Everything You Needed To Know About the Internet In May, 1994 168
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."
In today's NSA Internet . . . (Score:5, Funny)
The Internet uses YOU!
World Wide Web..? (Score:5, Funny)
Hang on while I look up World Wide Web on Gopherpedia [gopherpedia.com]
Still not a good idea (Score:5, 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.
Re:How quaint (Score:4, 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
Re:Not much changed (Score:5, Funny)
...and people stealing screen names!
Re:How quaint (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Poignant (Score:5, Funny)
2. Carry voice recorder in backpack
3. ???
4. PROFIT!!!
Re:Not much changed (Score:4, Funny)
Naaah, not really. Yours is a pirate scream, whereas mine is the sound you make when you're falling off a cliff.