Thanks. I remember the bulletin boards. I also remember a short-lived browser called “Cello”. I remember being a beta-tester for different servers. I remember hearing about Archie and Veronica but never used them. Way early on there was something having to do with “coke machine”, but in those days the computers communicating with each other were mainly used in college computer labs.
Yup. One of the earliest "connected" devices. Someone rigged up a coke machine so it would tell you if it was empty, and the temp if I recall correctly. Why? Because we can!
Back when gopher was a big thing, I used Jughead searches to find cartographic resources (maps) on the net. I probably still have a copy of some of those maps I downloaded way back then. One was a nationwide railroad map from the 1860s or so. What was most interesting about that map, IMO, was that it was almost a 1:1 correlation to modern fiber routes.