The ‘90s Internet: When 20 hours online triggered an email from my ISP’s president

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2023/07/the-90s-internet-when-20-hours-online-triggered-an-email-from-my-isps-president/

1998 plea for restraint reveals a lost world where the 'Net was an opt-in experience.

114 points · 7 comments · view on lemmy.world

7 Comments

empireOfLove@lemmy.one · 43 pts · 3y (2 replies)

All these years later, and the ISP president still responds to users like a dick. Classic.

lackthought@lemmy.sdf.org · 19 pts · 3y (1 reply)

yeh, the author didn't seem to mind his reply but would it have killed the guy to be a little more cordial with his tone?

empireOfLove@lemmy.one · 21 pts · 3y

It's the tone of someone who is THE BOSS and wants to ensure everyone knows he is THE BOSS. Shows how little people change over 25 years. I do not care for it very much.

shitass@sh.itjust.works · 15 pts · 3y

Dude I love walks through computer history like this and I'm just bummed that the CEO didn't entertain it even a little. Obv still fit the theme but damn

Loved the article though.

Ilikecheese@lemm.ee · 11 pts · 3y

I remember working for a small local ISP in the late 90s. We didn’t offer unlimited accounts and charged people overages for any hours over the amount they selected with their account. As an employee I didn’t have these restrictions and even put in a second line in my house so I could use the one modem 24/7 and use the 2nd line to double my bandwidth (to a whopping 67Kbps) overnight. I ended up using more time in a month than there was actual hours. One month as a joke the billing manager sent me the bill that I would have received if I was a normal customer and it was thousands of dollars. I want to say I got the hint and started using less time and resources, but honestly thinking back on it, I doubt that was the case.

nan@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 7 pts · 3y

CEO sounds like he thinks this guy was getting a hold of him to complain. Or a businessman, and not a technology person.

I love that everyone has collectively decided OS X is still OS X no matter how hard Apple tries to rebrand it.

I’m also a fan of the author bringing a box of disks with him on a family trip.