joejacket

Much of the US retail market plans their whole year around Christmas. The percentage of their yearly income is from that season (for online retailers Black Friday, Cyber Monday) and is usually what gets them through the slower rest of the year.

My ISP provided shell access via dialup to download a starter pack, Winsock, Mosaic, etc. All via lsz/zmodem.

I rarely used floppies, we did most trading via BBSs or even direct dial. Telix was in my autoexec I used it so much.

Trumpet Winsock was required for Windows 3.11, the only supported networking was IPX if I remember it.

This is standard procedure for everything, it's been that way with ’smart' TVs for years.

The release was painful even at the time: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=lAkuJXGldrM

It was never actually funny or amusing on Slashdot. I would usually block the domain for a few months after to make sure I didn't go back.