The Forgotten Tech Trends of the 90s

[@nationsquid]

Click this link sponsr.is/bootdev_NationSquid and use my code NATIONSQUID to get 25% off your first payment for boot.dev. Follow me on BlueSky! bsky.app/profile/nationsquid.bsky.social

[@Cyby124]

bootdev? scam or not?

[@potatojz38]

​@@Cyby124Bluesky handle should be all you need to know

[@AlcoholicBoredom]

lol no one is going to follow you on Blue Sky. Well, maybe some bitter actors and a few people from MSNBC. 😜

[@typerightseesight]

An embroidered chuckie rugratz tshirt. lol yes

[@hamtaro126]

​@@Cyby124 Actually a Bad Link... Do not click!!!

[@sydneysabre]

We need to bring back see-through colorful tech. I sell high end sewing machines, and there's one from that era that they did a clear blue edition of. It's such outdated tech now, but I always drool when I see one.

[@obeseperson]

That stuff has been coming back in a big way, but sadly still not exactly “mainstream” again yet

[@JessicaFEREM]

8bitdo is releasing a transparent green Xbox branded keyboard in translucent green with the colorfull arrow keys

[@CyanRooper]

​@@MRblazedBEANSI don't think the average person is willing to commit crimes just to get their hands on a see-through PlayStation 2 in prison.

[@CyanRooper]

The problem is that people near the end of the 2000s started associating "clear plastic shells" with "cheap quality plastic" and so people slowly started to dislike them. Not to mention that technology during the late 2000s and early 2010s started adopting a cleaner, minimalist style as the new "futuristic" trend which made see-through tech appear outdated by comparison. I want to see more see-through tech appear as well but it's ultimately just the 90s and early 2000s kids being nostalgic for their childhoods and teen years.

[@keeganlimberg1572]

I love it too, and I think people are starting to get nostalgic. Beats makes a couple clear earbuds. I have some and I dig them

[@calsavestheworld]

You would find those AOL discs on the sidewalks, on a bench in the shopping mall (which were still a thing), inside newspapers, on every coffee table, in a library, in cereal boxes, in the mailbox, and shoved down your throat. There was no NOT finding an AOL discs at any given location. They were ubiquitous.

[@Kyle4OH8]

As a kid I remember my Dr had her walls and door covered with them I always thought it was so cool haha

[@JJMcCullough]

There’s a joke in Futurama about a garbage meteor that is partially made out of old AOL discs.

[@skootergirl22]

My relative had AOL and dial up sounds both give me nostalgia and vianum flashbacks

[@skootergirl22]

​@@JJMcCulloughwith bart Simpson dolls and beanie babies

[@calsavestheworld]

@@skootergirl22 They were Bart Simpson action figures.

[@theelitelance7586]

Let me tell you, watching your videos and the topic you make them on gives me those feelings of Christmas as a child. Please never change your genre

[@skootergirl22]

God, Christmas was better back then I feel ya

[@nationsquid]

Thank you so much!! I can't wait to make more content for all of you. :)

[@panqueque445]

Back in the day I went to cyber cafes almost every day. Now the thought of logging into ANYTHING on what's basically a public computer makes my skin crawl. Truly a different time.

[@LARKXHIN]

True. In more developed countries (hate that term), it's not viable without ensuring every computer is a total blank slate. Can't depend on people to log out of their accounts these days and wipe the history , and any person can buy some software on a USB and install something malicious. We can't assume they disabled USB in the BIOS.

[@khairulhelmihashim2510]

those days we were not required to disclose personal information in cyberspace apart from email or personal webpage. today, with proliferation of online services, our banking, tax, credit card, cellphone number, residential address, and other personal information are interlinked though internet networks and could be traced.

[@jaydarke]

Right? Tbh I miss LAN parties more than anything

[@crewrangergaming9582]

back then most of the fun things on the internet were free, and didn't even need sign ups, now you want to do anything you gotta go through a paywall

[@eastfrisian_88]

It was somehow an innocent time. You just needed a password and an email address for online shops and didn't need a password with at least 12 characters, plus a code via OTP app/text, or in the worst case both, or some unreadable CAPTCHA codes to log in somewhere, and data theft was still uncommon.

