Available services in early/mid-90s

NCR's WaveLAN brand of wireless networking was introduced in 1988. However it was mostly used for point-of-sale (cash register) systems and I don't think it was even available to the average Joe-- much less Sandra Bullock-- in 1995. Though it eventually did become the backbone for the modern WiFi standard.

I had a high speed dial up modem for the time in 95, I did shopping online, chatting, email, etc.. There were graphics similar to what was in the movie, but of course nothing with streaming video like we have to day with youtube.


http://www.myspace.com/mash1972

I was lucky enough that my parents worked for IBM in the early and mid 90's. We had gadgets and PC magazines galore. 1993 was the year I sent my first email and discovered IRC (which had existed for years prior to that. ;) During that time I also remember that we had "high-speed" (28.8 then 56k) modems, email services, remote access, web browsing in '94 and variously used OS/2, win 3.1, '95 and 2 good machines (1 PC and 1 apple) plus a laptop my father used for work. I watched this movie when it came out and I saw it again a few months ago for the nostalgic grins.

While I was watching it I wondered how much of the stuff shown -really- existed when I was a kid an how much I -think- existed because of this movie. So I did some research. ;)

As to the Pizza Ordering mystery, see this press release from 1994 http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/199408/msg00057.html Most of this type of stuff was localized pilots or proof of concept trials. Not exactly available to Regular Joes all across the world but then again, Bullocks character isn't a Regular Joe. Access to book seats "online" did exist but also wasn't available to most people. Store fronts and form submissions existed. eBay was founded the same year this movie came out and Rolling Stone mag had a site up in the mid 90's with sound clips and subscription forms.

The only thing I can think of that might be more science fiction then fact is the beach scene. But then again, she could have been connected via satellite. I don't remember that scene well enough to know what she was using or how it was depicted. It could have been a Cellular Phone Interface PC card. Maybe. As a kid we didn't have that sort of stuff so I'm not sure what it really could do, but I do know tech existed that allowed a select few to do exactly what she was doing.

This movie came out a couple of years before the dot com bubble -really- shot off into the stratosphere. So in a sense, this movie depicts what was being talked about in board rooms, think tanks, development arenas and in locations populated by anyone interested in pushing the technologies available into the future. And there where many, many people doing so.

So, while this movie isn't Bullock's best role and is rather crap on action and acting all around, I love it for the slice of time it represents and as a glimpse into what the hell was about to be unleashed upon an unsuspecting humanity. In the end, this move was really -well- researched (just wish the directing and acting where at the same level.)

And as a trip down memory lane (or to know what the hell the older farts are talking about) check this collection out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_websites_founded_before_1995

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Fantasy & Reality live on 1 side of the coin just don’t confuse the 2 as this insults them both.

"As far as ordering pizza, airline tickets, etc... nope, those companies never had that back then, so you could say in a way this helped bring that about."

You need to stop stating opinions and beliefs as facts when you clearly have no idea what you're talking about.

Booking and purchasing airline tickets online has been available since the very early 1980s. Of all the online commercial services that came about in the 1980s, that was one of the first! It was called easySABRE and could be accessed on its own or via CompuServe.

The SABRE computer reservation system itself was developed in the late 1950s and became accessible to regular customers via online around 1979/1980, both via a direct dial-up connection and through CompuServe. More information (though not complete) at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sabre_(computer_system)

As for ordering pizza and food online (groceries, etc.), that has also been available in various forms online since at least the mid-to-late 1980s, and this wasn't anything ground-breaking since it's a very localized service and the technology to do that has been around since the 1980s.

Ditto for ordering anything else online, i.e. furniture, movies, music, etc. CompuServe and Prodigy were the two principal services for doing this, and CompuServe was the first nationwide service to provide commercial services.

Lastly, CompuServe and Prodigy were *not* ISPs! They did not begin providing direct access to the Internet until the late 1990s. Beginning in 1995, they provided limited Internet access, but not a direct connection.

TIL: Identity Theft is "cool stuff" ;)

I didn't use the internet until 1998. We had it at school and everyone was talking about this new internet thing, so I decided to use it. I remember logging on and reading about the winter Olympics on some news site. Apparently 1998 makes me a late-bloomer in internet years. But honestly, I never heard ANYTHING about the internet before then! I'm curious about other users' experiences.

My family only had a Commodore 64 until I demanded in 98 we had to get an upgrade because I was going to high school & I needed a way to do research at home. We got AOL back then, I used the IMs, chat rooms, and web to research. But nothing like ordering pizza, or any shopping.