Stories: The Internet
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My entry in the Otago Uni Arana Hall yearbook, circa 1998:
"Come back at 1am when I've rolled out my 15m modem extension cable."
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1987, sort of, when I was writing an Honours dissertation in Accounting and Finance (I used to be an accountant, which accounts for the somewhat tense looking cat), and one of the somewhat nerdy but nevertheless interesting men in the class was able to access the computer at home via telephone lines from the computers at the University. OMG! Z'amazing.
But I really hooked into it in 1994. It was a sad time for us; we were struggling with infertility, not yet sure about what to do, not even really comprehending what had happened to us. That was the year that I discovered that the shower is a good place to cry, because the tear marks don't show so badly.
It was also the year that I discovered Usenet, and the infertility support groups there. I'm not what you would call an exuberant and open person in the flesh, being a good introvert and all, so the last thing I wanted to do was to talk to a group of strangers, or even close friends really, about how I was feeling. But those people at the other ends of the computer, from all over the world, were a life-line. I knew that I wasn't alone, that other people understood how I felt, that I could articulate and understand how I was feeling through what other people on those groups were writing.
A few years later, I moved on from those groups to an Australasian mailing list, and another list that was specific to our version of infertility. And those people, all of whom were living in hope and anguish themselves, were so delighted when I was able to announce that at last, we had a baby on the way.
I left the lists shortly after that - they're not the kind of place where you stay when your basic reason for being there is gone - 'tho I sent a birth notice via people who were still there. But, like Danielle's fine story, which although completely different is the same, it was an amazing demonstration of the power of even the infant internet to enable people to connect.
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And that was when the whole country was on a 256k pipe.
Most of which I chomped up on day on the help desk at Waikato when I got wind of the exploding whale video, which I must have been one of the first people in NZ to see.
I remember working at the University of Waikato at enrolment in the early 90s, maybe 1992. We all had accounts on the VAX/VMS system, and I learned through my workmates that if you had nothing to do, you could run a program called "news" (in other words, a USENET client) which was the gateway to all sorts of surprising things for a young mind.
A few years later I was working full time at the University. I was blase about email (and yet proud of having stephen@waikato.ac.nz when I tried to explain this email thing to people outside the institution). One day John Houlker wandered in to the help desk exclaiming about this program called Mosaic which was a client for the World Wide Web. At that time, everybody did say "World Wide Web", carefully pronouncing the capitals. Mosaic was a boring grey program that didn't seem as easy to use as gopher, so I didn't really see what all the fuss was about. Until I happened on Justin Hall's "Links to the Underground" and began to grasp that any fool could make a site, and that there was an interesting kind of site that was mostly nothing but links to other interesting sites.
I don't have a single great story to share. I do like the way online communication has become a kind of prosthetic extension of my social life, giving it capabilities denied to the un-augmented.
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But I really hooked into it in 1994. It was a sad time for us; we were struggling with infertility, not yet sure about what to do, not even really comprehending what had happened to us. That was the year that I discovered that the shower is a good place to cry, because the tear marks don't show so badly.
I just wanted to acknowledge you, Deborah.
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Wow - a lot of people really have had meaningful, intense experiences involving the Net. Respect to you guys.
My experience with the Internet has been pretty much completely ordinary. We had no computer at all in our household until 1997, which was when I got to joyfully stuff away the typewriter I'd been using for school assignments in the garage attic. It was a Pentium 200 from Kingsland Computers, which came along with a printer, standalone speakers (which I'm still using now, actually) and one of those weird handheld scanners which we never got the hang of using.
That said, we never got the Internet until ... wait for it ... 2001. It feels kinda liberating to get that off my chest in the midst of all you early adopters and tech freaks. My parents shelled out for bog-standard dialup from Quicksilver, and we were surfing away with an antiquated version of IE. We never had a single issue with virii from 2001 onwards, thanks to running Windows 95. Cue hours spent on MSN, various vintage Volkswagen websites (I was an online tyrekicker), and also on constant arguments about the phone line. Seems positively quaint to think of all this now.
The ancient 200 was finally ditched in 2004 for a much more modern machine, but we still had dialup to contend with. Im 2005 I encountered the Craccum Forum bulletin board, which was run by a couple of guys at university on a free hosting server. Two revamps later, the site's still going strong with a nice community feel, and I've met many friends there who got me through tough times over the last three years.
