ebynum - 8:13 pm on Aug 13, 2002 (gmt 0)

This is a difficult one for me, as my Net-time easily exceeds half of my life.

I was born in 1982. At that time, my dad already had 3 computers (I couldn't even guess what kind they were) around the house. Shortly thereafter, he started using BBSes (there were several "important" ones that were run in our area). When I was 4, I convinced my dad (I'm quite certain that he was looking for an excuse) to get me a computer ... an 8088. I never got online with it, but my dad would occasionally let me use his computer to play around on the BBSes. I was upgraded to a 286 when I was 6 (1988), and was connecting to BBSes with my very own external 300 baud modem. I was so proud of myself.

In 1992, our local library system got connected to the beginnings of the Internet. They would give anybody with a library card an account on "Gremlin." My dad was the third or fourth account signed up, and he took me in a few days later, and I was in the top 10. We had access to Internet Email, telnet, FTP, and UseNET. Sometime later (a few years I guess), the WWW gained enough ground to be common. I believe I started with a text-based browser (thought it was cool too), and then moved up to Mosaic and eventually Netscape.

Edward