Internet Discussion

      My group had a very productive discussion about our first encounters with the Internet. I enjoyed my conversation with Mike Hargrave, Mike Lewandowski, and Elenni Davis. All of us had some interesting stories and similar ways we used the Internet over 10 years ago. All of us used a music downloading site such as Napster, Limewire, or Kazaa. We all recalled how long it took to download a song. Our group also used AOL Instant Messenger (AIM) when it was very popular. We discussed how fascinating it was to be able to talk to our friends online and meet new people. I told the group about my best friend meeting his future wife over the Internet, which rose some eyebrows.
     Mike Hargrave and I had a lot in common as far as what we would do on the Internet. He and I shared stories of how our friends would do interesting things over AIM. One thing he told me about was his friend spamming messages to get the user booted off of AIM. I told him about the IP Relay service a friend of mine discovered and abused over a summer vacation. My group enjoyed that story quite a bit. Mike Lewandowski mentioned a computer class he took in elementary school as his first encounter with the Internet. He also mentioned that he was once turned down by a girl on AIM. Looking back he says asking a girl out online was probably a bad decision. I would tend to agree with that, but he still has a good story to tell. Elenni talked about her time spent with friends on AIM and also brought up an interesting idea involving Youtube that I might try.