[@Bishounen]

Internet Cafes are still popular in Korea, a country with the fastest internet in the world. Though its mostly for gaming

[@uraverage2fortenjoyer]

Especially in southeast asia too

[@muhammadajibakriaji3753]

​@@uraverage2fortenjoyer In Indonesia not really anymore after 2010s since smartphone came around And make our new generation cant use computers

[@ChrisAtheist]

The country I'm from in Europe also still has Internet Cafés but i think he just talks about the US

[@sarahgguwu]

Korea no longer has the fastest internet in the world, they rank 29th according to Ookla and suffer from archaic net neutrality laws.

[@GurtTheHurt]

Did you watch the video, because that's exactly what he says? The internet cafe is gone as far as a place to just browse the internet goes, and only really exists now as gaming/LAN party cafes.

[@rogerklotzisme]

I've always loved your videos. I've always been rather obsessed with the 90s (as well as the 80s/2000s), and just... despite people being born in that decade, they seem to remember very little about it. Like I'm always going on about how things were edited and made more fun, even when it was just a commercial. Your sponsor segment really highlights what I mean. You get it! The weird, sporadic cameras jumping, the video playing on less frames, the transparent images that would display over people talking, the vignette. *chef's kiss* It's perfect! I wish I had the time to make my own little ads like this. Your stuff is great and makes me feel less bonkers when it comes to my obsession with the 90s and everything surrounding the era and the internet.

[@wilhelmbittrich88]

Me too. I was born in 1990 so I still remember the 90s quite well. Especially computers. I was really into computers and the internet from a very young age. This channels content really fills my nostalgic obsession with that era for me.

[@skootergirl22]

What generation are you? Some younger ones do become interested in past years they weren't born. The "born in the wrong generation" comes into mind

[@skootergirl22]

​@@wilhelmbittrich88still a millennial I was born in 88

[@UndyingNephalim]

I suspect the faded memory is because the 90's in general almost feels like an unrealistic dream that never happened, even those that that lived through it. On it's own the 90's almost feels like a disconnected parallel world that had no connection to reality and existed in a bubble, and that bubble violently burst just a year into the new millennium.

[@misterxar]

It's crazy that 90s Marketing was so good it's still giving people emotional responses 30 years later.

[@LindseyLouWho]

I had a giant section of my childhood bedroom wall, filled with AOL discs. You weren't wrong, lol. That, and X-files posters. Peak 90s kid.

[@kriscynical]

That actually sounds really rad. I had a section of my wall that was covered in Sunday comics from the newspaper. I actually got the idea from my sixth grade teacher because she had an entire wall, floor to ceiling, completely covered in Sunday comics clippings. It took a couple months for us to eventually read all of them in our downtime, and I always thought that was a really neat idea for a classroom.

[@LikaLaruku]

Google would deny it, but they used to have a tab dedicated to finding mp3s off the internet. I believe they ditched it around the time DMCAs started hitting KZbin.

[@ScreamingAllTheTime]

I remember as a small child, my mom’s sheer usage of AOL trial discs got her a cease and desist in the mail. I also have a second grade Christmas ornament craft that is glitter designs on the shiny side a cd, with wrapping paper on the print side. The wrapping paper peeled on mine and I discovered it was an AOL disc. I got ahold of an old classmate and had them check theirs. It was also an AOL disc. I suspect they are all AOL discs my teacher was desperate to get rid of.

[@JustAnotherBuckyLover]

I can't even TELL you how badly I wanted a see-through phone in the late 80s and I swore I would have one when I finally had a job... I never did get one. 😭

[@KayleeCee]

I found one at a garage sale when I was like 10 years old. I didn't even have my own line in my bedroom or anything. But it was so cool that I had to get it, and it was only $1. It was one of those that had all the neon components inside.

[@kriscynical]

I got one when I was in 6th grade in 1996... It was one of the prizes in our school's magazine drive, and I busted my ass for it. 😂

[@Irosicndosjnf]

The RGB of millennials

[@JustAnotherBuckyLover]

@@Irosicndosjnf Technically I'm the tail end of Gen X. 😬But I'm right on the cusp so I get to enjoy some aspects of being an elder millennial too. Like the literal use of emojis and sending gifs in text messages. 😂

[@stunytsuR]

Never too late

[@KyanoAng3l0_24]

Here in the Philippines, computer cafes are still profitable and popular businesses today albeit not as much as they used to be. While computers have gotten cheaper over the years, not all Filipinos could afford them, which's one major factor. I-Cafes were extremely popular back in the '90s and 2000s. They were almost everywhere. But since around the mid-2010s, thanks mainly to smartphones and availability of Wi-Fi, they're in the decline (tho not dead yet). The pandemic only made things even worse. Netopia used to be a very popular and widespread chain of I-Cafes but didn't even make it to 2020. As a Millennial, I grew up going to I-Cafes from grade school up to college. I'd save lunch money for an I-Cafe on Friday or at the weekends to enjoy the best or most popular games with friends. I did have my own PC, but it was usually low- or mid-end.

