What was your first experience of the internet?
I was working in the US, c 1997. There was one online computer in the office - using Netscape. I'd go online when I got into work to read what had happened in Brookside. Little images with text underneath, like a comic strip.
I thought it was amazing.
@BeebsyMcA I feel old. Probably using NCSA Mosaic in 1994, but you could maybe say downloading binaries by email in 1993, uk.ac BBSs over cooked book protocols on JaNET in 1990, or email with bang paths (UUCP!) in 1988.
Connecting computers seemed magical at the time. It still seems magical today - and it's wireless now too!
@OpinionatedGeek @BeebsyMcA I used NCSA Mosaic on QUB DECstations too! Those machines also introduced me to Unix.
@seanddotmedotuk @OpinionatedGeek Wow!
Yous were in at the beginning 😁
@BeebsyMcA Compared to @OpinionatedGeek, I'm a newbie.
@seanddotmedotuk @BeebsyMcA I think anyone who used NCSA Mosaic, or even Netscape versions 1-3, deserves some sort of long-service medal. They were simple, great browsers for the time and technology. (Remember dithering?)
@OpinionatedGeek @seanddotmedotuk @BeebsyMcA my anecdote will always be that I used to get up at 6am on a Saturday to get the cheaper dial-up rate and avoid contention for the phone do that I could download the latest Netscape version.
Oh, and buying the .net Directory Magazine that was a quarterly listing of websites that were interesting.
@mo @OpinionatedGeek @BeebsyMcA I was interviewed by .NET once! I think it was about IRC usage.
@seanddotmedotuk @mo @BeebsyMcA And so a star was born!
@mo @seanddotmedotuk @BeebsyMcA 6am! That's commitment. I too remember having to shout "Stop picking up the phone!" when I was online.
Ooh - remember Direct Net Access and they're frequently-changing NTL dial-up number? Every time they changed it, NTL put it in the (wrong) 'free local calls' tariff. Free dial-up! NTL would catch on a month or two later, DN@ would fess up, then change the number again and the process would repeat.
@OpinionatedGeek @seanddotmedotuk @BeebsyMcA I was only a DN@ customer from Lurgan so there was no NTL shenanigans for me. Though I did have ntlworld as an ISP in 1999-2001 and they had the 0800 number with 2 hour cutoff to allow other people to get connected. I had my Linux gateway connecting and as soon as the call dropped my script would redial immediately. Always on, except for redial time!
@mo @OpinionatedGeek @BeebsyMcA I had a similar setup in our student house with five different computers and lots of network cables. Was only a few months thankfully before we got cable.
@seanddotmedotuk @OpinionatedGeek @BeebsyMcA moving into new house…
My housemates: “why does your computer have two network cards?”.
Me: “you’ll see… 😉”
Housemates:
@mo @OpinionatedGeek @seanddotmedotuk A magazine listing websites. Oh it's almost too sad!