Post #3561454

2026-07-03 10:43 UTC

Unless you were largely cognisant during the late 90s, it's very hard to get across to you just _how_ bristling with positive energy computing was back then, just **look** at this opening screen, it screams "ARE YOU READY TO LEARN MOTHERF*CKER?!". It has dolphins, in the clouds. How many smartphone apps welcome you with dolphins in clouds? #encarta #90s #retrocomputing

Replies (11)

@buherator@infosec.place 2026-07-03 16:55

@Kroc@oldbytes.space As we later learned, most people hated that and wanted to be angry at strangers and buy things instead.

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@GroupNebula563@mastodon.social 2026-07-04 11:59

@Kroc@oldbytes.space "display this screen in the future" fuck yes

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@Kroc@oldbytes.space 2026-07-03 11:19

#vaporwave looked at the busts of Mozart and the dolphins in the clouds and thought that it meant “this is trippy” and not “universal shared hope”. This is a metaphor for how modern computing is all about looks with no actual meaning or message.

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@zarel@mas.to 2026-07-03 10:48

@Kroc@oldbytes.space I remember not having a computer and reading the printed manual in awe - if it was not Encarta it was a similar software

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@dfstarshine@icosahedron.website 2026-07-03 11:16

@Kroc@oldbytes.space As a kid the Utopian Scholastic aesthetic was so present everywhere and it really felt like we'd sort of come to the end of history and were looking back at it like we were in a museum. I'm sure a lot of that was just childhood innocence but also I think there was just a lot more optimism for the future back then.

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@Kroc@oldbytes.space 2026-07-04 17:12

Help, my inbox! It's not SoundCloud, but I do have a book about an uncontacted tribe in a desert world within an hour-glass the size of Earth: https://camendesign.com/nomad #worldglass

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@Abdulla@indieweb.social 2026-07-03 11:46

@Kroc@oldbytes.space I remember being so excited for the present and the future, it can be hard to explain for people how optimistic we were in the 90s.

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@nebula@beach.city 2026-07-03 11:57

@Kroc@oldbytes.space Also, fuck yea, Encarta

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@jargoggles@kolektiva.social 2026-07-03 15:07

@Kroc@oldbytes.space I had this - it was awesome. There was a game called Mind Maze and I don't know how many hours I put into it.

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@Netraven@hear-me.social 2026-07-03 16:22

@Kroc@oldbytes.space back when history mattered and facts weren't some nebulous form of opinion.

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@pencilears@mastodon.eternalaugust.com 2026-07-03 18:45

@Kroc@oldbytes.space Local Seattle author Fred Moody actually wrote a book about the encarta team, it's called I Sing the Body Electronic https://archive.org/details/isingbodyelectro00mood

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