This topic from Long and Short Reviews took me back. I didn't go in the internet much when I still lived with my parents, as they had dial-up which was incredibly slow, but as soon as I got to university I was online all the time and checking out every website I could find. Which led me to this one.
Soup Central.
For the life of me I can't remember how I found it. I think it was on a site which had given links to places you could get freebies, which sounded good to a skint student. All I can remember about Soup Central was that you could order, among other things, a sample box of powdered soups which was completely free, even the shipping (not bad when it was coming from the US). So I ordered one to my parents' house.
A few weeks later I got a very confused call from my dad. The order had arrived and he was trying to figure out if someone had sent him a box of anthrax. He wasn't much less confused when I told him what it was, but at least he didn't think someone in America was trying to kill him.
I did try one of the soups when I next visited home, but I wasn't impressed, and the rest went in the bin.
So which websites do you remember visiting?
Oh yeah, I remember dial-up and waiting five days for a picture to fully load one line of pixels at a time! Yay for the broadband revolution! HA!
ReplyDeleteOh yes, I couldn't live without broadband!
DeleteI love this story. Too bad the soup wasn’t good.
ReplyDeleteIt was a pity, but at least it was free.
DeleteLove free stuff! There's still plenty to be found out there. Re: dial-up ... ah, the old days. And when someone would call you and it would kick you off unless you had a dedicated line for internet (and who did in those days?). One of the most fun movies to watch for old tech is "War Games". My kid spent half the movie asking, "What is that?"
ReplyDeleteOr when someone would be trying to call and couldn't get through because my dad was online with work...
DeleteMy parents tried to get me to watch Wargames as a kid because I was into computers, but my knowledge was limited to Windows 95 and the world wide web. The tech in that movie absolutely mystified me until I re-watched it a few years back, having read books on phreaking, and the like.
Deleteyep.... so remember dial up.... can still hear that sound!
ReplyDeleteI had a friend whose parrot could do the modem handshake :)
DeleteSounds like a great place to visit.
ReplyDeleteI certainly appreciated the free stuff, even if it wasn't very good.
DeleteInstant soups do tend to lack something...
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure what they lacked, but I couldn't be bothered to work it out :)
DeleteSounds like my kind of website! Too bad the soup wasn't any good
ReplyDeleteI suppose when it's completely free I can't really complain.
DeleteAh, the early days of the Internet. There was so, so much weirdness out there.
ReplyDeleteOh yes. I spent a lot of time on Yahoo Groups as well.
Delete