Mildly Interesting @lemmy.world mysoulishome @lemmy.world 2 mo. ago

Two 2000's tech things I'm shocked still exist

PCMag - I used to physically walk into a store and buy that magazine to read about computers…before the internet was so clean and fast it made for a better news and media experience. I’m pretty sure PCMag has been around since they included AOL cds with an isssue.
Woot! Lol…why? Woot was always stupid. The deals were never good. There is no need for it.

Both of these give me a lot of nostalgia for the early 2000’s. Playing games on Yahoo messenger. GameCube, PS2, OG Xbox.

Shocked they still exist, let alone have the funds to be running Facebook ads.

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I once got a funny error message published in PC Magazine’s Abort, Retry, Fail humor section and they gave me a t-shirt. I stopped reading PCMag around 1999.

Woot was cool until Amazon bought it and turned it into just another shitty overstock site. Not surprised Amazon has kept it around for hawking trash.
- I mean a lot of the shit was refurb or overstock always. I bought a refurb Zune off Woot in 2007ish. The thing still works as a music player and is kinda awesome in form and UI.
  
  Unfortunately I never got one of the "Bag of Crap" before they sold out, which I feel was half the charm of the site.
  
  I bought a refurbished screen with built in VNC client or something from woot. Sweet! Set up VNC on my server, get home, fire up the screen, and it asks for DOJ login. 😳 Full stop.
  
  Never plugged that into a network again.
  
  Every PC I've ever purchased over the last 30 years has been a refurb.
  
  I've never understood why people have issues with refurb machines.
- After selling Woot to Amazon, the founder created meh which is basically what Woot began as.
  
  Also has a BoC equivalent periodically.
No idea what Woot is, other than an exclamation on MMOs.

But PCMag has been around a long time. Since before they included AOL floppy disks with an issue.
- No idea what Woot is
  
  Liquidation site that ended up getting enshittified when amazon bought it out.
  
  Was golden for finding great deals. Now it's just maybe a couple of dollars off stock amazon no longer wants.
  
  I noticed the severe enshittification, but I didn't realize it was due to an Amazon buyout. That makes a lot of sense. I used to check it every day and now it's just when something like this post crops up, out of curiosity.
I actually bought a phone case from Woot a few months ago. It’s not great looking but functional enough. It had been so long since I last logged in that I had to do a bunch of stuff to fix my account.
- How much was it as opposed to just buying on Amazon?
  
  I think it was a little under $20 instead of around $30. I just happened to open an email saying they were selling them and at the time was looking to replace my old one.
Woot! was good before Amazon bought them. The original creator then moved on to Meh.

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