UK early 1990s or there abouts, using a Sportster 14k4 modem with an Acorn A3000 computer. I had an account with GreenNet, so I dialled a number in London (4p

UK early 1990s or there abouts, using a Sportster 14k4 modem with an Acorn A3000 computer. I had an account with GreenNet, so I dialled a number in London (4p a min off-peak, I'm in Birmingham) and connected using a RISC-OS telnet client to a very restricted shell account on a Unix box. From there, I could use a command-line based(?) Gopher client, and I could access email and usenet news. I could also try this new thing called the World Wide Web using a command line Web browser (I think it was links). An FTP client was available as well as Telnet (NASA! Space pictures from USA!). Then came Demon Internet, Trumpet and a PC after the A3000. The graphical Web on RISC-OS was possible but very slow to render (12MHz ARM chip) although you could save the whole Web page out as a !Draw file. So I didn't ever pay for an online service on top of the Internet access, I just missed that window. UK would have been something like Prestel (don't think that was Internet based) or Compuserve (Very expensive then). Even with the limited shell account experience, I had that 'Holy Shit' moment. http://randsinrepose.com/archives/holy-shit-moments/ http://randsinrepose.com/archives/holy-shit-moments/