time
i don't mean my dad's sperm meeting my mum's egg..
i mean on the web..
i didn't really use the internet til the web. a couple friends would use BBS and i thought it was cool. but i was poor. i had offline amiga. i was lucky to have a c64 and amiga. and that's another story.
i remember the first times i used the web and for me they're great memories, that connect to other memories i like to think about.
the state library of nsw was my hangout. there were endless ways to learn. it was comfortable and easy to get to too. sometimes i'd watch a video from the archives or listen to a CD. the library would provide a private screening room, or a comfy lounge chair and headphones. and of course, reading material. i loved the state library.
one day, they had a computer hooked up to the web to use for free. you had to book a 15 minute session for it, so i would book as many places as i could..
actually, the first time i used the web was 1995. it was April 15, 1995.
it was the day of Alternative Nation in Sydney,
the best music festival ever
" Faith No More, Lou Reed, Nine Inch Nails, Tool, Violent Femmes, Ice-T, L7, Ween, Primus, Bodycount, Pop Will Eat Itself, The Flaming Lips, The Tea Party, The Prodigy (Melbourne), Therapy?, Live and Pennywise. Local acts included Regurgitator, Horsehead, Powderfinger, Supergroove, Def FX and Spiderbait. "
- Alternative Nation festival - Wikipedia
Lou Reed got up and sang with the Violent Femmes
L7 got up and sang with Lou Reed
fecking Ween and PWEI!
it was mad!
anyway, they had a tent set up with computers and you could try the world wide web. it was mainly text and hyperlinks. my first search was anarchism. and i read for a while. i thought it was pretty cool, like a big library. and it hooked me.
the first things i did when using the state library computer was chatrooms, which were html pages that had timed refreshes, i think. or maybe you had to manually refresh. and i found that you could play chess against people around the world.
there would be certain shops around the city, for example a flight booking shop, and they would have a sign outside saying free internet inside. i guess to get customers in. i'd sit in these places until i felt they were annoyed. there was the sydney city library, and then local libraries. somewhere in there i got a hotmail address, and then a yahoo address. yahoo games, is that still going? what about ICQ?
