#americaonline — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #americaonline, aggregated by home.social.
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AOL 3.0 Channels, thanks to the P30L project!
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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AOL 3.0 Channels, thanks to the P30L project!
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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AOL 3.0 Channels, thanks to the P30L project!
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing
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AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing
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AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing
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AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing
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AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing
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Weekly output: phone plans, Nvidia keynote, passkey adoption, Bending Spoons buys AOL, SpaceX simplifying Starship lander, Internet luminaries on the open Web
This is not going to be a great week for normal sleep cycles: Tuesday, I will wake up at around 4 a.m. to spend a 15-plus hour shift working as an election officer for Arlington, and then Wednesday I’m off to Dulles Airport for this year’s final business trip across the Atlantic. I’m departing for Web Summit in Lisbon several days early because the organizers of another conference, the Mozilla Festival, offered a press pass and a travel stipend to cover that event in Barcelona. I’ve heard good things about this conference over the years, so accepting an invitation to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities in Europe was an easy call.
In addition to what you see below, Patreon readers got a detailed recap of how this past week’s event-packed schedule left its own series of dents in my calendar.
10/28/2025: The Best Cell Phone Plans, Wirecutter
This was going to be a modest update to the guide that I’ve been maintaining since 2014, but T-Mobile jacking up prices while AT&T and Verizon inflicted more modest rate hikes led to us dethroning T-Mo on cost grounds and handing our “for most people” pick to AT&T, which has advanced its own 5G network considerably.
10/28/2025: In DC, Nvidia CEO Touts New AI Partnerships, Goes a Little MAGA, PCMag
Heading into Nvidia’s conference, I was worried that CEO Jensen Huang would go into the weeds about the finer points of GPU architecture. Instead, he used this nearly two-hour keynote to jump from topic to topic without getting into too much detail about any of them–and kept coming back to opportunities to praise President Trump.
10/29/2025: Passkey Adoption Sees Striking Progress, With One Obvious Leader, PCMag
I struggled to get this written at the end of a long workday, resulting in my getting some nuances wrong that required updating the post the next morning.
11/1/2025: Serial Dot-Com Purchaser Bending Spoons to Buy AOL, But Why?, PCMag
Writing about AOL in 2025 makes me feel so old, but as one of PCMag’s graybeards I had to cover the news of Bending Spoons buying the company that once ruled the online world. I got to this story a day after it broke, so I turned that lag into an opportunity to expand the piece with some quotes from a publicist for that Italian firm and from a podcast interview of its CEO Luca Ferrari last year
11/1/2025: After Elon Tantrum, SpaceX Now Prepping ‘Simplified’ Starship-Based Lunar Lander, PCMag
Since I wrote about Elon Musk’s childish reaction to NASA’s understandable concern over the pace of its Human Landing System work, I had to reach for a keyboard to cover SpaceX’s grown-up corporate response.
11/1/2025: ‘The Truth Is Paywalled.’ Internet Vets Lament the State of the ‘Open’ Web, PCMag
This Monday-evening panel was one of the first items on my calendar this week, but having event after event after event follow it led to me not writing it up until Thursday night. Once again, it was a serious treat to hear some of the Internet’s founding figures talk about the state of the thing they invented.
#AmericaOnline #AOL #ArtemisIII #ATT #BendingSpoons #BrewsterKahle #CindyCohn #Dashlane #FoundationForAmericanInnovation #HumanLandingSystem #JensenHuang #Nvidia #NvidiaGTCDC #passkeyExport #passkeys #phonePlans #smartphonePlans #SpaceX #TMobile #unlimitedData #verizon #VintCerf
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Weekly output: phone plans, Nvidia keynote, passkey adoption, Bending Spoons buys AOL, SpaceX simplifying Starship lander, Internet luminaries on the open Web
This is not going to be a great week for normal sleep cycles: Tuesday, I will wake up at around 4 a.m. to spend a 15-plus hour shift working as an election officer for Arlington, and then Wednesday I’m off to Dulles Airport for this year’s final business trip across the Atlantic. I’m departing for Web Summit in Lisbon several days early because the organizers of another conference, the Mozilla Festival, offered a press pass and a travel stipend to cover that event in Barcelona. I’ve heard good things about this conference over the years, so accepting an invitation to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities in Europe was an easy call.
In addition to what you see below, Patreon readers got a detailed recap of how this past week’s event-packed schedule left its own series of dents in my calendar.
10/28/2025: The Best Cell Phone Plans, Wirecutter
This was going to be a modest update to the guide that I’ve been maintaining since 2014, but T-Mobile jacking up prices while AT&T and Verizon inflicted more modest rate hikes led to us dethroning T-Mo on cost grounds and handing our “for most people” pick to AT&T, which has advanced its own 5G network considerably.
10/28/2025: In DC, Nvidia CEO Touts New AI Partnerships, Goes a Little MAGA, PCMag
Heading into Nvidia’s conference, I was worried that CEO Jensen Huang would go into the weeds about the finer points of GPU architecture. Instead, he used this nearly two-hour keynote to jump from topic to topic without getting into too much detail about any of them–and kept coming back to opportunities to praise President Trump.
10/29/2025: Passkey Adoption Sees Striking Progress, With One Obvious Leader, PCMag
I struggled to get this written at the end of a long workday, resulting in my getting some nuances wrong that required updating the post the next morning.
