I was Internet Famous, in 1995



I’m not kidding, I’m really not. Seriously. You think I am, but I’m not. No, I’m not. I did this list once that was famous because it was organized by children’s grades. nobody Did that, like, nobody. Woo hoo!

I found it and had that kind of little “aw” moment- I was vanity searching and finally clicked on this link I see all the time. It’s a young girl in Lancaster, though now she’s (gulp) going to college. Go here, to Kate’s page. She was 7 when she started it, now she’s 19. Wild that it hasn’t changed in 12 years. When she did this, I was working in a tiny mom and pop software animation co. that was for no reason famous, and I was learning HTML and I had thought- you know what would get traffic to our site (that I had to lobby really hard to get), providing a use to our customers- we were making a children’s learning title. And thus I thought of compiling a children’s internet list, organized like the children’s library I used to work at in high school. Nobody in my office knew HTML. We had C++ programmer and a Mac- (applescript) programmer, but that was it. I used to run over to my boss’s office and ask him about issues I was having, and he got reallly annoyed at the disturbance. I can’t remember what he was programming in. Mac software in 1995- C? Some weird applescript? I know he hired this nice British PC programmer guy who knew C++.

I’m so nice in this comment- I ask her if it’s OK to link! How polite. We never do that anymore. So this list was my attempt at a complete children’s interent web site list. I’m ambitious! At that time, though, there wasn’t a lot on the internet. For example, this was Yahoo’s kid’s site at the time: YahooligansTM (love the big TM).

I can’t find a copy of my first one on Archive.org the earliest they have is from 1997. That’s when they had stolen 2 of my ideas: 1, the UCIS list (not accredited at all) and 2: a web-making software for kids. Note: nobody, when I worked there, knew HTML. And suddenly after I leave, that’s their new product. Fascinating. I’m not even making it up or exaggerating, the VP-Marketing nervously giggled that to me a few years later that htey had “stolen your [my] idea about a children’s web site making tool” when I called to see what was up.

Anyways, this is my Ultimate Children’s Internet List: here. In looking at the code, I’m kinda proud that I was doing fancy stuff like a long image span on the right hand side, and images as List bullets.

I remember feeling that it was cool- getting a call from a reporter at the Washington Post (can’t find reference, maybe I will at some point), and at least they posted a list of awards that they at least put above their stolen Web Workshop product.

To all those young clever girls out there with great ideas- don’t look be held back! And to all those crappy small businessowner who feed off of their far more talented workers- get a life.

Fun historical note: “Apple’s Copland…” this is where the industry was on 1997, re: the internet and Apple and it’s sad future (for the next few years… certainly not today)

THE INTERNET: Because Sun Microsystems’ Java has beaten it to market, Apple has killed Dylan, a World Wide Web programming language. Now Cyberdog, a program to let cyber-surfers cobble their favorite Internet applications together, is the company’s Internet bet.

In 95, one of my friends was writing Apache, but hey, I was helping kids find web sites. To continue the tradition of stealing, there’s a spectrum: Geek Peak, Geek Rock Star, and Internet Famous is way down on the other end.

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