Weird to think that was only 15 years ago.

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 lived in rural Georgia and ran up a $600 phone bill dialing long-distance to an AOL connection the first month we had "the Net".

You're not old enough, it appears. I thought everyone knew how to use a template hacker and phreak all their LD calls back then :-)

haha, yeah; didn't even know the term "phreak" until, say, 3 months after when I stumbled across the old cDc text files.

I'll have to try that Interweb thing.

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? ;-)

This is the first mention of the internet in the NYT

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.

How on earth could you write an article on the Internet in 1993 and never mention Usenet?

The Webbernet is the next big thing!