11/1/2025: Serial Dot-Com Purchaser Bending Spoons to Buy AOL, But Why?, PCMag
Writing about AOL in 2025 makes me feel so old, but as one of PCMag’s graybeards I had to cover the news of Bending Spoons buying the company that once ruled the online world. I got to this story a day after it broke, so I turned that lag into an opportunity to expand the piece with some quotes from a publicist for that Italian firm and from a podcast interview of its CEO Luca Ferrari last year
11/1/2025: After Elon Tantrum, SpaceX Now Prepping ‘Simplified’ Starship-Based Lunar Lander, PCMag
Since I wrote about Elon Musk’s childish reaction to NASA’s understandable concern over the pace of its Human Landing System work, I had to reach for a keyboard to cover SpaceX’s grown-up corporate response.
11/1/2025: ‘The Truth Is Paywalled.’ Internet Vets Lament the State of the ‘Open’ Web, PCMag
This Monday-evening panel was one of the first items on my calendar this week, but having event after event after event follow it led to me not writing it up until Thursday night. Once again, it was a serious treat to hear some of the Internet’s founding figures talk about the state of the thing they invented.
#AmericaOnline #AOL #ArtemisIII #ATT #BendingSpoons #BrewsterKahle #CindyCohn #Dashlane #FoundationForAmericanInnovation #HumanLandingSystem #JensenHuang #Nvidia #NvidiaGTCDC #passkeyExport #passkeys #phonePlans #smartphonePlans #SpaceX #TMobile #unlimitedData #verizon #VintCerf
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Weekly output: phone plans, Nvidia keynote, passkey adoption, Bending Spoons buys AOL, SpaceX simplifying Starship lander, Internet luminaries on the open Web
This is not going to be a great week for normal sleep cycles: Tuesday, I will wake up at around 4 a.m. to spend a 15-plus hour shift working as an election officer for Arlington, and then Wednesday I’m off to Dulles Airport for this year’s final business trip across the Atlantic. I’m departing for Web Summit in Lisbon several days early because the organizers of another conference, the Mozilla Festival, offered a press pass and a travel stipend to cover that event in Barcelona. I’ve heard good things about this conference over the years, so accepting an invitation to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities in Europe was an easy call.
In addition to what you see below, Patreon readers got a detailed recap of how this past week’s event-packed schedule left its own series of dents in my calendar.
10/28/2025: The Best Cell Phone Plans, Wirecutter
This was going to be a modest update to the guide that I’ve been maintaining since 2014, but T-Mobile jacking up prices while AT&T and Verizon inflicted more modest rate hikes led to us dethroning T-Mo on cost grounds and handing our “for most people” pick to AT&T, which has advanced its own 5G network considerably.
10/28/2025: In DC, Nvidia CEO Touts New AI Partnerships, Goes a Little MAGA, PCMag
Heading into Nvidia’s conference, I was worried that CEO Jensen Huang would go into the weeds about the finer points of GPU architecture. Instead, he used this nearly two-hour keynote to jump from topic to topic without getting into too much detail about any of them–and kept coming back to opportunities to praise President Trump.
10/29/2025: Passkey Adoption Sees Striking Progress, With One Obvious Leader, PCMag
I struggled to get this written at the end of a long workday, resulting in my getting some nuances wrong that required updating the post the next morning.
11/1/2025: Serial Dot-Com Purchaser Bending Spoons to Buy AOL, But Why?, PCMag
Writing about AOL in 2025 makes me feel so old, but as one of PCMag’s graybeards I had to cover the news of Bending Spoons buying the company that once ruled the online world. I got to this story a day after it broke, so I turned that lag into an opportunity to expand the piece with some quotes from a publicist for that Italian firm and from a podcast interview of its CEO Luca Ferrari last year
11/1/2025: After Elon Tantrum, SpaceX Now Prepping ‘Simplified’ Starship-Based Lunar Lander, PCMag
Since I wrote about Elon Musk’s childish reaction to NASA’s understandable concern over the pace of its Human Landing System work, I had to reach for a keyboard to cover SpaceX’s grown-up corporate response.
11/1/2025: ‘The Truth Is Paywalled.’ Internet Vets Lament the State of the ‘Open’ Web, PCMag
This Monday-evening panel was one of the first items on my calendar this week, but having event after event after event follow it led to me not writing it up until Thursday night. Once again, it was a serious treat to hear some of the Internet’s founding figures talk about the state of the thing they invented.
#AmericaOnline #AOL #ArtemisIII #ATT #BendingSpoons #BrewsterKahle #CindyCohn #Dashlane #FoundationForAmericanInnovation #HumanLandingSystem #JensenHuang #Nvidia #NvidiaGTCDC #passkeyExport #passkeys #phonePlans #smartphonePlans #SpaceX #TMobile #unlimitedData #verizon #VintCerf
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Weekly output: phone plans, Nvidia keynote, passkey adoption, Bending Spoons buys AOL, SpaceX simplifying Starship lander, Internet luminaries on the open Web
This is not going to be a great week for normal sleep cycles: Tuesday, I will wake up at around 4 a.m. to spend a 15-plus hour shift working as an election officer for Arlington, and then Wednesday I’m off to Dulles Airport for this year’s final business trip across the Atlantic. I’m departing for Web Summit in Lisbon several days early because the organizers of another conference, the Mozilla Festival, offered a press pass and a travel stipend to cover that event in Barcelona. I’ve heard good things about this conference over the years, so accepting an invitation to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities in Europe was an easy call.
In addition to what you see below, Patreon readers got a detailed recap of how this past week’s event-packed schedule left its own series of dents in my calendar.
