[ProllyInfamous]

DSL v. CableModel crew, checking in. Also got online in early 90s, first with a 14.4k via several janky adapters (none intended for interwebs). Also first with cable internet, circa 1998, in my redneck part of the world (Texas) – Dad got tired of the phoneline never working.

Decades later, I worked datacenters, including those with the last gasps of usenet – what a time to have been alive on the internet. Back then, it truly was a place where nobody knew you were a dog/kid/disabled/whatever (primarily text-based experience).

I remember at DefCon (LasVegas hackercon) ~2010, I ran in to somebody that had run a competing tech corner of the mid-90s internet; we chuckled that we both were obviously younger than our childhood text-based personæ had even purveyed having been, back then – we met, decades later, still in our twenties =P

[scrapcode]

I never made it to any hackercons, and haven't kept up with many of the folks I "ran" with back in the day (before social media). And I'm not really sure if I would even remember their handles and such if I saw them today. I remember a fella that went by "proph3t," I believe he was in a band or at least helped with George Smith's website End Effect (looks like it is still up). That guy was a bit older than I was but I remember him being extremely patient and gracious with his time helping me when I was learning PHP.

[ProllyInfamous]

Even though we were literally young children (running competing technical repair guides online), Motorola didn't know this and had cited his very unique name and URL in their official product documentation (this was mid 90s, for a bespoke computerline, still paper-printouts-in-boxes).

I also knew he was black – so when I saw a fellar with this name and feature, I immediately knew it was going to be a memorable moment. It was. We laughed. Such big posturing. Dreams.