What did we do before the Internet?

As I was subwaying in today, I was listening to some tunes and thinking abou the first album I ever owned (Hammer's Please Don't Hurt 'Em). I then thought of the number of people, back in 1990, that knew he sampled Rick James' Superfreak. Probably very few and even fewer could ever find out, unless they read a review in Rolling Stone or caught a Hammer interview on the news. So, how did people find out tidbits of information like that prior to the Web?

I realize it wasn't the dark ages - we still had TV, books, Nintendo, malls, museums, CDs, etc. But in terms of finding out little things, the only way I remember was the encyclopedia. And mine came out in 1986 so it didn't have anything recent. We were able to find out movie times (newspaper) and a local plumber (yellow pages), but all that other stuff was a mystery, unless you happened to know someone who knew or who caught a TV episode with said info.

It's almost scary how much we rely on Google, etc. these days. What new-fangled gizmo will the next generation have?

Some recent news of mine

- Getting further and further into formally moving in. The kitchen is setup and almost everything works. Haven't tried the dishwasher and the washer makes a funny buzzing noise at certain parts of the cycle. Good thing I got the extended warranty from Yale. Had to get the fridge and boxspring craned up from the first floor on Saturday morning. I was given Titan Moving as the people to do the work. They were super-efficient and friendly for 9am on a weekend. It costs almost $500, but I had figured that into my appliance spend.

-Had Comcast come out as well. I've now got digital cable with on-demand. This is very new to me, as I've had basic TV for the past two years. I look forward to playing with it. I didn't go for DVR, but I can easily grab it for an extra $15/month, which also includes HD content and the ability to DVR HD stuff. I think I'm gonna cancel Blockbuster, because this on-demand and my insane DVD collection make it seem frivolous at this point.

-Via SEOMoz, found this terrificly awesome job posting. Not that I'd be interested (or qualified) but I'll bet they get some great responses. Oh yeah, my office also has a clever request for a programmer.

- This feels like Twitter. But I'm not gonna use it cause A) I don't have the time to continually update stalkers with my life and B) Most people I know don't use it