A night to remember
Tonight was one of those nights that reminded me… of what, exactly?
Of everything.
Of being a kid and somehow ending up in this crazy world of technology, somewhere around 1995 or 1996.
The memories started while I was digging through Archive.org in the laziest possible way, and I stumbled upon a very interesting collection: computer CDs. You know the kind — the ones sold by those long-gone magazines and publishers like CD-ROM or Digerati, and even a few independent ones.
Speaking of that, there are some excellent projects online dedicated to keeping those memories alive. Here are a couple of examples:
Whoever Vinizinho is, congratulations. That is an excellent initiative.
Back in the 90s, I got my software through magazines. Downloading anything even slightly large — anything over 100 MB — was basically an abstraction.
I remember, in 1999, having to wait two weeks to update Slackware Linux because the patches would only come with the next issue of the magazine. Hehe.
Anyway, during those little excavations through the Archive, I ended up finding a file called The Way Things Work, by David Macaulay. Man, it was basically a children’s animation full of explanations about how things — in general — worked, from ancient constructions to technology.
And that was it. Memory unlocked.
I started remembering several other CDs. Then I also found My First Encyclopedia, an independent children’s encyclopedia CD distributed in Brazil around the mid-90s. I even remember having to ask my Uncle Dirceu, who recently passed away, to install it for me. He was the oldest nerd I knew, and the owner of the first Commodore I had ever seen in my life.
Rest in peace, uncle. And thank you for being an inspiration.
Anyway, I just wanted to take note of this little trip into the past.
I’m feeling a bit emotional tonight. Hehe.