An entertaining history of ClariNet, which its founder Brad Templeton describes as the first dot.com. Lots of good reading linked on that first page.
posted by Joe in Australia on Jun 9, 2009 - 2 comments

Computer Networks: The Heralds of Resource Sharing (Google video) A fascinating 30 minute documentary about ARPAnet - the precursor to today's Internet. (Can you spot the real ubernerd mover and shaker at BBN? Hint: He wears no tie!) (via: all over the place)
posted by loquacious on Mar 19, 2006 - 30 comments

It's the end of an era. On Dec. 31, the Jennicam shuts down for good.
posted by PrinceValium on Dec 7, 2003 - 45 comments

The first mention of AIDS on Usenet was in the net.singles group back on December 20, 1982. In it, seven people grasp for information about the disease -- how it's transmitted, how long it takes to start to show symptoms, and what those symptoms could be. It's a window both into the early days of AIDS knowledge and the early days of the Internet, and a fine example of people using 'net-based community groups to acquire information and ask questions.
posted by delfuego on Dec 1, 2002 - 6 comments

17th Floor: Does anyone remember when Patrick shut down his picture archive? Does anyone remember the picture archive? Oh, the topless porn. ....but Iuma is still around from that era. Lets reminisce.
posted by tomplus2 on Dec 15, 2001 - 7 comments

Cringely's insight deepens with this new article on Excite@Home's troubles. Is broadband here to stay? If so, is it going to go anywhere? Three years from now, what will the options be and what kind of performance can be expected?
posted by bloggboy on Aug 31, 2001 - 6 comments

The Opera Browser is now ad-supported freeware. What does this mean for Internet Explorer and Netscape?
posted by milnak on Dec 10, 2000 - 23 comments

Blast from the past
Oh, those halcyon days of text-based real-time chat, before there was a Web. (I'm catching up on my link quotient....)
posted by rschram on Dec 10, 2000 - 11 comments

Yes, Virginia, there was life before the Internet...
...but nobody's bothered to archive it yet. Thanks to those wacky .edu's, there's a fair amount of historical data out there, but if you're hoping the newspapers who charge for archive "reprints" will have material from the '40s, the '60s or even the '80s, you're still better off going to the library and flipping through microfiche (bet that's the first time THAT word's been used on MetaFilter). I hesitated blogging this story here until I saw how the Internet History Timeline caught some people by surprise... Yes, even we MetaFilterers are sitting on the shoulders of Giants (and a few of us are old enough to remember "They Might Be Giants" as a movie starring George C. Scott).
posted by wendell on Jul 24, 2000 - 8 comments