Modem Driver: 1994-2002

At the time I started writing a weekly column about digital culture, the Web was a text-only proof-of concept, what little consumer online access existed was almost exclusively through AOL, Prodigy and Compuserve and the paper's coverage of the Internet was limited exclusively to the pages of the business section. Where to put a column about digital culture was an open question. It lived for years in the entertainment pages, then in the features sections and eventually ended up in the business department. It's hard to encapsulate the tremendous optimism that pervaded Silicon Valley when the Internet exploded as a mass medium. I was very fortunate to be there, and very fortunate to have no rules and great editors, particularly Jonathan Krim and Guy Lasnier.

Father's Day, June 18, 1994
NetDay, March 10, 1996
The Devil on Your Desktop, March 14, 1996
A Page of One's Own, May 30, 1996
Her Majesty Logs On, March 7, 1997
The Smart Refrigerator, March 7, 1999
Closing of the Net Frontier, Dec. 5, 1999
The Amish Discover Spam, June 18, 2000
The Nigerian Letter, June 13, 2002
Search Me, Aug. 8, 2002

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