And I swear that this was not photoshopped.
You can actually find it in my posting history.
Posted on 09/03/2009 11:15:40 AM PDT by BenLurkin
Remember the days when the word Google was not interchangeable with internet? Or when every site seemed to have a Netscape icon on it? Or when Flash was still something you cleaned your floor with? Then you were clearly using the web in the mid to late 1990s when pages were rudimentary affairs containing lists of links and information.
Thanks to the waybackmachine internet archive, we're still able to see some of the Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 pioneers looked in their earliest incarnations.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Even more trivia, the first dotcom domain, symbolics.com, just got sold. It was registered on 15 March, 1985.
I once set up an IBM PS/2 50Z with a Micro Channel Architecture (MCA) Ethernet card and a hacked Client for MS Networks in DOS just to see if it could serve up files (off a 20 megabyte Seagate...MFM or RLL? drive) to our LAN.
I was surprised when it turned out just as zippy as any of the other boxes on the LAN.
Oh, and I'm twenty-three.
1987: Larry Wall creates the programming language Perl, which later is widely used for Web site applications.
1989: European physicists Tim Berners-Lee and Robert Cailliau propose the World Wide Web.
1990: The Web protocols on Berners-Lee’s Next computer undergo initial implementation.
1991: Paul Kunz, a physicist, installs the first Web server in the U.S., at Stanford University.
1993: Marc Andreessen, a student at the University of Illinois’ National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), develops Mosaic, the first Web browser with mass appeal.
1994: Andreessen and colleagues leave NCSA to form Mosaic Communications Corp., which announces a Web browser called Netscape Navigator and a Web server called NetSite. The company later adopts the name Netscape Communications Corp.
1993: Marc Andreessen, a student at the University of Illinois' National Center for Supercomputer Applications (NCSA), develops Mosaic, the first Web browser with mass appeal.
1995: Sun Microsystems Inc. debuts Java 1.0.
1995: The open-source Apache Web server software is officially released to the public.
1995: Sun Microsystems Inc. debuts Java 1.0.
1996: The browser wars heat up as Microsoft Corp. releases Internet Explorer 3.0 and Netscape releases Navigator 3.0.
There's no doubt that the accomplishments of Tim Berners-Lee and his colleagues at CERN, the European Laboratory for Particle Physics in Switzerland, were revolutionary. They created the four building blocks of the World Wide Web: HTML, the Web protocol HTTP, a Web server and a basic browser.
By Christmas 1990, Berners-Lee had set up a Next computer - an easy-to-program, Unix-based black cube that was the brainchild of Steve Jobs - as the world's first Web server.
But at the time, the Web didn't exactly look impressive. And it wasn't "World Wide" at all. In fact, it was more like a small intranet for CERN physicists. Information traveled no farther than a few buildings.
That changed after Stanford University physicist Paul Kunz got a peek at the future during a September 1991 visit to Berners-Lee's office in Geneva.
When Berners-Lee demonstrated information retrieval via the Internet between Next computers, Kunz wasn't impressed. But when he saw it was possible to send a query from the Next box to CERN's IBM mainframe and retrieve the results, Kunz started to get interested. Document retrieval from incompatible computer systems opened up many possibilities. But would it work between computers half a world apart?
"Tim couldn't demonstrate how well this is going to work because all the world's Web servers were at CERN," Kunz recalls. "It's not a very exciting demo."
So they used the Internet to remotely set up Kunz's computer at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) with a browser and retrieved a Web page.
"We were both shocked at how well it worked," Kunz recalls.
Kunz and Berners-Lee then discussed putting something substantial - Stanford's meaty bibliographic database of 300,000 physics references - on the Web. Kunz returned to Stanford to do exactly that, with help from SLAC librarian Louise Addis.
On Dec. 12, 1991, the first Web server outside Europe went online at SLAC in Stanford, Calif. The next month, Berners-Lee demonstrated his Web application to more than 200 physicists at a conference in France. For his grand finale, he connected to the Stanford server and performed a search on the bibliographic database.
"People went home from this meeting telling their colleagues of a new way to access [the database]," Kunz says. "It was called the World Wide Web, and it was great."
The Stanford database is considered the Web's first "killer app" because it provided a compelling reason to use the new technology.
Web for the Masses
Though it was a hit with physicists, to reach a wider audience, the Web needed a browser for the masses. Many Web browsers were developed in academic or scientific settings, but the one that captured widespread attention was Mosaic, created by University of Illinois student Marc Andreessen. What made the Mosaic browser different is that it was a graphical user interface, instead of being text-based, and it worked on the ubiquitous Windows desktop.
Andreessen's team released Mosaic for Windows in October 1993. By the next year, thousands of people were downloading the free browser every day. The number of Web servers jumped markedly, and the Web took off. A page-and-a-half article about the Web and Mosaic that appeared in The New York Times didn't hurt, either.
Soon the Web took on a commercial flavor, as cybermalls opened and closed, Yahoo became the major directory of Web sites and Amazon.com Inc. started selling books and music CDs.
Link to article ...
And I swear that this was not photoshopped.
You can actually find it in my posting history.
And today... millions... :-)
Reference link ...
