Ticket 2 Ride

Dial-up. Wow, I didn’t realize there was such a thing still around. How civilization has evolved! I remember the days of dial-up internet connectivity, very cutting edge it seemed. How important was a landline back in the early 1990s? Very!

My mother and my mother-in-law still have their landlines and fought hard to keep them when each recently moved. What a hassle they went through to keep it, and damn expensive too. Part of the desire to have a landline is distrust with cellphone technology, and comfort in picking up the receiver and hearing that dial tone. When you’ve had a landline, and the same telephone number for decades, the thought of change is overwhelming. Your old phone number is known by a gazillion contacts from accumulated from years of giving the number to friends, family, utilities, doctors, lawyers, accountants, banks, credit card accounts, businesses, etc. I had an email phased out (not my choice) and the effort to change services, accounts and login information was a pain in the ass.

According to an AP story by Wyatte Grantham-Philips, “In the U.S., according to Census Bureau data, an estimated 163,401 households were using dial-up alone to get online in 2023, representing just over 0.13% of all homes with internet subscriptions nationwide.” Many people live in areas where broadband service is not available, and connectivity to the outside world feels like a third world country. No offense to anyone living in a third world country or Alabama.

On September 30th, just weeks away, AOL ends dial-up service. Did anyone realize that AOL was still around? It is, and many people still have aol.com email accounts. Me, for example. I don’t know if the “You’ve got mail!” voice still announces having something in your inbox) my sound is muted), but I’d in in trouble if that email account suddenly disappeared as it functions as a backup email address.

Back in 2013, the Washington Post reported that 2.5 million “AOL-brand access subscribers,” paying for $20.03 a month (on average) for dial-up and “other products and services.” I recall paying that monthly fee, but I dumped it long before 2013. America Online was a big deal back then, even merging with Time-Warner. What a boondoggle that was. AOL (as it became known as), was separated from the merger and eventually became part of Yahoo!

Technology and software evolution introduces new products and applications, rendering others as obsolete. We’ve come a long way from punch cards, floppy disks, dot matrix printers and Commodore computers. It used to be that you purchased software, it came in a box and you loaded it yourself. Now you download it (or access it in the cloud) and rent a license. Software companies got smart and now offer “seats) for an annual subscription fee. Just try to buy physical media, how are you going to use it on your computer without a CD drive? When was the last time you used the phrase “IBM compatible computer”? Is IBM still around?

What else is no longer supported or sold? A few examples.

Skype – free internet, then video calling was added in 2006. Launched in 2003, ending in 2025.

Google Hangouts – messaging app that didn’t quite make it. At least it got integrated with Google Chat

Microsoft Internet Explorer – one of the first big browsers.

Netscape browser – another big browser in its time.

MS-DOS – anybody remember typing in commands?

Microsoft Fortran – I heard that dinosaurs first developed this code.

Microsoft Encarta – CD-ROM searchable multimedia – I had one of these with my first computer.

Palm, the first personal digital assistant (PDA) – these devices were a big deal. Definitely a nerd toy.

Microsoft Photodraw – included with Microsoft Office, a tool for editing photos and images. I used this app every day at work.

Windows Movie Maker – the idea of making your own movies. How revolutionary.

Adobe Flash Player – we needed this to view certain graphic and video content, but other software has replaced it.

BlackBerry OS – BlackBerry was huge, now it’s not.