Category: Vintage Computing

The Bell System: More than a telephone company

If you asked anyone who the most influential company in the telephony industry was: they would almost all answer with “Bell.” But how did Bell go from being a company formed to support a new invention to a monopoly with shady business practices and a household name, to just another forgotten name? Continue reading The Bell System: More than a telephone company

Top 5 Most Wanted Computers

Just like people who collect cars, movies, pyrex, and tupperware, there are always things you want to collect within that hobby. And while there are quite a few models of computers I’d like to eventually own – I’ll include my top five (reasonable) choices here and talk about them a little bit. Continue reading Top 5 Most Wanted Computers

AT&T Long Lines – A Forgotten System

The era spawning from the 1950s throughout the 1980s can be considered the golden era of telecommunication. While computers were expanding from items consuming entire rooms to something that could fit on a person’s desk, so was the way we communicate. Televisions went from being a luxury item to being in every home. Telephone systems were not only used for voice, but to transfer data from one location to another almost instantaneously. The inventions and innovations from this period have led to technologies we rely on every day: the internet, satellite television, fiber-optics, cell phones, and et cetera. But it’s often forgotten how we’ve arrived where we are. Continue reading AT&T Long Lines – A Forgotten System

TBT: Dialing Up!

Since President Trump signed an executive order which would greatly expand broadband internet access into rural areas, and I briefly mentioned my experience with dial-up in my previous “Throwback Thursday” entry, I will elaborate on my experiences. Continue reading TBT: Dialing Up!