Wireless Phone Jacks and Internet Access

 My family was probably about average nationally as far as getting a computer and then internet, but around where I grew up we were behind. My parents weren't into computers or tech stuff, and we didn't have a lot of money or a need for a PC, so the first time we got one it was an old model from my dad's work they were getting rid of and he could take for free. 

It was one of those monitor on top of the box type that were so common in workplaces in the 90s. A sort of tan color. Boring, unable to offend anyone it seemed. It was put on an old desk in the alcove of my parent's room. No internet. I played some games I was able to get my hands on and load up. A Chex Quest game with an AOL 3.0 trial I had saved for many years in anticipation of this moment, the Amazon trail (on like 8 3.5 'floppy' disks) and some others I had come across. Chex Quest was actually a decent game built off of the 'Doom' Engine.

The computer had no sound card, a Pentium 1 that was able to muster 90mhz of processing power, Windows 95 and about 4mb of ram or so. I played a trial of the Catz video game (where you took care of a virtual cat, a fancy version of a Tamagotchi). We didn't have a cat so this had to do. I did have an external modem running
28.8kbps and used this in a modem to modem connection with my friend to play Bomberman, which was super awesome because we were playing each other from the other side of the block, and because Bomberman.

The U.S. Robotics modem we had. You had to switch it on.

My parents eventually caved to the pressure to get internet and the world expanded from there. This was around the time of Napster and Limewire. My dad was so worried about getting sued for downloading music I was more than banned from these programs. There was a lot in the news as the record companies were panicked and wanted to make an example of some people who downloaded music. My parents didn't understand or care that the targets of these lawsuits were downloading a lot over broadband connections, it wasn't worth the risk to them of course.

So this obviously made me have to cover my tracks on the shared computer while I downloaded songs so slowly over out 28.8 connection. I want to say the average song took 5 minutes or so at the normal 128kbps mp3 quality you would commonly see on Limewire. Downloading songs from Blink 182 and the mis-attributed 'Half the Man I Used To Be' which was 'Creep' by Stone Temple Pilots but always under 'Nirvana'. We also had one phone line so the risk of having to disconnect of losing the connection if someone picked up the phone was high. I had to sneak the downloads, save them to a floppy (no CD burner yet), then get them onto another drive somehow. Remember, the computer had no sound and even if it did, the music would have raised suspicions. I then would hide or delete the program from the computer until next time. 

This brings me to the inspiration for this post. I bought a Texas Instruments (TI) laptop from a friend. It was about the same speed as the computer my parents had but it had sound and a 56k modem card. I was now free to tear around the internet as I pleased for better or for worse! Still limited by the internet connection and the phone jacks in the house I was determined to find a solution.

The Computer.

This came in the form of the wireless phone jack. Using the phone jack in my parents room, I could broadcast the signal over to my own and use the phone line late at night when there would be no risk of the phone being picked up, or anyone wanting the line. I wouldn't have known of it's existence but I saw one at the Rite Aid 4 blocks from our house. It wasn't cheap for me, about $60 if I recall, maybe on sale for $40. Still a weeks worth about of newspaper delivery. 

I bought the unit (I think very similar to this Phillips pictured). My recollection is that it did work but my parents were suspicious (rightly so this time) of the big white thing plugged into their wall under the phone in their room and I ended up returning it. My solution ended up being a long phone cord that I could plug into my laptop and they weren't interested in my computer so I was basically still able to download song indiscriminately. 

I also don't exactly remember how I listened to those songs off of the TI. It had no USB, and MP3 players were barely a thing. I think for abut two years I could only listen to those songs on tiny, tinny sounding laptop speakers, but that was amazing enough.

Newton's Apple

As I assume most of us do, I often find myself thinking and reflecting on life, experiences, things that make a time or place feel a certain way. I'm going to start using this as a place to record those thoughts, even if it's just me reading them.

Today some part of that past crept into my mind in the form of the Apple Emate Newton. We used these in middle school which for me was from 1998-2001. Starting in 6th grade, a teacher would roll a cart full of these durable, translucent plastic things into the room (I had first period math class, where they were most used in my case) and we used them to do things we could have otherwise done on paper. 

But they were novel. Heavy for their size and very sturdy feeling. They had a display that was lcd with a glowing backlight similar to my Timex Indiglo and a stylus that could be used to draw numbers and letters. You could draw a character and it would turn it into the number or letter you wrote out. Pretty interesting stuff for it's time. A favorite feature of us kids was to 'x' something out which made the x'd out thing explode on the little screen. They had the ability to talk to each other with an IR port as well, like a Gameboy Color. That must have been all the rage for simple data transfer in the late 90s, and it is still pretty cool.

We used a tip of the iceberg's worth of features on those Newtons but just interfacing with something like those contributed to us being able to use technology better as a whole that the generation before us. We definitely were right on the precipice of the tech we use today in the late 90s.

The novelty of things like these was so great back then. I remember being super interested in a type of texting walkie talkie. The idea of talking to a friend in another class covertly was incredible. I think they claimed a 500ft range! I never got one of them, but having a phone you could text on wasn't even a thought to us in 1998. A quick search tells me these were probably the Cybergear text messenger, if you're interested.

I couldn't find much on them.

Exactly as I remembered.