How far back do you go with the internet? I began surfing the net some nine--ten years ago (Jeezis K-RIST!) and I have vivid memories of cyberspace's many peculiarities and absurdities. We have them now--in spades--but back then it was like we were floundering around trying to make sense of it all and having an insanely good time in the process. The most alluring aspect of the internet for me was the fact that it was a business that never shut down at night to go home to the wife and kids. It was the party town that never slept. The net was the best and worst thing that could EVER happen to an insomniac like myself.
Anyways, here's a couple fond and sour memories of me during the first one or two years of technogalactic surfing.
AOL--Was it just me or did AOL seem to be the only party in town? I was always under the impression if you weren't on AOL you weren't really experiencing the internet. I just couldn't fathom the net without chatrooms. I mean, after you go and search for naked pics of women, you then go resign yourself to the world of AOL chatrooms until the wee hours of the night--right?. What else was there to do on the internet?? And granted other providers like Earthlink claimed to have an array of thriving chatroom--but they weren't AOL chatrooms and AOL chatrooms connected you to damn-near everyone in America!!!! Or so I believed.
Website Awards--Remember those? These were awards (basically banners) given out by anyone's drunken uncle who considered themself an authoritize on web design or literary content or whatever. Of course at the time I was greatly impressed to stumble upon a website devoted to the memory of "My beloved dog Truffles" and see not one but several awards of design excellence from such online establishments as "Pricilla-Sue's Home Page of Personalized Fonts and Graphics". It wasn't until I created my own website (and I use the term website loosely as it was just this little attrocity I made with the web-building template AOL provided everyone with) that I realize the website award was a cheap and lowly ploy to get a link to your own site on everyone's home page. I can't think of how many people I must have pissed off when I turned down the esteemed honor of placing, say, "Miss Muffy's Home of Animated Unicorn Gif's Award of Excellence" on my home page.
Wavs--Anyone remember those great little sound bytes ya played in chatrooms? Man, I just thought that was the apex of modern technology when you could simply press a button on your keyboard and have Homer Simpson say "Kiss my rosey-red butt!!" to everyone in a chatroom (er...considering everyone had that same wav downloaded on THEIR harddrive). I'm sure at one time trading wavs surpassed the popularity of Beanie Babies based upon the fact they began creating LOTS of chatrooms called "Just Wavs" where you didn't talk, ya just played and exchanged wavs (which sounds pretty sad now). I had at least 200 wavs on my harddrive (which was probably a conservative collection compared to other's) ranging from Groucho Marx quotes to the sound of a donkey braying (which ya used whenever a jackass would enter a chatroom). The thing was, that was when everyone had dial-up with a 27k or 57k modem (yikes!!) and people would spend an hour downloading just the opening melody of the Titanic theme.
Well, obviously there's TONS of memories I could share about that awkward era of the Information Highway but I'd love to hear your own waxings.
Anyways, here's a couple fond and sour memories of me during the first one or two years of technogalactic surfing.
AOL--Was it just me or did AOL seem to be the only party in town? I was always under the impression if you weren't on AOL you weren't really experiencing the internet. I just couldn't fathom the net without chatrooms. I mean, after you go and search for naked pics of women, you then go resign yourself to the world of AOL chatrooms until the wee hours of the night--right?. What else was there to do on the internet?? And granted other providers like Earthlink claimed to have an array of thriving chatroom--but they weren't AOL chatrooms and AOL chatrooms connected you to damn-near everyone in America!!!! Or so I believed.
Website Awards--Remember those? These were awards (basically banners) given out by anyone's drunken uncle who considered themself an authoritize on web design or literary content or whatever. Of course at the time I was greatly impressed to stumble upon a website devoted to the memory of "My beloved dog Truffles" and see not one but several awards of design excellence from such online establishments as "Pricilla-Sue's Home Page of Personalized Fonts and Graphics". It wasn't until I created my own website (and I use the term website loosely as it was just this little attrocity I made with the web-building template AOL provided everyone with) that I realize the website award was a cheap and lowly ploy to get a link to your own site on everyone's home page. I can't think of how many people I must have pissed off when I turned down the esteemed honor of placing, say, "Miss Muffy's Home of Animated Unicorn Gif's Award of Excellence" on my home page.
Wavs--Anyone remember those great little sound bytes ya played in chatrooms? Man, I just thought that was the apex of modern technology when you could simply press a button on your keyboard and have Homer Simpson say "Kiss my rosey-red butt!!" to everyone in a chatroom (er...considering everyone had that same wav downloaded on THEIR harddrive). I'm sure at one time trading wavs surpassed the popularity of Beanie Babies based upon the fact they began creating LOTS of chatrooms called "Just Wavs" where you didn't talk, ya just played and exchanged wavs (which sounds pretty sad now). I had at least 200 wavs on my harddrive (which was probably a conservative collection compared to other's) ranging from Groucho Marx quotes to the sound of a donkey braying (which ya used whenever a jackass would enter a chatroom). The thing was, that was when everyone had dial-up with a 27k or 57k modem (yikes!!) and people would spend an hour downloading just the opening melody of the Titanic theme.
Well, obviously there's TONS of memories I could share about that awkward era of the Information Highway but I'd love to hear your own waxings.