10/28/2025: The Best Cell Phone Plans, Wirecutter
This was going to be a modest update to the guide that I’ve been maintaining since 2014, but T-Mobile jacking up prices while AT&T and Verizon inflicted more modest rate hikes led to us dethroning T-Mo on cost grounds and handing our “for most people” pick to AT&T, which has advanced its own 5G network considerably.
10/28/2025: In DC, Nvidia CEO Touts New AI Partnerships, Goes a Little MAGA, PCMag
Heading into Nvidia’s conference, I was worried that CEO Jensen Huang would go into the weeds about the finer points of GPU architecture. Instead, he used this nearly two-hour keynote to jump from topic to topic without getting into too much detail about any of them–and kept coming back to opportunities to praise President Trump.
10/29/2025: Passkey Adoption Sees Striking Progress, With One Obvious Leader, PCMag
I struggled to get this written at the end of a long workday, resulting in my getting some nuances wrong that required updating the post the next morning.
11/1/2025: Serial Dot-Com Purchaser Bending Spoons to Buy AOL, But Why?, PCMag
Writing about AOL in 2025 makes me feel so old, but as one of PCMag’s graybeards I had to cover the news of Bending Spoons buying the company that once ruled the online world. I got to this story a day after it broke, so I turned that lag into an opportunity to expand the piece with some quotes from a publicist for that Italian firm and from a podcast interview of its CEO Luca Ferrari last year
11/1/2025: After Elon Tantrum, SpaceX Now Prepping ‘Simplified’ Starship-Based Lunar Lander, PCMag
Since I wrote about Elon Musk’s childish reaction to NASA’s understandable concern over the pace of its Human Landing System work, I had to reach for a keyboard to cover SpaceX’s grown-up corporate response.
11/1/2025: ‘The Truth Is Paywalled.’ Internet Vets Lament the State of the ‘Open’ Web, PCMag
This Monday-evening panel was one of the first items on my calendar this week, but having event after event after event follow it led to me not writing it up until Thursday night. Once again, it was a serious treat to hear some of the Internet’s founding figures talk about the state of the thing they invented.
#AmericaOnline #AOL #ArtemisIII #ATT #BendingSpoons #BrewsterKahle #CindyCohn #Dashlane #FoundationForAmericanInnovation #HumanLandingSystem #JensenHuang #Nvidia #NvidiaGTCDC #passkeyExport #passkeys #phonePlans #smartphonePlans #SpaceX #TMobile #unlimitedData #verizon #VintCerf
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Weekly output: phone plans, Nvidia keynote, passkey adoption, Bending Spoons buys AOL, SpaceX simplifying Starship lander, Internet luminaries on the open Web
This is not going to be a great week for normal sleep cycles: Tuesday, I will wake up at around 4 a.m. to spend a 15-plus hour shift working as an election officer for Arlington, and then Wednesday I’m off to Dulles Airport for this year’s final business trip across the Atlantic. I’m departing for Web Summit in Lisbon several days early because the organizers of another conference, the Mozilla Festival, offered a press pass and a travel stipend to cover that event in Barcelona. I’ve heard good things about this conference over the years, so accepting an invitation to spend a few days in one of my favorite cities in Europe was an easy call.
In addition to what you see below, Patreon readers got a detailed recap of how this past week’s event-packed schedule left its own series of dents in my calendar.
10/28/2025: The Best Cell Phone Plans, Wirecutter
This was going to be a modest update to the guide that I’ve been maintaining since 2014, but T-Mobile jacking up prices while AT&T and Verizon inflicted more modest rate hikes led to us dethroning T-Mo on cost grounds and handing our “for most people” pick to AT&T, which has advanced its own 5G network considerably.
10/28/2025: In DC, Nvidia CEO Touts New AI Partnerships, Goes a Little MAGA, PCMag
Heading into Nvidia’s conference, I was worried that CEO Jensen Huang would go into the weeds about the finer points of GPU architecture. Instead, he used this nearly two-hour keynote to jump from topic to topic without getting into too much detail about any of them–and kept coming back to opportunities to praise President Trump.
10/29/2025: Passkey Adoption Sees Striking Progress, With One Obvious Leader, PCMag
I struggled to get this written at the end of a long workday, resulting in my getting some nuances wrong that required updating the post the next morning.
11/1/2025: Serial Dot-Com Purchaser Bending Spoons to Buy AOL, But Why?, PCMag
Writing about AOL in 2025 makes me feel so old, but as one of PCMag’s graybeards I had to cover the news of Bending Spoons buying the company that once ruled the online world. I got to this story a day after it broke, so I turned that lag into an opportunity to expand the piece with some quotes from a publicist for that Italian firm and from a podcast interview of its CEO Luca Ferrari last year
11/1/2025: After Elon Tantrum, SpaceX Now Prepping ‘Simplified’ Starship-Based Lunar Lander, PCMag
Since I wrote about Elon Musk’s childish reaction to NASA’s understandable concern over the pace of its Human Landing System work, I had to reach for a keyboard to cover SpaceX’s grown-up corporate response.
11/1/2025: ‘The Truth Is Paywalled.’ Internet Vets Lament the State of the ‘Open’ Web, PCMag
This Monday-evening panel was one of the first items on my calendar this week, but having event after event after event follow it led to me not writing it up until Thursday night. Once again, it was a serious treat to hear some of the Internet’s founding figures talk about the state of the thing they invented.