[@DrewBosire]

even here in Africa

[@shaider1982]

Of course not as much as the 1990's I remember Starcraft 1 matchea, then Counterstrike. Netopia was once the king of internet cafe chains but now, all the branches I visited are no more.

[@001delight9]

@@shaider1982 the only thing that replaces the internet cafe was a pisowifi or Voucher Wifi, every people nowadays has 1:1 one smartphone/tablet/laptop per person or sometimes 1:1 one smartphone/tablet/laptop per 2+ person.

[@001delight9]

too bad, because of the pandemic, internet cafe nowadays si dying or declining, that makes it more anti-poor.

[@RideOnTimePH]

⁠@@shaider1982pa extend 1 oras 😂 We have a PC at home but we have a dial up connection so I only played starcraft on single player mode. I learned how to play CS in a net cafe and still remember how dumb I am using the controls (not familiar with WASD then).

[@kriscynical]

My dad got himself into SO MUCH TROUBLE with one of those AOL trial discs because he fell asleep at the computer and ended up wracking up a bill of over $150, which would be almost $300 in today's money. That was lucky for me, because when I accidentally ran our cell bill up to $300 in college (I genuinely misunderstood when free talk time kicked in), I didn't get in trouble for it with my dad because he knew I didn't do it on purpose and that it wouldn't happen again. lol

[@Podsedneck]

The way you said synonymous at 3:00 is insane. Like cinnamon. Anyways love the channel!

[@nationsquid]

Gosh, I don't even know how I missed that. 🤣 Thanks for letting me know!

[@WhimsicalLittledawg]

I thought it was on purpose 🤯 LITERALLY CINNAMON AND SYNONYMOUS PUT TOGETHER 🤯

[@JoBot__]

It sounds fine to me.

[@kingofcapp]

Needs to become a thing

[@fussellralcon]

CININAMOUS

[@cmbaz1140]

Playing counterstrike and unreal with friends after school in an internet cafe was the best...😢

[@anonamatron]

Loser has to rim the winner, right?

[@shaider1982]

I remember the shouting on where the enemy was.

[@christopher6547]

Those mislabeled songs are interesting. Reminds me of how I once used Napster to download "The Power of Love" by Huey Lewis and the News, but the song I got was "The Power of Love" by Celine Dion.

[@skootergirl22]

I tell ya I downloaded so much crap

[@misterxar]

I'll never forget Creed's music getting mistyped and seeing "With Arms Wide Harder" on LimeWire every day

[@christopher6547]

@@misterxar Either a clever way to avoid people enforcing copyright, or just someone understandably failing to understand the singer's hunger dunger dang style.

[@lainiwakura1776]

My brother's downloaded audio of some guys beating up a Coke machine titled "Rage Against the Coke Machine."

[@christopher6547]

@lainiwakura1776 I had a similar experience trying to download the themes to Terminator 1 and 2. I got audio of a funny answering machine message of Arnold's Pizza Shop. I think I can't post links here, but you can probably find it on KZbin or a simple google search. Pretty funny.

[@Konic_and_Snuckles]

*You should do an episode on the weirdness and growing pains of television tech in North America in the 2000s* We saw many rapid, messy, and disruptive transitions: - DVDs replacing VHS tapes for home media purchases - The tumultuous progression of CRT SDTVs --> CRT EDTVs, HDTVs, and rear projecting DLP TVs --> Plasma and LCD - The resulting co-mingling of 4:3/16:9/SD/HD cable/OTA programming - Rise and fall of DVRs (like TiVo), media center PC, and the like - That painful analog to digital switchover beginning 2005 and going into effect in 2009 Would be fantastic.

[@Moonlight_Tide]

Oh gods, I remember having to send off for that free digital converter box for my tv

[@nationsquid]

Very interesting!! I could certainly look into this. :)

[@BrianAwesome]

They should have let us keep the option of both. Especially to tape record on vhs.

