BUYING A PASSWORD MODEM CAN SAVE YOU UP TO $250. (Jul, 1984)
I don’t understand the “AND THAT AIN’T HAYES!”. I mean, I know that Hayes was the dominant modem at the time, but what is the reference to? It sounds like it should be “and that ain’t pocket change” or something…
BUYING A PASSWORD MODEM CAN SAVE YOU UP TO $250.
AND THAT AIN’T HAYES!
You can bank on it. Your outlay will be less than if you settle for our major competitor, but not your output! A Password’” modem sends and receives up to 120 words a minute. Provides both 1200 and 300 baud capacity. Offers total interchangeability that lets you transmit information from any make microcomputer to any other make. And your investment is protected by a 2-year warranty.
Unlike our major competitor, Password™ delivers operating simplicity, plus the convenience of uncommon portability. Thanks to lighter weight, it goes almost anywhere. And because of the ingenuity of Velcro™ strips, it attaches wherever you need it, from the side of a desk to the side of a computer!
This means that Password™ doesn’t tie you down, and its price won’t hold you up. It features auto-dial, auto-answer, and even knows when to disconnect. If you’re cost conscious, but refuse to sacrifice high-speed capability and performance, hook up with the right modem—Password?
The smart decision.
PASSWORD™ by U.S. Robotics, Inc.
1123 W. Washington
Chicago, IL 60607 Phone: (312) 733-0497
Mad Men strike again! It’s a play on “that ain’t hay” — meaning, as you wrote, it’s not pocket change.
The pun was for the rather outmoded idiom “…and that ain’t hay,” which indeed meant that it was a decent sum of money. I don’t recall ever hearing the phrase being used in conversation, so it was probably unfamiliar to many people even in 1984.
Also, Hayes weren’t just the dominant modem, they were RIDICULOUSLY expensive.
I sometimes ponder whether US Robotics had to pay any royalties to Isaac Asimov.
Personally, out of all modems, I prefer a Multitech; I was first introduced to them at my first software development job (1992). Unfortunately, at that time a 9600 baud Multitech modem would eat up a significant part of my paycheck, but oh, how I wanted one! My work used them over leased lines to communicate with remote Unix servers (RS6000/AIX) of our clients. I still wish I could find a good Wyse 370 color terminal with a keyboard that didn’t cost as much as a PC (to this day, they are still outlandishly priced!)…
I think a German company Dr. Neuhaus once had a 19200 modem in the early 1990s. It cost something like 5000 DM.