Forget your curated Instagram feeds and TikTok dances, weβre going back to a time when the internet was less a ubiquitous presence and more like a secret handshake amongst the chosen few. Welcome to my blog about Cyberspace.β
This isnβt your average tech blog. This is a deeply personal, slightly embarrassing, and hopefully hilarious journey through my own awkward adolescence in the late 80s and 90s. Itβs a story told in the squeaks and squawks of dial-up modems, the glow of CRT monitors, and the triumphant feeling of conquering a new frontier, one text-based adventure at a time.
Think of it as sitting down for coffee (or maybe a Surge and some microwaved pizza rolls) while I ramble about my teenage obsession with all things online. And let me tell you, that obsession startedβ¦well, letβs just say I had a slightly unconventional relationship with the phone company. Weβre not talking casual dating here, more like an intense, slightly illicit, exploration of the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network). Yeah, I was a phone phreak, through and through. It wasnβt just about making free calls (though, letβs be honest, that was part of the appeal). It was about the sheer thrill of discovery, of finding open phone cans and peering into the mysterious world of switches and circuits. I even befriended a few phone company workers along the way, my insatiable curiosity leading to some fascinating (and probably slightly concerning) conversations.
Weβre talking about the days of BBSβs, those glorious, text-based havens of chat, games, and file-sharing. Remember that glorious moment when you finally found a local board with something other than warez? Yeah, me too. And okay, maybe I dabbled a little bit in the darker arts. Letβs just say my fingers were quite nimble with a blue box, and those long-distance calls wereβ¦ a bit of a thrill. Donβt judge! It was the wild west, right? And the Anarchist Cookbook? Letβs just say it wasβ¦ educational in a very specific, highly questionable way. Oh, and the textfilesβ¦ I practically lived in a digital library of obscure knowledge, conspiracy theories, and some truly awful ASCII art.
The local library wasnβt just for books either, it was another outlet to get my computer fix in. I explored everything and was always amazed to be online.
Then came the world of IRC, that chaotic, glorious melting pot of usernames and rapid-fire conversations. It was like a giant, never-ending chat room where you could be anyone. I swear, I met some of the most interesting (and, letβs be honest, sometimes kinda weird) people on IRC. And who could forget the sound of AOL? That iconic βYouβve Got Mail!β chime was practically a Pavlovian trigger for my teenage self. And Prodigyβ¦ it was like the slightly stuffier, more grown-up version of the internet, but I loved it all the same.
My digital adventures werenβt just confined to my bedroom or the library, though. Oh no. When Iβd visit my sister and brother-in-law in nearby Spokane, Iβd make a beeline for the computer labs at Gonzaga University! Letβs just say those labs werenβt exactly used for their intended purpose. It was my chance to get a taste of that cutting-edge internet experience - sneaking around and exploring the web when I probably should have been doing something else. And letβs not forget the legendary Warcraft LAN parties! Forget fancy graphics; we were all about those COM ports and serial cables, daisy-chaining our way to Orcish domination. Pure, unadulterated pixelated glory.
Meanwhile, back at home, I was basically the resident tech support guy for my elementary and middle school! Yeah, I was that kid. I was knee-deep in DOS, Amiga (yeah, I had a soft spot for that machine), and the wonderfully confusing world of Netware 2.1. I was the one wiring up the school with thinnet and thicknet, battling AUI adaptors and BNC connectors like they were mythical beasts. We were able to secure a T-1 ISDN line and it felt like we were living in the future!
This blog isnβt just about the tech, though. Itβs about the feelings. The excitement of connecting to a new world, the frustration of a dropped connection, the camaraderie of those early online communities. Itβs about the sense of discovery, the feeling that we were on the cusp of something truly amazing, something that would change everything. And well, it did!
So, if youβre a fellow veteran of the dial-up era, or even just curious about what life was like before social media and instant gratification, grab your floppy disks (orβ¦you know, your preferred beverage) and settle in. Letβs explore the early days of cyberspace together. I promise, itβll be a wild ride. Just try not to judge my phreaking too harshly, okay? π And maybe my slightly opportunistic use of university resources and my questionable tech support βskillsβ at school!