Remember the Internet?

Written by Lord Lansdowne

You know what's funny? In 1989, while connected via 2400 baud to The Flat Earth BBS, I first learnt about the existence of the Internet.

Let's be honest: the Internet back then sucked, enough with the nostalgia. It took all the way to 1996 to get a real browser and what did that get us? Geocities.

I digress. A BBS was a service you dialled-in using your modem and would only serve 1, at most 2, users at a time. It only served local users. It had primitive email and public forums. It had no pictures of kittens or babies. In fact, it had no pictures at all, not even selfies. Think of it as the Facebook-of-Then, without the lame parts.

I asked another user on the forums about this 'Internet.' You see, back then, the Internet was a creature of myth. Rumour had it that it was impossible to get on due to cost and limitations on who was allowed to use it -- mostly university students working in computer science. In other words, the Internet was Nerd Central Station.

And I wanted to be in it.

Those that had a chance to use it, spoke of it like bliss. And boy oh boy was it fast! It connected you to users across the globe! It wasn't limited by area codes! It had USENET, the biggest collection of forums ever! It had hundreds of users!

Now I can access the Internet anywhere on the planet.

With my phone.

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