we're old. you know that, right? anyone who remembers Mosaic, Fetch, the WELL... we're all old. You just put a finer point on it (above), that's all...
You don't have to be that old to remember those times. I was only 8 years old when this article came out, and I remember around that time my dad mentioned this new thing called "the Internet". He described as being like the BBSs I was used to, but world-wide. About 8 months later we got an AOL account.
I was a teenager back then attracted to the apparent freedom & lack of oversight present in the fabric of internet 'culture' back then. Somehow, looking back now I cannot help but feel a slight sentiment of loss. I want my old internet back, without the ads please, without the copyright police, without the spam & without big brother watching over my shoulder. Anyone up for a rebuild of the thing? ;-)
From the article: "In many cases, retrieving information is much like dialing a bulletin board. A user mails a query to a particular computer address, and the system responds by sending a directory and then providing any specific documents requested."
I like how they use the phrase "mail a request to a computer address." Kind of made me chuckle.
So where can I find one of those WAIS servers? I hear they can connect to the "World Wide Web" to retrieve physicists' data. I'm sure CERN will publish their LHC results onto there.
