Oh, honey, I could tell you so much about David Wetherell. None of it bad, mind you, but it's just so strange to me that he ever became, even briefly, the King of the Internet. because he's just this dude I worked for when he first bought what was then CMG in 198... 7, I think? I was already working there, as the Advertising Manager, which sounds more impressive than it was, since I was also the whole advertising department at the time. We were all pretty young -- I was 27 or so, and he was around 30, and the guy he hired in over me to be Marketing Manager (with no objection from me) was probably a couple of years older than me, and we had fun. Wow, that was a long time ago.
The article is beautifully written, and I enjoyed reading it. In fact, I think I may have read it when it originally appeared in Salon, and never realized that it was you who wrote it until now.
I was a student employee my second summer at Los Alamos working with the computing support team, when I heard about the JFKJR crash on the news. Since the Lab had more student workers over the summer than the town had places to live, the Lab rented out an entire hotel on Trinity Drive and I lived all summer in a hotel room with a roommate. (Hotel amenities DID NOT come with the rent!)
After checking out of the secured area of the lab at the end of the work day, I would go back there and play my way through the original "Half Life" and battle an alien invasion at the game's "Black Mesa Laboratory". I think that's the summer I also read "Cryptonomicon", which has remained a strangely relevant book throughout much of my adult life. Was likely addicted to Slashdot.org, and working on some custom software to manage the growing MP3 collection I had hoarded. (I first had my mind blown by MP3s the prior summer working at the lab when some MIT kids showed us this program called "WinAmp".)
Summer of '99 was also when I learned how to SSH tunnel, so that I could chat up a girl from school via the AOL instant messenger client that I had figured how to route past the Lab's port blocks. Despite all the tech optimism of the time, the Y2K deadline was looming - which was more of a curiosity for me, since I was not employed addressing any of those issues. It's the year I went solo with my small business writing custom software, writing election software with PHP and MySQL for the New Mexico Boy's State program (and the same time I learned how to reconstruct a MySQL database from log files, when my code did something unexpected during the mock election for the Boys State Governor of New Mexico).
As far as years go, it was a pretty formative one for me. Fucked Company was not yet a thing, and I recall reading all about the craziness of The First .Com Boom.
Oh, honey, I could tell you so much about David Wetherell. None of it bad, mind you, but it's just so strange to me that he ever became, even briefly, the King of the Internet. because he's just this dude I worked for when he first bought what was then CMG in 198... 7, I think? I was already working there, as the Advertising Manager, which sounds more impressive than it was, since I was also the whole advertising department at the time. We were all pretty young -- I was 27 or so, and he was around 30, and the guy he hired in over me to be Marketing Manager (with no objection from me) was probably a couple of years older than me, and we had fun. Wow, that was a long time ago.
The article is beautifully written, and I enjoyed reading it. In fact, I think I may have read it when it originally appeared in Salon, and never realized that it was you who wrote it until now.
I think I remember reading this one back when it was published.
Getting the Director's Cut treatment 20 years later is a treat!
That said, 1999 was a strangely memorable year.
Why, thank you! "Director's Cut". I like that! 1999 certainly was memorable for me! We would be happy to hear more about why it was for you.
I was a student employee my second summer at Los Alamos working with the computing support team, when I heard about the JFKJR crash on the news. Since the Lab had more student workers over the summer than the town had places to live, the Lab rented out an entire hotel on Trinity Drive and I lived all summer in a hotel room with a roommate. (Hotel amenities DID NOT come with the rent!)
After checking out of the secured area of the lab at the end of the work day, I would go back there and play my way through the original "Half Life" and battle an alien invasion at the game's "Black Mesa Laboratory". I think that's the summer I also read "Cryptonomicon", which has remained a strangely relevant book throughout much of my adult life. Was likely addicted to Slashdot.org, and working on some custom software to manage the growing MP3 collection I had hoarded. (I first had my mind blown by MP3s the prior summer working at the lab when some MIT kids showed us this program called "WinAmp".)
Summer of '99 was also when I learned how to SSH tunnel, so that I could chat up a girl from school via the AOL instant messenger client that I had figured how to route past the Lab's port blocks. Despite all the tech optimism of the time, the Y2K deadline was looming - which was more of a curiosity for me, since I was not employed addressing any of those issues. It's the year I went solo with my small business writing custom software, writing election software with PHP and MySQL for the New Mexico Boy's State program (and the same time I learned how to reconstruct a MySQL database from log files, when my code did something unexpected during the mock election for the Boys State Governor of New Mexico).
As far as years go, it was a pretty formative one for me. Fucked Company was not yet a thing, and I recall reading all about the craziness of The First .Com Boom.
Good times.
Have you been in touch with Dave Karpf? Sounds like you would have things to talk about.
Well, as of recently we subscribe to each other's substacks.
I second this!