[@davinp]

By 2000, Microsoft was getting ready to retire DOS as we now had an operating system with a graphical user interface. The internet was new when Windows 95 came out

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Indeed it was. I still remember the first day I received like 48 new emails overnight when I'd normally maaayyybe get one every month or more. That was a lllooonnng night, lol! 😂 🐲✨🐲✨🐲✨

[@pico5631]

Man, I love transparent electronics. I wish they would make a comeback.

[@Konic_and_Snuckles]

They kind of are, depending on where you look. Last year's limited edition Steam Deck OLED was transparent. A lot of retro-handhelds have transparent shell options. There's the new Xbox Elite Cipher series of controllers. Probably the most "mainstream" transparent gadgets would be the Nothing Phones.

[@ImColours]

I’ll be back to watch I need to walk my fish

[@OmegaWolf747]

I remember setting a Napster download, which I knew would take about 20 minutes over dialup, going out for a walk, then coming back to find my song done. Good times.

[@madbradfreeman]

I was one of the people who helped make sure Y2K was a non-event. At the time, I was rocking a G3 "Batmobile" Powerbook running the MacOS 10 public beta. Fun times. And, yeah, never had to buy a floppy after AOL started delivering them. Too bad the CDs weren't repurposeable.

[@goddessstarla]

Thank you for preventing Y2K! 😊

[@kriscynical]

We need to bring back rainbow colored see-through tech _yesterday._ God do I ever miss that shit. I still have my teal see-through PlayStation dual shock controller and it's awesome.

[@_DreamzGaming]

Internet cafes were also in my childhood and until before covid here 🥹

[@vinching926]

I don't think they're dying yet "literally", some places offer public charging dock / wire with standing desks even you can have foods and drinks while charging your phone surfing the net....

[@wilhelmbittrich88]

I remember when I was a kid, my grandparents owned a store that sold magazines. I used to always read the computer ones front to back when I visited them at their shop. Also They would always bring home a copy of each magazine for me at the end of the week/month, because they wouldn’t sell all the stock. Every computer magazine back then came with a CD full of either AOL trials or game demo discs. I used to fill my grandparents computer up with game demos but I was never allowed to install the internet trials, as I was told they “still cost anyway after you use up the trial” and my parents/grandparents were certain that after the trial was over, they would be charged for internet usage. So I never ended up using any of the free internet trials, but I remember my grandparents shed was absolutely littered with those AOL discs. It was a great time to be a kid.

[@izzatsufian2796]

If the some 90s trend is good or better, we need to revive it!

[@jamesterrell2919]

Thanks!

[@wcproductions2024]

I grew up in the cusp of "big beige boxes better suited for professionals" and the new-fangled (at that time) colorful cases with RGB lighting and water cooling, etc. Thanks to having a stepfather who was a literal computer nerd, I wstched him build everything from low end workstations to high end gaming pc's for people as an extra source of income.

[@word-weaver1001]

I really miss the see-through tech from that era. I was stoked when I found out the new Steam Deck had a special clear edition. I hope more consoles make clear editions. They are so cool! Also - I miss skins for programs. Give me back my spaceship-shaped media player!!

[@dhpbear2]

10:30 - I'll have a Half-Double Decaf Half-Caffeinated" - "LA Story" (1991)

[@bloodystatic4156]

We the people should take the Internet back from these evil corportations!

[@lees_box]

I still have my old dial-up modem which is purple/blue see-through plastic. "Speed Demon".

[@Nick_80599]

We had internet payphones until 2012 in the UK operated by BT and New World, they were expensive to maintain and they were replaced with traditional payphones.

[@Dave-f3r]

I love your editing and humor it's just perfect and that was one of the rare cases I sat through a add keep it up

[@htbf67]

In the Philippines, and parts of Asia itself, Modern Internet Cafes do still exist and are still popular among teenagers.

[@christopheralvarez3269]

Glad I don’t live there!

[@The1stClassVillain]

The scammers and the weird corn watchers is what got Internet cafes shutdown

[@da40au40]

You've gotta like this guy. I watch he's vids without skipping the Advertisement part (sometimes its even more interesting than the vid). This guy has to be the most creative content creator, regardless of the platform. "When all crimes stopped for one hour" still my best video from nationsquid

[@Devo_gx]

I remember my first Internet experience. My father took me to a local ISP where they gave demos of what the Internet was in 1994. We signed up and got a floppy disk with Trumpet Winsock, and another with Netscape Navigator 1.0. It was so cool!

