My Pentium 100 could play this 320x240 video [this video] fullscreen with no choppiness. I had forgotten about this video until I saw it last year... But Windows had skeumorphisms, even nowadays the screen with everything minimised is called "the desk[ ]top". But I guess briefcases and recycle bins made things relatable...
For those who don't know: win95 came with an 'extras' cd-rom with a few videos. Among them there a Weezer clip [1] and "Good Times"[2] [1] [link] [2] [this video]
This is probably me experiencing a simulacra but with that slow loading getting up to go get a drink workflow, each page load was more special. It was magical discovering new websites just like trying out new software by picking something up from those "pegboards" at computer stores. It also was a simpler time, the technology was in peoples lives but as a small side quest to their main lives. It took the form of a bulky desktop in the den or something like that. When you walked away from that beige box, it didn't follow or know about the rest of your life. A life where a Big Mac meal was only $2.99, a toyota corolla was $9-15k, houses were ~100k, and when average dev salaries were ~50k. That was a different life. I don't know why but I picture this music video that was included on the Windows 95 cd bonus folder when I think of this simulacra: [this video]
> music video that was included on the Windows 95 cd bonus folder when I think of this simulacra: [this video] When I saw that video in 1995, I understood something we now know as Youtube would be inevitable as the connection speeds improve. Although I thought it'd be like MTV, a way to watch the newest music videos.
The second song included on Windows 95 CD was "Good times" by Edie Brickell - [this video] Indeed good times back in 1995, can't believe it's been already 20 years.
You never asked for Solitaire or Freecell either. And you never asked for Notepad or Calculator or whatever. Did you have mini-hysterics about Solitaire being bundled, and did you waste hours worrying about it or removing it? What about the pernicious inclusion of Edie Brickell's Good Times in Windows 95? ;-) [this video] Candy Crush Saga was actually one of the benefits of Windows 10 that Microsoft promoted, for two reasons: (1) Candy Crush was enormously popular, and (2) it provides practice in touch operations, just as Solitaire got people used to using a mouse.
Decades later Apple put U2 on everyone's iPhone and people got mad... (/s, yeah the album was a gift on people's account, ready to download to the phone but not taking space otherwise, but I would've found it obnoxious too). This video was also on the CD: [this video] .. holy smokes, let's rewind time 30 years, where the presidential sex scandal was singular, consensual, and was actually a scandal!
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