I am always a seeker of unwanted computers, but if you offered me an XT with 128 kilobytes of memory ….

IBM XT

Got it when I was 8 years old, and it weighed a ton.

128k of Memory and my proudest moments with it included programming a batch menu system on startup. This is back in 1993, still innocent, I still haven’t played Nirvana’s Nevermind. My dad got me started in computers and we were spending a lot of time messing with MS-DOS , Norton Commander, Wordperfect Macros and Borland’s Quattro Pro Spreadsheets. Then, I was introduced to Bulletin Board Systems (BBS). At the time I was a boyscout and many of the ‘Cub Masters’ were active on BBS’s so my dad’s knowledge started to grow. Looking back, for me, this was the dawn of the fragmented internet. I remember graduating some level of Boy Scouts and my friend Josh and I being told by my dad that they guy speaking on the stage was the SysOp of Gumby’s World BBS. Being one of the BBSs I dialed into frequently at the time, he seemed like an enigma to me. Long Beard, cowboy hat and spurs and he is in charge of this BBS service, what the heck? Back then, we were connecting to BBS with a 300 baud external modem using DOS Software such as RIPterm. Countless days redialing in RIPterm as BBSs were popular and the SysOP could any allow as many users as he had telephone lines in his house. Getting older now and reflecting, I have much empathy for the men of Boy Scout troupes who have families, jobs, limited time to hone their skills via their hobbies. They needed a way to share and further their hobbies; ASCII Art, Files, Shareware, Porn, and just plain communication, jokes, intelligence, software tips, news, listings Bargain Hunting Computer Shows down at the CCRI Knight Campus, and MIT Flea Market Events were listed and carpooling was offered. Even though these BBS’s weren’t connected to the internet backbone, they were a way for people to get together, share materials, share software, share knowledge, collaborate to over all improve one’s autonomy over the quality of life they lead.

Give the people a place to congregate – and you’ll be amazed what ya’ll come up with – Together! Ok, now you get a Whuffie!

As I get older and become more learned, I see that back then even the same rules apply to life! They didn’t just appear when I saw them! Only when awareness is reached. The Mathematical Principle, Small World Phenomenon and decentralization of search shows us that;

even so far separated I may be from that Dean at Harvard University, yes even you, white-trash city boy; you are still connected to him in some way thru links with other people.

Technology only serves as a catalyst of further contracting the six degrees of separation. Take a look at how the internet works, peer-to-peer file sharing. Network nodes connect to each other through centralized gateways and can be access independently also making them de-centralized. Vector Distance RIP and Link-State RIP

If every person is living, has a brain, has a soul, has a thirst for knowledge on any topic, then, that person will naturally live to locate that knowledge, and the fastest way to obtain that knowledge is usually by conversing with other people.

Networking.

Through this, cliques form and seek to mingle and dance with other like-minded cliques. For most of history this has been limited by geography. You would only network locally in your Church, your Hunter-Gatherer Group.

Today we have no limits.

They say Bad News travels fast; well perhaps it is a natural human safeguard in the checks and balances of small world math?

My Second PC was a $3000 Compaq 486 with 32 megabytes of Memory and a 200 megahertz processor.

With this we were able to run Windows 3.1 and installed it with 20+ 5.25” Floppy Drives.

Yet I don’t think capabilities besides having a Graphical User Interface (GUI) were improved much. This was the age of Microsoft Encarta and being able to watch FDR’s fireside chats on-demand in my living room. This was decentralized knowledge mass-produced. At the same time, National Internet Service Providers (ISP’s) started to heavily advertise themselves to the masses. Prodigy was the first one I remember we subscribed to. I don’t recall email being a main feature of prodigy (we used Juno for that), it was basically an aggregator of news, chat, games, polls, stock and financial news, weather, shopping, quality content and BBS services. This was centralized but with a narrow focus, you could only get the content that Prodigy aggregated for you and presented to you.

Later that year, after my dad getting pissed off about all the CD-ROM’s being used as Frisbees around the yard, we signed up for an America Online (AOL) 100 hour trial.

Though AOL’s GUI was much more user-friendly than Prodigy’s, the features were similar. You had a narrow centralized interface where you could get weather, stock quotes, weather reports, and read content from expert authors writing on popular topics.

You could say that AOL was a pioneer in enabling the masses to adopt email and personal webpages. Within AOL there wasn’t much motivation or ease to leave AOL websites, and the AOL interface to browse the World Wide Web (WWW).

My father, noting our boredom with AOL and Prodigy, then took a big leap and signed us up with a local Internet Service Provider called IDS based in East Greenwich, Rhode Island. IDS did not offer content, no interface, no stock tickers on your screen, no special offers popping up. IDS simply gave you instructions on how to download a web browser at the time we started with Cello then adopted Netscape Navigator. We were able to search internet-wide using Archie and later, Yahoo.

