People don’t believe me when I tell them I’ve been online since 1983, when I connected my Commodore 64 to CompuServe at 300 baud. I was running a computer bulletin board within weeks, and I became a Back in the Day type, and I’ve been at it ever since.

There’s a problem with having been around for so long: I’ve got some interesting online detritus. Now, none of it is horribly embarrassing and I’ve never been much into the darker corners of the online world, so there’s no criminal stuff. Still, there are strings out there that just make me groan or are just inexplicably geeky today.

Like: My FidoNet address from 1993. Yes, once upon a time, it really was possible to send e-mail to randy.lilleston@157.n109.z1.fidonet.org and reach me (assuming you typed everything correctly). Not many people tried, though, mostly because hardly anyone had e-mail yet.

Also out there:

The harp amp mini-FAQ from, oh, 1994 or so.

My request for help in finding a wedding reception hall in 1996.

A review of a three-day cruise I took in 1998.

A bio posted on CNN’s old ‘AllPolitics’ site in 1999.

An interview I did on Air Force One in 2000. I believe this trip was the last time I saw Bill Clinton in person.

Quotes from a 1994 American Journalism Review interview (and some more recent ones from the same publication).

Homebrewing info from a mailing list in 1998.

A review of an El Cheapo Vegas trip, complete with a downtown hotel, from 2002.

Those are just a few examples. There are many more.