[@mohnjorrow1990]

Anyone else fall asleep to NationSquid videos? I love learning stuff as I drift off.

[@faenethlorhalien]

Bear in mind, VEEEEERY little of the "retro futuristic" look that you attach to the 90s did only, and I stress, ONLY happen in the USA. The 90s, technologically, in Europe were beige as all fuck.

[@faenethlorhalien]

Bear in mind that NO ONE outside of the USA other than, maybe, a few otaku in Japan, gave a fuck about Mac computers before 2006 and the switch to Intel CPUs. Therefore, transparent devices started tricking into European shops in the middle of the Nugget Age (2000-2006) , led by a flood of nuggets (as per DankPods terminology) that followed that aesthetic trend. A trend that, yes, Apple started, but remained NA for over 3 years.

[@cuseyeti_one8three]

@@faenethlorhalienThose particular versions of the iMac weren’t the most common computer you’d see at the time even in the US. Artistic people with money/art students had them and places like design firms due to the compatibility with the Adobe Suite that was beginning to dominate those fields. It was the launch of OSX and Apple’s next generation after these colorful OS9 boxes, beginning with the desklamp looking one and then others that were towers and then the more modern ones that look more like large tablets that you started seeing more and more iMacs in people’s houses and offices. That was early 2000’s.

[@christopherdouglass7143]

15:29 it’s MORBIN TIME

[@MichoBe]

NationSquid will always be my favorite channel, especially for mealtime!! Keep going bro!! You always get me hooked with these topics, including musical topics, from a musician to a musician... We need our own place on YT. Anyways love you!!

[@citizenforever6381]

I discovered your channel last month. Watched all your videos. I wish I could support you really deserve it and your content is unique. Love you from Egypt 🇪🇬

[@nationsquid]

Thank you so much!! More content coming your way soon. :)

[@typerightseesight]

The internet over $100 a month was not the way they intended. The internet was a cheap form of entertainment. People used the internet to escape paying for cable. lol

[@JungKook-up1ws]

The first time I used a computer was in 1995 with Windows 95 which was just released at that time. Back then, computer rooms need to be a very cold with the AC. I still remember the smell of CRT computers and brand-new floppy diskettes every time we have computer classes at school. It was a very different experience using a computer back then compared to now.

[@einfach2cocos]

I need to feed my computer rice brb

[@LegendStormcrow]

That Boot Dev ad was incredibly 90's. Good job.

[@adamsfusion]

12:40 do you have sources for the "pre-paid" version of this? I lived during that time, have many many acquaintances who lived through that time, and none of us remember paying for these discs. They were always free shelf-stuffers that you could just grab as a part of strolling the aisles. That goes for many of them: AOL, Netzero, Juno, and EarthLink. I remember they sold "start-up kits" to get connected, which was usually a winmodem or some US Robotics box and those came with some free hours, but not like prepaid discs or cards.

[@radwizardmomo]

E

[@JamesR624]

It was pre-paid for a while but was SO unpopular that AOL started desperately giving these things away in an attempt to get people to still go with AOL as an ISP as the likes of TWC and Comcast bundled it with their TV cable and was MUCH more preferable.

[@nationsquid]

AT&T offered a prepaid package in 2003! It was called "PrePaid Internet Service." You could get 20 hours of access for $19.99 or 8 hours of access for $9.99. :) www.newspapers.com/image/1121562816/ Although it was quite some time after AOL's subscription model started, I imagine it was mostly for short-term use or for travel.

[@confusedkemono]

im reminded of techmoans' video of see through tech made for prisons

[@ridensroom6957]

Omg i forgot all about WinAmp. Thanks for reminding me. I loved that tool

[@TomLehockySVK]

I still use a modern WinAmp called WACUP.

[@jd89]

It's amazing to think how rapid technological progress was in the mid to late 90's, especially when only few years earlier, in 1989, the Belgian techno anthem Pump Up The Jam by Technotronic was released.

[@Sakuyushi]

The ad was so nicely made I just sat through the whole ad with zero desire to skip, great job there!

