An old rant from May, 2003 that still seems relevant (slightly edited)

I remember the early 1990's. The internet was just getting cool. I had an email account on a VAX system and another on an Ultrix box. We used a computer lab with real vt100 terminals and the entire school had just upgraded to a 56 kilobit dedicated line. PC's were just becoming affordable and the Mac was showing potential. The web was being born and Archie as still one of the best ways to find information. Mondo 2000 was the pulse of the emerging culture. I remember a couple years later, Wired magazine came out and brought this culture mainstream. I remember the smell and the atmosphere of the first time I stepped into a cybercafe. There was real excitement and awe as we played head to head in real VR systems, chatted with friends in Europe, and ordered our coffee over the LAN. The sense that we were on the edge of some bold new future was palpable. I watched in awe as Netscape and Mosaic sold their web browsers for $45 a pop. New companies were coming up with exciting new technologies every day and it became apparent that anyone with brains could make it now. All you had to do was come up with the right new technology and sell it. And today? I have an exciting and useless past. I have memories of a time I felt excited to walk down a street with my long trench coat flapping in the breeze, mirrorshades on, and I knew I was going places. I miss feeling alive. I miss the sense of being on the threshold of something big. I feel like I'm in the Crash from R. Talsorian's Cyberpunk 2020. I need a reason to get excited about the world again.