My first experience of broadband was when I moved out in 2006 and signed on with iHug, who were brilliant. Vodafone are trying but not quite there. And now the Net is as natural as breathing.
I've tarried too long with a very average tale, but thanks to the wonders of technology, feel free to scroll away in search of more interesting memories. :)
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If you really get a kick out of this you a probably wearing glasses. I know I am ;-)
Yes to both. It sounds like a kind of Red Dwarf for data.
Which brings me to my internet stories:
Firstly, I'm going to voluntarily disqualify myself from any prize thingy.
That's because the first gander at the internet I took was on a machine on Keith Newman's desk, and it would just look too cosy.
I'd just joined IDG as a journalist, mostly to write for Computerworld. It was about Aug-Sept 1994. I knew nothing about the internet and very little about computers. I'd been a journalist for five years and then gone to Uni before deciding journalism was much more fun than Law School.
Don Hill, the editor, explained to me they could teach me about IT: what they wanted was someone with a background in writing about business.
One of the first stories I did was about an Internal Affairs crackdown on some Usenet discussion groups. Deputy Editor Anthony Doesburg is telling me this and I'm nodding as if I understand what he's saying and in the end I have to ask, 'what's usenet'?
Keith, in a cubicle diagonally across from mine, says 'come and have a look at this': he'd got a list of all the groups available at ICONZ up on his screen. He told me there would be a group for pretty much anything I could be interested in - unless, since the Internal Affairs crackdown, I was interested in groups with titles like alt.sex.molly.sugden or some such. So, what was I interested in?
Which is why the first thing I looked at on the internet was a discussion group about Red Dwarf, a comedy I'd just discovered.
Keith then started talking about the internet, waving his arms around with great enthusiasm. He used words like ‘packets’ and ‘mozilla’ and ‘world wide web’. I nodded wisely, thinking, inside, what I always thought whenever anyone got all technical on me, my own little mantra.‘It’s still more comprehensible than Land Law. It’s still more comprehensible than Land Law…’
I always enjoyed having Keith in a nearby cubicle...well, most of the time. He was a deadly shot with these small balls he'd hurl around the office, mostly out of general exuberance, although occasionally when he had a point to make. Like the time I wrote something rude about Seals and Croft in the company newsletter.
The thing is – and this is why I’ll put a plug in for the book without even seeing it: Keith could talk for a long time about the techie side, but equally long and enthusiastically about the broader implications of the technology for society.
I remember saying to one of the others how much I missed that when Keith left.
The other thing I’ll take the opportunity to say is Keith was one of a mob of journos who were really helpful: apart from those already mentioned, there was Andrea Malcolm and Doug Casement, both of whom put up with my naive questions.
To continue the comedy on the internet theme: a couple of years later, working in IDG's Wellington office, I found a copy of a Goon Show sound effect known as 'Fred the Oyster'. The sound has nothing to do with oysters: its actually a donkey farting and hee-hawing at the same time, played at varied speeds; and ending by a character – Major Bloodnok, for fellow aficionados - saying 'Ohhh, that's better.' http://bloodnok.net/wav/oyster.wavIt is the most gloriously vulgar thing you've ever heard. I had it on my work PC: it played every time Windows 95 shut down.
Decided a mate of mine, who was help desk manager at Auckland University, would appreciate it, so I emailed it to him.
Didn't realise how large a file it was. Somehow gummed up their entire internet connection (this is 1996, remember) and I got a puzzled/irate call from my mate saying WtF are you doing?
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At the other end of the spectrum.
Today faults got our broadband and phone back online after 6 days.
6 days of trying to figure out what we used to do before...
It's time like the last few days that made me realise how embedded the internet is in our lives.
And like others my first computing was done with punch cards that we mailed to Auckland Uni.
For my MSc thesis I broke all sorts of university regulations and was the first in our department to write it on a computer! A BBC micro to be exact. What I didn't realise was that because I could correct errors so easily my supervisor decided to make me try and correct everything.
I remember getting quite good at landing 747s on the IRIX while I was doing my PhD and typesetting a colleagues thesis on the VAX.