[@jmal]

As a kid in the '90s, disc-based interactive multimedia encyclopedias were awesome. It made learning stuff on my own super fun for me because of all the interactive elements. You could read an article on Ancient Rome, watch a short documentary video about it, then play around with a 3D simulation of the Colloseum in just a few clicks. Then, you could click on an article about Beethoven and play snippets of his musical pieces while reading. There was always something new to learn around the corner, and most of the time, you don't need an Internet connection for it, and you can vouch for the information's authenticity because it wasn't written by some rando with too much time on their hands online. Of course, with the advent of Wikipedia and KZbin, as well as more advanced VR technology, the CD-based, interactive multimedia encyclopedia went away.

[@vindication84]

8:13 you make the only sponsor spots I ever actually watch. Absolutely spot on with the 90s video aesthetic 🔥 Also your transition to George Harrison is nearly complete

[@GeddyScott]

Nationsquids ability to make a video that captures the spirt of the 90s and 2000s to a tee is just amazing😊

[@tallalmk6]

For real lol. Btw do you know where to get these retro old windows clips that he uses in his videos?

[@TheShelledSanctuary]

Your content is so nice to learn and listen to when I'm treating rescue animals. Seriously, keep up the good work ❤

[@nationsquid]

Aww thank you!! Tell the furry friends I said hi. :)

[@C.K.Productions]

You just casually mentioned one of my favorite books of all time! I really love Fukuyama’s work!

[@suitandtieguy]

Too bad he was wrong!

[@Emancipatriot]

Does anybody else that lived through this stuff watching this mans videos? I still enjoy every minute. Also, we actually owe aol, msn, net zero, etc our gratitude for showing us the way to the net. Like NS said these discs made the internet a tangible thing.

[@EastyyBlogspot]

Connecting to the internet...but it taking up the phone line was a pain lol😅

[@samtron5000]

9:56 oh the VR.., I got to try this shit once at four seasons ozark resort we had to stay in by accident because my dad drove us out there but didn’t reserve a cheap hotel… I’ll never forget it. (Sorry unrelated to internet lol)

[@Dudewithamicrophone]

really enjoyed your video man, it took me back.

[@Mitchellfw]

Oh gosh, the Zoolander references, even with the angle wings. I do have very strong memories of the idea in the 90's where it was a " big ending" to everything wrong with the previous 20th century and how the 2000's were going to be a big blending of races, religions, and cultures (lookin' at you, Madonna). We were all going to come together and work out our differences, and the wonders of the new tech age was going to help. Unfortunately, that optomism fell apart VERY fast after the 9/11 attacks.

[@Tornado1994]

Wake Me Up Before You Gogo and a Double Latte and Gasoline!

[@notsrynot]

I legit get excited when I see a thumbnail for your stuff and the dates posted in hours ❤

[@callerunavailable]

NationSquid looks exactly like a guy who'd be on youtube giving a scholarly retrospective on something he never experienced 😂

[@tastelessgestures460]

Dude! Every time I see those colorful iMacs, all I think of it Zoolander when they smash the pc to get the files…then you show up with the Zoolander bit for your sponsor 😂😂

[@JamesR624]

1:33 Really happy with my Spigen Classic C1 case. You can have an iPhone 16 that feels like it came straight outta 1997. Sharing the aesthetic of a fusion of the iMac G3 from 1997 and the iPhone 2G from 2007.

[@hellbreakfast]

"It all started with a company known as Napster..." What a disturbance in the force that just sent out. There was internet piracy before Napster. Napster just did it with music, at such scale that the big guys sat up and did something.

[@eddiemidnite]

I need that mug with the Jazz pattern on it.

[@eastfrisian_88]

Somehow right now I can just smell the Internet café in our video store in the village where I grew up and remember the terribly cheap and thin filter coffee and rock-hard cookies that were served there. That was between 1999-2004. The charge was normally per hour and expensive. When the boss was there (a very lovely woman), she turned a blind eye to us children/teens and we could pay by the quarter hour, but then we didn't get a drink. Since Germany is embarrassing when it comes to technical changes and is missing out on being "on time" for new trends, we only had a DSL connection at home in 2006 and had to beg our parents for it, and they paid 50% and my sister and I the other 50% of the monthly fee. That's when I turned 18. I started an apprenticeship as an office administrator in 2005, and at the company, the Internet connection was still limited (not flatrate, until 2007). Employees somehow had a "private" quota of 30 minutes and trainees (for research and learning) of one hour per week - unimaginable today.

[@s.e.me0w]

I've never been more entertained watching ads than on your channel. It's always an adventure.