This was quite an experience, like a narrow peak whole widening over night.

My father and I were able to access any type of knowledge we so desired. Totally unrestricted, totally decentralized. Through this, I discovered Internet Relay Chat (IRC) using mIRC, discovered Dalnet, Undernet and soon had off-line penpals in the Philippines and Iceland. I was very fortunate growing up to have such a father who supported my thirst for knowledge. One gentleman in Iceland named Thor-Thor was nice enough to send me glossy travel brochures from his local travel office in Reykjavik Iceland. I was amazed that through this machine I could contact and obtain materials from far-away lands, for free. Talk about decentralization. At a time when the Government was purchasing a few computers (IBM AT’s) for the classrooms in my elementary school, it seemed the teachers were terrified to turn them on. They didn’t know what to do with them. In the fifth grade I remember a Maverick teacher turned them on though didn’t know how to use them, let us play games such as The Oregon Trail. Today, from the Philippines, Tagay to you Mr. Fifth Grade teacher.

This age of local ISP popping up was a notable one, more and more people, ideas, products were able to come together to be offered on a Global Virtual Marketplace.

So, yes, Cluetrain, markets are people and people have conversations. Some conversations were controlled like on AOL or prodigy or CompuServe,  and some conversations were totally liberated and out there in the Wild Wild Web.

Now, as the Obama Administration is about to shove Net Neutrality bill down yer throats, ask yourself, why do we need the government taking helms at the top of the heap of this liberated free network known as the Internet? Now, more than ten years later, there very few local ISPs still operating independently. Like many mom-and-pop business across our great nation, my former local ISP IDS.net was bought out by a large Multinational Conglomerate, and now belongs to One Communications. Granted all ISPs are connected to major internet backbones (Tier 1) such as Verizon (formerly)  UUNet,  AT&T, Sprint , Global Crossing , and so on, there is now a lack of independent power in the Industry. I think Network Neutrality is to govern as the Tier 1 Networks, delegating to all beneath it, via the Government, not the Industry, not the Free-Market. Network neutrally will just be a formal nail on the coffin of a liberated and free internet. Please do not be fooled by the friendly name of the Bill, ‘Network Neutrality’, I see it as a precedent-setter in Government Regulation of the Internet. Content such as this could be censored in the near future. Check it out yourself on Thomas, S 215 IS Internet Preservation Act, Amending the Communications Act of 1934.

First, we the masses adopted BBS’s, de-centralized independent networks. You went there if you found what you like. Then, we adopted ‘Internet’ from America Online, CompuServe, and Prodigy. This was centralized in the sense they had large rolls of subscribers, and it was Nationwide. Content was narrow, served, and selected by the ISP.

Next, we migrated and adopted the World Wide Web WWW via Local ISPs. We had complete freedom, we could build our own web server and it would be accessible from any ISP. We chose the sites and the content we wanted to see, and we were repeat visitors. If this was too much for you, your homepage was a Portal such as Lycos, Excite or Yahoo.

Still, to this day, the WWW is wide open.

Government has not yet put their slimy hands on it. They tried with Internet Sales Tax, they tried MPAA fear rulings, now they will try Network Neutrality. It is the same thing only wrapped in a Christmas Ribbon. They are trying at all fronts. They do not encourage free-market competition in the Telecom industry. There are no mom and pops left.

Thanks for letting me share, and I want to leave it off with a song sung by a band named God Ate My Homework. They were a group of Students at UC Berkeley who attempted to start a genre called Nerd Rock. It was hard to find this track; I actually had to go on IRC to get it. So I want to share it for anyone who is looking for tingles reaching back to the past.

What are your thoughts? What are your memories of the early web? What do you think about Network Neutrality? What do you know about it?

Lyrics;
Saw Bill Gates on IRC
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC
He was just tryin’ to get an mp3
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC

I saw the President on the net
I saw the President on the net
He had so many JPEG’s he could get
I saw the President on the net

I saw my admin hackin’ NASA
I saw my admin hackin’ NASA
He said they shoulda shadowed their root pass
I saw my admin hackin’ NASA

[grunge interlude]

I saw Jim Griffin tradin’ warez
I saw Jim Griffin tradin’ warez
He said, “it’s not Geffen’s, so who cares?”
I saw Jim Griffin tradin’ warez

I Saw Bill Gates on IRC
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC
You can’t kill anything that’s free.
I Saw Bill Gates
I Saw Bill Gates
I SAW BILL GATES
I Saw Bill Gates on IRC