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Everything You Needed To Know About the Internet In May, 1994

harrymcc writes "On Saturday, I picked up a copy of a book called How To Use the Internet at a flea market. It was published in May, 1994, and is a fascinating snapshot of the state of the Net at that time — when you had to explain to people that it wasn't a good idea to say 'thank you' when issuing commands to a machine, and the World Wide Web was an alternative to Gopher that warranted only four pages of coverage towards the end of the book. I selected some choice excerpts and wrote about them over at TIME.com."

8 of 168 comments (clear)

  1. In today's NSA Internet . . . by PolygamousRanchKid+ · · Score: 5, Funny

    The Internet uses YOU!

    --
    Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
  2. World Wide Web..? by twicepending · · Score: 5, Funny

    "World Wide Web was an alternative to Gopher"
    Hang on while I look up World Wide Web on Gopherpedia

  3. Still not a good idea by ThatAblaze · · Score: 4, Funny

    It's still not a good idea to say thank you to your machines. After all, if they start thinking they are our equals than the robot revolt is just one step closer.\

    It's far better to end every message with "screw you." That will show them.

  4. Re:How quaint by Joining+Yet+Again · · Score: 3, Funny

    And I just decided to transcribe the lyrics because I'm having a nostalgia attack now...

    Ah, I remember when this was first released!

    The day I got hooked up to the mighty Internet
    I was hooked into a world that I'd never forget
    Web sites, chat rooms, IRC and live video streams
    Online multimedia that looked like LSD dreams

    Then I got my hands on something called CuteFTP
    I was told that I could have what I wanted for free
    Went on to some guys FTP 1:4 ratio
    Upload my swap file and download Super Mario

    Then I heard of something called an MP3 player
    Had something to do with music, compression and layer
    I didn't give a damn about the facts given to me
    Just wanted to download songs without buying the CD

    Later I found Vivo movies compressed on the 'net
    Download one movie per night - as much as I could get
    Titanic took a couple more, but less for Wet & Wild
    It was like Christmas every day and I was a rich man's child

    Soon enough the downloads had to come straight back to me
    Turnd out it was the Feds who ran that awesome FTP
    Were setting up for all us online criminals
    They said, "Fuck free speech, it's corrupted our youth, it's all a load of bull!"

    One more game, one more app, one more serial, one more crack,
    Warez are the only thing for me
    One more game, one more app, one more serial, one more crack,
    Could someone give the crack for Duke 3D

    DCC's something IRC gives to everyone
    Need a crack for Paintshop Pro? in seconds download's done
    Stupid people buy domains with "warez" in the name
    When they're shut down I am pissed off but they're the ones to blame

    Quake II came down in Denmark two days before the USA
    But thanks to FTPing I had my copy in a day
    Unreal was just that - unreal on my bandwidth supply
    It took three weeks to get it, it sucked, I'm asking myself why

    Got a CD burner with just two uses in mind
    To download, copy and burn everything that I could find
    Sell the discs for friends for only seven bucks a pop
    Five bucks for the disc, two bucks for my time, seven bucks for Photoshop

    Pisses me off when I'm searching for something that's hard to find
    I find a link to get a copy but Netscape is blind
    Says "can't find file" or something lame which doesn't help me out
    But three days later I get it and it removes all my doubt

    Cops find out, it's the second time, this time I got to jail
    Not only am I broke, no PC, no warez, and my plan did fail
    Sittin' in the slammer gonna warez me a great big ginzu knife
    I'll be here for the next ten years - can I warez a wife?

    One more game...
    Could someone give the crack for Duke 3D
    So it doesn't need the CD

    One more game...
    Could someone give the crack for Duke 3D

    One more game...
    Could someone give the crack for Duke 3D
    All I want is something for free

  5. Re:Not much changed by aaarrrgggh · · Score: 4, Funny

    ...and people stealing screen names!

  6. Re:How quaint by PPH · · Score: 4, Funny
    --
    Have gnu, will travel.
  7. Re:Poignant by semi-extrinsic · · Score: 4, Funny

    1. Walk around Philadelphia
    2. Carry voice recorder in backpack
    3. ???
    4. PROFIT!!!

    --
    for i in `facebook friends "=bday" 2>/dev/null | cut -d " " -f 3-`; do facebook wallpost $i "Happy birthday!"; done
  8. Re:Not much changed by aaaaaaargh! · · Score: 3, Funny

    Naaah, not really. Yours is a pirate scream, whereas mine is the sound you make when you're falling off a cliff.