Blast From [My] Past: '98

[EthanBE]

So I'm a college freshman, and today I received a BusinessWeek magazine from my dad, with a note saying it was "out of [my] time capsule." I was born August, 1998, and this edition is from July 27, 1998. Unfortunately, a quick google search yielded no digital copies. Inside are various advertisements and articles, as follows:

 

an advert. for "The AMD-K6-2 Processor with 3DNow! Technology," with an assertion that it outperforms Intel's Pentium II processor.

 

a "bulletin board" (probably a form of native advertising) about a $400 RealPort card from Xircom, which offers an "elegant solution" to these "special adapters, known as "dongles," into which you plug your network cable and sometimes your phone line, [which] are awkward--and they are forever getting lost." It says: "The RealPort is an extra-thick Type III card that will fill both the card slots on a typical notebook computer." And, you know, I'm sitting here thinking "what the fuck is a card slot?" I mean, it's kinda intuitive what it would be, but I've never dealt with one on a laptop.

 

there's also a bulletin about the 'new' ATA standard ("also confusingly known as EIDE"), and it's relative superiority over SCSI, featuring "up to 16.8 gigabytes." Personally, I've dealt with IDE only once, when I way fooling around with my grandparents' old Pentium 4 machine.

 

another advertisement for Toshiba's Libretto 100CT laptop, featuring a "166MHZ Pentium processor,... the support of two Type II or one Type III PC Card, optional modem or CD-ROM. It's all there." It says it is "compatible with a monstrous 2.1 billion byte hard drive" and 'just 8.3" x5.2" x1.4"'

 

a somewhat sparse ad for an IMB AS-400e, "Hot Apps" server, "serving up an assortment of Java apps." Unfortunately, the included web address www.as400.ibm.com/hotapps4 redirects to the IBM home page.

 

finally, an article titled "A Java in Every Pot? Sun aims to make it the language of all smart appliances." It mentions certain Java-enabled devices, from cars outfitted with voice-activated E-mail and navigation, to pagers, cell phones, to toasters (no, really, (#RazerToaster)), and "a ring with a java-encoded chip that could provide more secure access to hotel rooms."

 

So, did I make anyone feel old? Personally, I found it all kind of cool but also amusing, because I'm self-aware that I can't even relate to any of that stuff. By the way, I'm kinda ignorant about software languages, so how'd that Java thing work out? Obviously, hotel key rings aren't a thing, but is Java basically the IoT king?