#AmericaOnline #AOL #ArtemisIII #ATT #BendingSpoons #BrewsterKahle #CindyCohn #Dashlane #FoundationForAmericanInnovation #HumanLandingSystem #JensenHuang #Nvidia #NvidiaGTCDC #passkeyExport #passkeys #phonePlans #smartphonePlans #SpaceX #TMobile #unlimitedData #verizon #VintCerf
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Let’s be honest… when you saw this story you though two things happened; 1) You thought “Dial-up still exists?” 2) You heard a familiar voice in your head say “You’ve got mail!” #AOL #AmericaOnline #Internet #Technology www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-ne...
With a final screech, AOL's di... -
Today (Sept. 30) is the final day. 🫡
"Say bye-bye to the beeps and boops of AOL's dial-up internet service"
Dial-up modem connecting video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1UY7eDRXrs
NPR article: https://www.npr.org/2025/08/12/nx-s1-5499539/aol-dial-up-ending
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Today, AOL users say “goodbye” to those loud, screeching modem sounds that confirmed you were connecting to the information superhighway.
#RetroTech #AOL #AmericaOnline #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech
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The Day I Said No to Google – DrWeb’s Domain
A personal essay… from DrWeb
The Day I Said No to Google
“I am probably the only person I know who said ‘no’ to Google in a meeting with Larry Page and Sergey Brin…”
Confession: Given my birthday coming up (hint!), I am older than dirt. Some of the memories remain, thank genes I guess. But, others are foggy. I remember the day, but the exact date escapes me. I remember the meeting, but in many ways, it has blurred into meetings of my life for business. So, I cheated, kinda. You get to decide. Claude, a creative intelligence, assisted me with the writing. I edited. This is what we did together. It felt like the best way to tell this old story now. Let’s travel back to yesteryear.. the Internet was young… One history note, I was the first Webmaster at DIALOG, and employed there from 1995-1997, when along with many others, MAID bought DIALOG, and I was let go, fired. Carry your things out in box time. My time at America Online was December, 1998, Product Manager for AOL NetFind, until November, 1999. Enjoy the memory lane!
The Meeting Above the Shop
The afternoon sun streamed through the windows of that small conference room above a Palo Alto shop, casting long rectangles of California light across our makeshift boardroom table. It was one of those perfect Silicon Valley days where the air itself seemed to hum with possibility, but the fluorescent overhead lights and generic office chairs reminded us this was business, not a social call.
I’d arranged my materials carefully before they arrived—a brief summary report for my AOL team, printed specs for what we needed, bottled water for everyone. The kind of preparation that had become second nature after years in this business [and later becoming DIALOG’s first webmaster dealing with sophisticated databases and searches], now managing search for America Online in this digital Wild West. Twenty-five million AOL users were counting on decisions like this one, though they’d never know it.
When Larry and Sergey walked in, there was something almost academic about them—Larry doing most of the talking while Sergey hung back, observing. Their energy was unmistakably that of people who believed they were onto something big. But belief and business results were different things, as I’d learned the hard way. Perhaps it was like meeting Steve Jobs, early, in his garage.
We think we can scale this in ways nobody else can, Larry was saying, sketching out their vision with the kind of confident hand gestures. You could hear the enthusiasm.
The algorithm they called PageRank sounded revolutionary in theory—ranking pages by how other pages linked to them, like academic citations. Elegant, certainly. But elegant theories didn’t always survive contact with millions of real users hitting your servers every day. Then, at AOL, we were still in the era of typing in code and managing data with spreadsheets, so, yes, after all—proven performance mattered more than brilliant concepts.
The afternoon conversation had that particular rhythm of meetings where both sides already knew the likely outcome. We asked about customers—they had few. Performance metrics under load—they were working on it. Detailed technical specifications—still being refined.
I felt those were all reasonable answers for a startup, but AOL couldn’t run on reasonable answers. We needed proven, and growign solutions, the kind Excite was delivering with their concept-based search algorithm and comprehensive portal approach—news, weather, email, the one-stop destination our users expected. I used Excite, so were many early adopters.
I found myself watching Sergey more than listening to Larry at one point. There was something in his quiet attention that suggested he understood exactly what we were really evaluating. Not just their technology, but their readiness to handle the weight of AOL’s scale and expectations. Maybe he knew, as I was beginning to suspect, that this was more a friendly courtesy call than a serious negotiation.
The meeting wound down with handshakes and the kind of polite enthusiasm that masks mutual recognition—they knew we weren’t ready to bet on an unproven system, and we knew they weren’t ready for us yet. Outside, that sunlit, warm California afternoon continued, indifferent to the small pivotal moment that had just passed in a conference room above a Palo Alto shop.
Later, writing up my report for the team, I found myself thinking about Steve Case back at headquarters in Virginia. Our larger-than-life CEO had built AOL by making bold bets, but also by knowing when to stick with what worked. Excite had customers, track records, proven performance under the kind of load we’d throw at them. Our homework showed the numbers, and it was a future option we felt we had to explore.
Their concept-based searching could understand meaning beyond mere keyword matching—sophisticated technology that had already proven itself with millions of daily users. It wasn’t glamorous compared to Larry and Sergey’s academic theories, but it was safe. And yet, choosing Excite felt like the next step, of what would be many.
I never found out if my report made it all the way to Case’s desk, but I liked to think it did—one small decision in the endless stream of choices that kept twenty-five million people connected to the emerging world of the web. At the time, it felt like the right call. Careful. Responsible. Business-smart.
The irony, of course, would only become clear later.
