My Internet History

I got a mysterious email tonight. A writer is searching for some friends of mine. He wants to find out about some things they did as teenagers, around 40 years ago.

When I “Googled” the author, I found he was responsible for the protocol that makes USENET possible. If you don’t know what USENET is, don’t worry. It used to be more valuable than it is now, though it’s still the best place to find technical help.

I decided to go back and look for my first USENET post. It represents one of my first forays onto the Internet. Back when I made the post, in 1992, the Internet was basically a text medium. If the World Wide Web and its multimedia content existed then, I didn’t know about it.

Comments: Gated by NETN…@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU

Path:sparky!uunet!stanford.edu!bcm!convex!darwin.sura.net!

paladin.american.edu!auvm!WCSUB.CTSTATEU.EDU!FOXG

X-Vmsmail-To: SMTP%”INGRAFX%PSUVM.Bit…@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU”

Message-ID: <921111123853.2b436aed@WCSUB.CTSTATEU.EDU>

Newsgroups: bit.listserv.ingrafx

Date: Wed, 11 Nov 1992 12:38:53 -0500

Sender: “Information Graphics”

From: FOXG@WCSUB.CTSTATEU.EDU

Subject: RE: examples, please

Lines: 2

Please… more on the UIUC thunderstorm simulations.

Geoff Fox

Not exactly a pithy, Earth shattering comment. You’ve gotta start somewhere.

3 thoughts on “My Internet History”

  1. I was active on usenet way back then as well. Your CTSTATEU.EDU email address brings back memories as well, since I had a VAX account at Central (CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU)

    The date of my first post was October 20, 1992. And like yours, it was not of any earthshattering importance….

  2. I was active on usenet way back then as well. Your CTSTATEU.EDU email address brings back memories as well, since I had a VAX account at Central (CCSUA.CTSTATEU.EDU)

    The date of my first post was October 20, 1992. And like yours, it was not of any earthshattering importance….

  3. I love playing with http://groups.google.com to explore old Usenet posts. Back in 1982 I was working at Bell Labs and had access to Usenet and some of my posts are still up on Google Groups. Your comments about the UIUC thunderstorm simulations was a pithy Earth shattering comment compared to some of the stuff that I wrote back at the labs in the early 80s.

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