Show Notes Episode 395: America Onthropocene

This week Host Dave Bledsoe goes looking for love by staggering up to a bachelorette party and slurring Age/Sex/Location to the bride. (The bruises are finally starting to fade.) On the show this week are talking about how America went online with a little dial up service called Q-Link! You might know it better by its later name: American Online. (Or, just AOL)

Along the way we find out that Dave was a Wordstar Wizard! (He earned an Air Force medal for his brave embrace of DOS based software!) Then we dive right into the history of how people downloaded porn from the Internet before their phones. (Those ASCII nudes were HOT!) Then we get on the story of two General Electric employees who had a dream that computers could be used for more than designing microwaves! Eventually, they sold their dream to a company that let you connect your Atari 2600 to a server and download a game. (You only got to keep the game for a week, and it took longer than that to download.) From there we explain how AOL came to dominate the Online Service Provider field by blanketing the landscape with one BILLION Compact Discs! Finally, we chart the slow, painful demise of AOL as the company committed one stupid move after another until it became irrelevant. (Kind of like Facebook is doing right now with that whole Meta thing!)

Our Sponsor this week is Duane’s Dial Up, keeping kids safe from the internet by keeping them at 56.6 kbps! We open the show with an explainer on this new “online thing” and close with Bob River’s frustrations trying to connect to AOL.

Show Theme: Hypnostate Prelude to Common Sense

The Show on Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheHell_Podcast

The Show on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/whatthehellpodcast/

The Show on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCjxP5ywpZ-O7qu_MFkLXQUQ

www.whatthehellpodcast.com

Give us your money on Patreon https://www.patreon.com/Whatthehellpodcast

The Show Line: 347 687 9601

Closing Music: https://youtu.be/G6tRQsfueoc

We are a proud member of the Seltzer Kings Podcast Network! http://seltzerkings.com/

Citations Needed:

What is a walled garden on the internet?

https://www.techtarget.com/searchsecurity/definition/walled-garden#:~:text=On%20the%20internet%2C%20a%20walled,prevent%20access%20to%20other%20material.

The Lamest Things About The Early Internet Era

https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/10/worst-things-about-early-internet-years

You've Got Mail: A History of AOL's Free Trial CDs

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/87291/youve-got-mail-history-aols-free-trial-cds

Hollywood Flashback: Time Warner, AOL Entered a Doomed $182 Billion Alliance 20 Years Ago

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/business/business-news/hollywood-flashback-time-warner-aol-entered-a-doomed-182-billion-alliance-20-years-1267322/

What happened to AOL? Here's the fascinating story behind America Online

https://slidebean.com/story/does-aol-still-exist#:~:text=AOL%20was%20unable%20to%20change&text=It%20focused%20on%20dial%2Dup,but%20only%203%25%20had%20broadband.

About 1.5 million people still pay for AOL — but now they get tech support and identity theft services instead of dial-up internet

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/03/aol-1point5-million-people-still-pay-for-service-but-not-for-dial-up-internet.html

Uncited Additional Reading: 

https://www.vox.com/2015/5/12/8594049/aol-free-trial-cds#:~:text=1%20billion%20CDs%20with%20free%20trial%20software.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AOL#:~:text=The%20service%20traces%20its%20history,as%20America%20Online%20in%201989.

https://www.wired.com/1995/09/aol-2/

https://web.archive.org/web/20180627202125/http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-verizon-buys-faded-internet-pioneer-aol-for-4.4-bn-2015-5?IR=T

https://techcrunch.com/2010/12/27/aol-discs-90s/

https://money.cnn.com/1996/11/25/technology/excite/

https://searchengineland.com/history-of-aol-search-11634

https://money.cnn.com/1996/11/01/technology/aol/

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices