was ever happier as a programmer than I was in the early 90s, well before university, with no thought of the internet, writing games on my Amiga. Incidentally, I recently replayed Loom, from a bit before that era. It's still a lovely, wonderful game! Such a shame the fan-made sequel (Forge) seems to have died.

Impossible to think about Loom without thinking about the first room in Money Island and the guy with the badge

Re: Dear Time Lords: Freeze Computers in 1993

#19

Post by weinzierl »

medi8r wrote: post #5

1993. No phone. No expectation of being contactable. If you are out you are out. No SSDs though :(

Well, people showed up randomly at your door completely unannounced. And for the expectation of being available: At least where I grew up mobility was much lower, transportation difficult. You bet there was an expectation of availability. Was it better or worse? I could not say, it was surely different.
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