[@uxartmusicvideo-andphotogr2043]

In early 2000's, when I was 7 years old, I used Morpheus on a laptop with Windows 95 and dial-up internet. Year or two later got PC with windows 98 and used Kazaa. Downloaded mostly music because games where more heavy in size and that ment longer download times what made interent pay charge more expensive.

[@lorenplays3548]

Nice video!! Great quality as always.

[@colingznetworkplus4618]

Bring back transparent colorful tech

[@khaimk4r4su]

It brings bad memories to Apple ❤

[@TempestTemple]

I think the main thing that killed see through plastic was companies like MadCatz. By the mid 2000s most clear plastic stuff was made by them and other low quality 3rd party companies, and clear plastics just ended up being associated with cheap junk.

[@wilsonicsnet]

13:23 My friend collected AOL disks. He would stack like 3 or 4 on top of one another, glue them together, then put rubber sticky pads on the bottom side. Essentially a free coaster.

[@WatashiMachineFullCycle]

Back in the day I actually hated see through tech and all the angelfire webpage design and wacky mouse cursors. Now, I kind of miss them, ngl. Also, big ups for using all that homestarrunner footage, a man of taste clearly

[@CaseySexton]

The Zoolander ad got a huge thumbs up from me!

[@nationsquid]

There's a lot more to life than being really, really, really, ridiculously good looking!....😗

[@nikjs]

merch idea: sell discs with this channels videos

[@IkanGelamaKuning]

I sent my resume for my first job interview in 2004, from internet cafe. Accepted and happily worked there. Thank you cyber cafe.

[@zanderwhitcroft]

So weird to have lived thru it and seen what was in the future. I miss the random nature of the old internet, it was like exploring an unknown land.

[@simonlathwell]

I remember back in late 1999 I worked in an Internet Cafe that my friend owned. It only had a few computers and we charged £3.50 per hour with a shared 33K serial modem. A lady came in asking for a 15 minute session and asked me to help her. She gave me the details about the website, so I opened IE, typed in the URL, and we just looked at each other with pure shock along with her friend. She was expecting a modelling website, and granted it was, but was of the adult BDSM type. She paid for the time, and gave me £5 to not say anything to anyone about it. I was only 22 at the time, and even I was shocked, but now there are loads of adult sites covering all aspects of adult material. How times have changed over the last 25 years.

[@eastfrisian_88]

🤭🤣Our Internet café was in the local video store, and when people wanted to go to the adult video section, they had to walk past the corridor with the four desks with computers. I quickly realized that the village wasn't as well-behaved as everyone thought lol, and my brother, who was eight years older and already of legal age at the time, didn't saw me sitting at a desk when he went in. When he came out, he realised and I had a huge grin on my face, he turned pale and paid for two more hours of internet time to keep my mouth shut 🤣

[@Daehawk]

Still waiting on my see thru car. Seriously the 1990s were my favorite decade ever. I've seen the 70s 80s 90s and on and by FAR the 90s rule them all. I miss my wife. ❤ we had the greatest times of our lives together in the 90s. Thank you for this 90s video friend.

[@gamereditor59ner22]

Man, I miss Windows 95. Edit: I also missed Windows 98, 2000, ME, XP, Vista, 7, and 8.

[@michaeldhondt368]

I think your the only person I have seen that misses windows me and vista and windows 8. Those I skipped I went from 98se to xp to 7 to 10

[@Pon3TorLord]

I remember Internet cafè's, even though I'm just 25 years old. They lasted up until the early 10's, or maybe even longer since that's when I last remember going to one. Smartphones were readily available, but even the poorest of poor in my country would eventually have one by the middle of the previous decade. I also have a friend from India who told me that few locals had Internet connections at home up until 2016-2018, so Internet cafès will probably continue to strive in lesser developed countries.

[@StarSpangledShimmer]

I love everything about this channel. Even the sponsor bits. 👏🏼👍🏼💪🏼

[@chrisvw352]

Good old Napster. The very first song I downloaded was Last Resort by Papa Roach. My Mom did not seem to happy about the Napster situation. I think we were only allowed an hour to a hour 1/2 for when we wanted to surf the web. A bit more for school work and things.