History Snapshots: Search Before Google
Archie (1990)
Before the web itself existed, Archie emerged at McGill University in 1990 as the first widely used search tool. It did not crawl the content of files, but instead indexed file names on FTP servers, creating the first searchable index of distributed online information. While crude by later standards, Archie was revolutionary: for the first time, a user could query a remote database and discover resources without browsing manually. The very idea of building an automated index to navigate digital information became a foundation stone for everything that followed.
WebCrawler (1994)
By 1994, the World Wide Web needed something more than Archie. Brian Pinkerton’s WebCrawler, launched at the University of Washington, became the first engine to allow full-text searches of web pages. Suddenly users could search within page content, not just titles or filenames, and the results reflected the words as they actually appeared on the page. This was a dramatic leap forward for usability, and WebCrawler quickly reached millions of queries per day. It also popularized the notion that search engines could serve ordinary consumers, not just information professionals or academics.
AltaVista (1995)
Introduced in December 1995 by Digital Equipment Corporation’s research team, AltaVista was a marvel of its time. It featured an enormous index, lightning-fast crawling, and support for natural language queries at a scale that felt futuristic. For many users, AltaVista was their first exposure to advanced search operators, real-time translations, and near-instant indexing. It quickly became one of the most visited destinations on the web, demonstrating how technology and infrastructure could turn search into a mainstream activity. In many ways, AltaVista defined what people expected a modern search engine to be.
Excite (1995)
Launched commercially in late 1995, Excite took a different approach by expanding search into a broader “portal” experience. Beyond simply indexing the web, Excite offered news, weather, email, and community features that encouraged users to stay on its site. Its acquisitions and partnerships helped it grow into a household name, and by the late 1990s it was considered one of the most important online brands. Excite’s strategy was not only to provide answers but to create an ecosystem of services, an approach that reflected the business logic of the early Internet era: keep users inside your walls, and monetize their time.
AOL NetFind (1997)
In March 1997, AOL — already the largest Internet gateway in America — launched its own branded search engine called NetFind. Instead of building new technology, AOL partnered with Excite to power the service, ensuring scale and reliability for its millions of subscribers. For users, it meant search was seamlessly integrated into the familiar AOL interface. For the company, it was a strategic move to control not only access to the Internet but also discovery of information within it. The choice to align with a proven engine like Excite over a then-unknown upstart like Google reflected a natural preference for stability and trust in the late 1990s corporate environment.
Inktomi (1996)
Founded by Eric Brewer and Paul Gauthier in 1996, Inktomi was often described as the “early Google.” Unlike portals, it focused on scale and infrastructure, indexing more than 100 million web pages and delivering results in fractions of a second. It licensed its search technology to popular services including HotBot, Yahoo, MSN, and Disney’s Internet Guide, making it a behind-the-scenes powerhouse of the search ecosystem. For a time, Inktomi appeared destined to dominate the field, with a high-profile IPO and enormous venture support. But within a few years, it would be eclipsed by Google’s more elegant algorithmic model — proof that even the giants of one generation could quickly become footnotes in the next.
Bibliography
- Ars Technica. (2024, May 16). Archie, the Internet’s first search engine, is rescued and running. Ars Technica. https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/05/archie-the-internets-first-search-engine-is-rescued-and-running/
- Capitol Technology University. (2020, February 3). Alan Emtage, creator of Archie, the world’s first search engine. Capitol Technology University. https://www.captechu.edu/blog/alan-emtage-creator-of-archie-worlds-first-search-engine
- Encyclopedia.com. (2018, May 14). WebCrawler. Encyclopedia.com. https://www.encyclopedia.com/science-and-technology/computers-and-electrical-engineering/computers-and-computing/webcrawler
- History of Information. (n.d.). Brian Pinkerton develops the “WebCrawler,” the first full text web search engine. History of Information. https://www.historyofinformation.com/detail.php?id=1067
- McGill University. (2021). The first Internet search engine. McGill 200: Bicentennial. https://200.mcgill.ca/history/creation-of-the-first-internet-search-engine/
- Search Engine Land. (2009, January 12). AOL search: The history of AOL’s search engine. Search Engine Land. https://searchengineland.com/aol-search-history-16238
- StackScale. (2021, September 10). Archie, the first Internet search engine. StackScale Blog. https://www.stackscale.com/blog/archie-internet-search-engine/
- TechRadar. (2025, September 10). Long before Google took the world by storm, this search engine paved the way for everyone. TechRadar Pro. https://www.techradar.com/pro/long-before-google-took-the-world-by-storm-this-search-engine-paved-the-way-for-everyone
- Web Design Museum. (2022). Archie – The first search engine (1990). Web Design Museum. https://www.webdesignmuseum.org/web-design-history/archie-the-first-search-engine-1990
- Web Search Workshop. (2009). A brief history of the Excite search engine. Web Search Workshop (Australia). https://www.websearchworkshop.com.au/info-excite.php
- Web Search Workshop. (2009). A brief history of the Inktomi search engine. Web Search Workshop (Australia). https://www.websearchworkshop.com.au/info-inktomi.php
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, August 24). Archie (search engine). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archie_(search_engine)
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, June 5). WebCrawler. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WebCrawler
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, August 30). AltaVista. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AltaVista
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, September 12). AOL. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, September 10). Dialog (online database). In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_(online_database)
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, September 1). Excite. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excite
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, September 2). Inktomi. In Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inktomi
#1999 #2000 #2025 #AI #AmericaOnline #AOL #California #Essay #Excite #Google #History #Irony #Opinion #PaloAlto #PersonalHistory #Science #searchTechnology #Technology #UnitedStates #UniversityAvenue
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19 Photos That Capture Las Vegas Over the Years
A busy 1950s street scene in Las Vegas with vintage cars, large neon signs for casinos like Golden Nugget and hotels, and people walking along the sidewalks under a bright sky.Back when the Strip glowed with vintage marquees, big-band music spilled from casino lounges, and headliners like Sinatra and Elvis turned every night into an event, Las Vegas had a different kind of allure. This was the Vegas of smoky rooms, endless buffets, and star-studded stages — a time when the city was just beginning to earn its reputation as the ultimate playground for adults. These pictures tell its origin story.