I remember my earliest visits to the net looking just like that.
Remember the Nando Times? :-)
It did, didn’t it?
At same time, they had more hits than misses. Like a home run hitter. You have to swing.
They were also premature with their Newton - but learned enough to go on to iPod Touch and iPhone.
Still too small for my tastes / eyes though ;)
“I may only be 32 but can say I’ve worked on these:
Disk Packs”
...
Young folks have no appreciation for what is going on inside there computers and the 1’s and 0’s that are flawlessly flying about...”
Lots of folks here would say 32 is really really young
;)
Quantum Link was for Commodore 64/128 users, Yes I was on there back then.
I don’t know whether to feel sorry that you had to work on an IBM PS/2 or that you did it when you were 23. ;)
MCA wasn’t bad but turned out to be the Betamax of PC busses.
:’)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.theglobe.com/
http://web.archive.org/web/19990117021828/www.theglobe.com/
Nah, I did it years ago when I was 16 and didn’t know any better.
“Pikers. I was posting on FR in 1969, and I can prove it.”
Hey, there were Freepers in 1938, I can prove that! :)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/560413/posts
I was a Commodore 64 user in the mid-1980’s. I used it for 3 years of grad school. I also had a daisy wheel printer for 20+ page papers that would take HOURS to print.
Before that I remember my father-in-laws TRS 80 with 16K of memory, and program loading with a cassette recorder taking 30 minutes to load.
But were YOU posting then? ;^)
Quantum Link was for Commodore 64/128 users
Apple Computer had AppleLink in operation since 1985 and then switched things over to Steve Case of Quantum Computer Services (now called AOL) in 1988.
But of course, none of this was the "Internet" or "websites" as they did not exist back then. BBSs did exist, but they were not like webpages having web browsers, as web browsers on the WorldWideWeb did not exist back then either...
Here is some history for Applelink (before the WorldWideWeb...
Beginning in May 1988, Apple Computer contracted with Quantum Computer Services to start a consumer version of its AppleLink network. Apple's original network, in operation since 1985, had been used primarily for communication functions within Apple Computer and its various sites across the country, as well as a source of technical support for certified Apple developers. When their new consumer service, AppleLink-Personal Edition (ALPE) was introduced, they changed the name of the original network to AppleLink-Industrial Edition. Apple's hope was to use ALPE as a method of providing better support to its customers.
AppleLink-Personal Edition was unique for an online computer service in its use of a custom terminal program. Rather than requiring the user, (possibly a novice) to spend a lot of time in learning how to use a terminal program, a modem, and ALPE, Quantum and Apple designed a special program that handled all the communications details, including the sign-on password. Each time that the user signed-off from ALPE, a new, randomly selected password was selected and saved on the ALPE disk for the next time. ALPE was aware of this password, and so the chances of someone breaking in on another user's account and using time (and money!) was nearly eliminated.
The ALPE terminal program was intuitive, as was the use of the Macintosh (and Apple IIGS) desktop interface. Icons (pictures of desired functions) were selected with the mouse or cursor (depending on how you had it configured). Making the call and logging in were handled by the terminal program, transparently to the user. When the connection was made, a choice between Apple-specific services and ALPE general services was available. The general section was directed to entertainment, business services, online shopping, and general education. There was also a place for playing online games, alone or with other users. An "auditorium" could be used for members to attend conferences with special guests, allowing direct questions and answers with the guests.
The Apple Community section was the part most important to the dedicated Apple II (or Macintosh) user. Here direct contact with Apple Computer, Inc. was available (through the "Headquarters" icon), as well as other hardware and software vendors. Apple product announcements and information about products in testing could be found here, as well as direct access to Apple engineers and developers. There were Forums (special interest groups) for various aspects of Apple computing, Apple University (with courses on productivity, programming, and specialized software applications), and Software (library of available programs for downloading).
In 1990, AppleLink-Personal Edition was modified to connect with the services Quantum provided for other home computers, and the name was changed to America Online. It was still slightly less expensive than the other major online services, and because of the icon-based terminal software, still the easiest to use for the beginner.[11]
The main benefit for an Apple II user on a large, online service such as those described above is the availability of many experienced users that can provide prompt, timely answers to questions or problems. Some hardware and software companies maintain an online presence, to allow immediate feedback for their customers with technical problems. There are also many files in the libraries on these services, providing software at low cost, some quite professionally written. Apple Computer has also allowed most of these services to act as official "user groups." and so have availability of official technical notes and file type description notes for the Apple II series.
Here's an announcement for when Apple Computer switched its Applelink over to Quantum Computer Services (i.e., AOL).
QUANTUM TO LAUNCH AN APPLELINK
Published:24-May-1988
By Computergram
Quantum Computer Services, Vienna, Virginia, has duly announced plans to launch an AppleLink - Personal Edition on-line service for Apple Computer Inc users in the US - Apple IIs first, Macs later: the service will offer options such as electronic mail, share quotes, conferencing and software downloading and the annual subscription is $35, which includes two hours of free use, subscription to a monthly magazine, and the software needed to use it, and connect charges will be $15 an hour peak, $6 at night.
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