Flashback time

"Just Jeepin'" (macintux)
12/14/2019 at 13:42 • Filed to: None

Dear heavens this took me back. Spotted at a Half Price Books outlet in Bloomington, Indiana.

Can anyone guess the year without looking it up? Here’s a hint: the web shows up in chapter thirteen , eight chapters after telnet.

This book was published about the same time I was working at Waldens oftware (I bought a copy while I worked there), which I doubt many of you knew ever existed. Blink and you missed it. Heck probably half of you don’t remember Waldenb ooks.

Their software outlets offered NetWare, new multi-media ready PCs, and a new line of books that launched with a first title PCs for Dummies . (I was excited a few years later to see Wine for Dummies , until I realized it wasn’t about the Windows emulator.)

I had never seen such a lineup of serious computer titles. Database theory, object-oriented design...for a nerd like me it was heavenly, and the 30% discount was enough to ensure most of my paychecks went straight back to books.

I did regret not taking advantage of that to pick up a copy of the OED, but now I’m glad I don’t have to keep taking that with me as I move homes. I have one of the Compact editions anyway.

DISCUSSION (24)

Poor_Sh > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 13:58

Randomguess: 92?

Tapas > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 14:04

Whoa I learnt something new today.

I have the Wine for Dummies book!

fintail > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 14:08

I remember WaldenBooks, my first exposure to UK market car magazines came from there, opened my eyes to more fearless journalism.

VincentMalamute-Kim > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 14:09

1997?

DipodomysDeserti > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 15:03

1760?

Chariotoflove > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 15:06

I spent a huge amount of my Christmas money and allowance at Waldenbooks. I still carry my Otherworlds card in my wallet. Remember those?

Kinja'd!!!

Just Jeepin' > Poor_Sh
12/14/2019 at 16:00

Good guess. Right on the money.

Poor_Sh > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 16:03

Oh cool. I was gonna say 85 since I felt it had to be older than I'd really think but second guessed myself.

facw > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 17:39

My dad has a copy of this ! It amused me every time I see it. Bought new of course!

Just Jeepin' > VincentMalamute-Kim
12/14/2019 at 17:59

92. Opening Arpanet to commercial activity in 94-95 meant that by 97 practically everyone had at least heard of the web, but in 92 it was a new curiosity.

Just Jeepin' > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 18:03

Oops, I think it was called NSFNet by then.

VincentMalamute-Kim > fintail
12/14/2019 at 18:03

Max Power!

fintail > VincentMalamute-Kim
12/14/2019 at 18:22

My first exposure was “Classic and Sportscar”, I think I was 11. I remember the cashier didn’t know how to ring it up as the cover only had a GBP price, with no USD sticker. They’d occasionally get this in, along with “Thoroughbred and Classic Cars”. About a year later, they intermittently received “Car”, which was an instant favorite.

VincentMalamute-Kim > fintail
12/14/2019 at 18:40

Too bad the internet took away the ability to look over physical magazines and discover new ones.

VincentMalamute-Kim > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 18:41

Can’t remember. I thought it took to about 1997 before I really knew what the web was about.

Heard of Arpanet but d on’t remember it ever being called NSFNet.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 18:49

Based on the fact the first official spec for HTTP/WWW was released in 1991, so it should be a bit after that. The concept was invented in the late-1980s, but it didn’t become popular and mainstream until the mid-1990s. Prior to this, the Internet was rarely used outside academia and the military; this was when telnet, ftp, Usenet, Kermit, Gopher, and Archie were the primary way people used it. Even in the first half of the 1990s, it wasn’t considered a forgone conclusion that the WWW concept would end up being dominant the way it is today (and, arguably, those that developed alternatives back then might have been prescient, as smartphone apps are starting to replace traditional web browsing as interfaces when using the internet)...

This would have been back in the era when the main way typical home PC users communicated were BBSs; the Internet was quite niche and unknown back then.

Just Jeepin' > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
12/14/2019 at 18:55

I first got online in 1989/90, so I was a little familiar with the pre-web Internet, but other than telnet and ftp I wasn’t really exposed to most of the culture. Some Usenet via AOL later (Serdar Argic is a name I’ll never forget) but never really used IRC much.

Mosaic over PPP was a revelation. I thought you had to be on a campus with “real” Internet to get anything graphical.

Just Jeepin' > Chariotoflove
12/14/2019 at 18:55

And now I learn I’ve been mis-capitalizing Waldenbooks for years (at least in my head).

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 19:05

Heavy clients were not uncommon back then. Some of the examples I mentioned were early clients that added various interfaces to low-level protocols. Even the early web was a curious place because HTML wasn’t suitable for user interfaces (originally designed exclusively for documents) , which resulted in a plethora of extensions, plugins, and proprietary protocol changes...

How did I forget IRC? That was still popular among serious nerds well into the 2000s and I’m sure there are still quite a few networks running.

Just Jeepin' > Eric @ opposite-lock.com
12/14/2019 at 19:10

I’m idling in 3 very idle IRC channels right now.

Just Jeepin' > Tapas
12/14/2019 at 19:12

When that book came out, any book at all on Linux was rare. I remember going to Borders and being pleasantly surprised if they had one or two.

Very different world now.

Eric @ opposite-lock.com > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 19:16

I miss the era when it was the main way people communicated online. Now it’s like Facebook, Slack, and other methods that further isolate people. The relatively organic way people met online no longer happens as far as I can tell.

Chariotoflove > Just Jeepin'
12/14/2019 at 19:23

And no one left to apologize to. I miss the old bookstore that wasn’t trying to be a hipster cafe and community center in one.

fintail > VincentMalamute-Kim
12/14/2019 at 20:22

Yep, the magazine thing died off. I remember it was always fun to go to larger cities that had a Barnes and Noble, or specialty magazine store, and explore the foreign (almost all UK) car magazines.