1. Honest John’s and Centerfold Casinos (1975)
2. Cocktail Waitress at Caesars Palace (1968)
3. Children Waiting Outside the Casino While Their Parents Are Inside (1954)
4. Playing Slots (1942)
Editor’s Note: Read the rest of the story, at the below link.
Continue/Read Original Article Here: 19 Photos That Capture Las Vegas Over the Years
#2025 #America #AmericaOnline #AOLCom #Film #History #LasVegas #Libraries #Library #NevadaHistory #OldPhotographs #Technology #Travel #UnitedStates
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Legenda hiljenee: AOL sulkee modeemien soittosarjansa 40 vuoden jälkeen
Aikoinaan maailmam ylivoimaisesti suurin internet-operaattori AOL on päättänyt lopettaa perinteisille modeemeille tarkoitetun nettiyhteyspalvelunsa, joka ehti toimia vuodesta 1985 lähtien.
https://dawn.fi/uutiset/2025/08/11/aol-modeemi-lopetetaan
#aol #americaonline #dialup #modeemi #uutiset #historia #teknologia #tekniikka
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Weekly output: Dashlane, T-Mobile home 5G, AI skepticism at Black Hat, the Fourth Amendment at Black Hat, Black Hat’s network, AOL dial-up
Black Hat is one of the more exhausting and intimidating events that I cover. That’s not because I stress over the risk of my devices getting compromised, but because almost all of its two-day schedule is blocked out by timeslots featuring from nine to 11 briefings each. That increases the odds of my missing something good and reduces the time in which I can write up what I do see.
Over at Patreon, I explained to readers why I decided not to stick around Vegas for another couple of days to cover the DEF CON security conference, somewhat to my dismay.
8/6/2025: Dashlane to Delete Its Free Tier of Service, PCMag
I wrote this Monday afternoon off an embargoed copy of Dashlane’s press release after getting further input from a publicist on two points.
8/6/2025: T-Mobile Tweaks 5G Home Internet to Add Benefits (and Fine-Print Fees), PCMag
An editor suggested I take a look at the T-Mobile announcement heralding some added perks to its fixed-wireless service, then I noticed a change in the fine print around its prices. That made this much more interesting to write about.
8/7/2025: This AI Skeptic Thinks AI Is Bringing Human Brains Down to Its Level, PCMag
After catching the tail end of a panel featuring Gary Marcus at Web Summit Vancouver, I made sure to watch his talk at Black Hat and found that an excellent use of my time.
8/8/2025: ACLU Expert: Please Don’t Make Bulk Snooping by Governments Easier, PCMag
Jennifer Granick’s talk was another one I’d put on my to-watch list after first looking over Black Hat’s schedule. I wish I shared her optimism that more companies would be inspired to adopt data-minimization practices to avoid aiding government surveillance.
8/9/2025: Inside Black Hat’s Network Security Operation: Humans Are Still a Problem, PCMag
After several years of writing about the penultimate panel in which Black Hat network admins relate how the event’s network worked and how badly some attendees behaved on it, I had the chance to quiz two of these experts beforehand. I should have done that sooner!
8/9/2025: End of an E-Era: AOL to End Dial-Up Internet Access, PCMag
I did not plan on working Saturday morning after the cognitive overload of Black Hat, but seeing tech journalist Ernie Smith’s Bluesky post highlighting the impending demise of AOL’s dial-up access left me feeling compelled as a Gen Xer to write about it. Unfortunately, my sleep debt may have caught up with me when I left two cringe-inducing typos in the same snakebit paragraph: spelling “America Online” as “American Online” and writing that the company’s 15th birthday happened in 2020, not 2000.
#ACLU #AI #AmericaOnline #AOL #BlackHat #BlackHatNOC #cybersecurity #dialUp #FourthAmendment #GaryMarcus #informationSecurity #infosec #JenniferGranick #LasVegas #TMobileFixedWireless #TMobileHome5G #techPrivacy #Vegas
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Weekly output: Dashlane, T-Mobile home 5G, AI skepticism at Black Hat, the Fourth Amendment at Black Hat, Black Hat’s network, AOL dial-up
Black Hat is one of the more exhausting and intimidating events that I cover. That’s not because I stress over the risk of my devices getting compromised, but because almost all of its two-day schedule is blocked out by timeslots featuring from nine to 11 briefings each. That increases the odds of my missing something good and reduces the time in which I can write up what I do see.
Over at Patreon, I explained to readers why I decided not to stick around Vegas for another couple of days to cover the DEF CON security conference, somewhat to my dismay.
8/6/2025: Dashlane to Delete Its Free Tier of Service, PCMag
I wrote this Monday afternoon off an embargoed copy of Dashlane’s press release after getting further input from a publicist on two points.
8/6/2025: T-Mobile Tweaks 5G Home Internet to Add Benefits (and Fine-Print Fees), PCMag
An editor suggested I take a look at the T-Mobile announcement heralding some added perks to its fixed-wireless service, then I noticed a change in the fine print around its prices. That made this much more interesting to write about.
