When I was about 11 or 12, I had a fascination with this internet thing, spending hours playing with various parts, in attempts to make things happen.
Back then it was only the universities that provided access. Fun could be had poking around inside their networks & servers using things like telnet.
Web browsers then became a thing.
I bought this book in 1996, funny to think about it now, but you needed to buy books to work out how to do this web stuff — much better info in the bookstores than on the internet at the time.
And somehow have never lost it — is actually in pretty good nick still. I’ll never forget, I read and re-read it cover to cover, over and over. I built my first websites because of this book.
The thing I have always found the most fascinating part though, is the note from the publisher in the first few pages. This was written sometime before 1996.
Welcome to Our Nervous System Some people say that the World Wide Web is a graphical extension of the information superhighway, just a network of humans and machines sending each other long lists of the equivalent of digital junk mail. I think it is much more than that. To me the Web is nothing less than the nervous system of the entire planet — not just a collection of computer brains connected together, but more like a billion silicon neurons entangled and recirculating electro-chemical signals of information and data, each contributing to the birth of another CPU and another Web site. Think of each person’s hard disk connected at once to every other hard disk on earth, driven by human navigators searching like Columbus for the New World. Seen this way the Web is more of a super entity, a growing, living thing, controlled by the universal human will to expand, to be more. Yet unlike a purposeful business plan with rigid rules, the Web expands in a nonlinear, unpredictable, creative way that echoes natural evolution. We created our Web site not just to extend the reach of our computer book products but to be part of this synaptic neural network, to experience, like a nerve in the body, the flow of ideas and then to pass those ideas up the food chain of the mind. Your mind. Even more, we wanted to pump some of our own creative juices into this rich wine of technologyTaste our Digital Wine And so we ask you to taste our wine by visiting the body of our business. Begin by understanding the metaphor we have created for our Web site — a universal learning center, situated in outer space in the form of a space station. A place where you can journey to study any topic from the convenience of your own screen. Right now we are focusing on computer topics, but the stars are the limit on the Web. If you are interested in discussing this Web site, or finding out more about the Waite Group, please send me email with your comments and I will be happy to respond. Being a programmer myself, I love to talk about technology and find out what our readers are looking for. Sincerely,
Come Visit WAITE.COM Waite Group Press
World Wide Web Site
Wow, is all I really have. I feel really lucky to have this.
By no means do I claim to be an expert of anything, or know anything about writing, journalism, maths, physics, science, computers etc. apart from binge-watching some docuseries on Netflix.
Originally posted April 5 2018.
