Thursday, March 13, 2008

Step Into The Wayback Machine™

Theresa has a cute little meme that I couldn't resist: Post your oldest e-mail.

For me, that had to come from my (ancient) hotmail account. I signed up at hotmail so I wouldn't have to use my work address to sign up for online forums, etc.

Date of the e-mail: 1998. Yes. 10 years ago. Bill Clinton was still president {shudder}. I was driving a Dodge Ram (okay, some things don't change). I was living in an apartment, didn't have kids, and was just starting to build my house...

Here's the e-mail (some info has been redacted, natch):

Welcome to Pathfinder‏
From:
help@pathfinder.com
You may not know this sender.Mark as safeMark as unsafe
Sent: Mon 7/20/98 12:00 AM
To: [REDACTED]

Dear Jay G,

Thank you for joining the Pathfinder Network! You are now connected to the world's most trusted brands on-line: Time.com, Fortune.com, Money.com, People.com, Entertainment Weekly (ew.com), CNNSI.com and many other familiar Time Warner affiliates. Our Member Services area is always available to help you. You can get your membership information and quick answers to your questions by clicking "Help"on the Pathfinder home page (http://www.pathfinder.com) and choosing "Member Services". Please be assured that Pathfinder membership is free of charge. As a registered member, you can now explore the services that the Pathfinder Network offers: Boards, Chats, and Shopping. Just enter your member name and password whenever prompted and off you go! Enjoy!

Sincerely,Pathfinder Customer Servicehelp@pathfinder.com

That was to join up on the now-defunct Pathfinder Bulletin Board (my handle, BTW, was guy montag...). Pathfinder (later TimeOnline and then Time/AOL online IIRC) was where I met Ricky (and I'll leave it up to him to post his handle if'n he wants...)

10 years ago. I'd like to say I had hair then, but that would be a lie. I did have an extra 75 pounds...

That is all...

10 comments:

breda said...

Wow. That's pretty amazing. I delete almost everything, practically right after I've read it. I wish my house was as tidy as my email inbox.

Andrew said...

Don't have some of my oldest email. I did do a search of USENET and came up with this

Pretty sure that I posted it via EMACS on a Linux 0.91 kernel.

Anonymous said...

Like Andrew, I have a USENET trail stretching back to when Vint Cerf was on his first pocket protector, or thereabouts -- 1991.

To wit:

here!

I've had email since ~1989, through a VAX/VMS setup in college. If I dig, I could probably find actual email...

RW said...

Sure, I have nothing to hide: I was "Yippie-Ki-Yay" - an homage to John Maclane & the action flick "Diehard" - back in the day.

Took part in waaaaaay too many raucous arguments with far too many limp-wristed trolls from the left side of the aisle. Ah, but there were some good folks, as well. Can't think of more than two or three right now, but I'm sure there were more. :) [I joke, folks. Only a fraction of the guys there were pu$$i@s & commies] Seriously, some good times and some good folks. If it hadn't gone away & the leftovers hadn't turned into "wow, Democratic underground & Keith Olbermann are reasoned by comparison" central, I'd still be arguing with them.

Well, some of them. :)

-

My long-term memory cells are still replete with a few of the more outrageous arguments from the likes of ferguson foont, Oregon Jim & the comprehensive musings of knitknee or the party-line take from biker thug.

Oh, and Rush read us regularly, too (he's verified it)!

Good times, good times.

Andrew said...

dooder, want to go in the wayback? Remember Serdar Argic?

Jay G said...

Breda,

One look at my attic and you'll see - I never throw ANYTHING away... I've got that hotmail going back to 1998 and Yahoo going back to 1999...

andrew,

I lost my oldest e-mail when I graduated from UNH. That would go back to 1994 as well.

dooder,

Too bad you couldn't dredge up some of the Zoo Lowell e-mails - some of them have to date back to the 1980s...