[@jmal]

Back in the late '90s, I had a 56k modem, but even then, I had to wait up to an hour for a song to download. Once it's ready, I disconnect from the Internet and play the song for hours until my ears get tired of hearing it, because I can't listen to music and surf at the same time without my audio sounding like trash thanks to the modem. First song I ever downloaded was "Rendezvous" by Craig David. Nowadays, I'd just type a few keywords into Spotify on my phone and it'd play that song for me.

[@DanielleWhite]

Having grown up in the 80s and 90s my take on the iMac was that designers came across some of the clear devices, particularly trimline style telephones, from the 1980s.

[@chuckfarley7642]

Great job! I'm always suspicious when young people talk about times they did not live through, but you pretty much nailed and did it in a respectful way. Just a few points: Two more reasons for internet cafes - 1) they had broadband, which would not become widely available to residential users until the 2000s. I used to take stacks of floppies into the university computer lab to download the latest Linux distros which would have taken forever over a modem. 2) They were great for travelers. Most of us did not have laptops back then, so it was a good way to check mail on the go (especially overseas). I hope you didn't actually smash a vintage iMac (clenches teeth). I just spent the past 3 days trying to get mine working correctly. Also, foul on dismissing the 80s as "archaic and vintage". It was a futuristic decade in its own right with precursors of everything from the 90s. (VCRs, Walkmans, PCs, BBSes, Satellite TV). The 70s and 80s planted the seeds that blossomed in the 90s.

[@johnflatt1288]

What/who is that awesome painting of behind you? lol i can’t help but focus in on that while watching your videos. Lovely channel and content as always!

[@nationsquid]

Thank you!! That is Twiggy :)

[@Tornado1994]

@@nationsquid Twiggy once posed in front of a Snoopy Mural in 1969, Good Grief!🤣

[@SevenLight-z2u]

What a fantastic presentation !! Tx u. You know, as an electrical engineer I had a somewhat darker ultimate scenario for our tech;- believing that given mankind's inevitable desire for ultimate power, I like many others in the field considered the possibility that we might actually create a global wide 'digital prison '. With the century-long drive to create a one world government for example: the nano scopic tech inbedded in a certain recent 'medical procedure in the arm'... combined with the power of an exponentially advancing quantum AI Net, I very sadly believe that we might actually be heading in that very specific & horrific direction. I find myself looking back over 80s & 90s television with such an expectation of innocents, hope and excitement. I loved those times. Oh how wonderful it would be to re-wind back WITHOUT all that we know today !!

[@sadmermaid]

Microsoft having people learn how to drop and drag, click and right click by having solitaire and minesweeper games was genius imo

[@GenMilleXial]

the AOL starter disks only could be stacked earlier on, because they didn’t preapprove the payment method on the trial. you could make anything up, as long as the format was correct. they fixed that pretty quickly, mainly because of AoHell’s bunk payment method generator, so without new payment information, stacking starters disks was pointless. you didn’t get the minutes without the new payment method. by the time of the CD-ROMs, they had fixed it.

[@kvlaci1358]

11:23 is the guy who’s responsible that I start work on time!!

[@ally679]

I remember making a hanging mobile - style art thing that hung from the ceiling with AOL CDs in the late 90s. I thought it was cool (at the time) and it looked pretty when it caught the light.

[@wolvenar]

I remember the transparent everything being a feature of the prison system. (cant hide things in TV's etc)

[@TerryKashat]

Winamp - whip the llama’s ass.

[@RideOnTimePH]

6:12 I still have their debut album on cassette 😂

[@fissionfusion2722]

What's funny ? Why u laughing ? R u stupid ?

[@sirawesomenessi1796]

A man of the people. I like those quizzes he’s been putting out.

[@shaider1982]

Internet cafes (which may or may not sell coffee), were the main way for pc multiplayer when i was in high school. Internet was too slow back then and LAN was the best way to play games like Starcraft and Counterstrike. There actually was a small controversy when Starcraft 2 released as it did not have LAN support so need to log in to battlenet. Eventually, internet speeds have increased so this doesn't seem to be a problem.

[@Tornado1994]

Internet Cafes were where you could go for DSL and High Speed Internet before 1999. I visited them frequently especially at the Federal Way Public Library in Seattle to watch Streaming unofficial Content like Day 1 of Woodstock '99 on Hotline Client(Later Renamed Kazaa) and E3 1999 especially seeing Dreamcast being demoed.

[@NightmareRex6]

well 2000 was the "end of history" in the eyes of machines that werent updated for y2k