Embarrassing childhood revelations, vol. 2

Back in the mid-1990s, I read a couple of articles in computer magazines about an interesting experiment called the World Wide Web, and a piece of software called NCSA Mosaic. Eventually in 1995 I became so interested, I called up Netscape to find out how I could look at the World Wide Web myself.

Unfortunately, at the time of my Netscape phone call, I was 13 years old, and operating on very little working knowledge of the Internet. (I had several years experience online with Prodigy and America Online, but I don't even think I knew what TCP/IP was.) The Netscape representative tried her best to explain that their company didn't offer access to the World Wide Web, just the browsing software. In addition to purchasing a copy of Netscape Navigator, I'd also have to get a subscription to a separate Internet Service Provider. As a young teen already "fortunate" enough to have access to America Online, this was a tough sell to the parents, but I pulled it off.

Now, when I think back to that phone call and how ignorant I must have sounded, I feel ashamed. But not very. I suspect that I was simply ahead of my time -- after all, in 1995 Netscape charged for their browser and didn't offer Internet service, but today the browser is free and they have their own ISP!