8/7/2025: This AI Skeptic Thinks AI Is Bringing Human Brains Down to Its Level, PCMag
After catching the tail end of a panel featuring Gary Marcus at Web Summit Vancouver, I made sure to watch his talk at Black Hat and found that an excellent use of my time.
8/8/2025: ACLU Expert: Please Don’t Make Bulk Snooping by Governments Easier, PCMag
Jennifer Granick’s talk was another one I’d put on my to-watch list after first looking over Black Hat’s schedule. I wish I shared her optimism that more companies would be inspired to adopt data-minimization practices to avoid aiding government surveillance.
8/9/2025: Inside Black Hat’s Network Security Operation: Humans Are Still a Problem, PCMag
After several years of writing about the penultimate panel in which Black Hat network admins relate how the event’s network worked and how badly some attendees behaved on it, I had the chance to quiz two of these experts beforehand. I should have done that sooner!
8/9/2025: End of an E-Era: AOL to End Dial-Up Internet Access, PCMag
I did not plan on working Saturday morning after the cognitive overload of Black Hat, but seeing tech journalist Ernie Smith’s Bluesky post highlighting the impending demise of AOL’s dial-up access left me feeling compelled as a Gen Xer to write about it. Unfortunately, my sleep debt may have caught up with me when I left two cringe-inducing typos in the same snakebit paragraph: spelling “America Online” as “American Online” and writing that the company’s 15th birthday happened in 2020, not 2000.
#ACLU #AI #AmericaOnline #AOL #BlackHat #BlackHatNOC #cybersecurity #dialUp #FourthAmendment #GaryMarcus #informationSecurity #infosec #JenniferGranick #LasVegas #TMobileFixedWireless #TMobileHome5G #techPrivacy #Vegas
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Weekly output: Dashlane, T-Mobile home 5G, AI skepticism at Black Hat, the Fourth Amendment at Black Hat, Black Hat’s network, AOL dial-up
Black Hat is one of the more exhausting and intimidating events that I cover. That’s not because I stress over the risk of my devices getting compromised, but because almost all of its two-day schedule is blocked out by timeslots featuring from nine to 11 briefings each. That increases the odds of my missing something good and reduces the time in which I can write up what I do see.
Over at Patreon, I explained to readers why I decided not to stick around Vegas for another couple of days to cover the DEF CON security conference, somewhat to my dismay.
8/6/2025: Dashlane to Delete Its Free Tier of Service, PCMag
I wrote this Monday afternoon off an embargoed copy of Dashlane’s press release after getting further input from a publicist on two points.
8/6/2025: T-Mobile Tweaks 5G Home Internet to Add Benefits (and Fine-Print Fees), PCMag
An editor suggested I take a look at the T-Mobile announcement heralding some added perks to its fixed-wireless service, then I noticed a change in the fine print around its prices. That made this much more interesting to write about.
8/7/2025: This AI Skeptic Thinks AI Is Bringing Human Brains Down to Its Level, PCMag
After catching the tail end of a panel featuring Gary Marcus at Web Summit Vancouver, I made sure to watch his talk at Black Hat and found that an excellent use of my time.
8/8/2025: ACLU Expert: Please Don’t Make Bulk Snooping by Governments Easier, PCMag
Jennifer Granick’s talk was another one I’d put on my to-watch list after first looking over Black Hat’s schedule. I wish I shared her optimism that more companies would be inspired to adopt data-minimization practices to avoid aiding government surveillance.
8/9/2025: Inside Black Hat’s Network Security Operation: Humans Are Still a Problem, PCMag
After several years of writing about the penultimate panel in which Black Hat network admins relate how the event’s network worked and how badly some attendees behaved on it, I had the chance to quiz two of these experts beforehand. I should have done that sooner!
8/9/2025: End of an E-Era: AOL to End Dial-Up Internet Access, PCMag
I did not plan on working Saturday morning after the cognitive overload of Black Hat, but seeing tech journalist Ernie Smith’s Bluesky post highlighting the impending demise of AOL’s dial-up access left me feeling compelled as a Gen Xer to write about it. Unfortunately, my sleep debt may have caught up with me when I left two cringe-inducing typos in the same snakebit paragraph: spelling “America Online” as “American Online” and writing that the company’s 15th birthday happened in 2020, not 2000.
#ACLU #AI #AmericaOnline #AOL #BlackHat #BlackHatNOC #cybersecurity #dialUp #FourthAmendment #GaryMarcus #informationSecurity #infosec #JenniferGranick #LasVegas #TMobileFixedWireless #TMobileHome5G #techPrivacy #Vegas
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Weekly output: Dashlane, T-Mobile home 5G, AI skepticism at Black Hat, the Fourth Amendment at Black Hat, Black Hat’s network, AOL dial-up
Black Hat is one of the more exhausting and intimidating events that I cover. That’s not because I stress over the risk of my devices getting compromised, but because almost all of its two-day schedule is blocked out by timeslots featuring from nine to 11 briefings each. That increases the odds of my missing something good and reduces the time in which I can write up what I do see.
Over at Patreon, I explained to readers why I decided not to stick around Vegas for another couple of days to cover the DEF CON security conference, somewhat to my dismay.
8/6/2025: Dashlane to Delete Its Free Tier of Service, PCMag
I wrote this Monday afternoon off an embargoed copy of Dashlane’s press release after getting further input from a publicist on two points.
