How Much Did Those AOL CDs Cost? A Lot.

[Anaxamenes]

I made a hovercraft with a balloon, AOL CD, and a spool in physics class.

 

[HappyBB]

I threw away all those AOL CDs as I did not like the company at all. It was quite wasteful of resources to produce all those CD disks in such quantity!

 

[Guest]

I worked for a CD manufacturer at the time... We litterally made MILLIONS of these discs. I know about 100 ways a compact disc can be used for entertainment other than in a player.

 

[rbarone69]

Just bought a bar... The previous owner was a DJ and glued and hung hundreds of them all over the walls and ceiling. Horrible waste.

 

[Von Death]

I still have an unopened AOL 7.0 still stashed away. Maybe I'll donate it to an internet museum in twenty years...

 

[WR2]

[citation][nom]gman0417[/nom]In the early days they were sending floppies. I would erase and reuse them.[/citation]I must have had about 20 of those in use at one time. A whole 28MB of free storage.

 

[parabola]

I used them for internet access when DSL wasn't possible. Dial up sucked, but it WAS internet..."

 

[h83r]

I decorated the inside of my trashcan with them

 

[rooket]

dratted Army of Lamers crusade. I haven't ever used AOL and I was using Prodigy long before AOL got internet access. AOL only made things a lot simpler for people to do on the internet however it didn't really do much of anything else besides spam the crap out of people with useless CDs which could have been better used for recording engineering and student software in my honest opinion. What a waste. Well anyway I went from Prodigy to Netcom to netzero and then @home, msn dial up then comcast. I've seen people use AOL but feh. lame.

[citation][nom]aaron88_7[/nom]A handful of highly efficient Prius cars would consume far more oil than producing all those discs. Considering most people don't drive vehicles nearly as efficient, I'd say it's a bit hypocritical to criticize a major corporation for their marketing efforts when the criticizee is consuming more oil for their own personal uses.Let's not forget that AOL played a major role in developing the internet for mass appeal. In the mid 90's if you wanted the internet you usually got AOL. I still remember the day they stopped charging by the minute and gave everyone unlimited use. It took forever to get through to their overloaded network....but unlimited internet access, mmmmm now it it's hard to believe we used to pay by the minute![/citation]

 

[g0rilla]

I liked the CDs that came in boxes with the rare-earth magnets in them. I still have several on my fridge.

 

[vorlonken]

Excellent for target practice for every caliber! Amazingly, CDs stretch a lot during bullet penetration. Although most calibers would ultimately break the disks, they didn't shatter like glass - there was significant deformation of the plastic before it broke.

 

[vorlonken]

Excellent for target practice for every caliber! Amazingly, CDs stretch a lot during bullet penetration. Although most calibers would ultimately break the disks, they didn't shatter like glass - there was significant deformation of the plastic before it broke.

 

[demonhorde665]

man i can't even recall all teh things i did with AOL disk LOL.

i did the microwave light show thing(with a MW that was dying itself)
i'e used disk to level off a uneven table like some one else mentioned , i used them as drink coasters, Dog Frisby's (not my best idea , once the dog actually caught it and it cut his mouth a little), i used them as car decorations , computer decorations christmas tree ornaments. pretty much did every thing i could with them . and i even used afew to install AOL back when games could still play good or ok on 56k. though i was never as young as some of you were LOL , (i was in high school at the height of AOL disk mails). lol my mom use to gripe at me when i used them for all teh odd thigns i did , it never occured to hear that AOl would likely be sendign us another disk in a week or two LOL

 

[boiler1990]

I used those CDs as frisbees out in the yard (I was only 8-10 years old). We never had AOL, but one of my friends did and I remember some of the interesting and creative pop up ads he'd get. Once he got a nude woman drawn out of slashes and parentheses (he was just checking his email too!).

 

[Guest]

Yeah the old heady 90's was a BRAVE NEW WORLD. It was about the demise of the the BBS (Bulletin Board Service) and the beginning of the "INTERNET". Pretty much the end of CompuServe as well. Those AOL floppys started to show up and many people signed up. I have had my ID since 1991. During that time we did collect the floppys that we did format than and made B/Ups or whatever. Many people talk about "Chat" in those days AOL continued so do so in their chat rooms very much like CompuServe did in their "CB Simulator" chat rooms. So much fun via your 56K modem. Memories!

 

[athomascm330]

I work at a high school teaching computer repair & networking, in 2001 we were donated pallets of AOL floppy discs from a warehouse that was storing them still. We have well over 250K discs. I use them to weigh my workbenches down by putting 5K discs in each drawer under the bench, 9 drawers per bench. We also use them to decorate posters for school events.

 

[u_hsen]

http://ronpbutler.com/img/examples/aolthrone.jpg

any one remember this? some one used all the aol cd's he collected and build it into a throne

 

[doomsdaydave11]

[citation][nom]InTheCity[/nom]Nice way to waste a butt load of oil. Douchebags.[/citation]
You have no idea how business works do you?

 

[theroguex]

Man, AOL was like a bad girlfriend - awesome at the time cuz of all the things she'd do for you (and to you), but shit overall... and you can't ever forget her, no matter how long it's been. Also - girls on AOL in the 90s were easy. And not only the ones who were guys pretending to be girls.

It was a crazy time.

 

[shannon78]

forget the cds and forget paying, the best part of aol was getting it for free...all you had to do was call to cancel your free trial at the end of the month and they would say, well if you stay with us we will give you another month...and you could typically do that for months upon months....sure eventually they would shut you down but hey free internet...back then too cool! i also remember using punters/pinters if someone p.o'd me i could kick them offline....hahaha!

 

[eddieroolz]

My family only registered for AOL once in 2000. I used those discs as flying dics.

 

[Guest]

I still have 400-500 new and unopened in a box in the closet - yodamon

 

[Guest]

I held onto a bunch of them for years. Now that you can recycle CDs at Best Buy, I've dumped them there to be remade into something useful.

 

[bwb1980]

I'd sharpen the edges and throw them at hookers.