Those of us who were really hip in the '90s got online, usually via a dialup modem (or your college's awesome network.if you could afford a network card). There were distinct sounds associated with computers of that time that we don't think about today, but they're lodged deep in our memories.

The most popular site for professional sound effects in the world.: chat sounds.

Let's go back to some computer sounds you probably haven't heard in decades. 56K MODEM CONNECTING Modem connection sounds varied based on speed, modem brand, the quality of the connection, and so on. But today, the 56k modem (the pinnacle of modem technology in the '90s) is the best-remembered 'modem screech.'

My friend's mom called this sound 'wirescream,' which sounds accurate to me. So here's a 56k modem dialing and connecting (illustrated with a little guy acting as the modem): 2. 3.5' FLOPPY DRIVE SOUND If you ever installed software or copied a lot of files, you heard this.

'YOU'VE GOT MAIL' (AOL) Sound courtesy of:. Aside from being a romantic comedy (), the 'You've got mail' sound was familiar to all AOL users. M-audio Profire 2626 Driver Mac. It was, recorded on a cassette deck in his living room.

(These days, Edwards.) 4. WINDOWS 3.1 STARTUP SOUND Sound courtesy of. Just one second long.

Because back in my day, we couldn't afford the disk space for fancier sounds. WINDOWS 95 STARTUP SOUND Microsoft. The result is a masterpiece. MAC STARTUP/CRASH SOUNDS If you had a Mac in the '90s, you'd hear a startup chime, and hopefully you didn't hear the crash sound too often (we used to call it 'MacDeath' at my high school). It's surprising how different the startup sounds were, especially the AV model Macs (which had special audio/video hardware, hence the fancy sound): 7. ICQ MESSAGE SOUND Sound courtesy of.

ICQ was a chat application that I used a lot in college in the late 90s. You'd hear this 'Uh-oh!' For new messages. WINDOWS 98 (SE) STARTUP SOUND Sound courtesy of. This is smooth, but I still prefer the Windows 95 startup sound.

It's just a classic. QSOUND DEMO was a 3D-like effect that was used in games and sound production in tons of '90s stuff (for instance, Madonna's Immaculate Collection was 'mixed in QSound').

Here's a demo video showing various places QSound showed up—it sounds best with headphones. THE HAMPSTER DANCE [SIC] This is best experienced on an archive of. But if your browser doesn't like that site, the video below is a loose approximation of the late-'90s phenomenon known as. Let the gates of memory open. (And yes, the spelling 'Hampster' is intentionally incorrect.) 11. DOT MATRIX PRINTER If you had a hand-me-down printer in the 90s (or you needed a receipt printed on carbon paper), this is what it sounded like.

If you were lucky! My family's original dot matrix printer sounded like a malfunctioning robot on a murder spree. A 1993 PC AND INKJET PRINTER STARTING UP I've. Listen for the POST (Power On Self Test) beep, the chittering of the hard drive, then the horrific clunking noises of the Epson Stylus 440. If you're wondering how a 1993 computer is running Windows 95, it's because this computer is still running today!

AOL INSTANT MESSENGER (AIM) BUDDY SOUNDS When your AIM buddies signed on, a door opened: When they signed off, the door closed (so sad): Sounds courtesy of:. FLYING TOASTERS SCREENSAVER After Dark offered some of the best screensavers around. 'Flying Toasters' was my favorite, and it had an optional score, complete with lyrics at the bottom. For more, see. GOODBYE (AOL) Sound courtesy of:. As it was and ever shall be. Goodbye, AOL.

Why are the keys on a QWERTY keyboard laid out as they are?: What is commonly called QWERTY (more properly, the Sholes layout) was designed by Christopher Lathan Sholes, then modified through a series of business relationships. Sholes's original keyboard was alphabetical and modeled after a printing telegraph machine. The alphabetical layout was easy to learn, but not easy to type on. For one thing, all practical typing machines of the day relied on mechanical levers, and adjacent letters could jam if struck with rapidity. There has long been a myth that Sholes designed the QWERTY layout to slow typists down in order to prevent this.

Nothing could be further from the truth, but Sholes’s first customers were telegraphers. Over several years, he adapted the piano-like alphabetical keyboard into a four-row keyboard designed to aid telegraphers in their transcription duties. This new layout mostly spread out commonly struck keys, but also placed easily confused telegraph semaphores together.

This layout was sufficient to permit telegraph transcription to keep up with transmissions and created a growing market. During this time, Sholes teamed up with several other inventors to form a typewriter company with assignment of all related patents. An association with Remington led to increased sales, at which time another company acquired the shift platen patent that permits a typewriter to type in mixed case, and they seem to have made a few essentially random changes in order to avoid the original typewriter company patents.