8/6/2025: T-Mobile Tweaks 5G Home Internet to Add Benefits (and Fine-Print Fees), PCMag
An editor suggested I take a look at the T-Mobile announcement heralding some added perks to its fixed-wireless service, then I noticed a change in the fine print around its prices. That made this much more interesting to write about.
8/7/2025: This AI Skeptic Thinks AI Is Bringing Human Brains Down to Its Level, PCMag
After catching the tail end of a panel featuring Gary Marcus at Web Summit Vancouver, I made sure to watch his talk at Black Hat and found that an excellent use of my time.
8/8/2025: ACLU Expert: Please Don’t Make Bulk Snooping by Governments Easier, PCMag
Jennifer Granick’s talk was another one I’d put on my to-watch list after first looking over Black Hat’s schedule. I wish I shared her optimism that more companies would be inspired to adopt data-minimization practices to avoid aiding government surveillance.
8/9/2025: Inside Black Hat’s Network Security Operation: Humans Are Still a Problem, PCMag
After several years of writing about the penultimate panel in which Black Hat network admins relate how the event’s network worked and how badly some attendees behaved on it, I had the chance to quiz two of these experts beforehand. I should have done that sooner!
8/9/2025: End of an E-Era: AOL to End Dial-Up Internet Access, PCMag
I did not plan on working Saturday morning after the cognitive overload of Black Hat, but seeing tech journalist Ernie Smith’s Bluesky post highlighting the impending demise of AOL’s dial-up access left me feeling compelled as a Gen Xer to write about it. Unfortunately, my sleep debt may have caught up with me when I left two cringe-inducing typos in the same snakebit paragraph: spelling “America Online” as “American Online” and writing that the company’s 15th birthday happened in 2020, not 2000.
#ACLU #AI #AmericaOnline #AOL #BlackHat #BlackHatNOC #cybersecurity #dialUp #FourthAmendment #GaryMarcus #informationSecurity #infosec #JenniferGranick #LasVegas #TMobileFixedWireless #TMobileHome5G #techPrivacy #Vegas
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I did not know AOL still offered dial-up service!
"AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day"
It's the end of an era...that I thought ended a long time ago.
#AOL #technews #AmericaOnline #dialup #modem #modems #ISP #internet #youvegotmail #news #computinghistory #nostalgia #PR
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I did not know AOL still offered dial-up service!
"AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day"
It's the end of an era...that I thought ended a long time ago.
#AOL #technews #AmericaOnline #dialup #modem #modems #ISP #internet #youvegotmail #news #computinghistory #nostalgia #PR
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I did not know AOL still offered dial-up service!
"AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day"
It's the end of an era...that I thought ended a long time ago.
#AOL #technews #AmericaOnline #dialup #modem #modems #ISP #internet #youvegotmail #news #computinghistory #nostalgia #PR
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I did not know AOL still offered dial-up service!
"AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day"
It's the end of an era...that I thought ended a long time ago.
#AOL #technews #AmericaOnline #dialup #modem #modems #ISP #internet #youvegotmail #news #computinghistory #nostalgia #PR
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I did not know AOL still offered dial-up service!
"AOL will end dial-up internet service in September, 34 years after its debut — AOL Shield Browser and AOL Dialer software will be shuttered on the same day"
It's the end of an era...that I thought ended a long time ago.
#AOL #technews #AmericaOnline #dialup #modem #modems #ISP #internet #youvegotmail #news #computinghistory #nostalgia #PR
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Edit: Don’t mind me! Apparently, this is an old article! But still!
Original:
It is the year of our Lord 2025 and people are still subscribing to AOL?!
About 1.5 million people still pay for AOL — but now they get tech support and identity theft services instead of dial-up internet
#AOL #AmericaOnline #Support #IdentityTheft #DialUp #Internet #Tech
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AOL 3.0 People Connection (thanks to the P30L project!)
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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AOL for DOS’ Download Manager in 1993. AOL used the GeoWorks operating environment as its GUI for the DOS version.
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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a/s/l? AOL 3.0 Chat Rooms (thanks to the P30L project!)
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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AOL 3.0 Channels, thanks to the P30L project!
#RetroTech #90sComputing #DigitalNostalgia #OldSchoolTech #TechThrowback #1990sTech #AOL #AmericaOnline
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AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing
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@petersuber I vividly remember the early days of the web when it was unclear whether it would matter to average people compared to walled-garden services like #AOL (then #AmericaOnline), #Prodigy, or #CompuServe.
IMHO the web’s early rise depended on two other factors:
• Graphical #browsers like #NCSA #Mosaic on mainstream computer operating systems (1993)
• Decommissioning of the US government-funded #NSFNET backbone, effectively ending restrictions on commercial Internet traffic (1995) -
How old are you in #dialup phone #modem speed?
https://youtu.be/ckc6XSSh52w
#retrocomputing #BBS #BBSes #AOL #AmericaOnline #CompuServe #QuantumLink #TheSource #Prodigy #eWorld #GEnie #MCIMail #DELPHI #AppleLink #BIX #ISP -
Those were the good days when Internet was full of real information sources before it gets full of crybabies.
Miss those times.
#Internet #AOL #AmericaOnline #Windows #PCMagazine #ComputerShopper #ComputerWorld #Forums #BulletinBoards #IRC #Netscape #Geocities #HTML -
AOL in 1995.
From the book “America Online’s Internet for Windows: Easy Graphical Access - The AOL Way” by Tom Lichty.#AOL #AmericaOnline #90sInternet #RetroTech #90sNostalgia #ThrowbackTech #YouveGotMail #RetroComputing