I was at home. My mom was talking on the phone with someone and they said to turn on the TV. That's pretty much the only memory I can recall of that particular day (I was pretty young)... that and mom saying something along the lines of "let's move to Vermont" when I was out at the swings with my parents.
I took the car that day (instead of the bicycle) and by default the radio is tuned in to traffic news on the AM band. As I drove off from home I heard breaking news that an airplane appeared to have crashed on one of the towers. Initially the speculation was some type of accident and the plane involved was not a jetliner but something smaller. A few minutes before I reached work, all hell broke loose on the news as both pundits and people being interviewed became hysterical after another plane apparently hit the second tower. I myself was in a state of disbelief... when I got to work I told my peers to check the news on internet websites. Almost all news sites were jammed... except for canoe.ca and it is there that we finally saw images of the burning towers. Towards lunch time more news about another crash at the Pentagon, the crash at Pennsylvania, and the towers collapsing. Needless to say, almost no one was able to get anything done at work that day.
Side note, it's pretty amazing all that has happened and progressed, especially technologically, within the past 10 years, isn't it?
Most people were still rocking Windows 98, N64 was still Nintendo's newest console (not for long though), the iPod and CPU Magazine wouldn't be out for a couple months yet, and smartphones? Yeah right. Etc etc.
Also, the internet -- most people were still on dial-up as far as I know (AOL for the win!), and look how differently things looked:
Ten years ago if I recall right the company I was working for at the time had NT 4 or Windows 2000 installed on most desktops. Browser was Netscape Navigator, and most folks were still hooked up to the internet via 56.6k baud modems. The closest things to smart devices where Pocket PCs that were already running on ARM Processors. I still have a Compaq IPAQ from that era. It was a very limited device... more like a micro PC. No phones and internet connectivity was via a modem inside a Compact Flash case.
Digital cameras were just becoming popular and one with a 2 or 3 Megapixel sensor from Canon or Nikon will cost an arm and a leg.
I still drive the same 4 banger today that I was driving 10 years ago... big difference is filling up the tank costs almost 60 bucks today compared to half or less than half 10 years ago. Meanwhile salaries have not increased as much.
One big difference today compared to 10 years ago is the existence of sites like youtube, vimeo and high resolution video cameras (including those on SmartPhones). This has allowed normal people to capture all sorts of footages and share them online... from family reunions to disaster footages (tsunami, tornado, etc.).
On topic.... I was working for Getronics, that day I was at a LaSalle bank drive up repairing check readers and receipt printers. I was sitting off to the side of the three tellers and we were all watching it on a TV. Businesses were closing early so I knocked off work early and went home to watch TV for the rest of the day.
I also cleaned and loaded all my guns... just in case.
The last plane was headed for either the White House or the Capitol. The White House was apparently more difficult to locate visually so it appears the target was the Capitol.
Comments
Most people were still rocking Windows 98, N64 was still Nintendo's newest console (not for long though), the iPod and CPU Magazine wouldn't be out for a couple months yet, and smartphones? Yeah right. Etc etc.
Also, the internet -- most people were still on dial-up as far as I know (AOL for the win!), and look how differently things looked:
http://web.archive.org/web/20010916223724/http://www.msn.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20010914223500/http://www.aol.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/20010917091607/http://www.pepsi.com/current/index.html
Digital cameras were just becoming popular and one with a 2 or 3 Megapixel sensor from Canon or Nikon will cost an arm and a leg.
One big difference today compared to 10 years ago is the existence of sites like youtube, vimeo and high resolution video cameras (including those on SmartPhones). This has allowed normal people to capture all sorts of footages and share them online... from family reunions to disaster footages (tsunami, tornado, etc.).
On topic.... I was working for Getronics, that day I was at a LaSalle bank drive up repairing check readers and receipt printers. I was sitting off to the side of the three tellers and we were all watching it on a TV. Businesses were closing early so I knocked off work early and went home to watch TV for the rest of the day.
I also cleaned and loaded all my guns... just in case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDOrzF7B2Kg