Published: June 5, 2026 • 4:45 PM IST · Updated: June 5, 2026 • 7:54 PM ISTBy TheBriefWire Editorial Team
Key points
In the late 1990s, I was a precocious Mac nerd who pored over issues of Macworld, stayed up late chatting on IRC, and downloaded pirated software that I didn’t actually need.
I came of age at the tail end of the dial-up modem and BBS era—and got to witness the early days of the World Wide Web.
I wanted to know where all of this had come from and how it had happened so quickly.
The grown-ups around me seemed mystified at best and indifferent at worst.