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10 years online |
In 1983, age 12, I was given a bad mark for an English assignment in which I described a group of people playing computer games together. My teacher, nominally our science teacher, wasn't faulting my writing so much as my "far fetched" story of people sharing a computer game while sitting miles apart from each other... He was convinced this was the stuff of StarTrek and not our lifetimes...
10 years later I started working for a company called Demon who had just started the UKs first dial-up Internet access. Cliff Stanford had warned me that my job security was based on not getting involved in the Internet side of Demon at all.
By 1994 I was testing that theory =) Around June I was given a new role within Demon, that of automating the registration of Domains. Naturally, I needed something to test my automation with...
Domain Name:KFS.ORG Created On:14-Jul-1994 04:00:00 UTC Last Updated On:23-Sep-2003 10:54:02 UTC Expiration Date:13-Jul-2005 04:00:00 UTC Registrant Name:KingFisher Software Registrant Organization:KingFisher Software
Back then registration could take a while, something I soon found myself taking to task...
At around the same time, I got a 2mb "Baseband" home connection, and my first Linux computer, so when kfs.org was registered, it began its presence on the 'Net immediately.
The original kfs.org was "flamegrill" (it tended to get very hot) and "whopper" (it was an old, bulky thinkg).
This set the naming vention to come for years. Shortly afterwards I aquired a 386, an apricot Xen-ii if memory serves, which due to its speed (compared to the other two) became "twoshakes".
Since most of my friends/aquaintances were working with or on the Internet, kfs.org rapidly gathered a small community, including Andrew Beattie who created the "Kite Fliers Site" - which frequently leads to my being accused of having stolen the site ;)
When I eventually left Demon, displaced kfs.org users lead by Andrew Beattie created OurShack which graciously offered kfs a continued home.
I've grown somewhat attached to my domain, so I intended to keep it for the foreseable future. Occasionally I get surprized emails from old friends amazed that I still have the same domain ...
You should know me better... I'm too lazy to get a new one ;)
Oliver
PS. Incidentally, in August of 2002, I left England for Bedford, TX, to work for an online game myself.