I couldn’t help but look, and lo and behold, the hard drive had TeachText and NCSA Mosaic, the first publically available web browser, on it. When I started Mosaic, it had the date on the startup screen: 10-29-1993.

So, I wrote a web page in TeachText, welcoming people to the Computer Store and our 50 years celebration, and then viewed it in Mosaic. And then I annotated it using using the Mac’s audio-recording (which worked great, by the way).

I’m not the nostalgiac type, but it was weird. The very first web page I wrote, ever, I wrote with TeachText, and the first web browser I ever used was Mosaic on a Mac. It really took me back.

Writing markup with TeachText and seeing it render in Mosaic are the seeds of my life as a professional web developer. It seems so very long ago.

However, it will probably be a couple weeks before I get the new one; so, I went out to Staples and found a Netgear Wireless Router with 4 port switch for $59. Plus, there is a $20 mail-in rebate (if I will just send the thing in…).

I hooked the Netgear router up, went into its web control panel, set the proper settings and crossed my fingers. And, I’m disappointed.

Sure, we have an Internet connection for the computers, but instead of the DSL speed that I should have, I’m reminded of 9600 baud days. And, it isn’t the DSL modem, because when I hook that up directly to my Mac, it blazes away at full speed.

My stomach writhes as I wait for pages to load. All those &^%$^%# js includes. All those big &^%$ pictures of smiley faces on corporate home pages.

Oh, be still my rising blood pressure.

So, I crawled over to the Netgear web site and downloaded a firmware upgrade for the router. I think it might have helped a little.

I might shut everything off for the night and try again tomorrow. (Yeah, right. I’ll be back before bed, I’m sure.)

I’ve been watching this technology for a couple years. It’s good to see they are actually running trials in some cities.