This summer, The Gadgeteer will hit a major milestone in its history. It will turn 10 years old. It’s really hard for me to believe that I’ve been writing reviews for a decade! But at the same time, it sorta feels like only yesterday since I started this site. It wasn’t like I was new to starting a online community. I had run a successful multi-line dialup BBS for several years before creating The Gadgeteer. How many of you remember BBSes? Mine was called CrossRoads and it was devoted to guitar tablature files. The BBS software I used ran under OS/2 and using a great programming language called REXX, I wrote an interface for people to search for and download tab files. If you don’t know, tablature files are text files that show you how to play a song, without having to know actual musical notation. Yes, I was (still am…) a geek!
When the internet(s) started to become popular and BBSes became outdated, I joined GeoCities community pages and created the first version of The Gadgeteer. That was in August of 1997. Later in December of the same year, I registered my domain name and migrated the content to a full fledged website. And the rest as they say is history :o) As a blast from the past, I wanted to share what the site looked like back then…
Click on thumbnail to see full size image
This screen shot is actually from the fall of 1998 because I couldn’t find one from 1997. :o)
Here are links to some of the first reviews I ever posted on the site:
Rex PC Companion
A/V Producer 8 Universal Remote
Texas Instruments Avigo PDA
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Testing new comment system…
I remember those days, before the bulletin board, we’d email comments and you’d post them to the review!!! Thank goodness for Perl and PHP 🙂
Ahhhh, the good old days ;o)