Ricky,

Didn't mean to imply you had anything to hide - I just meant I didn't feel it was my place to reveal your handle...

And yeah. The Sherrie & Lara threads; the Rumpus Room; OJ's outrageous threads... Good times, good people. You know, Peter Camann (streamline) still calls me from time to time?

I feel old...

RW said...

Oh, man, I used to love Pete! Hadn't thought of that guy in a long time. Of course, Vicki was a saint and every conservative would've said that on 9/10. Part of me misses the comraderie that WAS there but the other part of me remembers what it morphed into after the breakup. I do miss a few, though.

I knew what you meant (tough for me to accurately display my intentions via text, especially when I'm swimming in cough syrup - cue John Winger image) and you're correct in posing it that way because I remember a while back that I was trying to keep things a bit more hush-hush. Well, for a short time - and I didn't make too big a deal about it - I had a nut who was looking up my personal information (including family stuff) and posting all over the internet in those "see how intimidating I am, I know about your family mister! You better respect me!" sorts of ways, so I figured staying less visible was the way to go. Then, I thought about it, remembered that I'm in Georgia and I own a gun, so I figure that I have nothing to hide.

Unless one of my big left-wing bosses decides to check up on my political pontifications, that is. :)

RW said...

Speaking of the wayback machine:
-------------------
2 times & it has rendered me punch drunk &w/o bail [Yippie-Ki-Yay] - 01:27pm Oct 8, 1999 EST (#594 of 2088)

Where do you live? North Georgia
Married? Single? Gay? Have children? Married with a 25 month old & another due in January
What's your political affiliation? Disgusted GOP, looking for alternatives
What's your philosophy of politics? Mainly conservative
What do you do for fun? What are your interests? Sports, PC stuff, fitness & training
Who do you admire most in politics? JC Watts, Colin Powell Who do you admire
least? Bill Clinton, Jesse Jackson
What's your religion? Christian
What's your philosophy of life? There was one?
If you could shake the hand or hug one person, from the world of politics, entertainment, sports, or from Pathfinder,
who would it be? Well, I'd start with Shania Twain
If you could punch or slap one person, from the world of politics, entertainment, sports, or from Pathfinder, who
would it be? Bill Clinton
Anything else you'd like to add? Only more punches for Clinton





Sometimes you're the windshield, sometimes you're the bug [guy montag] - 01:31pm Oct 8, 1999 EST (#595 of 2088)

YKY

I don't want to seem like one of the paranoid members of the "Black Helicopter Brigade" or anything, but you may want to
reconsider that post...

Just in case someone really is monitoring these boards, and I don't mean Dave...



2 times & it has rendered me punch drunk &w/o bail [Yippie-Ki-Yay] - 01:38pm Oct 8, 1999 EST (#596 of 2088)

LOL!

Let me just add that it has nothing at all to do with his politics, guy (actually, a GOPer would be hard pressed to find a Dem Prez who'd
be closer with them legislatively).

Seriously.

It's completely because of his lack of any human decency whatsoever. He's scum. Pure and simple. It was, however, a close race
between him, Larry Flynt, Geraldo, Newt, Livingston, and Dennis Rodman.

But since he's prez, he deserves the kick in the ass a whole lot more.

What kind of "man" (being kind with the term) does that to his wife?

-------------
Yikes!

Teresa said...

I never thought about searching back on old posts... I used to post on the Chicagoland Linux User Group (CLUG)... seems the oldest one I see is from Dec of 1999. Heh.

Fun isn't it.

Anonymous said...

Jay-

You're right, I bet I have older emails that date back to the birth of the Crew (functionally, 1988). Everyone in my computer class cross-pollinated with our Crew. Give me time, I'll search my other (older) computers...

Andrew-

Sorry I missed the Adventures of Zumabot, but thanks for the infomation. I mostly lurked the rec.models.scale and rec.arts.startrek groups (and similar/predecessor groups). Therefore, I missed the Argic Show.