But as I said above it was cricket commentaries that made me get the internet.
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Ian Llewellyn said:
Not quite an internet experience, but my first with computers. My father is a genius and back in the 1970s he built a machine that played Pong.
Interesting - I was reading these without checking who said what, I thought to myself, hey, my uncle did that too!
It's all true.
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6 days of trying to figure out what we used to do before...
About three years ago my partner and I rented a place on the Wairarapa Coast to get away from it all for five days. I was surprised how far you can actually drive beyond Martinborough - places where there's no Internet and no TV. The first day was glorious. The weather was great, we got plenty of fresh air and tucked into our supplies. I caught up on some reading the second day but missed being able to look some things up online or check my email. Partner felt the same way. It was real quiet out there.
On the third day we snapped - we loaded the car to return to Wellington. Only problem was the car wouldn't go and there wasn't anyone else inhabiting the other baches on the beach. The NZ Post van driver had already done his daily run. Worse, cellphone coverage was terrible. I was about to make a trek to the nearest farm house when I spotted a couple of guys working on the roof of a place down the road. We hitched a lift to Martinborough in return for a dozen Tuis and arranged to get the car towed back and repaired.
Late that night we got home and logged on. What a relief.
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Oh, Jason. That's just sad.
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I know. They really need to sort out their connectivity there! I think maybe the high hills separating the coastal strip from the Wairarapa valley will prevent it though.
I do like the idea of still being able to go places where you can escape the broadcast technologies and the Internet. In theory.
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I do like the idea of still being able to go places where you can escape the broadcast technologies and the Internet. In theory.
I think it would be nice if anyone who wanted to connect or be contactable was able to.... no matter how small or distant their location.
I can go to my happy un-contactable not connected place any time and anywhere I choose.... I have this special thing on my toys called an off button.
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The great thing with the internet is not having to physically be somewhere else for a meeting or activity. This is a major change that is helped by mobile phones and the like.
Back in the late '80's I worked in Australia and the UK and had to fly every week. The carbon bills must have been huge.
Now I get to do business almost anywhere (in a suitable timezone) and that is the major benefit of the internet.
On history / had some great times with the Iprolink crew - trust they are in the book Craig & Jim were legends even then.
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I'm always on the lookout for horror stories involving the Internet, and I'm struck by the fact that - asked to come up with worst moments - pretty much nobody has (myself included, I'd hasten to add), save for a hint by Rob I think and maybe one other. So I though I'd invite the CEO of United Airlines to tell us all about his.
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We (Damon, Nick and me, AKA Xerxes Ltd) wrote the first graphical installer for ICONZ, complete with Netscape 0.99, Windows Trumpet PPP dialer etc.
So you, Damon and Nick were responsible for that pair of floppies. I remember sitting in a serviced apartment after arriving in Auckland, wondering if the eye-wateringly high cost of Internet access via ICONZ was a misprint or not.
Decided it wasn't, and didn't stick the floppies into my laptop. Was wondering instead if I did the right thing by leaving Singapore where I had 128k ISDN for a fraction of the price the dial-up access here would cost me.
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@Russell,
Re: your Solution 6 story, http://publicaddress.net/system/topic,1304,stories_the_internet.sm?p=65842#post65842I worked for those guys in Auckland for a couple of years, '98-'00
I knew a lot of people caught up in the dotcom frenzy buying up wayyy too many shares in Sol6. Even though the BBC's chief financial reporter advised people to get out of the market ASAP, people just wanted to believe that the law of gravity no longer applied. We congratulated ourselves as our $1.50 share option soared to $3.50, $7.00, $15.00.
Then Chris Tyler and the other directors began dumping their shares, I think Tyler made $100 mill. I held on and hoped, as the shares dropped and dropped. I got out when they dipped below $3. My colleagues were still buying them up! I could have made a few thousand, in the end I got only a few hundred out of it. But a lot of my friends were badly burned. After losing money in 87, then seeing the dotcom bubble, and now the egregious US mortgage crisis, I've pretty much lost all trust in the sharemarket shysters. The insider traders are running the whole frikkin circus. -
For those who want to poke around in the book, but don't own a copy, it's reproduced here on a wiki (which seems to make it editable, which could be interesting).
I presume done so with the permission of the publishers/author.
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